"...I'm sorry, I don't know very much of the geography of ancient Taldor. The provinces of Cheliax are Menador, the Longmarch, the Hellcoast, the Heartlands, Ravounel, and Sirmium. Isger is technically a protectorate. Andoran and Galt were part of both Arodenite and Infernal Cheliax, but are currently in rebellion."

Good for them.

"Do you know anything about the events that led the Church to claim Asmodeus defeated Aroden? Are they purported to have...fought?"

"If the circumstances of Aroden's death are understood in their specifics, it isn't an account I've been exposed to. I've mostly heard about the immediate consequences on the material."

"They claim Aroden died?"

"...yes." With great confidence and consistency.

I PRESUME YOU ARE AWARE OF THIS ALREADY SINCE THERE WERE CONSEQUENTIAL NEGOTIATIONS OVER THESE PEOPLE BUT. URGENT. DON'T DIE. PARTICULARLY DON'T BE KILLED BY ASMODEUS.

"It makes more sense that that would lead to Asmodeus conquering the Empire than that most things would. 

Why the Thrunes, does anyone say?"

"Well, they're infernal sorcerers, so I suppose they were well-positioned to accept a new patron. They invented mass intelligence screening and wizard training for both men and women, which seems pretty important for winning wars. Of course everyone else was also squabbling like children. ...Menador excepted, I think most of Menador actually stayed out of it."

"You mean they invented a spell for it? Do you know the spell?"

"...I do." It's not very surprising that they wouldn't have mindreading hundreds of years in the past, but she feels kind of upset about the idea of giving it to them. 

Maybe it's fine? Does she actually want ancient Menador to be denied the chance to tell what children are worth giving wizard training to? Not really, as long as they can't follow her back and cause problems for modern Menador... or prevent modern Menador from existing... she doesn't really see that that should be possible, though...

"That sounds like a very valuable thing to have and it's not surprising that the first place to have it had a significant advantage. ...I am confused about why powerful wizards would serve Hell."

"Powerful wizards seem generally loathe to serve anyone, really."

"The Crusade has many. But our pitch to them is 'Tar-Baphon will kill you and raise you as his slave, so you should band together with the other people opposed to his rule and stop him," which is a pretty good pitch. Crucially they can verify it themselves and it is all true. It seems like Hell's pitch is 'you can't prove we torture people more than the other afterlives so maybe there's not much to lose', and this seems like it would fall apart if tried on powerful wizards."

"I think powerful Chelish wizards spend a lot of time running people and supplies to the worldwound, where the pitch is 'if the demons get out they will overrun the planet, so you shouldn't let them do that'." 

"Hmm. And in order to fight demons they have to serve Hell?"

"...I mean, they are part of the Chelish military, which is the only military capable of holding the northern border. Obviously wizards are not generally part of the church specifically."

"I see. So wizards serve the Asmodean state because it alone can protect the world from demons? ...is anything known about why there are demons?"

"...wizards serve Cheliax, because they're Chelish. Cheliax holds the line against the Abyss, because we live here and we're the only ones strong enough to do it. The demons are pouring out of a giant tear in the material that opens into the Abyss."

"For how long has that been the case? Is anything known about who or what brought it about?"

"I think it's one the immediate material consequences of the death of Aroden. It's about that old."

"The interpretation that jumps to mind is that Asmodeus did it, and maintains the world in that state because it will make people reluctant to displace his client state."

If you only cared about preserving the Asmodean order, wouldn't it be easier to, you know, task the army with exclusively defending their own borders and putting down rebellions, instead of deliberately creating a situation where Cheliax has to assign more than half of it to protecting everyone else from the end of the world and is constantly getting attacked anyway?

"Maybe," she says, like this she thinks this is plausible at all.

She doesn't think it's plausible, which is really almost no information. "In any event if the Asmodeans have persuaded all of the powerful wizards in the Empire to protect against the demons just out of duty then they have achieved an impressive thing. And I suppose few of the wizards are damned, if they spend all their time saving the world, even if they do it in the service of Hell."

...well the teleport wizards are mostly soul-sold. She finds herself hesitant to share this. Also, like - "...I think you can spend all your time saving the world and still be evil?"