Edenith Civilization

### Summary

Edenith Civilization was the original civilization of Tellus Mahte and the end felt upon them in the form of the Great Flood because of its people's hubris.

The **Edenith Civilization** was the first and original settlement of humans in Tellus Mahte in antediluvian times. However, because of the crimes and hubris of their leaders, the Nephilim, the first apocalypse was triggered and the entire civilization was destroyed in the Great Flood.

## Summary

As the one of the first and original human civilizations, pre-dating the Big Bang and the primordial gods by hundreds and thousands of eons, the Edenith civilization is shrouded in layers of mystery even to this day.

It was founded by Cain after he was exiled for his crimes, and was later taken over by his son Enoch, who became its first official leader. After Enoch's death, the settlement was given to his thirteen sons and daughters to govern over.

In its most glorious days, the civilization was the largest and most powerful out of all the human settlements in all across Tellus Mahte, consisted of countless colonies and the largest population of over 3-billions people in comparison with other settlements, even ones formed by Cain's brother and sisters.

However, it was because of their achievements that brought forth their own destruction, as all of their prowess stemmed from the forbidden knowledge gifted to them by the fallen angels. Eventually, they became prideful, arrogant and ignorant of the worlds beyond what they could perceive, and eventually forgot of their own roots.

They destroyed the old temples dedicated to God and His angelic creations, they burned holy scriptures to ashes, and they mercilessly killed all the priests and followers of the Old Religion, whose last breath was to utter a prayer to the heavenly ones above. Soon, the knowledge of God, the angels and demons and fallen angels faded away, and whatever remained were merely myths and legends.

Unbeknown to them, however, these actions did not go under the watchful eyes of the angels, and soon, the end of the Edenith civilization came to a close with the galloping sounds of the Four Horsemen.

In year ████ of the Edenith calendar, Tellus Mahte as a whole was forced to endure one calamity after another, from natural disasters that devastated the colonies, to strange and incurable diseases that killed thousands in nights, to in-fighting among the civilization's leaders, which led the once unified Edenith empire to be fractured and terror began to be sowed into the hearts of men.

Finally, after 666 years of chaos, the apocalyptic force known as END appeared on the horizon as a giant rain storm, one whose water was the primordial energy of the Empty in a liquified form, wiping out everything and anything within the Four Worlds of Creation. Everywhere and anywhere the water touched, it devoured and destroyed and brought forth nothingness. And after 40 days of constant raining, the END stopped and giant flood remained in its place for 150 days, slowly returning the majority of Creation back into the darkness before creation, and with that, the Edenith civilization became nothing more than a memory of a destroyed world, something only existed in the mind of a handful of people who survived through a variety of means.

## Culture

According to Azazel, despite being known as a single civilization, they were an extremely culturally diverse civilization because of its immense size, which consisted of 60% of Tellus Mahte's inhabitable land. They consisted of people from multiple different cultures, ethnicities, histories, and traditions, all grouped together under the banner of the Edenith empire after their ancestral land was conquered from former Edenith emperors and conquerors.

They were a sexually equal society, much like the rest of human settlements in Tellus Mahte, if not leaning a bit toward a matriarchal society. Both men and women alike shared the same amount of rights and duties, though surviving records of the Grigori showed that in the fields of military and politics, women seemed to hold more important positions than men.

Among the noble houses, it was very common to keep their bloodlines "pure" through the practice of incestuous marriages, marrying brothers to sisters, cousins to cousins, uncles to nieces, and aunts to nephews. One of the past kings even took it a step further and married all of his daughters, and if his daughter-wives had daughters of their own, he would taken them as his new wives too and wed any daughters they would produce, and this was repeated for a total of five more generations before his throat was slit by his youngest son.

Another one of their marriage practices was polygamy, though this heavily looked down upon and was not the norm among them. They also accepted same-sex marriages and relationships, though this was also dependent on circumstances. For the smallfolk and younger children of noble houses, who didn't share the same duty of continuing their bloodline like their older siblings, same-sex relationships were accepted and even seen as the norms, while the lords and heirs of noble families were forced to continue their duty of reproduction and continued their family bloodline, and after this mission was completed, they could "go and indulge in the gay".

## Achievements

Despite their antiquity, the Edenith civilization as a whole was an extremely technologically advanced civilization, being vastly superior to even the most complex modern technology today and more closely resembles the technology from science fiction than anything in real life.

During their time, science was upgraded to whole new levels, beyond what modern scientists can even comprehend, much less dream of, and could be deemed as a school of magic in its own right. Their scientists were said to have cracked the codes of [Magic] and [Mystery], allowing them to manipulate magical forces through scientific and even mundane methods that many angels didn't even think were possible. Their other greatest achievements were in the field of weaponry, with some of their weapons even capable of destroying entire planets.

They were also extremely talented when it came to magic, having created and mastered many different forms of powerful, archaic magic. They were the ones who created Thaumaturgy, a kind of Ancient Magick deemed the "bridge between men and gods". They were also the original creators of the forbidden grimoire, Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis, and its five grimoires - Ars Goetia, Ars Theurgia-Goetia, Ars Paulina, Ars Almadel, and Ars Notoria.

### Failed Replicas

Throughout the ages, there have been numerous attempts to replicate Edenith-era technology, all of which resulted in failure and the occasional catastrophe. And yet, despite all of these failures, many still tried to recreate these technological marvels and finally shed some light upon the ever so mysterious first civilization.

Some of the known failed replicas are:

* **Angel Light**: A stealth device that can render walls, hands, stealth shielding, and other objects transparent to the human eyes. It was created by Troy Hurtubise based on an unnamed Edenith artifact, which later Azazel stated to be a prank x-ray glasses, which he discovered with his Sacred Gear. However, before this invention could be made public, both the Angel Light and the Edenith artifact were collected by the Order of the Iscariot and all verifiable evidence was quickly destroyed.
* **Astras**: According to Tvastar, the Astras are all failed attempts created by the Hindu Pantheon on their path to recreate Edenith-era weaponry. And though most of them failed, Azazel had noted that, among all failed replicas, they are still the closest to the originals.
* **Damascus Steel**: A special type of forged steel with distinctive patterns of banding and mottling reminiscent of flowing water, and is reputed to be tough, resistant to shattering, and capable of being honed to a sharp, resilient edge. According to Tvastar, damascus steel was a failed replica of an ancient type of steel used by the ancient Edenith people, one that was "greater than any sacred metal in terms of power and durability".
* **Glass Candles**: Enchanted candles made out of obsidian. When lit, they allow the user to see the present and past everywhere sunlight has touched, give out visions and dreams to other people, and to communicate with anyone in everywhere when their name is whispered to the candle's fire. They were found by ancient Celtic druids in Fintan's Grave and rumored to have been created by Fintán himself while he was in isolation, crafting them using his own knowledge.
* **Gogmagogs**: Ancient automaton-like golems created based on an outline for an Edenith surveillance robot. They were first created by the Mesopotamian Pantheon for militaristic means, but their plans quickly failed when they accidentally developed artificial intelligence and rebelled against their creators, resulting in the deaths of multiple gods and immense destruction on their paths for world domination. The gods Enlil, Enki, and Ishtar, however, were able to stop the robots on their path and banished them into the Dimensional Gap.
* **Obsidian Mirror**: Enchanted mirrors made out of a mysterious obsidian-like black stone created by ancient Aztect priests for communication and observational purposes, based on a type of Edenith-era communicator. Several obsidian mirrors are still used by the Mesoamerican Pantheons and their followers to this day, and there are a total of three types of mirrors.
	+ One that functions much like modern telephone devices, allowing communication between all who possess a device.
	+ One that has a record-and-playback function, allowing the user to record and send audio-visual messages to others who possess a counterpart.
	+ One that works as a monitoring device, projecting audio-visual surveillance through connection with a living being's blood in a vial.

## Survivors

Despite popular belief, not all inhabitants of the Edenith civilization were wiped out, as many were saved from their doom through various means by the fallen angels and demons, as well as the few angels who opposed the Heavenly Council's decision. These angels, however, were later banished from Heaven and joined the Grigori as the Five Lesser Satans.

The most famous survivor is Noah, who built an Ark through advanced Edenith technology after receiving a revelation from God and used it to save himself and his family. According to Azazel, the Ark is possibly one of the greatest artifacts that could ever be created by humanity purely based on its complexity and sheer power alone, which was able to convert the primordial energy of the Empty through a combination of intricately cast Thaumaturgy and Enochian Magick to create a rift within spacetime, allowing it to venture into Diegesis and from then, sailed upon the streams of time and fate to escape to Earth, eons after the Big Bang and landed on a place which would later be known as Mount Judi.

### Notable Survivors

#### Noah's Family

* Shem

* Ham

* Japheth

* Shem's Wife

* Ham's Wife

* Japheth's Wife

#### Other Survivors

* Attri

* Bairrfhind

* Bergelmir

* Bharadwaja

* Bith

* Cessair

* Deukalion

* Kalola

* Kasyapa

* Ladra

* Loralola

* Ogyges

* Poilola

* Pyrrha

* Sadigua

* Satyavrata
* Utnapishtim
* Vamadeva

* Vashistha

* Vishvamitra

* Yamataggi

## Influences

Despite having been destroyed eons before the Big Bang, the Edenith civilization still has many influences over the world, both mundane and supernatural alike, even if most of these influences mainly go unnoticed.

Its most noticeable influence is possibly on the multiple religions all over the world, with may famous and high-ranked figures from the civilization later got recorded by scholars and prophets into numerous religious works, the majority of which are in the Abrahamic religions, as the civilization as a whole is a crucial part in the history of the Three Factions. The most notable myth influenced by the Edenith-era history is undoubtedly the Great Flood, which was adapted into multiple mythologies, such as Ancient Greek, Norse, or Hindu and even Muisca.

## Trivia

* Despite its title, it's not the first civilization, but merely one of the earliest and most well-known.
* All kings of the Edenith civilization took the surname Enoch after its first king.
	+ Members of the civilization are known as the Edenim in official records.
* The capital city of the civilization was named Edinnu, which means "Plain of Pleasure".
* The civilization itself was said to be a combination of dictatorship and theocracy.
* According to Azazel, the written language of the Edenith civilization resembles a mixture of Sumerian language, Biblical Hebrew, Mycenaean Greek, and Egyptian hieroglyphs.