The question « what is an Eloah? » is more complex than one might think. I worked for six months on writing about this very subject. You can probably understand why I am not eager to summarize it. However, this is absolutely necessary. If my journal is the only source of information you have, everything else will be meaningless without it. So, I'm willing to make that effort, out of charity.

« Eloah », from the plural « Elohim », is a High Murrean word which means « child of El ». The term is, with « Mû », one of the oldest in human memory. It designates all the beings who have experienced « enlightenment », official designation for this event during which an individual is transformed into the transdimensional aberration that I am. I will refrain going into details, to simplify. A lesson in planar cosmology is sure to be frighteningly long, and I am not ashamed to admit that I lack the will to do so today. My explanation will therefore be very brief.

Any human can become an Eloah. More accurately: only a human could become an Eloah. The nuance is important, since enlightenment never affects creatures whose genetics differ from yours. Otherwise, to call this event 'rare' would be a cosmic sized understatement. It can happen to anyone over the age of thirteen. Most often between sixteen and nineteen. However, there is no true limit. We have people who became enlightened at ninety-five.

An Eloah is easily recognized by the colored halo that emanates from his skin, like a phosphorescent smoke. It is his « aura », an organ that exists because Elohim are out of sync with our 'material reality'. The human mind being unable to visually comprehend an object existing in more than three spatial dimensions, it translates this anomaly in the form of a colored pattern. This color has no useful meaning for my presentation, but is identical no matter who the observer is. Mine is yellow, for example, if you are curious.

The aura has a gigantic importance. It allows us to manifest our powers, is the key to immortality and to our physical resilience. The first thing we must learn is to dominate it, to control its amplitude, to the extent that it becomes invisible to others. The glow is always there, just too small to be seen without proper tools. As soon as this is achieved, my peers will say that our condition 'stabilizes'. You can think of it as an equivalent of being able to walk. There are some chosen ones who manage to do that early, if not immediately. In general, this feat means that the Eloah has immense latent potential.

Heat, on the other hand, remains a problem. Our powers release energy on our skin. This accumulation can reach absurd temperatures, equivalent to those of stars. We therefore have a permanent obligation to remove this excess. On the other hand, cold does not bother me. Pressure differences have no effect. If you ever dreamed of sleeping naked at the bottom of an ocean, I can do it! Our bodies quickly develop the ability to regenerate almost instantly. Someone cuts off my arm? It will grow back in fifteen to twenty seconds. A formidable skill, but not perfect.

An Eloah has incredible control over his body. He can speed up, slow down or stop the growth of his hair, modify his color, his eyes, his height, etc. I can alter my morphology to the point of transforming myself into an animal. Change my sex? This is within the realm of possibility. Yet, none of the adjustments last. Besides, it is horribly painful, not to mention the risk of an accidental suicide. Whoever tries to play this game had better understand what they are doing.

Despite their insensitivity to time, the Elohim are certainly not invincible. We could even say that, from a certain point of view, they are ironically quite fragile. The word 'immortality' has been highly exaggerated. An Eloah can be killed by its own emotions! It is enough for him to lose his will to live, to be overwhelmed by terror or to suffer such a shock that it knocks him out, for his life to be seriously threatened. Usually, the more experienced an individual is, the better are his chances of getting out of a situation unharmed, but it can be impossible to anticipate.

A wounded human or animal recovers with proper care, regardless of their feelings. Enlightenment takes away this advantage. Our causes of death are highly unpredictable! All mental illnesses can be terminal. Of course, I am not addressing here the 'madness of Fiel' or its little sisters, let alone the 'Dark Rage', all of which should deserve a dedicated chapter. If I feel motivated, one day, all right? In short, each time a new hundred of my kind appears, forty will have passed away for reasons as diverse as they are varied.

As a woman, I can bear children normally. My nature does not change anything in this regard. A man can... well, that works too. Our offspring has none of our talents and are born human. They will not have a better chance of reaching enlightenment. The control I have over my physiology allows me to influence the fetus, notably by accelerating gestation or by altering its genes.

To end this boring lecture, our development stops at the exact instant of enlightenment, which implies a freeze at the step we were at. My adolescence lasted two centuries. A delight. Part of my instruction was designed specifically to force my maturation to its end. Our power of regeneration is imperfect, so if we get hit in the same place regularly for decades, we'll end up with a scar. That's more or less how education was thought of: teachers destroy us until there's nothing left, then rebuild adults. A brutal process. I'll come back to that.

That's it! Let's move on to the history lesson now.