Book IX: The Book of Enok I
Chapter 3: The Secret of Seth’s Sons
Listen, I had a lot going on during this antideluvian period of your world’s history and I was managing a lot of projects. As a result, even a god like me couldn’t keep an eye on everything all the time. Things slipped through the cracks – a lot of things. Would I have done things differently if I knew then what I know now? Obviously. But it is what it is and I had to make the best of it.
Case in point – Adam’s son Seth. I told you a while back that he and his sister Norea had some mysterious connection to Eden, and while I made sure they never found the Garden, that didn’t stop Seth from always remaining curious. Throughout his life Seth embarked on a series of explorations throughout the valley. He meticulously documented his findings, uncovering ancient flora and fauna, geological formations, and similar mundane knowledge. Yet Seth also found something else – among his most perplexing discoveries were carvings and relics that hinted at a sophisticated civilization far older than his father Adam’s clan, with symbols and languages Seth could not comprehend.
These findings apparently stirred a deep sense of unease within Seth. The existence of such ancient wisdom and civilizations clearly contradicted the teachings of the god I made for Adam – the god Yahway – whom Seth had been raised to revere without question. Yet Seth’s scientific mind began to grapple with the monumental problem of reconciling his discoveries with his faith and he surely feared the wrath of Yahway – for I made it known that Yahway’s stringent demands for unwavering belief were never to be disputed.
I’ll give him credit, although I didn’t visit with Seth as much as I did his father, on the few occasions I did interact with Adam’s son, Seth kept his doubts hidden from me. Unbeknownst to me, Seth also took great care in concealing the artifacts he unearthed – devising secret codes and obscure locations for his research notes and ensuring they would remain undiscovered by anyone who might inform Yahway. Maintaining a facade of devoutness, Seth participated in religious rituals and always affirmed his faith publicly, yet privately he continued to search for the truth.
Although I’m pretty confident Seth died with more questions than answers, his children continued his legacy.
Among the Clan of the Valley, there were others who grew up to have Seth’s curiousity. One such was Mahalal – while on his own exploratory journey to the far reaches of the valley, Mahalal stumbled upon a fragment of a book partially buried under a rockslide. The fragment, though incomplete, recounted parts of the tale of their mysterious relative Enok and the man’s extraordinary time in a place called Atlantis, a legendary city beneath the ocean. Enok’s writings hinted at the existence of other civilizations and peoples far beyond the knowledge of Adam’s clan – a revelation that was beyond shocking to Mahalal since he’d been raised to believe that Mankind – the people fathered by his ancestors Adam and Eve were the only intelligent race on the planet.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, somehow another fragment in Enok’s handwriting made mention of The Reed of the Shattered Veil, an ancient prophecy from the Amorosi seeress Elara, which spoke of a time when the hidden truths of the world would be revealed, shattering the illusions imposed by false gods.
I can’t even begin to imagine what Mahalal though when he found these scrolls. But one thing was certain – this wisdom directly contradicted his god Yahway’s teachings and opened up a world of possibilities previously unimagined.
Thankfully Mahalal was so afraid at his discover that he never told another soul – fearing the repercussions of revealing such knowledge to the rest of the clan and especially to Yahway. He did however keep the fragments – burying them in a secret location until he could figure out what to do with them.
The Apocrypha of Azazel 