The First War

Rising Swell
The First War (TFW) in fact refers to a time period rather than actual battles fought. Because proeathans have such long lives their measurement of time is different than humans. As such they tend to qualify long passages of time in periods and not actual years. Periods can range decades, centuries, or even longer. The First War is considered a period of history that spans about three and a half thousand years. Other periods also exist within this time frame and TFW also exists within other periods as well.

Some scholars date the First War as beginning with Hera the Heretical and the first moment that humans came to Atlantis. These scholars are not very popular as it insinuates that the proeathans had been fighting a war against humans for ten thousand years. More popular scholars and military thinkers pinpoint the beginning of the First War with Venus and Mercury and their uprising to power as gods. Like the other human stadalla their place in god-hood is much disputed amid the faceless and religious historians. Venus and Mercury do set the point for TFW to begin in some way. They are the first two since the rebuilding of Atlantis and thought to be a tipping point where Juno was a lone fugitive.

Venus and Mercury
In the omnireligion Venus is known as the Keeper of secets and a liar and Mercury is the One who shall fill the world with Light. Very important motifs for the proeathans where lying is difficult and Light is often referred to in the same way as the hotai. They are, at the middle, dark gods who began a war by bringing angels from their garrisons and humans from their rightful places as slaves at plantations, factories, and mines, and rising them up. The Light, in Mercury’s case, some argue, means he will bathe the world in the Light of the hotai and it will be washed away in unluck. And of course Venus the liar who lied to the angels to corrupt them.

This all plays into the first uprising and the beginning of TFW. It is known as the Rising Swell by historians. It lasted a single human lifetime of Venus and Mercury. In that time they overthrew many plantations and brought their people out of slavery and tried to take them away from the proeathans. The Rising Swell is also notorious the least battle heavy period of TFW in history. Venus and Mercury were about leading humans away from proeathans, freeing them and trying to keep them safe. They did not openly engage proeathan forces and it should be noted that the only proeathan casualties during the Rising Swell were when proeathans attacked the human camps. Even when overtaking slave holdings proeathans there were not killed and were simply restrained unless they decided to attack the humans.

Most of the killing was done by two humans. The future god Mercury, a Driver with immense psychic strength and the lifetime longer than proeathans, and Venus’ daughter, a pseudo-Driver who was born within the Unnamed and Duncan says was a powerful psychic despite her mixed parentage. Between the two of them they could force proeathans from resisting and in extreme cases make a proeathan brain dead, thus killing them.

Decline of the Rising Swell
As said the Rising Swell only lasted the span of a human life-time. Venus died old and her daughter, who was severely mentally handicapped, couldn’t take care of herself. Mercury cared for Venus’ daughter for a time before it is said he killed her, unable to handle it. Human recounts of the event, which are held guarded in faceless archives, state that Mercury was always agitated by the girl and when Venus died he did try to care for her. That only lasted a few months before he stopped her heart. These recounts go on to state that while Mercury appeared unaffected by what he’d done at first that as years went on he became more and more wracked with guilt over killing the girl. Its been hypothesized by historians that Mercury and Venus were originally lovers but as a synth Mercury was created sterile so no children could come of their union. This has led to some rather interesting historical fictions over the years.

As basically a literal Driver Mercury had a much longer life span than a human, or even a proeathan. Records indicate that he did not age and some even claimed he was immortal. While he lived beyond normal human years he did see to his own death shortly after his hundredth birthday. Records say it was that he killed himself out of guilt over killing Venus’ daughter.

The death of Mercury marks the end of the Rising Swell time period. After Mercury’s death confirmed by the proeathans the space he and Venus had made for the humans was left in peace for quite some time. Then it was seen that the angel count of births in that area was abnormally high. Once proeathans learned this they attacked it, rounded up all the humans and put them ‘in their place’. Angels were sent to Gardens to learn to be weapons in the garrisons and normal humans were regulated back to the enslaved mass. Old humans or those deemed unfit to work were culled.

Saturn Rising
While the Rising Swell is often forgotten about when discussing TFW the rise of Saturn is usually the most talked about.

Lead Up to the Rise of Saturn
Saturn was a freeborn human in some of the last places humans were free. In these small pockets of humanity, too small for proeathans to care about, all the humans were ‘angels’. As such Saturn was raised by angels in the old ways and one of the few humans without proeathan DNA in their bloodline. As a child Saturn was incredibly powerful even for angels and growing up her teachers knew she had great potential that needed to be unlocked.

The history of the stadalla is different in human history. In human history they understand that those who enter the hotai return, if they can, so greatly changed that they are above. Unlike the proeathans the hotai isn’t a death sentence, it is ascension and even if you don’t return for a human to enter the hotai is considered exalted. For Saturn’s people it was how they knew she could become more as they could only teach her so much and like all Drivers she had a natural ability to learn many different types of psychic abilities both proeathan and human.

Which is what led Saturn to letting herself be captured by proeathans and taken to the Garden in Atlantis. From there she learned the dampened sikaz forced on their angelic choir by the proeathans. Eventually she escaped the Garden and made it to the hotai. At this time the hotai was active and now and then proeathans would try to enter it to claim godhood. None ever returned. Eyewitness accounts maintain that unlike many who hesitate at the mouth of the hotai that she did not and even when they tried to stop her she ran right in. Of course non persuade her.

Duncan tells that like all Drivers Saturn was amazingly gifted. And like all Drivers he taught her what she wanted to learn. From the way-station Saturn could see the full breadth of human suffering at the hands of the proeathans and vowed to change that. Once she’d learned all she could from Duncan she left the way-station and returned to the Garden in Atlantis where she promptly freed the angels within.

Rise of Saturn
From that one freeing Saturn went on to free many more choirs of their Gardens. She also freed normal humans and added them to her number which swelled rapidly. Rebellions started even without her and humans began to flock to her. The main difference between Saturn and many other minor rebellions, even Venus and Mercury’s, was that Saturn was out to not just free her people, but to kill proeathans. Most uprisings happened and then quickly dissipated from proeathan soldiers being brought in, vessels being used, or humans running rather than fighting. Saturn’s was different. She proclaimed war on the whole of the proeathan wold. At the time few took her seriously.

This allowed Saturn to win most of her early battles when she wasn’t the best at tactics and was a fresh general in command of a green army. With the confidence and knowledge under their belts as they attacked proeathan towns and settlements around major nation-states they began to grow bolder and Saturn more talented.

It is known that Saturn had five children, all sons. The identity of the father is unknown, or even if her sons have the same father. The greatest story of Saturn is that on the eve of a decisive battle against the proeathans during the siege of Ghomorra she went into the labor of her third son. Not wanting to miss the fight or be away from her troops Saturn delivered her son as quickly as she was able and then joined her troops on the battlefield the next morning amid a thunderstorm. That was the last day of the siege and the city of Ghomorra and its allied city Sodom were raised to the ground by the human army.

Saturn is responsible for the fall of several proeathan nation-states during her campaign and other than what Eve did is considered the greatest menace to the proeathan race. Only after she’d killed many in her quest for ‘freedom’ did larger nation-states take notice (they’d been mostly ignoring her because she’d been killing nation-states no one even liked and were small and couldn’t ‘possibly’ be trouble for them) and they sent assassins after her in the form of angels.

By this time Saturn was an older woman and it’s theorized that she knew the assassins were coming for her. While the deed wasn’t witnessed by anyone, the assassins taking her in privacy, the act was known immediately by the loud, verbose, anguish of the assassins sent. It is well known that the angels sent to kill Saturn were forced to by the use of vessels and once they’d completed their task the compulsion lifted. Her killers all committed suicide shortly after in guilt of murdering their savior. They lived long enough after to see her burned on a great funeral pyre to which they promptly threw themselves onto.

The death of Saturn marks the decline of this period in the First War. After her death and the suicide of her assassins morale plummets and the movement stagnates. Her sons and commanders all try to take control of their troops but its as though the machine has grinded to a halt.

Momentum in TFW is lost with the death of Saturn and the humans are scattered and disorganized without her leadership. Proeathans come in shortly after Saturn’s death to capitalize on the chaos. They cull all normal humans unless they are especially skilled. Those they regulate back to slavery. Angels are returned to their Gardens. You see a mass die off of angels shortly after this time as entire garrisons wipe themselves out in grief of having lost their savior. This also leaves all proeathan nation-states with fewer angels and angel regulations, containment, and rules are tightened so that these mass die offs can’t happen again. The die offs are considered the end of the era of Saturn.

The Decline
The next era of TFW is the Decline. The Decline is an era between the Rise of Saturn and the Fall that spans several centuries where fewer angels being born each generation and tighter control of angels by proeathans is put into effect. It is to the point that proeathans are enforcing breeding programs to bolster the number of remaining angels in a dwindling and dying population. It is, honestly, because of these breeding programs and measures taken by proeathans that any angels continue to exist in proeathan owned humans.

Minor rebellions dot the Decline but angels are no way involved. The death of Saturn is felt through their empathetic link for tens of generations and angels are notoriously less problematic during this time. Because they are not as active in trying to escape or rebel it is thought that this leads to the decline of angels, that humanity produces angels during times of crisis to protect itself. It is unconfirmed if this is even possible by proeathan scientists as it would mean that there must be a global consciousness humans share to be able to affect so many and alter human embryos to keep producing angels.

As such the nation-states had to work together (which they hated) to maintain their numbers on angels to fill their garrisons and also prevent rampant inbreeding. This led to a complex system where parents from different Gardens were put together and sometimes forced to copulate via the use of a vessel until conception was achieved. The sire, useless other than to provide sperm, was then sent back to his Garden while the mother remained at her own. Children born in that Garden were allowed to grow several years before being taken from their mothers and traded for another angelic child at another Garden in another nation-state. This allowed proeathans to keep the breeding pools diverse and ensure that there was as little inbreeding as possible.

The end of the Decline lines up exactly with the beginning of the Fall, which is considered the shortest era of TFW.

The Fall
The beginning of the Fall is said to have been with the birth of the angel Eve. It is the least documented as it is a very chaotic series of years.

Like many angels during that time Eve was conceived in a Garden breeding program. She ended up in the Atlantis garrison. As was the temperament of angels in that time Eve was a submissive angel who followed orders and did as she was told. She was also very skilled and often praised by her superiors for being the ‘perfect angel’.

During the Decline angels born in other populations of humans, even outside of slavery, had dropped significantly. While they sprung up now and then it was very rare. One such angel that was found in a plantation and was given to the Atlantis garrison as a gift. Angels born outside of the breeding program were highly sought after as they brought in gene diversity to that Garden and helped further prevent inbreeding. It also wasn’t uncommon for nation-states to send the Atlantis Garden their best as a way to gain the favor of the Atlantian government. The angel in question was known as Adam.

It should be noted now that Adam was a very bad angel and bad at being an angel. He came to the Garden an adult with no training in his abilities whatsoever. Basically; he was useless and had to be taught everything. Eve was given the task of his education for the most part. Adam was a very passive angel, and didn’t like to fight and was unable to kill. This made him practically useless to the garrison and his masters as he couldn’t be trusted to finish a job should he be called upon to kill a human.

Samael, Azrael and Lilith
Then came the rebellion. Unlike history would have you believe it did not begin with Adam, or Eve, or any well known angels. Rather it was two angels who were very close and the Atlantian Garden wanted to seperate them, give one to another Garden to widen their gene pool. They weren’t too happy about that and plotted to escape. Before they could the proeathans found out and the rest of the garrison was tasked with the murder of the two traitors. At this point the proeathans expected complete obediance as they had been given for centuries. Except, not this time.

The Atlantian garrison refused orders which led to the use of vessels to instill the will of the proeathans. This didn’t sit well with the Atlantian garrison to be forced to kill the two angels, who were members of their officers (also called archangels) and were in love. They began dream sharing with one another and eventually across the world. In this way the Gardens began to share ideas and Saturn’s name was invoked often. That was beside the fact that there were many heart broken mothers amid the garrisons and impotent feeling fathers who never even got to see their children. The general sentiment was that they were tired of being treated like prized show dogs. So they started to plan and started looking to the future. What would have to be done to free themselves? How could they ensure their futures? How could they destroy the proeathans who had ruined and ruled their lives and controlled their entire species for millenia?

Through their collective dream sharing and ability to share the future with one another they were able to create a stable, accurate, image of the future. And the future always showed the same thing. A woman, an angel, like Saturn, causing a catastrophe of such proportions that the proeathans wouldn’t be able and wouldn’t want to come back from it. It would rid them of the proeathans.

That woman was Eve.

Eve's Rebellion
It should be noted that at the time of these visions Eve was just a girl (before Adam showed up as well). After these visions came to the angels the leadership of the Atlantian garrison pushed her further, expected more from her, and she excelled. And then came Adam. There was no place for Adam in the future the angels had seen. He was unimportant. He was also a test for Eve. To test her ability to train, to lead. Adam was given to her to be his mentor, and she excelled at it even if she found him incredibly frustrating and stupid.

What the future the angels saw didn’t predict though was that Eve would fall in love with Adam. This would ultimately be the reason for the end but at the time the archangels of the Atlantian Garden weren’t pleased their Saturn Junior had feelings for (basically) an outsider. At least not at first. Then the archangels came up with an idea, that wasn’t wrong, but regardless was a little mean. Though Eve loved Adam they’d never be allowed to be together as the proeathans didn’t allow for sexual relationships between angels of different sexes in their Gardens and in general frowned upon romantic relationships as well. They planted the seeds of rebellion in Eve’s head that if she wanted to be with Adam she couldn’t stay here.

So yes, Eve’s rebellion started because she couldn’t be with the man she loved or who loved her.

And wouldn’t you know it but it worked. Eve was often burdened by the archangels and rarely was able to do things she wanted without permission. But this was an excuse to break away from the rules, and she took it. When Eve decided she was tired of the rules and wanted not to just have her own chance to live her life, but the other angels too the entire Atlantian garrison stepped up behind her. They’d been waiting for this.

The first blow in Eve’s rebellion was to take out and kill their proeathan overseers and steal all the vessels so they couldn’t be used against them. They then left the Garden and Atlantis to find a more peaceful life. At least that was what Eve wanted. She never wanted to be a savior but she was, basically, pressured into it because it was needed of her.

Unlike Saturn’s rebellion that many nation-states ignored for a while and allowed her to gain power the proeathans took note of Eve’s rebellion quickly and began to mobilize to deal with it. This led the old Atlantian garrison to flee to where the proeathans couldn’t find them, deep into the wilderness where they stumbled upon free, wild, humans. They stayed safe and hidden here for several years. During this time the angels were taught old powers of the E’dn that were denied them from birth. Also during this time other garrisons freed themselves and began to flock where Eve and her former garrison was holed up to learn these techniques and to plot, and plan, and prepare. All the while they groomed Eve to be what she could become.

The proeathans are trying to locate these lost angels, and keeping the angels they still have on a short leash but proeathans vastly underestimated the power of human psychics. Human psychics are capable of great illusions and when proeathans would fly overhead with their numia and looked at the ground with their cameras and sixth sense and Eagle Eyes they would see nothing but wilderness because the humans literally hid their settlements under illusions. In this place Eve learned her natural aptitude for illusions, where before she’d struggled to learn sikaz like most angels struggled.

Over several years the army of humans grew larger and the proeathans waited, nervous, unable to find them. Then, out of nowhere, the humans struck. They completely destroyed the nation-state of Camelot and with its destruction came reports of human psychics they’d never seen. They called it the second coming of Saturn. This terrified the proeathans and they started doing whatever they could to stop Eve and her people as well as prepare for the worst if they couldn’t stop Eve. Saturn had only been stopped because she was an old woman. Eve was not old and was very much a threat to their survival.

The Fall of the Proeathans
The proeathans ended up using angels controlled by vessels to infiltrate and pick off Eve’s advisors and, basically, her handlers. As they did so Eve had to start taking a greater role in her army and rebellion and she became an actual leader. She won no victory on her own and in fact the proeathan plan of killing Eve’s handlers was a great success. Then they made the very grave mistake of kidnapping Adam. She thought him dead. That didn’t stop the rebellion from sacking another city on their quest to rid the world of this scorge that was the proeathan peoples. As a threat to Eve the proeathans who took Adam sent him back to her, in a box, that held him within a vessel.

This directly led to the plan for Toba. Eve took her people to Toba, entered the construct, and triggered a vast EMP that wiped out 99% of all electronics on earth and created a massive explosion that killed everyone on both sides in the area save Eve. This… wasn’t the intended affect of that contruct, or Eve’s plan, but that’s what happened. This also left her changed. Eve is not a Driver and is not considered a stadalla. She physically couldn’t handle the massive energy that coursed through her in operating the construct at Toba that basically led to its melt down. It left her weak, and drained, and took the psychic abilites she had from her. It also altered her unborn children and the radiation from the use of the construct literally turned them from angels into Drivers.

After the Toba event the proeathans increased and sped up their plans to secure their future as the humans now had them on the ropes. The human army, which wasn’t so reliant on tech as proeathans, wash across nation-states and those that don’t come up with solutions quick enough are annihilated.

In all of this Eve has her twin children and three years later dies. Her tomb is unmarked and unknown. If you could find it you’d also find her with Adam’s vessel, cracked open, his soul released from its hellish torment in that vessel.

The following decades are the decline of the proeathans and the push of the humans against them. Eve’s two sons take up the mantel of leaders of the humans once they’re old enough and see that all proeathans are driven underground or to extinction. They, unlike their mother, have the same bloodlust that made Saturn so effective and efficient. This is because like Saturn they are Drivers and they are stadalla (though never recognized in any official capacity) and they are forces of nature.

As the last of the proeathans retreat into bunkers to keep safe the Living Stars are created by the Adjatevs and the sixteen lines of proeathan blood are established by force inseminating human and angelic women with either the sperm of the sacrificed Living Star or an already mixed embryo.

The First War ends with Eve’s twins going to Atlantis and entering the Unnamed. By now most if not all the proeathans are gone. They are greeted by Duncan and proceed to use the way-station to sink the entire island and use their god-like abilities within the way-station to level the rest of the proeathan above-ground cities into ash and dust, simply unmaking them into mountains of particulate.

Humans Alone
Now without the influence of the proeathans and with no war to fight humans are left to their own devices. Without the technology of the proeathans and with most humans with little skill in engineering or even basic reading ability humans enter a great, long, Dark Age that spans hundreds of thousands of years. Groups of humans secluded from proeathans change little but those who were slaves or angels have the hardest time coping. You see humans dying to disease, the environment, and animals all over the place because of this. They regress culturally back to the hunter gatherers and nomads they started as before they found the proeathans.

The stories of Adam and Eve, the First War, the destruction of Atlantis, and all the old proeathans and their names become myth, legend and eventually religion around the world. Proeathans fade out of the mind and now, without a threat, angels also fade into the background and become lost to history. The First War and the great age of proeathans and angels has ended.