Serventa, Priestess of Atlantis
Logline
From the beginnings of Atlantis, about 5 million years ago, to its end, about 15 thousand years ago, Serventa, a highly evolved Ancient Spirit, comes to the Earth to battle the growing influence of greed and evil. She foresees the destruction of the civilisation through the misuse of its energies but is powerless to prevent it from happening.
Synopsis
About five million years ago, a group of people led by Serventa escaped from religious persecution in Egypt. They travelled west for a year across North Africa to discover an uninhabited continent they named Atlantis. They settled and created a society that became isolated when the narrow land bridge that connected them to North Africa was destroyed in a mighty storm, saving them from future foreign interference and allowing the ocean to flood the land that is the Mediterranean Sea today.
Fifteen thousand years ago, SERVENTA, in her thirties, and MECALTU, the king, a little older, mid-forties, leave the Peace Pyramid, the centre of meditation, where seven of the priesthood, known as the Seneschal, sit in conclave with Serventa. The Peace Pyramid stands on the right-hand side of the Allé Truncata, the main thoroughfare through the city, Atala, that leads down to the Stellata Fields. Serventa is concerned that the quartz Crystal on top of the mountain, which supplies all the energy for the city, is being misused. Serventa explains that when the people were first given the Crystal, which had originally sat on top of the Giza Pyramid, they were warned not to use it in the light of the moon because this was baleful, foreshadowing evil, but Mecaltu won't listen. Energy is so important, feeding all the city's needs as well as providing batteries to drive transport, cars, ships and pasquattas, short-winged planes.
KLÉY is an activist and member of the Senate. She, too, has concerns about the Crystal and goes to see Serventa about this. She also meets CUSI and YUPANQUI. They are new members of the Seneschal. Kléy and Serventa go down to the Stellata Field to discuss their concerns further and Kléy promises to address the senate the following day.
Cusi has a son, PUNCHAU, and Yupanqui has a daughter, ANAHU, both aged 12. They grow up together and are very close, especially when Anahu saves Punchau from being bitten by a poisonous snake. Whilst exploring the mountain and studying the rocks and energies around them, they feel earth movements beneath their feet, which gives them concern. They report this to the Seneschal. Soon after, they both apply to go to the Arts and Science Academies, two large pyramids that span the wide Allé Truncata with a connecting, enclosed bridge. Punchau studies stone engraving in the Arts Pyramid, and Anahu studies energies in the Science Pyramid. They also witness other fascinating activities and advanced research being studied in the classrooms. They select the department of their particular interest by analysing the headband of colours worn by each tutor that signifies their speciality.
ALVARO, Yupanqui's husband, is a miner who is awarded a contract to extract orikhalkon, a copper ore made into a form of brass, used to contain the energy from the Crystal. Serventa discovers corruption within the government with this contract, but the commission still goes ahead. Alvaro employs ALOIS to help. Due to further earth movement in the mountain, the mine collapses, killing them both.
Some years later, Anahu and Punchau fly to England to help with the build of a new electromagnetic power plant, a ring of standing stones on Salisbury Plain, Stonehenge.
Serventa discovers one of the students, TREYSI, in the Science Pyramid, is experimenting with creating mutations, a mixture of animal and human parts. Serventa destroys the creature. She also explains a little about the past and how the Egyptian Sphinx was built as a memorial and reminder to people about the unwholesome mutations that were created during the Third Civilisation.
Eventually, Serventa kills Mecaltu because of his misuse of the Crystal energies which cause the destruction of the continent in a night and a day. Some people manage to escape to lands bordering around the Atlantic Ocean, including England, but Serventa chooses to stay and be destroyed in her beloved land. The evil influence of greed had destroyed the Fourth Civilisation.
