"Why have you come here, exalted Novos?" The woman in the black and yellow robes asked. Her manner of speaking the language was far more formal than Celestine was used to. If not for her mannerisms, I wouldn't have understood what she was saying.

Why am I here? That was a question I didn't quite know myself. I wasn't sent here by God. I am not some great hero brought here to slay some great evil as far as I know. I woke up in Celestine's head two of this planet's years ago and just kinda sat back while improving her memory. And what a memory she has now! I was living in my own personal library and could recall any bit of information she soaked up, even if she didn't understand it entirely herself.

Time for a refresher. From my ramblings early on in my time in the static void, I gave a brief description of the world I wanted to travel to and be reborn on. Erde fits all of the criteria for my ramblings so far... except the number of continents part. Instead of 7 continents, there are at least 5. If this world is really like what I was hoping for, there should be 2 more continents hiding in the vast oceans somewhere. Celestine, when you get older, we're going to turn you into a sailor after we've thoroughly explored the known 5 continents!

Going through what Celestine knows from what she's read might help find an answer to the woman's question. Rather, help me come up with an excuse for why a god would help a normal young girl.

Let's start with the continents. Humans exist on all five known continents, but are the most dominant species on the continent Sirius. Sirius experiences bitter cold winters and mild summers with the occasional light snow shower even on the longest day of the year. It is very far north, in other words. We are not on Sirius. The reason why humans are the most dominant on Sirius is simply due to no other species wanting it. Vast meadows of ground frozen year-long. It survives solely on importation of produce from other continents, hunting of magical beasts, and fishing. According to the books she's read, the humans who live here are constantly trying to teraform it to be able to grow crops. She was mostly wanting to go there to see the snow. The central leading government is an oligarchy with several independent tribes and city-states scattered around.

The continent we're currently on is a continent controlled by several different species of beast-men called Izaibis. Unlike what you would usually think of when you hear the word continent, Izaibis is just an incredibly long stretch of land. It stretches from one side of the world, starting at the equator, and arches in a crescent to the south pole before extending even further back north to end right at the south-east corner of the Elf continent Eldwen, which I will talk about in a bit. Even at its widest you could walk from the west coast to the east coast in ten days. But it would take you well over half an Earth year to walk from one tip to the other provided the most favorable conditions. And there is no such thing as favorable conditions on this continent. At the equator it starts off as a desert and then as you move south, it becomes slightly more temperate. This is the area we live in. The climate is like Earth's California or West Spain and Portugal. Very hot summers, not so cold winters, hardly ever rains. It's covered in grass land but the soil is very dry. It's difficult to grow anything here without being able to collect large amounts of freshwater for irrigation. Further south you go, the more mountainous it gets with thick forests. After that you get terrain similar to Sirius. Then it transitions to enormous ice plateaus as glaciers migrate from the south pole of the planet. Coming back up, more permafrost, then a volcano separates the frozen land from the tropical minor tip of the long continent of Izaibis before the continent connects to Eldwen through a briny swamp. Throughout the whole journey not only will you end up fighting magical beasts, you will also fight the many beast-men species as they fight amongst themselves for territory. The continent is too expansive for any central government. Humans are allowed to govern very minor city-states provided they offer various services to the beast-men tribe in control of the territory. These range from providing free maintenance on equipment to providing unpaid labor. All depends on the culture of the tribe and what they need. As for what Celestine's hometown provides, I do not know. But the snake beast-man she saw that one day makes it obvious what species controls this area. The continent is starving for natural resources, further fuelling the warring between the beast-men species. The main exports of the continent are weapons and prisoners of war to be sold as slaves. Main imports are metal for making more weapons and magical stones for improving weapons and equipment.

Okay. Onto the elf continent, Eldwen! Eldwen is the largest continent for surface area. And the entire continent is an enormous forest. The tree species and the climates change, but the fact that it is all forest does not change. Rather disappointing, really. Elves and trees, a stereotype that will never go away, huh. Anyway, the whole continent is one big forest. Because of the richness of the soil caused by millennia of dead things piling up and turning to mulch, the soil is incredibly rich and is one of the minor exports of the continent, mostly bought by humans in attempts to grow crops on their cold continent. The elves are also skilled woodworkers and carpenters. So wood products and tree fruit are the leading products they export. What they import the most is stone and metal for masonry projects. Yes, go against the stereotype! The major port cities are just like human cities with only a fringe minority of elves living like their ancestors in the trees deeper within the continent. The continent is controlled by the religious leaders of the elves, a theocracy.

Going west we come back around near to home. Off the major tip of Izaibis is the mostly desert continent that the demon-kind have claimed. Saddath is a land devoid of all but the most hardy vegetation. And it is a land absolutely teeming with natural resources. Mines have been dug in this continent that have existed for thousands of years. The demon-kind are the leading supplier of stone and metal in the world. They are also the major importer of freshwater and food. Living in this land is harsh. Travel through it is almost impossible. There is no central government in Saddath. It is just city-states near central trading hubs between Eldwen, Izaibis, and the next continent I will talk about.

Connecting to Saddath from the west, similar to how Europe connects to Asia by being separated by mountains, is the common ground continent of... Hope. The continent literally translates to Hope. Would you be surprised if I said this continent houses the only true democratic country in the world? It is a peaceful continent with almost zero magical beast attacks and it is the home continent of the human race. Being humans and vying for control of the farmlands of the continent, the human nations on the continent fought each other for centuries. Then on another part of the world, several peace-loving beast-men species from Izaibis got tired of the pointless bloodshed of their own continent and sailed to find a new land. They found Hope and forcefully confiscated it from the warring human nations and unified them under their banner. I said peace-loving, doesn't mean they were weak or weren't prepared to do what they needed to do to make peace. They banished many human noble families and seats of royalty to Sirius for their role in the bloodshed, which is why only humans dominate that frozen hell. The beast-men instituted no-discrimination laws, renamed the continent to Hope, scrubbed the old name from history, and opened all the ports for immigration and refugees. After the population was suffused with many different species, they implemented a very simple democratic system for deciding leadership. They are the leading provider of food for regions on the planet that cannot self-sustain themselves. The majority of the bread Celestine has eaten was baked from grain grown here.

Now, why am I here? Why would I, a false god, help this insignificant human existence with the name Celestine? Hmph, why else?

"I was bored." I said plainly.

The old woman clearly wasn't expecting this answer. What, were you hoping for some prophecy of a great evil on the horizon? Or a natural disaster that only this child could avoid? Nope, I will not lie, but I will not tell the truth either.

"B-bored?" Her mouth was agape, astonished! Yeah! The great (false) god Novos was bored!

"Yes. I was bored. Ahh, I want to see the world but it's no fun to just watch from above, so I took a liking to this child here and blessed her. I plan to guard over the child throughout her life and push her toward greatness!"

"Y-you did say you were a young god." The old woman in black and yellow robes chuckled softly. I'm starting to like her.

I turned Celestine's head toward Sylvianna, who was just staring at her own daughter while still on her knees. "I hope you won't mind my in your daughter's life. There's so much more she can do with her life than just read books."

"Y-y-yes..." Her reply was like a whisper.

"Time for Celestine to go back to sleep now. I'll leave you folks for now." I said through Celestine's mouth and laid her body back down against the table and closed her eyes. Then I moved myself back to where I was in her subconscious before to where I can only hear.

"Reemaaaarkable! I never thought I would live to hear the will of a god!" The man who had inspected Celestine before shouted with emotion I had yet to hear from him. He chastised Sylvianna earlier for speaking loudly and now here he is.

"Indeed. And quite the character this young god Novos is. I'll alert the head priest to visit and give his own thoughts on the matter. Interesting times ahead. Sylvianna?"

I could hear scrambling, probably Sylvianna hurriedly rushing to her feet. "Yesh-" Did she just bite her tongue?

"You should speak with her father concerning this. Maybe with the blessing of a god he might be willing to increase the support to fuel her development and so you no longer have to starve yourself. If he puts up resistance, I will intervene."

What's this about Celestine's father now? This is the only time I have ever heard him mentioned and Celestine has no memory of a father-figure. Please don't be what I think it is...