A youngish winged woman, clad in a flowing white dress, steps out from one of the empty archways as if it was a Gate.

"Welcome!" she exclaims, raising her hand.

Is he dead? The panic is gone like it'd never been, but the last thing he remembers is being ran over in the middle of a demon attack. Now there's a pretty outsider waving at him.

He waves back, cautiously. She doesn't look like an Agathion, and she's not androgynous, so probably not an angel.

Even if it's not Nirvana, he still made it to Paradise, and now everything will be okay. He should feel worse about failing, but something deep inside him has relaxed, and he realizes just how scared he's been of the evil afterlives, ever since he was a little kid who learned what Hell meant.

This is a Good afterlife, and not Nirvana. Maybe he'll even see his mom again.

"I'm glad to meet you!  Would you like something to drink, or some time to look over the gardens, before we talk about what might come next?"

She waves her hand, and a warm steaming mug of something that looks like tea nestles in a cupholder of his couch that wasn't there a moment ago.

(If he looks closely, some of the wickerwork might look a bit reminiscent of the topology of magical spells?)

That's so cool and he wants to spend more time looking at the sofa. Is it Outsider magic, the kind that takes thousands of years to learn? Can you replace the somatic component of a spell with specialized wickerwork, the way that one Tian school makes spellbooks out of knotted string?

There's no rush. There's this feeling of years, centuries, millennia opening before him, full of love and spellwork and the slow cultivation of enlightenment. The gifts of eternity have never felt so immediate. This is really happening.

"Thank you." He takes a sip of the tea to conceal how his eyes are tearing up a bit. Deep breaths, Lac. "Can you tell me where I am?"

She sits down slowly on the chair next to him, furling her wings.

"This place has many names from many people seeing it through many stories, and I'm happy to accept any of them.  Whatever it is, it's... a place between the stories, between the worlds, a place to watch and think of what might best come next.  And, for some," (she gives Lac an expectant look) "a place for more."

What?? That really doesn't sound like Heaven or Nirvana! The thing about "many names" sounds Chaotic, did he end up in Elysium? Or fuck up all the way to the Maelstrom somehow??

"...Elysium?" Please don't be Maelstrom please don't be Maelstrom

Ah, Elysium, the fabled land choosing the blessed and heroic; the fabled ideal of happiness!  (Yes, the Will of the Multiverse chooses others too, but.)

Of course nobody has a specific place in mind when saying that; they're talking merely about a vague image which something might come close to matching up to... and this has come closer than anything she might've imagined when she was first brought here.

"Elysium," she almost laughs, smiling in agreement.

She smiles, opens her wings wide, and waves her hand.  Something like a dragon appears in the sky above, diving and then vanishing as if to go through a distant Gate.

Elysium! He really didn't see that coming, but it's still a paradise! Is that a real life havoc dragon??! He strains his eyes to look, but it's already gone.

He grins back. "Well, it's not what I was expecting, but Elysium is wonderful! Are you here to help me get oriented?"

"Thank you - though you've hardly seen most of it, just my one garden here!"  Not that he will be seeing the rest of it.  Which he might be happy about if he knew - she herself frankly doesn't like the offices of the Worldbuilding or Diplomacy Departments at all.  They usually aren't bad to work with, but she prefers to do it by messages.

"And yes, I'm here to get you oriented!  To here, and..." She pauses half a moment; it's probably best to not just spring all the surprises about reincarnation on him... "... about what might come next.  Don't worry; I've seen so many people who're at least as surprised as you are, I'm sure."

Most people aren't theology nerds, so that isn't surprising. What is surprising is that Lac is Chaotic??

"It's not urgent, but I'd be interested in seeing my Trial transcripts, if they're available." And even if they aren't. Maybe he can find a ragtag band of Chaotic Good lunatics to loot Pharasma's offices for him?

"Trial transcripts?" she asks, pursing her lips in a bit of confusion.  Was there some trial in his life that she hadn't heard about?  Or is he talking about the way the Will of the Multiverse selected him?  But either way - "I certainly haven't seen them - I don't think anyone ever gave them to me -"

(Not that she read all of what she was given.  Of course she read about Lac's home planet's level of magic and technology, and at least the quick summary of his personal life.  But there're always other things various Departments insist on including which are basically never useful...)

She pulls a small book out of her dress, flips it open, and glances at the Table of Contents.  "... No, no 'trial transcripts'.  I could make a special request for you if you're really interested, but I'm not sure it'd work.  And really, is there any reason to care about that now that you're here?"

"I want to understand why I'm Chaotic, but I could find out another way if requesting the trials takes up intervention budget or something." Hopefully he isn't inconveniencing this helpful... Outsider. "Can I ask your species?"

"I was human once; now -" She shrugs.  "An angel, I suppose."

"And as for why you're chaotic..."  He isn't the first person to ask about his psychological state, even if he's the first person to do it so calmly and quickly.  "I'm afraid that's something you'll need to figure out yourself, though I could help."  She shrugs.

Apparently not all angels are androgynous? Lac wants to be a non-androgynous angel.

He's trying to figure out what the scope of her responsibilities is, and how much he would inconvenience her if he asked for something outside that scope. "I guess I have plenty of time to figure it out. Did you have plans you wanted to get to?"

... Huh, that one point in the report from the Diplomacy Department is referring to Lac with a plural pronoun?  Was that a mistake, or was someone trying to be gender-neutral?  But it doesn't matter.

"At some point, though if you're still feeling unsettled about yourself or your death, or if you have other questions...?"

"Well, I'd like to figure out what I did to be judged Chaotic. Besides that, I have a lot of questions about Elysium itself. How do souls find each other in an infinite plane? Are there wizard academies?" Wizard academy in Andoran was so boring he dropped out to self-study, but probably Elysium is better. He tries casting Light, expecting the mortal magic to fail but dreading it all the same.

... What?

"An infinite plane?  This's large but not infinite - and where'd you get the idea this's infinite?"

Is it somehow implicit in his world's idea of Elysium?  Her mind's jumping to make the connection, and she can see how someone in some story might have fixated on it; hopefully the comedown won't be too nasty...

(And yes, the Light cantrip does fail.)

He expected that, but it's still disappointing. It might take centuries to retrain just to first circle. He really hopes that Outsider magic is fun. Lac still wants to be an archmage, but not if magic is a miserable grind now.

"At least two well-documented Commune results from Desnans, definitely others I'm not remembering." Was the wording wrong? Or maybe Elysium (the paradise) is a finite landmass floating in Elysium (an infinitely large plane, mostly empty?) Something like that?

"Commune results" - "Desnans" - what's he talking about?

"I don't think anyone in your home world knows about us for a fact; that would surely have been in the writeup I did read --"

Wait a minute, is he saying that some people there (at least) are actually sure they know something about an Elysium as a definite place!?

Her wings quiver and droop.

"You think we don't know about Elysium? A paradise for the Chaotic Good, mostly idyllic wilderness, home to Azatas..." He trails off. It feels like the ground is dropping away and he's just started to fall.

Sexed angels apparently exist. Elysium is "large but finite." What the Hell is going on? Are all Commune results bullshit somehow? What about the casters who visit the afterlife planes?

"That's - not here."

Horrors - that sounds like a definite place!  A ball of shame wells up in her throat.

"This isn't, um, that Elysium.  When I said 'Elysium'... I thought you just meant a figure of speech!"

And through the horror, a note of concern, for the angel, who looks so afraid, and guilty-

"Please. Tell me where I actually am."

"I am, to be clear, dead?" 

She latches on to the definite question (even as a well-ingrained habit, in a corner of her mind, notices his concern for her despite his own horror).

"Yes.  You died.  Your soul was taken away from your home world and plane, and -"  She pauses, wishing she'd actually read the part about the metaphysics of his home plane.  "Like I said, there're many names for the place where we are that wouldn't mean anything to you.  But it's farther away from your home plane than anywhere your plane's souls usually go.  I think you're the first person to be taken here from your homeworld."

Her own horror has lifted enough that she's now consciously touched by his concern for her.  "Please, don't worry," she adds.

Is he in the Far Realms? Further? And he's the first person to be taken. He might not see anyone he loved ever again.

The thought occurs to him that this could all be a Mephistopholean illusion. If he somehow got Lawful Evil?? Or maybe all his memories are fake?

He should probably proceed on the assumption that it isn't Mephistopheles. If it is then there isn't really anything he can do except hurt and be toyed with until Heaven defeats Hell (If Heaven defeats Hell).

He should assume that this is real, and that the concern the "angel" has for him is real. What could he even do, otherwise?

"Why did you take me? For what purpose?"

She can't get the full cheer in her voice as usual, not right after that, but -

"We're going to give you a new story, in a new world, and you can help design it!"

A custom afterlife??

"What do you mean, a 'new story?' Was my old life a 'story?' And why me, of all people?" Could this angel be convinced to randomly kidnap Abrogail Thrune II next, a hysterical voice questions.

"Why yes, you did survive infancy - thanks in part to being born where you were - so your old life did have a story.  How interesting a story it was..."  She shrugs; she wouldn't dispute Lac's opinion if he cared to insist that it hadn't been an interesting story yet.  "But that's something we can fix in your next one.

"And as for why you..." She shrugs her wings.  "I didn't make the choice; I'm not sure why the Will-in-Council did choose you."

So this "angel" cares about stories. And... wants him to have an interesting one? Or thinks he wants that?

"What sort of story are we designing?" He's utterly in the power of this outsider, but maybe he can build rapport here and have any agency over his fate. 

"A story of... I don't believe your world has a specific term for the sort of story, but it would be around a romantic rivalry, among other things.  Which other things, you largely get to choose.  To be more specific, we will fill in the outline of the original story to whatever degree you want to - and then you will be inserted into that story in the role of the villainess."

...

He's supposed to be a villainess in a romantic drama. There is so much wrong with that. For one thing, the closest he's come to romance is reading Love Born of Clarity* and The Mirror of Boundlessness**. 

That the outsider wants him to be a girl, is so baffling that he just sets it aside - it wouldn't be a problem unless he's the kind of person who feels awful when Alter Self'd into the opposite sex, which he would guess he isn't...

As for being a villain, that's the most concerning part. He'd thought the outsider was Good. She certainly seemed to have empathy for him and feel bad for making him think he was in Elysium! 

*A work arguing that a wise and forgiving mind loves instinctively and without effort, with instructions on how this quality can be attained. Author unknown, but suspected to be one of Gruhastha's direct disciples.

**Written by an acclaimed Shelynite philosopher, this work reconciles and unifies sensual enjoyment of the beloved with love's empathetic and spiritual dimensions. 

This is overwhelming and he's worried about being pressured into a decision. He needs to figure out how much negotiating power he actually has, and whether he can refuse to participate without them mind controlling or torturing him about it.

When in a high-stakes negotiation, don't let them control the tempo. Maybe he can play for time. Immortal outsiders are generally patient, right?

"That’s... a lot. Can I have a few minutes to think about it?"

"Of course, and longer if you want it."

Unfortunately she can only guess what he's worrying about.

"But in case it helps - you won't need to relive toddlerhood; you'll be reincarnated into the person who would be the villainess when she is a teenager, usually leaving for boarding school... you do have boarding schools where you're from... unless you pick another time."

He smiles. It probably looks pretty tense.

"I wouldn't want to be a toddler again, so that does help. And yes, we do have boarding schools, though it's not common." It's a point of reference, at least.

Okay think think think think what does he need to know and how far can he push things. Is this organization Evil. Does Pharasma's categorization even apply. That has fascinating implications.

Is the "story" she's sending him to a real world that actually exists. Is he... displacing? Killing? The soul of a teenage girl? What does her organization even want, is it just entertainment? There are so many questions he doesn't even know where to start.

He should ask an open-ended question, and see if he can learn from what she considers important. She seems kind and patient so far, which is a stark contrast to the bizarre and concerning fate she (or her organization?) plans for him.

He's tempted to break the silence, but that seems stupid, if she's giving him time then he should use the time. She probably has the patience of an immortal. He thinks for a while, trying to decide on a question to ask.

It's a nice garden.

"To be honest, I feel very out of my depth here. I'd appreciate learning more about your organization, what they want and why, and what their usual methods are."

She watches him appreciating the garden, and his confusion... not so much subsiding as being pushed a little under the surface.  If she knew what he wanted to ask (is it something about Chaos and trials?  Infinity?  Communes?), she could help...

"I think everyone's out of their depth here - hardly anyone we pick has designed a world before!

"That's basically what our organization does:  designing universes and worlds and setting up stories in them!  At least, that's as far as I know; I wouldn't be surprised if the Will-in-Council is intervening in some of the universes beyond the normal operations of Story and Fate.  I don't know that for sure; the Will hasn't said much about what they don't do.  But this universe -"  She grins.  "No intervention here, I'm pretty sure!  If you want, you can even do away with Fate in this world beyond a very broad setup!

"What we're like...  I could list the departments, if you want?  There're the Angel-guides like me, there's the Worldbuilding Department, the Diplomacy Department..."

It sounds like he's being picked to design a world, full stop, not just give input on one? Is he being handed more power than Pharasma?? He wants time to think again but should probably keep the conversation going. "So you... pick people from existing worlds, and have them design new ones, then create those worlds? Are the worlds real, with real people, and not illusions? And what do you have a diplomacy department for?" Assuming all this is real and they aren't operating under strong constraints he doesn't understand, this organization is powerful enough to crush all of Golarion like bugs. Is there something else out there that rivals them?

"Sometimes, yes!  Sometimes we design them ourselves - or, well, other people do; I've never gotten to myself - but sometimes we choose people, yes.  I think the Will-in-Council and the Worldbuilding Department like to see how other people design them... and I think I would too in their place.

"And yes, they're real worlds with real people with real souls.  At least by default - if you want to say the world has some illusionary people, you can."

If he does, hopefully it'll go better than that one time where the protagonist guessed that and started dismissing the rest of the world as not worth any concern until she found someone she decided was the one other real person there...

Really, her guess about the motives of the Will of the Multiverse in Council is just a guess.  They aren't very talkative about themself... themselves... not even talkative enough to make clear why they sometimes take singular and sometimes plural pronouns?  Not that she minds; they've given her the best job she could possibly have imagined.  Elysium.  Er, in the metaphorical sense.

(The Worldbuilding Department is a lot more talkative - she has some friends there - but they don't know much more about the Will either.)

Hmm, speaking of which, maybe she should check why the Diplomacy Department gave Lac plural pronouns that one time?  But speaking of which, she has a guess there too...

"... I think we have a Diplomacy Department because it's nicer and smoother to talk with people rather than just wrenching them around?"

Holy shit he's going to DESIGN A WORLD, that's terrifying and incredible, maybe literally non-credible but he's already decided not to worry about Mephistopheles even if it's probably Mephistopheles. Anyway. He thinks she's telling the truth?? She could have the deceptive abilities of a succubus but worrying about that is kind of like worrying about Mephistopheles. And "That's a relief to hear, actually. It sounds like you're all very powerful and could do a lot of wrenching around if you wanted." Oh no that was probably too revealing aaaahhh.

"I know it sounds trite, but - don't worry."  She twitches her wings uncomfortably.  Really, she doesn't like people bowing down to her anymore, and people being visibly afraid of her has always been even worse.

"It's not like we're new.  Most universes will never be affected by us beyond, oh, how we lifted your soul out of your old universe and maybe sent a letter to some god there.  And I'm glad about that.

"Or if you must worry - maybe worry about your next life?"

Uh-huh. Worry about his NEXT LIFE instead of a WHOLE NEW WORLD with SOULS in it that has just become Lac's responsibility. He almost wants to laugh. It says something about this "angel"'s priorities, her narrow focus and interest in stories... if she's focused on him, then maybe he can make other parts of the world really, really good, so long as they don't interfere with the angel's intended plot? But he's just had a horrible thought. How to express it... Wait.

"I don't think I ever got your name? And what happens to the new world after my story in it is over, does it just keep going?"

"Yes, it's a real world, just like every other world; it doesn't just vanish when you're not there anymore!  I'd never set someone up to be causing that."

It's been a while since anyone's asked her for her name.  She's borne several in her time, but among those there's one from her human days that still speaks the most to her...

"If you want my name - you can think of me as 'Lila'."

Oh no, now he feels bad. He should treat her like a person with a conscience?? This is really high-stakes, bigger than either of them, but good faith is usually how you bring out the best in people, so it's still indicated. 

"Nice to meet you, Lila. Sorry, it's just - in Golarion, magic is resource-constrained. It's easier to make illusory objects than real objects, and easier to make a temporary effect than a permanent one. But maybe I need to drop my assumptions about how any of this works."

"I'm still glad to meet you too!"  She smiles to try to encourage him past his awkwardness with her happiness.

"And no need for apologies - you're just starting to learn how this works!  Magic usually does work that way within a universe... I've seen people who've set up other ways to have magic work -"

"- but usually the Worldbuilding Department has to set up strict limits so it won't make the world fall apart.  Uh, that's usually a metaphorical 'falling apart', but not always; I do remember that one world with really effective destruction magic.  But you won't get anything like that unless you intend to go there.

"Would you like to hear more of the outline for how this's set up?"

..."I'd like that." He gets to DESIGN MAGIC. Could he make everyone have ninth circle spells. That's a terrible idea. Could he give everyone Cure Wounds and Plant Growth and Alter Self* and Remove Disease and Remove Curse all as at-will racial abilities, or just not have diseases and curses in the first place, obviously he doesn't want diseases and curses and actually it sounds like maybe he could make his own spells?? Just decide what magic is able to do, like a tavern-drunk inventing stories about archmages?? Give everyone as many spell slots as they want, or make himself the only person with magic, or-

*Contraception.

Oh great, he's excited too now!

"One of the few things that are already defined for you is, you're going to be reincarnating into somewhere called the Kingdom of Villarosa, soon to have been the setting of the -" (he wouldn't recognize any closer name, so) "- romance story called 'Roses of Villarosa'.  As I mentioned, you'll be reincarnating as a teenager by default, and as the young woman who would have been the villainess in the story..."

She draws another book out of her magic pocket, and flips through a couple pages.

"You can start with your hair color and hairstyle, which is linked to personality here... or go on to the technology and magic of Villarosa and the world it will be in..."

He has so many questions! It sounds like the angel wants a monarchy and the Andoran in him objects, but maybe he can make sure the monarchy is benevolent?

"As a villainess, would I have to act Evil?" It doesn't matter on the scale of a whole world, but he really doesn't want to act like a Chelish heiress or something.

She can see he's got a lot of questions!

"No, no, not at all unless you choose to!  Except that you will be coming in conflict with the heroine - Fate will make sure of that, even if you choose not to have any Fate active otherwise.  If Fate is still active, it will be manipulating events around you... but not directly affecting your actions.

"Though of course you, or she, will have been acting poorly in some ways before you reincarnate into her as a teenager.  You can of course help define how, just like defining the rest of Villarosa."

That's all... fine?? He doesn't want to be the villain in a romance plot, but if he can just Not Do Evil...

He nods. "Am I displacing an existing soul? What happens to it?"

"... I actually don't know."  She feels sort of uncomfortable admitting that.  "Maybe the Operations Team does it differently different times.  They haven't told me.  There is an option you can choose to have her stay around as a voice in your head, so I assume in those cases she would be a different person and soul... but if you don't choose that, I don't know.  Maybe she's you, without your memories and with compulsions and Fate more active.  Maybe she's a different soul and the same thing happens as with every other soul..."

"... which you can decide, if you want!"

Nirvana is for everyone. Except he can do better than that. What if everyone had their choice of paradise instead of sorting by alignment. What if everyone could Plane Shift between paradises, so families don't have to be separated.

He still doesn't want to kill someone when he reincarnates. You only get one life, and that makes it valuable even if you go to paradise later. (Ideas start leaping through his head for a reincarnation scheme).

How many souls can he put in paradise. Can he put millions, billions, a literally infinite number of souls in paradise?

"I'd like that. I want everyone to have a good afterlife."

He is more powerful than a God and his slightest mistakes will harm millions of people. Maybe more.

"I would rather not kill anyone when being reincarnated, if that's also something I have design privileges over?"

"I don't know if you can avoid killing anyone... I don't know if there'll be anyone to kill... but I'll tell the Worldbuilding Team that was almost your first request, and I think they'll do it if they at all can."

"And you can certainly give everyone a good afterlife!  Do you want to be more specific?  Or leave it to the Worldbuilding Team to fill in?"

She wouldn't try her hand at designing an afterlife herself, but she's happy to watch other people trying to do it.

"The first thing that comes to mind is an afterlife with a variety of paradises that have readily available travel and communication between them. And maybe a reincarnation option where people can choose to lose their memories and be reborn, and then after they die they'll regain their memories from every past life."

"I want to design the afterlife, but I'd be interested in hearing advice on what what worked out well or poorly in other universes."

The angel grins.  "If you want examples - I have so many examples!  Not as many about the afterlife as about other things, but even so, there're a lot of universes where we did specifically design afterlives, and more where someone else did it outside us!

"Different paradises with communication..."  She muses for a moment.  "When those happen, they're more frequently thought of as different parts of one paradise.  Are you thinking of the difference as a matter of terms, or as something deeper?  I know a lot of places with clearly different afterlives, but they definitely wouldn't all be thought of as paradises!

"And then when you ask about how they worked out... are you talking about working out well for the individual people, the universe as a whole, the story, or something else?"

Working out well for the universe is more difficult to tell; she's wondering how she'll answer if he says he's looking for that one.  Though really, now that she thinks about it, she's thought a lot less about how well afterlives worked out once people got into them, rather than about how they were anticipating them...

"I'm not sure it matters whether it's technically the same paradise or not? I think it's important that everyone can go somewhere suited for them. People in the afterlife might need to change and grow as people before they can truly be happy, but I don't think they should need to stop being essentially themselves, or change a lot in ways that they wouldn't endorse. That means the afterlife needs to be suited for the people they are, and since people are different, they'll need different afterlife options." 

"As for how it worked out, I mostly meant how it works out in the very long-term. What is someone's afterlife like a billion years after they die? What is the afterlife like for someone who dies a billion years after the world was created?

A... billion... years?

"I don't think I've ever looked for someone who's been in an afterlife that long!"

"Well, they're supposed to be forever, right? Imagine an afterlife that's fun for the first thousand years, but then it gets so boring that all the dead are trying to kill themselves again. Or an afterlife that's not big enough, and it fills up with dead people and gets overcrowded." This being's priorities are concerning.

She tries to think about it... but then she's suddenly wondering what things will be like for her in another thousand years.

Fortunately (she's thinking now for the first time), the Will of the Multiverse did mention a couple alternative possibilities even if she hadn't really thought about them before...

"... Do you need to design everything yourself, or simply leave open other possibilities?  Your reincarnation plan is a good idea; I know of one way of doing things - that, well, seems to be working out well - which gives people the opportunity to launch themselves into other worlds or sometimes even other afterlives in different systems if they get tired of where they are.  Of course, you'd need their permission to drop people in them, but it's sometimes possible."

"That sounds like an incredible idea. Is there already a network of afterlives in different universes that allow travel between them?" And can he someday get to Nirvana after all? Also, can he advantage Good* somehow?

*That is, the Good gods of Golarion and the forces aligned with them.

"I don't know if it's regular enough across many different universes to be called a network, but it might be; let me ask..."

She pulls out a quill pen and scroll from another pocket, writes a quick note to the Worldbuilding Team and then after a moment's thought another note to the Diplomacy Team, and tosses them into a suddenly-appearing midair portal.

"I know there're a few afterlife systems each shared - or partly shared - by several universes, though.  But most of the ones I know about are the sort that don't invite detailed scrying."

"I'd be interested in opening relations with other afterlives, and also the Golarion afterlives if possible. The diplomacy team should reach out to Iomedae, Sarenrae, and..."- He considers the Chaotic options -"Cayden Cailean. Pharasma is the most powerful God on Golarion, but I think it would work better to let those Gods negotiate with Her on your behalf. I think they would be interested in voluntary exchanges, and they all have complex existing relationships with Pharasma." Can he open up trade between Golarion's paradises and his afterlife, and can he give Heaven powerful artifact weapons, scrolls of Wish, or something even better? 

Abadar would want to trade, obviously, but it's better to direct it all through the paradises and let Good impose a tariff. Should it all go through Heaven first. Heaven would be better at coordinating a tariff than Elysium.

"Also, Iomedae can't lie or break her word, and will generally hold Herself to a high standard of honor and nondeceptiveness. The diplomacy team should know that if they don't already." So they don't go through Pharasma.

"Unfortunately for that plan, the Diplomacy Team mentioned that Pharasma and..." she glances at her page "Otolmens have blocked them from communicating with other gods from your home universe so far."

"Ah." Shit. He hasn't heard of Otolmens, maybe they're a high-ranking psychopomp or something. "One of Pharasma's roles is the protection of Golarion from things outside it. An option that comes to mind is sending me to serve as a representative, since I'm native to that universe. Would that be possible?" It's objectively insane to be an emissary to Gods when yesterday he was just a first-circle looking to slay rats*, but whatever.

*Adventurer slang.

"... Maybe, if you set up your afterlife to permit things like that!  But that would need to be after the story we're going to put you in."

Right, the outsider is obsessed with stories. His intuition says that he should give her an opportunity to steer the conversation, since he's playing cooperative. "Can you tell me more about the story?"

"The story will be called 'Roses of Villarosa,' about a romantic rivalry... and perhaps more, as you choose.  It opens at the Royal Academy, where the villainess - you - is currently betrothed to the primary love interest.  He might be a prince, a duke's son, or a noble prodigy - you pick; you fill in more about him.  You might be a princess, a duke's daughter, or a rich heiress - you pick.  In the canonical story, your betrothal is interrupted by the Heroine and you are left to a Bad Ending... but here, you have the chance to avert it.

"I have a list of choices for you to choose between when you want, and then any more details can get filled in - within some very broad lines, such as, the Crown and nobility have to have some real power."

Okay, but he literally doesn't care, the story is irrelevant compared to eternal paradise and giving Heaven superweapons. But he has to play along-

"Could I make tentative first picks, then go back to revise later when I have more context?"

"Absolutely!  People do that all the time!  Do you want me to start with the world, or with yourself?"

By this time she's pretty sure he'll choose the world; if he's watching her face closely he might pick up on that.

"Let's start with myself, then circle back." Lac has Wisdom but not the kind that's good with faces.

Then he might miss her surprise.

"All right!  The first things to choose are your hair style and hair color.  They're linked with personality - not necessarily for everyone in Villarosa, though you can certainly have it be that way if you want it to, but that's what you're really choosing here."  She adds indulgently, "I wasn't the one who phrased it this way."

She waves her hand, and three illusionary images appear in the air in front of them.  They look a little like Lac's sister might look.

"For hair style, your choices are drill hair, which comes with a free bonus of an intimidating laugh that might be magical; hime-cut hair, which comes with a bonus of 'Silk Hiding Steel', or a core of inner strength and determination; or Elaborate hair, which comes with a free extra maid."

Is he going to look like that? That's so weird. Hopefully he'll get used to it.

An intimidating laugh that "might be" magical sounds dismissable. He has to stop himself from immediately dismissing it. 

"Another maid? I could have maids already with any of the three background options, right?"

(The angel notices his discomfort and spins the illusions so as to show their backs, which don't look so tellingly similar.) 

"Yes; that's one of the perks you can choose.  Perks do need to be counterbalanced by flaws.  If you choose Elaborate hair, you can get it for free... except that you do need to wear a hairdo that takes a long while to maintain."

"So the default, even if I have the "Princess" background, is that I don't have any maids?" Maybe princesses are different in other universes and Lac is the one with weird assumptions.

"Oh - I'm sure you will, maybe a personal maid assigned to you as well as the maids at the school.  It is, after all, a school for the nobility.  But choosing a Maid here means that you'll get a maid who'll be almost unquestioningly loyal to you and have some useful skills to help with your story-relevant schemes."

"That sounds incredibly useful." And he's uncomfortable with a personality alteration if it's not Sarenrae offering it. "Put me down for the maid hairstyle for now. Elaborate."

"Yes, it is useful!"  Though Silk Hiding Steel and Ohohoho are, too.  Admittedly, she doesn't think Lac will be interested in using Ohohoho to even half its real potential.

"Next up is your hair color."

She makes the illusions look like herself this time, with a few touches to look more human.

"Blond, which... might be associated with fun, sometimes?  Red, which means you're more full of vibrancy, passion, and emotion; and also a little stronger as a warrior.  Silver, which means you're a little physically weaker and smarter, and a little more creativity and potential at magic... assuming you choose you'll have magic in your world, but I'm guessing you will.  Brunette, which means you're a little less assertive and proactive, but more down-to-earth; or rainbow, which means... hmm... the world will be influenced by a set of tropes I'm afraid you haven't heard of, but to give you an idea of the genre, it'll include that hair color and style will be more linked with personality for everyone in Villarosa."

He still doesn't like the personality alteration component, but being smarter and better at magic sounds wonderful. "Silver."

"And then... what species do you want to be?  And what about everyone else?

"The worldbuilding team calls the standard options 'Human' and 'Elf,' but what they really mean is 'normal like most other people in Villarosa,' or 'special in a good way'.  In case you're curious, that's because, in all the universes we've looked at, the most common species really is - for some reason - humans!  You're not a majority, but you're much more common than any one other species.

"You can say everyone's human, or everyone's orcs, or design your own species, or have whatever mix you want."

Humans being the most common is honestly bizarre. He used to think the realms outside Pharasma's Creation were full of entities that were somehow both formless and mostly made of tentacles! Although he did stop thinking about the Far Realms after his teacher screamed that he was an idiot who would have his dreams invaded by a soul-eating abomination. (He mostly stopped thinking about the Far Realms. Come to think of it, was his ill-advised childhood research somehow the reason he ended up in this situation?)

"I'd be interested in there being multiple species? Golarion has a lot and I think this is a Good thing, except for the existence of species that are almost always evil." Like orcs. Why would anyone want everyone to be an orc, that sounds insane. Maybe she means something else by "orc," the same way she means something else by "elf."

"For myself, I want to be an elf." Why turn down being "special in a good way?" Especially if he can decide what that means.

(There are surprisingly many different sorts of tentacle entities in the different worlds!  And non-tentacled entities!  Humans being the most common doesn't mean that picking a random person or world is particularly likely to get a human.  But they're still the modal species.)

"Certainly!  Which species do you want in the world?  And in the Kingdom of Villarosa?  I can't give you a full list, but if you tell me what sort of species you're looking for, I can give you some more inspiration...?  Or you can always leave details up to the Worldbuilding Team if you want, or go through the rest of the list and then fill this in?"

There's no way he's leaving details up to the worldbuilding team when they actually matter for people's quality of life. What species you are matters for your quality of life.

"Golarion had merfolk, metallic dragons, dwarves, gnomes... I'd want to think a lot about this, and aim for creating very different kinds of people that can still get along with each other. Maybe they could prefer different environments so there isn't a basis for conflict. But we can do the rest of the worldbuilding after we decide on the story, maybe? I want to get pretty in-depth with it. Does the Kingdom of Villarosa have to be a microcosm of the rest of the world, or can it be very different?"

"Yes, it can absolutely be different!  And people usually do make it different - sometimes better governed, less riven by dissent, more advanced in magic, or other ways...  Sometimes it's more like the place they come from, though do remember that you'll be growing up in Villarosa so you'll feel used to it even after you get your memories back!

"Putting different species in different environments is often a good idea... but sometimes one or two of them come to the Villarosa Royal Academy anyway.

"But yes, we can come back to this afterwards, if you want?"

Make Villarosa better governed than the rest of the world? He was thinking it could be a sacrificial country to appease the story-outsiders, so he could make the rest of the world/universe (how big is he allowed to make it?) a paradise with a free hand.

"Works for me."

The Angel catches that he's thinking about doing something with Villarosa very different from what she mentioned... and she's curious what.  But she can wait a bit longer.

"The next questions are about Villarosa and the rest of the world, actually."

She runs her finger down the lines of her book.

"First, the level of nonmagical technology.  I'm afraid you might not have heard of all the options here, and definitely not the names the Worldbuilding Team likes to use, but to translate - there's Idealized Archaic, Muddy Archaic, Dawn of Progress, Industrial, Steampunk, Global Age, Cyberpunk, and Space Opera."

She makes tiny illusions of towns of the different eras as she names them.

"The world you're from, I'm told, is right on the cusp of getting from Idealized Archaic to Dawn of Progress.  I really don't recommend Muddy Archaic; it's got a lot more inconvenience and misery and less magic than you're used to.  Industrial is... founded around large nonmagical machines producing lots of material goods.  Steampunk is something like that too, but more varied and novel things?  I can go into more detail if you want?"

"Yes, please!"

"About which ones?"

"All of them. Though I think you're right that we can rule out Muddy Archaic.."

"I'll try to explain it, but..."  The angel purses her lips at the book for a minute, flipping through a few pages.  "Please do ask questions - the Will of the Multiverse gave me a description, but they wrote it for someone from the Global Age who's never actually seen magic, so I'm almost needing to translate.  I've translated before, but every world is different, so I might be leaving out some points that're important for you."

"To start with Idealized Archaic:  It's got a lot of parts like the world you're from:  kings, nobles, knights, adventurers convenient magic in every village to create water and cure diseases... and probably even more common magic.  I think it's more common for people to be literate, and more common for them to have more food, though I'm not sure there about the world you're from?  Basically, it's rather idealized; ugly things like illiteracy or harsh winters might be happening, but they're rarer and some of the harsh edges are sanded off.

"You can flavor it with aesthetics from any sort of culture, or the Worldbuilding Team can, but that won't really change the technology level.  And making magic more common is another question you can pick from."

"So it's mostly like my world, but but with some flexibility for making it more idealized? Could there just not be diseases or food scarcity? And if everyone were literate, that would be a good thing. Sorry, maybe go over the other options first and then I'll ask about how much things can be customized."

"... Maybe?  If you spun a compelling reason for why there just wouldn't be diseases, I think the Worldbuilding Team would accept it?  Though it might be easier with some of the other options."

"Next up is Muddy Archaic, which includes having little if any magic...  The Will of the Multiverse reminds you that it won't be as bad for you as you might think, especially since you'll be wealthy... but even they have to point out that without the abundant healing magic, there's still a reasonable chance you'll die in childbirth.  Even if you're a princess."

"Is the Will of the Multiverse directly intervening to tell me this?" Is it a God? Something above Gods?

She holds up her book.

"No; it's in the standard summary.  I think I've had one person choose Muddy Archaic, and he was a real history fan who didn't care about magic.  And she successfully avoided dying in childbirth by ending up losing and not getting married at all.  I think she had a somewhat decent time in the convent she got sentenced to."

Oh, good, it's not a terrifying miracle from an unknown source. What sort of insane Evil person dooms a whole world to "inconvenience, misery, and less magic" out of a love of history??

(He makes a note that getting sentenced to a convent, where he would presumably get to study lots of theology, is apparently a possible failure condition.)

"I think we can move on from it, then."

"Next up is the Dawn of Progress!  It sounds like your world is starting to get here - I'm reading that global trade and travel is increasing, and" (she quickly flips to another part of the book) "some alchemists in somewhere called Alkenstar have built guns without using any magic?  And some other countries are having everyone elect the government?  The Dawn of Progress is where more things like that keep happening and building upon themselves.  Technology develops beyond individual craftsmen; the world starts coming together into one global civilization; people start feeling themselves part of a nation beyond just a village."

Golarion definitely isn't "one global civilization," but it's good to hear that Andoran's fledgling democracy is part of some sort of worldwide feedback loop that will make all of Golarion better. And if all the world eventually unites... But he has to focus on this new world where he can make a difference, at least for now.

"That sounds good. Is the next option what happens after this process completes?"

"Yes!  Or, it never fully completes, but when it gets to the next stage.  That's Industrial.  The nonmagical machines producing nonmagical things like guns - and now all sorts of household items too, that can do things like make light and hear messages from far away and keep food cold and heal illnesses and all sorts of other things - the machines making them get bigger, and change faster.  War gets worse, and the countries with more of these machines can oppress others, and people's lives get worse in some ways - but there're more people and their lives get better in lots of other ways too."

...can he just make a world that's actually good?? But the nonmagical machines sound amazing, depending on how much resources they take to construct and whether the majority of people can actually benefit from them.

"And after that?" Iomedae, please let there be a Paradise option, or let him make efficient use of whatever leeway he has with the worldbuilding team.

"Next is Steampunk.  That's one way the Industrial era can go - the society and government usually don't change that much, but the devices become better, more advanced, more intricate, and more involved in bringing daily life in new directions.  It's named because, at this point, they're usually powered by steam... though you can change that if you want; I've seen worlds focused around diesel, animal biology, and one woman even insisted on calling it 'waterpunk' and designed a whole original geology and climate cycle for her world!"

She lowers her book and adds, because she thinks this might be something Lac would really care about, "Also, I mentioned nonmagical healing getting better.  Sometimes it happens in the Industrial Age, sometimes in whatever era comes after it - but sometime around here, for the first time, maybe three-fourths of human children can expect to survive their childhood without any magic."

That's beautiful, and it makes this one the best yet. But let's see if he can save all the children.

"That puts this on my shortlist, then." Smile. "What's left?" And the thing about designing a geology and climate cycle implies he has a decent amount of design control?

"Next is the Global Age.  That's one other route worlds often take from the Industrial Age.  With the advancing technology, society gets even more mobile; there're often countries where less than half the people stay in the village or even area they've grown up in.  The world develops computers:  they're nonmagical machines that can project illusions and communicate across vast distances and store information.  Far enough into the Global Age, just about everyone carries a computer with them in their pocket, and they can talk with people across the world whenever they want - and of course, that has vast impacts on culture.

"And because of all this, society starts placing much less importance on social rank or family ties or gender.  Though, social rank will still be important in some ways in Villarosa - that's one of the limitations the Will puts in here.

"... And also" (since he cared so much) "in the Global Age - or sometimes far enough into Steampunk - maybe nineteen out of every twenty human children survive without magic.  Or even more.

"Though you can get that in other eras with magic, too, if you choose to have more magic in your world and specifically say you want good healing spells everywhere!"

Yes! And maybe those could cure disease too!

The "computers" sound like nonmagical wands of sending? Could he instead have magic but with wands of sending being really easy to make, like you make one by casting a cantrip on a stick, or something? Would that actually be straightforwardly Good? It would probably make it easier for an empire to take over the entire world, for a start.

"Good to know!" So social rank outside of Villarosa can be less restricted. Sounds like he's doing the sacrifice play, and putting as many people as he can outside Villarosa. "So what's next?"

"Cyberpunk is one possible future from the Global Age.  In it, computers get even more advanced, to the point that they can keep track of just about everyone and everything, and you can maybe live in their illusions almost like they were reality.  And at the same time, maybe people can augment their bodies in nonmagical ways."  She flutters her wings.  "But I mentioned the factories to make things like computers are very large?  In a Cyberpunk era, businesses like that have very vast power, and there's usually a vast gulf between the rich and poor.  Social ranks can emerge again."

"... Though just like with Steampunk, you can pick and choose the elements you want, and design twists if you want them.  There was one woman who designed a cyberpunk world without any rich or poor people at all, or at least not to the point that had any meaning inside the computer illusions.  She had a very fun time, and made friends with the Heroine in the end after they'd each beaten each other in different illusionary worlds!"

Or not a sacrifice play?? Maybe Villarosa could be an illusory world, and then everything outside it can be real?

A vast gulf between rich and poor sounds like a bad idea unless the baseline level of wealth starts at "minor royalty."

"What's the next one?" He needs to learn what a "computer" is in more detail than it being magic without the magic.

"Space Opera!  This's the final choice on the list.  It's another way things can go, either from Steampunk or the Global Age.  It involves more technology than any other era we've gone through - building ships to travel through space between planets and stars without any magic, and often building..."  She pauses, searching for the word "... nonmagical golems... as well."  She peers quizzically at a page in her book.  "I'm told there's one country on your home planet that actually has these nonmagical golems already?  Numeria?"  She shrugs.  "Anyway, space opera usually involves exploring different planets and, er, rocks in space; or wars between different planets; and developing new technology often plays a major role.

"The social structure could in theory have gone any direction - though our Worldbuilding Team really likes to make it less egalitarian than the Global Age."

"Spaceships travel through the space between planets and stars? Can you elaborate on that?" 

"On what part of that?  Do you know about how the stars are the same thing as the sun with planets going around them... er, that is the case in your world too, right?"

(She glances down at her book, flipping rapidly through the pages.)

"It is, yeah. Portals to the Positive Energy Plane, with planets orbiting? Would it be the same plane that Golarion uses, or somewhere different?"

"Uh, not exactly, but the important part's the same..."

"Since the other stars are just like the sun, and some of them have planets where people can live - and they're all in the same plane - you can get between them!  You can teleport, or you can just travel really fast and bring your air with you just like food and water!  Spaceships are basically ships that can do that, without magic."

"That's really cool."

"Yes!"

There's so much potential there for so many sorts of stories!

An interstellar civilization could have a gigantic population!

"Could there be multiple planes, as well?"

"Yes!  A lot of them do have multiple planes, in fact, with at least one or two of them accessible without magic - going through another plane makes it a lot easier to travel between stars without using huge amounts of fuel or spending years in transit."

And if you use huge amounts of fuel, your home and destination will still be waiting years even if you aren't... but there's no need to get into that, at least not yet.

"I might want to change this later, but as a rough idea, could there portals between planets that appear in random places, remain stable for a while, then gradually shrink down and disappear?"

"There're a lot of universes like that!

"How long are you thinking of with 'a while'?  Usually it's on the order of a few generations or more, but it could definitely be faster!  And are you thinking magical or nonmagical portals?

"-- actually, should I just go on to the question about how common you want magic to be?"

"I want people everywhere to have access to convenient magic that improves their lives. Healing, mending, creating clean water and food you can survive off of, that sort of thing." Please please please

"Then that means High Magic, where it's woven into the threads of everyday life and many people - or more - will be using magic.  It'll be taught in your Royal Academy; you'll be able to use it and that won't really give you an advantage."

She isn't really surprised, nor disappointed at all.  Many of her favorite stories are High Magic.

"That's the only question on the checklist... but if you want to talk about how it works?  Say, whether people need to learn it?  Or whether anyone can learn it?"

"It would be good if anyone could learn the basics, and the basics included spells that give you the necessities of life - food, water, healing, shelter, weather resistance. Maybe contraception too. But if someone wants to use magic for something else, or learn to make their own spells, then that could take a lot more training."

The angel nods.

"So it takes some learning, but the spells for the necessities of life are simple enough that everyone can learn them as children... perhaps in school or perhaps from their parents?  And then there's more advanced magic.  Do you have any ideas about what sort of things that can do?  Who would be expected to learn it?"

"I think it could depend on the society! There could be a lot of different spells, with enough flexibility that people can make their own. It could be used to explore new territories, to play competitive games, to create art, to transport people or objects, create useful artifacts, enhance people mentally and physically... I think it should be harder to use magic to hurt people, and maybe magic should be easier when in a specific frame of mind that Evil people"- wait, why even have a world with Evil people, can you just not or do you lose something important -"or evildoers, would have a harder time accessing." Is there anything he can't even imagine magic doing, because Golarion magic is incapable of it? 

"I'm not sure what you mean by 'who would be expected to learn it.' Different societies might have different arrangements."

The angel nods along eagerly with Lac's list.  "Yes, yes, all that and more.  And its being hard to hurt people - I've seen a few worlds that've done things like that.  Maybe it'd cause bad blowback on the caster?  Or maybe people's bodies would just be resilient against magic?  That'd make some medical spells harder, but nonmagical medicine could easily fill in there, especially if you're in Space Opera.

"Some worlds have tried different frames of mind to make magic more powerful sometimes when a god judges it's used for Good?  Or when the caster's in a specific mindset?  Or a lot of worlds have gone with a fully emotionally-based magic system, though that has a lot of other effects on how magic works.

"And of course different societies would do things differently - I was asking if you had any thoughts who'd be expected to do that in Villarosa?  You're going to be a princess or noblewoman; would you be expected to learn advanced magic?" 

She pauses just a moment, and then adds more quietly,

"I'm happy to give you examples if you want?  Or, at any point, you can let the Worldbuilding Team fill in.  Or we can sketch something out here and then go through the rest of the list?"

"I think the world should have a benevolent God. Maybe with the restriction that they can't interfere in Villarosa until the story is over? But that would go a long way towards alleviating my concerns that the world won't stay good in the long run, or that the afterlife will get overcrowded, or something, if there's a powerful benevolent God who can keep it on track."

"Yes, that's a very practicable idea.  Someone who can think of many more options than either of us might imagine here.  And we can absolutely do that.

"Are you bound to the idea that this god can't interfere in Villarosa before the story happens?  The Worldbuilding Team sets up Fate, in some sense, to keep things on track until the story starts; it might be simpler for this god to help with that?"

"You've given some constraints for Villarosa, such that I think a benevolent God that shares my values would want to intervene to make things better, even if it does things like lowering the amount of social inequality. But a God should be able to bind itself with an unbreakable oath, so maybe this God could agree to intervene only in ways that support Fate, at least until the story is over."

"Or perhaps be themself constrained by Fate, or some other power...

"There's a choice later on, a Perk you can take to go 'Off the Rails' - though that metaphor wouldn't translate to you; perhaps 'Off the Road'? - but what it means is to largely end Fate once the story starts."

"Does that mean there effectively isn't a story, just normal cause and effect? And maybe we should go over the full list of options before we dive deeper into the worldbuilding."

Oh yes, she did say that, didn't she?  Before being distracted by constructing theology.

"That's why I said mostly end Fate... but you're right.  Next up..."

"... is your Fiance!

"You'll start the story - when you regain your memories - engaged to him, and if you win, you'll end up married to him!  Whether or not that happens will, of course, depend on you.  The Heroine will have a strong advantage - we'll be talking about her next - but you will have a chance.

"You'll start with a polite friendly relationship with him - he'll want to make the engagement and marriage work.  Not love, of course; it's an arranged marriage.  Unless you select the Perk that says he actually is in love with you."

She looks like she really doesn't want him to pick Off the Rails. Why is it even an option? Organizational policy?

He nods along.

(Yes, organizational policy.  All these options are organizational policy.)

She turns the pages of her book and half-reads half-paraphrases with emotion, with a grin on her face.

"First up, 'Prince Charming.'  The heir to the throne, a heroic guy about your age, talented, romantic by generally-accepted standards, will take offense at any nefarious tactics...  By any conventional standards, his wife is going to be a lucky woman.

"Second, the Dark Rival.  He could be the king's son or a duke's.  He's more talented than Prince Charming at the start, exudes romantic danger and dominance, can be mean but never quite evil...  Of course, because this is a story, he's got a heart of gold outside for the right woman to unlock.

"Or third, the Noble Prodigy!  He's older than you, already graduated and made a name for himself - ascending from lesser nobility to the heights of society.  What exactly he's done depends on the setting.  He's cold and formal and unemotional at first due to some tragedy in his past... but the right woman will melt the armor around his soul."

She looks up.

"But according to the story, the right woman is the heroine.  Not you.  That's up to you to try to change if you can."

"Prince Charming sounds like the most appealing option. Will the reincarnation process make me attracted to men? I'm already mildly attracted to men but not to the point where I would expend a lot of effort trying to romance one." Hopefully the Angel isn't one of the weird people who thinks men liking men is immoral. Probably not, as far as he knows that's strictly a mortal problem.

He doesn't want a sexuality change but that isn't very important.

She quickly nods.  "Yes, you will be once you're reborn as a girl in Villarosa.  Anything else would be too disruptive to the story, I think?

"And Prince Charming?  All right."

He nods along, not feeling great about the whole thing. Presumably he'll enjoy the romance when he gets to it. Which is also irrelevant - Lac would sell his soul for the opportunity to design a world like this, so there isn't much point feeling bad about something as small as a sexuality change and forced romance.

"What's the next option?"

The Angel gives him a sympathetic smile and turns a few pages.  Hopefully this next one will be a more engaging choice to make... or if not, at least the Perks will be.

She turns a couple pages.

"Next up, you!  Who will you be?

"The first choice is the Royal Princess, the daughter of the King of Villarosa, the highest-ranking and most privileged girl in the Royal Academy!

"Second is the Duke's Daughter, the only daughter of the highest-ranking noble in the land.  The Worldbuilding Department's default choice is the Duke of Thorns, by the way, but that can of course change.  Your engagement will be an important part of your father's political plans, so you can call on his resources... as long as the politics make sense.

"Or the third is the Rich Heiress, untitled but the daughter of the wealthiest merchant in the land.  You'll have all the power he can give you... but you're technically a commoner, so that might not be protection enough at some points."

His first instinct is to grab as much wealth and power as he can. On the other hand, though, would he actually be good at the responsibilities that come with being a princess? Also, it would bring a lot of attention.

"I'm not sure yet, but put me down for the Duke's Daughter for now?"

She nods happily.

"The Duke's Daughter, marrying a Prince Charming.  An excellent match, if you can make it happen!"

"... which brings us to our next option, the Heroine!  Who, according to the canonical story, will be the one to end up married to Prince Charming.

"Fate will have arranged things to her strengths and weaknesses - she will face challenges, grave challenges, but in the canonical story she overcomes them to reach her happy ending.

"Of course, that's the canonical story you will be challenged to change.

"The first option is the Extraordinary Commoner.  Without any social status, she - very unusually - won admission to the Royal Academy on merit alone.  She's the most talented; she'll outshine most if not all of her noble classmates and will rise to meet any challenge or challenger.

"The second option is the Poor Princess.  Why she's neglected or powerless is up to you to choose in your worldbuilding - perhaps she's politically inconvenient; perhaps illegitimate; perhaps a refugee from another kingdom.  But she lacks most of the advantages and formidability of her nominal station.

"The third option is the Hero's Daughter.  Her heroic parent died accomplishing some great deed - you can specify what in your worldbuilding - which elevated her to the ranks of the nobility.  So, she has social status and talent but not the background expected of a noble young lady.  Instead, she has fame and connections."

What are even his interests here. Poor Princess sounds cruel, the Heroine would probably resent him if she knew that he'd chosen that for her. Besides that, does he want a less capable adversary? Both Hero's Daughter and Extraordinary Commoner have talent, but the Hero's Daughter also has connections. Oh, and having a parent die would suck, too.

"Probably Extraordinary Commoner."

"Ahh, you accept the challenge?"

"Challenge? She's a more difficult option?"

"Oh, it depends on how you think about it.  They're all difficult options, different challenges... but I've seen many people underestimate the Extraordinary Commoner's sheer talent.  If you're thinking of ending Fate, I do think that would make her a threat in many unexpected ways.

"Though if you do defeat her... that would make your victory all the more interesting."

He nods, a bit nervous. Don't underestimate the Extraordinary Commoner's talent. Great. And probably don't end Fate? Especially if he wants the Angel to have her story so she gives him more creative freedom with the parts that don't impact it.

She nods, trying to mix her happiness with supportiveness.  A challenge is always fun to watch.

Lila's smile fills him with the dread of a future main character. He makes a mental note to reconsider the other Heroine options.

"What's next?"

"Next up," she says with a grave expression, "is the canonical ending of the story.  In other words, this's the ending that happens when the Heroine wins and defeats you."

If Fate is present, it'll be pushing you toward this ending, and you won't find it easy to escape.  It isn't inevitable; it can be changed - but it'll take effort, and more innovative effort than you might think.

She pauses a moment to drive this home.

"But if you do reach the canonical ending - the Bad Ending for you - the story is over.  The bonds of Fate will tighten around you and it'll be all but impossible for you to escape.

"I'll be watching with bated breath hoping you'll avoid the Bad Ending."

Because she has his best interests at heart. He nods with appropriate seriousness.

"What are the bad endings?"

Yes, she has his interests at heart, as she does every protagonist's.

She gestures at the air, weaving her finger in a knot almost like she's a Golarion wizard preparing a spell.  Small stylized pictures appear in the air, one by one, as she names them.

"The first choice is, Death.  You can pick whether you're publicly executed for some crime, or you suffer death from the fallout of one of your schemes."

A picture appears of something that might be an execution block, or might be a Final Blade.  The victim's face is covered, but she has silver hair.

"If you choose Death, the Will of the Multiverse says you get any perk for free.

"The second choice is a Convent - you'll be forced to take some form of religious vows including hard work and poverty and service to the needy."

Another gesture; the robes look more like peasants' clothes than any religious order Lac knows, and the symbol is a blur.

"The third choice is Servitude - you'll be stripped of your rank and status and bound to the Heroine's service.  She won't treat you cruelly - that's not in her character - but you may or may not formally be a slave; you may or may not be magically bound."

Another gesture.  Lac may recognize the same sort of shackles carried on some slave ships captured by the Eagle Knights.

"The fourth choice is being Impoverished - you're stripped of your rank and status, but simply cast out onto the streets to fend for yourself without any allies and without any chance of becoming wealthy or a noble again."

Another gesture, and a picture of what might almost be orphans on an Andoran street.

"The fifth choice is Exile - being banished forever from Villarosa and being forced into a political marriage with an older nobleman abroad."

A picture of a wagon crossing mountains.

"The sixth choice is simple Disgrace - your social status will never recover from the humiliation of losing, but you'll still be a Duke's Daughter.  If you select this, the Will of the Multiverse says you must take an extra Flaw - and I agree at least."

Because she has his best interests at heart, and wouldn't want it to be too easy! Death, Convent, and Disgrace are all tempting. He'd probably do okay as a lay priest, though he's worried about just how much "hard work, poverty, and service" there would be. Disgrace could be the obvious choice depending on how bad the Flaws are. And the case for Death is that the afterlife is going to be wonderful, but come to think of it couldn't he just kill himself? It doesn't have to count as Evil in this world.

Servitude could be fine, if he's not treated cruelly and the Heroine wants to make use of his magical talent. It could also be horrific. Exile could be terrible depending on the nobleman.

"Put me down for Convent for now."

"Of course."  She's not surprised at all.

She gestures, and the other images fade away.

"I know a number of people who ended up in a Convent did... at least find some happiness there.  There are limits to how you can design convents - well, the convent you'd be sentenced to - but you can make a number of choices."

"And next up, if you're ready, is your Minions."

He gets minions!

"Your Minions!  Don't worry, you aren't picking everyone who'll exist in Villarosa - you're going to have Maids and Classmates whether or not you pick them here.  But you're going to pick the people who're specifically named characters and your minions in the canonical story - and therefore, the people who're definitely going to be useful to you here in your story!

"You can pick two options here, including the same option twice!

"First choice, a Maid!  Unlike normal maids, she's guaranteed to be highly competent, almost unquestioningly loyal, and have some useful skill beyond housework and doing your hair - like perhaps a bodyguard or a spy?  Or 'she' can be a cross-dressing boy if you want, though that would of course be scandalous."  The angel gives a wink at that.  "You're already going to have a Maid minion already, because of your Elaborate hair - but you can certainly take three of them if you want.

"Second, two Classmates of your age, whose families are formally or informally dependent on yours.  They're friendly and generally follow your lead, but they're more proactive and independent.

"Third, an Admirer - a talented but not exceptional student with an obvious crush on you, whom you can twist around your little finger.  You can take an extra Flaw if you want, to make him the Dark Rival or Noble Prodigy?

"Fourth, an Animal Companion!  Maybe it's genetically engineered or magical?  You've bonded with it or trained it.  It can be anything from a cat to a pegasus!"  The angel's eyes shimmer.

"Fifth, an..." She pauses.  "... Artificial Intelligence.  Essentially, that's a person created by technology from a computer.  It'll be your personal servant, capable of trivially controlling any other computer systems - which will probably be everywhere, since you said it'll be a Space Opera.

"Sixth, a Butler.  He or she will be an older person, usually employed by your father, who's taken a liking to you and can be an important mentor." 

She gestures, and cartoons of the six options appear in the air.

He already has one Maid. Admirer sounds terrible. Animal companion... maybe he could design a useful animal? Whatever. The preliminary choice here seems clear.

"Let's go with Butler and Artificial Intelligence."

"A solid choice!"  She grins.  "There're so many possibilities with Artificial Intelligences that I don't think you've even begun to imagine.  I know of one person who took over the entire Academy with her Artificial Intelligence and erased her Heroine's work... usually they'll have defenses against that, of course, but she was able to circumvent them with some help from the Dark Lord.

"And don't worry; your new self will have grown up in Villarosa, so she'll be familiar with how to best work with Artificial Intelligences.  But still, it'll absolutely help if you pick up some helpful perks..." 

"Perks?"

"Yes, the Will-in-Council has a standard list here!  Beyond this - you get to make up just about anything you want in the worldbuilding; if it's too useful the Worldbuilding Team and Will-in-Council might make it count as another perk, but I've seen them do that maybe one-in-thirty times.

"Now, you'll need to balance these Perks with Flaws, but for now why don't you just look over the list of Perks..."

She spreads her arms, and one of the arches fills in with what might be a large sheet of semitransparent paper with each perk listed and a brief description.

"Fortunately, you get Magic User for free since you picked a High Magic setting.  And Scientific Revolution is off the table since you're in a Space Opera setting."  She says the last with what Lac might notice as some regret.

It's good to have further confirmation that he can design whatever he likes, as long as he prevents it from being too much use in Villarosa. 

"What do you mean, balance the Perks with Flaws? Is it one for one?"

"Yes - there's another list of Flaws.  You get two free Perks, but you already used one of them on being an Elf, so you can pick one Perk for free here and every additional Perk must be balanced by a Flaw.

"Don't worry, you can always change your choices once you see the list of Flaws."

He reads over the list...

Lac's Shortlisted Traits: 

Early Start - More time to prepare. But he isn't sure if he wants to experience growing up as a child...

Equal Friend - Could be useful to have a princess as an ally, but probably he could cultivate allies even without that?

Good Ending - A convent might not be so bad, but even so- he doesn't want to be in bitter, winner-takes-all conflict with a Good person. Or even an Evil one, but the heroine being decent makes it worse.

Goddess of Beauty - If you're going to be a woman you might as well be gorgeous, right? This one is worse than the others, so he rejects it with slight disappointment.

Magical Prodigy - Giving up his talent would hurt. He's built around it in a deep way. Even if the magic of Villarosa isn't what he's used to, he still doesn't want to be merely ordinary at it.

Unearthly Insight - Flashes of helpful intuition!

"Tentatively, can I switch back to being Human, and take two perks?" He's not sure of the benefits of being an Elf, and some of these are really good. "Also, my previous aptitude for magic was because of my intelligence. Can this magic system also benefit from intelligence, such that I'll be highly talented even without Magical Prodigy?"

"Oh yes, you can absolutely switch to being Human!  And you can even say you're an Elf if you want to, as long as most people in Villarosa are also Elves - that's what the Will-in-Council is really getting at by saying 'Human.'"

"Though I'm afraid that if you try to say you're very intelligent and that makes you prodigious at magic, the Will-in-Council or Worldbuilding Department will say that's the same thing as picking Magical Prodigy.  You're not the first person to try something like that."

Wait, shouldn't he just make other people smarter in general? It would be really petty to make people stupid just so he can be smarter by comparison.

"I'll take Magical Prodigy and Good Ending, then."

"Just two Perks?" the Angel asks, her eyes wide.  "You're closing off so much amazing potential here!"

"Well, I don't know how bad the flaws are!"

That does make sense!  Maybe if he's super cautious... like he might be from suddenly finding he isn't in Specific Elysium after all.

She nods slowly.

"I'll show you, if you want?"

Some of those other perks are tempting. Nod.

She turns to another arch, spreads her arms, and it too expands, and a translucent sheet of what might be thin paper shows a list of each Flaw with its description.

"Don't worry about me if you end up picking Unprepared - I've seen people do it before, and I'm happy to watch them in their new stories anyway!"

Ditz, Jealousy, In-Character, and Magicless are all awful. Ghost in the Flesh seems Evil, as does Save the World. And...

"Am I understanding Late Start correctly? It's an automatic Bad Ending with no way to avoid it?"

"Yes!  Except you can get out of it if you want.  Some people like that challenge... and other people are happy not to.

"There was one woman who really wanted to be a nun, except there weren't any convents nearby in her homeworld that would accept her... so she made sure the same religion would be practiced in Villarosa and went off to be a nun there.  I think she had a satisfying time for a while before being martyred.

"Or, I heard from another angel about this one woman who was fine being a slave as long as she could design her perfect mistress.  I never heard the end of her story, but -" the angel shrugs.  "It could have worked out?"

That's fascinating and he really should ask more about the previous world-designers (discomfort, at how powerful Lila's organization is, how he can't do anything if they decide to stop playing nice).

"What's the strangest set of choices you've ever heard of someone in my position making?"

"Strangest?"

She stares into the sky blankly for a minute.  An aurora blossoms across maybe a quarter of the sky in the direction she's staring in.

"... There're so many ways to say 'weird,' but I have to mention this man who grabbed Peggy Sue and Good Ending and Ghost in the Flesh all together, and made time magic an established practice in Villarosa, and between her own machinations inside Villarosa and what she'd arranged here, just about everyone in the school ended up having memories of a different timeline!  I needed to watch it dozens of times before I understood it!  In the end, she got her Good Ending, but it wasn't anything like what she'd expected."

"Wow. Any others that went in unexpected directions?"

"Unexpected by me, or by them?"  She laughs.

"There're tons of both!"

"I'd love to hear some of your favorites."

The angel ruffles her wings and stares up at the sky.

"My favorites...  Well, I like a lot of characters who did go in the expected directions in unexpected ways."  She smiles indulgently.  "But of my favorites who went in totally unexpected directions...

"There was a girl who chose a lower-tech age and the 'Scientific Revolution' perk, and leaked enough hints that before the end people were building spaceships to vie for her hand and the Canonical Heroine's... and incidentally colonize the moons in the process.  She lost and was Exiled, but by that time she was Grand Duchess of the medium moon and had a very exciting life guiding settlement of other planets and negotiations with the Fay and Sylphs and other people there."

"And then - You saw the 'Save the World' flaw?  A lot of the most exciting people picked that.  There are several who linked their 'Dark Secret' with the Dark Lord, and a few of them who took 'Unprepared' to forget it... but there was one man who decided that she was the last treasure the Dark Lord needed to conquer the world.  Of course, he tried to kidnap her.  But because of how the magic system worked out... I think he'd planned this but I'm not sure... the Dark Lord needed to get her consent on some level.  After several more escapades, the Dark Lord ended up installing himself as Headmaster of the Royal Academy and meddling in the romance storyline!

"There was a battle, of course - but it was a tournament at the school, limited by pact to avoid hurting the students - and both she and the Canonical Heroine were meddling on all sides."

Maybe he shouldn't have asked. He's going to get railroaded into picking Save the World, and then he won't. What's the lowest-stakes story she'll accept? No, this is still the wrong goal. He should be finding ways to trade what the angel wants for more control over the worldbuilding.

"Hmm, maybe I shouldn't tell you all my plans, then, so some of it will come as a surprise."

"Oh, that would be fun!"

"... but I want you to be having a fun story too, without unpleasant surprises when something doesn't work out the way you wanted it to!  So please at least talk with me about the worldbuilding?"

Smile. "I have a lot of fun worldbuilding ideas, but a lot of them I'd like to be outside Villarosa. As for Villarosa itself, can I ask your help with something?"

Oh, that's good!  Someone whose vision sweeps beyond just one country, across the world!

"Oh!  Most people are happy with just looking at Villarosa itself; I'm be glad to see what you're doing with a broader sweep!  And - of course!"

Either most people around the universe lack a functioning sense of responsibility, or the organization happens to filter for people who would make terrible gods.

"You've mentioned that social rank needs to be important in Villarosa. I want to design a world where everyone has enough, so how would that work? Could the only difference between a noble and a commoner be that nobles can afford gold and silks, while commoners can't?"

"Yes!  At least if you're taking that by synecdoche - gold and silks, and caviar and the best veal, and human servants or fancier AI servants, and things like that.  It's normal in the Space Age for everyone to have enough to live on, and for most people to have enough for comfort.  You can certainly go farther and give everyone enough for at least some level of comfort!

"Silks specifically get a lot cheaper to make in the Industrial Age let alone the Space Age, because the worms producing them can be kept anywhere... though artificial silks are usually even cheaper, so rich people sometimes choose to wear real natural-made silk as a status symbol?"

She smooths her own skirts.  "I made these to duplicate natural fabric, but that's just because of my own backstory, and because I can make any sort of clothes by magic.  In most worlds in the Global Age or later, most people are wearing artificial fabrics... unless they have magic that doesn't play well with artificial fabrics.  That does sometimes happen."  For a moment, she grins knowingly.

"Are people usually happy, in a Space Age world?"

That's a big question.  She needs to think about it a bit.

"... Usually yes.  Much more often than in the Dawn of Progress or either sort of Archaic world.

"At least, usually yes you asked them if their lives as a whole were happy... there're certainly people who'd say they really aren't by other standards, like because they live with the constraints of biological bodies, or because some of them don't have biological bodies..."

That's good! If people weren't happy then he'd want to switch settings!

"What does that mean, to suffer because you live with the constraints of biological bodies, or because you don't have one? And what does it mean to be noble in a world like that?"

"Oh -"  She runs her hands down her sides and legs.  "Bodies get aches and pains, of course, let alone sicknesses and the sort of pains that might not heal, or that come back every month or so, and the risk of worse -"

She can smile about it a lot more now that her body works by magic at least as much as biology.

"A lot of that, you can help with magic or technology.  But you can't totally take away all of it, even in a Space Opera, unless you get to the point where a lot of people will say that it's interfering with your happiness all in itself by detaching you all too much from your body."

"I thought that maybe people could still grow old, but not suffer too many health problems from growing old, then die suddenly, usually in their sleep. And maybe they could have a birthmark, or something, that slowly fills in over the course of their life, and when it fills completely they die of old age."

"Yes!  Though if the birthmark is reliably and steadily filling in, everyone would know almost exactly how long they have to live, and..."  She spreads her hands.  "That would have so many consequences!"

"Like what?" Lila has experience with making worlds so he really ought to be getting her help, insofar as he can.

"Like... people knowing when to set their affairs in order, people making longer-term plans or not, other people seeing the birthmark and knowing when to gather like vultures..."  She spreads her hands.  "You're going to be the Duke's Daughter betrothed to the Prince; would everyone know exactly how long your fathers have to live?

"And can people still die by illness or misadventure without it prophesying that?  If not, things would be even more different!"

"I'd have to think about it. Those are good points. Maybe it could be something invisible to other people, like a vision of an hourglass."

"Yes!  Perhaps a vision you get when casting a magical spell, or when eating some magical plant... And perhaps it could move mostly constantly but sometimes speed up or slow down?  Say, if someone starts treating their health better or worse?"

"Maybe! I was thinking that health could just not be a limiting factor on lifespan at all. I like your plant idea." Giving people a constant reminder of their own mortality might not actually be a good thing.

"Separate health from lifespan?  But then what happens if the body is too injured?  It isn't impossible if you integrate magic into people's souls and bodies strongly enough... but no, that would just redefine health...  Or are you thinking of people surviving apart from their physical bodies?"

"More that people don't suffer from health issues, save from death by old age. I was thinking of diseases; I don't know what it would do if people were immune to injuries as well." Would people just not fight each other?

She lets out a slow breath.

"That's more complicated than you might think.  You can certainly do away with germs - things that infect people from outside and cause disease - that would fit rather well in a Space Opera!  But aside from that, the body's system for defending against germs can go wrong and start causing diseases itself.  And that's usually more likely when there aren't any germs from outside..."

"... But we can still fix that with enough healing spells!

"And that could fix most injuries too!"

Grin. "I don't see why not! I wasn't sure if people should have a better physiology, or just easy access to healing magic." Cantrip that casts Restoration, Heal, Remove Disease, and Neutralize Poison, all in one?

"I'll tell the Worldbuilding Department to feel free to include all their ideas for better physiology!  But let's assume some healing magic will be involved.  And probably some technology too - I've seen some really inventive ideas with modifying people's cell instructions!"

(She's thinking about both "gene therapy" and "RNA theraputics," but those words don't translate to Taldane.)

"I'm not sure what that means and would appreciate an overview, but maybe we should return to the list of perks? I think I'd like to take Abhorrent Admirer in exchange for Unearthly Insight.

She nods.

"And I'm sure you don't want to be Magicless, and with what we just established it'd hardly work for you to be Sickly..."

"Unless Sickly is a free flaw, easily circumvented through healing magic?" He's joking.

She smiles indulgently.

"No, that wouldn't work, just like you can't take a Dark Secret and then say it's actually harmless if it comes out.  The flaws need to be real flaws, even if you can work around them."

"Fair enough." It's not. "What wealth or privileges would royalty in Villarosa have that others don't?" He wants to blunt the worst of the inequalities.

"In a Space Opera, perhaps..."

She waves her hand.

"Faster spaceships?  Better computers?  Owning whole moons?  Having special courts when they're accused of crimes?  Their children attending selective schools, like the one you'll be going to?  More rights to say what the law is?  Having secret magical spells passed down through the family?  Having secret devices that only their family can use?"

She shrugs.  "And having even more money than everyone else, of course, and all that can buy.  You don't need to have all of these things, but they're some of the sort of things they might have."

"Having more wealth seems fine, so long as even the poor have enough. I'd prefer for there not to be too much legal inequality. Nobles shouldn't be able to get away with rape or murder just because they're nobles." Or diabolism, but why would his shiny new paradise even have diabolism? Hopefully it's coherent to have legal equality in a society with large wealth disparities.

She immediately nods.  "Absolutely.  Both in theory and in practice; there are lots of worlds where nobles can't get away with that.

"They're usually able to get away with some smaller crimes in practice... but you can certainly keep that to very little at least."

"That's fine. Can Villarosa, but not the universe at large, have a lot of awards, honors, and popularity contests? That could give people something to fight over that isn't access to food, housing, or healing."

"Of course!  And other countries too, as well as Villarosa?  There're so many exciting contests and awards you can have - sports, debates, stunt flying, building computer golems, different types of art..."

"I would rather Villarosa be small, in the grand scheme of things. Maybe a little planet with only one country. But those all sound like really fun ideas! Maybe the country could have noble dynasties with a reputation for winning certain contests. Maybe people could scry contests from all over the world."

"Oh yes, in the Space Age it'd be hard to keep people from scrying them with technology!  And probably on other planets too!  And your Royal Academy will have its own reputation too of course - and why not have contests inside the Academy between different houses too?"

"And as for Villarosa being small and insignificant... why?  Are you planning to change that in your story?"

"Inter-House competition sounds good!" Lac has never read Harry Potter and is totally thinking of noble houses. "As for why I want it to be small... i was thinking Villarosa could be a part of the space age universe that hasn't met the rest yet. The reason why-" let's just be honest here "-is that I have a moral obligation to design the best possible universe. If I understand your organization's constraints correctly, then Villarosa can be a good place, but it can't be the best possible place because it's also going to be designed with good stories in mind, and there will likely be tradeoffs. So I would want Villarosa to be on the small side so that a larger share of the population could live in places that are even better than Villarosa."

"The... best... possible... universe?"

She pauses, twitching her wings and staring out at the garden.

"... Best at what?"

That's a fair question. ...Lac makes a WIS check to interpret Lila's body language. Her reaction to this could be important.

She's still just trying to figure out what he meant.  Universes can be better or worse at making stories, of course, or better or worse at raising specific sorts of people, or at having pleasant places for people to visit, or at being easy to work with in different ways, or...

... But Lac's clearly meaning some specific thing that's really important to him, and (more confusingly) that he thinks would be obvious...

Confusion on the outsider's part isn’t yet a moral emergency! "I want a universe where people have a lot of different and interesting experiences, where they experience a lot of joy, love, and meaning, they can be creative and pursue self-understanding, and appreciate beauty... I'm wary of prematurely summing it up in a pithy phrase, but reasonable description is that there should be a lot of variety among people, a lot of different ways for them to be fulfilled, and that they should be able to have those fulfillments, in their mortal lives and in the afterlife also. And there shouldn't be any horrific suffering, or maybe only a tiny bit, so people can practice virtues of courage, endurance, and heroism in the face of it and others can be inspired by their example. But very few people should ever have to endure great suffering, and if they do then it should mean something, and not just be pain."

She nods along with all of this, especially the parts about different and interesting experiences, and people being inspired by their examples.  

But at the end, she turns back to him, still twitching her wings as she's pondering.  Every point of this makes sense and sounds attractive, but... "But what about this means Villarosa can't fully accomplish this?"

"If you go North-East, you don't get as far North as when you only go North. Does that make sense? Moving simultaenously in two directions means you don't get as far in either."

"If you think the directions are actually the same direction, or that they're sufficiently aligned that there isn't much call for tradeoffs, then that would be great, and I'd appreciate your help in exploring that."

She blinks.

"Why do you think they're different?  Are you saying the romance story in Villarosa isn't the best sort of story to give people these things?"

"I'm worried we're talking past each other. Are you saying that a universe made for a Villarosa romance story is optimal for the kinds of goals I was talking about?" 

"... Optimal?  Of course it wouldn't be if that was the only noteworthy story in the world, but there'll be other things happening too!  Are you saying that a Villarosan romance story can't fit in a universe that fits those goals?

"I take your point. Do you have any ideas for how our story could fit into a universe that's utopic in the ways I described? Also, I'm not sure I've mentioned this before but I'd like the universe to be as large as possible, to never end, and to grow and become more populous over time, if those are achievable goals for this project."

Utopic?  She didn't think Lac was describing a utopia - he was talking about something much more dynamic than that -

But her face quickly smooths out into a smile.  "Oh, we can certainly keep it growing in population into the indefinite future.  And I'm not sure, but I've heard there're some possibilities for universes to increase without bound or end.  I'll signal that to the worldbuilding team if they can do it!"

"I'm really glad. It's important to me to have a vast universe with a lot of happy people in it. I want it to be fun, too. People should have a good time. And they should have opportunities to grow in wisdom and virtue. One way the afterlife could differ from being alive is that people would have a lot more freedom in the afterlife. They could be able to do almost anything. Too much freedom can be bad for people if they don't know how to use it. So maybe everyone's mortal life would help them grow up, so they can make the most of their afterlife freedom to live a fantastic life and not get stuck in patterns that hurt themselves and others."

(Lac had a phase where he would read speculation on the Good afterlives and question which was best and how he would improve on them.)

"But would that total freedom really be what satisfies people?  In the afterlife or anywhere else?  Even if it might make a lot of people happy for a moment?"

She used to hear some people saying they'd get that, back in her mortal life, and it felt dull then just like now.

"And, people's mortal lives helping them grow up is a good image... but it'd demand a whole lot of active Fate to make sure everyone grows up enough to handle more possibilities in the afterlife!  Could there be somewhere else where people wait till they're grown up enough?"

"Maybe people could be reborn if they aren't ready, and then when they die they regain all their memories from every life? I don't like the idea of everyone being Fate's puppets, but maybe there could be a little Fate, in the form of prophetic dreams or visions or something that can help people make important decisions, that kind of thing. I'm not actually sure about total freedom being ideal, since I've never experienced it or met anyone who had. But I think total freedom should include the freedom to make lasting commitments or limit yourself if you want to. What are your thoughts about freedom, and potential problems resulting from too much of it?"

She's grinning as soon as Lac mentions people regaining memories every time they die, and she grins even more at the mention of prophetic visions.

"Maybe not every time; I heard there was one bad world where the villains kept being reborn until no one else was left... though wait, if the universe is eternally growing with new souls continually being born I think it should work out!  Though maybe let's let the gods tweak it if need be?

"But about total freedom... I've never had it either" (especially not that one time in her human life she momentarily thought she did...) "or met anyone who had... But if everyone can do anything, then why would people be striving for anything?  What would be holding them together?"

"I know people are often held together by hardship, but do they have to be? Could people just be held together by love and compatibility? I know challenge is part of a fulfilling life. I imagine that someone with incredible freedom could still choose to limit themselves, like how when you play a game you agree to follow the rules. Maybe some people could choose to live in parts of the afterlife with less freedom and more struggle to get things they want, and other people could live in parts where they have more freedom and can rejoice in using it creatively."

"I want gods to be able to tweak a lot of things if necessary! It would be reassuring if I knew there was a God that shared my own values, but was a lot smarter. This God could correct the mistakes I'll inevitably make when trying to design all this."

"The Worldbuilding Team can take a lot of requests about gods, but something like that --"  She shakes her head, almost chuckling.

And then she gets another idea.

"How about making sure there's a path to becoming a god yourself?  Sometime after the story?  If you avoid the Bad Ending?"

!!
"That would be wonderful. But could you alter my memory so that I only think I need to avoid the Bad Ending to become a God? That way the story still has stakes, but the entire universe isn't worse than it would be otherwise, by my lights, if I fail. I'll only think it will be."

"... The Will might allow that.  I don't know.  Escaping your Bad Ending is supposed to be all but impossible... but you usually do still die.  What happens after, I haven't seen."

"... But I know they won't just make you automatically a god afterwards.  So you'll need to complete some challenge... perhaps after reincarnating?  If you choose to?"

Darn it.

"If I get a better chance of becoming a God, whether I remember that or not, I'd be willing to make my Bad Ending worse somehow. Or give the Will lots of story input via Fate, or something. Do you think anything like that would be an option?"

This sounds like the catalyst for so much potential story!

"Yes, I do think we can do that!  We'll have Fate tug you towards becoming a god after the story is over!  I'll need to check with the Worldbuilding Department to be sure, but I'm pretty sure they'll do it!"

... and what else Fate will be tugging Lac through on the way would be another matter...

"I'd want to hash out some of the details, but that sounds good." He's going to be a ✨God✨. Can he, as a God, contact or affect Golarion? 

His specific concerns: can he retain enough of his personality as a God that he's meaningfully the same person, would he be a slave to the "Will of the Multiverse" even as a God, would he be the same kind of being that Golarion Gods are, would he be able to repair and optimize the universe as needed, and would his power extend to other universes, like Pharasma's Creation? But all that cam probably wait. It might be worth asking for a contract, if they do contracts. Actually, why not just ask now? "Maybe we could get a contract written up?" It's unclear to him why he has nonzero negotiating power but clearly he has some.

Is he wanting to pin down the details of his future divinity too?  Or is he merely wanting to get it certainly in the bounds of Fate?  Either way, the answer is the same.

"I'm afraid this organization doesn't write contracts with people in your place."  She sighs, her wings twitching.

"And even if we did, I can't promise anything about something as unusual as becoming a god without getting authorization from the Worldbuilding Department.  I can ask them, if you want?"

In his place, huh?

"Yes, thank you."

"Certainly!"

She pulls a piece of paper and a quill out of her robe.  With a wave of her hand, the quill quickly writes a message; she then folds up the paper into a bird which flies through the closest arch and vanishes.

"They should be writing back soon... but in the meantime --"

Worldbuilder Lima Juliette, to Psychopomp re Lac Miller
Re: Apotheosis after Villarosa plot

After consulting with the precedents of the Will of the Multiverse, it is clear that if Fate pushes for the Villainess of Villarosa to become a god, that would effectively count as a customized Good Ending - regardless of whether the Bad Ending is actually achieved, or if the Villainess ever reconciles with the Heroine, or whether Fate would only so push under certain circumstances.

Accordingly, a customized Perk must yield a customized Drawback of similar degree.  Simply forgetting this perk was chosen would be insufficient.  Making the Bad Ending worse could be part of this but not sufficient.  Perhaps, as your subject suggested, these could be combined with a limited version of No Compromise or In Character?  Or another similar drawback could be chosen.

... "Ah, time is moving helpfully for us."

She shows Lac the letter.

"...I don't know if I could win, with No Compromise or In Character. They both sound like terrible drawbacks. Can I see the list again?"

"Of course."

She gestures, and the list unfolds itself again.

A lot of these are horrible. Lac hates the mind control ones. 

"Would the worldbuilding team accept Peggy Sue as an additional drawback? I have some ideas that could get interesting." 

"Perhaps... Tell me more?"

"It should be a fun surprise! I'll say it could add some particular difficulties to my preferred approach, but if I could make it work, then things could turn out really good in the end."

"She'll be all the more determined to defeat you.  But if you want to try it...  I'll be watching you with bated breath!"

He grins. "Rooting for me, I hope?"

"Oh, absolutely!"

That really does help, even if he doesn't think she means it the way he would. Smile.

After a minute's silence, the angel continues.

"A path to becoming a god, and Fate strong enough to pull you toward it regardless of how the story ends... whether in that life or in a reincarnation afterwards.  I'm excited to see this!  And also to see what changes you make to the afterlife situation once you're a god!"

"The world, too! I don't know how much I'd actually change if the worldbuilding team makes a utopia, but even small improvements mean a lot when multiplied over billions or trillions of people. Also, just to make sure, would my divinity be like Golarion gods in that it is empowered by those souls aligned with it, or have some other method of gaining power so that I can still help everyone even as the population grows arbitrarily large?"

"Oh yes, there're many ways for gods to keep being able to help everyone.  They can get power from the universe itself, or their power can build upon itself while the universe expands, or - like you mention - from mortals.  Or other ways; those're just some of the Worldbuilding Team's favorites.

"But, do you really want a utopia?"

??

"What do you mean?"

He's going to be the sole God of a vast and growing paradise, with no intervention budget to worry about. Can things possibly get better than this? He's delaying his reaction because celebration would be unproductive, but this is almost maximally good.

(She's starting to get a few suggestions for the Worldbuilding Team about what other gods to put in Lac's universe.)

"A utopia would be already seemingly perfect, wouldn't it?  And hence, it would be static, unchanging - when you were talking earlier about something much more dynamic."

"We might have different definitions of the word. I just meant 'a really amazing world for the people who live in it.'"

"Oh!  Just, 'amazing'?  Or, amazing in a particular way...?"

"I can think of a lot of different ways! But I don't think I could define the ideal world perfectly on a first pass, which is why I want to become a God so I can fix it later. But a great world should have lots of love, beauty, fun, wisdom, creativity, fulfillment, amazing nature but without immense animal suffering, cultural and ecological variety, many kinds of beings living in peaceful separation or harmony... It should get larger and more populous over time, and stay good over time, and everyone should get a great afterlife."

"Ah yes!  Amazing in all those good ways, like you were talking about before!"

(As opposed to a world amazing in ways that're unpleasant to the people in it.)

"I wouldn't call that a utopia, but - I suppose I can see how you might?  Especially coming from the sort of world you're from..."

"By 'utopia,' do you mean something more static or uniform? Something closer to a single ideal life, repeating itself over and over across space and time without too much variation?"

She nods, her wings fluffing behind her.

"Something like that.  A single pattern, repeated across space and time with everyone's lives fitted to it as an ideal."

"It compares favorably to Hell, but I think we can do better. My intuition is that if people are too similar, then it's more like the same person in multiple bodies than different people, so it's as if the population enjoying paradise were much smaller."

She nods thoughtfully.  "With enough magic to mold people's minds, it could be very much like that...  I remember one Villarosa that ended up something sort of like that, after she picked Off The Rails and then lost at Saving The World."

What insane asshole... What set of goals could that possibly serve?

"Some of your past clients sound like they didn't think things through at all. Or had totally alien preferences, or something."

"Oh, I think more of them were just overly optimistic.  That particular woman certainly was.  And then she realized her mistake after the Swarm captured her Noble Prodigy."

"And killed her? Dominated her?"

"She died in the end, rather than let herself fall into their hands.  Fighting by the Heroine's side, for all they hadn't reconciled a single one of their differences."

That sounds like a good story, he is absolutely not going to say. He will nod and look vaguely impressed. 

"Do you think I'm making any large blunders, given my goals?"

Oh yes, it was a great story.

She's been petitioning the Will of the Multiverse to send someone else into that world before too many generations have passed, or open a gate to another world, for a sequel.

"The first thing that comes to mind is, are you sure you want Villarosa to be small?  If you win, you're going to end up being its Queen - do you want to at least give Villarosa a position so that you'll be able to influence the rest of the..."  She shrugs.  "Galaxy?  Inhabited universe?"

"I'm not sure how much good I could do with the power of a monarch in a universe that's already a paradise. I'd refrain from gross misrule, but depending on what kind of people are in Villarosa I don't know if I would be an unusually good fit for monarch. On Golarion I'd say I'm qualified on basis of intelligence and alignment, but that I lack the charisma and grandeur that the greatest rulers have."

"I wouldn't want the universe to be any worse, just so I would get a chance to play hero. Maybe that's a good story for you, but to me, no amount of world-saving I do could outweigh the evil of being responsible for those problems in the first place."

"I thought you weren't confident it would be a full paradise, and that's why you wanted to become a god?"

"I thought it would be a paradise, but likely with room for improvement? I'd definitely prefer that the universe be paradisical from the start, and i was just assuming that it probably wouldn't be ideal, by my values, even if it's excellent. Unless your worldbuilding team can make my ideal world from the very start, even though I'm not smart enough to know what that means yet? If so, they should just do that."

"Maybe they could, but they wouldn't know how to.

"Or maybe not.  Many people don't have a clear ideal world... though yours is clearer than a lot of people's."

"But... you don't think you'd see room for improvement by the time you get to be Queen of Villarosa?"

"I probably would, but I shouldn't have a vast empire unless that's better for the people than the counterfactual where I don't have a vast empire."

"... and we can't tell yet how good you would be?  I can ask the Worldbuilding Department to arrange Fate to give good rulers, but you and your Prince Charming (if he proves yours) might prove still better..."

"Generally good rulers would make a big difference in people's lives! And the important thing is that the job of ruling gets done, and done well, not that I'm the one to do it. Though it would have its advantages." Like a personal library.

She nods with a faint smile.  "Oh yes, it is fun to be a queen.  Or king.  And more fun if your country has influence..."

"Do you want me to become the emperor of the universe?" He's only half joking.

"Oh, I'd be happy if you did!  But I'm not planning for it.  Just, perhaps, a kingdom significant on a larger scale?"

"Make sure I'll have good advisors and a competent love interest, and I'm fine with it." He can probably avoid catastrophic misrule if surrounded by the loyal and competent.

"Absolutely."  She nods so deep it's almost a curtsy.

That's funny. "You like your happily-ever-afters to have some grandeur to them?"

"When they involve princesses and princes!"

This time, she does make a deep sweeping curtsy.

Snicker. "Maybe I could ascend to Godhood at some suitably dramatic time, like at the perfect moment to steal the thunder from my heir at their coronation..."

"Ooh, perhaps powered in part by the magic of a traditional coronation ritual!?"

She pauses a moment before continuing, "- Which reminds me, how do you want magic to work in Villarosa?  You said you wanted powered by Intelligence just like your origin world; do you want it to work like that in other ways too?  Or not?"

"My world had a lot of different kinds of magic. Wizards were the most common, but most of them couldn't do much. Among adventurers, the divinely-empowered outnumbered the wizards, and their magic was strengthened by wisdom. I'm not sure that "powered by" is exactly correct?"

"I think that if I became a similar sort of being to the gods of my home plane, then I'd be able to empower people. But that wouldn't matter during the story. To start with, I think intelligence-based magic should definitely be a thing." It's beautiful, and life would be impoverished without it.

"Also, maybe something like a cleric or paladin - do you know what those are? I'm imagining a mage who binds themselves to an oath to tell no lies and do no Evil, and in exchange they gain powerful magic. In Pharasma's Creation, that kind of magic would be wisdom-based."

She nods; she knows dozens of worlds with things like paladins and clerics, though she's not aware of whatever peculiarities they might have in Pharasma's Creation.  "And do you want it to be based on wisdom still?  Or some other mental aspect of them, or just on the strength of a divinity or ritual behind them?  And do you care about magic having exactly the same sort of powers and spells as in your old world?"

"Not exactly the same, in fact I think some things should definitely be changed. But I do love topology-based magic, It's beautiful and it should exist in this new universe, though it doesn't have to be the only kind of magic. The effects of the specific mathematical patterns, or the exact mechanics of hanging a spell, could be different. And some spells- there's no need for a spell effect like Inflict Pain to exist, I think. And I already mentioned that healing magic should be easier. Oh, and intelligence-based magic could be capable of healing*!"

"The oathbound mages could use a mix of intelligence and wisdom, maybe." Lac thinks high-charisma people have enough power without being sorcerers on top of that.

*There are ways for a wizard to heal in Pharasma's Creation, but Lac made his will save against infodumping.

"Oh, yes, absolutely!  Topology-based magic, and partly-wisdom-based magic, and... how about just plain ritual magic too; I'm not sure if that was there in your old world but I've seen so many excellent types of it.  And topology can play nicely into all sorts of rituals!"  

Charisma-based magic is fun, she would say if Lac was mentioning that... but there're so many other fun sorts of magic too.

"And of course healing.  I'll make a note to put in several different ways to do most every sort of healing that might be needed."  (Most every, she makes a point of qualifying; she wants to leave room for plot points about needing one specific sort of ritual.

"And then you mentioned a god empowering clerics?  Would that be a totally different sort of magic?"

..."How many gods do you expect there would be? I'd prefer to be, if not the only God, then a God of sufficient power to unilaterally impose my vision."

"Oh, I was thinking there'd be at least several gods dating back to before recorded history, together with at least a few who'd ascended before you so that people know it's possible and there're legends for you to be following..."

And then she's expecting the Canonical Heroine to ascend to divinity too, at least if she wins.  Maybe Prince Charming as well.

"But we can set things up so that a mortal like you ascending around the time your story ends can be fairly sure to impose their vision."

Shit. Can he still rule the cosmos?

"The important thing to me isn't becoming a God so much as getting to optimize the world and afterlife forever. I'd prefer not to have divine interference that keeps me from achieving that goal."

She nods.  "Don't worry about the preexisting gods.  We'll put you in an excellent position for that.  I've seen multiple worlds where the gods were interested in retiring, or all-but-retiring, and turning things over to someone who newly ascended."

"And once you've ascended and the other gods have retired...

"... well, I can't speak to anything beyond the universe; the people to talk to about that would be the Diplomacy Department..."

He gets to be supreme God, what a relief. Smile. Okay, this next part might have to be phrased carefully...

"You said Pharasma prevents your organization from reaching out to Golarion's Gods. Is she really that powerful?"

"I don't know whether she's powerful enough to stop them if they tried, or if they haven't pressed the issue for some other reason.  And it might be different for you or some other god from this new universe after you've ascended.  I could ask if the Diplomacy Team is willing to tell us?"

"That would be good. Did you know that Pharasma has sent billions of people to torture dimensions?"

"... No.  Those are afterlives?"

She read a mention that Golarion has some bad afterlives, but she didn't know how bad.  Though, she probably could have guessed.

"Yes. There are nine main afterlives, with a couple of minor realms for followers of specific deities. Of the nine main afterlife planes, three are moral emergencies. One plane is full of monsters that eat any souls that go there. Another turns everyone into monsters that only want to kill and torture and eat people, including each other. But the worst is Hell. Hell tortures its souls. If you go to Hell, you can be boiled in acid forever and never lose consciousness. Hell doesn't care about you. It doesn't care about your family, or your dreams, or your unfinished business. If you go to Hell, your most likely fate is being turned into a paving stone. A thinking, feeling paving stone. I've heard the paving stones in Hell are still able to scream. The powers of Hell prefer it that way. And Pharasma sends people there. She's sent about a ninth of everyone who has ever died. "

A horror to greet you if you fail.

Or, a tyranny to be fought and haply defeated by our Heroes.

Or, the stern hand of Justice upon evildoers.

Or, a grim dystopia to be resisted, to provide a background framing for our Heroes' welldoing.

Or... There are so many more ways this could be framed.  The Angel doesn't know Pharasma or which she's picked, or which the "powers of Hell" have picked (if Pharasma isn't one of them?).  But she knows which Lac has picked. 

She stares down at the floor, at the completely-inanimate paving stones beneath them.  "Horrors," she breathes - a completely sincere description.

Then she looks back up at Lac.  "And you want us, or you, to talk to Pharasma?  And you want us to be aware of this as we talk with her?"

He stares at the floor, then meets her eyes. "I want the torture to stop. Pharasma isn't a deity worth respecting. She's not someone to be treated with diplomatically, unless doing that helps end Hell even a minute sooner."

"We could hardly avoid treating with her unless we wanted to ignore her and her cosmos, or I suppose go to full-scale war with her... and the Will of the Multiverse is not someone to go to full-scale war."

She shakes her head.  It's not that she minds knowing they do diplomacy, but she can certainly understand Lac's feelings.