After we let Aylaqun take care of Kara Yulduz and call her spirit back from the underworld, I started asking Cynthia about everything, from metaphysics, philosophy to mythology. I had to reevaluate everything.
The oldest beliefs of this area are indeed animism. From the vast Western Steppe to the great Siberian land, the Korean peninsula, and across the ocean to America and Japan—from the Northern Tundra, the Ural and Altai Mountains, Lake Baikal, the Eastern Steppe, the Gobi Desert, the Central Plains, and the Tibetan Plateau to the land of a hundred Yue—people believed in the spirits of all things. And the shaman was the one who acted as the medium between the human world and the spirit world.
Each tribe worshipped their own main spirit, with the oldest ones often taking the form of animal totems derived from their mythical ancestors. Sometimes, people compromised, grouping these deities together to form a pantheon of gods.
However, things began to shift when one tribe dominated others, their patron spirit ascended in rank just as their people rose to power. This continued until one spirit became the highest and mightiest, leading to the birth of the "One True God" concept.
This is also how the idea of an all-knowing Sky Father from Western Indo-Iranian beliefs crossed paths with the Sky and Earth of local Siberian shamanic animism, leading to the establishment of a dual supreme deity: Sky Father and Earth Mother.
But right now with the help of the Huna, the Eternal Blue Sky is on the way to becoming the mightiest God in the Great Steppe.
The trickiest part in this story is how things change from region to region. It all depends on the majority beliefs in that land, just as Cynthia told me. The human mind has the power to alter reality. The hierarchy of gods and spirits, the cycle of life and spirits, and how the underworld and upper world operate—it all hinges on what people believe. A God in one country might be a Devil in another.
As I established myself as a Sky God in the eyes of the Huna, the mightiest tribe in this region, I directly received power when people who shared the same beliefs with them thought of me or the sky. This happened whenever they were in awe of a beautifully colored sky, a thundering storm, or when praying to me for victory. However, I would receive only a part of that power if others prayed to or thought of different sky gods, or simply thought about the sky in general. So if someone prays to Zeus, I will receive only a part of their faith.
Many Gods tried to manipulate faith wars to become the mightiest one. That's why Cynthia was helping my people to secure the alliance between us and make me a partner in her crimes. Millions would die because of us, but other millions would be safe, our millions. She was the oldest goddess of the old shamanic beliefs. The ancient deer stones were built by her believers, and she had already positioned herself as the Earth Mother long time ago, while I had just established myself as the Sky Father. It seemed she had been waiting for a personified god of the sky for a while. Sometimes when a god grew bored of this world, they would leave and ascend to a higher realm, and the Sky God position of this region had been vacant for a long time.
She already felt some connection between us when I first came to this world, but she had to wait until I faced some kind of heaven's punishment first. This was an event that a god has to face—an immense tragedy before truly ascending into godhood, transcending from a mere human. It seems like Aycecek was not only my happiness but also a saddest punishment.
Cynthia pointed out that we cannot outright kill Baghatur and destroy the Huna Confederation, because they are basically our believers right now. Not only that, they will be the foundations of many Tengrism empires in the future. So the revenge will have to wait for now. It seems like we don't have to worry about having believers or how to harvest faith for many centuries. But as we both came from the future, what worried us most was the Industrial Age. It wouldn't just cause our faith to fade by stretching too thin or being replaced by other beliefs. It would vanish altogether, disappearing behind the curtain long before any chance of revival.
We thought about building organizations to ensure the survival of our faith in other countries, or perhaps starting businesses that matched our aspects and could harvest faith and beliefs in us, or generate significant funds for us. This way, we could help our believers navigate through those dark ages.
With nothing much to do, I asked her more about how she got to this ancient world. "So were you sent here just like me?"
"Umm, it varies from person to person. Some transmigrate into historical figures, while others reincarnate, just like me. Being sent here like you is very rare, it might be because you already possess some divinity. And it's not like just anyone can become a god either, but I think all major civilizations had at least a few gods who came from the future, especially in the cradles of civilization like Mesopotamia, the Nile Valley of Egypt, the Indus Valley Civilization, the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins of China, and a few places in Mesoamerica and the Andes," she explained.
"Reincarnated where?" I asked, curious.
"A long time ago, I was born into a hunter tribe in the North. They lived in the northern tundra long before my birth. They were a really close community, so close that some distinguishing physical features were preserved throughout generations. Normally, our tribe had light skin, blue eyes and blonde hair but my own family carried an albino gene because they believed that white was sacred, and white animals were often used for sacrifice. I ascended and remembered all my past lives in one horrible winter. All of my family... no, my clan froze to death, a result of a chain of terrible events. I was the last of my clan, so I was forced to eat my people because we had also run out of food. But the cold eventually took me, I was already dead. My ascension brought me back to life, but it didn't do the same for my family. Even after I truly became a god, I still didn't have enough knowledge to bring them back to life—in short, a tragedy. So after that, I used all knowledge from the future combined with my divine power to help my tribe tame and raise mammoths," she told her story, her face looking like she had just woken up from a long nightmare.
My jaw literally dropped for a while, then I asked, "Mammoths!? How long are we talking about?"
The White Goddess paused before answering me, "Almost ten thousand of years passed."
"Aren't you lonely, Cynthia? That's a long, long time," I said, wondering.
"Not really. I meet other gods and reincarnated travelers from time to time. I also have many believers and followers over the years. Actually, the Reindeer Tribes still tell tales about my family tribe, the Sihirtia—a name that derived from my own, Cynthia. But what hurts me most is when they're gone, vanishing from the face of this world completely. Even with my help, not everyone can be blessed with an eternal life," she looked lost in her own thoughts before continuing. "That's our curse, Sky Father."
"Is this why you're helping me and my people?" I asked.
"Not really. My fate is already intertwined with yours. I have to help you one way or another. I actually teased you about being my partner forever, they're also my people now. Haven't you noticed that our divinity was weaving together even before we met each other? That's why I could observe you so easily." She paused, thinking, then said something interesting. "But you need to understand this: even with our divine power, we can't save all of them. You'll need to learn to let things go. Many believers will leave us behind, forget, or even hate us. You'll have to relearn how to love and be loved again as a god, but 'Learning' is your thing, isn't it?"
"Kind of... I think," I replied.
"I didn't tell you the details before, but we gods have many kinds of power. Power that comes with a role or duty, just like the lightning of the sky gods. General miracles that any god can perform. And the most unique ability is Innate Power, which differs from one god to another. Right now, you might be a sky god that associated with war, battle, and fighting, but your Innate Power is something else entirely. My guess is your Innate Power connects to something like 'Learning.' You completely learned their language, horse riding, archery, weapon skills, mountain guerrilla tactics, shamanism, and all of their knowledge within a year, didn't you?" she concluded.
"If you say it like that, it makes a little more sense now. Is that why I'm really good at learning things? It seems quite useful," I said, thinking aloud.
"Do you remember what I said before I switched to my true form? Please tell me in detail, word by word if you can," she asked.
"It seemed like you called upon great spirits from the sky and earth, asking for help? If I listened correctly, they were the Master of the Fire, the Spirit of the Earth, the Master of the Deer, and something like the Master of the Earth Deer. What was that?" I asked curiously.
"Oh dear, they are some kind of gods in my time. The Earth Deer are the Mammoths, by the way," she clarified, then continued with a glint in her eye, "Now, I've decided to share something quite extraordinary with you, just because of this unique ability of yours. I hadn't really thought about sharing this information with anyone before. This will be our top secret, especially from other gods. Do you want to connect to the internet?"
"What the hell!? Of course I do! Do you really have the internet? But how?" I was totally shocked.
"Calm down, Kris. Are you trying to spread the news or something? It's not really the true internet, but some kind of a backdoor to connect to it. My personal space, the White Room, has the ability to manifest my thoughts into reality. I found this glitch after I tried to create a smart TV in the White Room, and it can connect to TV programs and the internet. Not the real thing, but some kind of memories of this world, or rather this reality. I've used this memories to help out and teach my believers many things, but I think it will suits you more," she explained before a pause. "The information we can access comes from most ages of the internet and television, but later I found some restrictions. I cannot find any things past 2050. It seems someone blocked it, or something significant might happen in that year. This changes everything, even for the Gods of Time. We'll have to tell them about this one day in the future."
"This is too much, even for a god! Are you trying to make me crazy or something?" I protested.
"Ignorance is bliss, right? But not for the Gods, my Sky Father. You will have an important role to play, and knowledge is everything. Reading the script before acting is crucial, my dear." Each new detail she spoke pushed me further into madness.
"Damn, I feel like I'm ten years older after knowing this. I'm a little tired, but I need to ask one more thing: how do I use my Divine Power or make my own Personal Space?" I needed this information.
"It's the easiest and hardest thing at the same time, and you're already using it right now. It's like a life force for a god, you use it to talk and walk. You might still receive some energy from food, but to sustain a divine living body, a god needs a lot of energy like faith and beliefs. That's why many choose to ascend to a higher realm or become formless, unpersonified gods." She paused then said, "But if you want to perform a true miracle, you need to focus on something immensely. Things will manifest from your own intentions, using the Divine Energy that produced from your Divine Body as fuel to ignite and kick-start the process of manifestation that we call Divine Power. We can try later, maybe tomorrow."
"Sounds good to me, and for the Personal Space?" I continued my questions.
"It's quite the same, but at first it will spontaneously manifest on its own from our Divine Energy. It's almost like Innate Power wants to expand its own boundary but it's a little mystery, no one really knows how to awaken it in the first place. My guess is you need to completely understand or master your own Innate Power. After the first awakening, you just need to think about it to call upon your Personal Space. It's also easier to use our power within our own divine territory," she explained.
"So your power is related to creation or controlling things?" I questioned her.
"Something like that. I call it 'Engineer.' It can be used to create things, but it also needs real resources and knowledge. If I needed to make a gold necklace, I'd have to know how to make it first. But if I had other metal, I'd need to picture or imagine its bonds and molecules correctly and turn that metal's structure into the structure of gold. That's still too much for me, but it shows quite a potential. Unfortunately, even though it's easier to use 'Engineer' in my personal space, the only thing I can fully engineer is the White Room itself, not other materials."
Then Cynthia suddenly spoke in a lively tone, "But surprisingly, it's easier to modify living things. That might be because I used to be an amateur geneticist—or should I say a breeder, and a really good one too! You'll see when I return!"