Jason_Ryock
Vice Admiral
I got LOAF's permission to post this, it's going to quote the Bible and delve pretty heavily into religious beliefs about the Nephilim, if you're going to be offended by this I truly am sorry. This is intended to be a discussion about how the Bible relates to the Nephilim, not a battle over religions.
So here we go.
I told LOAF in my PM I was going to talk about the Nephilim from a Christian perspective, and he reminded me that the Nephilim aren't only Christian as they appear in the Old Testament. However, the discussions I'm going to be bringing up here are from the New Testament, not the old, specifically, the book of Revelations.
Let me give you some brief background, first. The only reference in the bible to Nephilim is in the book of Genesis, Chapter Six. A story is discussed, I'm going to summarize for you here:
The Sons of God saw that the daughters of man were desirable, and so married any of them that they chose.
(Some people take this to mean the Sons of God, meaning literally the Angels of the Lord. Others take it to mean Adam and his line of descendants, which are spelled out in Genesis Chapter 5. Daughters of man is not ambiguous in this regard, it means literally the daughters of the men on earth.)
The story goes on to say that the Nephilim were on earth in those - and also afterward.
(Here begins our first major discussion. Genesis 6 is laying out the groundwork for the reasons God caused the earth to flood [because Man was becoming evil]. In those days, in this case, probably refers to pre-Flood, and also afterward is probably post-flood.
Nephilim has many differant meanings in Hebrew, two of the most oft discussed are "Strong" and "the Fallen". The writers intention was probably both. Here I believe he is telling the story of fallen Angels, who returned to earth and saw that Human Females were desirable with them, and so had relations with them [sex] to produce children.
The evilness of the Nephilim corrupted their mates and children, and so the race of man became corrupt, causing the Lord to bring about the flood.)
This is just one of MANY interpretations of the text, I'm only providing it to give background for the Nephilim. It's interesting to note, in WC's context, the Nephilim are given their name by Humans, as well.
Now we're going to jump from the beginning of the Bible, to the end. There are three points I wish to make about the book of Revelations in relation to Prophecy.
First, the number 7. This number has significant use as something "Supernatural" throughout the Bible. On the seventh day god rested, and he had seven son, the seven seals of Revelations. Somewhere ELSE the number seven appears: the Tiamet, the Drydock, and the Steller Accretion device. The Tiamet and the Drydock each have exactly seven appendages coming out of them, and the stellar accretion devices has exactly 7 sections to it. All worth noting.
Second, we're going to address the events of Revelations Chapter 8 and 9. Chapter nine is describing the events of the Angels blowing on their trumpers - I'm going to go through some of these events because I believe they can relate to Wing Commander events.
"The First angel sounded his trumpet and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth."
I believe this could be understood as reference to the events in the Battle of Terra in which Earth was bombed from orbit.
"The Second angel sounded his trumpet and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned to blood, and a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed."
This could be interpreted as the attack on Kilrah ("...a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea...") which is where the Nephilim attack originated from. They are describing the destruction of Kilrah, I believe.
"The Third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. A third of the waters turned bitter and many people died from the waters that had become bitter."
This is possibly a reference to the virus contacted from Nephilim remains, or more appropriately a reference to the virus that is mentioned as being released in Star Soldier.
"The Fourth angle sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night."
There are two possible references to this passage in Wing Commander, the first is the Kilrathi word (Forgive me, I don't know how to spell it) that means "Darkness" which is exactly what this event is describing. The second is a bit more of an obscure reference: Star*Soldier makes reference to "Super Nova Zones" with an emphasis on the Plural. This means that there are multiple places where stars have gone Nova - possibly before the Nephilim War, possibly during, possibly after. It is unknown. I think the combination of these two references is the most likely connection.
"The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shat of the abyss. When he opened the abyss smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and the sky were darkened by the smoke from the abyss. And out of the smoke locust came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads."
The most obvious reference to this is the opening of the Proxima wormhole, and of the "Aligned People" (people without the seal of God, perhaps.) The abyss and smoke could easily refer to the wormhole device, and the locus obviously would refer to the Nephilim. The abyss is possible a reference to "The Blackness" where the Nephilim are supposed to go when they die.
The last Revelations chapter we're going to look at before we present our conclusions is Chapter 13. Even before looking at the content, we see something interesting. Chapter 13 has a partial header entitled "The Beast out of the Sea". This provides us with two more Wing Commander references, first the Sea - which is what all Nephilim craft are associated with. Second, Nephilim "Fluid Space" from which they came. We know that ships need refits to travel in "Fluid Space" which leads us to conclude the Nephilim are the Locust, and yet to be seen from them is the Beast from the Sea.
This beast, interestingly enough, is described as having 7 heads. (Tiamet, anyone?) This beast goes on to rule earth, and is given power of everything, supported by another beast coming out of the earth (Another possible reference to the Aligned people). One beast, or the other, is possibly "The Mother Creature" which we know leads the Nephilim, and probably is destroyed eventually, leading to the Reprisal raids by the Nephilim. Just as, eventually, the beast is cast into a pit of Sulfur in Revelations and destroyed.
The book of Revelations goes on to describe "God's Wrath" at those who worshipped the beast, with SEVEN plagues that slowly kill off all of them (Reprisal Raids by the Nephilim at the end of the war, possibly).
So what does all of this mean? Nothing, as it's only my own conclusions based on the information provided, but this is what I believe:
The Nephilim are the fallen sons of God, sent by God, to destroy and punish Humanity for it's transgressions against him. These events are set forth by the Battle of Terra and the Destruction of Kilrah (as referenced above) and would have gone to have several stars destroyed by the Nephilim (a third of Confederation space) before the Confederation was able to kill the Mother Creature, sparking the "Wraith" of God and the reprisal raids by the Nephilim.
Why then doesn't the world end? Something, somewhere in there, that Confed does, disrupts the chain, and breaks the cycle of destruction, causing Armageddon to be avoided.
But that's just my take on the situation.
So here we go.
I told LOAF in my PM I was going to talk about the Nephilim from a Christian perspective, and he reminded me that the Nephilim aren't only Christian as they appear in the Old Testament. However, the discussions I'm going to be bringing up here are from the New Testament, not the old, specifically, the book of Revelations.
Let me give you some brief background, first. The only reference in the bible to Nephilim is in the book of Genesis, Chapter Six. A story is discussed, I'm going to summarize for you here:
The Sons of God saw that the daughters of man were desirable, and so married any of them that they chose.
(Some people take this to mean the Sons of God, meaning literally the Angels of the Lord. Others take it to mean Adam and his line of descendants, which are spelled out in Genesis Chapter 5. Daughters of man is not ambiguous in this regard, it means literally the daughters of the men on earth.)
The story goes on to say that the Nephilim were on earth in those - and also afterward.
(Here begins our first major discussion. Genesis 6 is laying out the groundwork for the reasons God caused the earth to flood [because Man was becoming evil]. In those days, in this case, probably refers to pre-Flood, and also afterward is probably post-flood.
Nephilim has many differant meanings in Hebrew, two of the most oft discussed are "Strong" and "the Fallen". The writers intention was probably both. Here I believe he is telling the story of fallen Angels, who returned to earth and saw that Human Females were desirable with them, and so had relations with them [sex] to produce children.
The evilness of the Nephilim corrupted their mates and children, and so the race of man became corrupt, causing the Lord to bring about the flood.)
This is just one of MANY interpretations of the text, I'm only providing it to give background for the Nephilim. It's interesting to note, in WC's context, the Nephilim are given their name by Humans, as well.
Now we're going to jump from the beginning of the Bible, to the end. There are three points I wish to make about the book of Revelations in relation to Prophecy.
First, the number 7. This number has significant use as something "Supernatural" throughout the Bible. On the seventh day god rested, and he had seven son, the seven seals of Revelations. Somewhere ELSE the number seven appears: the Tiamet, the Drydock, and the Steller Accretion device. The Tiamet and the Drydock each have exactly seven appendages coming out of them, and the stellar accretion devices has exactly 7 sections to it. All worth noting.
Second, we're going to address the events of Revelations Chapter 8 and 9. Chapter nine is describing the events of the Angels blowing on their trumpers - I'm going to go through some of these events because I believe they can relate to Wing Commander events.
"The First angel sounded his trumpet and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth."
I believe this could be understood as reference to the events in the Battle of Terra in which Earth was bombed from orbit.
"The Second angel sounded his trumpet and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned to blood, and a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed."
This could be interpreted as the attack on Kilrah ("...a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea...") which is where the Nephilim attack originated from. They are describing the destruction of Kilrah, I believe.
"The Third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. A third of the waters turned bitter and many people died from the waters that had become bitter."
This is possibly a reference to the virus contacted from Nephilim remains, or more appropriately a reference to the virus that is mentioned as being released in Star Soldier.
"The Fourth angle sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night."
There are two possible references to this passage in Wing Commander, the first is the Kilrathi word (Forgive me, I don't know how to spell it) that means "Darkness" which is exactly what this event is describing. The second is a bit more of an obscure reference: Star*Soldier makes reference to "Super Nova Zones" with an emphasis on the Plural. This means that there are multiple places where stars have gone Nova - possibly before the Nephilim War, possibly during, possibly after. It is unknown. I think the combination of these two references is the most likely connection.
"The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shat of the abyss. When he opened the abyss smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and the sky were darkened by the smoke from the abyss. And out of the smoke locust came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads."
The most obvious reference to this is the opening of the Proxima wormhole, and of the "Aligned People" (people without the seal of God, perhaps.) The abyss and smoke could easily refer to the wormhole device, and the locus obviously would refer to the Nephilim. The abyss is possible a reference to "The Blackness" where the Nephilim are supposed to go when they die.
The last Revelations chapter we're going to look at before we present our conclusions is Chapter 13. Even before looking at the content, we see something interesting. Chapter 13 has a partial header entitled "The Beast out of the Sea". This provides us with two more Wing Commander references, first the Sea - which is what all Nephilim craft are associated with. Second, Nephilim "Fluid Space" from which they came. We know that ships need refits to travel in "Fluid Space" which leads us to conclude the Nephilim are the Locust, and yet to be seen from them is the Beast from the Sea.
This beast, interestingly enough, is described as having 7 heads. (Tiamet, anyone?) This beast goes on to rule earth, and is given power of everything, supported by another beast coming out of the earth (Another possible reference to the Aligned people). One beast, or the other, is possibly "The Mother Creature" which we know leads the Nephilim, and probably is destroyed eventually, leading to the Reprisal raids by the Nephilim. Just as, eventually, the beast is cast into a pit of Sulfur in Revelations and destroyed.
The book of Revelations goes on to describe "God's Wrath" at those who worshipped the beast, with SEVEN plagues that slowly kill off all of them (Reprisal Raids by the Nephilim at the end of the war, possibly).
So what does all of this mean? Nothing, as it's only my own conclusions based on the information provided, but this is what I believe:
The Nephilim are the fallen sons of God, sent by God, to destroy and punish Humanity for it's transgressions against him. These events are set forth by the Battle of Terra and the Destruction of Kilrah (as referenced above) and would have gone to have several stars destroyed by the Nephilim (a third of Confederation space) before the Confederation was able to kill the Mother Creature, sparking the "Wraith" of God and the reprisal raids by the Nephilim.
Why then doesn't the world end? Something, somewhere in there, that Confed does, disrupts the chain, and breaks the cycle of destruction, causing Armageddon to be avoided.
But that's just my take on the situation.