First Era: Fascinated with humanity

Roughly 300.000 years ago, the very earliest forms of humans were on the brink of developing into sentience. Some of the early primate species were evolving, making the transition to becoming a more intelligent, self-aware species.

This awakening of sentience in a species is considered a sacred thing to the Anu, something miraculous and worth studying intensely. Whenever a species is on the verge of becoming something more than animals, when they are beginning to gain self-awareness and intelligence, the Anu will likely be there, watching and quietly studying.

They came to Earth for the same reason.

While for the Anu, with their long lifespan, it was normal to send out a ship with a mission of a few hundred thousand years, this mission was a very important one to all of them: a race evolving into sentience is a rare occurrence, and the data from this study were much anticipated. Of course the crew was carefully selected.

Among the 200-300 crew were a large variety of scientists from different disciplines, and a small group of military, to operate the ship and handle any unexpected problems along the way.

The stories of the crew are still told among humans today. Ancient mythologies tell us about Enki, the leader of the scientists, and Enlil, the leader of the military, but also about Inanna and Ninhursag.

Technologically, the Anu have been very advanced for millions of years. Their equipment is made to last the ages, and runs very efficiently.

The ship in which the Anu came to Earth was made for long-distance space travel. It was completely self-sufficient., and did not require any outside resources to operate. It was not very large, but as it was meant to sustain a mission of a lifetime, it had plenty of space for its crew to live and work.

As a research vessel, it contained many well-equipped labs and large areas in which biomes could be set up. Re-creating ecosystems within their ship from samples was a convenient way to study life on the planet below.

In our mythologies, we know this ship as “Nibiru”, ni-biru, which means something like “foreign home” or “temporary home”. Orbiting around Earth, it was the place where most of the Anu lived, for most of the time they were here.

The research conducted by the Anu was always meant to be done from a distance. The evolution of sentience is a very delicate process, and even the slightest interference can cause long term damage to the system.

The Anu knew this, of course. They greatly honoured the process of natural development.

They studied from above, with long-distance probes and through observation. The biomes they built on their ship allowed them to study and experiment under various conditions, without interfering with native development.

As many other technologically advanced species, the Anu use technical assists to do simple menial tasks. Anu engineers developed a type of organic robot, fully artificially created but from biological materials, to help them in day to day activities. These robots, known later by humans as the grey aliens, were very long lasting but fairly delicate in their functioning. They had to be created and programmed one by one, by engineers specialised in this technology.

On a small research ship like the one that came to Earth, the grey were used for maintenance tasks. There would be one or two crewmembers on the ship with the ability to create them and do repairs.