And so, the last tribe of the Gar’shan split from the others and went south, away from our lands. They started worshipping a supposed son of God and were blasphemous. They treated the saints as gods and goddesses in their own right, only below God. – The Creations, Chapter 35 Verses 20-23

Congratulations, you have gained 10 XP for surviving the Deadlands.

I opened my eyes. I was back in the world of the living and even though it was dark, it felt teeming with life. I was so used to the sterile, though crowded, landscape of the Deadlands. I looked around. Yes, I recognized this spot- where Jonar and I first met. Here, alone in the dark, I felt the forest was a little too teeming with life. I shivered in the early spring night air.

“Jonar?” I whispered loudly, hoping to find him soon. If he even came here. Or he might have come here and got tired of waiting.

“Jonar!” I said more loudly, but still in a stage whisper. I didn’t want to alert every monster and animal within a mile, not to mention a possible assassin, where I was exactly.

“Seth?” as voice said, not far behind some bushes. It rustled a little and out came Jonar.

“I knew you would be alive. I mean who would let themselves die for someone they met only an hour before! How did you escape that man?” He asked, words gushing out.

He came up and gave me a hug. I reciprocated, patting him on the back.

“I barely made it- that assassin was deadly! But I escaped and made sure he didn’t follow me. That’s what took so long in getting here.” I had a feeling that while I liked Jonar, I couldn’t trust him with being a potential deity in his eyes yet. “What about you?” I asked.

His whole body slumped, grief showing on his face. “He killed my best friends- my family, Seth. I can’t go back to there or the town ever again. I always knew they were leery of us, with our beliefs and everything, but I never thought it would escalate like this- none of us did.” Tears shone in his eyes, and I noticed that his eyes already looked puffy. He must have cried quite a bit before I found him.

I then thought of my family and noticed a hole where my emotions were. I loved them dearly, still, and missed them even more. But it felt like a tiny piece of the puzzle was missing somehow. I focused back on Jonar.

“I am so sorry, Jonar. I can’t imagine the pain you are going through. I am here to help, though. I will do anything I can to help you get through this.”

Jonar sniffled and straightened up. “I might need that help, I have never been alone before, not like this. I do not have my friends to come back to. And likely I am the only soul believer around for miles and miles.”

“Soul believer,” I asked.

“It probably won’t make sense to you, as you are Gar’shan and what I have been told, your kind already believe in souls.” I nodded to him. Not only did I believed in them, but I also just saw a few thousand or so. But this was a game. In real life, souls were an unknown.

The question of AIs having souls was quite a bit of a hot topic back on Earth, especially before realizing the Apocalypse was coming. Most atheists didn’t believe in the soul in the first place, so didn’t believe that AIs had souls. So it really depended on the individual how AIs were treated. Conservatives of many religions argued that because they didn’t have souls, the commandment to be kind to your neighbor didn’t apply to AI- thus they were tools at best. More liberal people and religions saw AI as our creation, so we must mirror how God treats us. God treats us well, so we must treat our own creations well. That was just general opinions- individuals differed greatly on the topic.

Laws had protected AI for a time, only to have those protections be thrown out the window once we knew the world was ending.

I was thinking about the history of AIs and souls when I noticed Jonar looking at me, Oh, yeah, I thought, he asked if Gar’shan believed everyone had souls. “Yes, they- um, we do.” I said to Jonas. I still didn’t know much about the Gar’shan, so I had to play along.

“Well, Yeshuans do not believe that any person has a soul. We are just born and die, serving nothing. Our God does state that there are certain people with souls, people who are either awakened and are immortal for a time or those who lived and became mini deities. They have souls and should be treated as such… everyone else… nothing.”

I nodded. I had heard a little of this during character creation. “I see. Tell me more of your God.”

“Well, we believe that ours and yours are the same, but that both is us have vastly different views and beliefs. We also have a scripture that comes from thousands of years ago, from a different plane of existence. It tells of God and His son, Yeshua. Yeshua came and gave many laws that apply only to people who have souls.”

I continued nodding, having an inkling of what was coming.

“Well, around 800 or so many years ago, we used to believe in many gods and goddesses. Then some great people came along and told us of Yeshua, and that they had souls. They quickly were worshipped them as living deities, second only to God and Yeshua. We forgot our original gods and beliefs.”

“The belief that we had no souls caused a great time of darkness. People had little or no laws. Parents killed their children, or children killed their parents. Life was terrible. There was no real government and no social goals, other than treating the few who had souls like they were kings and queens. It was that religion that kept us going, until they all disappeared. Then we were alone, but we were told they would come back; that we must keep the faith and wait for them.

“Then our nation, which was in a dark age, got a king who rallied us together. Just because we were soulless didn’t mean we could become lawless. That king and his offspring have created a dynasty that still exists today. Queen Trifala is the one who rules today. She makes sure that we are taxed and in exchange she enforces laws. She also makes sure we all tithe a percentage of our wealth and income to the stockpile- money, treasures and weapons saved for the deities who have souls to come back.”

So, it seemed some religious group gathered in the ship and wanted to ensure they were treated well, all while selling an abridgment of their faith to the AIs. What psychological scars had they left an entire nation of people? I wasn’t sure where I stood on the whole souls issue- I was agnostic at best- but these people had thoughts and feelings and emotions.

“So where does that leave you, what do you believe?”

He thought for a little bit. “Me and my friends and others believe that there is God, like the scriptures state. We also believe in Yeshua and his messages. We just believe that his messages applies to us. That we have souls and an innate worth. We are harmless, we treat everyone with respect and kindness. How could we not? I have a soul, you have a soul, how could we not treat each other with respect and as equals? But that is a bridge too far for most Yeshuans, and we were kicked out of the city.”

“What about the people who left hundreds of years ago, do you believe in them?”

“Yes, we do. We believe that they are special and should be treated as such. But there is only one God and Hos son. They are to be worshipped. The others, the saints as we called them? Not so much.”

I nodded. I grew to like Jonar more after being told of all of this. He sounded like a group of people called hippies from two centuries before the Earth died. Love everyone, treat each other with love and respect. It was quaint, but sweet.

“I like your beliefs, they are nice. It explains why you were so kind to me when we first met. I am sorry I could not meet your friends- your family.”

Jonar smiled sadly. “Thank you. But I am sure they are in a better place now.”

Not likely, I thought to myself, remembering the Deadlands. I let him continue to believe in a better afterlife, however. Maybe I would take the domain of the underworld and send his friends on to a better place eventually.

“Well, I still plan on going to Solom, will you still come with me?”

Jonar shrugged. “I don’t have anything to sell, and have no home or place I can go, so why not? Maybe the Gar’shan would accept me.”

“I cannot promise that Jonar. But I will do anything in my power to have them accept you, if my word means anything.”

He nodded and without much more discussion, we headed north.