6000 BC - Creation

Creation marks the beginning of the Days and Nights of Creation, which are metaphorically (and rather inaccurately) recorded in the book of Genesis. During this time, the God consciousness split into Wayin and Shin, which then gave rise to existence, time, and matter. While they were designing and populating Earth, Shin designed angels as an airborne counterpart to Wayin’s ground-dwelling humans.

5000 BC - The Time of Tribes

In this period of time, humans and angels lived on Earth side-by-side. They were split into tribes by kind, though there were some elements which overlapped. During this time, a human man, Adam, desired to take Lilith, one of the angelic women as his wife. He courted her as was traditional and expected in her tribe, but she still refused him. Outraged, the human tribesmen demanded Lilith’s surrender, resulting in the first Angelic War between humans and angels.

4500 - The Great Divide

War between the angels and the humans continued for 500 years, with the humans driving the angels into the mountains and deep forests. When it became clear to Shin that Wayin's humans would not relent even after generations had passed, she divided existence, creating a parallel dimension which touched Wayin’s world at seven points. She collected her angels and passed through the connection points, sealing them after her and hiding her creations from the jealous Wayin.

In her haste to leave, Shin forgot one angel, a male named Serafiel. She was unable to return for him after closing the gates, though she and her angels mourned his loss for centuries afterward. To the shinnite free angels, Serafiel is known as the Lost One or Mirashael in Duafric.

The Serafic Experiments

Wayin found and captured Serafiel after Shin’s escape. Interested in the design of the angels, Wayin analyzed and experimented on Serafiel, attempting to reverse-engineer the species from this partial template. The result were essentially lesser clones of the original, modified to limit their abilities and focus their loyalties.

Unfortunately, due to his lack of understanding of the complete template, Wayin distorted the angelic DNA to the point of damage. The serafim, the least of the reproductions, retained the original angels’ ability to shape-shift, though they were handicapped to only male presentation; the female and neutral presentation data was recorded in those respective genders and Wayin was unable to reproduce them. Wayin decided to limit them to only white wings, though the way he distorted the DNA resulted in only a masking color; the original wing patterns existed under the white and could be revealed under black light.

The worst of the damage stemmed from a lack of chloroplasts which were naturally consumed during consumption of a specific algae. These chloroplasts were what facilitated angelic photosynthesis and without them, the angels were limited in the nutrients they could take from sunlight. Shin's original angels--who begin life gender-neutral--could produce these chloroplasts on their own without needing to consume the algae more than once or twice a year. Wayin's duplicates could not. They were dying in incredible agony until Wayin devised a way to reintroduce the chloroplasts into their diet through artificial means; he treated their water in Heaven to maintain the balance.