peripheries | quirk and dirty evangelion lore

Adam: The first Angel. Was a "seed of life" from a race in distant space, tasked with spreading its seed to other planets across the universe. Crashed to planet earth thousands of years ago and put into suspended animation. The other Angels are his offspring. In 2001, humans found Adam in Antarctica and began experimenting on him. A contact experiment of combining human DNA into Adam caused Second Impact and birthed Kaworu.

Second Impact: A massive explosion that knocked the earth off its axis, instantly melted Antarctica, killing most people in the southern hemisphere, and caused subsequent wars to break out across the world that caused further death, including the nuclear destruction of Tokyo. The story is that it was a result of a meteor colliding with Earth, but the truth it was the result of the contact experiment with Adam.

Angel: The children of Adam. They share 99.99% of their DNA with humans, despite appearing in monstrous forms. They have been called "humans who rejected human form". They possess powerful cores and A.T. Fields and so can only be stopped by the Evangelions. The goal of the Angels is to reach Adam, stored in Tokyo-3, to become the dominant species of life on the planet. Doing so would be the end of humanity. Angels possess the Fruit of Life (the S^2 engine)

Lilin: Humanity. They are descendants of Lilith, the second Angel. They possess the Fruit of Knowledge (consciousness). Earlier translations of Evangelion used "Lilim instead of "Lilin" but Khara seems to have settled on the latter.

Lilith: The second Angel, also a seed of life from the same ancient race as Adam. However, they were not supposed to exist on the same planet so Adam became inert and Lilith's progeny, humanity, was born from her blood and took dominion over the planet. Her body resides in NERV HQ and her soul within Rei Ayanami.

Being that Adam and Lilith are both seeds of life, it is safe to say that the designation of Lilith as the "Second Angel" is only via humanity's limited understanding.