Pascale grins, and winks at Isaac.

"Right. I'm going to go pick up our order, it should be ready soon. Try not to burn down the house."

"We'll do our best."

So they wait. 

"What's your plan, now that you're here? You can't just want to fix all our problems, what can we offer you?" 

"Is it so hard to believe? I do like helping."

"It's impressive. Most people would be looking to get what they wanted, first. I suppose establishing a domain is kind of like that? Or does your world just have less problems?"

"It does have fewer problems. It also has fewer people, which is likely related. Aside from that, I do seem to be stuck here and might as well make the best use of my time. Which, yes, does include expanding Ellayania's domain here, but that benefits I think everyone over the long term. And I do genuinely enjoy helping people and solving problems."

"Ellayania seems like a good goddess, if we had to get one. But what if there are no other gods? Could the whole world become her domain?"

"She is a good goddess! As for making the whole world her domain, hmm... I suppose it's theoretically possible, but she probably wouldn't do it. There might be people who don't want to live in her domain and she wouldn't force them to. Plus, biodiversity loss."

"What is her domain like? What kind of things live there?" 

"Well, her terrain type is wetlands, so things typical to swamps and marshes and so forth. She tends to keep it on the cooler side, and it's often rainy and very foggy. There's lizards and frogs and different birds. Lots of plant life."

Here's Isaac with their food!

He lays it all out on the kitchen table.

"Can she incorporate existing stuff? Could she use the woods that already exist and keep some of those animals?"

"Hmm... yes, but it'd be harder? Wetlands have certain characteristic soil chemistries that not everything is happy living with. She could maintain an altered state but it'd be significantly more work than not doing that."

Pascale migrates foodwards. What is on offer?

"That makes sense. Can she stay away from the forest and spread deeper into town instead? That would help preserve the local wildlife." 

There is raw fish! It's very pretty, for raw fish. 

Pascale will base her selections entirely upon their aesthetic value then. Clearly this will be a winning strategy.

"She could, but without believers here she won't be expanding anywhere very far or fast."

They all sit down to eat.

"Who counts as a believer? Can you check if I'm a believer?"

"It's not really something you check, there's no outward signs. It's a private relationship between you and the god."

"Okay, but I'm not sure how it works with gods that exist? All the religions here have gods that don't do anything- or they do everything, and they're not very good, then. How does believing in a real God work? Do I have to agree with her and respect her, or is just knowing about her enough?" 

"It's sort of- knowing about her and actively engaging with that knowledge? You don't have agree with her about everything."

"Can you tell us more about what she cares about? Why does she like swamps? What does she admire about you, to make you an acolyte?"

"All gods have a certain terrain type or biome associated with them, it's not really something they choose. Ellayania likes knowing things, having a wealth of knowledge at her fingertips, the answer to every question as soon as it is asked. She likes me for my can-do spirit and boundless enthusiasm, of course."

"So if we think of her whenever we do things involving knowledge or learning, that counts as believing?"

"It would!"

"So say I don't like school, and say I think of her then. Is that like blasphemy?"