Philoscifi

On the brink of destruction, the world desperately needs a Hero. Phil Safari, a reluctant Candidate, must prove himself worthy to the gods by completing a Heroic Task: change 1000 lives for the better… or else! The following is part of the Safaris – a collection of Phil’s misadventures in Heroism. Find out how it all started and what he has learned about love, life, and the pursuit of happiness.

This is it, I thought. The moment of truth. How surprising it was to find my heart beating fast. Could it be that I was nervous? I, a warrior goddess of countless battles, nervous like it was my first? I laughed inwardly at myself. And why not? The stakes were high, and the margin for error was razor thin. Gods were not so different from men.

I took a deep breath. So let it begin.

“In the beginning, there was only chaos. The earliest gods discovered that chaos was the most remarkable of materials; it seemed to embody all possibilities both creative and destructive. After several attempts, the gods created the universe as we know it using this chaos. But they soon realized that order could not sustain itself, for chaos tended to revert to its original form over time. The gods had to devote some of their powers to the upkeep of their creation.

“To make matters worse, chaos tended to destabilize order, and the universe was surrounded by an endless supply of chaos. As upkeep became more and more demanding, and we reluctantly contemplated allowing the universe to unravel. It seemed to be a losing battle.

“But then in a flash of brilliance, Hades, the brooding thinker among us, came up with a solution. Why not create a sentient, self propagating race to help us? Rapid self propagation wasn’t enough, as we had discovered with the other animals. To be truly helpful, this species needed an infusion of divine power so that it could possibly create better ways of ordering chaos than simply creating versions of itself.

“Zeus was initially resistant to this idea, for he saw danger in giving a species such power, but he finally agreed after several measures were added. The species would have relatively short life spans and would be fitted with Limiters that restricted their creative abilities.

“So it came to pass that Man was created in the image of the gods. The first humans were fashioned from the most evolved earthy creatures at the time: the apes. At their cores were divine sparks, what you humans call ‘souls.’ They were given two primary tasks: first and foremost, to be the catalogers and caretakers of creation, and secondly, to worship the gods.

“Other than that, humans were given free reign. Hades was curious to see what humans might create, but he was much more interested in what light humans could shed on the true nature of chaos. Was it essentially creative or destructive? Or if you prefer, good or evil?

“A system was set up to manage the transmigration of souls, and Hades volunteered to run it. By examining souls after life, he figured that he might finally be able to answer that age-old question… Is everything all right, Phil?”

Phil was hunched over, holding his head as if it were going to explode. He looked up and said, “So, let me get this straight – we are basically self propagating sorting algorithms for Hades’ chaos experiment??”

I pursed my lips. This was the tricky part, and I had to be careful here. Phil was in a fragile state of mind, and I wasn’t sure how much he could take at one time.

“I wouldn’t say that,” I said carefully. “Perhaps that was the original intent, but humans exceeded our wildest expectations. You are capable of creating such beautiful works and yet capable of the most heinous acts as well. At first we thought such variation was due to your immaturity as a species, but lately we’ve come to believe that it’s simply the nature of life. Like a mirror, you have taught us much about ourselves.

“Anyway, we grew quite fond of you as you might recall, actively participating in your affairs. The rise and fall of history have our fingerprints all over them.

“But then in a curious thing happened: we discovered other gods.”

Phil sat up, visibly excited.

“Yes, Phil. Exciting stuff. Apparently there are many dimensions of space-time, each populated by their own gods, and all of these dimensions have one thing in common: humanity. Care to anticipate where I’m going with this, Phil?”

“So… it’s possible that we humans created the gods, and not vice versa.”

“Outstanding!” I exclaimed, beaming with pride. That’s my Phil. “It appears that a new world is created every time you imagine one, so there are quite a few worlds out there.”

“If this is the case, then why the hell didn’t you just start here instead of spewing nonsense?? If we created you, you couldn’t possibly have created us!”

“Because it’s important for you to understand how the gods viewed things and because some of it is still true. Regardless of which version of the ‘Truth’ you subscribe to, the underlying facts are the same: the universe was created from chaos; there is a system for the transmigration of souls; and Limiters exist.”

“Fine, whatever. Carrying my logic further, it’s also possible that your power – nay, your very existence - depends on our belief in you,” Phil continued slowly.

“Well, not exactly. Once created, we continue to exist as originally conceived, regardless of your beliefs. What belief does is affect our ability to transcend the barrier between the spiritual and earthly planes. It takes a large amount of energy to do this, and belief provides such energy. Without it, we must expend a fair amount of our own powers just to materialize in the earthly plane; as a result, we seem less powerful than we really are. It’s all relative.”

Phil laughed bitterly. “This is just too much. We created gods who manipulate us like chess pieces just to give us a sense of purpose.”

“That’s one way to think about it, but it’s not very constructive,” I said carefully. “Incidentally, it’s better to keep all of this to yourself. Only a few gods fully realize and accept this reality…and Zeus is not one of them.”

“Sure, why not? Humans live only to serve the gods, right?” I winced at the vehemence of Phil’s reply. “Please, continue. You are saying how you used us as pawns and how the ebbs and flows of this battle is what we call ‘history.’”

“Yes, that was true for time, but no god has meddled in human affairs for ages now. We have put aside our differences to fight a common foe. There is a war raging in the heavens, and we need your help.”

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