Then that just leaves rings! Since she doesn't have to sleep, that again means the Ring of Sustenance is much less needed, but there are a lot of really strong options competing for a ring slot. Since she uses Ki, they tracked down a Vudran ring of Ki Mastery, but there's also a few other standout picks like an intact ring of Delayed Doom that would let her push off a wide variety of harmful effects into the future, one that helps deflect attacks, one that heals its user, and a rare item out of Rahadoum that helps defend against gods and clerics.

Kakara puts on the Ki ring to be sure, but as she suspected exile Ki training is leagues ahead of the local kind at this; it doesn't let her do anything new or notably improve her abilities. The anti-divine ring is an obvious pick with how her vision of Asmodeus went, but both the healing and delayed doom seem like incredibly powerful affects. The regeneration isn't the fastest, especially when compared against just taking a sensu bean, but she doesn't exactly have a stockpile of those on hand and her Ki healing abilities are pretty basic. On the other hand, delaying an effect by even just a minute in combat is basically eternity, and being able to do so for nine minutes (or for 9 different effects) is overkill of the best kind.

...She's not completely sure she'll stick with it, but she'll take the Ring of Delayed Doom. Do they have any healing consumables besides the gloves she can take?

Healing also comes in wands, staves, potions, and scrolls! They can get her a miniature bag of holding for that and a few other miscellanea, like cash, no problem.

Looking at her reflection in a mirror, Kakara can't deny she looks kind of silly. This is a lot more layers and individual peices of clothing than she has ever worn at once in the past. But she's also thoroughly learned her lesson on the matter of looking foolish vs being foolish, and doesn't intend to make the same mistake again. Besides, it's not that bad to move around in at least.

"Right. I've gotten a mind blank, solved your logistics problems - at least for the moment - gotten some diamonds, and now have a full set of defensive items. Is there anything else that's urgent on the scales of hours or days?"

"We've scheduled a private meeting with Felandriel Morgethai this evening; under the circumstances, we could have gotten one sooner, but it was judged to leak less information if she didn't suddenly alter her schedule. Aside from that, no."

"In that case, I think it's past time I got oriented on what the deal is here with Golarion. History, Geopolitics, Magic, Gods, the works."

That's something they can arrange! History is not a major focus of Iomedae's church, not like it was for Aroden, but they did inherit a lot of his clergy and most importantly his libraries, so even a military order with a state like Lastwall is well equipped, and not just with copies of the History and Future of Humanity.

That's good, because holy book or no she was definitely giving that title some side eyes after noticing the planet had more than one species. Does it make sense to start at the beginning?

There's no consensus on what, exactly, Rovagug is, or if that even makes sense as a question to ask about the Qlippoth. Whatever his nature, however, his actions are usually best understood as, essentially, acting on mindless hunger. He was also within Pharasma's creation nearly from the bigginning, gnawing away at the abyss; though he occasionally travelled to other realms like Axis, he was content to be herded off in short order. He was too powerful to be slain, his very presence damaged prophecy, and he could not be dissuaded from wrecking what they had constructed in the long term, but he was, for the most part, a manageable problem. And then the gods created mortals.

It took some time for this problem to be clear, for Rovagug was at that point in the Abyss far from the prime material, but once he did, it seems he found he liked the taste of mortal souls and set about consuming planets. The normal methods of dissuading and diverting him proved ineffective in the face of something he genuinely wanted, and since he was significantly stronger than even the ancient gods there wasn't a lot of room for alternate methods. Despairing of the deaths, Sarenrae arranged a coalition of all who would listen to stop him. Asmodeus and Shelyn, Shiziru and Calistria, Abadar and Desna, Gorum and Dou-Bral and Gozreh and Apsu and Dahak and even Pharasma Herself arrayed themselves against him. Some of the gods most dissatisfied with the state of the universe fought alongside Rovagug in the hopes that the impossibility of foreseeing the battle's result meant they had a chance of success, but against the arrayed forces it proved insufficient. His erstwhile 'allies' slain, Rovagug was lure to a prepared trap and sealed away by the combined effort of the gods involved, where he has thrashed against his cage ever since.

The world in which he is trapped is Golarion.

"Er, he's not in danger of getting free soon, right? Unless one of the gods lets him out or something?"

"Not as far as we're aware. He's less imprisoned than he once was; some of the gods that contributed to his imprisonment are dead, and when Dou-Bral became Zon-Kuthon he ceased to give power to the star towers that prevented Rovagug from picking clerics or communicating outside. This was over 10,000 years ago, though, and as far as we know he hasn't managed to get especially close at any point since."

The oldest records known to modern day Golarion, as distinguished from the relayed claims of the gods, pick up about 10,000 years before the present. They begin, to the lament of many historians "in media res," and to make matters worse are woefully incomplete and rely heavily on Aroden's individual testimony and archeological evidence, though there's no any specific reason to doubt most of it happened as described.

The Aboleth were at this point already an ancient civilization, that had ruled the seas of Golarion from beneath their surface for unknown ages. At some point - a few centuries to a millenia before the surviving histories were written - they had begun sharing what they knew with the humans on the surface, and helped them build their civilization. It was, likely, not entirely benevolent, but the overall effects were positive and the shared knowledge of magic and technologies propelled Azlant and their splinter-state Thassilon to a level never achieved since on Golarion. Among the people they taught was Aroden, who was even in those days a talented mage. At some point, however, some combination of the Azlanti advances, actions, and diplomatic posture made the Alghollthu nervous or angry enough that they declared war. To their shock, however, once the war began they found themselves on the losing side, and in fear or desperation called down the starstone from space. They thought it would simply defeat Azlant, but they miscalculated; the meteor they called down had with it enough energy to wipe out all life on the planet and perhaps even endanger Rovagug's prison. Several gods intervened, sacrificing themselves to slow the attack and in doing so ensured that some life survived on the other side of the planet, but even weakened the strike was enough to largely destroy both Azlant and Thassilon. This event, known as Earthfall, took place in -5293 AR and was responsible for the paucity of earlier sources.

Aroden, by some means unknown even to his church, survived Earthfall and aided in the survival and recovery of humanity during the age of darkness, which had been made worse by the escape of Zon-Kuthon from his imprisonment, which bolstered the forces of evil and resulted in the founding of the horrific nation of Nidal. By about -3470 AR, Golarion had begun to restore something in the way of civilization, and thus began what historians typically refer to as "the age of destiny." Taldor was founded, the wizard Nethys ascended as the half-mad god of magic, Osirion flourished into its greatest golden age, and Aroden accomplished many legendary deeds before setting out to explore the stars in search of something. By -1000 AR, Osirion had begun to decline, and they ceded control of some of their provinces to the Archmage Geb, who's path of expansion put him into conflict with fellow Archmage and Monarch Nex, both of whose nations bore their name.The conflict lasted over a thousand years, and established both as two of the greatest wizards in the history of Golarion and lead Geb to invent much of modern Necromancy, before ending abruptly in 576 AR with the disappearance of Nex.

In 0 AR, Aroden raised the starstone from the sea, placed it within a cathedral in Absalom, wove defenses around it to prevent people from coming into contact with it, touched it, and ascended into godhood, beginning what came to be known as the age of enthronement. Since then, 3 others have passed the challenge successfully and become a god; Norgorber, the Neutral Evil god of thieves and assassins, Cayden Cailean, the Chaotic Good drunken god, and lastly their own patron Iomedae, the Lawful Good goddess of defeating Evil. Of these, it is only believed that the third was truly planned; neither of the first two had prior to their ascension established a church, teachings, or holy book, and in the case of Cayden it was known he originally snuck into the temple on a drunken dare. Iomedae, however, was a Paladin of Aroden before she became a goddess and had made her legend by defeating the lich Archmage Tar-Baphon who sought to conquer Golarion in a tide of undead. Having had the ability to plan ahead, she founded her own Paladin orders and churches prior to ascending staffed with her fellow Arodenites, and upon ascending in 3832 AR took them over from Him as His Herald.

Ever since his ascension, it had been prophecized by the oracles of all the gods that Aroden would return in 4606 AR to usher in an age of glory in Golarion. Cheliax, the heart of his religion, had prepared for his return; the king had arranged to abdicate, and people thronged the streets to see him once more in the flesh. Instead, when the appointed day came, the world was wracked with storms as the gods went to war. There were weeks of torrential rain and hurricane gales, not just in Cheliax but around the entire globe, some of which have not ceased to this day. Cities were wrecked in earthquakes, a hole opened to the Abyss in Sarkoris and a flood of demons poured out, and... Aroden died. His clerics stopped getting spells, his return never materialized, and prophecy shattered irreparably. Millions died, from the destruction, loss of crops, and the sudden loss of Arodenite clerics meaning an end to clean drinking water and healing for thousands of communities. The century since has been known as the age of lost omens, and it is in this time that Cheliax came under the rule of Hell after a vicious civil war, Sarkoris fell to demonic hordes from what is now called the worldwound, and what peace there was in Avistan came to an end.

"What other gods are there that I absolutely should know about, what would you say are the most powerful / dangerous countries in modern golarion, and what would you describe as the 5 biggest problems with the current state of the world? Either consensus or your own personal opinion for the last is fine, as long as you let me know which is which."

"Probably the most relevant to you, outside the ancient gods, Nethys, and the starstone ascendant are Irori, Milani, and maybe Smiad. Irori, also known as the master of masters, is a Lawful Neutral Vudran god who supposedly ascended due to self perfection. His church is fairly notable even in the inner sea, and he's known to be a patron to many monks and other practitioners of Ki as he once was in life. Milani is the Chaotic Good goddess of hope and revolution; we work closely with her followers, both due to shared goals and a shared history that carried over from when both she and Iomedae followed Aroden. Smiad is an empyreal lord - that is, a demigod - rather than a full god, but He is known to favor fighting evil dragons, so might look highly upon you. Possibly not, though, since the dragon is still alive? I'm sorry, I'm only familiar with him in passing.

"In the inner sea and Avistan, the most powerful nations are generally agreed to be Cheliax, Taldor, and Galt. Nidal is particularly strong for its size, with essentially all the clerics for one of the ancient gods in one country, but it's small and poor which limits the danger. Absalom is likewise very difficult to conquer and has never been successfully invaded, in addition to being very wealthy, but has historically had a hard time transforming that into a influence abroad. Razmiran is a completely unremarkable nation that happens to have a 9th circle wizard as its god king, and unlike Felandriel Morgethai it's not impossible he would try something; Irissin likewise, although even if Baba Yaga doesn't interfere some of her descendants are still powerful spellcasters. Going beyond Avistan, the Padishah Empire of Kelesh, Vudra, and Minkai are all powerful nations in a traditional sense, with the former even possessing territories in Avistan, while Geb is an otherwise not especially powerful nation ruled by Geb, who is plausibly the most powerful person in Golarion and enslaved Arazni to run it for him.

"The Worldwound and Infernal Cheliax are widely considered both the biggest problems with Golarion and those most likely to get worse in the near future. Outside of that, it becomes less clear; Nidal and Geb are both horrific nations, but their evil has been largely stable and directed inwards, which means they are not especially likely to become more dangerous than they currently are. Also plausible candidates are the House of Oblivion, which is a permanent portal to Abbadon located in Thuvia that regularly spews Divs like the worldwound does demons. Ustulav is... perhaps halfway under control, but the undead infestation there is both an ongoing torment for both the enslaved souls and the living and if they ever managed to free Tar-Baphon would immediately become the biggest threat in Golarion, outstripping even the worldwound. Outside of specific countries, there's the fact that between a quarter and 35% of the population ends up in evil afterlives when they die."

Controlling for the fact that she's getting the 30 second summary, Irori doesn't sound exactly like her kind of thing. Not zero like it, but there are other saiyans she knows that kind of a focus would apply to way more. Milani, on the other hand, sounds like exactly her speed and plausibly a good source of advice for how to make her next revolution not fail. She'll have to make some time to talk with some clerics of Milani and get a better feel for her. As for Smiad... honestly, she's not sure how to respond to that. A demigod of slaying dragons? That's so specific, how could that possibly come up often enough to matter?

The overlap of powerful countries and biggest problems definitely is kind of unfortunate, but in a sense it probably shouldn't surprise her; if it were otherwise, the problems would probably be less intractable. She should probably also be expecting a lot of the countries which don't rank as problems to still be really bad in a lot of ways; it's true of Garenhuld now, and was more true at an equivalent technological level. She probably also ought to look into the problem of if there are any readily end-able wars, but that's probably not the priority in the next few days.

"What would need to be true - or need to stop being true - for those problems to be solved? Like, suppose someone decided to close the House of Oblivion, what would be the kinds of difficulties you would expect them to encounter?"

Probably for a lot of them she either won't want to solve it whatever way seems obvious to them or has capabilities they don't even have in their solution space, but it'll probably helpful to get an idea of how they would go about problem solving it.

"For Cheliax, the main problem is that prior to Hell taking over, they were unquestionably the strongest nation in the inner sea and the support from Hell is enough to make up for many of the downsides to their policies; Asmodeus and His Archdevils preferentially choose clerics there to make up for their limitations on the worship of other gods, Hell gives them funding to support a schooling system to keep up their wizard numbers after the economic collapse of the civil war, Soul Sales allow them to keep the loyalty of their wizards without Cheliax having to compromise with their interests, and so forth. To deal with them... if you could somehow force Hell to withdraw their backing, it would collapse in short order. Otherwise, it would probably require beating them in the field so their armies can't maintain order, wrecking enough of their security state that they can't keep up the oppression, or systematically tear off provinces in revolts like with Andoran. If there was a way to remove the current queen, Abrogail Thrune II, that Hell could not simply retrieve her from that would probably also help; she's unusually competent as Thrunes go, and they were losing territory notably more quickly before her ascension."

That Lastwall's plan is most likely the second via Galt, he thinks but does not say. He hasn't actually been informed that they're helping Galt at all, much less to that extent for that purpose; it's just a guess from them looking like they might be able to take a successful swing at Cheliax in the next decade.

"For Nidal... it's less clear. People have tried no few things in the thousands of years it's been around, and none of them have stuck. Historically, the main problem has always been Zon Kuthon putting His thumb on the scales; He has a lot of power and a lot of subordinate outsiders in reserve He can draw upon to defend His interests. Either something would need to be done by the gods to prevent Him from intervening, or a lot of overwhelming force such that you ran him up past the maximum he is permitted by treaty, and then you would still have to deal with an impoverished uneducated and very traumatized population creating a humanitarian nightmare, especially since if they died from a lack of help they'd most likely end up in Xovaikain or Hell anyway.

"The Worldwound - and the House of Oblivion to a lesser extent - would need either custom Wishes or Miracles to close the planar tear, at minimum, but that wouldn't be enough by itself; the high priestess of Sarenrae was escorted to Threshold with the assistance of a dozen of the strongest the strongest adventurers in the known world to fend off the demons. She then called upon her goddess for a miracle and it didn't work. The spell completed successfully, the tear shrunk a bit temporarily, and things got very bright, but there was some force holding it open that Sarenrae couldn't fit enough power through a miracle to overcome. Our best guess is that the Demon Lords Deskari and Baphomet are primarily responsible, but it's entirely possible they have more support than that. Designing custom Wishes is also one of the leading causes of death for 9th circle wizards, historically speaking, so I would expect any candidate to be reluctant to try. The House of Oblivion might prove more tractable since Ahriman doesn't appear to actually care about maintaining it personally, but it's also been less of a priority because of it being less dangerous.

"As for Geb, short of Nex making a surprise reappearance there's not much hope for it getting solved. We were previously planning to wait on Aroden's return and the Age of Glory to deal with it, but once that ended up not materializing the prospects ran dry. While most of its politics isn't unified enough to create an expansionist policy, it's got the most high level undead per capita of anywhere on Golarion and liches and vampires tend to be notably stronger than they were in life. A great deal of the undead in question also happened to be extremely strong before transforming, including several necromancers that got experience in the war on Nex and are at least 8th circle, and they would unite in the case of an external threat or an order from Geb. Last time we tried doing something about it, he killed the crusaders in our vanguard, raised them as undead slaves, and then teleported to Lastwall to raise our former patron demigod, Arazni, as a lich to run the day to day affairs of his country since he couldn't be bothered. We didn't think that kind of thing was possible even in theory, but 9th circle wizards as old as he is tend to treat rules of reality as more of a suggestion. In life and as Aroden's herald, she was already one of the most capable wizards in history; being a lich most likely made that even more true, though it's hard to verify. And even if someone managed to get past all of that, that would just mean that they had to face Geb himself. It's not clear if anyone could actually beat him short of a weight in numbers of 9th circles that hasn't existed in over 5000 years, and even then if he didn't get finished off beyond the ability of his contingencies to save him from in the first 12 seconds of so it would most likely not stick.

"Ustulav is a lot more tractable, comparatively speaking. We are currently making progress on solving the worst of the undead issues, although things have slowed down since the worldwound opened and we lost Cheliax's support; just any notable amount of assistance could end up tipping the scales and letting things get back under control more quickly. Once the undead are dealt with it would still be a deeply cursed country, of course, but it would be a great victory in itself and would leave both us and Ustulav better equipped to handle the myriad other issues."

It seems pretty clear they would want her to help with Ustulav first, which seems fair enough? If they're already working on the problem, it makes sense that it would be the one they think is both most solvable and have the best handle on how to solve. There's absolutely a part of her that wants to just fly into Geb right this minute and make them knock it off, but going unprepared into the territory of a magic user of unknown capabilities is exactly the mistake Yammar made that caused a good half of their problems with Dandeer, so she'll be responsible and refrain.

Well, refrain at least until she learns what it is that normal 9th circle wizards do besides, apparently, granting wishes. There's probably a sense in which her optimal course of action here would be to fetch a few hundred more diamonds for Lastwall, put on an intelligence headband, and then spend the next year training inside a secret demiplane, but such a regime of training alone would be punishing even for the most martial arts inclined of Saiyans. There's more than one reason even Goku brought his son with him into the room of spirit and time when training for Cell, and despite her name Kakara is quite unlike her ancestor in that regard. If she tried to spend all of her time training in isolation, she might get a month in of passable training, another 2 months of steadily falling results, and then spend the rest of the year going increasingly stir crazy due to lack of social contact and boredom. If the world was going to be destroyed in 3 months or some similar deadline, she'd probably try and give it a shot anyway, but it would massively suck and offer no guarantee of success.

Kakara thanks the historian for his time, and goes off to see if she can arrange a meeting with a cleric of Milani or some follower of Smiad, since it at least seems worth 20 minutes to check.

They don't currently have any paladins of Smiad in Lastwall or Mendev's records, which means most likely there aren't any in Avistan or the inner sea. It's not impossible there might be one in Tian Xia or Vudra or Arcadia at the moment, if there was a sufficiently bad Dragon problem to cause the need, but Smiad tends to have one strong paladin occasionally rather than a steady stream of mid strength ones; while both Demigods and Gods have limits to have many of their worshippers they can empower at once, the constraints on the former are notably tighter due to the relative power between them. If it's necessary, they could send an archon to deliver a message, but the gods of Good in general and Heaven in specific tend to share relevant information, so if he is inclined to assist he would almost certainly be forewarned enough to identify a prayer.

Compared to Iomedae, far fewer of Milani's empowered clerics come from within the ranks of Her official churches; she retains the majority of her empowerment to give aid and succor to those in most need. Still, Lastwall has a stronger presence of her faith acting openly than anywhere besides maybe Andoran, and Her temple in Vigil never closes its doors.

Praying is not really a natural mental motion for Kakara. Even at the ancestor cult meetings she attended, she did so as a mediator and secular leader (and, in uncomfortably large part, as an person of worship). Sure, there's a sense in which she has a closer relationship with the divine than any of the priests there, but that's her grandfather; worshiping him would just be weird. Still, she does her best to think back to the events that day - Dazarel, in his terrible strength and psychic might, and they super saiyans, glowing gold with the legacy of their Saiyan heritage. She thinks of people she was defending, the desire to keep them safe, and yes, the fear that their strength would not be enough. She thinks of the feel of the grass, the realization that in truth everything was one, and the moment everything clicked and she suddenly could construct the spirit bomb, its immense energies fueled by the willing donation of nearly everyone in Garenhuld, a collaborative effort to drive off he who would consume them all. And she thinks of the moment of victory where he was sealed away, struggling and raging but impotent before the sheer weight of her donated KI, secure in the knowledge he would never harm anyone again.

It's not really the kind of mortal He usually goes for. Good, yes, but not Lawful; renowned, certainly, but while she has honor her shape is one that would set it aside if the need were great enough. But it's not deniable that she did defeat a dragon far more powerful than the ones He usually has even his empowered paladins go for, and her willingness to sacrifice her own safety and well being to aid others is wholly sufficient. Even if he was not forwarned, this is a prayer Smiad would hear. Unfortunately, despite all that she has done in His domain there are limits on the assistance He can offer. She is not Lawful enough for Him to make a Paladin, and what levels He could offer would be, he thinks, almost wholly redundant in any case. His senses are less sharp than Iomedae's, but they are sufficient to tell that with the scale of the energy involved all a minor intervention would do is gild the lily, and even borrowing against His future budget and all Heaven can spare Him granting 17 Paladin levels to make her immune to compulsions is simply beyond His abilities.

It is also not in Smiad's nature to abandon those who have aided him (and she has aided him, undeniably so, both in the shared goal of Good for the flourishing of all sentient beings and by doing so within his own idiom-) when they need help in accomplishing Good deeds beyond their abilities just because it would come at a cost to Him.

:You are known to me, Kakara Goku, and held in high esteem. Should circumstances leave you with no choice but to assail the pit, I will do what I can to remove obstacles from your path:

And then He ends the connection at that. It's not, in fact, that expensive an intervention, but He's going to need to save up everything He has and more if He wants to survive keeping Dahak's attention off of her for long enough to matter should the day come.

That was... more abrupt, than with Iomedae, and she doesn't think it was just a matter of power? There wasn't any of the fraying she's come to associate with supporting a connection as long as it can go, but presumably Smiad has their reasons; she's not sure exactly what his offer of help entails, but she's pretty sure she's going to need all of it she can get if she wants to succeed.

...She also has something of a headache now, surprisingly. Talking to her grandfather was never like that, and neither was Iomedae. She's not entirely sure if it's a demigod thing or a Smiad thing or just a "some gods" thing but she's not exactly raring to go to the temple of Milani right this minute. Can they recommend her a dark place that's safe to relax and rest her eyes for an hour while she waits for the throbbing to die down a bit?

That's an easy set of desiderata to fulfill; most of their secure forbiddances and demiplanes can be made dark pretty easily. Since she can provide the transportation back, they're going to reccomend one of their smaller demiplanes as a solution; a forbiddance in Vigil is almost certainly safe but it's a good habit not to reliably leave bait worth trying for.