"Sigmar is not subtle. At all.

... as a warning, don't try to summon the surroundings of Khorne or Tzeentch or another Chaos power. It's unlikely to be safe. The Warp can be-- hard to comprehend."

...He is very curious, now, but not so curious as to risk it.

"So, now that that's settled, we need a plan."

"To get to Sigmar, or to convince Sigmar?

To get to Sigmar, we'd just need to take a Realmgate to Azyr, and find a way into the palace. That would involve  finding said Realmgate, taking control of it, us somehow not looking like band of Chaos worshippers so we aren't immediately killed when we walk out of it.

Which would likely be easier than convincing Sigmar."

"I could probably locate a Realmgate, and she--" he gestures towards the fairy "--could transport us there quickly. I don't know what exactly is involved in taking control of it but we could probably disable a force of anything human-like with daeva powers. An angel could alter our appearance, although depending on what specifically we want we might need a specialist.

We should probably decide how we want to persuade Sigmar before we try any of this, though."

He tries making the surroundings of the nearest Realmgate.

"Taking control of it mostly involves no one trying to stop you getting through it. They are powerful strategic resources-- so many groups try and own them, and stop you getting through.

Appearance-wise, the best solution would probably be clothes. Dress like an Azyrite, and you could probably play yourselves off as a weird species.

Sigmar would probably like anything that helped his Empire, and assurances that resurrectiong wouldn't be used for anything 'bad.' Which would require getting him to redefine 'bad.' His current definition is, well, bad."

The nearest Realmgate is built into a limestone arch, that bridges a canyon. The canyon wall is riddled with holes. Through some, noxious green acid pours out. Through others, greasy, mangy, humanoid rat things pour out.

"Oh, Skaven. Lovely," Luehmani says.

"If this one won't work I can attempt to find us another one."

He rubs his forehead. "If all we need is clothing I can make a copy of something Azyrite-typical. If I make some miniature Azyrites can you pick out inconspicuous clothing?"

He attempts to make models of any Azyrites within a hundred kilometers.

"We can totally deal with Skaven. It'll just be a thing, you know? We're nominally allies. But Skaven worship the god of betrayal, among other things. So."

There are some Azyrites in a hundred kilometers! Most of them are Stormcasts. The rest are wearing flowy, layered robes with tabards over them. "Stormcast armour is very not typical. The robes look normal. I'm not the best judge though."

He picks out three arbitrary sets of robes and makes copies in his best guess of their sizes.

"Why does Sigmar think that your people are evil?" He pauses. "Also, given that he thinks that, why does he think it's necessarily wrong to bring them back? If he resurrected them and they started murdering people or something, he could just bring back their victims. I suppose that wouldn't work for everything they might do wrong, but he's a god, surely he can do something."

"Because we don't worship him? Worship his enemies, more specifically? And if we're brought back, we might not act all over-joyous about his wonderful gift, and might not immediately convert, and keep worshiping his enemies.

I've also heard news from the grapevine that resurrection takes some effort. Though mostly as an explanation why there aren't swarms of Stormcasts. So, take that with a mountain of salt."

He nods. "Is that likely to make it difficult for him to resurrect your people?"

"I doubt it would make it more difficult specifically, but it might make him less likely to do it. It'd be one thing to do something for your enemies, and quite another to do something effortful for them."

He nods. "You said we might need to get him to redefine badness if we want him to resurrect your people. How do we do that? Is that likely to be the best strategy for persuading him?"

"I'll admit I haven't given 'how to convince Sigmar' much thought, it's never been practicable.

It'd probably involve convincing him that order is not the ideal way for a world to be-- and that would be difficult. Not necessarily impossible, he has a practical streak and demon powers could 'convince him,' but it would not be easy."

He nods again. "That sounds likely to be challenging. Might it be easier to convince him that accepting your people's practices is not incompatible with order?"

"...we do worship Chaos. We are somewhat inherently incompatible."

"That would seem to make it difficult, yes."

Ilpherisa looks up from her book. "I mean, they say Hell's an anarchy, and it seems to work for you guys."

He sighs. "I'm not sure that demons are exactly an ideal model for what principles we should follow."

She shrugs. "It was just an idea."

"In any case," he says, inclining his head in Ilpherisa's direction, "if our goal is to convince Sigmar, an example of a society that --" he pauses "-- achieves its goals, without the need for traditional ideas of order, might be useful."

"I mean, if hell is a nice place, he might buy it. ...I don't like the guy, but he does care about his people. Seeing a less ordered society that works better than his might bring him around." 

"My understanding is that it's a fairly decent place for demons to live, but it probably helps that they're indestructible, and there's only so much damage they can do to other demons."

He pauses. "If you don't mind me asking, why do you worship Chaos?"

She makes the pinched off expression of someone trying to articulate something difficult. "Because it is freedom. Because with Chaos, anything you want to do, anyone you want to be, is possible. It won't be easy--it takes hard work, devotion, sacrifice-- but it can be done. Anything.  There are no limitations except the ones you put on yourself.

--and even when you are very limited, when you're faced with something you cannot face alone, the gods pull through. When a plague whips through your people, Papa Nurgle with bless you. When invaders encircle you, Khorne will help you face them down with his rage. When it seems like fate has turned against you, Tzeentch will change the way. And Slaanesh--" a flash of a sad look "--when they were around, they gave the joy that let you survive anything."

He nods.

"Where I'm from, most people don't trust demons, which makes sense, seeing as how demons are inherently evil."

Ilpherisia raises her eyebrows at him. "You're a demon!"

"I'm not a demon, I'm a human who happens to have--"

"Whatever." She rolls her eyes.

"In any case," he says pointedly, "if the goal is to demonstrate the viability of Chaos so that Sigmar is willing to help your people, Hell does seem to work well enough for the demons who live there, at least, and it sounds like it works reasonably as well for your species as well."

"It works pretty fine when we're not being invaded, yes."