"Sounds like religious plurality can only improve things."

"Eh, they have stupid fights and persecute each other."

"But at least in this country none are law."

"The vampire one has some serious power but only over vampires."

"There's a god for the whole species and literally no one else?"

"There's a religion for the whole species and literally no one else," corrects Kaylo.

"I meant, like, within their religion."

"I think so. They're very secretive about it."

"A secretive religion. What a novel concept. I guess I shouldn't really be surprised about anything, a sample size of one plus history books and regional variations shouldn't mean anything."

"How'd one religion get universal? The vampires needed a plague and that's just one species."

"The War, probably, killed more people than any plagues—although history is not well-documented enough."

"I mean, the plague selectively killed people who didn't belong to their religion."

"...what?"

"Not for, like, divine reasons, because their religion forbids feeding on people without their consent and the plague was fatal to vampires who preyed on whoever had it so it mattered if your snack could tell you to fuck off."

"It's asymptomatic in other species? And that's why they need consent?"

"It's symptomatic, just not conspicuous. And we're exhausting my knowledge of vampire theology."

"Huh. Well, anyway, the people who managed to win the War probably enforced their religion on everyone and that's how it became so widespread," he shrugs.

"Makes sense as far as that goes, I suppose."

"History's not very well-documented, like I said. Which is funny if you think of how much tech they had, but the fact that there is a whole Guild for Historians might explain it—they could just have some widespread conspiracy to keep ancient history books from leaking or something."

"Why would historians want to do that?"

"I don't think the widespread conspiracy is at all likely, it's just that the majority of pre-War records having mysteriously vanished or not been produced at all sounds... about as likely."

"Were people literate back then?"

"Not less than they are now, I'd expect, given how advanced their magitech was."

"Some cultures get pretty far without writing."

"I suppose it's possible. I mean they'd invented it, we do have some records, just not many."