The Road Of The Gods

There is a road that stretches from the sea which swallowed fabled Atlantis to the foot of that mountain where once the last remnants of humanity huddled inside a structure of fallen trees and pitch to wait out the cataclysm that was meant to destroy a race of monsters. Modern humans still use this road. Indeed, it is key to the thriving of mankind's ever more corrupted civilization. The vast majority have forgotten that gods once walked upon the way, forming with their puissant footfalls the first path, that is now covered in concrete and asphalt.

The first of those ancient deities appeared amidst the hills of a place that is called Haran to this very day. He emerged from a cave that had been used to house the corpses of the dead since before the first modern human had arisen from the seed of her primitive ancestors. Soon, other gods arrived in the area.

After the god of the dead, there was the god of wheat, who inspired the first tribe of modern humans to invent agriculture. The god of water was one that had followed the humans out of Africa, and he was crucial to the new culture. The serpent god followed quickly, emerging from the water to give gifts to the god of the dead, and wisdom to the humans who survived it's kiss. The humans erected temples to these first gods at the top of the hills, and so the god of structures took his place in their pantheon. And so it went.

There was a leader of the gods, who was said to have been the father of them all, and the master creator of all things the gods had brought to humanity. This great god retired after his creations were finished, and climbed to the top of Mount Ararat, to slumber in his cold crystalline palace. If you look down upon that mountain from a great height, the face of that god is still visible beneath the ice cap. Look for it, if you believe your sanity can withstand the truth. Two of three sons of the great god vied for his vacated throne. Seventy of their race chose sides, gambling upon the outcome. The ancient texts differ on who won the battle, and tribes of humans continue to war over it even today.

One of the combatants went away to a mountain top in the west, by the sea. Those gods who had bet on him to win went along, and made their homes in the sides of that mountain. Humans call the place Sisipus. Here were the foundations of the culture that would build the civilization of Atlantis first formed. Northward of Sisipus, near the gate to another sea, was an island large enough to support a great city, surrounded by a ring of water and a ring of land within the water. Here the humans would build the capitol city of a mighty empire, guided by their gods. Not much remains of that empire now, having been destroyed by watery cataclysm, but there are subtle traces that can still be glimpsed by one who looks.

The other god, brother to the god of Sisipus and son of the god of Ararat, made his home in the north lands of Haran. Here it was that he claimed the crown of his father, and made their names into one name. He was bitter at having been challenged for this role, and forbade the other gods from calling themselves gods. When humans used the wisdom of the serpent god to defy his will, taking it's venom into their veins beneath the stars and opening their third sight to his secret powers, he cursed it and drove it under the ground, in a place by a large lake situated along the road, to the east of Haran. At that location there was a rupture in the earth, made by the molten rock of a violent eruption aeons before, where a lake of burning sulfur still remained within the caldera. This is where the jealous god prepared a prison for his enemies.

The gods came and went between the mountains, visiting humans with their gifts and wisdom as they willed, as it suited their purposes. The road widened and lengthened with their passing, and with the passing of humans in the pursuits of their growing civilization. Some gods even chose wives from among those humans who had become civilized. This was forbidden, and so they kept it a secret for a time. It is said that their half breed children were violent and uncontrollable, that they plundered and devastated the first cultures, and had to be destroyed. Perhaps that is true, or perhaps we are the descendants of those monsters, and we tell the stories that comfort us most.

Millennia came and went, as well. Cultures formed and civilizations rose and fell, warring with one another, the old being surpassed by the new, many leaving the secrets of their gods etched in stone or painted on pottery. Much of this is yet to be discovered, all along the road. The gods themselves withdrew from humanity. Perhaps because we have yet to learn the most important lessons. Perhaps because they tired of the constant labors of guiding us. But, the road remains. The myriad sites of their works remain within sight of the road. Maybe we can find them. Maybe we can recover the lost lessons that we failed to learn. Maybe we can become better than we are, and make of this world a paradise for all. Come, let us walk the road of the gods together.