"What, do you like Erastil?

I have several problems with Him. The first one is that He wants people to be humble. When people say 'humble' they usually mean a particular flavor of 'proud', and that includes His followers. So actually, He's kind of similar to Marra is some ways. Like, He wants people to be proud of their farming and hunting and proud of fulfilling their role in society. There's nothing wrong with hunting and farming as vanities, according to Marra, and it's good to feel useful! The issue is that He wants people to limit their aspirations. He likes when a farmer decides to stay a farmer instead of leaving home to become a scribe or a merchant or a artist.

Now, you might ask, isn't it good that the farmer is loyal to their family? I'll get to that later, but no, there's no contract or proper power relationship there; if the farmer actually belonged to someone then their superior would want them to be as useful as possible!

In Marra's afterlife, we are shaped to fit our roles, and we have to accept our limitations. A gofiere or cantor is always just a gofiere or cantor, and even if you become a regulator or some incredible kind of marrenai that's even more powerful, you're still subordinate to Marra Herself. Accepting yourself as a farmer seems pretty similar, right? Well, the archon is in the details. Like I said, Erastil wants His followers to be small while they're alive, but Marra wants us to try to be as awesome as possible while we live, and only puts us in our final places in the afterlife. If it were possible for outsiders to keep growing, Marra would love that!

And Erastil's farmers mostly aren't even vain about farming, they're just doing it to survive! It's possible to force a vanity on someone - like for an obvious example I don't really have the scholar's temperment of a wizard but I'm excellently vain about magic now - but they don't do that!

My second reason to dislike Erastil is petty, and now that I think of it, I should get rid of it... anyway, 'Svabiad' is not a real halfling family name, it just means 'free'. Because I used to be a slave. My fatherline goes to the Katalisha family of Isger, which was destroyed by slavers two centuries ago. Nowadays, there's a bunch of free halflings who call themselves Katalishaktie again, who follow Erastil, and would absolutely despise me for being Evil, and liking that I'm Evil, and being raised by an opposite-sex single parent, and oh probably being a clown and performing with illusions and a bunch more things I haven't even thought of. Obviously, they're not really Katalishaktie! The Katalisha family doesn't exist. No halfling would call me a Katalishakti, so I shouldn't even care, but here I am getting angry and hoping that they all wither away to - to mindless constructs in Requius.

Finally, most importantly, Erastil is the worst sort of Good. Like, for comparison, if Sarenrae wants Her followers to go heal people, that's fine, you know, none of my business? I'm really glad I don't belong to Her - Nirvana is horrifying and I don't want to waste my life healing gross useless people who are just going to get sick again - but, like, if She and Marra were to be the only gods on Golarion I'd accept that. And Iomedae is - cool, in the Marran sense. I don't share Her values, and again, I don't want to throw my life away fighting Kuthites, but I can see the potential for real vanity there. In fact, Marra permits secondary worship of Iomedae; She's the only permitted Good god.

But Erastil is definitely my problem. His sort of Good stands in opposition to ever being awesome, ever prioritizing yourself, ever having a clear sense of what you're even allowed to do. He likes small villages where everyone has the power to 'shame' people for any reason that sounds justified by their tradition. A Marran would be able to resist that kind of emotional manipulation, of course, and I hope you would be able to too, but, first, He wants people to be vulnerable, to be easily hurt, and second, they actually severely punish people too. Even worse, with strict enough traditions, everyone is in violation of something all the time, so the real reason for pointing out an infraction and punishing someone can be any whim at all, and you might not ever find out why!

Marra's rules, and the rules we create on Her behalf, are always enforced absolutely. We are only in the power of our superiors, not everyone we know! And our superiors must rule us properly or be punished themselves! We are always clear about our duties and our freedoms.

I hate Erastil, I endorse my hate of Him, and I would have been very happy to hear of one of His paladins falling - to anyone, but especially to Conrad.

...I know you have a sort-of-Good arrangement within your churches. Do you filter to avoid people who would want to randomly punish others?"

"No, I don't, but I don't see why you would be so against Him, since He's Lawful too." He listens to her explanation.

"You shouldn't put stock into what your family thinks. Your life is your own. It's not up to them how you ought to live your life. Svabiad is a good name – the meaning is very pleasing." Wow, that was really out of character for him: he usually doesn't care about other people's predilections and neither does he like preaching. He just felt like interjecting in that moment.

"I agree with you. Erastil's followers do seem like the type to be very holier-than-thou and I find that really annoying. It's tiring to deal with. Sadly, it's not Conrad's thing to corrupt people like that. He wants people to willingly come to Him – it's more Damian's thing to corrupt people."

He thinks about that for a moment.

"That depends on what you mean. Being quick to anger isn't a disqualifying factor for being in our church, so long as that anger is not directed towards harming people in the church. But feeling the urge to hurt others for the sake of hurting them is fine – we often round up people from Nerosyan and Caliphas to use in experiments to test spell effects or new alchemical mixtures. Once the experiments finish, they're repurposed for people to do whatever with. Some use them to get their anger out. That's not my thing, though, I don't like fighting someone helpless, if you can even call that fighting at all."

She's kind of annoyed at Elias expressing his opinion about her name, and in particular his characteristically-Chaotic opinion, but this is great practice for controlling her emotions!

Huh, holier-than-thou, what an interesting phrase. It makes sense that Chaotic people who don't do hierarchy as much would say it disparagingly, but Marran clerics are literally holier than Alieta and that's exactly as it should be! It's unearned and ill-wielded power that she objects to.

The archaic 'thou' reminds her of Halfling pronouns, and then the fact that non-Marran halflings have a word, 'onuk', for a person who, without justification, tends to think themself superior than everyone they meet. She's glad she's Marran.

"I meant more like the kind of person who thinks they're the superior without actually being qualified to rule - or assigned a charge as practice - and does a sloppy job of it and then punishes their imagined subordinates through social manipulation because they don't actually have formal power. Do you have people like that?

Oh yeah, sadism is fine, as long as it's controlled and used for Lawful punishment or shaping or clearly-marked whim or Lawful revenge... Why Nerosyan and Caliphas?

If you could pick which gods could operate on Golarion, which would you choose? If the answer is just Conrad or Damian or both, we can make it more interesting by saying that you have to pick exactly one of each alignment, uh and two demon lords can count as one god, or two demigods of the same alignment in general. And you get Pharasma for free."

"We don't have that because we don't really have the concept of superiors and inferiors at all. Unless we're on a mission or working on something, all of us have equal social status, even if we might differ in power and expertise. In the context of a mission, we would assign a person to be the leader – the one to make any final and binding decisions – but that's decided either by consensus or by the Head Priest. The leader doesn't have to be the most powerful one in general, only the one that seems most well suited to the task at hand.

A person being a sloppy leader would simply not be selected as a leader next time, and if they try to torment or punish others, they would be reprimanded. We don't have people like that because anyone who might be like that is either not selected or has been excommunicated." He seems distinctly annoyed at the concept of such people existing.

"Nerosyan because Mendev is a shitshow. I should know, I was born there. Since the Worldwound closed, no country has been sending it aid or supplies, and so the situation there is terrible. Caliphas because Ustalav has lots of vampires in it, and no one thinks much about people who disappear in the night. Both of them are nearby and are capital cities, which means that we can pick up some people along with sundries when we go on shopping trips. We absolutely do not want to go to Vigil because that place is swarming with Iomedans. Absolutely not."

He considers that question for a while.

"Obviously I would pick both Conrad and Damian for Chaotic Evil.

I'd actually swap out Pharasma for Nethys, because Nethys is more closely aligned with Conrad. They both love magic, and Nethys is...unconcerned with how magic is used, so long as it's magic. Which I like, and Conrad does too.

I would pick Erastil for Lawful Good, not to spite you, but because Erastil is...much less...'militant' over rooting out Evil than Iomedae. And because Iomedae is much more effective at that in general – She's unconcerned with tradition.

Shelyn for Neutral Good, because She's aligned with Damian. Damian is fond of Shelyn, but the reverse is not true. I prefer Her over Sarenrae. Fuck Sarenrae.

Cayden Cailean for Chaotic Good. I'm not a drunkard, but He knows how to have a good time.

Abadar for Lawful Neutral. He's similar to Nethys in that he is unconcerned with what you're trading for, so long as you do it fairly. Conrad had a high opinion of Abadar in His mortal life, and that extends to now.

Calistria for Chaotic Neutral. I might have even become an antipaladin of Her, had things gone differently. Probably not, though. I dislike Gorum because, although I am aligned with His violent nature, He's not concerned with winning, only fighting. If I fight, I want to win, and I'll use trickery and indirection if I need to, although I prefer not to.

Neither Zon-Kuthon or Asmodeus are appealing, and while I disagree with many of Marra's opinions, She doesn't sound all that bad to me. I'd pick her. 

Norgorber for Neutral Evil."

"Ah, it makes sense to combine multiple errands.

Do Iomedans give you a lot of trouble?

When I said Pharasma is free, I meant, you can have Her and another Neutral god. Some people like to argue about whether you're required to pick Pharasma or else Her Creation never existed at all, or, if you're excluding Her from just Golarion, then Golarion might stop existing or get ruined by outer gods. They also sometimes argue that you have to pick Aroden if you want prophesy here to be broken, or pick Rovagug to make history work out... I don't care about that; I'm more interested in what gods you personally favor.

Wait really Shelyn is aligned with Damian? I would have expected Them to be enemies given how you talked about Her, Felicia; would you pick Her too?"

"No, but that's mostly because we've kept a very low profile. I'm not sure Iomedae's church even knows we exist. We have respect for her – she's direct, forceful, and effective. Conrad's title is the 'Contender' because He is the god of growing in strength, of rising up from low places. But that doesn't mean you stupidly take the fight to the giant head-on. We tend to avoid Her and Her ordained people."

"Shelyn and Damian are aligned in the sense that both value beauty, although their conceptions of beauty are somewhat different. Shelyn would be upset with Damian because He's Evil, and also because He wants to destroy ugly things, but He doesn't have any problem with Her. I don't expect that to be a problem though, because Shelyn's church is not militant. Sarenrae is more violent than her, it's just that they train to render people unconscious nonlethally rather than training to kill.

Still, Damian and Shelyn are close enough in that aspect that I'd pick Her over Sarenrae."

"I see!

My answer is that for Good I choose Iomedae, Sarenrae, and Kofusachi, a Tian god of happiness and prosperity who seems pretty unobjectionable for a Chaotic Good god although maybe He's hiding something awful.

Lawful Neutral is Valmallos, who's like Nethys but with fewer explosions. Neutral is Brigh, an obscure gnomish god of inventing cool things. For Chaotic Neutral, Calistria would be okay but I have a god of revenge and don't want two, so I'll pick another Tian god, Hei Feng, of storms and the ocean, who has a bit of pride, which is not vanity, but is better than nothing.

Lawful Evil is Marra, of course, but the other Evil ones are harder. For Neutral Evil I'd go with a pair of demigods, Arazni and Stygidvod; Arazni is the god of revenge who I'm taking instead of Calistia. Both of them are only okay but I don't like any of the other Neutral Evil options. Conrad and Damian are better than my previous pair of demon lords, Zura and Socothbenoth."

She decides to answer the earlier question even though she's not entirely sure whether it was directed at her.

"Oh, I had implicitly assumed that we were only talking about the Inner Sea gods. I confess that while I did learn about Tian Xia gods from seminary, I'm not as familiar with them.

I think I'd pick similarly to Elias, but that I'd swap out Erastil for Iomedae. Iomedae has better aesthetics than Erastil. Erastil is so...stodgy and old-fashioned. And not in the good way. I'd pick Erecura for Lawful Neutral. If it wasn't for my Chaotic nature, I'd love to be able to visit Erecura's gardens in Dis. It's the one good thing in in Hell, I'd say.

Actually, what does Marra's domain look like? Is it beautiful? Do you have pictures of it? I know some of us in our church have made paintings of the Silver Garden during our glimpses of it when we scry outsiders.

I didn't think of Arazni and Stygidvod at first, but now that you mention them, I'd totally pick them. They're rather obscure, so they didn't come to mind at first." 

"Oh then my answer is: Iomedae, Sarenrae, Desna; Irori, Nethys, Calistria; Marra, Norgorber, and Conrad and Damian; previously Rovagug was my best Chaotic Evil pick widely known in the Inner Sea.

Marra shares Stonepeak with Minderhal, and His stone giants were there first, and claim all the inhabitable caves, the grazing land on the Axis side of the mountains, and the defensive positions on the Hell side. That leaves Marra with the wastes on the Hell side and a few burrows too small for the giants.

The landscape is pretty if you like rocks. The people are prettier, especially the sietaziz. If you search, there are lots of murals and sculptures. In the camps, the artists dance and play music and recite. When I next have a Silent Image I can reproduce the images that were shown to me!

Marcus, one of the grooms, made a tapestry inspired by one that he saw in a scry. He says it shows influence from the stone giants."

"One of the grooms? That's probably a terminology thing that I'm missing."

It's about time they got started on praying, so she'll probably break off the conversation soon.

"A groom is someone who takes care of horses."

Oops, yeah, it does mean that. They don't use horses at the Bronze Orchard: they just Teleport or Transport Via Plants. She doesn't think she's even ridden a horse before. The cleric that took her to the Orchard after she got ordained was traveling with a fifth-circle wizard.

"Yes, right. It is time for us to pray now. Please excuse us."

The two of them move to a quiet corner to do that.

The inner courtyard of the Marran camp is filled with a snaky loop of people variously engaged: carving wood, reading, brushing a horse, slicing up the leg of a guy lying on the ground, lying on the ground vigorously regretting errors, wrapping thread around shawm reeds, cooking over a fire, drawing in the dirt, grinding pigment, sitting perfectly still, juggling, spreading clay over a foot-tall dome of twigs while a child watches, sparring with sticks.

The cleric ambles around the loop touching those who reach out to her.

Guidance.

Guidance.

Guidance.

Touch of Law.

Guidance.

Guidance.

Guidance.

Guidance.

Guidance.

Guidance.

Guidance.

Guidance.

Guidance.

Alieta approaches her, gesturing I-want-to-initiate-a-conversation-in-order-to-learn-(addressing-a-superior).

Yes-let's-initiate-conversation.

She heels herself to the cleric and follows her around the loop. "The visitors are joining us for the job tonight, but they wouldn't state rules for fighting together; we agreed to pretend to be under a Charm Person towards each other.

At the time, I didn't think this was heretical...

Also, I don't know what Charm Person does during combat."

"Well that was foolish! Don't agree to things you don't understand!

Luckily, Charm Person does not compel reckless action, only makes the target listen in good faith to entreaties to act recklessly.

Pretending is not heretical, but you will probably require correction after the first half-dozen times you do it, for the reasons we discussed earlier. Tos will be fine, he's more experienced with this."

Alieta nods.

(After her first conversation with Felicia, she had talked with the cleric about the Chaotic visitors' emphasis on mindset over rules. Meicona had taken Alieta into her private tent and explained that mortals, even Marrans, actually take most of their actions with little thought. Marran shaping of mortals mostly gives them careful habits and trains out their sloppy impulses - gives them the mindset of expecting people, including themselves, to follow rules, and the mindset of avoiding the worst Chaotic and Good instincts.)

It makes sense that pretending would cause the wrong habits of thought even if it doesn't break any rules.

I-think-we're-finished-with-this-topic-do-you-have-anything-to-add-or-do-you-have-another-topic?

Alieta describes her outburst about Erastil.

"You either need to satisfy your anger at the Katalishaktie or remove your anger. Can you remove it yourself?"

"Yes."

"You are correct that Erastil is opposed to Marra. Are your feelings because you're afraid that you could be captured by Erastilians? That is vanishingly unlikely - you belong to Marra. If you know that you shouldn't worry about capture but the thought still haunts you, remove it.

Do you want to crusade against Erastil? Do you feel pity towards His victims?"