Many people disregard the books of Zoah as pure folklore. The Ancient Age was not the age of the gods, but a time where mankind’s mistakes cost humans the power that they once held with a firm grasp. This theory looks into two of the texts that can be found in Panzer Dragoon Saga, The Book of Genesis and The Book of End, more deeply to discover that there may indeed be some truth within the bibles of Zoah. If you replace the gods with the Ancients who created the biotechnology a new interpretation will start to fall into place; these books describe the downfall of the Ancient Age. Furthermore, there are also references to the future - Panzer Dragoon Orta - near the end of the second scripture. To make it easier to understand this theory, I have compiled the actual texts that I am referring to, followed by my thoughts on how they relate with the historical events of the Panzer Dragoon world.

Contents

• The Book of Genesis
• The Book of End

The Book of Genesis

In the beginning, the world was with the Gods. People basked in the Gods’ glory. Everything was at peace.

The narrator of Panzer Dragoon Saga’s intro speaks of the Ancients living in a utopian civilization. This matches the paradise that this text speaks of. This was most likely the peak of human civilization in the Panzer Dragoon world.

At the dawn of Genesis, the Gods created humans. The Gods decided the humans would create their own world. To enable such weak beings to complete such a task, all of the knowledge of the Gods was placed into the souls of humans.

This passage is clouded, yet there could be a hint of truth within it. Did the Ancients create humans? I doubt it, considering the Ancients probably were human themselves. The term “god” as used to describe the Ancients could be a metaphor for the ability to create life, but that does not mean that all gods mentioned in the Panzer Dragoon games were the Ancients. One of the scientists who worked on the Light Wing project claimed that the Light Wing could have been a messenger of the gods. In the Ancient Age, there may have been gods that the people of that time believed in; there were ancient records of the Divine Visitor after all.

During Genesis, people created the world. Using Tools and Fire from the Gods, the humans built and shaped their own world.

The Towers were built to control the environment, and reshape the land as they saw fit. Lundi’s journal states that the world had been molded into its current shape by the powers of the Towers. What tools the Ancients would have used to construct the Towers is something not explained in any of the Panzer Dragoon games, but there are many Ancient artifacts and creatures that could have aided them in this process, such as drones.

Everything we see with our eyes, with one lone exception, was created in this time. Water, plants, and beasts, became provisions for humans. The ruins were homes for Gods and humans. Monsters were servants of people.

The Towers were created to maintain a stable habitat for the humans to survive in; essentially, they artificially designed the environment. It is unknown why the humans would need to create their own ecosystem, but perhaps it was as a way of colonizing an uninhabitable planet or restoring a polluted environment. The Book of Genesis says that monsters were the servants of the people - this also ties in with what Lundi knew. The Towers bred these monsters to work for the Ancients, more specifically to guard the Ancients’ creations.

At the Dusk of Genesis, people began to fight one another. From their fear of the darkness, they were driven mad. From their madness, they learned murder.

In the Ancient Age there were people who did not approve of the Towers’ influence over the world. The creators of the Towers were afraid that these rebels would destroy the Tower network and so built deadly bioweapons to protect their creations. A conflict of some sort seems inevitable here. The “darkness” this bible speaks of could represent the Towers themselves considering that legends state that these Ancient constructions could destroy three continents in a single night.

At this time, the knowledge of the Gods was used to create weapons. The Gods’ fire burned the earth, the Gods’ tools ended life, and the monsters were taught to devour human flesh.

These weapons could well have been the airships that the Empire later rebuilt ten thousand years later. The account here also states that the monsters were taught to hunt and digest humans. I can imagine Sestren suddenly turning on the people of the Ancient civilization, setting loose hordes of monsters to slaughter them, although what actually happened at this point still remains one of the most clouded events in Panzer Dragoon history.

At the Dusk of Genesis, the Gods lost all hope for the people. The Gods left the human world. As did the Gods’ knowledge. The humans were left behind without the ability to create, but still had the power to destroy.

If you’ve understood how I’ve been interpreting the book so far, this part should be all too plain. The Ancient Age ended, leaving the majority of the human civilization behind to survive in the harsh conditions of the current Panzer Dragoon world. As we all know, humans were left with the power to destroy each other. If the Ancients, or a group of the Ancients, were in fact the “gods” of Zoah then they must have left the world for this theory to be correct. The question is where did they go? A possible explanation is that they left the physical world and stored themselves inside Sestren’s domain. This would mean that they had left the world like the passage states. Alternatively, it could simply mean they went into hibernation, leaving their own conscious world.

Water, plants, and beasts disappeared, the ruins closed their doors, only the monsters remained to feed. And thus, the Gods have left the humans. We were a part of the Gods’ glory, but now there is only chaos.

This is an all too familiar scene. The original Panzer Dragoon states that the once thriving human civilization perished in the dust. Chaos continued as the nations fought each other for power in their lust for survival. The Ancients had left the world, a fact which remains true regardless of whether they did so because they died or for other, more sinister reasons.

The Book of End

In the world left behind by the Gods, we must endure the pain of life. It is our punishment for the mistakes humans have made. To regain the glory of the Gods, we must receive judgment after the passage which leads us to death.

The above passage nicely sums up the nature of a world resulting from the downfall of the Ancient Age. I find the use of the word “punishment” interesting. The inevitable question is, did the Ancients wish the human race to go through the suffering and torment that their creations brought upon them? Although there is no direct proof that the Ancients who went into hibernation were sadistic in this way, I can imagine that not being far from the reality.

If the passage leads to hope for the Gods, the dying one shall enter the Forest of Blessings. In the forest there should be no pain of life, no impurities of the human world, and all things shall give with all their heart.

This part doesn’t seem to fit in with anything in the real Panzer Dragoon world. While it could just be folklore, there is always room for speculation. The Ancients could have wanted a pure world in their eyes, believing that all those who did not agree with their beliefs should not be allowed into the new world which the Towers were built to create.

If the passage does not lead to hope for the Gods, the dying one shall return to the human world, reborn. Unless the correct passage is taken, he shall continue to endure the pain, and he shall again taste the darkness of death.

Going with the above theory, those who did not agree with the plans of the Ancients would not be allowed to live in the “perfect” world that the Towers would form at the end of their cycle. In the Ancient Age it was thought that rebels were planning to rise up against the Tower creators. If it really was the will of the Ancients for civilisation to be destroyed, the Ancients may have cast these rebels into a world of inescapable suffering until humans agreed to surrender to having their lives controlled by the Towers.

Once everyone has regained hope, and entered the Forest of Blessings, the human world shall end. The world shall return to nothingness, and the people, put in the Forest of Blessings, shall create the new world.

The Heresy Dragon’s purpose was to destroy the Towers, yet surely this would not have been a plan of the creators of the Towers? Here’s where some more speculation comes in. The Heresy Program was indeed meant to destroy the Towers but for some reason it was released early. As we know, the neutralizing of the Towers caused great upheaval. Earthquakes and floods literally created a new world during the Great Fall. If this was all part of the plan of the Ancients I wonder when the Heresy Dragon was originally meant to have been released? Alternatively, this passage may been referring to a later date when the Towers would have completed their cycle, but the Heresy Dragon ended the Towers’ legacy early.

The day this innocent world is created shall be the Genesis. The Gods shall return and again watch the world. They will bring glory and happiness to all. It is a day without an end, and the paradise promised to us.

In Panzer Dragoon Orta we see evidence of an Ancient machine that was meant to resuscitate Abadd’s masters. Yes, the Ancients did plan to return to the world, exactly how this scripture prophesies the gods’ return. However the conclusion to the Ancients’ plan never became a reality; it was one hundred percent impossible for Abadd to revive his masters. It is unknown if the Ancients are still out there, in hibernation and waiting for another drone to try and resuscitate them, or if they will be forever lost within the sands of time. If the last option is correct, humans will continue to fight the Ancient technology, perhaps in time reclaiming the world back into the hands of humanity.