Fifth Era: The fall from heaven

The Anu were strongly influenced by their long years of rigorous training. While they were all becoming emotional, and mentally unstable, this expressed differently in the scientists and military parts of the crew.

The military third of the crew felt that humanity could not be trusted, and that the best course of action was to enslave all of them. The two thirds that were scientists disagreed. They argued that their mission was going badly, that they were making mistakes, and that they needed to turn around and go home – or at least get in touch with home and get someone who was not crazy over here to sort things out. Distrustful and paranoid, the military considered this very poor judgement.

The disagreement between them lasted for a long time, until it escalated.

In the shared mind of the Anu, it had always been difficult to keep secrets from each other, or to do one another harm.

This was still true for the first few eras of their stay on Earth, but their telepathic connection had always been based in logic and mental clarity.

Using emotion, the small group of paranoid military managed to hide their greed and growing hunger for power from the others. They planned a rebellion in a way the others never thought to look for. They plotted, stole from the scientists and tried to accrue power, then they forcefully took control.

The scientists, even though they were the vast majority, didn’t stand a chance.

After they lost the coup, the scientists were at first constrained and kept from interfering with the military leaders through imprisonment. The Anu were in no way a unified front, however, and not everyone agreed with this treatment. Some tried to help the scientists escape.

Eventually, the conflict within the group of Anu became too great a problem for those in the military who had taken over control. Yet because of their mental link, they could not simply be killed.

Those in the crew who believed that their actions on Earth were wrong and who thought they should contact home – easily two thirds of the crew - were banished to the planet’s surface. They were cast out.

After thousands of years of teaching humans to see the Anu as Gods and to worship and obey the Gods, it was dangerous for those of the military who had all the power to let so many of their banished kindred roam the Earth unchecked.

And so, history was written by the victors.

Humanity was told that there had been a battle in heaven, and that some of the lesser divine beings (sometimes known as Angels) had rebelled and would no longer obey the Gods. They were told that the rebels were dark, scary and evil, of the devil, and always lied in everything they said – and that the Gods had punished them by casting them out of heaven to a horrible place of pain and darkness.

Over the ages of Anu living on Earth and working with humans, much of their technology had made it down to the planet. Advanced technology was used for mining and building, for coordination between temples, to improve both armies and individual soldiers. The Me were used to teach humans and develop their culture.

After the scientists had been cast out to the surface, the remaining Anu began to remove all of their technology from Earth. They could not risk the others getting their hands on flying craft, long distance communications equipment, or weapons.

This was the end of the very advanced civilisations on Earth and the end of the time where the Anu Gods actively helped humanity to develop.

Those of the Anu who were cast out, found themselves lost and stranded on the surface of Earth. They lost access to the skies. They walked the earth and ate only what they could grow in the dust of this Earth.

It was a very difficult time for them. With no tools, no technology, and no resources, they were forced to hunt and grow their own food and live like savages. For people who had only ever lived in an advanced civilisation, this was an enormous challenge. For a long time, their only focus was recovery and survival.

In the meantime, the ones left on the ship continued arguing about who was in charge, and scheming against each other.