The First Ancestral Race (第一始祖民族、Dai'ichi Shiso Minzoku), usually abbreviated to "FAR", are the prototypical progenitors of the Evangelion mythos: an extraterrestrial humanoid species with hyper-advanced technological capabilities, responsible for the creation of the Seeds of Life, their Moons, the Spears of Longinus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and, indirectly, the Angels and the Lilin.
Profile
The First Ancestral Race were inhabitants of an unknown world within the Milky Way Galaxy well over 4.6 billion years ago, and are described as the first extraterrestrial intelligence. When it became clear that their world faced imminent destruction, they resigned their physical species to extinction, but took measures to ensure that similar beings would live on elsewhere. Seven progenitor beings called Seeds of Life were created, each invested with the soul of a FAR individual and placed within a carrier vessel (Moon) along with a Spear of Longinus. The various demographics comprising the First Ancestral Race then united as one and boarded the seven carriers—presumably meaning that they were reduced to souls and distributed across the seven Seed's Chambers of Guf to await rebirth on another world. This means that Adam's children, and the first Lilin, are reincarnated members of the First Ancestral Race.
The artifacts known as the Spears of Longinus, awesomely-powerful, A.T. Field-penetrating tools, were placed within each Moon to control the Seed in case of any exigencies, such as if two Seeds came to occupy the same planet.
The First Ancestral Race are the authors of the "Dead Sea Scrolls": The information was included in the White or Black Moon transport vessels as a safeguard, along the Spears of Longinus. What became known as the "Dead Sea Scrolls" was essentially a manual the First Ancestral Race sent along with each Seed of Life, detailing how Seeds of Life and the Spears of Longinus work, as well as predictions about the future in the event that a Seed is awakened. Although the scrolls were presumably created in case of an Adam-type Seed was awakened and a Spear of Longinus was not available (or other, unplanned circumstances arose), the SEELE organization, eventual possessor of the scrolls, used the knowledge contained within to further its own agenda.
Since the First Ancestral Race are the ultimate creators of humans, as well as Angels, they could be considered "gods" from the perspectives of both.
Conceptual History
The First Ancestral Race is never directly mentioned within the series itself, although the concept of a progenitor race was present from the very beginning. Two (First and Second Ancestral Races) considered in an early planning meeting and later included in the Neon Genesis Evangelion Proposal, produced a full two years before the series aired. The race also nearly received a mention, rebilled slightly as "First Indigenous Race", in Episode 20. The final show settled for more ambiguous cues, restricted mostly to Episode 21, but these were generally not picked up by fans. It was not until the release of the Neon Genesis Evangelion 2 video game for PS2 (followed by an expanded PSP version, subtitled Another Cases), the production of which was informed heavily by interviews with Anno and other staff, that the First Ancestral Race were "restored" to the mythos. The information about them comes almost exclusively from their Classified Information files and from Kaworu's "good" PSP ending.
Notes
- The First Ancestral Race is thematically similar to the "Firstborn" aliens from 2001: A Space Odyssey, the alien race that created the Monoliths. While the Firstborn did not outright create life, they were the first race in the galaxy to achieve sentience, and in their travels across space set up experiments to try to encourage the development of sentience on planets where they encountered life (i.e. with proto-human apes on prehistoric Earth).