"Are there - Skills for that, or..."

"I don't know if he might have [Advanced Oration] or something like that, but I don't think His Majesty would countenance enchantment or compulsion Skills... I was young at the time, I didn't see him or anything. There are lots of stories of him talking people around to his cause; he's supposed to be very good at it."

"...troubling."

He'll... go talk to the Abadaran on war, Abadarans tend very strongly against offensive war.

Abadaran has heard the news.

"It would be terrible if war begins again, of course." He's not really clear what Blai wants his opinion on.

"I know right now there aren't enough of you to be a major political force but I wanted you to be - aware that if you do accumulate political leverage it's something Abadarans are known to spend it on."

"On... stopping Flos from going to war?"

"On advising the people of Khelt not to join in."

"If you are referring to Reim's recruitment of our citizens during King Flos' last reign, I expect His Majesty Fetohep to not be inclined to a repeat. I will advise against it as well, but—ultimately His Majesty will do what he judges best. It is not as if the last decision was made of a love of war."

"Right. I expect that it was the best available choice the King had, to allow recruitment here, and that it might easily violate the terms of the agreement thereto for the king to publicly announce that he doesn't actually want anyone to join up. But you do not have the same constraints. You can - announce actuarial figures, you can explain why offensive war is bad, you can refuse to insure people who aren't committed to avoiding participation in wars of conquest - and I don't expect this to work very well when there's only the one of you but by the time anything like it comes up in practice there may be more, and I might be gone."

"The King did publicly advise against joining Flos' army at the time, although he refrained from representing the stance too strongly to keep the spirit of the agreement." They don't have a lot of figures on war they're sure enough of to stick with, and insurance isn't a thing yet, though there are discussions with the grants office to set something up. "I will of course try my best if the situation comes up, but I'm not sure—the thing is—"

"When Flos was here, he said that the lands of Rast, south of Khelt, suffered badly under the rule of the Chorded Empire, which had conquered the nation thirty years prior. The Chorded magnates sentenced aggressively on small or spurious charges to the mines which produced the steel that the Empire took as tribute. There were more stories of oppression and injustice, details I don't remember. He said refugees from Rast and the princess in exile had personally petitioned for him to liberate their homeland.

"He had a lot to say on his superior rulership too. He said that he was beloved across the lands he liberated, and even Hellios and Oblinat had come to accept him. And he said—while we enjoyed our security and plenty, protected by His Majesty, Chandrar rotted to tyrants and conquerers. And if we thought his course wrong, we should should take up arms against him; if not, we should join him; any other course was just cowardice.

"...And he said all of that in a more convincing and eloquent way than I just did. As far as I and other people know, nothing he said was inaccurate. The geopolitical situation is different today, but I imagine he'll have a narrative similarly compelling, and not the kind of thing... actuarial figures and insurance can mitigate easily."

"Were people using truth magic on him, that's another thing you can do though I don't actually know if Truthtelling improves on local standards."

"He held a truth stone, I think I remember. I don't know if it was his or loaned or if anyone verified it, but... it is well-known fact that the Chorded Empire did not treat its slave states well, and that the King of Destruction is popular in his own lands including many of the conquered ones, and indeed Flos did install the heiress of Rast's previous ruling line as vassal queen after he took it."

"One line of argument you might be positioned to make is that - you don't have to like what your neighbors are doing to treat peacefully with them and nonviolently encourage their situation to improve -

"I was born in an incredibly terrible country and its ultimate conquest was a good thing. But it was answerable to interests that almost totally blocked the possibility of any peaceful improvement and would have done so indefinitely, and was ultimately conquered by - an extremely powerful individual adventuring party, with some help from some allied countries interested on humanitarian and not personal conquest grounds, and the support of a paladin order that had been recruiting for years and was known to intend to claim the country if an opportunity arose for humanitarian reasons they could not be lying about because they were paladins. The - incentives are wrong if it's just another country with its own reasons to want to expand, even if they choose palatable targets and use that in their rhetoric.

"I don't know, for certain, that all wars he might undertake would be wrong, but I think the standard should be very, very high, and he possibly should not be invited to choose all of his own facts to deploy in evincing to meet that standard.

"Also one of his partisans kidnapped me but he was asleep at the time and could not have personally authorized it, it's just on my mind as information about the standards of conduct he might be in the habit of engendering."

The King of Destruction's Seven could honestly also be described as "an extremely powerful adventuring party", except they usually come with also an army attached.

Also wow, wild backstory. He's intensely curious but it's not really the topic at hand.

"I think he's dangerous, and was on a dangerous trajectory, and regardless of his personal standards of behavior and that of his partisans, probably him falling into slumber around the time he did was the best possible outcome for Chandrar overall, and I don't want him back. But it's difficult to convince people of that, and it—smells of cowardice and self-interest, it doesn't sound as appealing as hotblooded calls for justice. Which is why I think ideally we just don't let him into the country again, but of course, as I said, it's up to His Majesty."

"Right. I don't really expect that you as a single individual will have very much influence here, but - if you're the first of a whole church, that may, over however many years things take to play out."

"I'll think about it. And talk to the other [Clerics]—some of us have been considering about starting an ethical philosophy journal, focusing on theory of Good and Law. Writing on war could be divisionary enough between local and Golarion framings to catch some interest, and then we'll have more polished rhetoric prepared if it turns out to matter."

"That sounds like a good idea to me."

In any case, the news doesn't precipitate any publicized policy changes or new directives from the King. Not even an official statement. Mood on the streets isn't noticeably different.

It shouldn't be! None of this is being publicly announced!

The next day, the Antinium report in with success(?) on the experiment.

"After two hours of prayer, the Soldier received the class [Destroyer], and the Skills [Iron Fists] and [Unarmed Fighting]."

"Are the Class and Skills elsewhere known?"

"[Destroyer] is an uncommon but known class, typically promoted from [Warrior] or similar. I have not heard of it being granted at first level, however—the Soldier did not have any prior levels. [Iron Fists] and [Unarmed Fighting] are likely common for barehanded fighters, but I do not know of many. I expect they are uncommon at first level as well, and would ordinarily be preceded by [Hardened Fists] or [Stone Fists], and [Basic Unarmed Fighting].

"So it is definitely a boon from the god, but not a unique one."

"Are the boons likely to be useful in and of themselves or is it more like something that would become a significant edge only if a lot more prayer were invested?"

"They are significantly useful compared to the baseline efficacy of the Soldier. He is equivalent three ordinary Soldiers in combat, I estimate. I would trade five Soldiers for one of him. If every Soldier received a boon of similar power..."