Targovi, an Imhotepan Tigery, to Wo Lia, a wandering Cynthian (both currently on Daedalus):
"'Pray to your little gods that you never have to be locked up.'" (p. 327)
Are Cynthians polytheists or is Targovi merely projecting his paganism onto them?
Wo Lia to Targovi:
"'If you fail, I will kindle a light for your ghost. Wan jin rao.'"(p. 328)
(Three untranslated words of Cynthian.) Do Cynthians kindle lights for ghosts or is Wo Lia acknowledging Tigery custom?
Would the purpose of the light be to help the ghost to find his way home? I read a Chinese story about a doctor who was called out of his body to treat a patient in the supernatural realm where some kind of riot or disturbance was taking place. The patient, having recovered, went out and addressed the crowd, "You are still my subjects! They lied who told you the King of Death was dead!" The doctor, appalled, fled back toward a light that been left shining beside his comatose body. If it had not been for that light, he would not have found his way home.
Will different intelligent species project distinctive pantheons that will merge when there is interstellar travel? Will there also be mutually incompatible monotheisms like "the God" of the Merseian Roidhunate or "God the Hunter" of the Ythrian New Faith? I strongly suspect that nothing will be as sf writers have imagined it.
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