"What has to be true for one to be his?"

"They would have to contain some priests of his, I imagine, and even the citizens who had not been called to serve in that way would need to agree in the value of his goals."

"What happens if kid grow up in Marduk's country and are not especially interested in Marduk's goals, do they have to move out?"

"I imagine so, yes. That is why not every community of Marduk worshippers is a polity he directly intervenes in to protect. Of course he also protects his preists by granting them spellcasting."

"What do people have to believe exactly to be in his polity?"

"Priests should believe that a government should serve as an instrument of justice, that laws make a society stronger, that storms as a life-giving force should be welcomed and respected, and that to speak the truth openly, loudly,, and boldly is virtuous. His citizens need only agree that the way Marduk encourages a polity to govern itself is worthwhile. He does not require worship from every citizen, only that they respect his priests and his goals."

"Okay, that sounds probably workable. I'd really like to know if he's interested in looking after a colony of Amentans whenever I've gotten some here to be looked after and maybe a preliminary mini-polity while I'm accumulating the resources to do that."

"I'll include the question in my evening prayers. Are you interested in worshipping Marduk? You seem as though you might align with him."

"He sounds pretty cool but I don't actually know what worship involves since Amenta doesn't have any gods."

"Hmm. Do you have kings in Amenta? Jekujehkè? If I were to make an analogy, I would say that to worship a god is to believe that they are a good king, a beloved jekujeh, or a respected ancestor. None of those analogies are quite satisfactory, but they convey the- importance of a god to someone's life. A god is not like a parent, sibling, or child, nor are they like a lord, employer, or- shepherd. They are far from us in some way, not close, however their impact on our lives is outsized given that distance. A god is someone whose virtues and priorities you think are important, and because of that and their power over reality, they have earned your respect and admiration. Like a king, jekujeh, or ancestor."

"Jekujeh isn't translating by itself. We used to have kings but now they're kind of vestigial and all important countries are democracies of some kind."

"A jekujeh is someone who travels in search of difficult challenges to overcome in order to protect people who lack their skills. They are sometimes also called heroes."

"Hm, I think most people would be very able to assume this attitude toward Marduk if he were protecting an Amentan colony but some Amentans are very complainy and since I'm hoping to establish the colony to manage a population problem I need a plan for where they can go."

"If you can create several colonies, with some of them protected, it would provide even the unprotected ones an advantage. The reason we have a temple in Heliopolis and trade so heavily with them is to afford them some of Marduk's attention. I admit, though, that I have never considered the Harmonium as a problem before. While they sometimes take the pursuit of punishment to an extreme, they rarely interfere unless your neighbors would prefer they did so."

"I don't know how much of a problem they are. Maybe they aren't very much of one. But they wouldn't dovetail very well with how Amentans do criminal justice at all and also they give me the creeps."

"That's quite understandable. I will take your questions to Marduk, and I hope that we can help you resolve this before you bring your colonists to Arcadia."

"Thank you!"

"Please wait here. I will pray on this."

The priest heads into a back room of the temple, leaving other priests to handle the petitioners. About ten minutes later, he returns.

She has been reading Summary Bank on extradition. "Hi!"

"Marduk believes he should help protect as many of your colonists as possible. While I continue communicating with him on this matter over the coming weeks, I recommend adjusting your settlement plans to account for this. Are there some colonists more suited to worshiping Marduk than others?"

"Probably. I think people on Amenta can filter colonists for it but they will want to have a lot of kids and the kids won't always be just like their parents."

"There are many gods, if it's only a matter of finding the right one. If Amentans are unable to think or feel the right way about gods because they're unfamiliar with the concept, the children will have an advantage there, as well. I think you've made an excellent start on building a colony here that will be safe from the Harmonium."

"Probably if there is good enough transit and only a few people don't like gods it will be fine for those to move out to places subject to the Harmonium or back to Amenta, it just would be a terrible thing not to have planned for."

Nod.

"Defending against enchantment magic is difficult to do on a complete basis. I would advise surrounding settlements that don't like gods with ones that are protected by them, to discourage the Harmonium from delivering justice."

"That's a good idea, we could have a sort of island!"