"So teaching someone to associate suffering and slavery with companionship, support, and intimacy, which are otherwise completely inaccessible and pathetic to want, is actually much more sophisticated than Cheliax is usually capable of being but does seem like something they might do for a specific individual they are trying to corrupt because she's running an important project for them."

"- oh, yes, I'm very much clear on the fact that's what they were doing, I wanted them to do that, to help me be a better Asmodean. ...Aspexia and Abrogail and Subirachs and Maillol worked really hard on that, for the last four months, and they shaped who I am today, and I'd try to undo that on the grounds that it was hostile interference in my personality and values except that, one, I am confused about, given how muddled all humans are all the time, what it would even mean to deal fairly with them - maybe Abadar just knows the answer to that one but it wasn't obvious just from thinking about it - and, two, I think maybe my being more and properly Asmodean was part of the plan."

"The plan?"

"Keltham doesn't want to start emotionally relying on it but I think Cayden and Nethys and possibly some other gods are trying to steer this so the universe doesn't get destroyed, and I think my being someone who can replace Asmodeus is part of their plan."

"And you are pretty confident it's a good plan and you want to help them pull it off?"

"...I don't know what you're getting at?"

"Just that there's a failure mode where you decide Asmodeus shouldn't be able to order you around and go looking for someone worthier to throw yourself behind."

"....is...that a failure mode?"

"There are a lot of sacrifices that get made in emergencies, and that's one of them, but ideally, the person deciding who you should grow up into should be you."

"- I don't actually see how that serves Iomedae."

"Okay, one, why do you care if that serves Iomedae, you don't work for Her. And two, why would Iomedae be worth serving, if She didn't want us to grow up?"

"...because She is opposed to Hell and doesn't want to destroy the world?"

"...all right, that's fair, serving Iomedae is somewhat overdetermined for a lot of people. But still, I'm glad She's not just the absolute minimum Lawful Good god who technically is on the right side and more useful than Erastil or fucking Shizuru."

"Oh, is Shizuru actually useless, that's not just Chelish propaganda?"

"Well, some people argue it should be parsed as 'damaged' more than 'useless'. But She hasn't done much of anything in Golarion since Tsukiyo died and Iomedae's leading the war on the Evil afterlives despite being brand new as a god and comparatively very weak."

"Huh. 

I don't have any idea what kind of god I'd be if I ascended. If I had all the time in the world, I think I could figure something out, but Keltham wants to go ahead very very soon, if I don't convince him to go with my plan instead..."

"It's a very hard problem we've set ourselves here."

"And if Iomedae has a solution in mind about who I'm supposed to be I'd at least want to hear Her out about it!"

"Iomedae doesn't know we're here and would presumably shut this down if She did. Which I think would be an improvement, but it's not an improvement I have the power to make unilaterally, and presumably if things got to the point where Cayden Cailean thought it'd be an improvement He could tell her.

If She were here, I imagine She'd ask - if you were in charge of Hell, would it be a horrifying atrocity full of torture?"

"No! Torture is stupid! It'd be a place where people like me can get stronger and better. And if people don't get stronger and better through pain then you should obviously do something else to them."

"Well, I gotta say, I think most possible gods that turns into is a big improvement over the present situation."

"Well, thank you for the vote of confidence."

"...what is Iomedae's stance on doing something really awful that harms and potentially damns lots of people in order to slightly increase the probability that this plan works and the world doesn't end? Is it just, well, how bad, for how much probability of making things better -"

"...mostly it's that mortals shouldn't do that, and should leave it to the gods. But if you have to do it, there's not some strategy that's better than figuring out how likely it is to work and how much harm it's going to do and if there's any better way, and then doing your best."