Geopolitics is probably very important and very fraught. "That is a difficult thing to achieve. Who achieved it?"

She smiles a little, as if not quite laughing at some private joke. "There have been several Emperors of Scandinavia, and most of them have managed to expand its borders, sometimes very greatly. The current one is Dyre Halfdansson Yngling, the Archpriestess's father. All have been descended from Haraldr Yngling. He inherited the High Chiefdom of Ostlandet as a young man, and expanded its borders throughout his life, through decades of conquest, ultimately crowning himself the first King of Norway. The Empire itself was established later, by one of his grandchildren, but he laid the groundwork, and the Scandinavian Emperors have followed in his footsteps."

She's not going to remember any of the place names but the general narrative makes sense. - and the archpriestess is the Emperor's daughter, great. - probably he has lots of them but still, that is closer to the Emperor than she had the slightest intention of coming. She tries not to show this. "How is the Emperor chosen?"

"He is elected by the landed nobles of the realm. He must be male, and of the same dynasty as the previous one, though he need not be a direct descendant."

She can't actually off the top of her head think of a place that does it that way. Andoran has "elections" but she doesn't know any details and she thinks the same person has won all of them. Galt had elections, once, and then ...killed everybody who won them? The Hellknights and paladin orders they'd fought with had various mechanisms of selecting leaders but selecting the leader of an order is different than selecting the leader of an empire. 

"Is he a caster?"

"No, not a wizard. I don't think the nobles would be likely to select a wizard."

"Some countries in my world have been ruled by wizards. And the Queen of Cheliax is a powerful sorcerer."

"I see. I can imagine people who would prefer that. I think the Scandinavians are more impressed by types of power that are more... direct."

"The main paradigm for arcane magic in my world is more direct. We throw lightning and fly and stuff. I hadn't thought about how the way you do magic here would affect how people see powerful wizards but I guess that makes sense, that they wouldn't be thought of as - directly dangerous. 

- I don't throw lightning or fly, I make artifacts. But the Queen would."

"I suppose they might respect throwing lightning."

"It's useful. There's nothing in my world more dangerous than a high-level wizard, unless you count the gods. Better to fight a dragon."

"An army? I think the armies have more respect for someone who has killed men in essentially the same manner as they have, who understands the basic physical concerns of the task before them. I think it makes him better at giving them sensible commands, too, that he's experienced in the same manner of warfare that the rest of the force is using. But I suppose a person who had both would be even more impressive."

"I guess I would not say that in the Chelish military we respected the Queen because she fought like we did, as opposed to because she made the nation great and powerful and could kill us any time she wanted to?"

"And how did she make the nation great and powerful?"

"House Thrune brought a thirty-year civil war to an end, and brought the rule of law to all Cheliax and its colonies. We have the most schools of magic in the world, and we send the most soldiers to Hell each year, and we fight at the Worldwound to hold back the forces of chaos and are peacefully expanding our influence over our neighbors, so that we will eventually be an empire again." This is said just a touch by rote.

"An impressive list. But my question is less what she's accomplished, and more how she accomplished it. Was it by personally throwing lighting bolts? Or was it by being a competent commander?"

"Not by personally throwing lightning bolts. Mostly - policy, I think. Figuring out how Cheliax can serve Hell, so the resources of Hell will be put to use in Cheliax. Picking worthy generals. Learning of the activities of other countries and figuring out which of their leaders can be persuaded to work with us. I'm not - nobility, or anything, I don't know a lot about how politics work."

"I see. I think the most important element of Scandinavian policy is considered to be managing its wars of conquest. The emperor also does other things, of course, and has advisors to help him do it competently, but the most important thing is that he wins his wars. And I do think that winning them has something to do with understanding how battles work, and with having participated in them in the same way that soldiers do. If we had a lot of wizards who threw lightning, then I suppose it'd be much more useful for their commander to be a wizard, and then the nobles would be more likely to elect wizards. But as it is I don't think wizards know very much about the specifics of winning battles."

"They will probably pick it up pretty fast. Who is Scandinavia conquering?"

"Oh, who knows by now. Someone to the south. Someone new every year."

She is certainly not going to argue with the Emperor's people about whether conquering everything they can find is a good idea. It might be, if they have enough of a tech advantage, and have recently invented good magics for administration at a distance. Maybe they just invented paired mirrors, or the equivalent. Maybe she can make a living doing that. It doesn't seem the right moment to ask. "Is there - more we should know as newcomers to the empire?"

"I suppose that depends on where you're from. I don't know what about this place might be different. They're pagans here, I suppose that's important. They sacrifice prisoners to the gods. Although I suppose I don't know how often they do that outside Akershus."

"What do the gods want with prisoners?"

"What an interesting question. I suppose they think the gods are pleased with them for bringing back evidence of their strength, for offering up the prizes they win by being strong. They value strength. Perhaps more than anything else."

"But people - can't be strong, to the gods. It's like - we aren't impressed with ants who carry particularly big bread crumbs."