...okay.

Some people are definitely going to try praying to some of the Chaotic and Neutral gods, despite the warning. Nobody really tries Urgathoa or Asmodeus because that seems... dumb...

It's not the end of the world if they wind up with, say, a Gozrehn. A Pharasmin here could be... bad... since She doesn't like undead, separately from them being evil, and he would hesitate to trust a Calistrian or a Nethysian either.

The last day of the month is the Winter Solstice! There are celebrations planned across the city. The Shelynites pitch an interfaith fest at the western forum and the others are game. They're doing sermons from their favorite parts of the holy books, and discussions of the more openly interpretable parts. Blai's invited to proofread and/or sermonize on Iomedae.

He's not amazingly qualified to sermonize! Some of her own sermons from her life are in the Acts but they're Arodenite sermons. Maybe he could just take questions instead and everyone can go in knowing that a lot of the answers are going to be "I don't know, but speculating based on the few total hours I spent talking to paladins, it could be something like..."

Well, he has at least talked to paladins whereas nobody in Khelt has.

The event goes well! A lot more debates over interpretation than a typical Golarion sermon, but it's all in good fun. Some of the audience have interesting insights on the books and the gods that the class didn't come up with.

"Does Iomedae think we should we be doing more about Rhir?" someone asks when it's Blai's turn on the podium.

"Well, what things might you do about Rhir, if you did more things?"

"...Start... a crusade...?" they seem doubtful even as they say it.

"With... what objective exactly."

"To fight the demons?"

"I spent twenty years fighting demons. The objective wasn't 'fight them'; it was 'contain them to the area surrounded by wards so that they are not free to roam the world beyond'."

A wizened man stands to speak.

"The continent of Rhir is a blighted and hostile place. It has spawned a great number of terrible things through history—the demons, the Crelers, the Antinium, and countless more unnamed or forgotten. For many millennia Rhir laid abandoned, until the Creler Wars six thousand years ago, when the worst of Rhir's spawn managed to cross the oceans and assail the world's nations, nearly destroying the world. After the Crelers were finally beaten back to their birthing place, the Blighted Kingdom was founded on Rhir's shores to guard against future threats... and, optimistically, to capture the continent and end the blight at its source.

"Today, the Blighted Kingdom controls half of the continent, and is funded by voluntary tribute in goods and men from the nations of the world. Khelt pays its dues as well, but only in gold and grain—not warriors."

"...the Antinium?"

"A species of subterranean insectoid creatures. A quarter century ago, the Antinium erupted from the heartlands of Rhir and overran the continent. The Blighted Kingdom's ancient walls barely gave them pause. They sacked the Blighted Kingdom for its ships and set sail en masse for other lands. 

"The world feared it the Creler Wars all over again, and waged war at sea. All the greatest nations' navies and the Archmages of Wistram were enough to sink most of the Antinium's forces, but still the remnants made landfall in Izril, and even so reduced they were able to take a quarter of the continent before the Walled Cities beat them back.

"They've warred on Izril once again since then, but are... not so much an ongoing concern. And no Antinium have been sighted on Rhir since their first appearance, as far as I know."

"I have met some Antinium back in Liscor and they were, there, helpful and cooperative. It is fairly important to keep in mind the difference between beings who will be wreak evil and destruction under any circumstances where that doesn't obviously and immediately mean they will be destroyed, and beings who will with the right surroundings be constructive subjects of a normal government. It remains important to bear this in mind even when the behavior of any army bent on conquest might look similar in both cases, from the perspective of outside witnesses. Human armies are often when not exceptionally well-managed also bent on conquest and prone to atrocity."

This audience has no particular attachment to enmity with a species they've never seen before and which to many was an event before their birth! Thoughtful nods go around.

"What were they like?" someone asks.

"Some people who had lived there longer had some lingering discomfort held over from wars in the past. But for my own experience I have nothing to say against them. They came to the city's defense when dungeon undead attacked and many fell fighting them. When I was kidnapped two people came to defend me, and both were Antinium. The thing where they are giant bugs does take a little getting used to."

Someone is probably going to write a ridiculous novel inspired by that sparse but excessively implication-packed description.

There are some other questions about his experience fighting demons and Golarion and Good, but nothing too difficult to answer.

Then he will be able to respond to all the questions without being too terribly out of his depth! Yay.

The next day, three new [Clerics] show up on their doorstep! A twenty-five-year-old [Bartender], a middle-aged necromancy professor, and a young [Dancer].

The bartender says he woke up with an awful hangover and the words echoing in his head, YOU'D DO FINE WRITING A HOLY BOOK.

Blai would like somebody to report to the Crown at once that the project may be slightly out of control, in case he wants to censor the distribution of the books or anything like that. Who's the necromancy professor a cleric of? The dancer?

(A secretary goes to send the palace with the latest update, but isn't sure this is really a bad thing! Clerics are good, right?)

The other two are... not actually clerics. Or, well, they're [Clerics], but they don't get spells at dawn and can't channel?

The necromancy professor got [Unholy Aura] which is sort of like negative channeling, or it heals undead, at least. The dancer got [Guidance], as a Skill, not the orison, and [Charming Smile], which if you squint is similar to some of the offerings of the Charm domain?

"There was a... not a vision, not a dream, but..." the professor hesitates. "She called herself Kasigna. I don't think that's one from the books."

The name sounds strange, almost like—an exhale. A wound tension let loose in the world.

"I... don't know who that is. At all."

Shrug.

"She said she was the Goddess of Death? I assume that's why she picked me. There were extra titles. The Three-in-One. The Final Judge."

"...I suppose that could be Pharasma? I guess it could be that the kind of undead here don't actually offend Her at all but - I don't know why She'd use a different name -"

"Kasigna sounds a little like Pharasma?" the professor hedges. "A transliteration?"

("Kasigna" is more phonotactically compliant than "Pharasma" for the local language, but not in a way that strongly suggests it's a transliterated form of the latter, though it's not impossible.)