That would, in fact, be arguably better news than hers, if it were true, which -

- she doubts. 

The Empire seems remarkably well resourced, is the thing. All of their occupying units have a wizard, all of their soldiers wear magic items (even if they're ones that need recharging). Her overall read of this situation in her absence is that the resistance was 100% categorically doomed. 

She could be wrong. 

Also someone in this chain of whispers could be very very much exaggerating. 

She does not raise that point in this moment.

People from all over the village, not just militia members, are coming to hear him.

"They came through the pass at Andru near dusk thinking Emerald-Eyes was at Terro, marching hard, and he was on three sides of them and when they heard the war cries they panicked - the only ones to get away were the ones their mages gated away, the full army's ours, all the engines and arms and armor, we've got imperial gold and imperial steel -"

He'll pause to give Iomedae another grin. "And what's your news if it's better than that?"

:I don't know if it's better than that. But I am a champion of Aroden, a god of very far away, and I have a magic sword which when I wield it will kill anyone it touches and is stopped by no armor, and I want to help in your war. I killed some Imperial patrol units east of here, and the one that was bothering these people:

He'll give a whoop of victory. "Aroden's blessing with Anathei's, then! Come join us - the Empire's beat but the war's not done yet!"

:Are tax collectors still coming to bother these people, do you know? I want to take what they would have paid in taxes with us to fight, for Oris's freedom, but I was assuming I'd need to fight the Imperial tax collectors first, and then whoever gets sent when those don't come back.:

"The king may send collectors when the time comes, but nothing from those northern bastards. They're on the run!"

- all right. How about she goes, so that she can meet the leadership of the rebellion, and of course anyone else who wishes to go can, but she's worried that the Empire might have more forces in reserve than one would expect.

They're heading for Mahauna and he's spreading the news, just get on the main road east and you'll make it there before long.

Some of her militia wants to come. Some doesn't.

She will tell them candidly that she expects the war will be worse and bloodier from here than anyone imagines. She does expect they will win. They can stay or go, and if they stay they can plan to fight when they next see Imperial men or plan to run or plan to pretend nothing is out of the ordinary, though if they want to do that last thing they'll have to do the plan she's rehearsed with them, where two in the trees take down the unit mage with arrows and certainly die of it but make it impossible for the Empire to tell who else is guilty. 

Some stay and some go, and the rider rides on to the next village, and before long Iomedae and her force are headed east. They are joined along the way by various other contingents of recruits, called up by the same urgent riders; men urged to bring anything they can, food or arms, and come up to join the army; different riders promise different things - wages, arms, respect, "serve the gods," "be a man," loot - but the central message in all of them, say the new recruits, is the same: Free your homes. And that is what they have come to do.

Iomedae travels with them. At night she makes camp, which she's considerably pickier about than anyone else but willing to do half the work for, and then grows feathered wings and sits and speaks and sings in their language; the rest of the time she speaks only when people have questions for her, but can answer questions endlessly. 

She does not keep many secrets. It has strategic benefits but it also amounts to somewhat misleading these people about their odds of victory and she's not going to do that. She is from Golarion, which is far away; she serves Aroden, who is also far away, and may be able to send no aid beyond her, which makes the powers that she held of His when she arrived here very precious. Aroden's followers who do their duty and are not Evil go to Him in paradise when they die.

She thinks that she can win against any army the Empire will field against them, until the Empire learns to counter her specifically, and maybe even then. She thinks that by this time next year their homes will be free and their nation will be free.

She also thinks most of them will die in the fighting.

Right, but everyone is filled with supernatural courage, and also gets an afterlife. 'You will probably die and go to a better life' is not, actually, that bad of a deal. Some people are deterred, but only a small fraction. When they need to camp they camp; when they need to march they march -

- And when they come to Mahauna (a major city by the standards of a rural region in which there are no major cities, where one large tributary feeds into the main river in the south half of the country) the gates are open and there's blue dragon banners flying and there are heads, on spikes, outside the walls, some of them still with the uniform hats of imperial officials and imperial officers still on them.

It's better news than many other things they could have witnessed.

(She really, really hopes that the senior leadership here is not under the impression this is winning against the place with standard issue magic items for their foot soldiers.)

She stops at the heads on spikes, and prays for them, in the fashion that is preferred in their own country (assuming they're even Imperial soldiers and not just people who were in this city when it was taken). That they did their duty and that they were good people and that they will be reunited with their ancestors.

Then she should - really try to figure out who here is in charge.

There are guards at the gates, who look fairly organized and disciplined and have imperial standard issue gear, distinguished by blue paint so they don't get stabbed by their own side, giving that sort of directions. 

"New recruits?" And then the guard notices Iomedae.

She's pretty noticeable even when the sword isn't glowing. Aside from the extremely magical armor one might notice that she's carrying more than two hundred pounds of supplies, slung over one shoulder like it's nothing.

:I am a champion of the distant god Aroden. I've come to help free Oris.:

He can't actually see that the armor is magic! Just that it's made of no known material and enormous and extremely well-made and that, yes, she's carrying more than two hundred pounds of supplies. But he recovers quickly!

"You should tell the Marshal," he says. (And in spite of that, he smiles.) "Back that way, central square -" he gives quick directions. "Recruits who aren't chosen of a god should talk to the army clerk there, to see about getting them proper weapons and training."

Off she'll go to the central square, then!

Mahauna is one of these cities built around a large central square; the sort of place where there would be a market most days, with shops and stalls scattered through it for all the city to gather and argue and trade. The square used to be surrounded with temples, but those were knocked down and in the place of some of the largest was erected an imperial citadel, towering over the square to oppress the locals with the knowledge that they were occupied, but the fortress's gates have been thrown open, now, and new tents or ramshackle buildings serve the place of temples, with the ever-burning flame of Anathei newly relit where her ancient temple once stood.

What's in the square right now, though, is a man of ambiguous age making a speech to an assembled and very enthusiastic crowd. He's of ambiguous age because he's wearing full-body armor with a sword at his side, his helmet carved into the face of a dragon with emerald eyes; he's actually very good at oratory -

"- I will pardon," he says, softly, "those of my people who yielded to the tyrants' threats and bribes, who from fear of the seemingly-overwhelming might of the Empire knelt, even those who named names, for there is not one who did it without compulsion. But the imperial soldiers themselves -" his arm darting out like a flash of lightning "- never! The age will come in ten thousand years when Imperial merchants cross the pass into Oris and wonder why they may not settle, for they have forgotten the crimes of their ancestors, whose tyranny made the name of empire a thing of horror and whose bones lie on the riverbed and whose blood was swept out to sea, but it will not come that Oris forgets! There will be peace with the Empire when every inch of Oris is ours again, and not one Imperial soldier stands on our sacred soil!"

- Iomedae can notice several things about him that are not immediately clear to an audience, such as that he probably doesn't know how to use the sword that well, that his armor is plausibly dress-, not battle- armor, and that although he's legitimately very persuasive, he's also using some kind of emotion-affecting ability to augment his oratory.

Oh, and also that he's not Evil.

- honestly this is substantially better than Iomedae's median guess, for the current state of the rebels and also for their attitude towards the Empire. It is genuinely encouraging that he is not in favor of murdering all of his countrymen who are collaborators. And 'no Imperial soldiers in Oris' is an outright achievable victory condition! And no one is cheering at the prospect of them all going to Hell, though conceivably just because the local state of information about afterlives is minimal. 

She would really like to be able to detect more about the emotion-effect than the fact it tickled her mind and obviously did not work on her - whether it's more like a song-sorcerer's ability. to make their words memorable, or like a Suggestion - but she's not even the barest ghost of a wizard, and can't Detect Magic to learn any more. 

Is this the Marshal she's supposed to speak to? If not, are they visible?

Yup, that's him! All the soldiers are deferring to him.

Then she'll wait for him to finish. She genuinely does not think of putting down her two hundred pound sack (it's mostly early-harvested food and captured Imperial shield items and captured Imperial boots) because it is not heavy enough her arm will get tired.

He's mostly talking about how they should accept deserters on the grounds that they're probably other people from countries the empire conquered, while making it sound like he's urging the annihilation of the Jaconan people, plus stuff about how the road ahead will be long and hard-fought but they have the support of the gods and of everyone on the planet except the Eastern Empire, and so it will end well for them eventually. And also that the army wants all volunteers and that signing up means a hard and laborious path to victory that pays primarily in all your children and grandchildren down to the twentieth generation remembering you as a hero.

Lots of exciting new things to orient to. Jaconans are a visible human subtype, probably, not a species; everyone she's seen here is human. If she wants to conduct operations on Imperial territory it'll be important whether all her soldiers just want to do as much murder as possible but they're a ways off from that. 

(They might not be her soldiers. There will need to be some negotiation about that. Iomedae will be patient.)

And once the speech is done and people willing to give their precious hoarded cash to the cause in exchange for IOUs or just straight-up volunteer for the army are lining up at one of the clerks, he's going for straight-up backslapping and greeting people and giving them CHARISMATIC OVERLOAD so they want to support his cause!

Iomedae is pretty high up on the priority list.

"Marshal Orestan. Have we met?"

(He, or someone passing his messages on to her, will repeat his message in Mindspeech once it becomes clear she doesn't speak his language. He is sufficiently shielded that she can't read his mind.)