“The other significant religions are polytheistic. They basically believe in many gods. Hinduism believes everything is essentially alive and everything is a being… but… not, too. It well… Hinduism and Buddhism can seem pretty confusing without exploring it very deeply, but the very, very basic explanation is that existence is a broken off piece of god which has become self-aware and the goal is to remerge with god and sacrifice your self-awareness. Buddhism and Hinduism are almost the same thing. Buddhism is simply Buddha’s way of succeeding at Hinduism. Essentially, Buddha successfully remerged with god, or nirvana, and ceased to exist. So, Buddhism and Hinduism are like… pretty much the same religion but Buddhism focuses on how Buddha did it, hoping to be able to copy his success. These religions, as I said, believe in virtually an infinite amount of gods and in… no gods as these gods, including everything that exists, are essentially just the broken off piece of totality which should be subsumed back into that totality… it’s… I don’t really understand it too well myself, but we can dig into it more if you are interested.

“Confucianism isn’t really… a religion. It’s more a philosophy of relationship… and it’s rooted in Hinduism… um… kinda. It teaches how to live meaningfully and appropriately with one another. All religions do that, actually, more or less. Confucius set up some rules about how to be a good person in your various relationships: as a father, mother, child, ruler, follower of a god, citizen… yeah…

“All of these religions I mentioned are practiced by many, many millions and billions of people and there are many variations on all of these religions as well, although some have a bit fewer variations than others. But, besides that, most of those in the same religion tend to accept those other variations although there are some fringe ones that are rejected almost universally by people of that religion. So, even with the differences, most of the main religions are pretty universal in their core beliefs. Of course, if you ask those in the religion, they will claim to be very different, but most Christians accept other Christians despite their different beliefs, and the same is mostly true of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Confucians.

“These are the main religions known by most people the world over, but there are many, many more that I really don’t know. Some of the old gods and goddesses, I guess I could speak about, like the Roman gods … um… Zeus and Mars. Zeus is the leader... king? of all the other gods of the Roman pantheon. Mars is the god of war. Uh… Hermes?... yeah, Hermes is a messenger god… I think. Um.. Aphrodite is the goddess of the hunt and love… I think? I.. really can’t remember.

“Greek and Roman gods were basically the same gods with just different names in their language. Uh… I guess I know a little about the Norse gods. Hmm… Odin is a the father god and leader… of the other gods and goddess under him.” Not… don’t think I wanna bring up Loki… if he’s anathema here.

“So.. yeah… you’re going to have to ask some questions if you want to really deal with this. It’s… really… pretty … extensive.”

By the time Joe had gotten on the roll of explaining the various gods and goddesses, Kukurnal had dropped his hand and listened on in rapt attention. When Joe finished, he quickly jumped in.

“So… you have religions that believe in groups of gods and goddesses?”

“Yup. Like you do here. I would say that your temple plaza… and I’m making a huge guess here so I may be wrong… but your temple plaza seems to show the people here believe in a group of gods or goddesses so we would say your one religion has a pantheon of about twenty or so gods and goddesses.”

“That’s about right. We have nineteen, actually.”

“Nineteen? Hmm…”

“Then… the way you seem to describe your religions is that some do not accept other gods and goddesses?”

“Well, actually… all the polytheistic religions, for the most part, accept all the other gods and goddesses of other religions but they end up seeing it as an … antagonistic relationship? In the old days, the peoples would believe in their own gods for their location, people, or nation… I guess you would say clan. And if you were able to defeat another clan, it meant your gods and goddesses were stronger than their gods and goddesses.”

“That… seems to make sense,” Kukurnal nodded, “The peoples who would succeed would do so because their gods and goddesses were stronger.”

Joe nodded, “Yes, they believed that. But the monotheistic religions; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam… they all rejected those gods, saying they didn’t exist at all. That there was only one god and all other gods were not real, figments of people’s imaginations, or not gods at all but some form of false spirit.”

“A false spirit?!”

“Yes.”

Kukurnal fell silent, seeming to think for a bit before continuing, “Were they?”

“What?”

“False spirits.”

Joe thought for a bit then shrugged as he realized that Kukuranl couldn’t possibly be offended as he wasn’t from Earth at all, “Well… I don’t believe they’re real.”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Kukurnal nodded a bit, “Then… who was in charge of the oceans, weather, love, and… everything for the … monotheistic? Religions.”

Joe smiled, “Well, for them, their god was in charge of everything. They made all of space time. The entirety of the universe and everything in it; all planes, all cradles, all suns, all galaxies.”

Kukurnal’s eyes began growing wider and wider with each mention of power and Joe’s smile dropped as concern replaced his humor and he stopped his list of what the monotheistic god was claimed to have controlled.

“What’s wrong?”

“Is… is he… is he truly that powerful?”

Joe’s eyes widened at Kukurnal’s statement and Joe quickly hid his mirth, deadening his face as he realized that he was directly attacking Kukurnal’s pantheon of gods and goddesses with these claims. Guess religion from other worlds can still screw me over with aliens!

Joe replied quickly, as he didn’t want to be seen as disingenuous but he also very carefully and very slowly chose his words.

“That’s… what the people of the various monotheistic religions believe,” Joe replied with an even but subdued tone, “but remember, they all believe the other is wrong and they're right… so they cannot even agree with one another.”

Kukurnal’s shock disappeared but then looked up at Joe, fervid consideration in his eyes, “But these religions must be very powerful!”

“Um… they do hold a lot of political sway.”

“Many people must believe in them, yes?”

Joe nodded, “If I remember right, about sixty percent of my people believe in two of those monotheistic religions.”

“Sixty?” Kukurnal railed off, his mind trying to remember percentages and what they meant and Joe quickly jumped in, offering a quick meaningful answer.

“Over half of the people on my plane believe in two of those monotheistic religions.”

Kukurnal looked up at that, nodding in both gratefulness of Joe’s explanation and acceptance of his statement, “It would only make sense. Of course the people would choose the most powerful of gods and goddesses to believe in!”

Joe smiled at that, nodding at hearing Kukurnal if not exactly agreeing with his conclusion. Kukurnal fell silent then, his mind racing through the information. While Joe allowed him his time, he turned to Kilnaira and spoke with her a bit. When the meals showed up at their table, the boys happened to walk in at the perfect time and the interruption of the meal and new guests broke Kukurnal from his reflection where he began his interrogation of Joe, asking every question he could think of about the religions of Earth.

It turned out to be an enjoyable evening, the conversation a bit lighter on Joe’s part as Kukurnal, the priest, delved into a topic more to his own passion and Joe could simply feed Kukurnal’s curiosity. The meal ended quickly and the two dove into the conversation deeply. The other three escaped the table and headed to their own entertainment, what little there was, while Joe lost himself in the enjoyable conversation. He went to bed quite a bit later than he’d planned that night, but quite a bit more satisfied, having enjoyed the conversation.

* * *

Gwenvair rested in her room, preparing for bed but found herself quite distracted as she found her meditation and work throughout the day interrupted. By the time the sun had set, she decided any meditation, work, or development was useless for the day and decided to go to bed. She was laying on her bed, not having removed the cores to douse the lights nor really finished her evening ablutions. It was while she was laying there that a knock came on her door.

She sat up, a bit surprised but replied quickly, “Who is it?”

“Your mother, dear.”

“Oh. Hey mom! Come in,” she slid to the side of her bed with a bright smile. It had been a long time since she’d been able to meet her mother, the duties of the clan Matriarch taking precedence over being a mother.

Her mother, the Matriarch of the clan, entered the room with a smile, closing it behind her quickly before hurrying to her side to sit on the bed with her, “You are doing well?”

She smiled, nodding before leaning into her side, “As well as I can. Today hasn’t been easy.”

Her mother wrapped an arm around her, sliding her hand into the nape of her neck and burying her fingers into her daughter’s hair to massage her head and neck and hummed in understanding, “Distracted.”

Gwenvair sat up, looking up at her mother, “Yes… how did you know?”

Her mother smiled, looking down on her while still keeping her fingers massaging her daughter’s neck, “I may have many Matriarchal duties, but I still am your mother.”

“You’re spying on me?!”

Her mother laughed, a soft but bright tinkle, “And you do not of me?”

Gwenvair frowned, grimacing, “Yeah, but that’s different.”

Her mother’s smile grew a bit more, “You wouldn’t seek me out if your spy told you I was … uncharacteristically distracted today?”

Gwenvair sighed, dropping her head back on her mother’s shoulder, “OK, true, but I still don’t like it.”

“Few do, but family has no privacy.”

Gwenvair glared up at her mother before shaking her head and getting to the point, “Yes. Today was… bad.”

Her mother stayed silent for a bit, simply massaging her daughter and holding her quietly before finally speaking, “The very young, handsome, incredibly competent eccentric?”

Gwenvair blushed, her hand leaping out to slap against her mother’s thigh. She said nothing, but her reaction was more than enough to inform her mother, and silence reigned longer. Finally, her mother spoke again.

“Go to him. See if he will allow you to join him in his dungeon raids with his apprentices.”

Gwenvair sat up straight, wide eyed and even more embarrassed as her cheeks flush so red that even her ears tinged with pink as they wiggled. Gwenvair found herself unable to speak or react in almost any way, her mother’s hand still pressing into her neck and head the only contact she had, albeit a comforting one. They sat like this for a few moments more, embarrassment a rigid spike down her spine while her mom smiled silently beside her but with enough visible humor that it only spiked her embarrassment ever more.

Finally, her mother stood and left the room but stopped and turned before she shut the door, staring at her for a few moments before she spoke again.

“I’m still young enough for him. If you aren’t interested, I believe that the Matriarch would certainly be interested!”

Gwenvair didn’t make a move or a noise until long after the door had closed and her mother’s tinkling laughter had faded from the halls. Her embarrassed shriek a few moments later only drew out even more laughter from her mother.

She rolled over onto her bed, curling into a ball before pulling her covers over her. Her shriek of indignation proved fragile against her growing smile and glee that came crashing over her soon after. She took a long, long time to sleep that night and woke even earlier the next morning. They would be going to the beginner’s dungeon once again, if their habit proved true.

* * *

Kukurnal left the inn deep in thought, confusion and wonder suffusing him, but his thoughts were purely on Joe’s lie. Did… I misattribute it? Maybe… the lie was… but I am certain of the lie… and Joe spoke the truth today… this… His mind wandered sporadically even as he headed home.