"They still have Erus and Valar and Elves and Dwarves and orcs, and with a higher tech level roughly the same - plot - can play out at greater scale. There's other variants. Some Ardas are gender swapped. I seem to be in only one of them as far as Bar can tell - I'm one of Cam's alts who doesn't look like him -"

"Otherwise they have the same people?"

"The chip ones have almost all the same people except Ambela and differences that are plausibly a consequence of her, the soul ones have fewer but some are the same. We're putting together a big document of people, for each other."

"It'll have to be really big -"

"Hundred million or so. I don't know how magic blessings work but if they don't stack far enough you can keep it on a computer -"

"They don't stack quite that far but if time's stopped perhaps we can fetch my brothers and they can park here and improve them - it's just a question of research time -"

"That'd be useful to have, since ours only work for chipped people at all."

"There's a different kinda brain chip that can let you control a different kinda computer, works fine on the sci-fi Elves, probably you too but - well, maybe Bar knows and if she doesn't there's an infirmary we could install it in for safety."

"And you're already familiar with the Enemy because all of the same people?"

"Yes."

He nods.

He sits down. 

"Okay. I think I want to read about the not-terrible Valar and decide whether contact between them and my set is likely to be a disaster. Is anything at all time-sensitive, is there anything from my world non-redundant with the resources you already have -"

"The other soul Arda's really new so most magic artifact stuff you'd have would be new, and most of your magic songs invented since you were four, and also you seem to be a non-standard variant - at least, you're not one I found, Ambela did you -"

"Nope."

"What's your point of reference for standard -"

"Commonality. At least up to whenever the multiverse intrudes."

"Okay - Oromë eventually finds Elves by Cuivienen, Valar imprison Melkor, Valar take some Elves back to Valinor with them, my grandmother dies and is prohibited from returning to life lest the king have two wives, which is against Eru's teachings on marriage, Melkor pardoned, Melkor sows rumors and provokes fights and murders people and so on -"

"  - murders people before Finwë?"

"Couple dozen unexplained deaths and disappearances in the leadup to the Darkening, yes -"

"The Valar didn't flip out about murders in Valinor? Or they did but not quickly enough -?"

"The Valar always flipped out about murders in Valinor, that's when they'd try things like altering everyone to be more pacifist, it kind of scared people so they took to covering things up..."

"...That wasn't the first time?"

"...no?"

"So the divergence is... earlier."

"...usually there are no murders in Valinor until Melkor kills my grandfather?"

"Even in the larger population planetary version there's... one negligent homicide...?"