Worship is sort of a collective word for all the things people who are - fans of a specific god - do. Khersians go to services where clerics or nonmagical church officials give lectures on morality and ways that members of the Khersian community are expected to behave, often conflating the two, and there's a gesture they make that if it's backed up by a lot of faith in Khersis has minor magical powers against undead and demons and stuff, and they tend to randomly ask him for or thank him for things even if there's no reason to believe he was intervening and sometimes in lieu of thanking whoever actually did the thing they're thankful for, and they talk a lot about how much they love Khersis and how this influences their politics, and they obsessively reread the Scriptures. Khaele's followers are mostly nymphs - they're a species she made and has a lot of personal contact with - and some druids and farmers and stuff, she's a fertility and nature goddess, lots of people will throw her some token respect about those topics even if they're mostly something else or nothing else. Like, they manage not to kill a houseplant for a month, thanks Mama Kh.

Huh. So not very similar to studying under one of the Valar.

Yeah, sort of. Although Khersis hasn't been personally heard from in... I think coming up on a couple hundred years? Since he incarnated.

That's a long time for a short-lived people.

Yeah. Khaele's more active but she doesn't encourage evangelism the way Khersis's church does. The others probably pop up now and then, it's unusual for one to go dark as long as Khersis has, but I don't tend to hear about it.

And they'll all smite people who say their names wrong?

Not, like, every single time. If a god is paying that much close attention to you, you're probably already in trouble. And 'Mama Kh' is safe even though it's nicknamey.

Kersis, Kersis, Kersis?

Shiver. ...what, are you trying to demonstrate that you aren't being struck by lightning?

I'm guessing they can't affect us here, but if they can that's extremely useful to know and Mandos is conveniently nearby - I might be back before Miriel wakes up.

I'm not sure you should assume that if Khersis and Mandos got into a fight over you it's obvious who'd win!

...fair. But if Mandos won, then your god couldn't murder anyone randomly anymore!

Khersis hasn't randomly murdered anyone in a couple of human lifetimes, his followers are their own responsibility. And what if Mandos lost?

I've done the tortured by an evil god thing, there are things worth risking it for. Someone worse than Khersis who it'd be worth trying to take down?

Depends on who you ask. Most gods are unpopular with somebody. I'm not sure I have enough information to objectively rank them. But my concern was what happens to the souls Mandos is looking after if he gets into a fight with a god from my world. I mean, maybe they get to go to one of the nicer afterlives, but there are nasty ones...

I assumed they'd stay here; how would your gods claim jurisdiction?

I don't know. But 'a bunch of souls' is not an unheard-of trophy in god fights.

I'll avoid experimenting with that, then.

Thanks.

Eventually we'll be powerful enough we can do it ourselves, without counting on the Valar to protect us.

Maybe. If there's just no limit to how far you can get on science fantasy...

I don't have a way of knowing. But we have all the Ages of the world to try things, that I'm sure of.

We probably have a while before Miriel wakes? Want to go swimming? I'm told this is the best kind of light for it.

I don't have a swimsuit.