“It’s the same timeline,” Sarah said. “But like I said, it’s a just a theory. And I didn’t say that I whole-heartedly agree with it, only that it’s the most popular one. And it’s not like it’s something that most people in the Web believe in. Most people don’t care about the reasoning for the Taken. They see us as just a natural phenomenon, an extension of integration.”

“So why is the Reshan theory the most popular among those who do believe there’s something behind us?” Sam asked.

“Because, if you buy into that theory, the reason the Reshan left all those ruins for us to explore was to help us, the newly integrated races, develop faster, or something of that sort at least. So all the artifacts, patterns, lessons on magic. They were all intended to help us get where we are now.”

“And by applying that same logic to the Taken, you find out the reason for the difference between us and the other races?”

“Exactly. We needed the help in combat of all those Taken simply in order to survive. But the other races didn’t, so the Reshan were free to mostly take younger people and return them in to a safer environment where they had a greater chance to flourish and help advance the civilization further.”

“OK, but why put all of this at the feet of an ancient long gone civilization? Aren’t any other possible explanation for…” He gestured at himself. “Us?”

“Yes, there are. It’s just that the Reshan theory is the one most commonly held. But in the end, it, just like all the others, is an unproven theory. Look, there are really only two major problems that every theory about the Taken has to explain, right? The first one is that it seems that there is not only an intelligent but also a benevolent mind behind the process. The second problem is the complexity of the magic. Even the Chosen have no idea how the process works.

“So the Reshan theory works perfectly for the first problem, right? At least if we buy into the whole shtick about them being a guiding force for us ‘nascent civilizations.’ Something that I’m not so sure about, by the way. And the Reshan being so much more advanced than us, also provides us with a plausible solution to the second problem. Although… if we’re already on this topic, there is another theory, which provides the best explanation for the second problem. Not so for the first, at least if we don’t want to accept any far-reaching implications about the world we live in.”

“Oh oh… I think I can guess what the explanation is,” Sam said. “Is it that the ‘Web’ thing, universe, is sentient? It chooses which worlds to integrate and then does the whole Taken business to help those worlds along?”

“Exactly. ‘If the Taken are a constant in every integration there ever was, so why can’t the force behind the integrations also be behind the Taken?’ This is like I said, what most people believe in. Only they think that there isn’t anything conscious about the phenomenon, that the integrations and the Taken are just a natural process of the Web. And that the difference between us Terrans and the other races can be explained by other, non-intentional means. Otherwise, if you hold on to the believe that the Web is both behind the Taken and that the Taken were chosen intelligently, you also have to conclude that the Web is sentient enough to do those sorts of things.”

“And that’s the sort of things that only hippies will believe in…” Sam nodded. “Oh well, whatever. It’s not like anyone here isn’t familiar with struggling with the meaning of existence. And this is just the same question with just a little esoteric twist.”

“Want to move on?”

“Yes please. But I’m afraid that it’s just to yet another thing that you can’t give me the full answer to. The universal translator. You said that you don’t know how it works, but it does work right?”

“Extremely well, but only as long as the language in question has been archived in the artifact. Remember how when we first met the elves, they had to forcefully install us with it? That wasn’t only so we could understand them, but also so they could understand us. Once a person has traced through the artifact, it sort of catalogs their usage and knowledge of language across all other artifacts. So, for example, if someone else that didn’t know English but had the artifact was speaking to you, they would be able to understand you perfectly, even if you wouldn’t be able to understand them.”

“Even slang?” Sam asked.

“Yes.”

“Acronyms?”

“Also.”

“Culture contextual names?”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure that’s a real thing, but that’s sounds like what I’m thinking about. I meant stuff like ‘Stockholm Syndrome.’ Although there are probably people out there who know the term but don’t know what Stockholm is. Was.”

“It depends: they might understand your meaning, if not the semantics behind it. You’ll see when you get it. It’s very intuitive and context dependent. Honestly, it’s one of the last things I would worry about, no-one knows how they really work, but everyone uses them with any problems.”

“Damn… Shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. Now I’m gonna have to learn about different cultures and shit.”

“Only if you want to. You can still choose to stay ignorant. At least ignorance borne out of laziness is a million times better than one borne out of racism.”

“You’re right! I can. Why bother learning about other races’ culture? It’s not like they made masterpieces that can equal some of ours. Which reminds me, is The Bold and the Beautiful still on TV?”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“Fair enough. Wait! When you said ‘racist,’ who is the actual subject of our prejudices? Other species? Only we call those other intelligent species ‘races’ because of fantasy conventions? And if so, what does that mean for good old-fashioned racism?”

“It’s still there, like every other old-world form of prejudice, unfortunately. Although it lessened enough to not be a major talking point for any politician, so that’s nice. And yes, racism is now used in the context of the other ‘species,’ as you’re familiar with the term. We call them races. I couldn’t tell you why, though. Never bothered me enough to look it up.”

“Seems reasonable. Honestly, if it was a good enough distinction for Tolkien, then it’s good enough for me. And I know what you’re going to say: Tolkien was a linguist, not a biologist—No, never mind, it’s too early to get into this discussion. Just give me the runaround on the races, will you? You said there are six? Or was it five?”

“Six or five, depending on whether you view Terran humans and Imperial humans as one race or not.”

“Imperial humans?”

“Yes, from the empire.”

Sam squinted. These guys were really not trying that hard, were they? “Please tell me that ‘the empire’ has an actual name. Otherwise, they can’t keep getting away with it.”

“The Pyllan Empire, after their ruling dynasty. The empire is also where most of the dwarves—the only nationless race—lives. Remember how I said they supposedly immigrated over to our side from the north?”

“Yeah, which won’t make any sense to me until you show me a map of the Web, by the way. For now, though, these dwarves… If you had to rank them based on their Scottishness from one to ten, where would you place them? One being a fourth generation Japanese-American sushi chef who speaks perfectly articulated English. And ten being Sean Connery explaining how to handle a woman when she steps out of line.”

“They might look like the fantasy dwarves you’re familiar with, but they aren’t caricatures. Here, there are pictures.” She passed him the binder.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

As Sam flipped through the photos, he had to agree with her. They looked pretty similar to the popular fantasy depiction of a dwarf. Shorter than humans, but stockier and more heavily muscled than was possible for a human. Honestly, there was only one thing missing from the common trope. “Where are all the beards?”

“They shave them religiously, although not for religious reasons per se. They consider beards taboo because they can be used against you in combat or lead to an accident while working in dangerous environments.”

“What?! How egregious! No beards? And what about the female dwarves?”

“They shave as well.”

“Balderdash,” Sam said in mock outrage. They better not have touched their horny helmets. The classics are classics for a reason, dammit! “Anything else I should know about dwarves before we move on?”

“On average, they’re a little less… physically inclined to magic than their Imperial neighbors, which makes them more or less on par with us Terrans.”

“Physically inclined to magic?”

“That’s… can we leave that off for later? When we talk about magic.”

“OK, I guess. So what about the Imperials? Is there any other difference between us and them? Seeing as we’re both humans.”

“There isn’t, just the pathways.”

Sam chuckled, but didn’t press the point. “So, we’re biologically compatible, then?”

“Are you asking if we can have sex with them?”

“No. You can have sex with anything. It’s just a matter of enough will and consent. I was asking whether we can procreate with them.”

“Yeah, we can. Us humans and the elves can interbreed. But the other races can only procreate with themselves.”

“Hm… interesting. Is that because of external differences or internal ones?”

“I don’t know.”

“And is that because there’s a general lack of available information or because you’re a prude?”

“Moving on. The elves we already talked about. Biologically same as us with only slight cosmetic differences. Some political stuff that you should probably know about: They’re basically our biggest ally; they gave us all three of the worlds that the republic rules. They’re the second most culturally heterogeneous after us Terrans, but still pretty homogeneous by our standards. The ruling culture is the Sarechi, hence the name, The Kingdom of Sarechal. This is pretty boring, right? We should move on.”

“Not at all,” Sam said. “Quite the opposite. But like I said, you’re the boss. I could sit for a whole lecture about the power structure of their monarchy, but that’s probably not the most efficient use of time right now.”

“OK. So one important thing to note: On average, they’re better with magic than the Imperials, and about the same as another race, the deshars. Discounting us, the deshars own the least amount of worlds, and like us, they’ve settled on each world. The deshars do actually have major biological difference to the other races. They live on average 50% longer than us, meaning humans, dwarves, and elves. With the ‘downside’ that they only begin going through puberty at twenty-years-old and that their gestation period is twice as long.”

Sam laughed. “Gestation period? Really? Why is that important?”

“It’s a pretty basic fact. Intellectually, the deshars are just the same as us humans. Can you imagine not knowing how long a human is pregnant for before giving birth?”

“I guess not. But you would sound a lot more convincing if you weren’t reading straight out of the binder.”

Sarah blushed and pulled the binder closer. “So, one last thing to note is that just like us, their entry into puberty marks the average age in which a deshar will have their Awakening. Add in the fact that they develop somewhat slower than us and you might find the explanation for why their thirty is our eighteen. As in being a legal adult.

“Back to politics: their nation is called—literal translation—the Harmonic Accord. I won’t even try the native pronunciation. Although, our definition of a nation is, supposedly, not accurate when it comes to the deshar. They don’t see themselves as living in a nation called the ‘Harmonic Accord’. Rather, they live by the Harmonic Accord. It is a way of life which all deshar ascribe to.”

“So they’re religious fundies?”

Sarah smiled. “You would think so. Especially with ‘The Council for Spiritual and Moral Direction’ being their ruling body. But, apparently, they’re actually really nice about their whole spirituality business. Deshars that wish to leave to Accord, be it the national definition or the religious one, are free to do so without prejudice. And return just the same. They have distinct differences between legal and spiritual laws and breaking the second carries with it no formal punishment what so ever. Of course, there’s the question of whether—Never mind, we’re veering off topic again. You’ll have plenty of time to learn about the deshars before you meet any. Probably. So here is what they look like.”

She handed him the binder once again, and Sam started flipping through the photos. They looked humanoid enough, although taller, leaner, and with longer limbs than humans. The head was where Sam saw most of the difference. Narrow cat-like eyes (at least Sam thought they were cat-like, he wouldn’t actually know, not being an eye doctor) and long droopy ears. They had different skin color as well, alien to what was normal in humans, but they lacked in variety because as far as Sam was concerned, they were all different shades of blue. “What’s going on with their eyebrows?” he asked Sarah after a fixating on them for a tad too long without figuring the answer out.

“They’re made of bone. Yes, bone. Or some form of bone, at least. It’s closer to a bone that it is to nails, that I can tell you for certain. Also, they are completely bald; in fact, they don’t have body hair at all. But you didn’t see any picture of them with a clean pate, right?”

“Nope. Is that a religious custom? Did they take the yarmulke to the next level?”

“I’m not actually sure whether it’s religious, cultural, or both. But yeah, they take their headwear very seriously. They receive their first one on their entry into adulthood, thirty, remember? They receive two more as they grow older, but there’s also ‘special dispensations’ that I have no idea how they actually work. Except for making Ruler, all their Rulers wear the same headdress, that much I know.”

“So if I see a bald deshar, then they’re under thirty?”

“Yes… or dead. Or ostracized from the community. Or maybe they just don’t submit to the societal norms. But that’s not important right now.

“If you say so… OK, so we’ve been over five. That only leaves one, right? Let me guess what it’ll be… orcs. No wait, lizard people. Or cat people! No, I’m going to go with orcs after all… Sentient trees?”

Sarah scowled in response, but it was short-lived. “I hate to say this, because it’s doing them a giant disservice and is incredibly rude. But the ningani are frequently referred to as lizard-like. But, it’d be like referring to us humans or elves as ape-like. Take a look.”

The ningani did have a striking similarity with what Sam would’ve considered the stereotypical media depiction of lizard-folk to look like, or at the very least to how Sam would’ve imagined them. But they still appeared very humanoid. Only a little shorter in stature than humans. And with an even straighter posture, supported (or was it hindered?) by their wide at the base tails. They actually did come in all colors, though, from absurdly pink scales, to dim void-black, all the way to the classic shining gold ones.

Sam handed Sarah the binder back. “So what’s the deal with them?”

“They’re the least populous race in the Web, only about forty million people. Despite that, they are also considered the strongest race. That’s mainly due to two major advantages: They live, on average, twice as long as humans. And, they’re the race most… suited for magic, again physically wise.”

“Best pathways?”

“On average.” Sarah grimaced. She didn’t seem to appreciate Sam picking up on her word slip.

“Don’t worry about it. You’ll explain it to me later. But what about their gestation period?”

“Stop teasing me. I was just reading from the binder before.”

“And does the binder not share that information about the ningani?”

“Do you really care?”

“I’m intrigued, at the very least. Don’t forget, you’re the one that convinced me of the importance behind that sort of information.”

Sarah sighed. “OK… let’s go over this quickly, and no questions because it’s very complicated and we have a lot of other ground to cover.” She looked at him expectantly and Sam mimicked locking his lips. “Gestation period inside the egg is about a year, so far so good. Where the trouble starts is with nigana adulthood, or rather childhood. They spend the first sixteen years of their life as our approximation of a newborn, both in size and mind. Then, they slowly begin growing over the next couple of years, but still only physically. Intellectually, they only start developing at twenty-four, where they also start undergoing rapid physical growth. They have no concept of puberty like us, but their awakening is around thirty-years-old with much greater room for variance than all other races. Forty is their age of adulthood, although there’s variance as well, and the concept is somewhat different from ours. That’s the short of it, any questions?”

“No really. Sounds really complicated, though.”

Sarah laughed. “I told you. But you don’t need to worry about the ningani all that much, chances are very low that you’ll meet one anytime soon. Like I said, there’s only forty million of them alive and despite ruling the largest number of worlds, most of them live on their homeworld. They also technically don’t have a ‘nation’, being part of separate clans. But, for all intents and purposes, you can view the union of their clans, the Caravanserai, as their version of one. And again, I’m translating. Oh! Speaking of translating, this is really important; Once you’ll get your translator, you’ll notice that ningani literally means humans in their language. So make sure to always say ningani when talking about or with them to not create confusion.”

“Why are they called humans, then?”

“That’s what they called themselves, or at least that’s how it’s translated. But because they’re so different from the Imperials, and now also us, everyone calls them by their native name.”

“So native word for elf, in elvish, sorry in Sarechi, means elf?”

“Yes, and so does deshar. Although, that one is obviously not translated.”

Sam sighed and stretched in his chair. “OK, that’s a lot of knowledge so far. What’s next?”

“Are you sure you don’t want to take a break or maybe stop for today?”

“Of course not! I’m still perfectly cognizant. C’mon, what’s next?”

“OK… there’s still two major subjects that I wanted to cover. At least the first one is really important, in my opinion, for you to know about. And that’s the war.”