Against Antediluvian Aprecipitation

One of my greatest frustrations with the interpretation of the creation in Genesis was when I discovered how irrationally the whole situation was presented, by both the so-called literal interpretations and the fully scientific rejection of it. Part of my motivations for imagining Eldwan include presenting a different take on creation. I'll deal with a couple of points in this post.

The first major gripe - Who in the world advocated the idea that there was no precipitation until Noah's flood?

A little research directs me to Genesis 2 : 4 - 6 'This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens- and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground-', which has been interpreted to suggest that there was no rain until rain is quite undeniable by Genesis 7 : 12.

Let's try and sort this muddle out. Genesis 2, as I understand it, is an account of Day 6 of creation in more detail, about the creation of Adam and Eve. As such, the unique characteristics of this period, namely that there were no plants of the field, that there was no rain and that there was no man to work the ground, should be confined to our understanding of Creation Day 6. Of course there is no indication of when these conditions ceased to prevail, but I don't think they can be reasonably interpreted to have lasted until the flood. For one, after this brief description of the state of creation at the beginning of Day 6, the Lord raises the garden of Eden, and creates man. This already changes the conditions from 'no plants of the field' to many garden plants which are pleasing to eye and good for food. And man, while he may not be a worker, has also come into existence. These alterations already take effect by the end of Day 6.

By the time of the fall, man has clearly been cursed as a worker of the field, whose toil is what cultivates food for consumption. Cain is a farmer. Since the absence of rain was described with the other points that have clearly been changed, even by the fall, let alone the flood, I think rain would have pattered down on the vegetation of Eden as well. I have serious doubts about alternative hydrological cycles prevailing in this early stage of Earth's history. Just because God used rainbows as a symbol of his promise doesn't mean no one had seen a rainbow before.

Which leads me on to my second major gripe - The vapour canopy hypothesis

Unless the fundamental chemistry and intermolecular forces of water were drastically different from what they are today, I doubt that any water canopy could hover over the atmosphere of the earth for the length of time that these theorists claim. Incidentally, if water were so dissimilar to permit such structures, I don't think it would have functioned very well in human bodies.

The vapour canopy doesn't agree with scientific facts, or even biblical facts. If it was indeed the water above the earth, then the 'sky' would be limited to the space between this suspended aquatic layer and the seas. Since the sun and the moon were stated to have been placed in the sky, that would mean the sun and moon should have been sandwiched by the waters. Having a flaming sphere of plasma in such close proximity would hardly befit pre-rebellion paradise.

Exercising some creative liberty, I am re-imagining the water above the sky in Eldwan as an ice-belt that existed outside the orbit of Earth. If water was indeed raised to such an extent, the region between the ice belt and the Earth's seas would be the sky between the waters. The Sun and the Moon at least, would literally be contained within these two regions of water. I admit I cannot help the position of the stars, as they are a little too far away to wrap in an envelope of dihydrogen monoxide. But an ice-belt would at least fulfill a few more criteria that a vapour canopy cannot hope to explain.

Imperfect Apotheosis

This idea has grown to become particularly important despite its origin as a cursory addendum. So many essential themes have grown entwined with it that I should record its current state. It has to do with the postcorporists and Alero's dream for humanity. With the new reflections of Alero's motives, my original intentions for various events have grown irrelevant or inconsistent.

Alero's goal is for human fulfillment, and he interprets this as humans having the full potency of Eleyon in creative power and knowledge. This is not entirely out of line with what Eleyon wants of course, but it is incomplete and Alero jumpstarted the process before the evezhen were ready during the rebellion. After that fateful day, Alero remained proud and boasted that he could bring humanity into full bloom without Eleyon. Because of this, Eleyon decided to give Alero his way for a time, the Age of Light, and so a group of people who were willing to serve Alero were handed over to Alero to do as he pleased. At the end of that time, Eleyon showed Alero that the evezhen would never be made complete apart from himself.

Accepting this challenge, Alero holds the advancement of his followers in his hands. He guides them to greater and more potent technological ability in an accelerated manner. Alero grants them magic, albeit through unethical means, to enhance their progress further. He pushes for the postcorporists, the gods within the machine. By transferring their primary existence into the digital network, those individuals who gave up their physical bodies could exercise a shadow of Eleyon's creative ability. By intending and designing it, whole virtual worlds and simulations could come into existence.

Initially, I thought of it as borrowing from science fiction. However, I realised something potentially more significant upon deeper reflection. It may be, that out of a multitude of human endeavours, our only true creative efforts come through language. Anything physical is simply a rearrangement of pre-existing material. But words - the meaning of words is shaped by subtle societal forces, creative leaps of fluid definition. The language of a society is a collective lexical masterpiece, a creative effort en masse with every syllable we express, written or spoken.

Our control over virtual worlds is no different. We create them by language. Not by a natural human language, but a language of computers, which nonetheless finds itself the product of human ingenuity. So by inducing a shift from a physical world into a virtual world, Alero is really immersing humanity into the only domain in which their creative potential can be directly manifested, the domain of language.

Of course though, Alero's attempt is incomplete, just as his interpretation of human fulfillment is lacking. We are not fulfilled by power or ability. Our divine qualities shine through not when we are capable of immense god-like actions, but when we reflect the divine character of the Creator. Eleyon points this out to Alero before he destroys the Radiant society in the Flood.

Alero remains bitter, convinced that he could have achieved what he intended if Eleyon had not interfered. And so, with such an attitude, the next Age, the Age of Water, commences. The postcorporists in the network of Alaris reboot as the tidal generators begin to power the skeleton of the city. In their turn, they present themselves as gods to the scattered people of the coasts. Alero hears of them and approaches them, but instead of finding the gratitude he expects, they reject his leadership. The postcorporists are determined to achieve equality with the infinite for themselves with their second chance. Alero's love for them changes to hatred.

Through their actions and their internal feuds, it becomes clear that the new gods of Alaris are anything but divine. They are petty, selfish human beings who have found themselves with the power of gods. Alero finally admits in his own heart that they were never going to approach true apotheosis by the simple accumulation of power, but he bears a vendetta against the Alarians for the rest of time.

Eventually, when Eleyon himself comes to humble the Alarians, he does so by confusing their greatest creation; their language. They are cut off from their cultural heritage, from their philosophical texts, from their great novels, from their historical records. Man is truly humbled and progress must begin anew in the fragmented nations.

The fleeing, divided groups of Alaris carry their stories of their gods by oral tradition to the various areas of the coast they settle in from the destruction of their metropolis. From their half-remembered stories, the pantheons of gods of the various cultures in the Age of Rulers have their altered derivations. Stories of gods with jealous fights, selfish agendas and fickle favour. After two Ages of history, the people of Eldwan stop struggling to grasp equality with God, and Alero realises what a Sisiphean proclamation he made on the Day of Rebellion.