"What do you mean by that?"

“If you want a weak monarch the most important thing is an absurd number of things she has to ask you to vote on, and practically no Crown support for infrastructure with all that negotiated locally, and if we can swing it no standing army beyond what she has from her own lands, and you want to starve Isger and allow dukes to issue their own currency given the crisis and leave the forests alone and probably let Molthune go… I’d have to work on it. I don’t know if I will. Some things there feel like they’d amount to betraying my country. But that’s the sort of things you’d be contemplating.”

"I think Cansellarion would probably vote to weaken the country for the good of the world. I won't. So if we want to weaken the Queen but not the country I think we want a lot of voting—I would have favored votes of approval on new taxes and wars outside the borders of the empire even without what the Goddess said—but we don't want to weaken the army, or to give the dukes so much independence that they might decide to start fighting each other. Maybe we start with something like the constitution of Andoran, which as far as I can tell is a disaster for reasons mostly unrelated to its system of government, except with fewer elections. Their elections seem to result in more drama than good governance even with a Good population."

"I noticed that. I suspect there are all kinds of ways to strengthen the nobles and churches against the state...." she's smiling to herself now. "I'll look into it. Thank you."

"You're welcome. That was all, I think."

"I had one thing for you, I think my secretary would have brought you a note of it this afternoon - Excising Diabolism ought to get the Hellknights dissolved. Unlike most of what I imagine that committee's contemplating it's actually a good idea. I wasn't planning to pick the fight but they opened Safe Roads by siding with a bandit lord to get me removed as chair, so I think they must have come here squared up already for a dispute with the resurrected nobility."

"Sorry, could you please explain to me why there's an institution called the 'Hellknights' that hasn't been dissolved already? I've heard mention of them before, but I assumed they were an innovation of the diabolists and, thus, obviously not to continue."

"They were in fact an innovation that preceded diabolical rule of Cheliax, an anti-Arodenite order that started before my time, was unwisely tolerated because they had the backing of a very powerful lord and Aroden was going to return soon anyway and fix everything - the name started out as mockery - and then became a major fixture in the new regime. They are Lawful Evil military orders in service of various objectives within Cheliax, like running a prison for wizards or serving as the secret police for the Thrunes...the Godclaw served at the Worldwound, so a lot of people want to give them a pass, but they're also heretical Iomedaeans who worship Her along Asmodeus.

 The people in the obviously evil black armor are their convention delegates."

"I...see. And the Goddess has not, you know, clarified to everyone that her worship is entirely incompatible with that of Asmodeus, or do they just not care?"

"Perhaps more importantly, why are they here?—I suppose that's rather a question for the Queen. I don't imagine Cotonnet was in favor of their presence."

"The Goddess has absolutely clarified that. They don't care. I understand each order to have been invited to send a delegate but I don't know on what grounds, or whose the decision was, or why the Queen hasn't abolished them. It seems entirely possible that she intended that the convention do it so at least one bit of common sense good policy could be attributed to it. It also seems possible she and her allies made deals with them during the war, though I don't think we're bound by those, if so. 

There are capable men in the orders, but they're mostly Evil for a reason, and I think tolerating Hellknights would send the wrong message even if they were mostly neutral - though if they were maybe we could settle for a renaming. They aren't, in any event."

"Are they just warriors who've joined an order, or do they have—special abilities that suggest they're divinely empowered? Abolishing the orders may not be enough, in that case."

They seem like an obvious devilish plot even if not necessarily the same devilish plot that conquered Cheliax.

"Honestly I haven't had time to look into it. It does seem like someone ought to."

"I'm sure Cansellarion knows. Unfortunately Cansellarion is a count and a delegate and on top of that the most powerful paladin in the world, and it really isn't fair to ask him to be my confessor just because I'm in one of those capacities his superior. I don't know why the Hell there isn't literally one other person—"

"I know why the Church isn't really set up to advise nobility, why there isn't a bishop in every county and archbishops who can Commune—because that was the Church of Aroden's job. Or, at least, I knew why. Because Aroden's fucking dead, you know, and here we all are trying to rebuild a country in Iomedae's name when as far as I can tell there isn't a single Commune-capable priest of hers in the entire forsaken place. If the Queen" can't get over a breakup from nine hundred years ago "doesn't want her advice, that's her business. But an archduke should have a dedicated advisor on religious matters who isn't just the fourth-circle paladin who happens to be his vassal."

He sighs. "Sorry. Tomorrow I'll go to the temple and make this speech to the people who actually need to hear it. Until then—anything else?"

"That's all from me. Let me know if you need my help getting the Hellknights disbanded."

"I will. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm afraid I have several other matters to attend to before I retire for the evening. Good night, Duchess."