On a Godless Planet:Volume2B Chapter 25
Chapter 25: Flintstones[edit]
–Be mischievous if you want
As long as you’re big and strong…which you aren’t
●
“Now, then.” Tenma showed everyone the map of Africa on her Revelation Board.
She placed a red dot on the eastern end.
“From a different point of view, the giant myth is related to the transmission and creation of myths.”
<I can provide assistance if necessary.>
“Does that mean you think this is a necessary discussion, Balancer?”
<When I created this world, I included some assumptions.>
Everyone expressed their understanding while sitting back down on the riverside. Tenma looked around to see Kido and Mr. V had done the same.
“…”
Tenma had trouble reading Kido’s emotions, but she seemed interested.
So Tenma started from the red dot on the eastern end of Africa.
“The ancestors of modern humanity originated in eastern Africa 400 thousand years ago and they apparently wandered north and south in eastern Africa until around 200 thousand years ago.”
“We’re jumping way into the past, huh?”
“We’re only from 5000 years ago and it would take us 8-16 generations to reach this point.”
“That’s still a long time.”
Gods from a different age lived on another scale altogether.
But it was nice that no one was bothered by the vast differences in era between them.
Tenma drew a line from Africa’s east coast to the Red Sea exit leading to the Arabian Peninsula.
“Around 70 thousand years ago, the Earth had cooled and the ocean level had dropped, so it was possible to cross some of the seas. That is how humanity left Africa. A large group traveled north from Egypt and gathered in the Middle East near Iran. Then they began migrating to different places.”
This was a summary of what Scarecrow had explained before.
Tenma drew a few different lines.
Starting in Iran, one traveled south to India, one traveled north to central Asia, and…
One traveled north to Europe.
“The large group that migrated to Central Asia kind of wandered around a lot, moving in and out, scattering around, and joining with other groups. They displayed a kind of indecisiveness I find weirdly relatable.”
<And that’s the kind of person that can go the farthest when they actually set their mind to it.>
“Anyway, isn’t this when humanity split into the groups that would either have the Laurasian or the Gondwanan mythologies?”
Someone responded to the thunder god’s question with a “huh?”
The idiot – no, the human – raised a hand. I can’t let Kuwajiri-senpai’s habits affect me. Human. He is human. That does make him an evolved ape, but he is human now. H-U-M-A-N, human. There.
<What do you want, idiot?>
“Do you have a question, idio- I mean! What is your question, Human-senpai?”
“Hey, you! Yeah, you! You might think you’re stealing my thunder as a gender-swapping intellectual by using your sweet position as a gender-swapped intellectual underclassman, but I’m way too narrowminded to ever forgive you for this betrayal! I’ll hold this grudge until the day I die! You hear that, the day I die!”
“Sumeragi-kun, don’t be mean.”
“Okie-dokie! Consider that grudge forgiven! Okay, you can all go home now! We’re done for today!”
When Tenma silent glanced in Balancer’s direction, the screen angled away from her, so she decided to continue the conversation.
The most important part of the current discussion was the line leading to Europe.
“Modern humans arrived in Europe 40 thousand years ago. But by then, their predecessors had already arrived in Europe and West Asia and started living there.”
Tenma raised two fingers.
“One group was the Neanderthals. They stood more than 160cm tall and were the humans one generation behind modern humans.
“The other group was the Cro-Magnons. They were the same species as the modern humans who left Africa, so they were like brothers.”
Tenma took a breath. The Cro-Magnons were important.
●
“Listen,” said Tenma, producing two humanoid figures on her Revelation Board.
One was big and the other small. One stood more than a head taller than the other.
“This big one is a Cro-Magnon. Their average height was more than 180cm. They also had a powerful build.”
“Meanwhile,” she zoomed in on the smaller, skinnier figure. “What do you think this one is?”
“Based on what you’ve said, I would guess a Neanderthal.”
“Unfortunately, that is wrong. This short one is what a modern human looked like at the time.”
She understood the surprised reactions. The two were very different in size.
“But the other one is more than a head taller.”
“Yes. The average height of modern humans then was just above 150cm. And these are only averages, so the actual differences could have been as much as 50cm at times.”
Tenma displayed a few graphs of the differences based on the likely deviations.
That showed even a 60cm difference wouldn’t have been rare.
“I’m 195cm and Sumeragi is 165cm, but that’s an even bigger difference.”
“All this talk of height is confusing! Can you explain it using chest sizes!?”
“Mine is 132cm and you’re 75cm maybe?”
“IIII’m 105cm, so I don’t even come cloooose.”
“Eh? Eh? You’re okay with it being about their chests?”
“No! Not even a little bit! We can discuss this again when it’s time to have our measurements taken at school!”
“Will you want to know my measurements then too?”
“Absolutely not! All you males can take your stool test and leave!”
The human was being unnecessarily obnoxious again.
“So why were they such different heights?”
“There would have been genetic factors too, but it was mostly a difference in diet. The Cro-Magnons arrived in Europe 160 thousand years ago, meaning they beat modern humans there by 120 thousand years. Modern humans were spending that time being chased by carnivores and hunting prey on the savannah and, compared to the relatively little prey found in the Middle East, Europe was rich with forests and water, which meant plenty of prey and plants for harvesting. That meant lots of calories and protein.
“A diet-based increase in height was seen in Japanese history as well. The Jomon people who lived in Japan during the Jomon period had an average height of less than 150cm. But through intermarriage with people who arrived from China and Korea and through the spread of a rice-based diet, their average height grew past 160cm.”
And…
“By the time modern humans encountered the Cro-Magnons, their culture and civilization had exploded. The caves they lived in were adorned with art, they made decorations and even musical instruments out of bone, and they had excellent stone tools. They even engaged in trade and had their own magical rituals.”
But what were the modern humans like?
“The modern human lifestyle didn’t change much until they left Africa, so they hadn’t even developed many stone tools. So after they left Africa, it is thought they met their predecessors and learned a lot from them. There is even genetic evidence of crossbreeding.”
“Now,” she said.
“The Cro-Magnons mostly lived in Europe, West Asia, and Africa’s north coast. But just like humanity migrated over long periods of time, they must have been found here and there beyond those places.
“It is highly likely that humanity encountered them during the early part of their migration. And it is thought their crossbreeding with modern humans is what created the foundation of the Caucasoid humans who live in Europe and West Asia. As a result, they disappeared ten thousand years ago, leaving only modern humans behind. Do you know what this means?”
“The giants.”
Tenma turned toward the thunder god, so he clarified.
“During the time when the humans were creating their myths, they met the ‘giants’ who had preceded them and learned a lot of new technology and ways of thinking from them, but then they disappeared. Is that what you’re trying to say?”
●
“Yo, I’ve got a question. Can I ask an earlier question again?”
<What do you want, ape? Oh, but we were just discussing modern humans, so let me rephrase that. What do you want, primate?>
“Hooray! I’ve leveled up from ape to primate! Eh!? What’s this, Balancer!? Are you rewarding me for actually studying up on humans? Then I’ll stop calling you a talking screen! Instead…oh, I know! I’ll call you a talking Trinitron.”
<That is a completely different kind of technology, idiot.>
“What was it you wanted to ask, Human-senpai?”
“Oh, right.” Sumeragi tilted his head. “Isn’t that a stretch? Before we talked about how the myths were in a…protolanguage? Well, there were these languages that all current languages are based on they spread all across the world. So wouldn’t the protolanguages already need to exist by that point?”
●
The ape’s memory isn’t usually that good, thought Balancer.
“Good job remembering that, Sumeragi-kun! I’m impressed!”
“Everything I learned while in the bath with you remains crystal clear in my head!”
“That’s the power of instincts for you.”
“W-wait, what’s this about them taking a bath together!?”
“We simply used the bath as a safe place to speak like we did before.”
“Oh, I see.”
“I’m glad you understand, but you also accepted that pretty quick!”
“After seeing that last meeting, I know nothing indecent could have happened there.”
“Which means I’m wholesome! Okay, Balancer! We’re done here, so you can talk now! What’d you want to say?”
Balancer really didn’t want to explain this but still provided some supplementary information on the concept of protolanguages.
<Protolanguages are the sources of current languages. They are broadly divided into two categories, but one of them, Proto-Indo-European, is said to have been spoken in the Middle East approximately 9000 years ago.>
Which meant…
“It is unknown how far back unorganized local languages came to be, but we do know Proto-Indo-European did not just pop into existence 9000 years ago. There are theories concerning the foundational language that came even before the protolanguages and it is thought human language goes back much further.”
“But they couldn’t have had language at 40 thousand years ago, or whenever it was, right? I remember my textbooks saying humans were doing great living in caves sand hunting animals back then.”
<No,> replied Balancer. <Based on the ruins that have been discovered, it is thought the Cro-Magnons already had a high level of language 40 thousand years ago. And it is predicted modern humans had a complex language that leads directly to current languages before they left Africa and began their migration 50 thousand years ago. So once they left Africa and began migrating, they already had the ability to express their thoughts and pass on knowledge in the places they reached.>
●
I looked around.
Everyone, including Senpai, had the same look.
“…”
No, wait. The club head was the same as always and Kido-senpai was normal too. In fact, I had a feeling Kido-senpai never showed much on her face at times like this.
But I asked Senpai a question.
“What do you think?”
“Well, if Balancer says it, I’m willing to believe it, but I have trouble imagining it.”
“Right? Did they really have language back then? I mean, aren’t the 4th and 3rd generations supposed to be the age of mythless mythology?”
<Then let me explain some of the assumptions at play.>
Balancer opened a Revelation Board. It displayed…
“Giatrus?”
“They haven’t shown reruns of that in a while, have they?”
“They’ve been doing that kind of thing a lot less lately. It used to be you’d wonder how many times they could possibly show Voltes V in the evenings.”
“Focus on the Revelation Board, idiot. It’s showing a picture of you.”
“Hey, I’m not some caveman!”
That was definitely a human there, but a very different person from me. He was tanned, his hair was unkempt, and he had animal skins wrapped around his waist.
<This is humanity’s ancestor. Modern humans are known as Homo sapiens, but this is a reproduction of the earlier Homo ergaster.>
“He is the spitting image of that idiot.”
“Y-you aren’t letting that joke go, are you!?”
<Well, he is the idiot’s direct ancestor. …This Homo ergaster is a branch of Homo erectus that came to be around 2.5 million years ago and modern humans developed from them 450 thousand years ago. Ergaster had a somewhat unique trait when compared to the original erectus and other branches. What do you think that was?>
“Their homo erections. Oh, and if you thought that was funny, it means you have a dirty mind!”
“…”
“W-wait, no! I only smiled because I love seeing Sumeragi-kun enjoy himself! It was a pure smile!”
“How pure can you be if you can make that excuse so fast?”
“And what part of Shinto can you possibly call pure?”
<Yes, they are known as the underground mythology for a reason.>
“H-hey, stop that! Can we please get back on topic!?”
“You’re the purest, Senpai!!”
“Thank you! Thank you! A god is nothing without the trust of her worshipers!”
“What is this, a campaign speech? Anyway, can you continue, Balancer?”
<Of course. Humanity started out as apes, but once they stood erect, it put a strain on their necks. They started out moving on all fours, so when standing up, they had to bend their neck at 90 degrees to see straight ahead. This bent their throat, but the ergaster had a throat that stayed open in that position…which allowed them to speak.>
●
Tenma had previously heard this explanation.
…Balancer is really into this.
The AI who had created this divine world and the gods took a neutral stance to the terraforming and the gods. So being able to “intervene” and reveal this sort of information had to be exciting.
Balancer produced a double helix model in the air. The thunder god asked if that was DNA and Tenma thought he was right. But why was Balancer showing it to them?
<It is said understanding language required a specific genetic mutation.>
“You mean something beyond the throat change and becoming smarter?”
<Yes. Even with the physical characteristics, they needed a nervous system capable of linking it all together. And the structure of the human body is of course a product of their genes.>
“But with ussss, it’s all summed up as the authority to create living thiiiings.”
<Just goes to show how extraordinary the gods are.>
“And what is this gene?”
Tenma asked purely out of curiosity. The Norse knowledge god glared over at her, but she chose to ignore that. And…
<The gene is named FOXP2. That mutation is necessary because it links the brain and lungs, allowing for speech and language comprehension. It is said Homo sapiens acquired this gene 50 thousand years ago.>
“Wow, you said that fast.”
<Shut up, ape. Now, modern humans are not the only species with this gene. The Neanderthals and some fish and birds have it as well, so while it is seen as a necessary condition for language, the species needs to be physically capable of speech and live in an environment that requires speech in order for language to develop.>
“So the physical body is the PC, the genes are the OS, and the environment is the software? Or maybe the software is a location that requires doing work?”
<Yes. And speaking of the physical characteristics, those developed further after becoming modern humans. With a skeleton which allows standing upright, the modern human Adam’s apple shifted to a lower position than in the previous forms of human.>
“The Adam’s apple? Does its position have some significance?”
<Yes. A lower Adam’s apple means the throat has more space front to back. And what does that create?>
Tenma tried to come up with an answer, but a hand immediately went up among the Mesopotamians.
“The ability to sing. When someone like me sings, having more space in the mouth lets the voice reverberate more in the throat so it can travel further. Not to mention that a longer tongue lets you produce more different sounds.”
<That isn’t quite accurate, but it’s close enough. Yes, thanks to their genetics, modern humans can understand language and also speak from the throat and produce a wide variety of sounds.>
What would that lead to?
“Then they just need the environment. One that requires speech.”
<Correct. Language will not develop when people are alone. But when they live in groups, language and emotional expressions develop to convey meaning and to help imagine what other people must be thinking. In fact, for a while after birth, infants will contact their parents with unique expressions since they do not know how to speak, but that is likely where language ultimately comes from.>
<So,> continued Balancer.
<Getting back to the Cro-Magnons, the cave paintings they made are from 70 thousand years ago and they already display a primitive conception of numbers. They also decorated their dead before burial and had magic rituals for contacting the spirits of their ancestors or for hunting. This tells us they understood the emotions of joy and sadness. While living in groups, they formed societies with different social roles. The shaman would lead ‘festivals’ and the chief would take charge in both trade and conflicts between different villages. It is also known that the bone flutes and carvings they made were products that followed a set pattern. That meant they were produced for a specific purpose.>
“None of that sounds all that different from modern society.”
<True. The estimated global human population at the time differs depending on the how it is measured, but it is thought to have been 1.2 million at most. The world is a big place, but only so much land could support a hunting lifestyle, so they likely met each other more than you would think.>
I see, thought Tenma, raising her hand.
“Cultural activity and interaction of that level would require the ability to convey and pass down patterns, rules, and designs, but that would require a complex language that includes grammatical tense and person and ways of describing social status, numbers, and weather.”
●
“More than 40 thousand years ago, huh?”
Ki thought of the distance past.
The languages spoken then must have been heavily localized.
But the humans must have interacted and banded together.
And if the foundational language behind the protolanguages was formed around ten thousand years ago…
…Wow.
It seemed possible to Ki.
It had sounded absurd at first, but she had since gotten used to the vast timescale.
<Modern humans left Africa a lot later than their fellow Homo sapiens, the Cro-Magnons. Spending so much time in an unchanging environment delayed their acquisition and development of language even with the necessary physical and genetic traits. When they left Africa, I think they must have gone through that development while coexisting and fighting with their Homo erectus and Neanderthal predecessors, but the Cro-Magnons must have achieved that ahead of them.>
“Did the Cro-Magnons have a mythology or religion?”
<What do you think is necessary for religion to exist?>
“Ooh, I know! Big boobs!”
“Th-thank you?”
“No, no, no, no. I really don’t think that’s it.”
“For that human, it probably is. At least he’s happy, I guess. Never change, okay?”
“I would have to abandon my godhood if that were the rule, so how about I give the real answer? Religion requires two things: truth and ritual. In other words…
“Religious Truth: A ‘truth’ the religion provides for its believers.
“Religious Ritual: How the religion’s believers express their religious truth.”
Ki questioned the words written on the Revelation Board.
“Are mythologies a truth or a ritual?”
“They are a codified form of ritual. Conversely…the truth does not need to come in the form of words. Think of the concept of enlightenment. The idea comes first and the codified form of that becomes the religion’s ‘teachings’.”
Before she could continue, Balancer inclined their screen in a nod, and spoke.
<That means religious truth could develop before language.>
“But wouldn’t they need language to pass that down?”
<There are ways to pass down ideas without language. Take work for example. By showing how something is done, it can be passed down as an action, right? There is also the nature that you gods control. Humans have no control over the movement of heavenly bodies, the weather, the scenery, and the seasons, but they are remembered through repetition and are thus artificially passed down.>
And…
<We know the accumulation of such things leads to language and that they developed something like a primitive religion in ancient times. In cave paintings, there are signs that prey animals are drawn when they are plentiful, those paintings are later worshiped to pray for more of the same, and more are drawn as a kind of ‘report’.>
“You said they had burial customs, didn’t you?”
In that case…
“If they celebrated plentiful food, prayed for more, and mourned their dead, does it mean they had an interest in the concepts of life and death?”
<As time passed, they must have begun to view the target of those prayers as gods. The same goes for the spirits of their ancestors. Based on the giant stories, it seems likely the ‘giants’ who had already arrived in a more complex environment than Africa had a more advanced society than the modern humans who arrived later. And once humanity began to migrate, they would have absorbed the more advanced society of the ‘giants’.>
●
<This is the series of events I envisioned when creating this divine world.>
- Humanity develops primitive language in Africa and reaches an understanding of their natural environment and of the concept of a good harvest or hunting season.
- (3rd generation mythology develops)
- ⇩
- Humanity leaves Africa and migrates across the land while absorbing the culture and society of the humans that preceded them.
- (4th generation mythology migrates as the model for the Laurasian and Gondwanan mythologies. Primitive mythologies take root in various lands.)
- ⇩
- After acquiring protolanguages, the mythologies developed in the earliest villages scatter around with the migration of people and cultures, updating and influencing the other cultures they encounter.
- (5th generation mythology spreads ⇨ the later generations are established and spread.)
“So if the giants were included, it would be the 4th or 5th generation at the earliest.”
“Looking at it this way, Roman mythology originally fit into the 4th generation, but then it was updated by the 7th generation Olympus mythology.”
<Keep in mind that the Gondwanan mythologies do not include much social or narrative structure, so they tend not to include the giants or a new generation of gods taking over. But you could explain this away as the Cro-Magnons and other taller humans mainly living in Europe and West Asia and never migrating south.>
Balancer paused and looked to Tenma, who nodded.
“So what are the giants found in Laurasian mythology? The most common theory says they are the anthropomorphized forms of the nature worship found in an age before writing, but it can also be argued they are what remains of the culture absorbed from the older humans the modern humans encountered.”
●
…That was daring.
“She’s so young!” was Kuwajiri’s main thought.
Since Balancer had agreed, that was likely the rule in this world. So in a way, she felt like they were working backwards from the conclusion.
But on the other hand, having Balancer as a judge allowed them to discuss the topic with more peace of mind. She found it a lot of fun to attempt speculation like this without needing to think about using the brakes.
…Now I feel a little awkward for presenting the “anthropomorphized forms of nature worship” as my theory.
Meanwhile, a hand went up. It was Senpai-san. She viewed the Revelation Boards that Balancer and the underclassman knowledge god had opened.
“Um, so which is it?”
“Which what?”
“I was thinking it was neat that there are multiple theories for the identity of the mythological giants, but this is actually kind of a pain. Especially for Bil-chan.”
“Should I apologize?”
“Not yet. Not yet.”
That exchange reminded Kuwajiri of something important.
“Oh, right. We wanted to know the giants’ identity to determinate what enemy the Olympus gods of war are designed to defeat.”
“Yeah, that’s it all right. And now we have two possible answers.
“Anthropomorphized nature worship from an age before writing.
“The history of the culture absorbed from the older forms of humanity.”
●
“How different are those two options?”
“A meeeeteor strike would make short work of them booooth.”
“That’d make short work of anything, so don’t even think about doing it, Shinsei.”
●
Kido held a hand to her chin and watched Shifu write those two options out on a Revelation Board.
After some thought, she finally spoke.
“If the giants are anthropomorphized nature worship, the gods of war will be designed to battle giant gods. They will likely fight using divine protections and spell power.”
And…
“If the giants are modern humanity’s history with the older forms of humanity, then they will be a collection of technology. In that case, the gods of war will likely use physical speed, attack power, and mechanical abilities to pull off the same effect as divine protections and spells.”
“Huh? Can’t we just ask Balancer for the answer?”
<I created this world so either way will work. I made it so humanity already had an idea of their 3rd generation mythology when they left Africa, but I also made it so they met their predecessors in Europe. The question is which way the Olympus gods interpreted it.>
“And that choice determines whether they use spells or physical abilities, huh?”
“Um.” A hand went up.
“There are a number of things I would like to clarify, but this discussion has lasted long enough already. But I will say that this question of which interpretation they used reminds me a lot of dealing with the human.”
“Yes, I thought the same thing.”
“What do you mean?”
Kido more or less understood. It came down to what humans were.
“You mean that only humans can create myths, don’t you?”
“Yes.” She nodded before continuing. “What kind of enemy the gods of war were designed for is not something we can determine through our discussion. Only Olympus can choose that. That is one point they have complete control over. I personally take the conservative viewpoint and support the theory of the giants being anthropomorphized nature worship, but it all comes down to them. Which makes this more difficult.”
●
“Interesting.”
Bilgamesh spoke to the knowledge god who had lowered her head in thought.
“There is no need to worry over this, no matter how difficult it is, knowledge god. The only question is god or human and authority or physical ability. But my equipment was given to me by the gods and later remade by us. The weaponry of a half-god, half-human are simultaneously divine and human.”
So…
“Whatever our enemy might be, I shall prevail.”
“Why are you like this?”
A voice suddenly interrupted Bilgamesh. He turned to see his partner smiling bitterly, so he spoke to her.
“You will be helping of course, Ki.”
“Which is part of what I meant by ‘like this’!”
I have no idea what she could mean.
●
“I see,” sighed Kido, viewing the others.
“So to sum up, if the Olympus gods attempt to intervene, you will stop them? And you have sufficient means of doing so?”
“Yup. If they demand another fight, I’ll deal with them. My thunder god sword is meant for use against giants, after all. And if my thunder god sword is equivalent to their gods of war, then my Jarngreipr and Megingjord give me the upper hand.”
“I’ll be helping too, so that’s something else you’ve got going for you,” said Shifu-san with a slight smile.
That seemed to settle it then. And…
“If it develops into a negotiation, I will take care of it.”
The 1st year knowledge god placed a hand on her chest and turned toward Raidou-san and Shifu-san.
“I think I understand now. You brought me along for this, not just for fun, didn’t you? You Norse gods predicted trouble would be brewing during this camping trip, so you included me since none of you are negotiators. It also lends further credence to this being a Shinto problem.”
“Hm. I’m a war god through and through, so I don’t really think about those things.”
“And I’m a war god’s wife, so I’ve never understood any of that.”
Those two are terrible liars.
But this meant it had already been decided things would turn out this way.
“Eh? Eh? Does this mean our camping trip is going to be the front line of a battle?”
Douhai-san was only now catching up, but that was actually a relief for Kido. So she took a breath and stood up.
“Would anyone like more soup?”
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