:I'm not sure. I think it's a mixture of - knowledge, he's one of the oldest gods, he has seen more things - resources, which are those accumulated over time - and he has more because he's one of the oldest gods - and those being earned today, which he has more of than Good gods because most people are neutral or Evil, and innate background features of the universe like, the Lawful afterlives are finite and take resource expenditures from their gods to expand, the Chaotic ones are infinite, the Neutral ones are finite but grow on their own, that affects how gods have to spend resources...I don't think the number of supporters alive today is a very big part of that whole but it is some part of it, and he has lots of supporters, though I don't know if he has the most, there are species other than humans and some of them are very numerous and they mostly worship other gods I think.:

Leareth is absolutely not taking any of this at face value at all. That being said, he's aware that he's communicating across a vast cultural divide - and also via intermediaries. 

:I want more detail on this: he sends. :Ask her what Evil's goals are, other than...'having goals' in the abstract: 

Lacie asks this. 

:Evil peoplehave all kinds of normal people goals. To discover new magic, to inherit a duchy, to run a successful business, to travel and see the world. The goals of the Evil gods - I don't know that they have much in common with each other. I know Lamashtu is the most powerful demon in the Abyss but I have no idea what He wants. People say Urgathoa is the goddess of disease? I guess she values disease, or one of its correlates? Asmodeus is opposed to free will because it made everything on Golarion much worse for everybody but I don't think that's because he's Evil particularly.:

:- What do you mean, free will made everything worse for everybody? Can...you define the term 'free will', I wonder if this is another thing like Law where our world doesn't - have this as an ontologically basic concept...: Lacie has a feeling it's not quite that but she's so confused and also starting to feel moderately disturbed. 

"So, if you're a very talented wizard you can make a construct-person who is reasonably intelligent and can follow reasonably complex instructions, but it just does that, it doesn't drift and decide it'd rather run off and do other things, it doesn't resent the purpose for which it was created, it has goals about the world not goals about itself. Mortals - used to be like that. They were a thing the gods made for god reasons and they were meant to do that thing, and they did that thing, and there was something that it was like to be a mortal and it was pleasant and satisfying because the goals and circumstances were aligned. And then this god called Ihys made mortals - the way we are now, instead, where people want all kinds of things and are very unhappy about being made to do things someone else wants them to and spend most of their energy pursuing little mortal goals. Asmodeus was upset about this. Kind of like how you'd be upset if someone turned all your possessions into people and they wandered off to do their own thing."

Lacie, for lack of any better response, calmly takes notes on all of that.

:I - see. I think that's not quite a philosophical concept we have in our world. Our gods - don't seem to interact with mortals on that level, though I'm guessing they find it inconvenient when we go having goals: 

She takes a deep breath. This - probably isn't the helpful or strategic thing to say, but she thinks she's kind of lost the plot here, this interrogation has just gone several levels more bizarre and confusing than she was prepared for. 

:I realize she may literally not know, but I wish to learn more about how 'Good' thinks of itself, here, can you ask. ...Also make sure to read her thoughts too: 

Deep breath. :...Does 'Good' have any philosophy other than fighting Evil?: Lacie asks. :I - assume they tell themselves something different, 'we fight anyone who has goals' isn't very, I don't know, convincing to follow: 

:They have been trying to explain it to me but they weren't very successful. I know that they think that they can defeat Asmodeus and that if they do this then they'll be kinder rulers of everything than He is. I know that they think that everyone in Cheliax is brainwashed and otherwise we would want to worship Iomedae like they do. I know they think that it's very very bad when anyone has painful experiences, even if the person having it is fine with it and wants the end result, and they don't think we're able to say that anyway because once you decide people are brainwashed then it also makes sense to decide they're wrong about what they want. I know they think that they're better than us because they follow weirdly specific rules that prohibit some ways of hurting people even though you can hurt people just as much other ways, and they have done that, and they think that's fine. We agree on the destruction of souls being bad. We agree on the Worldwound being bad, and are successfully cooperating with them about that. We also agree that more people should go to school to learn to be wizards, and that ideally people wouldn't get in trouble if they hadn't done anything wrong, and that it speaks well of places when they have enough discipline to not abuse their prisoners in ways that don't advance their goals, and...I think that's all the common ground we had run into.:

Lacie is yet again very unsure how to respond and falls back mostly on noting it all down and relaying it. 

:What is the Worldwound?: she asks when Sevar finishes, at least that one's concrete and non-philosophically-baffling question that might have a comprehensible answer. 

:A hundred years ago a hole tore open to the Abyss and now demons pour through it constantly trying to eat and destroy everything in the world. It's very far from Cheliax but the nearby countries couldn't handle it and a problem like that doesn't stay in one place so we keep as much of an army there as we can supply, keeping the demons penned in.:

:- Leareth, you figure that's the same thing as the Abyssal Plane?:

:Could be. I - can scarcely imagine what kind of event might tear a permanent opening between separate planes like that, though. Ask her if this is - known to be easier or more common in her world: 

:How did the Worldwound get torn open? Are there any other interplanar, er, openings, like that?:

:There was a fight between gods. Asmodeus won but the Worldwound got torn open in the process. I think there's a much smaller one in Garund, to Abaddon, Cheliax has offered to go close it but the local government has been refusing so far.:

Lacie shudders slightly. :How - often, do gods in your world have wars on a scale like that: 

:I can't think of another example in recorded history. It was very awful. I have seen estimates that something like fifteen percent of the population of the world died. - not mostly of the Worldwound, there was also two weeks of violent storms and a storm surge that basically destroyed the entire harvest that year, everywhere north of the equator, and there were earthquakes that swallowed cities.:

:...That's awful:

Lacie can't think of further questions, mostly because she's utterly horrified. 

:I think we ought call it off now: Leareth instructs her. :Tell her we - need some time to consider things. ...Oh, and ask what magic she can do right now: 

:I...think...that's all our most urgent questions about your world: Lacie says, shakily. :Er, you said you're a wizard - what sorts of magic can you do, here, when you're not in your own world: 

She wonders what these peoples' deal is. Probably the location would not have been chosen if they were going to help her but that could be 'won't want to' or 'won't be able to'. Probably Nefreti at least thought this would be better for Carissa than being married or petrified -

- Nefreti would understand, she thinks, a bit absurdly, an Osirian woman, unmarried, at whatever cost she must have pulled that off - they marry them at eighteen, nineteen, she would've needed to be sure already she could support herself -

- or maybe it served Nefreti in some way that had nothing to do with Carissa and she should stop being pathetic and assuming people were doing her personal favors when she has absolutely no reason to think that.

:I could test whether I can do magic here if you untie me.: The only thing she could do without that is summon her spellbook but she doesn't want to summon it here if she's going to be unable to use magic to put it back.

:...Leareth?:

Leareth grits his teeth slightly. Forces himself to relax. 

:This seems important to know, actually. Please untie her. Have Allentara watch: (Allentara is the mage summoned to test Sevar's Gifts.) 

...It's important to know, and so far Sevar does not seem to feel that she's in a position where trying to fight her way out will help, or work - she's right about that, almost certainly - and, at worst, he can afford to lose everyone in the room and if the shields don't hold he should still have a second's warning to Gate himself elsewhere. 

:...Yes, of course:

Lacie glances at the Healer and the mage standing by, then unties her.