[This is Absalom, the city with the Starstone - if you touch the Starstone you turn into a god, it's in a cathedral that almost no one can get through alive. The god Aroden raised the island it's on from the sea before he died - a long time before he died. People from all over live in Absalom.

Here's Taldor. It used to go all the way to the west coast but Cheliax seceded. These cities - Ostenso and Kintargo - and the whole Arch of Aroden are in Cheliax. Cheliax's god used to be Aroden until he died and now it's Asmodeus, the god of making everyone as miserable as possible. He's the worst god, by the way - everywhere has different ones. Down in Garund - the southern continent - they like Sarenrae, goddess of the sun and not letting the world be destroyed, except in Rahadoum where they hate gods. Up here, this is Lastwall, where their goddess is Iomedae, goddess of destroying evil. You'd think they'd pick a fight with Cheliax but actually no, they're busy at the Worldwound, up here, which is a portal to the Abyss that demons keep coming out of - demons are - you wouldn't know about alignment, would you - demons eat people, don't keep their word, don't care about other people, like to destroy things, and come from a plane where nobody keeps their word or cares about other people, so Lastwall isn't picking a fight with Cheliax because they're busy fighting the demons from the Abyss. Actually, there's another portal down here - the House of Oblivion - but the creatures coming out of that portal eat souls so you don't get an afterlife - if you didn't know about other planes you probably didn't know about those, actually, you can scry them or ask people who've been resurrected or who've turned into something else and been summoned back to Golarion.

Uh, just to summarize the afterlives really quickly - if you keep your word and try to get things you want and don't especially go out of your way to give to charity, you'll go to Hell, which is ruled by Asmodeus; if you give to charity you can make it to Axis, which is a giant city; if you keep your word and give to charity and don't really try to do anything that's bad for anyone else, you can go to Heaven, where you'll serve Iomedae and her war on Asmodeus; if you're not great at keeping your word but you're sort of okay at it and you otherwise would go to Heaven, you go to Nirvana to be turned into an animal and live in a forest; if you're instead really awful at keeping your word, you go to Elysium, where you live in a forest without being turned into an animal; if you're awful at keeping your word and you sometimes give to charity and sometimes do selfish things, you go to the Maelstrom, I don't know much about that; if you're totally selfish and awful at keeping your word you go to the Abyss and get turned into a demon; if you're kind of okay at keeping your word and totally selfish you go to Abaddon and your soul gets eaten; if you don't really stand out on either axis you go to the Boneyard to become a psychopomp; and if you hate all these options and like torture you can opt out and go to Xovaikain where there's a lot of torture. I guess that's actually probably more important than anything in this life but I have never died and couldn't tell you much more about it.]

But he'll pause for questions anyway in case.

[.......I do not know how to begin to explain how concerning and confusing that afterlife summary is and will definitely need more on that even if to you it mostly sounds like restating the same things over and over. I reiterate that if there's somebody you might like contacted from your world I can try for it.]

It's not very likely that he can come up with someone for her to contact who would be both willing and able to help him at a price he's willing to pay. Teriel, maybe, conceivably, but probably not. He could try to think of someone who'd be informative to contact - his mother is in Xovaikain, so that would be informative, but he doesn't really want to tell this person that his mother is in Xovaikain, and if it were going to work to contact someone on the Shadow Plane with the local magic then they would know about other planes, unless maybe it somehow only works for the Shadow Plane and no one happens to have gone to Xovaikain from here.

[I think it's... less bad than it sounds? You ask someone who's going to Nirvana about it and they'll tell you it sounds relaxing, you ask someone who's going to Xovaikain and they'll tell you torture is actually good, and anyway I think everyone gets warped to want the things their afterlife approves of over time anyway - so basically the main problem with it is just Hell, where Asmodeus wants everyone to be miserable and want each other to be miserable, and the fact that the demons won't just stay in the Abyss. Uh... everyone turns into something in their afterlife, something that's like them, but fits their new plane perfectly and is... powerful, distant - you can't really be friends with them as a human or expect them to still have their old social ties, and they'll look different - in Nirvana they turn your body into an animal immediately but let the mental changes happen over time; in Xovaikain all the changes happen over time and you replace body parts piecemeal, I think.]

[The description you gave of who goes to Hell sounded like it covered a lot of people so even if that was the only problem one, which I am not confident of, it's still a problem!]

[Yes.]

[And people are scrying these places all the time? Do you know anyone who's done it?]

Does he personally know anyone fifth circle, no, of course not.

[I... know someone who probably knows someone, but I wouldn't trust him, and I met someone I think did, and I knew someone who was working on becoming powerful enough to do that and we haven't spoken in years and if she isn't powerful enough she'll know someone who is - I think you want to get in touch with Teriel in Pangolais. She might be dead but that would probably only make her more useful if she's free to talk.]

[You've got a decent drawing hand, does it extend to portraits?]

[I haven’t seen her since before she finished growing. And I don’t think I can draw well enough to scry from anyway but I guess I can try.]

[I mean, if I were better at this then I wouldn't need a portrait at all, it just might shorten the time to being able to reach someone on another planet a little. - the way psions and mages work is that we largely design our own powers and build them up over extended periods of contemplation and practice. So different eclipsed can do different things. I don't expect there's anyone who can reach your acquaintance now, but I can work toward it, and I think having a picture would help.]

[Cool! I’ll try.]

He can produce a very amateur attempt at a portrait, in a style that makes little to no use of shading. He at least doesn't make the face proportion mistakes overwhelmingly common among new artists, like he has, actually, consciously noticed the position of the eyes and the angles of the temples and cheeks. It doesn't change that he hasn't seen Teriel in years; he mostly remembers her most distinctive traits, and those not especially well. She was a child, when last he saw her. Almost a teenager. She was beautiful, but his art is not up to the task of conveying that. She had a geometric scarification on one cheek, extending down onto her neck. It's a little hard to tell what's a quirk of his style and what's actually reflective of her facial features but she looks maybe related to him.

[Bold tattoo decisions there.]

[It's not a tattoo, it's a scarification - it's just made by cutting lines and flaying small areas. She's Nidalese - she worships the god of pain.]

[...why.]

Varan idly touches his tattoo while he answers.

[Because he offers people strength and belonging and wisdom and he maintained civilization during the Age of Darkness. Other gods tried - Aroden tried, but Aroden's not the one who put together a library of pre-Earthfall knowledge. And Nidalese people aren't... as afraid of pain as most people. I don't think she's - I wouldn't know. It's been a long time. I didn't think she was so personally attached that she wouldn't have considered other gods if she'd grown up somewhere they were popular.]

[Well, I'll see if I can raise her, I guess. It'll be a while if I can do it at all.]

[How long?]

[Months to years depending on what else has my attention?]

[She'll probably be just as good a person to get in touch with then.]

[Okay. Unless you need anything explained about the shower I'll leave you alone for that.]

[I'll ask if I do.]

[I'll try to keep a mental ear out but don't have that working flawlessly for most people, so bother Jackson and he can text me if all else fails.]

[Okay.]

He can probably figure it out. It’s not that complicated and he’s at all familiar with the concept of plumbing.

He can especially figure out if he's not picky about the temperature.

Getting a little scalded is practically a religious observance. Though actually he'll probably be in and out before it has a chance to heat up that much anyway.