Dogwood has been very hard at work and isn't waving much through.

Dogwood deserves a medal. Okay, so how are they doing religion in the apparent absence of gods?

It's complicated.

The current most populous religions (though many people are no religion) are several flavors of Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, all of which enjoy lengthy histories and a rocky last couple centuries as some of their conceptual real estate was overwritten with daeva. There are also literally hundreds of littler religions, old and new, based on large or small differences from the big ones. Polytheism has steadily declined in popularity throughout history and is explicitly identified as the opposition for some of the Christians and Muslims. People feel extremely strongly about their religions and enormous conflicts have been stirred up over people trying to convert one another or prevent each other from practicing their religions. Many laws, protocols, and regulations have religious exceptions.

Humans are real weird but that isn't actually news.

He reads up on Christianity and Islam.

Humans are real weird and apparently also really confused about how morality works if they don't have actual guidance about it. No wonder they're panicking so badly about the idea of gods when their main example of one is evil masquerading as good!

He starts work on a blog post on the topic, but it's a tricky one and he keeps having to rewrite parts. When it becomes obvious that he's not going to get it done tonight, he instead writes about how polytheism works in his world: Lots of people have a favorite god, but no god that he knows of expects exclusive worship, and people will pray to and consult the clerics of whichever god is most relevant to what they're doing at the time. This is true of clerics, too; different gods have slightly different policies for their clerics but none demand exclusivity and most simply assume that their clerics will have the same sort of relationships with other gods that a non-cleric would have. Fharlanghn in particular actively encourages his clerics to explore other religions, just as they're encouraged to explore everything else, and allows his clerics to dual-dedicate to other compatible gods if they feel called to, though a dual calling is quite unusual. It's common for clerics of Fharlanghn to have another god that they look to for moral guidance, though, since Fharlanghn doesn't offer that; the only limitation is that that following can't come above their dedication to Fharlanghn and travel - that's what it means to be a cleric of a god, after all.

His comments section is very full. Pamphlet wants him to upgrade to premium, please and thank you.

Yeah, Pamphlet can have some money. He skims some comments.

But where are the GODS getting their morality from?

Please let's call them something else. There is no God but God and - [more in this thread]

Since you are allowed to explore other religions can I recommend FREE live chat counseling with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?

I second this recommendation.

Sockpuppet! Hey mods I found a sockpuppet! [more in this thread]

Mormons aren't real Christians but it'd be closer than worshipping going on vacation [more in this thread]

would you say this is orthopraxy rather than orthodoxy?

it's monolatry

congratulations you learned a word. it's a different question than praxy vs doxy though. [more in this thread]

He adds a note to the end of the post clarifying that while he's encouraged to explore other religions, he's very busy at the moment and not in a position to give that sort of thing the attention it deserves.

And that one comment gets a reply that yes, the gods of his world are generally more interested in correct practice than correct belief; there is more of the latter than he's been talking about so far, but much less than the local religions seem to have.

He checks in at the new hotel and goes to bed. He sleeps a little better, this time, does his devotions, and checks his email before he sets off to do his rounds.

You're starting to get emails with those scary headers that clarify they're only for the intended recipient and reading them may be a criminal offense if I'm not you. I'm not filtering anything with a header like that.

All right. Put them in a folder for me, please, if you weren't already. I assume that's safe.

What kind of emails are they?

[scary emails] becomes a folder. The President of Mars wants a meeting. The Prime Minister of Federated Stations wants a meeting. The Vice President of the European Parliament wants Raafi to clarify if he and other clerics of Fharlanghn will obey orders to leave a polity and not come back should any be issued.

He's got a couple of afternoons still free next week, the President and the Prime Minister can claim them.

The Vice President gets a reply of 'it's complicated' - clerics of Fharlanghn have about the same range of attitudes toward the law as anyone else and additionally may feel the need to go particular places as part of their duties. Working with Fharlanghn or his representatives to make sure nothing he disapproves of is happening in your area is the best way of avoiding the latter problem. He does confirm that he in particular is in the habit of obeying laws, and that Fharlanghn doesn't object to the punishment of his clerics if they break laws of their own volition.

The Vice President of the European Parliament wants to know if Raafi is empowered to making commitments on Fharlanghn's behalf.

Not on his behalf, but he can try to pass messages - he can't guarantee that Fharlanghn will respond but it seems likely.

He heads off on his rounds, checking his email in between.

James from the GCP says they're coming up on the end of how long they can cut off internet at the prison without triggering a review, has the situation changed in any way that would make it safe to just skip the review?

-he's going to leave that one until after his rounds, how about. Asshole.

He continues his work, eventually touching down outside of a fancy house; he'll only be a few minutes, so the summoner and fairy who brought him here can wait outside.

A few moments after he goes in, a trio of men appear, apparently from thin air. The middle one is the shortest, with white hair flecked with silver and foreign-looking traveling clothes, carrying a walking stick and wearing the same sort of wooden symbol that Raafi wears as a necklace pinned to his vest. On his left, a slightly stouter man in ornate sky-blue robes decorated with a stylized sun in golden cloth. On his right, a slightly younger man in black robes with silver glyphs on them, with a big, glossy black crow riding on one shoulder and a disapproving look on his face. The black-robed one floats a few inches into the air and turns to the middle one. "He's here?"

"Inside. He won't be long."

    "You're too permissive."

       "You're too impatient. The mortals have lives outside of us."

    "Hmf."

"...are you looking for Raafi?" asks the summoner.

"Mmhmm," the white-haired one smiles and offers his hand. "Fharlanghn, it's good to meet you."

"...are you looking for a handshake or are things different on your planet?"

"Just the handshake." He steps back, though. "Have things been well, here?"

"...there's some controversy online, I know, but I'm mostly toting him around to people with brain damage and he's pretty popular with them."

"Hm. Well, we'll look into it, I'm sure. Thank you for helping him."

"You're... welcome?"

He goes back to waiting.