Good to know! Now, he might have already noticed this, but compared to Lastwall Mendev has a wider variety of faiths, both among the everyday folk and among the clerics — Iomedae is still the most popular, but they're happy to take just about anyone who channels positive, even if they're from a more controversial sect. ("And, look, I'm not very religious, but anyone who's not an idiot can see that positive channels are useful!") He doesn't have to personally like Gorumites or Calistrians or Irorites or anyone else, but — look, occasionally they get people who can't even manage not to be rude to clerics of other Good gods, or who get frustrated that the Iomedaean paladins here don't understand as much theology as the ones back home, and it's important than he not do that.

"I do not expect to have a systematic problem with any non-Abyssal religion that is well-represented here."

Alright! Other things Lastfolk tend to be surprised by include the role of the Mendevian aristocracy, even when they're trying to account for what they know to be different between the two countries. Here are some examples, here's an anti-example of why the situation in the March of Gundrum is not a useful comparison...

"Miss Dendiwhar, I've never been to Lastwall in my life."

She blinks. "Where did you serve?"

"I'm from an alternate timeline for some reason, but I'm from that timeline's Cheliax."

She flinches slightly, and for an instant her eyes flicker to the floor, but she's recovered within a moment. "I'm so curious how your timeline is different! It could settle so many debates within the field, you know — but I'm getting ahead of myself. How much do you know about this timeline's history? I'm sorry, I would have made my summary more detailed if I'd known..."

"The discrepancy I've been able to identify is just the careers of a particular party of archmages that exists there and did not form here and their effects, but the effects were dramatic. They conquered Cheliax and closed the Worldwound, among other things."

"Well, I'm assuming this isn't one of the differences, but if I'm wrong it could be really bad, so — in this timeline it's illegal to be a cleric of Iomedae in Cheliax."

"Yes, that was a post-conquest change. In between the conquest and the Worldwound closure, Asmodeus dropped all of his clerics, but my local counterpart would still have his pentagram and be in command of #11."

She bites her lip and looks away for a second. Takes a slow, visible breath. Looks back at him, a little nervously.

"But you're Iomedaean now? You're not going to go back to Asmodeus?"

"I am and I won't. But if you ever contrive a suspicion that I'm impersonating myself he won't have the angel sword - unfortunately neither of the orisons I have prepared every day want a holy symbol."

She nods. "Are you worried he might? It might be a good idea to make sure people know, so they don't just assume he's you without checking — not that they ought to anyway, that's how succubi get in, but still..."

"I'm assuming I cannot keep it a secret because anyone might have seen him, but I do not have a plan for a general announcement, I've just been telling people one at a time. I do not expect him to attempt it without being so ordered but I cannot make any guarantees about what the Chelish leadership will make of the situation."

She gives him an understanding nod.

"I'm sorry, I don't really know what advice would be most helpful for a Chelish Iomedaean from another timeline who used to be an Asmodean cleric. It's not really the sort of thing that's happened before..."

"It would be very strange if it did, I think I might be the only one even in my own timeline. But that's where my experience is from and I'm planning to adapt the Lastwall handbook for crusade use despite not being from Lastwall because I was told Mendevian law is not really written down usably."

She brightens a little. "It really isn't. ...Anything else you wanted to know?"

"Nothing else seems pressing. Thank you for the crusade summaries. Cheliax's history education is dismal."

"I was born in Isger," she says softly. "It's not exactly like Cheliax, even for humans, but they still change out the history books every year."

"I haven't been there but my understanding is that it has many of the same vices, yes. - do you prefer not to share how you came not to be there?"

She looks down at her lap. "It's not a secret. My first master had noticed I had a talent for storytelling, and had me taught how to read — I think teaching slaves their letters might have been more common in Isger — and when my second master came to the Worldwound, he brought me with him to record his adventures." She sounds like she has profoundly mixed feelings about this. "He was fighting along the Mendevian line, not the Chelish one — half the reason he was there to begin with was to get away from a political situation with his brother, but in hindsight I think he must have been having some doubts about Asmodeanism even then."

She bites her lip. "He and his party had been sent to help with some issues in a nearby village, but we were attacked in the night by a group of demons. And I'd never imagined it of him" (her left hand drifts to a scar on her right palm) "but he hid me away in his travel chest and told me I was free so long as I published the account I'd written about his time at the Worldwound. And, well, obviously I wasn't about to go back home, but Mendev's been very hospitable to me."

"May Hell be denied another soldier."

She nods.

"I haven't — some of the people I work with back at court in Nerosyan are strong enough to do a Scrying. And they don't always use up all their spells, and I could have asked them to check, as a favor, and I haven't. Because I don't really know if what he did was — good enough, and..." She lets her voice trail off.

"I don't think you're under any obligation to check. Probably if you are still curious later on the lawyers of wherever you wind up will have records."

She nods. It doesn't really seem like there's much more she wants to say about it.