On a Godless Planet:Volume3A Chapter 24
Chapter 24: Chaotix[edit]
–Welcome to the courtyard of chaos.
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Souko took a deep breath.
She was in the clubroom. The manga clubroom had a tatami mat floor. But the structure of the clubroom building meant the room was fan-shaped, which meant the tatami mats couldn’t cover the entire floor. An elevated rectangle was built by the window with around 10 tatami mats arranged on top.
The rest was covered by wooden floor grates. Souko was currently stretched out on them.
“Hm.”
“Souko, are you done? Congrats.”
“Sorry, but no I’m not.”
“How much more do you have to do?”
“After getting the backgrounds put in, I finished the inking, so only adding the tone and making corrections?”
“Oh, want me to do the tone? I can help.”
“I’ll help too,” said some voices from around the clubroom.
Those were all club members sheltering here thanks to the flood.
Some were already helping, and…
“We can help you finish up since you’re the only one falling behind.”
“I know. Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” they said with a smile and Souko started thinking about how slow she was.
…If only I could draw faster.
Just then, the clubroom door opened and Touto poked her head in.
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“Hey. Souko-san, can you come on out and say hi?”
“Eh!? Did I do something wrong!?”
“Why would you think you did?”
“Aren’t you holding a trial out there to find out who’s evil!? If you drag me out there, I’ll be strung up and Yamanashi’d!”
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“Does she know we can hear her?”
“This Yamanashi thing is getting out of hand.”
“And what’s this about someone being evil?”
“I don’t know whaaaat she’s talking abouuuut.”
●
Despite her complaints, Souko stepped out into the courtyard.
She told herself she would escape back to the clubroom the instant anything happened. Then she noticed the guard gods were there.
“You don’t need to be so cautious. We are here after all.”
“Not that we’ll be much help against these gods.”
“You’re not supposed to tell her that part!”
The one guard fiercely scolded her partner. But he only smiled in acceptance and gave Souko a “don’t worry about it” wave. Then Touto spoke from out ahead.
“They’re Egyptian, so you can rely on them if anything happens.”
“Really!? S-sorry. I didn’t realize.”
“That’s right. TJ, why did you ask her to join us?”
“Because,” said Touto. “She’s a creator god too.”
Meaning…
“Oh, so she might be getting Yamanashi’d after all!”
“Excuse meeee!?”
●
When the underclassman tried to escape back to the clubroom, TJ grabbed her by the collar to stop her.
“But while she is a creator god, she’s more like a trainee than anything.”
“So she’ll be the next big power?”
“Eh!? You mean she’ll eventually end up busty!?”
“Is that bustiness supposed to be metaphorical?”
“In the metaphorical sense, she will be busty one day.”
“Senpai! Senpai! I’m so confused!”
I am too, if I’m being honest.
“As an inspector, I have to ask: what kind of god is she? Without giving away any secrets.”
“She’s Sokar.”
“Oh,” said a voice: Seito’s.
“”So that’s why you called her a trainee.”
●
“Can anyone explain?”
Kuwajiri nodded at the underclassman knowledge god’s question.
“Sokar is one of the Memphis Egyptian gods, which means she is one of the non-mainstream gods.”
“If you think of the Heliopolis gods as the mainstream ones, then the Hermopolis gods like me and Kunugi-senpai are also non-mainstream. Most of us here in this divine world are non-mainstream.”
Did the use term “non-mainstream” rub her the wrong way?
Kuwajiri kept going regardless.
“Sokar isn’t actually a creator god. She is an underworld god.”
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“Eh!? Huh!? What’s that mean!? So she’s not underworld busty right now, but she will be underworld busty sometime later?”
“Isn’t that the same question as before?”
“When he uses the bustiness metaphor for everything, that just happens.”
“You reminded me of Saint Seiya for a second there.”
“You mean like ‘The Underworld Busty Arc’!?”
“…”
“Don’t worry, Dan-san! Just follow along as best you can!”
●
“Let’s just ignore the idiot and keep going. Sokar has no fixed stories of her own. There was an icon of a falcon at the entrance to the underworld and that was deified into her.”
“Not to toot my own horn, but I am widely worshiped in the Memphis region.”
“Is that due to the popularity of falcons in Egypt?”
“She isn’t a complicated character and she controls something as absolute as life and death, so she would have been an easy god to worship.”
“But,” added Kuwajiri. “The lack of much characterization led to Sokar being combined with other gods, like making her be another form of them. This led to the creation of Sokar as a triple god. This triple god included elements from Osiris, another underworld god and a harvest god, and with Ptah, the top Memphis god and a creator god.”
“Wait a second.”
“Yes?”
Kuwajiri knew more or less what Athena was going to say, but she asked regardless. And after a pause…
“Ptah was a creator god?”
No, wait.
“Come to think of it, that underclassman is one too. How many creator gods does Egyptian mythology have?”
●
“Yeah…”
How to explain this? What a damn pain, TJ thought, but at least they had a knowledge god here. And she could explain some of it herself.
“Egypt is a big place and it has a long history, so a fair number of local mythologies were created in different places. But the high levels of interaction between those places led to a few of those elements or gods being shared.”
What did that lead to? The answer was politics.
“The current age and connections to the pharaohs might lead to a certain region’s mythology being adopted as ‘mainstream’, but then the next pharaoh might switch to a different region’s mythology to avoid being controlled religiously. As the different regions tried to fight back and the pharaohs used existing mythologies as their own ‘mainstream’, they all ended up coexisting as different factions without being joined together into a single pantheon.”
“Come to think of it, Egypt was even ruled by the foreign Hyksos, wasn’t it?”
“Sure was. The point is we were never just a single group. Which is honestly really on brand for Egypt.”
“What kinds of – factions did you call them? – were there? Where did it begin?”
“It isn’t known how it began. Egypt is one of the first places modern humans arrived when leaving Africa, but when you include the humans before that, it all began around 500 thousand years ago.”
“With 500 thousand years, wouldn’t we know all about their records and myths?”
“They didn’t have written language, did they?”
“Correct. They have a long history and changed a lot, but no records remain. Even with a spoken language, passing down their myths and gods must have been challenging.”
“Then we have nothing at all until they created written language?”
“There are icons,” explained TJ. “A lot can be gleaned from physical structures such as buildings, sculptures, and pictures, as well as from the language.”
“But all the details are still lost. Still, once you have a ruler, the people are a lot more accepting of that rule if they use the divine right of kings, so what we know starts from there.”
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“In terms of human civilization, the people who settled in Egypt – from the archaic humans to the modern humans – all traveled near the Nile. The climate was mostly humid and green from around 12,000 BCE to 7000 BCE and the people had no trouble living as hunter-gatherers, but after that period, the climate rapidly dried and they were driven closer to the Nile and its water.”
“Looking at the migration of myths, that would be when different groups of people with their own gods and myths gathered together near the Nile.”
“Right,” said Kuwajiri, opening a map of Egypt with the Nile in the center. “At around 6000 BCE, powerful leaders appeared in different areas in this region, beginning what we can think of as the first dynasties. But at this point, agriculture had not yet begun in the Nile region. Then do you know what kind of wealth and food allowed these people to grow so powerful?”
“Boobs! It’s gotta be boobs!”
She chose to ignore him. But all the level up Revelation Boards popping up around Senpai-san and Kido-senpai told her there was something wrong with that level up system.
And someone answered.
“Was it livestock? The Scythians were hunters, but they had a king too. This must be the same. Even for a hunting people, livestock is valuable as ‘easily-obtainable prey’, so it can lead to wealth.”
“Right. In early Egypt, they began with livestock. The Nile primarily provided water and aquatic resources, so powerful leaders would have appeared from the groups transporting dried plant resources with livestock.”
“But there’s a weird story about that livestock.”
“Weird? But wouldn’t early livestock just be sheep and goats?”
“Sure would. The weird part is the origin. Livestock culture began in West Asia, but ours came from the desert west of the Nile.”
“So from the other direction? Why’d that happen?”
“Maybe the sheep and goats coming from the east were running too fast, broke right through the Nile, and continued on west.”
“Aunt… They’re not a beam attack.”
<Demeter actually has a point.>
“See, I told you! I’m always right! I am the rules!”
“No one said either of those things.”
“To get back on topic, while the livestock culture was spreading, Egypt still had a lot of vegetation, making life as hunter-gatherers possible. They were traveling through more than enough land than they would need for raising livestock, but they didn’t feel the need.”
“It’s true the area west of the Nile became a desert later on, but it would have been grassy fields back then. So the livestock culture skipped past Egypt and established itself in a land better suited for it. Then when the drying began, it arrived in the area around the Nile along with the people.”
<As you might expect, there is no established theory here, but given the relationship between the climate and the nature of the land, that seems likely. And during the 5000s BCE, agriculture begins midway along the Nile and people split between the upstream and downstream regions in search of productive land for both agriculture and livestock.>
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“They split up, huh? Was that really a good idea?”
“That means the gathered culture and civilization was separated again.”
“I’ll add that the upstream and downstream groups are known as Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt and both of those are divided into two or three smaller factions.”
“So after gathering, they split up at least 5 times?”
“With a temple, an official version of the mythology could have been distributed to them all, but that’s tough without a written language.”
“You should see now why there are so many things with a similar foundation that are otherwise different. We even have different creator gods from different factions.”
“And this annoying part is further accelerated with the establishment of the Naqada culture at around 4000 BCE. They had excellent earthenware, agriculture, and livestock techniques.”
“Naqadaaaaa!”
“That’s a bit of a stretch for an Akira reference.”
“But you knew what I meant! That’s what counts!”
<It’s technically pronounced more like “Naqwada”.>
“Hey, Kuwajiri-chan, I think they’re done, so you can keep going.”
“I’m not entirely sure they are, but whatever. Let’s see, the Naqada culture also produced flax, which would mean they could create the linen clothing Egypt is known for.”
“Then did that Naqada culture rule Egypt?”
“No, a convenient culture and civilization doesn’t always take over. They’re from a later era, but we know a representative of one such culture.”
“You mean Celtic culture!?”
●
“M-me?”
“That’s right,” said Kuwajiri. “Just like Celtic culture, the Naqada culture spread across all of Egypt. But it was primarily about their techniques, so you can’t say the Naqada people took over.”
“So it’s like how there were Celtic cultures but not a single ‘Celtic people’? There was a Naqada culture, but no Naqada dynasty?”
“Yes. But once the Naqada culture spread, what do you think happened to the different regional mythologies in Egypt?”
“They had already gathered together and then split apart again, but then a broader culture covered the entire region. Still, without any unifying force, there would be no way to say which mythology is ‘correct’.”
Everyone reacted to Temanko-kouhai with extremely displeased looks. They knew what she was getting at.
But Kuwajiri was a knowledge god, so she went ahead and said it.
“Yes. This mixed in some oddities that stuck around, making it hard to tell what is what.”
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“We’re not even done yet, but Egyptian mythology keeps wandering around. Incredible!”
“I wish I could argue with that, but I can’t. Not only did we have trouble settling down, but we were scattered around while incomplete and then had some changes made. It’s enough to piss off any system engineer.”
“And all without any debugging too.”
“Sorry! Sorry! My storyboards are always like that!”
“I’ll add that Naqada culture Egypt traded with our Mesopotamia. That means they had stable wealth and could stockpile.”
“It was mostly us importing things from Egypt and there were even some engravings of Bil.”
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“But,” said Bilgamesh. “Based on all this, I find it strange you didn’t see small states forming and warring with each other.”
“That’s due to history and the local color. There may have been a few conflicts, but unlike Mesopotamia or Greece, they were a single group that had split apart rather than scattered regions joining together. That made everyone feel like family. And they had a lot in common in their myths and gods.”
“Also, the Nile is a major river that never goes dry, so while there were differences in wealth, the differences between villages would never have been stark enough that they had to take what another village had to survive. It feels more like they would have joined together before it reached that point.”
“Right. The blessings of the Nile are only available in the few kilometers it covers when it floods and everywhere beyond that is arid. That led everyone to gather around the river where they could travel and transport quickly by boat, so they didn’t have the ‘distance’ needed to form small states and wage war.”
“Our common sense tells us civilization would have spread from Lower Egypt near the mouth of the Nile, but was that not how it worked?”
“No. For one, the Nile splits in two downstream. It of course narrows down a lot there, so there was more water in the middle area, giving that area the advantage. There weren’t many states capable of trade back then, so there weren’t any large-scale residence areas turning into sea trade bases.”
“So all the political solutions were handled upstream? That’s kind of amazing.”
“Yes. That’s why when the Naqada culture brought Upper Egypt together, it was more of a political alliance of the regions there. Their political gathering developed into an allied state.”
“Everyone was satisfied, so there was no conflict. Is that it?”
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“But won’t there still be conflict even with everyone satisfied? You know, like with sports.”
“Kido-san! Kido-san! Slag-tering and pillaging aren’t sports!”
“Are you saying we were the victims of sports?”
“Anyway, the lack of conflict really was thanks to the Nile.”
“Upstream, the Nile splits into the Blue Nile and the White Nile, but the source of the White Nile is still being searched for.”
“Eh? R-really?”
“Wait, why did Dan-san react to that?”
<Because a British expedition discovered the source of the White Nile to be Lake Victoria in 1858. But later research discovered a river continuing upstream from there and similar discoveries continue into the next century.>
“It’s like a hidden world.”
“What matters is that it has a solid source, meaning it won’t dry up.”
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“Anyway, this made a real mess of our myths and then Egypt was unified around Upper Egypt, leading to the first dynasty at around 3050 BCE.”
“You skipped over the unification quick. Do we not know how it happened because there are no records?”
“Some scholars say there was a war, but others disagree. The unification with Lower Egypt is especially unclear.”
“But anyway,” said Touto. “The creation of a dynasty also meant the creation of a religion. I’ll give you a list of the different ‘factions’ that formed.”
- Hierakonpolis
- Capital before the 1st dynasty (before 32nd century BCE).
- Worshiped Horus.
- Memphis
- Capital starting with the 3rd dynasty (starting in 2638 BCE).
- Built on the foundation of creator god Ptah. Osiris and the other gods of heaven and earth or life and death were also main gods.
- Narrative is centered on Ptah.
- Declines, but prospers as a second capital in the 18th dynasty (starting in 1570 BCE) and Ptah worship thrives.
- Heliopolis
- Grows starting with the 5th dynasty (starting in 2498 BCE).
- Built on the foundation of creator god Atum, but later makes sun god Ra the creator god.
- Narrative is made from gathered and joined stories centered on Ra.
- The power of the pharaohs reaches its peak by being worshiped as the sun god Ra. Ultimately becomes the mainstream.
- Hermopolis
- Prospered religiously since ancient times, but really started to go places during the 11th dynasty (starting in 2134 BCE).
- Built on the foundation of creator god Thoth, but isn’t too strict about it. Also has Ra.
- Not much of a narrative. Fairly neutral politically.
“That about sums it up. Memphis, Heliopolis, and Hermopolis are fairly well-known for their theologies. There’s also Thebes, but I omitted it because it was influenced Heliopolis.”
“There’s a lot of political stuff in there.”
“What makes you say that?”
“What records and artifacts are left over for one, but also the way just the one god Horus was popular during the Hierakonpolis period, but they suddenly had a creator god and a narrative once the dynasties started up.”
“That must be when they worked out a general genealogy of the gods and created a full mythology for political purposes.”
“But the earlier allied state wasn’t very religious and didn’t manage to unite the myths, I suppose.”
“And then when the pharaohs wanted to boost their power and take power away from the temples, they shifted to sun god worship to get rid of the old power structure. And to help the sun god politically support the pharaoh, he was also give the role of creator.”
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“That’s so dynamic. I mean, it’s kind of amazing how the earlier failure to unite their myths led to the rulers changing religious affiliation altogether to boost their power.”
“Maybe it was a fluke? It feels like the more political a place is, the more it will take a pragmatic stance with these things.”
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“The Heliopolis faction ultimately becomes the mainstream, but there aren’t any of them in this divine world. That’s because they’re still in their virtual manifestations throwing their weight around on the DC and such.”
“From that perspective, Hermopolis seems kind of strange. It feels more like nature worship.”
“We kind of are. We readily worship the gods that were already considered ‘old-fashioned’ during the Hierakonpolis days and we became an ancient religious city that acts as a buffer between Upper and Lower Egypt.”
“You see religious cities in fantasy RPGs all the time.”
“Hermopolis had enough worldly wisdom that, when the 10th and 11th dynasties were at war, they sided with the 11th dynasty once it was clear that side would win and quickly turned things around. After that war, the capital moved to Thebes, which was located nearby downstream, and it prospered as a resort city for Thebes. It really was an untouchable religious city.”
“But anyway,” she said, pointing at herself.
“I’m from the Hermopolis faction, which means I’m not from the Egypt mainstream, but I’m still a fairly old creator god.”
Then she pointed at Souko standing cautiously behind her.
“Souko-san here was the Memphis underworld god who became #2 after some political conflicts, but she was linked to Ptah worship during the 18th dynasty revival.”
This was finally linking back to where it had begun.
“Athena-san, before we got sidetracked, you asked how many creator gods Egypt has.”
“I didn’t think the question would be so much trouble to answer!”
“But,” she said. “I see now that Egyptian mythology was split up long ago, remained in different regions without ever being fully united again, and as time passed they were willing to even mix and match creator gods for political purposes.”
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That was a good summary. So Touto responded.
“Changing our myths and gods for super political reasons, or whatever provides an advantage, is Egypt’s style since it was a collection of different groups trying to get along. At the same time, some nature-based gods like us still remain. And also…”
She pointed at Souko again.
“The creator god skill Souko-san ended up with wasn’t really for political reasons. Most likely, it was additional meaning tacked onto a folk belief about a falcon without much more detail than that. That’s why she’s still only a trainee creator god. And because she’s only a trainee, I plan to take the lead in this questioning.”
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“Oh, that answers the question I’d had about the Egyptian gods.”
“What question was that?”
“Just like Athena earlier, I was wondering why there are so many Egyptian gods with the same roles. But I didn’t want to ask because it sounded like they had several different factions and there was a hierarchy among those factions. That made asking awkward.”
“Yes. Historically, Heliopolis is #1 and Memphis is #2, so asking without knowing all that could lead to trouble.”
“In that sense, the link between Touto-kun and Souka Souko-kun is an interesting one.”
“How so?”
“Politics.” Omokane leaned over the counter and raised her right hand. “Touto-kun is an old creator god, but she belongs to the Hermopolis faction, which is poor in political connections. Meanwhile, Souka-kun it only a trainee creator god, but she is from Memphis, second strongest in connections, plus she is combined with their head god Ptah. Touto-kun must think Souka-kun will eventually be the stronger creator god. And…”
Hatoko continued from there.
“The Heliopolis faction’s creator god is sun god Ra and the Heliopolis faction is essentially at the top. That’s why the Heliopolis creator god’s role is to throw his weight around on the DC and isn’t here in this divine world. And that Souka girl is joined with the Memphis creator god. Do you get what that means?”
“If Souka-san can be matured into a creator god, it will effectively give Egyptian mythology their ‘strongest creator god who can operate in the divine world’?”
“Precisely! A real clever idea from Touto-kun. The best part is that Souka-kun’s connection with the creator god is a folklore thing, not a political thing. The weak connection to the leaders and political dealings is best for operating in this divine world without worrying about politics.”
“Why do you have to read so deeply into everything?”
“I’m not.” Omokane waved her right hand dismissively. “This must have been the perfect opportunity for Touto-kun to introduce her underclassman. And…it could be awkward later on if they suddenly reveal they had another creator god here the entire time. The timing was perfect and I’m sure someone will be able to work out what Touto-kun is thinking.”
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Raidou reached an understanding about some of this.
…Athena’s question must have been the perfect jumping-off point.
Egyptian mythology had multiple creator gods.
And the up-and-coming one was still only a trainee.
Now that they had explained that and received everyone’s understanding…
“That underclassman’s defense is basically already complete.”
“Yes, I agree. We have been informed about her origin and that she lacks the necessary power as a creator god. And she was in that clubroom all last night, wasn’t she? That gives her an alibi.”
“Right. For our summer event overtime.”
“I see.” Mr. V raised his hand. “This seems quick, but I see no reason to delay. I find Souka Souko not guilty.”
●
Souko felt a sigh of relief escape her throat.
…Thank goodness!
No Yamanashi! she thought, but then something occurred to her.
“Touto-senpai!”
Touto had done this for her. She had left her out at the beginning and introduced her now to get it over with quick.
Souko didn’t entirely understand it all, but Touto had to be viewing some endgame and working straight toward that goal.
That was her writing style.
Souko understood what it meant to be a character in her story.
This was like a duty or protection passed down from one creator god to another – from upperclassman to underclassman.
“Souko-san.”
“Um, yes!? Uh…”
“Sorry for calling you out here. You were still working on your manuscript, weren’t you? You can get back to it now.”
“I-I was. But, um…”
Was there any way for her to thank this upperclassman? Touto had done this for her because she understood Souko had trouble with these places and events. An if this also eliminated a future concern for the Egyptian gods, she had nothing but appreciation. But…
“Don’t worry about it. This is the result you deserved. So get back to your work.”
“…”
“Okay…”
She didn’t know what to do in situations like this. Probably because she was still an inexperienced trainee.
But to do what Touto wanted of her, she opened the door behind her, bowed toward the courtyard, and entered the clubroom.
While hoping she would be able to repay Touto someday.
●
“Anyway.” TJ turned back toward the others. While rolling up her sleeves. “Let’s get on to my defense now.”
“Oh!? That segue was really cool!”
“Flattery will get you nowhere.”
She looked to Mr. V.
“Let’s get this over with, shall we?”
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