As time went on, prehistoric man developed along the evolutionary ladder into Homo Sapiens. The Eternals devoted their time to the study of the arts and sciences, delving into the workings of the mind and developing vast powers. The Deviants on the other hand, turned to war and conquest.

Despite their advanced knowledge, however, the Eternals eventually suffered from the ravages of warfare as well, perhaps due to their all too human ancestry. The first Eternal settlement of Titanos was the scene of a civil war far bloodier than any humanity has ever known.

The Eternal city of Titanos was in ruins before Chronos, it's founder, was able to defeat Uranos, the leader of the opposing faction. It was then that the Eternals took their first step back onto the road to peace. The followers of Chronos could have terminated their more warlike brethren, instead, they banished Uranos and his followers to the depths of space. Chronos then threw down his sword, shattering it, and made a solemn vow to cast off the ways of war and devote his life to peace and the quest for knowledge.

Under his direction, the city of Titanos was rebuilt, even greater and grander than before. For a time it was a place of great peace and beauty. Chronos remained faithful to his vow, and would spend days at a time in his laboratories, searching for the essence of immortality. Eventually, he found it, but the forces he had isolated were too powerful. The containment vessel he was using ruptured. In the ensuing explosion, the city was levelled and the body of Chronos was reduced to cosmic dust. His mind did not die, however, as the released energies enabled him to live on as a bodiless wraith, a consciousness that was as one with the universe.

Manifesting himself one last time to his eldest sons, Zuras and A'lars, Chronos explained that the energy release had affected all who dwelt within the city, imbuing them with cosmic energy. No longer would they succumb to death, now they were truly Eternal.

The Eternals chose Zuras to lead them. A'lars, wishing to avoid any possible rivalry with his brother, left the Earth to seek his destiny among the stars, choosing exile, that his people might easier find peace.

Under Zuras, the Eternals took to the highest peaks, building the new cities of Olympia, Polaria and Oceana, while shutting themselves off from the rest of the world. While they were isolated as such, the Deviants, based on the continent of Lemuria,  carved out a vast empire for themselves. Ceaselessly creating newer and more awesome weapons of destruction with which to undertake their brutal conquest, the fledgling communities of humanity stood no chance before them. Eventually, all of humanity was enslaved or subject to Deviant rule, save for the island kingdom of Atlantis, the last stronghold of human freedom.

As the Deviants began to mount their final assault on Atlantis, the Celestials returned. Blind with power, the Deviants turned their weapons on the Second Host, firing ineffectually at the Celestials' mother ship. Witness to a world fallen into chaos, the Celestials delivered their final judgement, using  a weapon that unleashed an explosion such as humanity had never seen before, or has seen since. The energies unleashed rocked the entire planet, plunging it into the world-wide disaster known as the great cataclysm.

All of Lemuria as well as Atlantis sank beneath the raging seas. Most of the Deviants perished amidst the earthquakes and floods, their empire, finished.

The Eternals, hidden in their mountain sanctuaries, were helpless to save most of the victims of the great deluge, though one Eternal, Ikaris, guided a huge ark filled with animals and human beings to safety.

When the Second Host departed, they left one of their number buried beneath mountains in a seemingly endless sleep as punishment for his crimes against life. Exactly what the Dreaming Celestial's crime was remains a mystery to this day.

The forces unleashed by the Celestial weapon caused great upheavals in the planet's elemental balance. For many years, there were earthquakes and other natural disasters as the continents shifted. It was during this upheaval, in an extended ice age, known as the Hyborean Age, that the Eternal Sersi was probably born.

In time, the natural order was restored, and the continents settled into their present positions. The few Deviants that had survived the cataclysm began to rebuild their shattered communities in the caverns underneath Lemuria, now deep under the Pacific Ocean. Though they would never again reach the power of their former Empire, they worked determinedly, with grim intensity, black vengefulness, and fear...

Although much of the knowledge of Atlantis, Valusia, and the other pre cataclysmic communities was lost, humanity too, began to develop and grow anew. The survivors began populating new shores, bearing with them both  the memories of horrible demons and rescuing gods...and a hope for the future.

In the ages that followed, humankind progressed, and caught glimpses of the Eternals, mistaking them for divine beings. Some Eternals even lived amongst the fledging human communities, such as the Forgotten One, in his exile from Olympia he gave rise to the legendary Babalonyian hero Gilgamesh. The Deviants too became the stuff of legend, such as Erishkigal, the Queen of the Night.

For the most part, however, the Eternals remained in their hidden sanctuaries of Olympia and Polaria. Until around 3000 years ago, when a group of 20 or so Polar Eternals, led by Valkin, set up a settlement in the Southern Andean Mountains, in South America.

From this base, these Eternals set about teaching and cultivating the local populations, starting with the ancestors of the Aztecs in Mexico, and moving southwards, along the South American continent.

In each centre they founded, the Eternals had the people construct vast platforms, aqueducts, canals and pyramids. Before they moved on to the next area, one Eternal was elected to remain behind, to monitor the peoples progress.

The reason behind these civilizing missions was due to the fact that the Polar Eternals had sensed it was time for the Space Gods to return, in their Third Host.

Thor, the Norse God of Thunder who had journeyed forth from his home in Asgard during this time, befriended these Eternals, and agreed to aid them in their mission.

Coming to the ancestors of the Incas, the Eternals and Thor were astonished to find them already busy constructing a vast complex. They soon learnt that this was a result of Druig, son of Valkin, who had elected to remain behind while the others went on their missions.

Unbeknownst to his fellow Eternals, Druig had discovered the whereabouts of the Deviant Mutate; Dromedan. Dromedan was a being capable of such vast telepathic control that he had been sealed in a mountain top prison centuries ago by his Deviant masters, as even they feared his power. Druig had tried to conquer him for his own purpose, yet Dromedan proved too powerful, and Druig was overcome. With the aid of Thor, the Eternals were able to defeat Dromedan, but not before Virako had sacrificed himself in stopping the World-Devouring-Worm, which Dromedan had released.

Fearing that Thor would want to battle the Celestials, and thus the Eternals themselves, if he knew of their true purpose, Valkin erased his memory of their meetings, and sent him back to Asgard.

In time, the Eternals departed for their home in Polaria once more, save for Ajak, whom they left behind to deal with the Celestials, and whom the Incas came to call Tecumotzin.

It is not known how long the Third Host remained on Earth, but what is known is that they roamed the planet, probing, analysing and searching, thus giving rise to many superstitions.

When they did leave, Ajak and his support staff sealed themselves within the Temple of the Sun, to await the arrival of the Fourth Host.

Thus, time crept slowly forward again, and the Eternals kept to themselves once more, save for those few such as Sersi, who seem to relish human contact. But while Sersi was active in ancient Greece, Rome and Camelot, and Kingo Sunen was active in Ancient Japan, few other Eternals chose to live among humans for any length of time.

Then, in the early Nineteenth Century, Ikaris left Olympia at the behest of Zuras, in order to prepare for the coming of the Fourth Host. Taking the name "Ike Harris" he established himself amongst the human comunities of the United States.

Some time after this, in the early 1940's, Zuras gave leave to Makkari to travel the planet, perhaps due to the recent activities of the Deviants. Finding Deviant plots seemingly everywhere he went, Makkari used many aliases to battle them, even forming his own team of "Monster Hunters" to tackle Deviant threats. The Golden Age Heroes Hurricane and Mercury were actually Makkari in disguise.

Then in recent years, certain members of the Polar Eternals left their santuary in Siberia once more, becoming involved in Russian politics. The reasons for this remain yet to be fully explained, but presumably have to do with the coming of the Fourth Host. Druig in particular seemed to take a perverse pleasure in his role as a KGB officer.

And so, in recent times, Ikaris, in his Ike Harris persona, guided prominent Archeologist Dr Daniel Damian and his daughter Margo to the city the Polar Eternals had established so long ago in the Andes Mountains.

The Deviants meanwhile, had also been made aware of the immenent arrival of the Fourth Host. The warlord Kro, and his band of followers, had also journeyed to the Temple of the Sun in an attempt to stymie their arrival.

Kro and his men were unsucessful, however, and the Celestials landed unhindered.

Ikaris meanwhile, had revealed his true nature to the Damians, and had also awoken Ajak and his men from their slumber.

Dr Damian remained behind with Ajak, but urged Ikaris to take his daughter to safety. Ikaris complied with the old man's request, and journeyed with Margo to Manhattan, thinking that she would be safe with Sersi.

The Deviants were not beaten yet though, and had already conceived of a cunning plan: they would launch an assault upon Manhattan, under the guise of "demons", with Kro in the role of Satan! As panic would spread about the human population, they would encourage the humans to follow them back to the Andes, in the hopes that they would destroy the Celestials for them!

[To be continued...]