"You look preoccupied is all, did the avatar say something concerning?"

"I was not there, I only heard the answer to my question from the senior shaman." 

"...okay... uh, today I was wondering how people first came to know about which gods there are and stuff, does Kaled'a'in history go back that far?"

"I think none of the books we have here. Perhaps that history exists somewhere, though, personally I have never been outside of the Tower area." 

"Fair enough, it must have been so long ago. Have you talked to avatars directly before or do they usually relay through the senior shaman?"

"I have been introduced, but I have not spoken to one of Them outside of that, it would be the senior shaman sent for any very important questions." 

"What were they like when you were introduced?"

"- Very intimidating, honestly! I was so tongue-tied."

"Did the avatar say anything?"

"She called me 'child' and said I had a strong spirit - or something vaguely like that, it was a while ago. And then she said something poetic and mysterious to the senior shaman and afterward he told me they are always like that." 

"What are avatars, actually, are they just bits of Goddess?"

"Sometimes! But the one I spoke to was a human spirit, once. Sometimes Her servants choose to go on serving Her even after death, and She imbues them with some of Her essence." 

"...wow! What else is known about what being dead is like -"

"I am not sure how much else is known. If there is more I have not learned it yet." 

"Would you want to be one, do you think?"

"I am not sure. It - is a very big thing to agree to. And I do not think all shamans are even offered it, when we die." 

"Which ones are?"

"Those who She thinks could handle it, I assume."

"...what's there to handle, what's it like?"

"Well, mostly it is a very long term thing, right? Not merely a lifetime, but indefinitely. And...well, it involves taking on some essence of Her. The avatars were human once; they are - less human, now. Not everybody would wish for that." 

"I feel like that might depend on what it's comparing to, which... is 'being dead'... What's less human about them?"

"I am not sure how to describe it, honestly." 

"I guess that's fair. They all used to be human? She doesn't have any hertasi worshipers or anything?"

"Huh! What a good question, I am not actually sure! I think that all the spirit avatars we consult who were mortal once are Kaled'a'in, but perhaps there is another order that worships Her among the hertasi." Summerhawk smiles. "What an interesting thought." 

"- so you don't know if all her worshipers are human? I have no idea what the religious proclivities of the hertasi are but there are probably more species too..."