A Bored God
This is one of a set of stories exploring the fictional world of Quenaunor. The previous story is here and the next story is here.
I’m bored. Even volcanoes aren’t interesting anymore. I used to love watching eruptions, watching creatures flee the flames, usually futilely. But after watching a few thousand, they are boring, the same as everything else. There isn’t anything that I haven’t already experienced at least a few dozen times. I helped build this entire world! Why is it so boring now? Ice ages, heat waves, eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, even meteor strikes. It all seems so trivial, so pointless now.
I nod, making a white rectangle, about the same height and width as me, appear in the air in front of me. “Fallis”, I say. It only takes a few seconds for the rectangle to shift and stretch, turning into a perfect replica of Fallis.
“What do you want? Keep it short, I’m busy.” She says it arrogantly. She’s never been much impressed by my specialties, and has made it obvious in the past that she looks down on me. Hopefully this idea I’ve had will change her opinion of me.
“I’m beginning to be bored with this world. Can you honestly tell me you aren’t?” I ask.
“Of course I’m bored”, she says, “I’ve been bored for five hundred years. That’s why I’m trying to work. I’m less bored when I’m making a new creature. I enjoy making things, and so it’s less boring than everything else.”
“If you’re bored, and I’m bored, than aren’t some of the others likely to be bored as well? Maybe we can all get together and do something interesting.”
“Like what? We’ve done just about everything that can be done with this planet. We’ve got another forty-five and a half thousand years of vacation before we have to leave, and we’ve already done just about everything there is to do. We’ve brought this planet in towards its sun a little, built oceans and landmasses logically, as if they had formed that way, built a complex ecosystem that could have evolved naturally, we’ve even designed precursors and scattered some bones around. This world appears completely natural, and might even fool an expert, but it’s also completely boring.”
“Maybe we could make something we’ve never made before. What if we made something … intelligent?”
She gasps. “Renu, you know we can’t do that. It’s against the very first commandment of planetary creation. ‘Thou shalt not create sentient life’. It would be interesting and new, but we simply aren’t allowed to. You know that. Besides that, I wouldn’t even know how to. I have no idea how to start when designing a brain that complex.”
“What reason do we have to follow the commandments? There isn’t anyone checking on us. No one would ever know. We would simply destroy it a few years or decades before we left, and have plenty of time to turn this world back into a perfectly natural one again, in case anyone ever came to check it out. And I’ve been looking at some of the more complex creatures we do have, and it shouldn’t be too hard to tweak some things to improve their intelligence. It should only take a couple of decades at the most.”
“I must admit it is tempting. Maybe we should talk to the others about it.” She says it hesitantly, but I know I’ve convinced her. She never could resist a challenge involving living things. She’ll revel in every difficulty she has creating these new beings.
She nods, and when she says “everyone, please” fourteen white rectangles appear around me, in a circle with me at one side. They begin to rotate into various other members of our group. When everyone has an image present, Fallis nods to me, and I begin to talk.
“Hello everyone. Fallis and I have been talking, and have both agreed that, despite the fact that this world is amazingly natural, it is rather boring. We’ve all done essentially everything there is to do with it, and I suppose we’re all probably pretty bored. So, we decided that, despite the fact that it is technically against the commandments, we would like to create an intelligent species.” There is an instant uproar, with everyone yelling and shouting. I wait, not responding to any of the comments yelled in my direction, until the circle becomes quiet.
Fallis responds to the objections before I can, saying “Now, I’m sure everyone is furious at Renu and I because of the blatant rule-breaking that this proposal would entail. However, it would be virtually impossible to be caught unless one of us talks about it to someone who isn’t here, and even that could only happen after we leave, as none of us are in contact with anyone back home. And while permanent destruction isn’t an attractive option, one of us would have to talk to someone about this, and they would also be destroyed. Therefore, there is almost no chance of us being caught. And once we have to leave, we can simply destroy them, and no one will realize that we’ve done anything against the commandments at all. I would not be surprised if making intelligent creatures was fairly common among worldbuilders, and is simply never detected.”
After Fallis’ little speech, everyone falls silent, thinking about what she’s said I’m a little angry at her for having appropriated my arguments for my proposition, but they appear to have been as effective on the rest of the group as they were on her. Everyone seems to be considering how easy it would be to simply cover up the evidence afterwards, how short a time it would take. They’re also considering how bored they all are. Keergard is the first to begin talking.
“I agree with Fallis and Renu.” he says. “It wouldn’t be difficult to do, and it would be child’s play to cover up the fact that we did it in case anyone came by later. And it would relieve some of the monotony I’m sure we all are experiencing, and, unless we do something to stop it, will experience for the rest of our vacation. Does anyone disagree?”
Radag began to disagree, but stopped as soon as she observed that no one supported her.
“Very well then, we are all in agreement. We will make intelligent life, and watch it blossom with a minimum of interference.”
At that I must say something. “Who decided we would have a minimum of interference?” I say. “Why can’t we talk to our new people, help them build up a culture?”
Keergard responds, saying “What? How would that be fun? If we interfere we’ll ruin the point of having something we don’t control. The reason everything is so monotonous is that we control every aspect of it.”
“I disagree,” I respond. “I’m willing to compromise, however. What if we teach them, give them a culture, a language, and some basic technology, but stay in contact for only a short time, say, fifty years. Then we will leave them alone and only watch. We can even place bets on their behaviour.”
Keergard agrees, and so do all the others. Now all that remains is to actually design and make the intelligent beings. I think I’ll call them ‘men’. It is a fitting name, as it means ‘smart’ or ‘intelligent’ in the more formal, older language of our people.”
Although we have now all agreed to create this intelligent species, the specifics of its design still need to be worked out. In my opinion, an ideal precursor species for the men, as many of the great apes that Fallis has made in various jungle and rainforest regions have manipulators that would allow an intelligent species to build tools in a way unparalleled by almost every other type of life, in addition to already having some of the most advanced minds of any creature we have. It would certainly be interesting to see what an intelligent species based on them would do. I’m beginning to warm to Keergard’s idea of minimal involvement, although a period of teaching at the beginning is practically a requirement, if they are to become interesting within a reasonable period of time.
When we meet again as a group, it is obvious that the others have been discussing this without contacting me, and it is also obvious that some divisions have occurred among them. They are now seem to be split into two groups, with Fallis heading a larger group, and Keergard leading a smaller one. As the discussion proceeds, the nature of the division between the two sides becomes obvious. They are arguing over the skills we should give the intelligent species, or men, as I have decided to name them. Fallis is arguing that we should give them magical abilities, or at least abilities that seem like magic to them, while Keergard says that we should give them technological skills, perhaps helping their technology with our powers in some way. I disagree with both sides, arguing that we should not give them any special skills besides intelligence, but I am badly outnumbered by both sides. The meeting ends badly, with Keergard’s group storming off angrily, followed shortly afterwards by Fallis’ group.
I decide that, if the others will not listen to my obviously superior ideas for the project I started, I will begin to design this new species myself. Creating life may not be my area of expertise, or where my talents lie, but if I must work somewhere outside my area of specialties, it might as well be doing something I want to do, rather than something I am forced to do. Surprisingly, when I next talk to each of the others, none of them speak of my brilliant idea, or of the new beings we meant to create. Perhaps they have decided to wait for a more opportune moment to breach their ideas once again. This suits me perfectly well, as I continue work on the men, designing and even building a few early versions. After a few decades, they are beginning to show signs of greater intelligence, including basic tool-using. I continue my work, designing a new language that I can teach them, one that they will be able to use, given their more limited communication abilities. A mere few decades after our first discussion on the topic, the men are finished. They have the ability to use simple tools, and are beginning to pick up my language, which I designed to be as natural-sounding as possible, as if they could have invented it themselves. I decide it is time for me to present my creation to the others.
I have only a few thousand of them, living in a small valley close to my home area, a spot none of the others are likely to visit. They have built small huts to live in, and are hunting successfully with sharpened sticks. A few of them have even built bows. It should only take them a few hundred more years to begin building a truly technological society. It should soon be time to start the fifty-year-long clock before I, and the others once I inform them of the existence of these creatures, will no longer interact with them. I hope that the others will not become angry at the fact that I have done this without their involvement or consent, but I will explain that, as no one else was taking any action on the proposal we had agreed on, I decided to design and create the new intelligent creatures myself. I fear that this will not be enough to persuade them to accept my creatures, but I can think of no other way to present them.
When I invite them to see the creatures, I realize that my assumption that no one else was taking any action on my proposal was incorrect. It seems that the reason for the silence of each group on the subject was that they were working on their own projects for intelligent creatures, in secret, similar to what I have done. I think Fallis in particular may be more furious at the fact that I finished before her than the fact that I actually did it. Both groups were only around halfway done with their species, as they were trying to pack far too many abilities into their new beings. However, they grudgingly accept that, as I am the only one of us to possess an intelligent species, they will allow me to keep it and train it, beginning the fifty-year-long period in which we are allowed to interact with it, although each would like to make a few modifications to my fundamental design. Both groups demand a few specimens to make the modifications they desire. They want to each teach their variation separately, revealing their final version when it is complete, but keeping the places where they are teaching them secret, to prevent me or the other group from training our creatures specifically to destroy theirs. This has become a design competition more than anything else, each group trying to outdo me and the other group. I agree to all of this, on the condition that their new versions must still be able to successfully breed with my originals. Both groups are somewhat satisfied with the arrangements, although they are obviously barely able to contain their fury at being beaten by me alone.
I continue to teach my men as the others work. I’m sure each group is trying to introduce as many of the characteristics and abilities they want as is possible, while still having their versions remain the same species as my original men. Fallis, who specializes in making new forms of life, will likely end up with a much better result than Keergard’s group, but she’s a perfectionist, and will probably spend far too much time on a single aspect of the creatures. After all, they will only have fifty years to teach their respective variations on my men, the time they take to implement their changes will reduce the amount of time they have to teach their creations.
Keergard reveals his creatures first. That’s when I realize there’s a fundamental flaw in my condition for their variations. I’d told them that their creatures had to be able to breed with mine, but I’d neglected to explicitly mention that they had to create viable offspring. Keergard’s group’s creations, which he calls dwarves due to their short stature and impressive strength, can interbreed with mine, but their offspring are sterile, often deformed and stunted. They usually die quickly, or are stillborn. This workaround means that his dwarves and my men will not become indistinguishable within a few dozen generations due to interbreeding, as I had intended, but will instead remain distinct. I know that if Fallis’ group has not already seen this loophole and made offspring between my creations and theirs sterile, they will now.
Keergard’s creatures are masters of mechanical design, grasp complex mathematics quickly, and easily design ships. And, although I do not discover it until later, at the same time as he and the rest of his group revealed his dwarves to me and Fallis’ group, he managed to turn around two percent of the iron in the crust of this world into a material I have never seen before, a metal that has similar properties to iron, although it shines somewhat more and is slightly less dense, but stores energy when stretched much better, to the point where springs made of it could be effective energy storage devices, with an energy density similar to coal or oil. He is calling the substance mythril.
Fallis and her group do not reveal their creation, which they call elves for some reason, until a mere two years before the fifty-year period is finished. As I had thought might happen, she has focussed far too much on a single area, leaving everything else to the last minute. She has used Keergard’s workaround, and her creatures cannot create viable offspring with mine, but her modifications have almost entirely focussed on outward appearance, without changing any of the fundamental abilities of my men beyond improving their senses in a few fairly minor ways and improving their agility, speed, and reaction times at the cost of reducing their raw physical strength. Her creations have much more angular faces, extended, pointed ears, and thinner, more agile bodies. They also have better vision, especially in low light levels, better directional hearing, and a significantly improved sense of smell. However, due to the small amount of time she has remaining to teach her creations new skills, I believe my men will likely outperform her elves despite their speed and enhanced senses. They are well on their way to the beginnings of a basic understanding of tactics and strategy.
I am far more worried about Keergard’s dwarves, who seem to be almost perfectly suited to developing and improving ranged weapons. I’ve been teaching my creations to kill them whenever they find them and giving them techniques to counteract whatever mythril weapons Keergard’s group might dream up for them, and, when Fallis’ group reveals their elves, I begin to teach my creations to kill them as well. By the time I must leave them, my men will be more technologically advanced then either of their competitors, and will kill any they meet on sight. I do not expect the others’ creations to last more than a few centuries before the technological head start I have given my men overwhelms them. My only fear is that the dwarves’ minds, which Keergard seems to have designed specifically to understand mathematics and projectiles, will be enough to make up the technological gap.
The fifty years are now up, and, as we agreed, we reveal the areas where our creatures live to the others. I am horrified by what I see. My poor men will have no chance of survival against what the others have. The dwarves are already building primitive spear launchers from their mythril springs, and are developing advanced techniques in blacksmithing. Keergard and his group have trained them well. The elves’ abilities are equally terrifying. Fallis’ group, or more specifically Sila, one of their most inventive creators, has given them magical abilities, giving some of them the power to turn small pieces of mythril, usually as rings or bracelets, into devices that can produce flames, air, or water. These amulets, as they call them, are fearsome weapons capable of making small, light bracelets as effective as powerful longbows, which are much heavier and take much more training to be able to effectively use. She has also erected a number of domes, varying in size from a few metres in diameter to more than two hundred. Although the purpose of these domes is currently unknown, they will likely be additional resources for the elves’ magical powers, perhaps giving them the ability to amplify their amulets’ powers, or do some entirely different form of magic.
Between the dwarves’ technological prowess based on mythril, and the elves’ magical abilities, my poor men will stand almost no chance against the fearsome weapons that my competitors have given their creations. The best I can hope for is that some of them may survive until the two powers possessed by the elves and dwarves allow them to wipe each other out. It is their only chance of avoiding extinction.
Notes: This is the creation story of Quenaunor, told from the point of view of one of the creators, which are worshipped as gods among the people of the world. The identity of these beings is left to the imagination of readers (for now). Comments with theories are welcome!
