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CALL ME RACHIVEL.
I've been around from the beginning, and I've never abandoned my post.
I'll begin this story simply by mentioning the asteroid. I noticed when it passed the planet named after Tarshish and streaked for the orbit of the planet called Orone.
Again, I hadn't abandoned my post. I'm a Watcher, so I notice everything.
If you're limited to the five human senses it may be difficult for you to fathom how I can perceive things in all directions and at once, and at any range. Nevertheless, I noticed this huge asteroid cracking as it continued along its trajectory, even while faithfully watching my assigned places.
Why did I take notice of the asteroid? It was a by-product of another story—a momentous one. However, that story should be reserved for another time.
When I calculated the trajectory of the asteroid, I had a pretty good idea where it would wind up. That will prove relevant later.
My primary assignment...which I'll remind you again I never faltered from...was to observe the creatures on one specific planet. The inhabitants had different names for their own planet, depending on their language. The people I watched closest called it Kadur Ha'aretz.
There is a region on Kadur Ha'aretz, once called the Kenaan Land Bridge, in a region where three continents join. Kings and generals have longed to control this area for ages, since aspiring conquerors must march their armies through Kenaan on their way from one continent to another.
However, the land bridge wasn't just contested by kings and generals, but by the gods as well. El Elyon, the god I serve, had designs on Kenaan. He had promised it to a specific nation; but a pantheon of other gods disputed his right to bequeath it. In fact, some of them abandoned their posts, mated with mortal women, and bred a master race to populate it. These Titans–a hybrid of men and gods–were called Gibborites, or Gibborim, which, roughly translated, means "mighty heroes." Their purpose, in this particular incursion, was to possess Kenaan and enforce the will of their ancestor-gods.
In about four centuries, the Gibborim had reproduced to the point that all of Kenaan was under the tight control of the Titan god kings–vice regents appointed to rule in the human world on behalf of their immortal progenitors in the Hidden Realms.
This was the situation when El Elyon determined it was time to enforce his claim on the land.
His choice of enforcing agents? A young nation of desert nomads–the children of slaves–with nothing but a rag-tag militia for an army. The average man from Yacov was less than half the size of the Titans they would face, and they had no cavalry, chariots, or even enough swords with which to arm more than one of their tribes.
Called "The Invisible God," and "The God-of-Many-Names," El Elyon ordained a priestly class to intercede with him on behalf of the other Yacovim. From the same tribe, he had also ordained a humble, unassuming outsider as their leader and his liaison
Moshe was not a soldier, yet under his leadership, the nation of vagabonds had gained some battle experience in wars against the eastern kingdoms. But Moshe had grown old shepherding the Yacovim, and would not live to set foot on the land Yacov hoped to take from the god kings and their mighty heroes.
At the same time the asteroid was streaking past Tarshish, Planet Ma'adim was drawing very near to Kadur Ha'aretz.
Yes: the two planets...or "wanderers"...had intersecting orbits in those days, and passed nearby about every 108 years—or a multiple thereof. As you can imagine, this caused many disturbances on the surface of both wanderers. Lebanah (the moon of Kadur Ha'aretz) normally regulated the tides, but by this time was losing its gravitational influence to the enormous Ma'adim. The waves in the Western Sea were already towering in height.
But this story begins far inland, east of the Yarden River, along the Aborim mountain range, near the base of Mount N'vo.
