“This is no myth. This is a historical document.” Qian’s tone was gentle, like a teacher or a parent. “Notice that man already existed before the flood of fire, living as beasts in the forest. The flood would have killed them, but the savior merely protected them. But he cannot always be there to save them. And so he gives them the greatest gift of all: his blood; a gift that will keep them safe.”
In the back of Kate’s mind, she thought: The Toba Catastrophe and The Great Leap Forward. Blood. A genetic mutation — a change in brain wiring — that gave humanity a survival advantage, helping them brave the sea of ashes falling from the Toba Super Volcano 70,000 years ago. The Flood of Fire. Could it be?
Kate skipped down the tapestry. The scene was strange. The men from the forest seemed to have transformed into ninjas, or spirits. They wore clothes, and they had begun slaughtering beasts. The scene grew bloody, the horrors growing with every inch of tapestry. Slavery, murder, war.
“This gift made man smart, and strong, and safe from extinction, but he paid a great price. For the first time, he saw the world as it truly was, and he saw dangers all around him — in the beasts of the forest and in his fellow man. As a beast, he had lived in a world of bliss, acting on his instincts, thinking only when he had to, never seeing himself for what he was, never worrying about his mortality, never trying to cheat death. But now his thoughts and fears ruled him. He knew evil for the first time. Your Sigmund Freud came very close to describing these concepts with his id and ego. Man transformed into a Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. He struggled with his beast-mind, his animal instincts. Passion, rage — no matter how much we evolve, man can’t escape these instincts — our heritage as beasts. We can only hope to control the beast inside us. Man also longed to understand his waking mind, with its fears, dreams, and questions of where he came from and what his destiny was. And most of all, he dreamed of cheating death. He built communities on the coast and committed untold atrocities to ensure his own safety and seek immortality, in his deeds or through some magic or alchemy. The coast is the natural place for man; it’s how we survived the flood of fire; sea life was our food source when the land was scorched. But his reign was short-lived.”
Kate surveyed the next part of the tapestry — a great wall of water, just behind a chariot on the sea, which carries the cup-bearing savior from the flood of fire.
“The savior returns and tells his tribes that a great flood is coming, that they must prepare.”
“Sounds familiar,” Kate said.
“Yes. There is a flood myth in every religion, old and young, around the world. And the flood is a fact. Around 12,000 years ago, the last ice age ended. Glaciers melted. The planet’s axis shifted. And sea levels rose almost 400 feet over the entire time period, sometimes rising gradually, sometimes in destructive waves and tsunamis.”
Kate studied the depiction — of cities falling to the wave of water, of throngs of people drowning, of rulers and the rich standing and smiling at the water, and at the very end, a small band of people, dressed in humble clothes, venturing inland, to the mountains. They carried a chest of some kind.
Qian let her consider the tapestry for a long moment, then continued. “The people ignored the warning of the flood. Man had mastered the world, or so they thought. They were arrogant and decadent. They thumbed their noses at the coming disaster and continued with their wicked ways. Some say God is punishing man for killing his brothers and sisters. One tribe heeds the warning, builds an ark, and retreats from the sea, into the mountains. The flood comes and destroys the cities along the sea, leaving only the primitive villages inland and the scattered nomadic tribes. A rumor spreads that God is dead, that man is now the God of Earth. That the Earth belongs to them for them to do with as they please. But one tribe maintained the faith. They held to one belief alone: that man is flawed, man is not God, that humility is to be truly human.”
“You were the tribe.”
“Yes. We heeded the savior’s warning and did as he commanded, we carried the Ark to the highlands.”
“And this tapestry was in the Ark?” Kate asked.
“No. Not even I know what was in the Ark. But it must have been real; stories of it survive to this day. And the story is very powerful. It has an incredibly powerful draw for anyone who hears it. It is one of many stories that rise out of the human psyche. We see it as truth, just as we recognize the various versions of the creation myth. These stories have always existed, and always will, inside our own minds.”