"I worry that if making bad decisions is subsidized then you get everybody making bad decisions and no one left to subsidize them. Osirion doesn't need daycares but if we started offering them I'm sure we'd quite quickly end up in the position of needing them."

"Aroden thinks that people having children they want should not be a bad decision, and that it is fairer if women do not need to decide between having children and earning a livelihood or pursuing a profession they are skilled at. Also children benefit from being among their peers, so it is both efficient for one person to supervise three mothers' children, and good for the children to spend some time in that group. At this point we are mostly hiring young mothers with children of their own, or grandmothers who can no longer do other work anyway, to watch other children in their home. This was an arrangement people would gravitate to anyway, but it means we can offer it for free and also check that the home is safe and the children well-treated." 

"In a bunch of ways it sounds like this is solving problems created by Cheliax having more or less destroyed family units. Osirian children are around their peers, because their household has cousins and uncles and aunts and nieces and nephews their age; if their mother happens to be unusually skilled then obviously the family unit won't allocate her labor towards childcare because that'd be inefficient. If someone is an irresponsible parent then their parents will restrain them. I guess it makes sense that if you have mostly single mothers living alone then it's a big improvement to try to institutionally replace families."

"There are certainly far more single mothers isolated from their extended families, or mothers with irresponsible husbands, in Cheliax than I would prefer, but that is the situation we inherited and need to accommodate to. It is by no means a majority of mothers, though, and - I think this system is still worthwhile even if nearly all children are born to happily married parents. It - leaves people less restricted, if a young couple can move to a big city to pursue a better life, and not worry about lacking anyone to help watch their children."

He taps his fingers absently on the table. "And - hmm. This feels related to something I think the Heralds are getting very wrong. In Valdemar, nearly everyone with Gifts of any kind is Chosen and becomes part of the kingdom's leadership. And almost no Heralds have children, understandably, their lifestyle makes it difficult and they cannot rely on having help. Since Gifts occur equally between the sexes, it would massively cut Valdemar's resources if the Companions did not Choose women or if female Heralds always took a decade off to raise a family. But - Gifts run in bloodlines, and Valdemar has a far lower rate of mage-gift in the population than, say, the Eastern Empire, which specifically provides tax incentives for Gifted parents to have many children. And we see the difference particularly with Healers; their work is more compatible with having families, many do, and there are significantly more Healers than all the Heralds combined, with the entire range of Gifts. I think Valdemar ought to provide childcare for its Heralds who want children; I suspect many of them would, if they could count on being supported in it. And - obviously this is specific to Gifts, but I think there is a broader principle here?" 

"It is a profound wrong to women to not arrange life circumstances under which they can bear and raise children. I worry that leaving them obliged in time-consuming male jobs but paying them enough to afford servants who can raise their children for them doesn't actually satisfy that for most people. But maybe it'd be better than nothing, at least."

"I suppose that depends what your model of most women's desires in life is, and to what extent women who are accustomed to one set of cultural norms versus another end up wanting different things. In my opinion, it is a tragic waste if a woman who wishes to, say, build bridges as her profession, has no route to do so, or can only pursue it by sacrificing marriage and children. I do think that not all women in Cheliax need to work in order for their families to manage, and many will choose to spend time with their children rather than use the free childcare. And part of this is intended to - break the cycle where the children of parents living in poverty have poor home lives and so grow up less able to pursue better opportunities; Aroden says the poorest children in a city often grow up much less intelligent on average due to poor nutrition early in life. I suspect one reason Cheliax could teach such a high fraction of its population to be wizards is because the childcare institutions provided two meals a day, and so several generations of children in poverty nonetheless grew up well-nourished." 

"Huh. Well, we'll certainly be watching closely. 

I do - want everyone to get to build bridges for a life. But they can do that in Axis, while they can only have a family here."

"- The existence of an afterlife does change things. Though I think it matters if twice as many bridges can be built, here in the material world, and...I think it matters whether people can - become fully themselves, the shape of person they want to be. But perhaps that intuition is formed from my past in Velgarth, where - people are not entirely gone, when they die, but they are certainly not happily riding trolleys in Axis." 

"If Cheliax ends up looking like a place where people get to be fully themselves, and they mostly still get decent afterlives, we'll copy you. We want that too."

"I am very curious to find out what we can make of Cheliax in a century. - I think most people had good afterlives back in Aroden's time, before the - mess happened, and the norms around marriage were not the same as those in Asmodeus' time but they were not those of Osirion either." 

"They weren't. Avistan's always been more permissive. It always looked to us like a - low-trust equilibrium, where no one pursued the strategy of waiting for a worthwhile commitment from a worthwhile person because no one had any reason to think such a thing would really happen."

"Maybe. I did not have the impression it was that common for couples to separate, then, and - I suppose I could try to dig up records and statistics on the age at which people married, and compare to see if women were actually not waiting as long. In Velgarth at least, women tend to wait longer to marry and have more freedom to choose a partner they prefer when they are supporting themselves independently for a while." 

"That's what I'd expect, though I don't have numbers on it offhand."

They can compare country-running notes for a while, and then he'll start assembling a diplomatic party to send to Haven if Abadar tells Leareth it's safe.

Leareth plans to stay in the Dome that night, since it's already midday day and he'll be spending either the rest of the afternoon or the nighttime hours his Ring of Sustenance saves him on sleep with a headache, depending whether he asks for Delay Pain.

He obtains a guest room again, lies down in the comfortable bed with the curtains shut, and reaches out for Abadar. 

And he's in a fast-moving flood of magic that pulls itself away from him to keep him safe from it (well, mostly safe from it):

:Leareth.:

He's got his two queries lined up, but instead of either, he finds himself musing on whether all the research he and his scholars have done, to shape a Velgarth god that can communicate less cryptically with humans and thus be capable of cooperation rather than manipulation, could help Abadar learn to talk to his clerics with better throughput than Commune, but without giving them a headache. 

That seems interesting! The headache is not the main restriction; it is also costly in attention for Abadar to talk to His clerics and He would not want them relying on it frequently. (The attention costs are not worth worrying about for a cleric of His who is going to rule Cheliax.) But better communication would be highly desirable. The ex-human gods are better at it and Abadar cannot straightfowardly copy what they're doing - He can try but it costs lots of attention and -

- and now there's an illusion of Leareth sitting in a featureless room, staring at an uncannily not-quite-right imitation of a person, while Abadar's thoughts brush against his head just as before -

- Abadar suspects you have to be much better at this than He is for it to be improve the experience for clerics -

Leareth suspects the relevant part here is the concept translation, not the visuals or lack thereof. Abadar obviously sees the world from a much 'higher' angle than humans and thus thinks in an entirely different ontology, and Leareth suspects this is most of what causes the headache. (Aroden complains that he gets headaches when he tries to access his godmemories properly. Leareth is so sympathetic, he would hate it if his core memories that shape the centre of his motivations also gave him a headache to look at!) 

Anyway Leareth has spent a lot of time thinking about the translation, there, and how a god might have an aspect or avatar that was, itself, more humanlike, but still part of the god and able to translate back and forth. He has a great deal of in-depth theory on it. 

Then He would really really value seeing it and maybe having people try to translate it.

He'll bring over the researchers and notes next time, then. 

All right, his actual planned questions. Leareth neglected to notice until now that the presence of a Heartstone in Haven likely gives the Star-Eyed disproportionate influence, even deep in the Valdemaran god's territory, and he wants to pass this on to Abadar, and to find out if Abadar has any relevant information on it. In particular, whether the Valdemaran god has any opinion or stance on this that They have expressed to Abadar. 

Oh! He knew this though not in concepts He could convey. Yes, the Star-Eyed has lots of influence in Haven, and yes, the Valdemaran god would probably in light of recent events prefer it were otherwise. Ideally it could be stolen out from under Her in the same moment as the retaliation against Her begins in earnest; Abadar thinks He could use it, maybe, with the right Wish wording and accompanying Miracle.

Oh. Fascinating. Leareth...has a contingency-plan written up, a scenario he had never expected would occur, that would involve using the Heartstone as a container and partial energy source for the first phase of creating a baby god. Abadar is obviously not going to want to do the same thing exactly, but - Leareth suspects the concepts he uses in writing up the god-specifications are at least closer to Abadar's native mode of thought, and might be a useful starting point. 

He can summon some of it in his head and hold it up to Abadar, the conceptual map that he can't actually fit into his head, for humans it needs to be checked one part at a time. Does it make sense to Abadar though? 

There's a long pause, and then - 

- pleased, impressed - 

- a shaky prediction that it would have worked as Leareth intended, if the other gods had permitted that, which they wouldn't have -

Leareth had not in fact expected he could pull this version off, since it requires at least one Adept keyed to a Heartstone, which - well, obviously none of the Tayledras were ever going to side with him. But Vanyel is on his side and is keyed to it, and if Leareth and Vanyel are both there, he thinks Abadar ought to be able to use that channel to access it directly. 

...He's not exactly delighted about the prospect of showing up next to a Heartstone, after what recently happened, but he's the only cleric of Abadar who is also a mage and can be in concert-rapport with Vanyel. 

It seems risky, but better than leaving it there. And if Abadar controlled it, He thinks He could make clerics in Velgarth more cheaply, which would be good for Valdemar.