The Eden Project

THE GENESIS IDEAL

The ruling High Ones of the late 4th Age were the first to enact the Genesis Ideal – an initiative intended to restore balance to the world by cultivating a new lineage of humans bred for empathy, intellect, and restraint. In particular this was intended to control the birth of channelers, by mapping inheritance through bloodlines and ensuring pliability and loyalty to the regime via social conditioning. Families were trained to produce successors of increasing harmony — minds capable of holding paradox, hearts resistant to cruelty, voices attuned to consensus. Routine testing for the ability to channel was mandatory.

Those who did not carry the spark but were able to pass the ability onto their children were designated as Favoured, a privileged and respected subset of society. They were never told they could learn to channel for themselves. Instead these individuals were highly educated, received advantaged opportunities for advancement, and often found themselves funnelled into important roles within the community. They could not choose their own spouses, and were forbidden from having children without permission from the High Ones. Arranged marriages to preserve and enhance lineage were common, and often a source of prestige and pride.

Those who sparked spontaneously as channelers were removed from their homes and trained to the revered title of Angel; guardians, warriors, and scholars meant to preserve and assist mankind. Angels were rarely allowed to have children themselves, let alone spouses. Dalliances of any kind were frowned upon. Permissions and exceptions were almost unheard of.

This rigid structure flourished for generations, into the following Age where it continued under El’s later rule. It first began to weaken after the fall of the Watchers, and finally collapsed entirely with the war which marked the pantheon’s defeat.

In the 5th Age, one culmination of the Genesis Ideal programs resulted in two beings who were both bred and raised in isolation for a singular purpose: the Eden Project.

The Eden Project

The Eden Project was among the crowning glories of El’s reign – irrefutable proof of his greatness and divinity over others. It was a grand promise to restore the mythical paradise of Eden to earth, a feat most would have considered wildly impossible at the time. The details of the project were conducted in great secrecy; a One Power wrought dome was erected to cover the site of the Tree of Life, shielding its innards from view while the work commenced. It remained a cause for public speculation and wonder for many decades, before its ultimate ruin.

Two subjects were meticulously bred and raised for the role of Eden’s restorers. The Ish, who was to be Eden’s mind: a man of reason, logic, and order. And the Ishsha, Eden’s heart: trained to the nuances of emotion, and intended to be the balancing force.

They were raised in isolation from each other at a remote location called the Sanctuary, where they spent their formative years being educated and trained with monastic precision in everything they would need for the project. The Keepers of Grace raised the Ishsha, and the Custodians of Order were responsible for the Ish. Both were capable of learning the One Power, and were instructed to do so. Both were also regularly exposed to the Life Tree sapling planted in the centre of the Sanctuary grounds, though neither were ever told the significance of this ritual. Nor why they were always directed to faithfully record their dreams.

A Deeper Purpose

In reality the subjects had been trained to recreate Eden, not summon the real thing. But only El himself knew the distinction. Whether he also knew about the four-way pillar and keys is unknown, for all were lost in this Age, but there was one thing he did come to know to seek: the Book of Translation.

Inside Eden, the subjects were given access to El’s private repository of mystery; all the knowledge and artefacts he had accumulated which might be pertinent to their task, and perhaps the true reason the Eden Project was shrouded in so much secrecy and protection. Sealed away from the world, Adam and Chavah were to design the cities of the future, inspired by scraps of text and prophecy from long ago Ages. Ultimately the technology and blueprints they created–infused with both nature and the One Power– would be used to consolidate the control of El’s rule, and pave the way for its continued expansion and longevity. New Eden would be a tool for suppression and control; a city of enforced peace.

El himself was ever a man of cunning and foresight. It was how he rose so stealthily through the High Ones’ ranks in the first place. By that time the Watchers‘ restlessness was beginning to take root, and he had ensured he was already ten steps ahead. When the fallen Grigori finally began fathering unregulated children, the Eden Project was well on its way to fruition: it would be the cage that would come crashing down to tame their disobedience.

However while the fruits of Adam and Chavah’s labour would be necessary tools for the regime’s survival, it was not their true purpose in Eden.

The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life had long been a subject of mystery and intrigue. It predated everything. It would outlast everything.

Zotiel was a low ranking angel, technically born one of the Favoured, but one who had been elevated due a unique ability to read history at a touch. This gift had placed him as a steward to Metatron, celestial scribe and keeper of heaven’s treasure, but it was his role corresponding with the Tree of Life which first brought him to El’s attention. Zotiel’s gift did not just encompass objects, but the pasts of living things. In such a way he was a rare and valuable resurrector of the dead, and the only one of his kind. The Tree was dormant, but it was alive – or had been once. And Zotiel believed there might be a way to communicate with it still.

Adam and Chavah were specifically raised in close proximity to the Tree’s sapling, and were the first to both truly resonate with it. Unknown to them, it was why they were chosen for Eden. Zotiel had theories as to why others had failed before them, though he could never say for sure: just that there was a connection between the souls of Adam and Chavah and the secrets of translation kept by the Tree.

In Eden, while they busied themselves with their work, what they would also be given was time. Greater proximity to the Tree of Life, surrounded by all the tools and secrets they might need to enhance the connection and allow them to stumble upon the the knowledge entirely and accidentally by themselves: direct communication with the Tree, and ultimately the means to uncover the coveted Book of Translation.

The Serpent in the Garden

The Keepers who raised the subjects were themselves unaware of Eden’s secondary purpose.

Given the meticulous shaping of their creations, including their strict beliefs on emotion and order, it was imperative the project received no outside contamination for its duration. Even brief interaction might risk altering the course of Eden should the subjects self-adjust what they believed Eden should be, and the project had already been stung once with a failed, previous vision of the Ishsha which had delayed the outset.

The Ish and Ishsha were given no brief upon entry, but had been designed from birth in such a way that the project would naturally progress towards the High Ones’ vision of control. Supervision of their work was debated amongst the Keepers, though most felt their creations were so perfect it was unnecessary. The dome required a weave to permit entry, and thus was restricted to the Archangels, none of whom would have trespassed without permission. From time to time, covert observations were made, and reports were issued back.

For years, things progressed perfectly.

Amongst the Keepers of Grace and the Custodians of Order there was great debate about one particular detail of the project’s future. It was generally agreed between both orders that the Eden line ought to be propagated for future use and study, and this requirement of duty had been fostered in the subjects themselves from an early age. What was uncertain was what ought to happen to the child itself when it arrived.

The Custodians were generally in favour of removal to the Sanctuary, while the Keepers pressed that such trauma would ultimately be damaging to the Ishsha, and therefore Eden’s balance. What was unclear in either of the predictions was what the arrival of offspring might do to disrupt in and of itself.

When El himself was consulted for a decision, he decreed a watch and wait directive and assigned one of his most trusted angels to the task of supervision: the light-bringer, Lucifer.

Lucifer was entrusted with the task of covert observation inside the dome. He was to ensure the balance was maintained, so that Eden continued on its intended trajectory, and the work progressed efficiently despite the birth of the child. This task would be conducted in secrecy; he would not speak, interact, or be seen by them. And for several years, Lucifer did just that.

He was the only angel permitted to enter and exit Eden at will, and ultimately the cause of the project’s downfall.