3: the old gods

"And that's pretty much it."

Greto had finally wrapped up his tour of the building and Edward was more than impressed with the school he was about to attend. Greto wasn't lying when he said that the school was huge. It was absolutely enormous, and Greto told him that there are many, many secret areas of the school that people never go to. "It's kind of like a palace," he had explained. That was an understatement. It was like some sort of magical labyrinth that never ended. It was like no other school that Edward had ever been to. Greto, who was surprisingly good at being a tour guide, had shown him the classrooms he would learn in, the cafeteria, gym, and other facilities, how the student's daily life worked, where he went if he needed to ask questions, where he went if he wanted to play a sport, etc. They had walked by the "Administration" wing of the school, and Edward had inquired "Who runs the school?" and Greto had simply replied "The government, I guess." Kind of odd, but still for the most part very intriguing.

Now, they had ended up back at Edward's dorm room, and it was mid-afternoon. "Any questions, Edward?" Greto kindly asked.

"In fact, I do have one," Edward piped up. "Actually, I have been wondering this for the entire tour. If we are on an alien planet, then why is it that everybody here speaks and behaves just like we do on Earth? One would think that it would be a completely different culture, no? Even the trends are the same. I am... very confused."

Greto mimed hitting himself in the forehead. "Of course! I completely forgot to say that! Sorry!" He laughed slightly, and then continued. "Alright, so... well, it's a long story."

"We have time," Edward said, more impatiently than he intended to.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm going to tell it." He took a deep breath. "So, basically, a long time ago, there were these four gods, and we call them the Old Gods, because well, they're pretty old. And they each had to do with an element. You know the basic four elements, right?"

Edward gave him a look. "According to which version of mythology? It depends on what culture you would ask."

"You know, the... the four that everybody uses. The main four," said Greto exasperatedly.

"Are you referring to-"

"Earth, fire, water, and air, okay? Anyway, the four Old Gods were of these four elements, and they were the beginnings of humanity."

Edward looked skeptical. "Are you attempting to explain this via religion? Because I am not interested in whatever your culture has invented to make sense of what they don't understand. That's all religion is, really, and I want a factual answer, based in truth."

"No, it's not like that. Well... people have seen the gods and stuff, so we're pretty sure that they actually exist."

Edward raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, come on!" Greto said, throwing his hands up in the air. "Do you want me to explain it or not?"

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have interrupted," Edward hastily apoligized.

"No, that's okay. Anyhow, there was a god for each of the four elements, wind, water, fire, and earth. These gods originated here, in the Kingdom of Doom, and lived in that area for a while. If you take a look around, you can still see the shrines and stuff where the gods lived. And so they were bored or something, I guess, and they ended up creating a race known as the humans, which were pretty much inferior versions of the Old Gods, and the humans also lived here in the Kingdom of Doom. It was like that for a while, but then as the humans kept multiplying they couldn't fit on this small planet anymore, and the gods had to find new planets for them to live on. With me so far?"

"Yes," Edward said. "Continue."

"Okay, then. They searched for a while, and they found four planets suitable for life that were fairly close to the Kingdom of Doom, and they happened to all be in different solar systems. One of them was the planet you came from, and the other three planets were more or less the same as yours. Then after the Old Gods found these planets, they went back here to the Kingdom and decided that since they had found four planets, each god would get their own. The Earth god was the one that took ownership of your planet, and that's where it got its name."

"Well that's strange," said Edward. "I never knew that."

"Well, naturally," said Greto. "You want to hear the rest?"

"Just a moment. Are the other three planets that the Old Gods inhabited called Fire, Water, and Wind?" inquired Edward.

"Yes. Can I keep going?"

"Of course."

"As I was saying, the four gods started to bring the humans to their own individual planets and create civilizations. These four planets were known as the 'Quadraterracel', and the gods swore that they would rely on each other to help support their own individual planet. So about twelve thousand years ago, when the Agricultural Revolution happened, and people started farming and stuff on the planet Fire, the Fire god told the three others, and by pulling some strings, all four planets in the Quadraterracel started having agriculture and farms and villages. So throughout history, the planets have progressed at the same rate. Although, they actually used to be a lot more unique from each other. All of those ancient civilizations you probably learned about in History class a while ago, on the other three planets they had totally different ancient civilizations. Now, however, that people have gotten a lot smarter and trendier and need a lot of different things to get along in life, the gods shamelessly borrow ideas from each other, and now ever since the late eighteenth century, the planets have been pretty much replicas of each other. All four planets have the same trends and fashion now, and that's why you see people here that are just like you, but from different places."

Edward was speechless. "That's very... unexpected, to say the least."

"I didn't expect you know about that. From what I heard, it's a bad thing, the gods' lack of creativity. It used to be that they were totally different places, like night and day, but now all the cultures have merged into one. Although," he added, "They still have different plants and animals than we do."

Edward took a moment to digest all of this. Needless to say, his current worldview had completely been turned upside down.

"I... think I understand what you're saying," he said, rather hesitant to accept all of this.

"Well, good," Greto said with a smile.

After a few moments' pause, Edward followed up with another question. "So, where does the Kingdom of Doom factor into the four planets? Why do we still need to return the birthplace of the gods, and why was I taken here in the first place? Is this some sort of holy place? Because if I was brought here for mere religion, I am telling you now, I will take the first spaceship back to my home planet."

"It's... it's not like your religion, the gods exist and stuff. People have seen them. They still run the planets, and they live in the Kingdom of Doom." Greto tried to explain.

"You told me."

"Well, to answer your question, the people that are brought to the Kingdom of Doom are the people that are the most talented, the smartest, the finest examples of human beings on the four planets of the Quadraterracel. They're raised at the Academy of Doom, and then they live a rich and wonderful life here. You were picked as one of them, because you really do have a higher understanding of life."

This made Edward a little happier inside, even though he had always known it was true. Still, like any other human being, he enjoyed being praised. "That's strange..." began Edward, "I heard a story on the news the other day about a young boy from China who went to a math class in a local college at age nine. Why hasn't he been taken away yet? He must be very special, to take college-level math courses when he is so young."

Greto laughed a little. "It's still hard for us to believe that your culture on Earth places so much importance on math. Math is useless outside of the classroom, what matters is your theories about life, happiness, existence, and you know... big philosophical things and stuff."

Edward responded a little stiffly to his musings being described as "big philosophical things and stuff".

"Usually when people think about those things, they keep it to themselves. So... you might not hear about the type of people we are looking for on the news," said Greto.

"I was on the news once," Edward stated flatly.

"Well, you're a bit of an exception, I guess."

Edward thought about what Greto had been trying to explain to him, and most of it made sense. However, still, he felt one question rising to the surface of his mind.

"If everybody here is so special, why do they behave just like every other person I know on planet Earth? To put it bluntly, they don't seem any smarter than the average person."

Greto sadly smiled. "You know the story, man. They need to fit in, they need to act "normal". Despite the fact that they all are really special inside, they all need to show that they really aren't that great, that they're actually really trendy and don't care about these things. You, on the other hand, you have no problem with showing how amazing you are. Somehow, they feel the need to conceal it, but really, you'll totally fit in."

Edward wasn't convinced. He had seen the other students here, and they behaved like the students in the private school he had attended on Earth. There was nothing different about them, just stupid teenagers feeling the need to be like everyone else, wrapped up in their little insignificant day-to-day lives. Would it be any different here than it was back on Earth?

There was something vaguely depressing about being on a different planet. It was like you had to force yourself to acknowledge the fact that the universe was infinitely huge, and nothing you did on Earth ever really mattered. He had known this for a long time, of course, but now that it was finally real, he felt himself growing a little sad and homesick.

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