"He's the son of the previous Glorious Leader who led Ibyabek to independence."

"independence from who?"

"Sohaibek."

"What happened?"

"Uh, Pheon Naar Am was a philosopher and he saw that the way the people of Sohaibek lived and were governed was bad for them, and he convinced the people of what was then Inner Sohaibek to join together and resist the unjust government, and succeeded, but on Outer Sohaibek right philosophy didn't make it to enough people and they started a war, and Old Sohaibek, in between the two, was melted in their crazed attempt to prevent the Glorious Leader's ideas from taking hold there, but we were able to fight them off in the end and keep Ibyabek as it is now."

"The whole planet was ...melted? You can do that?"

"Yes. Well, I think probably some islands would still be habitable."

"Wow."

"It was a very bad war, one of the only times a planet has been melted in anger."

Nod. "I'm - sorry. I can't even imagine. The government that did this, are they still in power?"

"Yes, Outer Sohaibek's government has continuity with that one. Though they change leaders every few years."

Nod. "What other places are there? What's the biggest empire?"

"United Kular has the most planets but I think Xeren has a larger population."

"How many people is that?"

"Xeren? I've heard twenty billion. It's probably rounded and they have probably grown since then."

"...wow. And they all just. When they die, they just don't go anywhere because there aren't local gods to catch them?"

"There is as far as I know no afterlife."

"Maybe if we find them or vice versa the gods will be able to set up shop."

"Maybe." He has no idea what to think of that but fortunately she did not ask.

She feels like she is going to need to give a better pitch for Asmodeus but she's not sure what people who have entire planets care about. "What sort of things have been recently invented in Ibyabek?"

"Uh, why do you ask? I'm not an inventor, I wouldn't be able to explain any of it."

"No, no, I understand that, I'll stop bothering you about how to make things, probably our government will seek guidance from yours - I was just wondering, uh, what some of the most valuable things you do are, and for us inventing new magic is one of the most valuable things."

"Well, there isn't any magic. There are cars and helicopters and things. And spaceships. And the machinery in factories, and lights, and plumbing. I assume the engineers improve those sometimes."

Maybe eventually you have invented everything there is to invent and it's just tinkering. "What's a helicopter?"

"In-atmosphere flying machine. It has spinning rotors on top of it and they carry it in the air."