In the beginning...
There was a guardian named Enki who reigned over all life-bearing worlds of the Great Outer Sphere. Enki shared this role with his half-sister guardian Ninki. As Enki grew old and incapacitated Ninki reigned until Enki returned. Together they would rule for eternity.
Enki had grown weary of the endless monotony of his existence. To amuse himself, Enki created the Nam from the native Salmat peoples of a small undeveloped world called Ki. The Nam lived in paradise with Enki. He treated them almost as equals and seeing how they were eager to help he put them to work on a variety of laborious tasks. His only rule was that the Nam were not to access the secret knowledge of the Antu.
One day Enki discovered that a keeper of knowledge named Metis had allowed several of the Nam to read about the history of the Great Outer Sphere. The Nam had begun telling each other what they had learned. Enki knew that if Anu found out what he had done he would have to answer for it. Metis was a bit of a troublemaker and Enki knew he had to do something drastic. Enki banished the Nam back to Ki where they would blend in with the Salmat. Enki informed Metis and others that he had destroyed the Nam. Only Ninki knew the truth. Ninki had come to adore the Nam and shared Enki’s desire to protect them.
Enki had a stroke of genius after his successful return of the Nam to Ki. Enki theorized that he could greatly increase the pace of evolution of the Nam. Enki secretly gave the Nam basic knowledge which helped them found five great civilizations on Ki spread across the world. Enki was careful not to actually perform any of the work or design himself. With Enki’s knowledge the Nam were able to build five incredible cities with millions of individuals in a very short period of time. Most Nam came to live in these great cities. Over time the Salmat and the Nam became a single people. Only a few ancient tribes of the Salmat survived in remote locations.
One day 7 centuries later Metis had been going over new information from Ki gathered by the Edimmu and noticed the sudden progress. Metis also found that the Salmat now contained Enki’s modifications. Metis immediately realized what Enki had done and brought this to the attention of Anu, the ruler of the Great Outer Sphere. Metis had been content with Enki playing god aboard a ship where these creatures could be controlled. But introducing these creatures into the ecosystem of an existing world crossed a line.
Directly influencing native species is strictly forbidden by the Antu and this news resulted in Enki’s immediate recall to explain himself before Anu to the council. Enki sent a message stating, “I will explain how we may achieve our goals more quickly.” along with details describing his experiments to civilize the Salmat and nudge them further along the evolutionary path. A majority of the Antu were intrigued by the experiment and had questions and suggestions on how this might be done safely.
However many including Anu were against this and demanded the destruction of the Nam. Anu firmly believed that evolution was the realm of the Virakara. As the Antu greatly influenced the actions of the Virakara this stance struck many as a contradiction. The Antu already influenced the course of evolution through painfully slow catastrophes initiated by the Virakara. Enki ignored the second recall instruction requesting further explanation of his experiments and continued his work on Ki. This single miscalculation resulted in his losing the support of the majority.
Anu, unknown to other Antu, created the Lilit to exterminate the Nam. The Lilit were a biologically similar race of females capable of breeding with the Nam. The resulting children were a sterile male-only genetic variation of the father. The father and any woman the father or son would breed with eventually fell ill and died from a slow moving cancerous virus. It took several generations before Enki realized what was occurring. By then there were so many affected individuals he couldn’t fix the problem. Enki reported this to the Antu council and many were horrified at Anu’s actions. However the damage was done and the Antu were too focused on their life mission to think further of it.
Enki reluctantly instructed a few of the Nam he knew were pure to build a sanctuary-city of specific proportions on very high ground. The sanctuary formed a series of concentric circles with huts for the Nam and areas for the various animals. Once all of the needed animals, a few thousand of the pure-blooded Nam from the tribes of Ki and supplies were assembled Enki set forth a chain of events that would lead to a dramatic ocean rise.
The flooding submerged all of the great Nam cities and left the coastlines under water. The sanctuary’s concentric circles flooded serving as a form of gauge showing the time remaining until it was safe to leave. It is said that the circles were clear in 40 days and the animals were then allowed to roam free. The Nam chose to remain in place for many years to allow low lying areas time to recover from the floods.
The sanctuary city was covered with sand before the Nam set out on their journey home. This place now served as the only reminder of the deaths of millions of Nam. Every Nam vowed to remember this sacrifice and pass the story to future generations for all time.
The Nam once again broke up into tribes and set off with the animals toward their respective homelands. After many years of travel the Nam had all relocated to their original homelands and established basic farming communities from what they learned at the sanctuary. The wild animals had been returned to their natural habitats but some of the animals had become docile and unable to fend for themselves. These animals remained close to the Nam and a few became reliable sources of food.
Once basic life needs had been established Enki began to directly assist in the building of new cities. These cities were initially populated with the survivors of the floods. Enki then artificially produced Nam to fill these new cities in an attempt to return the population to previous levels. For a few generations the cities were overrun with children. To these new Nam, Enki added some resistance to tampering like Anu had introduced with the Lilit. This greatly reduced the ability of the Nam to produce viable offspring on their own. Unfortunately, the cancerous virus was never fully eradicated but Enki was able to minimize the impact.
Enki secretly built six Antarvastra at key locations on Ki. The Antarvastra protect the Nam from anyone or anything that threatens them in his absence. In times of threat these weapons would rise from deep within the ground and destroy the threat. The Antarvastra are made from Anbar to deflect the energy from weapons. The Antarvastra are sheathed in energy absorbing pillars of stone which direct energy into Rasa.
Centuries after the first Nam cities were founded, centuries after the flood and when Enki believed everything to be going just fine...
Metis again received information from the Edimmu that the Nam were thriving unaffected by Anu’s efforts. Anu learned that the Lilit had been defeated and sent a great fleet of ships to eradicate the Nam. Many Antu had come to believe the Nam could be key to completing the Antu mission. Anu was surprised to find a fleet of Antu ships standing by Enki to defend the Nam. This had never happened before in the history of the Antu. The Antu had always relied on the council and the judgement of Anu.
Anu ordered Ninurta, founder of cities, to deconstruct all of the cities that Enki had built without permission. Ninurta began by using simple nuclear fission weapons to reduce the cities to rubble vaporizing the inhabitants in the process. The Antarvastra proved very effective but were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of fire that Ninurta was able to throw at the cities. In a matter of weeks all of the cities Enki had built were reduced to dust and cast to the winds. The only structures left on all of Ki were those primitive constructions built solely by the Nam and Salmat.
After the cities had fallen the Antu continued to fight amongst themselves. Enlil was instructed by Anu to take the lead against his brother Enki. Ninurta, Enlil’s son, joined his father in the fight and fell in battle fairly soon after. Ninurta’s weapons were never meant to be used against Antu space vessels and were very ineffective. Enlil, upset at Ninurta’s defeat, summoned every Antu who would listen to fight with him against Enki. The response was less than impressive much to Enlil’s dismay but it was enough to balance the power and drag the battle out for years.
The few remaining Nam watched this unfold before their eyes in the night sky. Some wrote about it. Some made crude drawings on the walls of caves where they took shelter. Most just laid on the ground and stared upward in confusion at the gleaming sunlit ships trade endless fire. The Nam were sure that the Antu would eventually have to stop but as years past there grew great doubt. There was always a lingering fear that Anu would once again turn his attention on the Nam.
Many Nam migrated back to ancient settlements which still existed largely unchanged. Relieved to find some form of civilization the refugees agreed to become slaves in service to the kings in exchange for food and shelter. There they lived and worked tirelessly for many years.
Anu finally offered a concession to Enki which stopped the battles. This agreement met with the approval of all but Enki’s most loyal followers. Enki would banish himself to the hell realms to allow the Nam to survive. Enki would suffer 1 day for every one of the nearly 2 million Antu who died in this war he caused. Enki’s banishment would last 5126 years.
Anu appointed Enlil guardian over the Nam. During the first generation the Nam were to roam the wilderness of Ki learning how to survive off the land, scavenge for their own food and live at least somewhat like the native wildlife. The Nam were being groomed to replace the Salmat that Enki had wiped out. Their altered biology gave them an intellectual advantage, a slight physical disadvantage but they were similar enough the Antu felt it was the only equitable option. This would also allow the supporters of Enki to test his theory that artificially evolving the intelligence of a species could be beneficial to the Antu.
The Nam were to be split into ten tribes. People from each of the five cities were split into two tribes. Each tribe was given a different language to make communication impossible. These tribes were led to locations where they were unlikely to encounter each other.
Enlil forcefully gathered up all of the refugees from the cities wherever they had fled. This met with considerable resistance where kings had taken them in as slaves. One such king chased the refugees across the desert for days until Enlil intervened by causing a great storm that inundated the pursuing army. Enlil was ultimately rather ruthless in his extraction. The refugees were so grateful to Enlil for setting them free that they began to worship him as a living god.
Enlil forbade the Nam from settling or building any permanent structures for 1 generation. Once safely extracted the refugees were given a set of moral guidelines which to live by. Most of these guidelines were to break habits formed while enslaved. In addition, Enlil demanded that the Nam only pay homage to himself and no one else. They must never speak or write his name or the name of any other Antu especially Enki or Ninki.
Each tribe had a designated leader. This leader was chosen based on his age and ability to follow instruction. Chosen leaders were not yet born at the time the cities existed. The leader was given no special knowledge of the journey and only a vague hint of the lesson behind each trial along the way.
This first generation would be provided with food and water. Each tribe had a complement of devices called Manna. These devices would condense water from the atmosphere and grow a nutritious form of fungus each night. One Manna could sustain several dozen individuals. A few Nam in each tribe were instructed on how to maintain the Manna. These devices had to be dismantled, sterilized and the fungal colonies restarted weekly to maintain nutrient levels. This meant there would be an entire day of downtime. Extra fungus was accumulated every day so the last harvest of the week provided for two days of food.
The fungus was nutritious but not terribly appealing. This was intentional, of course. The idea was to prevent the Nam from becoming dependent on the Manna to survive. Practically anything edible in the environment was more appealing. The Nam were taught to hunt, fish and gather food where appropriate. Their wanderings took them back and forth through many types of terrain to simulate a variety of conditions they might face in the future.
After a few millenia the Nam came to the attention of the Alu at the behest of the Edimmu minority.
The Alu are bent on harming the Antu in retribution for the destruction of their home world. The Alu became a space faring species during their trials. They excelled at the trials and completed the self-cooperation phase faster than any species recorded. However, when the council convened the Alu forced their way onto all of the other Padmakara, killed the inhabitants and took over the entire council fleet. The Antu had never accounted for this before and were caught completely off guard. The council fleet met up with an Antu world ship and the Alu proceeded to annihilate all Antu onboard. Several world ships were taken by force before the Antu was able to formulate a defense. The Antu declared that the Alu had failed the trials and directed the Virakara to destroy the Alu. Before the destruction the Alu world ships returned home and evacuated as many of their leading minds and military leaders as could be comfortably accommodated. They have since wandered seeking retribution any way they can.
The Edimmu home world was Ki, as well. They were the first species to discover Padmakara and pass the trials on Ki approximately 67 million years ago. The Edimmu passed the trials without incident. Most of the Edimmu left Ki to join the Antu as trusted assistants on the world ships and worlds throughout the sphere. Conceptually, the Edimmu knew that they were the first species to leave their home star system and that every star system was given three chances to evolve sentient life. However, a minority which consisted mostly of those still living on Ki pleaded with the Antu to instruct the Virakara to spare their home world from the coming cataclysm. The Antu explained that evolution must continue and most Edimmu were satisfied with that answer.
The Edimmu minority grew in number dramatically at the revelation Antarvastra were installed on Ki to protect the Nam. The Edimmu, all of them, view the Nam as an abomination of nature. However, they were willing to allow the transgression so long as the Antu felt they might be beneficial. But the revelation they were a protected species was a complete affront to the Edimmu. Not only had the Edimmu themselves been denied such protection but this was their very own home world that had been protected after their destruction.
The Edimmu Minority vowed to destroy the Nam. However they knew that any attempt at direct annihilation would be thwarted by the Antarvastra. They were able to strike a partnership with the Alu, who are biological warfare experts, to devise all manner of diseases, viruses and substances to use against the Nam. The aim is to corrupt the genetic structure of the Nam in many competing and complementary ways eventually leading to mass sterilization over many thousands of generations.
The Edimmu Majority was able to detect this corruption fairly quickly as they were continuously monitoring many individuals across the world. However combating these issues often required unleashing plagues which selectively wiped out anyone carrying these modifications. In some cases it required altering the unborn children to remove changes. All very tireless work to be sure.
The Antu were aware of this conflict but spoke little of it for fear of bringing the conflict out into the open and distracting them from their life mission. A few Edimmu were granted reincarnation to oversee long term missions. One such Edimmu called Im was placed in charge of ensuring the Nam evolved mostly undamaged. Im was approximately 6.5 million years old at the time of his appointment. He stood out among most Edimmu as he retained the original physical form he was born into. Most Edimmu by that time had been modified extensively. With the heavy reliance on technology their brains did not need as much room to store information, their skulls and body were streamlined and shrunk to allow them to be more stealthy. Im was a fairly tall, imposing creature with a huge wrinkled head and deep, thoughtful eyes that seemed to look through you. One could plainly see he was Edimmu but he was like an ancient prototype of those around him. Independently intelligent without the need for technology to augment his mind.
Im personally inspected many Ki. He enjoyed mindless reports from the workers but he also wanted to see with his own eyes what was happening. These creatures, the Nam, were his sole responsibility and he felt like they were his children. He never had any children of his own and he thought this is how it must feel to be a parent. Due to the secret nature of his work the Ki would normally be abducted and brought aboard ship by force. He always tried to relieve their fear in some way but of course failed. Im referred to himself simply as “The Doctor” or whatever equivalent term a particular individual might recognize. He would greet Ki simply with, “Don’t be afraid. I am the doctor. You will be well soon.” This did little to comfort anyone but it was truthful and to the point. Something Im prided himself on.
It is believed that Enki will reunite with the Nam once they have reached the age of understanding. Until then, Ninki periodically returns to set things straight but not after major setbacks. Civilizations rose in her presence and quickly fell in her absence. At one point nearly the entire Nam race was wiped out by a cleverly adapted plague that was spread as a mist across Ki. Ninki’s reincarnation matured just in time to save the Nam from extinction. While tragic, each of these attacks strengthened the Nam and better prepared them for the next attack.
At the beginning of Ninki’s most recent absence the Alu assisted a group of misguided but powerful Nam calling themselves the National Socialists in finding the Padmakara that had been seeded on Ki millions of years ago. These Nam set out to eradicate all Nam who were not aligned with the Alu mission.
The worshippers of Enki, Ninki and Enlil were specifically targeted and nearly eradicated through systematic genocide. The Alu offered their advanced biochemical warfare expertise to devise a wide array of methods to eradicate the Nam. Millions of Nam became the subject of detailed research into biochemical techniques for eradicating the remaining populations. The National Socialist leaders must have known they were researching their own demise. Many followers destroyed their research upon this realization. There are stories of those who intentionally exploded their own labs with themselves inside. But most quietly complied with Alu demands unwilling to believe the rumors.
Thankfully, Ninki returned in time and drove away the Alu long enough to allow the Nam to halt National Socialist progress. The knowledge gained by the National Socialists was spread throughout Ki and used to subdue all of the other tribes which had aligned with the Alu. This worldwide experience of war solidified the Nam as a single people in a way that still has not become fully apparent. Again, the Alu advances only served to strengthen the Nam and prepare them for future conflict. The Nam are awakening and no force in The Great Outer Sphere seems capable of stopping them. In many ways, the Alu have shaped the Nam into the perfect adversary.
As part of the redistribution of Ki’s newfound technology, the Padmakara fell into the hands of a young Scottish girl calling herself Liadan Ni Chonchobhair. With her and her partner’s guidance the Nam have recently begun the journey of discovery and are fast approaching the trials. Some say the Padmakara has already sent out the call for integration.