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from his father: they were to have no gods but him before them. This
demand of exclusivity is fine when you are a lonely godling ruling over
nomads in featureless wastes there were no other gods who wanted
those people.
Odin frowned.  When Jehovah s people were captive in Thothheim
and Baalheim, they were no threat to the indigenous gods.
 No, but the Christ s second demand of his believers is what made
them malignant. I put an edge into my voice so even Thor could
understand what I was saying was important.  The Christ demanded they
share their religion with others, who would then become exclusively his and
spread the faith further.
Thor shook his head.  I don t believe you. I would remember such a
thing.
 You don t remember because the Christ movement took hold in our
realm almost overnight. As we concerned ourselves with the coming of
Ragnarok, the Christers stole into our lands. Our believers dwindled, then
abandoned us. We fell into the sleep of the forgotten.
Heimdall cocked an eyebrow at me.  If this is true, if we all became
forgotten, how is it you know this story?
I pressed my hands together, fingertip to fingertip.  In their zeal to
spread Christism, they linked me with Lucifer, the ancient enemy Jehovah
spawned and who tormented Joshua. There are those humans who always
go against the prevailing sentiment of society, and worshiping me became
a viable alternative for them.
Tyr reached up with his mechanical hand and tried to pluck a fly out of
the air.  If these Christers hold sway, how are we here, now?
My smile broadened.  Christism did become quite widespread and
certainly become the dominant religion in the world, but  it is based on
tolerance and pacifism. As a result, some evils in the world go unchecked. I
believe it was the slaughter of Jehovah s core constituency in central
Europe that first alarmed Jehovah. He took a look at what ~ the Christ had
done with the family firm and initiated a hostile takeover of the enterprise.
He forced Joshua out and returned things to the way they had been. Joshua
im-mediately struck out on his own, but his people had be-come
fragmented and his doctrine muddled. At the same time Christism became
seen by any number of people as theological imperialism, so they rejected
it and returned to the old ways.
 Our ways.
 I cannot believe it. Thor frowned mightily.  You say this Christ was a
pacifist who preached tolerance.
 Exactly.
 No fighting? No warrior tradition?
 No, he was a pacifist. He completely eschewed violence.
Thor s lower lip quivered for a moment.  If he was a pacifist, how
were we defeated?
I smiled.  He offered people something they wanted. He promised
them life after death.
 So did we.
Odin pressed his hands to the tabletop.  This brings us to the point of
this meeting. The return of people to the old faiths has given us another
chance at life, but these people are not the people we knew of old. Things
are different, now, and we must avail ourselves of the means we have today
to guarantee we do not go away again.
Thor shook his head. I don t understand. We are the gods. We do not
change. People worship us for what we are, what we offer them.
 And there is the problem. I frowned.  Quite frankly, the Aesir are a
public relations nightmare. All of us here have our warrior aspects, but war
just isn t in vogue any more.
Thor s eyes blazed.  War is the most noble and lofty pursuit to which
a man can aspire. This is why the boldest and most brave warriors are
plucked by the Valkyries from the fields of the dead and brought to Valhalla.
Odin him-self ordered warriors to be buried with their arms and armor so
they would be prepared to join us in the last days, fighting against our foes
at Ragnarok!
I sighed.  Look, we really need to rethink this Rag-narok thing. The
Christers pretty much own the idea of a grand battle to usher in the end of
the world, so our Rag-narok just comes across as a pale imitation of their
Arma-geddon. And this warriors-only thing, that s got to go, too.
The god of thunder s voice boomed.  What? You want to admit other
than warriors to Valhalla?
 Thor, what you would recognize as warriors in this era carry weapons
that can kill a man at over a mile. Most of the wars now are called police [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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