"Mmm. I should really get the quick version of your world's history and all the current countries, but maybe not today." 

And they can go meet with more people now, if he wants? 

There are lots more people! A priest of Asmodeus, a priest of Dis, a priest of Belial, a local expert on education to talk about the schools, a local expert on foreign affairs to tell her about Cheliax's neighbors, which are Isger and Molthune and Rahadoum and Nidal and Varisia. They're welcome to visit any, of course, though Nidal's not very safe.

Lissa hadn't realized there were priests of gods other than Asmodeus here! Who are Dis and Belial - are they allied with Asmodeus? 

She's also curious to hear why Nidal isn't very safe. (...This claim makes her if anything more tempted to visit, but she definitely should not follow that temptation.) 

They are allied with Asmodeus! There are nine layers of Hell and they rule different ones. Cheliax permits the worship of most gods, but the churches trusted with big news like this one are generally the allied ones. 

Nidal is the property, per an ancient pact, of Zon Kuthon, god of mutilation and suffering. 

WHY do they have a god of mutilation and suffering???? 

Well, He was a god of something normal and then got magically - inverted? Turned into the opposite of everything He'd cared about? It's very bad but no one can do anything about it and Nidal's very firmly His.

Ugh. That's so terrible and upsetting! 

While Lissa is distracted by mulling on how Zon Kuthon is terrible, Siri grabs the opportunity to ask a lot of questions about schools and teaching methods and curriculum. She takes detailed notes on everything that's said. 

They're delighted to talk about that! They're pretty aggressive about filtering for the smartest kids early, so they can send them to wizarding school in the cities; with the less smart ones you just want to teach them all to read and do basic accounting and understand enough theology to make good life decisions. And of course you want to get them through all that as quickly as you can so they can do valuable work.

Interesting. What's the theology they need to know to make good life decisions? 

To not give vows lightly, and take them seriously, and cooperate with building a Lawful society by not lying to the police or to priests, things like that. To not try to force people to marry or otherwise to take a vow they aren't ready for.

"I guess that's good life advice. Does it...make people not align Lawful, if they break oaths or lie?" 

"Yes. And that's bad for their afterlife and also just bad for having a society in which people can expect each other to honor their word - you couldn't be here, right, if your government didn't trust ours to keep you safe -"

(Siri is pretty sure that her government does not trust Cheliax very far at all to keep them safe, and that's part of the reason both that Marius and Lissa - two extremely skilled and combat-experienced people - were sent, and also the reason why their military background was de-emphasized.) 

"Well, certainly not without a big entourage of guards and mages. It makes sense. Especially if - I'm not sure how to put this, I don't mean any offence, but - the thing where you're not going for Good? It - seems like your society basically doesn't expect people to do things for the good of their neighbours or their country. Valdemar does, and - I think emphasizes that a lot more than the importance of honouring your word?"  

"What's wrong with the afterlives that aren't Lawful?" 

"Well, some people like the Maelstrom all right - you gradually turn into a many-limbed thing called a chaos beast, but some people are into that - but most people like to, you know, have control of their environment. And the Abyss is very dangerous, a lot of newly arrived souls just get eaten, and in Abaddon they all get eaten."

"Huh! ...Being a many-limbed chaos beast sounds neat, honestly." 

Marius rolls his eyes slightly, chuckling. "Of course you'd say that. Though inconveniently for that, you'd probably be sorted Good. The Maelstrom is neutral on the Good-Evil category, right? What's the one that's Chaos and also Good like?" 

"Elysium? It's an endless wilderness. People seem to like it, but it's very rare, to get Good, especially for soldiers. The system doesn't look kindly on killing in war, even when the war isn't your fault in the first place."

"Fair enough. ...Can you actually tell what our alignments are? Now I'm curious." 

"Not yours. Heralds tend to be readable, more powerfully so if they have powerful Gifts - Marius and Siri are Lawful Good."

"Ha. Of course they are. Wonder what Van reads as? He's disgustingly Good but he's also...fought in a war. I think your diplomats who visited Haven would've met him." 

"I bet they know but they didn't happen to mention in the briefing I got! They did say most Heralds were Good."

"They're basically picked for that! Well, and Gifts. And I guess some of it's the lessons, and some is that all their friends would judge them for doing something unethical, and some is just - not having a good reason to? I reckon most people don't actually find running off to be a bandit appealing, it's just - if you end up desperate - but I think most people are basically decent if they've got everything they need?" 

"I guess it depends what you mean by 'basically decent'? Most Chelish people sort Evil and they're not - murderers or bandits, they just occasionally get an abortion or abandon a baby at the temple or cut down a bandit, when their family is attacked - I guess you could claim that's them not having everything they need."