In this part I'm going to talk about the creation of Everlon and where the inspiration for the fictional world came from.

Back in 2006, When I wrote the first plot for Tower of Parlen Min ( then known as The Tower of the Great Few), it was meant to be a series of mystery/suspense graphic novels, then in mid 2007 I decided it would be the first book in The Narrow Escapes of Ves Asirin. And the stories would be set on Earth in a  folk town somewhere in England.

Then I came across the His Dark Materials trilogy of books by Phillip Pullman. I loved the first book, The Golden Compass but I absolutely disliked the last two books ( The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass). Moreover the whole trilogy seemed to be more or less an attack on the Christian religion (who's beliefs I'm very partial to), though of course he claimed it wasn't an attack on Christianity itself but all organised religions and their overpowering influence on society today. Yeah, I kinda don't like the way the heads of the Roman Catholic Church do things, but an attack on the religion or any religion for that matter was uncalled for.

And I had such a strong reaction to this that by the time I was done with the last book in the trilogy,  I'd  pretty much made an unconscious decision to write a story that was going to be something of  a reply to Phillip Pullman and His Dark Materials ( and more and more I'm beginning to think that this was one of God's plans for me). I didn't know at the time that it would be with The Narrow Escapes of Ves Asirin. It all started the day I decided that the story would be set in a fictional world instead, and the religious aspects just started to weave themselves into the origin of the world.

So let's have a look at the creation of Everlon (which is pretty much just a rip-off of Genesis -- the first book in the Bible, the Torah and the Qur'an) and some elements of Greek and Norse mythology. I'll be putting on my 'faux intellectual narration' tone now, so if the post feels like it's dragging and boring you coz you already know most of this stuff, you can just skip it, yeah?


The Creation of Everlon According to the Orem Church’s Bible:

In the beginning, Elohim, who is God, created the heavens and the earth, which he called Everlon, which means ‘the rock of ages’. Everlon then was formless, a mass of fiery waste and other dark matter hovering over the waters; the firmament. And Elohim said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. With this light to see, he went about separating dry land from the seas, and plants and trees, which grew fruit with seed, spread across this land. Above the firmament, Elohim created the sun, moon and stars. Elohim then created many air-breathing creatures; beasts of the earth according to their kinds roamed the land, the fishes had the sea and the birds had the sky. Then Elohim said, ‘Let us make man in our image,’ and he made the first man (or Daru'ei in angel language) from the dust of the ground, he was called Adim. On the seventh day, Elohim rested from the task of completing the heavens and the earth, and he blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it he rested from all his work of creation.

Elohim set the man in the Garden of Eden and permitted him to eat of all the fruit within it, except that of Alona; the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. ‘For in the day that you eat the fruit of Alona you shall die,’ Elohim told the man. God gave man authority over every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

But for the man there was found no equal companion. So Elohim put the man in a deep sleep, and made a woman from one of his ribs. And when man awoke he named his companion Woman, because she was taken out of man. And though the man and his wife were both naked, they were not ashamed.

Then came the serpent and it told the woman that she would not die if she ate of the fruit of Alona. ‘When you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil,’ the serpent said. So the woman ate and gave some of the fruit to the man who also ate it. Then both their eyes of were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. When Elohim found that the man and woman had eaten from the fruit of Alona, he cursed the serpent: ‘upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life’. The woman he punished with the pain of childbirth and with subordination to man: ‘your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you’. And the man he punished with a life of toil: ‘In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground’.

‘Behold’, said Elohim, ‘the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil,’ and he expelled the couple from Eden, ‘lest he put forth his hand and take also of Orem; the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.’ And a Cherub with a flaming sword was set to guard the way to the tree of life and gate into Eden was sealed.

The man named his wife Eva, because she was the mother of all living men.

Adim and Eva had two sons, Kain and Abel. Kain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd. Each brought an offering to Elohim, but Elohim rejected Kain’s offering. Kain murdered Abel and Elohim cursed him: ‘When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength; you shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.’ Kain was banished to the wilderness, and he feared that whoever met him would kill him, but Elohim placed a mark on Kain to protect him, with the promise that if any should slay Kain, vengeance would be taken on him seven-fold. Kain settled in the land of Nod, away from the presence of the Lord. Seth was born to replace Abel. But among the descendants of kain was Enoch who it was said, ‘walked with Elohim … and was no more, for God took him.’

Adim and the generations that were born from him; known as the Antediluvian Patriarchs, were notable for their extreme longevity, with Methuselah living 969 years. This long life of man ended with Noah, after him Elohim set the days of man at 120 years. All humanity is descended from the sons of Noah. The Nephali'ei were on the earth in those days; a pre-flood race born of the sons of Elohim that came into the daughters of men. The Nephali'ei were mighty men with great supernatural power and they ruled all of humanity and built great nations. The Nephali'ei, declaring themselves gods, corrupted men and turned them away from the light of Elohim and it was dark time for the few that chose to worship Elohim.

Peace, law and order failed amongst the Nephali'ei and their nations, and the first Great War began, plunging the world into choas and ruin.

Angered by the wickedness of the Nephali'ei and humanity, Elohim chose Noah amongst the righteous few and commanded him to build an Ark, and to take on it his family and representatives of the animals. After Noah had done this, Elohim destroyed the world with the Great Flood. Afterwards He entered into a covenant with Noah and his descendants, the entire human race, promising never again to destroy humanity in this way. Elohim created the rainbow and put it in the sky as a sign of his promise.

From the descendants of Noah’s sons, Shem, Japeth and Ham, established new nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood. The greatest of these men were the Olympians, originators of all technology, who decided to build, ‘a tower with its top in the heavens’, in Atlantis (a massive artificially created island in the center of Everlon) , ‘lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’

‘This is only the beginning of what they will do,' Elohim said of the ambition of the Olympians and all of mankind, ‘and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.’ Elohim destroyed the tower and the nation of Olympians, splitting the island of Atlantis in two. Elohim then confused the language of all humanity and also made them forget the angel language. Then he scattered the men over the face of the earth.

After this time, unknown to man, Elohim instated the rule of  regent angels and commanded them to watch and control human destiny for a time.

The generations of Shem bring the biblical genealogy down to the generation of Abraham, from whom all Kero’ei and high-masters of the Church of Orem are descended.


TBC