Zackaria was fervently looking over several books and parchments splayed across his desk. He barely noticed his apprentice's entry. "Prince Garam, did you get what I asked?"
"Right here, sir." He struggled to get his words out as he placed three oversized tomes on his teacher's desk. "What is it that we're looking for again? You haven't told me yet."
"Something has been seriously bugging me since our first meeting with the Heroes. Vanity mentioned that the weren't from different worlds but different 'timelines'."
"I've never seen you make that face before. This is stressing you out way more than usual."
"Because I'm starting to think she's right."
"How can you tell?"
"Look here, here, and here." These are written quotes from previously summoned heroes mentioning things from their own worlds. This one mentions having only four gods and a single island country like Gala and Yoona's world. This one marks the specific region they were from, Arnst, just like Reggie. This one even goes into specific details of the rise and fall of the Talvadi Kingdom and the Wuth Empire's response. I brought this up with Vanity and she stated that those events happened 3 years ago."
"You're point?"
"That person was summoned 3 years ago."
Prince Garam put a hand to his mouth and contemplated for a moment. "So, they all could still be from different worlds, not different times lines. Just the same grouping of worlds."
"Think about this. Every single one of them has the same fundamental rules of magic, the same races, even the same damn languages! Only some history, the lands, and gods are different."
The apprentice prince stared at his teacher for a moment before it clicked for him as well. "Just a hypothetical question... but what if... we all really do have the same world, just in different time lines. If our world has a destined start and finish and a fundamental rule set, it doesn't matter what's different as long as we reach our destination. So maybe there were critical events that drastically changed the course of certain timelines, but they are still on track to the end result..."
"What about the gods? You forgot to factor for them in this idea of yours." Zackaria interjected.
"Sir, you should know better than anyone that gods can be killed and replaced. You've witnessed that yourself..."
Zackaria slammed his palms on his desk as he stood sharply almost sprinting to a nearby bookshelf. He pulled several books from the shelf dropping them on the floor with zero care until he found the one he was looking for. "I simply laughed at this at first, but this has some potential now. Look here." Zackaria handed the old opened tome to his apprentice.
"Pocket dimensions and how to use them?" Garam asked.
"Look at the example sigil work. We can set the same exact parameters that you mentioned. Start. End. Rules. Everything. We can create multiple and run them congruently to run a small scale test of our theory. The only thing we are missing is creating life within them with free will.
"Sir, you can't be serious..."
"Dead serious my boy... We are going to become gods."
XXXXX
...Many are aware of Beastfolk and their many races. Catfolk, Wolffolk, and Lizardfolk to name a few. Though you have likely heard the terms Avian and Gnoll, instead of Birdfolk and Hyenafolk. This is due to a time before written history. When humanoids and beastfolk first started interacting, humanoids coined the term -folk first. Eventually they did learn their proper names, Te'felin, Lycoros, Sesnik, and many others, but -folk was just much easier and simpler to remember.
However, scholars got tired of constantly having to write the world 'folk' so much that they'd start mentioning most beastfolk by their true names. This influx of true names calling caused a slight uproar in the older beastfolk communities as most had gotten accustomed to their folk name, as it was seen as sign of properly joining forces with "civilized" societies, and to refer to them as their true name was in insult to their new culture.
Though you are technically not wrong to refer to a beastfolk as their folk name or their true name, one should be weary of which races prefer what name.
-Excerpt from the 'Arkisium Guide to Foreign Races'