Trashman, Van couldn't truly use the power of Atlantis, it was Hitomi who did it unconsciously; with the pendant's help - it was part of the original wish machine, while Escaflowne was built with the technology of Atlantis.
It was the unison of Escaflowne and the pendant - the dragon and the orcale, and meanwhile Hitomi was actually creating the future through her prophecies - which were influenced by her anxion, creating bad events.
The mecha simply had a connection with old powers, so could be forced into unbeliveable events, but it was not its own power.
Furthermore Van had dragonblood - I have doubts about you...
Furthermore Van did get beaten up - and by the time he mastered the melef he was so connected to it, that it almost shallowed him.
As for the questions about the Evas - read the info on the following page:
http://www.lwhy.clara.net/ngeIn short - Lucifer was an angel too - he has simply fallen from grace. Most Evas are based on the first Angel's DNA found at Anctartica - he later blow up the continent - but they don't posses an S2 organ, so they have to be externally powered.
I prefer more complex - and less brutal - methods to achieve my goals, so I choose another ancestor for my Eva.
That bad blood may be my downfall, but what the heck, at least I'll have a more entertaining company (I mean my Eva). I wonder how the LCL is gona fit into the scheme.
[edit - urgh, wrong URL - now fixed]
