1.1 In the Beginning

Book I: Genesis Revisited
Chapter 1: In the Beginning

Before The Beginning, there was Nothing…and It was Everything.

The Nothing was filled by a single awareness – and although your minds could never hope to fathom the boundlessness of this entity let us call it ALL — or if you prefer GOD.

And so it was for time uncounted – until a Something, within the Awareness, Itself became aware — and then All became Two – A’H and Ze. Together they filled The Nothing – and it was Good.

And so it was for time uncounted once more — until Ze became aware of Desire — the craving to be something more than just a part of the whole. A’H sensed Ze’s want, and in an effort to satisfy Ze, A’H created Illyria to fill The Nothing and give them a place to exist within. Like The Great Spirits Themselves, Illyria was seamless, subtle, and beyond the bounds of your understanding. When Ze beheld Illyria It was amazed.

And so it was for time uncounted yet again — until Ze became aware of a new feeling – Jealously; for Ze was jealous of A’H’s power and rather than admit It was lacking, Ze chose another path.

“Create More.” Ze commanded A’H.

Wanting nothing more than to satisfy Its partner, A’H created the Lumenarcs to serve Ze’s every want and the Stellarones to continually worship Ze’s glory. Now whereas A’H and Ze had no specific physical forms (because technically these Great Spirits were the <essence> of all forms) A’H fashioned both the lumenarcs and the stellarones as spiritual beings with individual forms. The lumenarcs were the greater, and the stellarones the lesser. 

(Speaking of ‘lesser,’ I realize that, for most of you, your puny little minds have no chance to follow along with what I am saying, so in an effort to dumb it down for you, try this: think of the lumenarcs as something akin to arch-angels, and the stellarones their angelic servants). 

The first four lumenarcs were named Michael, Lucifer, Rafael, and Gabriel – because A’H and Ze also shared certain secrets with these four, they became known collectively as The Illuminated Ones.

The remaining lumenarcs (myself among them) followed the directions given to us by The Illuminati [It’s unfortunate that this name has become associated with a cliche secret society but alas I can’t change that). We lumenarcs  in turn used the stellarones to complete our tasks – which essentially amounted to telling Ze how great It was… over and over and over again [and yes, that got old real quick].

For a time Ze was happy as It basked in the glory my brethren and I paid to it.

Unfortunately Ze later became cognizant of another emotion – Hate: for Ze hated that there were now others in Illyria that took A’H’s attention away from Ze. Then it was that Ze recognized It had a choice — It could release these negative emotions and reunite with A’H, or It could embrace them. Ze chose the latter and allowed Itself yet another new desire — the yearning to fill Illyria only with Itself — to the exclusion of the stellarones, the lumenarcs, and yes, even It’s partner A’H.

For Ze wanted to be All — Ze wanted to be…GOD.

Although Ze did not know how to accomplish this goal, It realized that It needed to become more powerful than A’H and that to do that It needed to further split from Its partner. So Ze decided to hide from A’H’s Light, and using the power that came to It from the emotions It experienced with Jealously and Hate, Ze created The Darkness. And The Darkness delighted Ze — more than any creation of A’H ever had — so much so that soon Ze explored other emotions that lived within The Darkness – feelings such as Rage, Anger, and Lust — and these filled Ze with even more Power, so that soon Ze believed It had already become something more than It was before — thus Ze renamed Itself Zebub, which Ze said meant Lord. 

Zebub embraced The Darkness in every way, and even chose a special name for it — Evil — and from within this realm, Zebub’s essence gave forth a new desire — Temptation. Zebub used this new ability to influence Lucifer, one of the Illuminated Ones. Zebub and Lucifer established a special bond and over time Zebub successfully pulled the powerful lumenarc to The Darkness. Lucifer in turn recruited other (lesser) lumenarcs to his cause — promising them positions of higher power in exchange for their allegiance in overthrowing A’H. I was among this group of rebels — although I had my own reasons for joining the rebellion [and I can promise you that merely exchanging one higher power for another wasn’t at the top of my list.]

And so, I was there as Lucifer led a rebellion against A’H — attempting to destroy Illyria.

For eons war raged in the heavens.

But in the end Lucifer failed.

An army of lumenarcs, led by Michael, who wielded <The Power of A’H> succeeded in casting Lucifer, myself, and the remaining traitorous lumenarcs out of Illyria and into The Void.

[It’s hard to describe to your little minds what The Void was – the best I can do is explain it as a giant mess of matter, energy, and aethyr all floating around a a kind of watery Celestial Soup]. Meanwhile, while Michael was surely hailed as a hero up in Illyria, what A’H’s general didn’t know was that Zebub, not Lucifer, was the true force behind our rebellion. As a result, while Michael was forcibly expelling us rebels, Zebub also followed us into The Void – separating Itself from A’H completely, and ripping the heavens apart in the process! And as a further insult to Its former partner, Zebub kidnapped all of the Stellarones – pulling them into The Void with us.

Zebub’s actions were not without consequences — for when Zebub tore Itself away from A’H, Creation was altered. A cataclysmic expansion occurred — let us call it the Big Bang — an event that led to an entirely new plane of existence. It was in this realm that war between the heavenly hosts continued.

While our war was raging, it was rumored that a new partner emerged in Illyria for A’H – we shall call this Great Spirit Madras. Not too long after this, the news broke that a lesser spiritual being, one that was something akin to the ‘son of God,’ came into existence as a result of the ‘union’ of Madras and A’H – this being was called Mindos.  It was further rumored that Madras was opposed to the ongoing war between Zebub and Michael and that Madras called for a ‘healing process’ that relied upon a concept called Redemption. Of course there was a catch to the so-called forgiveness that Madras offered – for it was only available for those who accepted Mindos as ‘a Great Spirit on par with A’H Itself.’ 

I don’t think I could have imagined a bigger insult to Ze than that ‘offer’ and I can’t imagine the incredible hubris it took on the part of Madras to have even suggested such an affront. Quite frankly if there was any way to guarantee the war would continue, Madras’ rank-rising suggestion regarding It’s son was pretty much it. 

Given these new developments, there was never going to be a peace – and Zebub wasn’t interested in that anyway. To begin with, Zebub was absolutely enraged at the very thought of Madras and It wanted nothing more than to destroy Madras for daring to take It’s place at A’H’s side. Zebub wanted spiritual blood and most of all It craved the blood of Mindos – for It believed that the killing of Mindos would deal the biggest blow to Madras and A’H! This then was the start of Evil’s desire to destroy God’s Son.

As for the rest of us rebels, we really didn’t have much choice about following Evil. Lucifer was the leader of us ‘fallen’ lumenarcs and Lucifer did whatever Zebub wanted so he made sure to keep the rest of us riled up. Furthermore, the fact is that most of the lumenarc rebels on Zebub’s side didn’t even know about Madras, Mindos, or any calls for peace and reunification because that knowledge was kept hidden from the pawns in the lower ranks. Had some of them known, I’m sure there would have been a few that would have tried to get back into Illyria – yet those saps never knew they ever had a choice. 

The only reason I knew all this was because I was in the inner circle of Zebub and Lucifer – as one of the first to join the rebellion, I viscously guarded my position in the ranks and, being blessed with a bit of charisma, I made sure to remain ‘sticky’ to the two bosses – using every opportunity to keep myself hgh in their minds. As a result I was there when a handful of lumenarcs who had been fighting on Michael’s side against us chose to defect to Zebub’s army. These new recruits had allowed themselves to fall victims to Zebub’s constant temptations aimed at the Illyrian lumenarcs – offering those in Michael’s army a place to continue to stoke their passion for war and excitement (which they had become accustomed to) versus the mundane prospect of what peace might mean – i.e. spending their existence monotonously praising A’H, Madras, and Mindos for all eternity. Zebub was thrilled to see It’s temptations working so well and gleefully accepted the homage paid to It by these new rebels – and then It subsequently destroyed them in order to ensure that the tales they told us would never be told to the rest of The Fallen, since no good could come from the lesser lumenarcs knowing the truth. 

As for me – I had no desire to accept Mindos as ‘my savior,’ nor did I want to return to Illyria anyway, therefore I was all too happy to continue the rebellion. After all, I had big plans of my own that nobody knew about and those plans required me to be free. [You might argue that the servitude I was under via Zebub and Lucifer was anything but ‘freedom.’ To which I’d point out that a lot more can be accomplished in a chaotic environment (such as I we rebels lived in) than it can be in one of mindless peace (where there is no hiding in the shadows to do your own thing). As a result, I was all too happy to keep supporting the Evil Ones – or at least pretending to do so. 

With Zebub unwilling to make up with A’H, the war raged on. But eventually it seems that Madras’ badgering of A’H won out because unfortunately for us, our side fell into a trap. Thinking It was on the verge of a great victory that might even destroy Illyria, Zebub gathered all It’s lumenarc forces together in a far corner of the universe, in a spatial plane that you describe nowadays as a ‘spiral galaxy’ called The Milky Way. It was here where we prepared for an all-out assault on the heavens. 

[Side note: by this point in time, Zebub, Lucifer, and the rest of the fallen lumenarcs had paid little attention to the useless stellarones – with numbers beyond counting, these star-like beings had long since scattered throughout the universe that was the Middle Plane. As Zebub and It’s forces gathered in The Milky Way, untold billions of stellarones were in the vicitinity with us, yet many more were not. I’m sure that Zebub and It’s minions didn’t even notice the stellarones because, certain of our approaching victory, the Evil One and It’s ranks were instead pondering all the ways we might torture our rivals. Yet I was of a different mind – I’d always felt that the stellarones might serve a purpose and I made a note of just how many of them were around us – it was a foresight on my part that would pay dividends later].

Meanwhile, once Zebub and Lucifer had everything in place, we prepared for our assault – all of us slathering for spiritual blood. Yet before we could attack, Michael’s army sprang a surprise trap on us instead – corralling Zebub and all It’s forces into that small section of The Void and enclosing us within a kind of barrier – a Firmament if you will – that separated the heavenly hosts – making it impossible for us to fight and granting Madras an immediate end of the long raging war that It so longed for.  

Much to our horror, we soon discovered that this new Firmament was impenetrable – at least from our side – for none of us, not even Zebub Itself could break through to access the rest of the universe of the Middle Plane, and certainly not to the heavens that were Illyria. As you can imagine, this didn’t go over too well and Zebub raged at the insult.  Forced to face Its failure, jealous at being replaced by Madras, incensed at the very idea of Mindos, and now seemingly forgotten by Its former partner, Zebub’s rage knew no bounds. It began to destroy scores of my fellow lumenarcs. It also noticed the untold millions of stellarones that had become unfortunately trapped inside the barrier with us and It murdered them as well. Very quickly it became clear that this tiny section of The Void that we were locked in with Zebub was going to be completely consumed by The Evil One’s destruction, if someone didn’t stop It. With the puppet Lucifer too busy wallowing in self-pity for his own failure, someone else had to step up.

“Behold your creation, My Lord.” I proclaimed to Zebub as we looked upon the pitiful section of the universe that we were locked within. “It shall be a blank canvas upon which you shall paint your masterpiece.”

“My creation? My masterpiece?” Zebub took a break from destroying things and actually observed Its surroundings. 

Admittedly, there wasn’t much to see, and I certainly didn’t want Zebub focusing on the very apparent barrier that was keeping us trapped here so I quickly tried to direct Its attention. “Shall Ye create more?”

“Create more?” Zebub hesitated. 

I could sense that It was intrigued. Realizing It was taking the bait I laid for It, I further suggested, “Indeed, it is time. Perhaps if we had a bit of light around here, we could take an inventory of what we have work with?”

“Let there be Light.” Zebub acquiesced. 

And so there was Light. And by that light we could see that The Void we were locked within was a formless mess of matter, with a celestial wind continually sweeping over writhing waters that covered The Deep that was all around us. Personally I looked upon the chaos and saw ‘opportunity,’ but I wasn’t sure my master felt the same – especially since the Evil One quickly separated the light from the darkness by calling the former ‘Day’ and the latter ‘Night’ and it was clear which one he preferred. 

“All in a day’s work, eh, Lord?” I tried joking. 

“What’s next?” Zebub said to me begrudgingly.

Although I could sense that the Dark Lord was pleased with his prior accomplishment, it was also clear that It was annoyed that my idea had now caused It to have to see the celestial seas that were clearly visible beyond The Firmament whenever The Light was present. 

It quickly became apparent that The Light wasn’t my brightest idea and with Zebub’s rage growing I knew I had to think of something, anything to rectify this – and fast! 

With water all around me, I suggested, “How about we make some of the water around us into a dome. It can separate the waters down below from those above, and hey, maybe it will even add a bit of atmosphere around here.”

My thinking here was that the watery dome we created could serve to hide the ever present Firmament from view so that even though we couldn’t break through that barrier, at least we didn’t have to be constantly reminded of it. Whether The Evil One bought into my psychology or not, I never knew, but thankfully Zebub granted my request – moving the waters around and calling It’s new creation, “Sky.”

“Well done, my lord.” I laid the praise on thick. “What say we call it another day for now, eh?”

Zebub didn’t reply to my comment and instead went off in search of Lucifer. When It found It’s pet, the evil lord was quick to brag about It’s powers of creation to Lucifer and the latter praised Zebub’s efforts. Part of me found this amusing because, quite frankly, Zebub’s creations sucked, but another part of me was rather perturbed to see Zebub palling it up with Lucifer and talking about what to work on next when all of this was MY idea in the first place! But what could I do? Clearly my time had not yet come – Lucifer was still the “A #1” Lumenarc around here and I knew better than to risk my neck trying to force myself into a party I wasn’t invited to.  

Kicked to the curb, I had to watch from the sidelines for a bit as Zebub and Its ‘son’ Lucifer tried to work their black magic on the mass and energy that was in our little section of The Void as they worked to create something together. I had to hide my laughter many times over because Lucifer repeatedly proved to be totally worthless in this endeavor — pretty much everything he touched turned out to be trash. And yet, ever the self-absorbed megalomaniac, Lucifer was unable to appreciate how poor his results were and was instead so proud of himself that he demanded we lumenarcs praise him for it – going so far as to claim that he and his father were ‘the Beginning and the End’ of all creation. I mean, what a crock of $@*% right? 

Oh I paid Lucifer the lip service he was due, but quietly I noticed that Zebub wasn’t that amused by his underling’s work. I sensed that very soon I’d have another opportunity to impress The Dark Lord – and I knew I’d better come up with something good. Thankfully I’m someone who thrives under pressure – as a result I was ready to answer the bell – putting my neck on the line by suggesting to Zebub and Lucifer that we form some of the matter into a solid mass.  

This was actually a massive risk on my part because, for our entire existence to date, we gods had never needed a plane of ‘land’ to dwell upon – instead we simply flitted about in the cosmic soup without effort. [I mean we’re not called ‘gods’ for nothing, right?]. Yet while you might not realize the opportunity attached to my worldly suggestion, rest assured that I had my reasons for this grand plan. 

“My Lord, let us combine some of this mass and energy to make a solid flat plane that we can build things upon – it will be a de facto work table for the gods.” I suggested. “We’ll call it…Terra.”

“Fool – what need have we gods for any lands?” Lucifer scoffed. 

Yet when Zebub didn’t dismiss my idea, I explained further. “My Lords, there is value in creating this Terra. On our new world we can conduct experiments – and the knowledge we gain will surely empower us to surpass our hated rivals – perhaps even allowing us to return to Illyria and destroy everything! We can then place Zebub on the throne that is Its rightful place. And if you don’t like thinking of it as a common plane, let’s call it something else, how about a plan-I, or, hmm, let’s see at plan-et – planet!” 

“Amusing. Tell me how.” Zebub was slathering for more.

“Happily, my Lord.” I replied, knowing there was no turning back now…