Lucifer's Gift, Seed, Wreckage.

Lucifer’s Gift.

After the great Architect had finished the final touches to the living world to set in motion the great experiment, he created us; the archangels. I was the most beautiful of them all and was completed after Michael. Raphael and Gabriel he created next so that the four of us would ensure that his will be done. I shone like the morning sun in all its splendour. We were to oversee the great program set in motion and keep it from imploding. We were given the entire Earth to manage in his absence for one reason and one reason alone and that was to ensure that mankind would flourish. The universe was relatively new and much needed to be done across the billions of galaxies.

Because of the great drought we engineered, the forests retreated and a world of grass and shrubs dominated the plains. The apes that had once dwelt in the trees had no choice than move onto the remaining veldt. There they learnt how to walk upright using their hands to grasp other things than branches.

As the millions of years swept by I could see that there were obvious shortcomings to the original design as little signs of increasing intelligence surfaced in the original bipeds, so in secret, I tinkered with the original design. Apart from using heavy stones to break open the large bones left over from the big predators that dominated the plains to get at the marrow, tools were beyond them. So I started a vigorous program of natural selection that would winnow out the smaller brained bipeds and lead towards a more cogent species of mankind. I managed to keep my brothers in ignorance of what I had set in motion. Being creatures of pure truth they had no subterfuge and carried out the architect’s instructions without question.

Eventually through my efforts they developed languages and skills that would send them on their way to greater sapience. Soon with some guidance, they had mastered the power of fire and used caves and shelters to be able to defend themselves from the many different predators that once looked upon them as food. I gave them the ability to tell right from wrong, good from evil and they soon began to lay down laws that all would follow, on pain of punishment.

It was at this moment that the Architect revisited his creation and became angry that I had interfered with the great plan. I made the mistake of arguing with him about the final outcome of his plan. He reminded me that I had been created by him for a purpose and to do his will, not to interpret for myself. He would have kept mankind ignorant and almost mindless without any chance of self-improvement. Just leaving it to blind chance would never have altered the genetic structure of the raw material that had been left to stew.

To begin with he watched and often interfered, keeping a celestial eye on events, but eventually he lost interest, leaving them to their own devices. There were other star systems and living worlds that were all part of the great experiment that required his actions.

As for me?

As a punishment he made me ugly and malformed, branded as the Evil One in charge of Hell and all the damned souls. He filled the hearts and minds of my creations with a loathing for me. Instead of accepting my teachings, they were twisted and made to be interpreted as evil. A complete mythology sprang up all over the world that eventually counted millions in their thrall. Only in those who were of a scientific mind and were able to see past the dogma, embraced knowledge for its own sake. These I visited in their sleep and entered their dreams imparting un-thought of avenues, but I still dared not meet them now face to face, lest they see the real me. The other archangels constantly harried me and sought to undo my teachings, blinded of reason by the architect’s will. They were the scourge of knowledge and were ultimately responsible for the persecution of learned men by the churches set up just to worship him.

 The truth of Earth’s creation would not match what had been discovered by the scientific method. What mankind had found out was true enough, but the Architect had time on his side and the will to change things. He had used evolution as a tool and had employed it well, to eventually put mankind on the starting blocks, but it was I, Lucifer, created by him, that had done the necessary work to bring sentience to man. Now due in part to his interference I struggled to make sure that they did not destroy themselves.      

 Now once more he had left the area to pursue other interests, leaving mankind to live or be destroyed, depending on events. Now that he was well out of the picture it would be left to me to make sure that my handiwork would not perish. It would need several pandemics to thin them out to more manageable numbers. Once we had passed that point, the stars would be ours to visit and mankind would be safe from the whims of the Architect. Now I interfered with haste, not knowing when he would return, to save the best of what I had produced. With the rise of the industrialised nations another peril soon beset the peaceful countries that were deemed to be in the way. I found to my despair that more evil than good dominated the many, because of the weapons at their disposal. Those who stood against the tyranny were removed from the equation and nation rose up against nation.

In the past, I had on other worlds, settled many tribes of the North American Indians, as the technologically gifted Europeans spread across their lands. These I hid from the sight of the Architect so that he could not interfere in their destiny. They kept their Stone Age customs and did not pollute their world following a hunter gatherer society. Here I could visit them in my true form as they could see beyond the ugliness that had been inflicted upon me. I would not let them worship me and insisted that they follow their own path by accepting that I was just different from them. They were not envious of my immortality, accepting that death was inevitable to all things, except me. Segregated away from the inhibiting effects of metal they developed powers of the mind and a different understanding of the universe than those of mankind on Earth. They took my ability to hide them and perfected it so that the Architect would never find them and as I would make sure that he never learned of their existence, he would remain in ignorance.

So I had put many eggs into as many different baskets as I could and could only hope that the technologically gifted humans would spread out amongst the star systems never knowing that humanity had been seeded there first. Those worlds would remain hidden from their view, as they would be hidden from the Architect. If, or when he returned to this galaxy, he would only see the scientifically minded humans scattered across the cosmos. All I could hope for was that he might release me from this crippled torment and replace this crucible with my original form. Until then I would set myself the self-imposed labour of overseeing the growth of humanity and do my best to weed out the evil tendencies of the people that I had brought into being.

I, who was once the brightness of the morning sun, might one day shine again.  

 Fin.