"Especially within the next 24 hours. Uh, he mentioned something called the Wall of the Faithless, we don't have that back home and it sounds very bad on so many levels, so among other reactions I have to the concept I would like to do evangelism right now please."

"Oh, dear. Um, yes - I'm not as good at this as the Seer, but essentially, Eilistraee is a goddess of beauty in all its forms: song, dance, and freedom are her chief portfolio items. She doesn't value song and dance in themselves, as some gods might - well, she likes them, but she values them as - signs of flourishing. In drow society as it stands there isn't much levity or mirth, and what she wants is a society where people can be happy and be themselves without fearing a dagger in their back. She loves seeing artists and craftsmen creating, and people performing acts of kindness without worrying about the consequences. She's the goddess of drow who want to return to the surface and live in peace with our cousins, but she accepts anyone who offers her their worship. She's very big on redemption, too; anyone can find peace in the arms of Eilistraee, no matter what they've done. That's been a mercy for me especially, coming from... where I'm coming from."

"Oh, cool, I was all set to be vaguely annoyed about the song and dance part when you first said that but I actually dig it as an indicator of flourishing, that's cool. What are the orthopraxies sufficient to keep out of the wall?"

"I'm not as familiar with the mechanisms of the afterlife as your Reaper might be, but I pray to Eilistraee for a few minutes in the morning and evening, and offer a short apology for every humanoid or other non-outsider sentient I kill, because I'm denying them their chance at redemption. Mostly you just have to - consider your god to be important, I think. It's not an exact science." She considers. "Well, it might be, I'm not a god and I don't know how they gauge these things. But I don't think it's supposed to be an exact science."

"I haven't seriously prayed to anyone or anything since I was thirty and do not remember exactly how it is done, and that was on another planet."

"Ah. Well, praying to Eilistraee isn't quite like praying to other gods, either - it's more meditating on freedom and what it means to you, for the morning prayer, and in the evening you reflect on the events of the day, your emotions and experiences, while also thinking of Eilistraee? She likes hearing about our lives; it helps her contextualize how we're doing, and how she's doing at helping us. She was never a mortal drow herself, and she likes to get a lot of perspective on mortal life."

"And this is done - aloud, silently, can I fold it in to my journaling habit - is she going to read my entire journal if I do that, I have a preexisting pet peeve about gods doing that -"

"It's done silently. I... don't think of myself as having secrets from Eilistraee, but if I did I wouldn't write a prayer to her on the same paper where those secrets were written down. I'm pretty confident she can refrain from reading your journals, probably she could even if you did write prayers in them, but I don't know what being a god is like and it's possible that having your devotions in your journal would put it in her proverbial line of sight and make it harder not to read. Best to just pray internally."

"Okay. On my planet lots of gods have pointless little rituals you can do to get a fairly trivial blessing for the day, do you have those here."

"No, but she will sometimes bless a worshipper with a silvery light that guides them to something they're seeking, or helps them in battle. There's also a decent chance she'll guide your steps or clarify your voice while dancing or singing in the holy ceremony that inducts you into the faith. ...um, there's going to be that, by the way, you can choose to either dance or sing. You don't have to be good at it, as I said she's likely to lend a hand, and you only have to do it once."

"I can sing, though I guess if she'd help me I might conceivably be able to dance. Can you do this impromptu right now, I'm a little aware of the cooldown on my blursed object at the moment."

"I can, yes. The Seer will want to perform the proper ceremony, but if you're mostly concerned with your afterlife heading then I can teach you a short hymn and witness your conversion here and now."

She sings a short hymn in praise of Eilistraee, in a clear and rather pretty voice. It's about wanting to feel the moonlight on one's skin, and wanting everyone else to be able to feel it too.

Normally Belmarniss would ask her to run that by her again but under the circumstances she just tries to reproduce it right away.

Her voice is clear and steady, and she feels like she knows the words even though she only heard them once. As she sings her hair shines with a silver light, and after she's done, a voice whispers in her ear, "Your perspective is welcome, Belmarniss. Be always free; I will shield you from the Wall."

Then her hair stops glowing and the voice is gone, and Nathyrra is smiling. "I always love seeing the Moonfire. Welcome to the faith, Belmarniss."

"Thanks."

Garrus looks up from his pack, which he has been meticulously organizing as this conversation went on. "We ready to talk about things that aren't mammalian religion now?"

"Deekin appreciate rebel drow context."

"Any of you heard about a guy named Akachi?"

Deekin nods slowly. "Old, old story. Centuries old, maybe older. Akachi big priest of Myrkul. Myrkul make Wall of the Faithless, because gods need prayer and Myrkul want to threaten mortals if they not pray. Akachi's wife be Faithless, and she go to Wall, so Akachi rebel against Myrkul. Akachi's rebellion called Betrayer's Crusade. Akachi recruit celestials, and fiends, and dragons, and invade Fugue Plane where dead people be to steal Akachi's wife and tear down Wall. Rebellion fails, and Akachi probably be punished big time. Moral of story, not mess with gods. Deekin not like that story much, honestly, but that how Deekin read it."

"Wow. Well, Reaper says Akachi made him. By way of alphabet guessing game, he wasn't able to say it."

"Wow. Deekin guess story be true then... or true-ish. Either way, Deekin glad Deekin pay respects to Bahamut."

"Maybe it's lovely being in a wall. Like being part of something bigger than yourself. Literally. But even if it isn't, I'm not letting some overblown spirit bully me into thanking it for existing."

Jojo looks: Uncomfortable. But he doesn't say anything.

"Up to you. Personally my long term plan is to go home and ascend to godhood and storm around making the lot of them behave. Or discover some great reason why they suck. I know less about the local pantheon, mind."

"I can definitely approve of that goal."