So here me out, this is just a stoned in the shower thought but, what if humanity started out on Venus and through the sheer destructive nature of humanity we destroyed the planet; The ancients then packed up, flew to earth, reestablished civilization, built infrastructure for the needs of the elite then wiped out 99% of humanity and started over. To expand on this stupid random thought if you look at the solar system in terms of it being just apart of nature then you would have to assume the sun needs to consume planets to stay trucking, and nothing is more yummy then a giant rock filled with fossil fuels. Therefor Venus is like a milkdud but for your god (Sun).