?????????????

...But what about all the other gods? 

......When she puts it like that it sounds like a kind of stupid objection but it's hard to think of any other way to say it. Everyone knows about — well, no, that's not true, no one here has heard of any of the gods she knows, except maybe Pharasma. But Asmodeus was definitely real, or something like him, and — the Asmodeans lied about a lot of things, but it doesn't make sense for them to have made up a bunch of better gods that didn't actually exist. If anything they'd have wanted to do the opposite, hide as many of the less terrible gods as they could — and she can imagine reasons some of the gods are made up, but there's no reason to try to convince people that Erastil is real if he isn't.

...His 'god' is actually at least three gods, and it doesn't really seem like anyone is trying very hard to make it seem like they're all the same. People can't be their own sons, that doesn't make sense. And he said that people here pray to Mary a lot, which doesn't make sense if she's just a regular human, even a regular human who never did anything Evil. Maybe it's really important to the Church here that everyone think their gods are the most important, that's not confusing at all, and... for some reason that involves pretending that their gods are all one god and the other gods don't exist?

"...Is it illegal to say that there's lots of gods?"

"No," he smiles a little again, because he does think this is a good thing. "The church and the government are separate and you can say whatever you like about gods."

"I've never met anyone who thinks there's lots, but I'm pretty sure people do in some far away countries."

Saying they're 'separate' could mean a lot of things. The Queen wasn't a priestess, if she even existed, and it seemed pretty clear from the book that the Church's opinions mattered for the government. (Unless the government wanted it to seem like the Church was backing them? But she doesn't think any church would just let the government go around lying about that sort of thing.) ...Though Ms. Wójcicka really didn't seem like she was worried the law would go after her for saying the gods weren't real, so probably the Church here really does have a lot less power than the Church of Asmodeus did back home.

The way these people interact with their gods is still pretty confusing either way.

"But you pray to Mary, even though you don't think she's a god?"

"Well, she's a great saint, we can pray to those. But they're not-- it's not like they have any power that isn't from God. So it wouldn't make sense to think of them as gods separate from Him."

He's never really had much reason to think about these sorts of questions, when everyone knows these things, even if they disagree with them.

Wow, their church really wants people to think their god is the most important. 

"What's a saint? And what makes a saint great or not?" 

He laughs a little. "I feel like I'm taking a religion test, and I'm not even sure I'm going to pass! If you want really good answers you should ask a priest, but - saints are people who were so good in life that God gave us signs they're definitely in heaven. It's not like there's a list of who is and isn't great, but Mary was taken bodily to heaven instead of dying," he knows that one, there's a holiday about it, "so that seems like a pretty important sign."

She didn't mean it like that, she's not trying to be threatening — no, he's laughing, he probably doesn't mean that he feels scared, like he's going to be punished. (Which means... the schools here are really lax about what sorts of things they do to people who are bad to theology?)

...If he's laughing then probably it's okay to keep asking him questions, even if he doesn't totally understand all of it. 

"So the saints have... powers like God has, but not as strong, because they're just getting their powers from God rather than having them for themselves?"

He doesn't seem like he minds being asked questions at all.

"Yes, that's about right. And sometimes God gives living people power to do some miraculous things, but you can't pray to those, they're not in heaven yet. ...And it's really really rare, I've never met any that I know of" he adds, remembering that she doesn't think that's what the world is like at all. Or at least she doesn't act like it, but it seems like it would be very hard to fake that fundamental a disconnect.

Alright, so the saints are minor gods, theoretically Good ones, and people are allowed to pray to them as long as they treat the main three gods here as more important. And obviously it wouldn't make sense to pray to a priest. ...To a regular priest that can do magic, rather than a weird fake priest who can't — or, technically it wouldn't make sense to pray to those either, but no one would try in the first place.

It's kind of weird that all but a few of their gods are ascended mortals. ...Or, actually, it makes sense that the Asmodeans would've lied about that, if they wanted people to think that humans were so much weaker than the gods that they could never hope to stand up to Asmodeus. 

"And all the saints used to be mortals?"

"Well, yes, what else is there?  ...Wait, no, there are angels, those are immortal but they're not really... around..."  Wait, is that wrong, are people supposed to really have guardian angels or is that just a cute story they tell small children...  "I think you have to be a mortal to be a saint, but people do pray to the archangels. Which also get their power from God, before you ask."

She's going to decide to ignore all his answers and get better ones from a priest, and he's going to entirely deserve it.

Alright, so saints are ascended gods, and archangels are gods that aren't ascended, and the Church here teaches that saints are a lot more common, and also wants people to think that neither 'saints' nor 'archangels' are really gods. (Presumably 'angels' are just... angels... though some of the things she knows about angels might be wrong.)

"Is there a list of all the different saints and archangels people know of, and" what they're the gods of "what sort of things each of them likes to focus on?"

"There's only three archangels, so that's easy.  There are many hundreds of saints, different ones are popular in different countries and so on - of course the Church has all the records, but I don't know if there's a full list you can easily read.  We can ask the priest.  ... Uh, why do you want a list of all the saints?"  The normal number of saints people hear about in church really seems like plenty.

That's so many. ...Maybe not all of them are gods. She's never heard of someone who isn't a god doing miracles, but that doesn't mean it definitely couldn't happen. Or maybe some of them aren't really saints, like if the government wants people to think it's Good it wouldn't be surprising for a 'president' to pretend that their family had been saints even if they weren't really. 

"Well, if I decide to pray to a saint, I'd want to be sure I pick the right one. ...But I didn't realize there'd be that many, I don't need you to write to another country, or anything like that." (Can people here just do that?)

"Oh good," cheerfully amused smile.  

"The library should have some lives of saints, I think - unless it's not supposed to have religious materials, but then the parish should. We'll get it figured out, in any case."

A more serious look.  "But I don't think it matters that much? They're all just... people, who were good and who want to help you - they're not going to ignore you because you picked the wrong one. I'm not sure who's a patron of what is even officially true rather than just tradition.  I mostly just pray to God, myself."

Why would the library not be allowed to have religious books???

(And obviously it matters which 'saint' you pray to! Even Asmodeans pray to Erastil for a good harvest, or Pharasma if they're having a baby. If you're supposed to believe they're getting all their powers from God, then maybe you're also supposed to believe that all the saints have the same powers, but that doesn't mean they'd care about the exact same things.)

...Her first question there is actually really important, though, it seems like the sort of thing that's dangerous to be wrong about.

"Why would the library not be allowed to have religious books? Doesn't the government run it?"

No!!!

Why does the Crown need to pretend not to know whether gods are real? Obviously gods are real! Who else would be doing the miracles?? Ms. Wójcicka didn't think they were real, but that's because — well, it might not be because she's stupid, if she's really never met a real priest or seen any magic and she doesn't trust priests who can't do magic to be telling the truth. But even if miracles and real priests aren't very common, the Crown should still know. It... might be harder to know for sure which gods are really powerful, if some of the 'saints' are a lot more powerful than others (or not even really saints at all), or if there are lots of gods that are hiding like the Asmodeans might have been... but it still seems like they should definitely be able to know some of them are real. And obviously if they didn't know it would be important for them to find out, so that they'll know which ones are worth praying to and which ones are really just... faeries, or regular dead people with no special powers.

...Also, she doesn't see why the Crown wouldn't just put out books talking about the three gods that are really popular and saying that Jesus Christ supports the president and that sort of thing. It doesn't seem like there are a lot of people here who are against the Church. Maybe there are, and they just aren't as common around here, or maybe there are a lot of people like Ms. Wójcicka, and they'd be upset if the government were telling people about the gods because... they think governments... shouldn't tell people to obey the gods rather than following their conscience? Shouldn't lie? Because they think the Church's rules are bad? None of those really make sense, obviously governments are going to tell people to obey the law, and lie to them sometimes, and promote the gods that they think are good for the Crown.

When she was talking with the guardsmen a lot earlier, some of them mentioned that there was an Orthodox and a Jewish and a Muslim god too, though it sounded like the Orthodox and Jewish gods might be the same as the Church's gods. (Also something about the ancient Greeks, but presumably those aren't relevant anymore, if they're ancient?) Maybe in this part of the country there are a lot of people from the Church, and in other parts of the country there are Muslims, and the president wants them both to support him? Except in that case the 'libraries' in this part of the country could just talk about how the Church supports the president, and the libraries in the other parts of the country could talk about how the Muslim god supports the president.

"...Not really. I don't see why people would... want the Crown to pretend like they don't know anything about the gods? And I don't see why the Crown would want to pretend that, rather than just lending people books about how God supports the president." 

(...Maybe the Church's gods don't support the president, and the president knows it, and that's why the priests here mostly can't do magic, because the real priests were all executed? And he's worried that if he says in the library books that the gods support him, they'll do a miracle to tell people he doesn't? Except it doesn't really seem like putting it in the library books specifically would make a difference.)

That makes him laugh.  "A good point, really." 

And he has to think a moment about how to answer it.  "I think the answer is that we tried that, for centuries, with different countries claiming support from different gods, or from the same God but with His teachings interpreted differently to favor them, and all it got us is war and people hating each other for no good reason.  So we're trying to stop.  It's..."  He thinks about how she put it, tries to phrase it in her terms - "everyone knows how easy it is to lie and say God supports you, and to use that to make people follow you and do awful things in your name.  So now it's just suspicious when politicians talk too much about God."

"... Also we really, really do not have a Crown."

"...Why doesn't God just tell people if the 'president' is lying to say that God supports him when he doesn't? ...And, uh, what do you call the president and his family members that are on his side and the people who work for them, if it's not called the Crown?"

"The president and the people who work for him - or with him, really - are the government.  The president's family is... not the government... and of course they have some influence, but not in a way we want to reinforce by calling them anything."  He sighs a little, wryly.  "Maybe part of what we're doing is trying to make the world be the way we want it to by pretending it is already.  But I do think it's working."

"As to why God doesn't do many obvious things...  I don't know.  Because He wants us to solve our own problems, or to face challenges to prove our character, or to have faith."

"...so he's... not telling people that their presidents are lying... because he wants to see if they'll actually do the right thing, rather than just doing whatever they think God wants? So that he can make sure people only go to Heaven if they're actually Good people? And that's... more important to him than people doing the thing that he'd most want for them to do?"

"Yes, I think that's right."  In the general idea, anyway.  He's sure she's wrong about many of the details - and he's sure he is too, and it doesn't feel worth going into that right now, when it does seem like she has the important parts right.  "He could just make people do what He wants, but then what would be the point?"

It seems like it'd probably depend on why people weren't doing what he wants? There's a difference between a president who works for Asmodeus telling all his subjects that he works for God and some other president works for Asmodeus, and a president telling all his subjects that God wants them to go out and murder innocent people for no reason. But it's not like she really knows very much about the history here.

...But either way, if the gods here aren't correcting people, and lots of presidents used to say they worked for the Good gods when they didn't, it makes sense that people wouldn't trust other presidents as much when they say it. Though now that she thinks about it, that doesn't explain the bookstore.

"But it doesn't count when the bookstore sells books that say that the Church is on the president's side, because the bookstore isn't run by the government?" 

Now that she thinks about it, she doesn't know how tight the censors here are, though presumably they wouldn't let through a book that says the gods are against the president.

"Yes, the bookstore can sell what it likes, and the Church can have opinions on the government, and so can anyone else.  ... And probably the library can have the lives of saints, I just wasn't entirely sure.  I'd apologize for the sidetrack, but I think it ended up a useful one."

The idea of him apologizing to her is also pretty confusing, there's no reason he'd need to apologize to her, though now that she thinks about it he has said a couple of things along those lines.

"Are there other laws that I need to know that I wouldn't think of? ...I guess you might not know which ones I would think of."