Right. High-level Chelish wizard. Move BACKWARDS fast, Sending takes five minutes to cast so is completely useless - she's got no third- or fourth- circle spells that are relevant to this, there are witnesses at a distance - 

- Kesa, who is rather larger than most tigers but equally good at jumping on things and biting them, can tell when Telri is upset and she moves forwards - 

- Her current bodyguards are Borya of the Sons of Flame (currently readying a doomed counterspell) and the shackleborn soldier Eberard, who's drawing his sword - neither of them are at her level of power let alone his - 

- He has a third-tier headband and Cheliax does not give those out casually - obvious guess is that there's some still-invisible devils with him, her first move for identifying them would be a quick Entangle and then she can spot them by their breaking the stalks of wheat, if they aren't - 

- What she needs to do is buy time for Razmir to happen to look through her technically-not-mask and then he can have his own army of outsiders land on them - 

All this is going through her mind very quickly.

"I think that a plan in which you try to kidnap or murder me without Razmir knowing is a plan that will end badly for everyone involved?"

He's reading her mind, of course, not that he really needed to be to predict how she'd react. He can take the bodyguards and the tiger, but he doesn't really want to make a mess that Razmir might notice at this stage in the game. Their being witnesses is bad enough, though after several aborted prior attempts to corner her alone he decided he was just going to have to deal with them somehow.

"I realize that you have no reason whatsoever to believe me, but I am not here to murder you and I don't work for Cheliax—anymore, that is. They would rather like to have me back, but I would rather they not." He doesn't say anything about kidnapping, since, in fact, this would probably have gone better if he'd just grabbed her and Plane Shifted both of them to a disposable demiplane before revealing himself. "I wish to negotiate an alliance between your patron and mine, but there are—complications."

Telri is actually very good at telling when people are lying, and her guess is he's not. Of course, an eighth-circle wizard could just invent a ridiculously powerful spell to be superhumanly good at lying?

Either way, it is extremely obvious that this Chelish archmage can just Win in a fight between him and everyone else in the area, and the casualty-minimizing option is to delay as long as possible and otherwise to do what he says.

"And these are complications of the sort where you couldn't talk to any of His diplomats?"

"They are of the sort that I ought not reveal to anyone not Good until a certain level of trust has been established. I advise that you send your guards away—they may stay, if you wish, but I would most likely have to kill them afterward."

Well, at least she got a century. That's more than humans get.

"Fair warning, I do not intend to keep anything from Razmir."

She'll glance at the two of them. "Please go and inform your superiors." (Which, the Chelish wizard knows, will take a minimum of ten minutes for a Sending.)

And she'll give Kesa a pat, and try to soothe her, before her inevitable horrible death.

He casts Mind Blank on Telri before continuing. He has a (very custom) item of it for himself, a gift of Felandriel Morgethai in recognition of his assistance in securing the independence of Andoran.

"I defected from Cheliax more than a decade ago and have been working against them in various capacities ever since. By now the price on my head has grown so large that even Living Gods might be tempted by it, and this is very widely known among those powerful enough to potentially claim the bounty. If Razmir does not know it then someone in His court will. I cannot show my face there until I have some assurance I will not be delivered to Hell the moment I do.

"The other complication is that my employers cannot be seen to acknowledge Razmir's divinity, and yet do not necessarily disapprove of what we understand His project to be." (He definitely doesn't believe Razmir's a god either, but he can be polite.) "That is why this conversation is taking place between you and me, and not between two proper diplomats."

Telriana does not, in fact, have a complete list of all the high-ranking defectors from Cheliax! She isn't Razmir's chief lieutenant, she's just a contractor with an official DO NOT KILL OR TORTURE badge.

She is, however, pretty sure that the number of Chelish defectors who can cast Mind Blank is going to have, like, three people on it, max.

"This is completely reasonable of you," she says, shifting into Competent Mode as best she can. "It is indeed true that Razmir is a trading partner of Cheliax," she totally does not have the pull to get him to stop that, "since He is Evil and Galt, not Cheliax, is the main military threat to His domains. Cheliax does not acknowledge His divinity either, and yet He trades with them - mostly through back channels like this one."

She pauses. "As I understand His project, it is to expand the domain of His influence on Golarion, end the persecution of His worshippers outside Razmiran, turn His domain into the most luxurious country the world has yet seen, and bring about the Age of Glory that the last Starstone-ascendant archmage failed to accomplish?" Aaaaall of which is eliding the fact that He is doing this in Evil ways and largely for selfish reasons, but, you know, present the truth favorably without lying, that's her job when dealing with Very Powerful People With Lie-Detection And/Or Thought-Sensing Magic!

"Of course, we do not wish to see Razmir's domain expanded in its current state, nor is 'luxury' quite the phrasing we would use for the thing we want, but, if Razmir means to reduce material scarcity on Golarion, we can hardly be opposed. My intelligence at least suggests that the thing where all His plans are having the opposite effect is unintentional and might be remedied. We could help, in exchange for His assistance in achieving some of our own goals."

He pauses a moment before continuing, but this next thing does in fact have to be said. "Razmir is not, of course, an actual god. He" (Riudaure is no longer using god-pronouns) "claims to have touched the Starstone? I have it on rather good authority that that isn't even slightly how the Starstone works. His priests' apparent 'channeling' is accomplished by the clever application of arcane magic, as is visible to anyone who watches the process with Arcane Sight. My patron might, however, be willing to back a bid of his for actual divinity, on certain conditions. She does not, you see, think there should be Evil gods at all, but, so long as 'Lawful Evil' remains a fundamental category of the world that must go on being nonempty, there are many possible Lawful Evil gods She might prefer to the one who currently dominates the space."

Iomedae.

Okay, technically there's a two out of three chance it's Iomedae, conditional on this not being a Chelish trap or one of Razmir's Visions trying to mess with the new girl. The list of female entities who think there should be no Evil gods, can sponsor an eighth-circle-plus caster, and can engage in diplomatic negotiations on a national basis consists of Felandriel Morgethai, Iomedae, and Queen Galfrey of Mendev, who is basically a local proxy of Iomedae. And he's using god-pronouns, which she almost missed.

He absolutely needs to know if Iomedae wants an alliance with Him. And she should absolutely tell Him as soon as she gets out of this, even if it isn't that. So whatever happens, that's on the list.

Move to the actually ground-level problem. On the one hand, Razmir absolutely wants to be a godlier god than He is now, it's one of His top priorities, He is pretty open about how increasing the spread of His faith empowers him.

But on the other hand, "I think your replacement claim is less plausible than the original? His priests can stabilize Cure Light Wounds, then cast Cure Light Wounds, to cure people. Which I've seen, under Detect Magic albeit not Arcane Sight. Saying that He has solved the famously unsolvable problem of arcane healing, which Aroden of Azlant did not solve, seems less likely, to me, than that He is some kind of god or godlike entity. Right now the state-of-the-art is Infernal and Celestial healing which are recent inventions and some kind of cobbled-together Conjuration in which you try to Conjure the fast-healing properties of devil or angel blood into someone" (she has no idea why it isn't Transmutation) "and He can just give His clerics Cure Light Wounds spells."

She pauses. "... I'm sorry, I recognize that diplomatically speaking you can't admit His divinity, and He would absolutely like to stop His current feud with the other gods and is in fact extremely enthusiastic about plans to reduce material scarcity on Golarion and it's completely plausible that he would like to displace Asmodeus and become king of Lawful Evil, I obviously haven't checked with him about this specific issue and can't speak for Him here," just, this wizard is wrong.

"Razmiran priests' channeling ability appears to me to be a necromantic arcane spell, most likely a variant on False Life. I suppose it is not impossible that this is merely because, as an Evil god, His clerics cannot channel positive energy, but I did not in fact come here to debate His divinity. I am at least perfectly capable of using the pronouns for courtesy's sake." The Church of Iomedae thinks that, if he has solved the problem of arcane healing, he ought to share the solution with the world rather than use it to pretend to be a god, and in fact one of Riudaure's secondary missions (if the alliance fails) is to steal the secret, but it isn't the highest priority. They have actual Good clerics for that.

"I suppose the next step is for you to arrange an audience between myself and Razmir which credibly will not end with me being sold to Cheliax. You may tell Him everything I have told you, but, He must absolutely not go around claiming that Iomedae supports His quest for divinity, which is only complicatedly true anyway. She expects that He is sufficiently Intelligent and Lawful to understand that, if He were the sort of entity who would do that, this conversation would not be happening in the first place."

(These sorts of negotiations are easier and less risky when the other party is, in fact, actually a god, but if Razmir wants to be one he should probably start learning decision theory now.)

"Razmir is absolutely intelligent enough not to sell you to Cheliax, and I think it is much less true that Iomedae supports His quest for divinity so much as that She is potentially willing to negotiate an agreement in which She would support it in the future, in exchange for concessions. Which he wouldn't claim in the middle of negotiating because it would spoil the negotiations."

(Telriana has never heard the phrase 'decision theory', nor anything remotely resembling it, and mostly just copes with Wisdom.)

She pauses.

"I do think that the very obvious thing to bring up now, because it will affect negotiations and having some sort of message to pass on would be very helpful, is Galt. Right now there are three Great Powers in Avistan, and they are Cheliax, Galt, and Taldor, and there's five hundred miles of forest, mountain and swamp between Taldor and Galt. I think His main reluctance with any deal you offer is that Galt is right there." Kyonin has mainly avoided being completely annexed by hiding in the forests and by the fraction of its population who made fifth-circle a hundred years ago and then retired from ever doing anything interesting, and she really doesn't expect that to last for very long.

"A topic to be discussed in more detail with your employer, I think, but—if I understand your concerns correctly—Cyprian does owe me a rather large favor." (Because he practically put the man where he is now, not that he retains much influence over him, or wants to admit either of these facts to Razmir.) "We have, in fact, an arrangement with Galt similar to the one we mean to pursue with Razmiran—I am sure you can imagine why." (Because they need there to be someone in Avistan with the means and motive to overthrow Infernal Cheliax; Iomedae's own countries barely have the strength to contain the Worldwound.) "I am sorry for any inconvenience they may have caused you; however, if you are also our ally, I think they can be persuaded to direct their efforts elsewhere."

...

There is a large-scale conspiracy to conquer Infernal Cheliax.

And feed it to Galt is this man insane or - 

- Or does he just... want Infernal Cheliax to stop existing. For all the obvious reasons, where everyone in it goes to Hell. If Galt conquers Avistan and the elves are completely destroyed as a civilization and everything collapses in a civil war when Cyprian dies -

- Then, in eighty years, there will be a number of kingdoms scattered across Avistan, and maybe on average they'll be worse than they were before, but none of them will be ruled by Hell.

Telriana is not used to the games of politics. At all. But -

- Galt is obviously just using Iomedae to take over the world because Cyprian likes running the world, and if they think they can control him they're crazy -

- But that is in fact what they want him to do, conquer his main rival -

- They have no leverage, what are they going to do not support him if he conquers the world.

- She is utterly unqualified to make this kind of decision and she's pretty sure Razmir is too.

Desolation.

"I hear, understand, and absolutely cannot decide anything at all without talking to Razmir."

"Of course. I must be going anyway." He hands her a tuning fork. "Unfortunately, I mostly cannot be reached by Sending; this is a key to my current disposable demiplane. If someone arrives in it I should be there to meet them shortly thereafter. There are about ten days remaining in its duration; if for whatever reason you need more time than that to consider the matter, please send a messenger to tell me so. Is there anything else that cannot wait until our next meeting?"

"Nothing I can think of."

Her home is going to be destroyed.

She was aware that that was a possibility. Had been for a while.

It's... rather worse, when it's the Forces of Good doing it, than when it's an evil god she was trying very hard to deter.

(He has, by now, figured out that Telriana is upset and why. He doesn't say anything about it; it's not as though that would make anything better. The fall of Kyonin, if it happens, will be unfortunate, but they knew that when they made the decision to support Cyprian, and his happening to meet someone from there doesn't actually change the relevant tradeoffs at all.)

"Then I shall see you sometime in the next ten days, I hope," he says, and Teleports out.

And Telriana tells her bodyguards that it is EXTREMELY URGENT she contact Razmir, and, while petting Kasa until she no longer feels like breaking down in tears, casts Sending, very slowly.

"Extremely powerful wizard attempted to send a message to you through me, need to speak with you urgently."

Twenty-four seconds later she's in the Thirty-Ninth Step.

More of Razmir is visible, now, since he no longer bothers casting Overwhelming Presence. He is indeed wearing more custom-made magic items than most people have ever seen, his construct musicians are playing beautifully (and his construct bodyguards, and inevitable bodyguards, are standing by), and orbiting his head are six ioun stones, relics of lost Azlant rather harder to find than third-tier headbands and impossible to make, for the secrets died with lost Azlant, and if Aroden could craft them he did not teach the art to another.

(There are also another nine invisible, one of which he has secretly converted into his arcane focus, but that he does not say, or even think, in spite of his permanent Mind Blank effect.)

"Dispel Magic."

Mind blank: Off.

Telriana does not particularly attempt to resist the mind-reading, and does prostrate herself in spite of the lack of the spell. It's good to remember that Razmir is a god, as well as being Himself, and she plays through the memories as fast as she can before they fade.

"Rise."

She does so.

"If, uh, anything got confused, Your Divinity, a ridiculously powerful wizard who works for Iomedae -"

"Jean Riudaure, eighth-circle wizard and spymaster of Lastwall."

"... well, I suppose there can't be that many eighth-circle wizards?"

She pauses to recollect herself.

"Anyway, he's building a giant conspiracy of all the countries against Cheliax -"

"We got that."

"- And he already has Galt on board -"

"We got that."

"He did offer you make You a god if you sign on! Not, uh, that You are not already a god - though he seems to disagree -"

"A meaningless offer," he says bitterly. "Iomedae's support will be worthless without the assistance of Her fellows among the recognized gods; Our ascension does not depend on them, and the possibility of anyone displacing the Lord of the Ninth is laughable. Cyprian can conquer Cheliax, should the stars align; Iomedae cannot conquer Hell. At most, Our faith could become accepted in Cyprian's new empire, but at the price of Our nation." And at the price of his admittedly unethical proselytizing tactics.

"Ah."

Pause.

"He did say something about not telling Cheliax -"

"Oh, no doubt he did. If He thinks that binds me, he is another headband-wearer with more cunning than wisdom, and if his patron does She forgets that prophecy is no more."

(Razmir does know what decision theory is, being from a civilization that almost deserves the capital C.)

"No, the reason not to tell Cheliax is purely that it would place Us in the position of their dupe, incapable of being negotiated with by anyone who does not want whatever We are told to go straight to the court of Asmodeus's proxy." 

(Whew.)

"So... you don't intend to take either side?"

"We have the power to destroy the capital city of any country in Avistan without risk to Ourself."

(Razmir is utterly sincere. Felandriel Morgethai also has the power to destroy the capital city of any country in Avistan without risk to herself. If you mean to conquer a country controlled by a ninth-circle wizard, Stage One is breaking into their heavily-guarded demiplane where divine magic doesn't work to assassinate them, and if you can't pull that off, you don't try.)

"You are worried about Kyonin." 

"I'm not going to betray you, I made my choice. I just think - if Cyprian isn't stopped - something will be lost we can't get back." Even if they somehow get all the diamonds to resurrect everyone, Kyonin has been - beautiful, happy, functional, a country where everyone actually is Good, Telriana's mother and a couple of her friends aside - and there's nothing like that this side of Heaven. They can't rebuild. It isn't what elves do.

And, yes, something is lost whenever someone dies and go to Hell. She knows that, too.

"We have no plans to destroy them," he says. "But it seems that Good has betrayed them." He grins mirthlessly, behind his mask. "If I meant to betray Riudaure's foolish trust, it would be by sending Telandia and her advisors in the Winter Council word of this betrayal, and seeing what compromises they make for their survival. None, I fear. Chaos is their enemy, Law has no use for them, and they will not compromise with Evil for survival," which is why he needs to SAVE THE WORLD HIMSELF, instead of ALLYING with anyone.

'You could ally with Lastwall! And Mendev,' she doesn't say, because the thought-reading is only going one way.

And also yep that is totally the problem with Kyonin. Everyone there has already made all the moral compromises they're willing to, and are not going to be talked into making more (or, as she attempted, fewer) without a few hundred years' debate first.

"So, what is Your position on negotiating with the person who wants to negotiate with You?"

"Oh, We may as well play it out. There is no plausible series of events where We desire them to succeed, but We can trade with those who are ultimately Our enemies, as Our relationship with Cheliax demonstrates."

... Yeah honestly she's having trouble with any sequence of events that is at all plausible where she gets what she wants and/or Razmir gets what He wants where Infernal Cheliax stops existing, barring the fact that she, you know, wants Infernal Cheliax to stop existing. Maybe if it immediately had a coup that replaced the entire leadership with non-Infernal leadership, and it continued playing exactly the same geopolitical role without sending everyone to Hell?

Absent that - maybe they could defeat Infernal Cheliax and then immediately form a coalition of Everyone Except Cyprian against Cyprian, but, uh, actually, she's pretty sure Cyprian would want "I get to keep conquering the world" guarantees, or else want a situation where he thought he could win the war? Except that Iomedae's countries are completely useless for all military purposes except holding their borders because there's a wound in the world. (Hopefully Razmir can fix that at some point.) So in fact most of the armies that can get to the Broken Lands (that was a much better name before Galt started taking over) are either Cyprian's or Asmodeus's.

Use Cyprian to overthrow Cheliax and then immediately murder him? She's pretty sure Iomedae would not in fact do that.

Whispering Tyrant wakes up?

Aroden comes back from the dead?

"Indeed," says Razmir drily.

He pauses.

"Yes, We have long-term plans to fix the Worldwound. No, We do not expect them to work in, say, the next twenty years."

(They mostly either require Him to either be rather more of a god than He presently is, or expand His supply of slave-wizards priests to the point where more than one person in Razmiran can cast Gate.)

Twenty years is not that long to an elf.

It just is to Cyprian.

"Right. So what's the... actual, detailed plan for responding? Or, uh, the parts You are willing to tell me?"

"All agents of Ours who can be relied upon to discuss secret terms without betraying them to Cheliax are either priests of Ours, who would be offended at the lack of respect given to Us, inevitables, who are nearly incapable of speaking to mortals, or you. Do Your previous statements about simulacra continue to apply?"

"I - yes. I'm sorry." It would be one thing if her simulacrum, an identity totally identical to her in every way except for being half as powerful as she is (and an illusion and therefore destined to no afterlife) could cast Plant Growth. Then she would be knowingly condemning herself to destruction for some people not doing evil to avoid starving to death.

But it can't, so she can be selfish.

"Then We will be greatly offended if you do not survive."

How do you respond to that???

"As... you... wish, Your Divinity?"

"I can begin now the complete summary of my diplomatic objectives..."

And, within the week, Telriana will be Plane Shifted over to Riudaure's demiplane, with a list of memorized instructions and Cunning, Splendor and Mind Blank spells active.

(She has a magic item that casts Plane Shift once a day, so she can get back.)

The demiplane is small, as small as you can make a demiplane, and almost completely empty but for a table and two chairs in the approximate center.

Riudaure Plane Shifts in a few minutes later.

"Well," he says, looking at Telri, "I didn't quite expect Him to send you again, but at least that means He's probably not trying to kill me."

(He is, of course, tracking in the background a dozen ways in which this could be a plan to kill him, and watching her reaction for evidence of any of them.)

Telri has the Bluff skills of someone who grew up in a civilization where nearly everyone was nonevil. Reading her reactions is really not hard, even if he can't read her mind.

"He decided that a Good-aligned negotiator would be a valuable sign that He wasn't planning to betray you," she says, which she hopes Riudaure will recognize as a partial truth instead of misreading as a complete lie.

And he has the Sense Motive of someone who rose high enough in Infernal Cheliax to escape it. The outline of Telri's omission is immediately obvious; he doesn't know the details, but it's not as if his priors on that whole class of hypothesis were low.

"Or He has failed to employ anyone else who can be trusted not to immediately betray me to Cheliax on their own initiative, at least absent a degree of mind control incompatible with complex negotiations," he corrects. "That is, in fact, something we hope to correct. But it is just as well that He sent you. One of our main interests is the improvement of humanitarian conditions in Razmiran, which, I have gathered, is also one of yours."

"That's an overstatement," she says, "but it is correct that the overlap between the three categories of people who He could trust not to betray Him, people who wouldn't start a fight over His divinity being questioned, and people smart enough to do the job, was low enough that the gains from picking someone Good were sufficiently high to make me the best option." She will leave aside the alternate option, 'simulacrum of her', which she vetoed.

"And, yes, improvement of humanitarian conditions is my first priority as myself, though not in my role as Razmiran's negotiator." It is definitely possible she will err through being too easy to persuade to be Good, but not through deliberately betraying Razmir, that would be wrong.

(She is in fact aware that this job is terrible for her Neutrality, and is careful to break laws in Good ways whenever it won't affect Razmir's trust in her, so she doesn't lose touch with the fact that ultimately civilizational constructs are illusions.)

(They're just really useful illusions, is the thing.)

"You know," he remarks offhandedly, "you and I are so perfectly opposite, in some ways, as to be alike in others. Both of us traitors to our homeland, you serving Evil for Good reasons, myself serving Good for Evil reasons." Which is to say that there may be common ground between them, that does not exist between Razmir and Lastwall; he doesn't say this out loud, of course. One doesn't open negotiations by trying to get the other negotiator to turn traitor.

"Before we continue, I apologize that this is neither the most comfortable location nor the most secure. Is anyone currently watching us, via scry or elsewise?" Presumably even Razmir can't scry Telri directly through a Mind Blank, but he might have developed some sort of inanimate focus item similar to the one Riudaure himself uses to keep an eye on this demiplane when it's unoccupied. "I would like to continue this conversation in my usual base of operations, in Axis, but it is quite unscryable and I don't actually intend to deny Razmir eyes on us, if He would like them."

Telriana is clearly a little uncomfortable with the 'traitors' comment, but doesn't really have anything to say about it!

"Yes. Well. That's reasonable? Razmir can scry on us if he wants to. I assumed we'd both have Mind Blank active so we'd be invisible and inaudible in the scry when we did our negotiating, whoever was scrying on us. I don't think He needs eyes on the situation other than the ones that are me."

He is not actually under Mind Blank all the time, just enough of it that attempting to Wish-kidnap him and sell him to Cheliax would be clearly unprofitable in expectation, but he is, in fact, under it now.

He offers his hand for the Plane Shift.

And she will take it. (doom doom doom)

Nothing doomy happens! They land directly on the doorstep of a townhouse in one of the parts of Axis that living mortals are allowed to visit, which is to say that it looks largely like a cleaner and shinier version of Absalom instead of an actual big city, and there's no technology more advanced than trolleys and gas-lamps visible, but it's still, you know, Axis. It's quite safe to all who mean others no harm.

He opens the door, speaks a password that consists of a dozen random words mostly in languages Telri doesn't speak, and pulls her across the Forbiddance border. Closes the door behind them and leads her to the parlor just off the entryway. The room, and the house as a whole, are unremarkable for a moderately wealthy person of Golarion, rather plain compared to some of Razmir's palaces. The most expensive things about Riudaure's base of operations are only visible to Arcane Sight.

"I suppose I ought to begin by asking what Razmir intends to get out of this arrangement," he says to Telri.

"Abadar is not on speaking terms with Razmir," she says, "but Razmir does, in fact, believe in trade. The Living God does not presently believe Iomedae can offer him enough to make Him end His nation's geopolitical alignment with Cheliax (though He is open to being convinced), but He does think that almost any two countries will have some opportunities to engage in mutually beneficial exchanges, and this includes Lastwall and Razmiran. The most obvious fields of potential gain are in the opening up of international trade, agreements for Lastwall to serve as an intermediary to persuade Cyprian to shift resources away from Razmiran so Razmir can increase His operations in Ustalav so Lastwall can redirect forces from Ustalav to its other fronts, and the sale of magical assistance to Lastwall and its allies in exchange for gold. That subtype of Razmir's long-term objectives that Lastwall is not especially opposed to and may be able to assist with - include the aforementioned operations in Ustalav, -"

(which they both know means 'detaching the haunted, undead-and-famine-ridden southeast counties from Ustalav through economic penetration, religious proselytization and provision of security against the undead legions better than the local barons can provide, and attaching them to Razmiran')

"- the economic development of Razmiran directly, the expansion of the Razmirani military's defensive capacities, and the development of greater international recognition, ideally amongst the gods but more simply among nations."

(They are also both aware that trade with Razmiran and international recognition of Razmiran as a nation usually comes along with international recognition of Razmir's religion as a legitimate religion, which has historically been followed by the missionaries, their paramilitaries and the mobs they whip up attempting to demand first recognition, then autonomy, then control of the nation. Razmir has not exactly made himself easy to trade with.)

(And there is really no such thing as a purely defensive capacity for an army, but that is a polite way of saying 'sufficient forces of adventurers and inexpensive professionals to keep banditry down and stop goblin raiders', and they also both know that the only military resources Razmir has that Galt need worry about are himself and perhaps half-a-dozen of his highest-level priests and mercenaries, and enough garrisons to secure his subjects' defense against raiders are unlikely to matter much in a real war.)

He begins with what is likely the simplest matter. "I had in fact hoped that we could make some kind of arrangement regarding Ustalav," he says. "Our main interest, at the moment, is in having supply lines to the Worldwound that neither require fifth-circle wizards to operate nor traverse forests full of undead, but the current state of Ustalav is also a horror in itself that we would prefer to fix." Just not, you know, a high-priority horror, with Cheliax and the Worldwound right there. "We currently lack the resources to do so ourselves, but we could assist Razmir in doing so, both materially and by getting Cyprian to back off Razmiran, in exchange for the promise of safe passage for our troops and supplies going to and from the Worldwound, and certain guarantees that He will not make conditions for the people of Ustalav even worse than they already are."

"I will not claim that Cyprian is under our control—he is not—or even that we approve of all his current activities—we do not—but he is not, I think, foolish enough to attack a country ruled by a ninth-circle wizard when I have told him that Lastwall's continued support depends on him not doing so. Not least because Razmir and I working together would find it trivial to assassinate him, and I would obviously do so just out of Lastwall's own interests, if it became clear that he were even less controllable than we thought."

Well. That's a lot more than she expected to get. Either this is some kind of clever trick, or he's just bringing it up as a bargaining tool, or she's missing something vitally important regarding his plans. 

"Razmir has no intentions of worsening conditions for the population of Ustalav," she says, and leaves unspoken that whatever Razmir's intentions may be his actual record is mind-numbingly terrible, "and He is certainly not a supporter of the Worldwound's existence, so I do not see major difficulties." Even if he is not a signatory to the treaty, largely due to being broke. Pause. "A conflict between the Living God and Galt would be to no one's advantage, but the more true that is, the less resources He must spend on defending His southern border. The more that could be eased, the more resources" (evil-aligned Razmiran Priests and mercenaries, mostly) "He would have for the north."

Pause. "The main implementation difficulty that I see is that Razmiran and Lastwall do not presently have diplomatic relations," overtly, "and so some formal agreement would need to be made between Razmiran and Lastwall." Downside, all previous treaties have involved allowing Razmiran missionaries in, if Lastwall gets an exception everyone else will want one, and Razmir Really Does Not Want to give this up, His cult is important to Him. Upside, He also really wants to rule Ustalav.

"Ah. This is, of course, the reason I didn't bring up trade first. Lastwall is happy to have diplomatic relations with any country that will deal fairly or at least Lawfully with us—even Cheliax, though we have little to say to each other outside of Worldwound-related matters. The issue I see, as an outside observer, is that Razmir seems to be unwilling to make official agreements with any country that does not recognize Him as a god or at least His cult as a legitimate church.

"Lastwall, of course, forbids the worship of all Evil gods, even" real "recognized ones. I am sure that Razmir, as a Lawful god, has no intention of breaking our laws." The general ban on Evil churches puts Lastwall in the diplomatically convenient position of not having to discuss whether Razmir is, in fact, a god at all, if Razmir is willing to avoid pressing it explicitly.

"Furthermore, while I am willing to believe that Razmir has no intentions of worsening conditions for the population of Ustalav, I am sure that He had no intentions of worsening conditions for the population of what is now Razmiran either, and yet."

"I agree that the general recognition of Razmiran by Lastwall would be politically impossible, due to Lastwall's practices on the worship of Evil gods. I suspect, though, that something could be arranged specifically as a supplement to the Worldwound treaty between Razmiran, Lastwall, and any other countries" that is, any puppet states in partitioned Ustalav, though of course it also refers to other Worldwound-supporting countries that would want to participate "contributing to the construction, supply and usage of a Worldwound transport route from Lake Encarthan to Sarkoris-that-was." As her Mother used to call it.

"The second problem is, of course, more difficult. Many of Razmiran's problems have been purely a product of difficulties that are now resolved," by which she means the Plant Growth shortage, "but it is true that the reforms of the manifold legal systems of Razmiran that might bolster the prosperity of the realm and reassure Lastwall of Razmirans' commitment to Law have not yet been completed." Or, really, gotten out of committee; Razmir's highest officials are all either His priests and thus completely devoted to His will, venal fools, or Telriana, and none of these people have especially pushed government reform (since she hasn't had the time).

"Yes, I imagine that such an agreement could be arranged. Through more official channels, once other preliminary matters have been dealt with.

"As for the second problem, it was, in fact, always going to be a condition of this alliance that we be permitted to send advisors and observers to improve and monitor the treatment of commoners, in all of Razmiran but especially in any territory we might help him acquire. They need not be clerics, although the best experts on many relevant subjects remain part of the Church of Abadar."

She'll nod, and then - 

"That is, in fact, something that will need to be navigated carefully." She pauses. "The presence of foreign observers is not a diplomatic difficulty; Razmiran has no objections to foreign observation. The presence of foreign-born experts in the employ of the Razmirani government is, as you can see, not a national difficulty; Razmir accepts all into His service who desire to serve Him in building the Age of Glory. But agents of foreign governments loyal to these governments with the power to act directly on behalf of these governments, in the Razmirani command chain but without sole allegiance to Razmiran, or outside of the Razmirani command chain but still possessing legal authority over Razmirani citizens, would be an unacceptable assertation of foreign authority over the independent nation of Razmiran."

She pauses, and then says, quietly, "And, yes, sworn servants of gods who deny His divinity would not be welcome inside His realm, which would pose serious problems."

(In the interests of clarity, the churches of all the gods deny His divinity except the trickster-goddess Sivanah; the archdevil Geryon, lord of heresy; and technically that of Nethys, because Nethys doesn't really make statements on topics because anyone He speaks to is immediately driven mad, and His church therefore does not really have unified opinions except that 'magic is cool'.)

"Of course. We would need to place at least a few of our own people in Razmiran, to provide us some assurance that our interventions are indeed serving the interests of Good, but anyone actually embedded in Razmir's government need not be our agent, or even our citizen—merely more competent and less Evil than the subordinates He is currently able to recruit.

"As for the issue of His recognition by the other gods, this would be a great deal easier if he were, in fact, a god. Undeniably so, that is."

"That sounds perfectly reasonable. Razmir has agents from across three continets, and He has no objections to more."

And... she nods. 

"He is working on increasing His divine power so that it will be wholly unambiguous and undeniable that He is a god, and welcomes all support in this. But He is not, in fact, going to stop going around saying 'I am a god,' and expecting to be treated as though that is true, and this is the rock that all previous negotiations have ultimately foundered on. We do not expect that We will, in fact, get this recognition, but He will not give up his claim to the right to it under any circumstances whatsoever."

"Lastwall's official emissaries will bow to Him exactly as much as they would to Asmodeus: not at all. Unofficial emissaries, such as myself, and anyone we recruit to advise Him, are capable of more courtesy.

"This is not, however, where I was going with this. You claim that Razmir welcomes all support in increasing his divine power. I have told you that Iomedae offers this, conditional on sufficient assurance that He would be a god opposed to Asmodeus and Hell, and yet He says that Iomedae offers Him nothing sufficient to make Him abandon his relationship with Cheliax."

"Entirely reasonable.

"However, the reason He does not consider this offer important to him is that He does not, in fact, think that Iomedae making this offer will result in Him becoming more of a god. He does not doubt Her intentions, He doubts Her ability to accomplish this. He thinks that the opposition of the majority of the gods is guaranteed, even if Iomedae and a few of Her allies approve, and that He must therefore find methods of further ascension that do not depend on the active support of the gods."

"It is true that most new gods are immediately destroyed by the others, because most gods seem to at least mildly prefer the status quo to most possible alterations of it. I would doubt that there is any method of ascension powerful enough to directly prevent this, excepting possibly whatever Nethys did, but Nethys is an exception to most rules. However, I would not say that successful ascension requires the active support of a majority of the gods, either—I doubt Iomedae had that. Destroying an infant god is, I suspect, much, much cheaper than fighting even one established god about it, and I also suspect that Iomedae speaks for more than just Herself in this. Likely there are many Good gods who would support a counterbalance to Asmodeus who wasn't Zon-Kuthon, if Iomedae declared Him to be the lesser Evil.

"I do not know the exact details, of course; only that Iomedae would not have made the offer, if She didn't expect it to be meaningful.

"This is leaving aside the fact, of course, that He should oppose Asmodeus anyway, because Asmodeus wants Him to go to Hell. Which He would, in fact, do, if He died today. Even He does not actually appear to be so deluded by His own claims of divinity as to be unaware of this fact."

Okay, 'most new gods are immediately destroyed by the others', that's new information but if Razmir and Riudaure both know it it explains a lot.

"This is important information that I will pass on to Razmir," she says carefully, "since He did not brief me on the details of His ascension method."

She pauses. "... To be clear, you are not in fact modeling Him as some kind of unusual demigod. You genuinely prefer the theory that His priests' ability to cast Cure, Bless, Prayer and Spiritual Weapon, channel energy, use domain powers, and rather a lot of other cleric abilities is purely a result of Him being an exceptionally powerful arcane caster? Because the power to grant a unique sorcerous bloodline with these abilities would be outside the domain of anything any wizard in history except possibly Nex, Geb and Aroden have managed, and this is more exceptional."

"I think the cause of our disagreement is simply that I know more of what is possible with arcane magic than you." You know, being an eighth-circle wizard who studied under Felandriel Morgethai. "Aroden could have, I expect, done any of that, if he had chosen to devote most of his time and energy to pretending to be a god, rather than actually becoming one." Riudaure is really not very impressed with Razmir's choices about how to use his obviously exceptional skills. "Have you ever been the subject of His priests' so-called 'channeling'? One of my agents has. The effects are, in fact, temporary, which true channeling is most certainly not. This led me to observe the process myself with Arcane Sight, to which it is very obviously necromancy, not positive energy at all.

"As for Cure and Bless and such, I can only speculate, but the obvious answer is magic items. You can put anything in an item if you're good enough, even if you're not powerful enough or the wrong type of caster altogether to cast it normally. There's a woman in Corentyn who makes Goblets of Quenching despite being, apparently, a fourth-circle wizard. I had her investigated, because if it is possible to be a non-Asmodean cleric in Cheliax without being detected by the Chelish secret police, we would certainly like to know about it. In the end my agent simply approached her and asked," like an idiot "and it turned out that no, she was not a secret cleric, and was a loyal Asmodean, and she reported him to the secret police. I do not imagine that, at ninth circle, she would have any trouble making items of Cure, and so, no, I do not find Razmir's ability to do so—or something equivalent—more exceptional than Aroden."

(As if there are any timelines where she makes ninth circle before just becoming a god herself anyway.)

Telriana personally considered not having to ever sit down, shut up and stop talking to someone on the grounds that they're eighth circle one of the signing bonuses of working for Razmir! So is that she can talk like books without people telling her to stop sounding weird!

"I have been healed by Razmiran channeling, and have not noticed my wounds opening up again afterwards! And I did, after our last conversation, spend some time carefully observing clerics of Razmir casting the spells I named - and others - when to Greater Detect Magic they have no magic items on them, and the Cure did not have a necromancy aura - it had the usual conjuration - and using a holy symbol of Razmir as a focus that I gave them, which I assure you was in fact nonmagical. I suspect you're going to say they used Magic Aura spells to disguise whatever item they used, and it is in fact true I did not go over literally every possession on every cleric's body with Identify spells, since I am not a wizard and that spell doesn't divinely stabilize. I do grant that you know more about arcane magic than I do," though in fact she has better Spellcraft than most wizards twice her age and he's a good deal younger than she is, "but I also suspect that you may be overweighting the extent to which the gods' opinions on who is a member of the category 'god' is a matter of fact instead of politics. There's an extremely wide category of demigods, godlings, ascendants and powerful outsiders capable of granting cleric spells out there, many of them narrowly restricted to a miniscule region, and the gods try to avoid saying that they're gods, because that diplomatic recognition strengthens their cults. Saying there's one more is a simple claim; there's one sealed in Kyonin and so it doesn't surprise me that there's also one not sealed next door. But saying that Aroden could have solved arcane healing but had much higher priorities - in spite of just how much time He spent on projects that didn't pan out, such as His visits to other worlds - is a complex claim. He had time to do so, it would have had a very large positive impact on both quality of life for mortals and their ability to solve their problems, and so either He couldn't or He didn't value it, and Aroden valued Ability To Accomplish Things in full generality."

She shakes her head. "If you mean to say that Razmir is faking everything he does using magic items, that claim is one we can test! All I need to do is the Greater Detect Magic trick on a priest who's naked, bar a nonmagical holy symbol. I expect I will still see the same Cure spell. Do you?"

This is becoming an increasingly pointless argument.

"No," he says, "though not with particularly high confidence. I predict with somewhat higher confidence that Razmir will not permit us to conduct the test. I will concede that the line between god and nongod is less clear than the established gods would have us believe; Razmir has certainly more claim to the title than, say, the Ruby Prince of Osirion. Perhaps He even has the ability to grant certain cleric spells, although I find other explanations likelier—my original claim was only that He still fears death. Whether any creature who can die and be judged can also be called a 'god', I leave as a matter on which we might respectfully disagree, but my point was that Razmir believes Himself to be the former, as his well-known interest in life-extending magic indicates. I would hate to see anyone go to Hell because His subordinates cannot admit that He is probably not enough of a god to avoid it. He cannot even purchase resurrection insurance without denying His own divinity."

(He's not having this argument, but the claim that Razmir has 'solved arcane healing', and Aroden didn't, is itself a complex one. Aroden's exact capabilities as a mortal aren't perfectly known, given that that was more than four thousand years ago, but there are references to his being able to craft magic items that functioned as permanent Symbols of Healing—which, while no more scalable than whatever Razmir is doing, at least produced actual positive energy. What they didn't do is allow the wielder to pretend to be a cleric.)

"I plan to carry out the test!" But she'll nod politely, and accept his point.

But she sobers up. "I admit, I reconciled it by assuming He wanted life-extension magic for someone else. But I agree that His pursuit of life extension is well-known, and a major cause to believe Him mortal." Admittedly it's a solved problem by now, at least by his strangled tone of voice when she gave Him the list of Weird Things Only Druids Can Do that He'd asked for, but it had been a major reason to believe Him mortal, before she accidentally fixed that. "It is, in fact, horrible that if Razmir hasn't solved and doesn't solve that problem first, He will go to Hell. But I think the vast majority of people do not go 'it is unfortunate that a large portion of souls go to Hell, therefore I should kill Asmodeus', because they... do not... actually think... they can kill Asmodeus and conquer Hell? Razmir does not believe that, with Iomedae's help, He can kill Asmodeus and conquer Hell. He believes that attempting this would instead result in Asmodeus considering Him a threat and taking action against him, and He therefore treats Asmodeus's continued existence as a given while He works on His plans in Golarion, which include or included becoming immortal. I want to destroy Asmodeus and take over Hell, but I do not actually think I can do this. Is your plan to offer Him a better afterlife as part of negotiations?" She suspects that a Razmir who had not had a solution to death handed to him on a silver platter might actually be interested in this offer, which, uh, might make her joining His service tremendously negative for the world, whoops, nice job Telri.

"Iomedae is not certain that She can conquer Hell, but She is nearly certain that someone will, eventually, because even if Asmodeus should destroy Her before She can destroy Him, another will take Her place. Virtually everyone wants Hell to not exist, whether for their own sake or others'; only Asmodeus and his archdevils want to keep it around. Our usual offer, to Evil allies unable or unwilling to Atone—which I assume would include Razmir—is to make them into statues with Flesh to Stone and keep them in a very secure location until such time as Hell has been destroyed or rendered an acceptable place to live. This does, of course, rely on the credibility of Iomedae's claim that this will ever in fact happen, which I take it Razmir does not accept.

"However, Iomedae does not actually expect Razmir to overthrow Asmodeus—though She would of course appreciate it—nor will He need to attempt this to attract Asmodeus' ire. Were Razmir a true god, you see, with His own domain and the recognition of the other gods, He could gain custody of the souls of His followers, instead of their being sent to Hell. In fact, most Lawful Evil mortals, at least outside Cheliax, are far more aligned with Him than with Asmodeus. One may imagine, of course, that Asmodeus might not be amused, but this is precisely why Razmir needs—and could potentially get—the support of Good to ascend."

"That is a very interesting argument that I will need to pass on to Razmir." She pauses, to construct her thoughts.

"I am not confident that Hell will never be conquered, but I am also not confident that it will be. The Good gods want Hell to cease to exist, but a great many Evil gods and some Neutral gods want Hell and Heaven to serve as eternal counterweights to each other, so the victor will not have the power to turn on them. So long as Golarion is a multipolar system, the possibility of the eternal stasis that has lasted for ten thousand years continuing remains high.

"Moreover, I am frankly ignorant of whether, assuming Razmir is the sort of entity that can Atone, He would choose to. I do not believe that He is Lawful Evil instead of Lawful Neutral because of philosophical commitment, instead of because it gets Him more of what He wants. Certainly appealing to him with 'it will get Him more of what He wants' has historically proven effective." She is honestly not sure why Razmir has not donated lots of money to Good causes, made Lawful Neutral, and moved to Axis, which would rather obviously be the selfishly best option for anyone who wants to live in a city and can abide by Axis's laws. "Razmir would of course be interested in the possibility of attaining widespread divine recognition by the Good gods. I believe His main skepticism on the point is that -

"- Iomedae is the sole Good god that most of the Evil gods respect. They respect Her because She has goals alien to them, but is willing to use the methods required to win. There are tools She disapproves of using, but none, save perhaps breaking the exact meaning of a sworn oath, that She will not do if the need is great enough.

"Razmir might accept an assurance of good intent from Erastil or Sarenrae, gods whom He respects as powerful - but not cunning. He considers Iomedae cunning, and expects that Iomedae can and will deal treacherously in intent if not in words if it is the best means of achieving Her goals. He would therefore need - more in the way of assurances - to trust that Iomedae would expect this to turn out well for Him, and not only for Her. His most obvious model of why Iomedae would offer this is that She would intend to try to use Him as a pawn against Asmodeus, sacrificing His interests for the good of people He does not value and leading to His destruction.

"This question, how they can align their interests without fear of treachery - on either side, for Razmir is known to deal Asmodeanly -" at one point He took out loans from lots of Razmiran bankers, then had them arrested on crimes they had in fact committed and released them if they forgave the debts He owed them, which is why Razmiran no longer has a banking system "- is one of the great stumbling blocks between Iomedae and Razmir." 

And He particularly believes that she might sell him out because the proxy She is using as her tool here is the level of Lawful where he can betray his country and the level of Evil where the sole thing he cares about is escaping Hell, and She has other proxies for when She wants to engage in fair dealing. Though she doesn't say that, it would be rude.

"Iomedae does indeed prefer that Razmir be a god, given the assumption that this would weaken Asmodeus and result in fewer souls going to Hell—and not instead to a place worse than Hell by their own values—which assumption she is not yet sufficiently certain of, but is working to confirm. It is true, nonetheless, that if the opportunity to destroy both Him and Asmodeus were to arise, She would almost certainly take it, and it is probably contrary to her nature to swear to allow any Evil to exist forever. She would, however, probably be willing to swear not to act against Razmir for as long as Hell remains under Asmodeus' rule, provided that He is not acting to prolong such rule," which Razmir would probably accept, since he doesn't think Iomedae can do anything about that.

(The obvious condition to use, if he doesn't accept that one, is something to the effect of 'as long as Pharasma remains in power'; this would be understood by even more people to mean 'forever', and yet would free Iomedae to act in most of the possible cases where she might actually have the chance to destroy Evil as a category, thanks to the aforementioned multipolar equillibrium on Golarion.)

"I am assuming Razmir cannot or will not Atone first because He has not yet done so, despite that someone of His stature certainly knows about Atonement and can easily afford one, and that Axis in fact contains nearly everything He claims to value. The ritual known to me, of course, would require the involvement of a cleric who denies His divinity, but you should nonetheless convey that, should He want one, the offer is open."

"I recognize this and will pass it along; if you have a more complete written formulation, I can also pass that along." 'Acting to prolong such rule' is the sort of thing that, as her Lawful Evil Societies 101 introduction explained, can very easily be a trap. "Your assumption is quite reasonable; I am not sure if gods can change alignments, outside of Zon-Kuthon," but, yes, there is also the other explanation of 'Razmir randomly forgot Axis existed,' the way he had apparently never learned what Plant Growth was. "Razmir's doubts about this alliance are, fundamentally, doubts about your ability to deliver what you offer, not about whether He approves of the things you are offering."

"I do not; any formal compact with Iomedae regarding Razmir's potential ascension would need to be negotiated through Her church," and require him to admit, however briefly, that he isn't a god, but he doesn't need to say that out loud. "At the moment all I can offer is the general outline I have already offered, of what the terms of such a compact would likely be.

"Our last major item of business, I believe, is to discuss what sorts of things Lastwall might be willing to buy from Razmir for ordinary gold, and what sorts of things he might be willing to sell us. An incomplete list—

"Ninth-circle support for our various operations—most of which are, yes, against Cheliax, but there are ways to support them that do not require engaging Cheliax directly, if He would prefer not to." Really he wants to persuade Razmir to spare some diamonds on seeing if you can give people levels with Wish, so that he can be ninth circle himself without having to risk his life about it, there's really no reason it couldn't work, but Lastwall doesn't have Wish diamonds to spare and he doubts Razmir does either.

"Custom magic items, obviously.

"Knowledge of magic in general, either researched by Him or otherwise lost to Golarion, but specifically—

"Any progress He's made on life extension, specifically scalable methods. I do not think Iomedae would approve of involuntary death even if a third of Golarion's population didn't go to horrible afterlives."

OKAY YES SHE IS AWARE THAT SHE NEEDS TO TALK RAZMIR INTO SPREADING REINCARNATION FURTHER NOW PLEASE AND THANK YOU. This is IN FACT a project she is working on. Well, is going to be working on once she gets back to non-diplomacy stuff and joins Razmir on what she has now realized is his inevitable plot to make mass-produce magic items of Reincarnate.

(It's not like she didn't have this reaction when her mother didn't see any reason to do anything other than reincarnating elves into younger elf bodies, when the world was full of people who weren't elves at all, but she is aware that only druids can cast the spell and that you need to be sixth circle to choose the subject's race which is where most of the benefits come from, which she is Not and probably never will be if she keeps doing international negotiation instead of fighting Treerazer.)

(Her appearance does not visibly change for that long, but to someone with Riudaure's skills of observation it's a beacon that she not only feels unhappy about a third of Golarion's population going to horrible afterlives, but guilty.)

"Ninth-circle support would be politically difficult, though much easier if it could be against the Worldwound directly rather than against Cheliax, though this would, of course, free up anti-Chelish resources."

"Customized magical items would be a competitive advantage of Razmir's." Just straightforwardly. "He would be reluctant to yield knowledge that would rapidly be spread amongst all the powers of Golarion, weakening His country relative to its neighbors, without a commensurately immense price."

Pause. "I can make no specific comment on His progress on life extension as of yet." Because giving away that your boss no longer has his gigantic publicly known weakness is a terrible idea. "His ministries did, however, prepare a list of specific goods He is particularly interested in receiving payment in, since with limited diplomatic options that may be easier than gold directly, with values in gold attached, which I can share given a promise that the details will not be broadly spread."

(The most important is spellsilver, and a large portion of the rest are either decoys - not unusual in these sorts of negotiations - or luxury and industrial goods of no political importance. Hopefully the rubies and wow Razmir wants ridiculous quantities of the ingredients for reincarnation oil will be misunderstood as decoys.)

Okay, so they have made some critical breakthrough in life extension, and Telri, apparently, has something to do with it. She's fourth circle. There's obviously not a fourth-circle spell that solves aging, so...maybe they've...figured out a way to turn humans into elves? Elves aren't actually immortal, but they do live long enough for many humans to be mistaken about this fact. Probably it isn't this but it might be something along those lines. Either way she's clearly not willing to talk about it yet.

"You know, Razmir could profit more, not less, if He could sell his knowledge to the rest of Golarion. I do agree that it would be—complicated—to ensure He was fairly paid, but worthwhile."

(Apparently banning all clerics of Abadar from your country means you've never heard of a royalty payment.)

"We would like the list of trade goods, yes. I swear that I will only share it with appropriately cleared officials of Lastwall's government or Iomedae's church, and that to the best of my knowledge none of them will share it unnecessarily, although if any of the items on it are rare, I cannot make guarantees about what other countries may deduce from our purchasing habits."

Right, but the key is that they deduce it from Lastwall's purchasing habits, not Razmiran's. "Before His ascension, Razmir looked at the mechanisms for international enforcement of any deals made to guarantee His profits and decided that if only six countries could sign the Worldwound treaty He would do better to keep what advantages He possessed over His rivals to Himself. He is open to arguments to convince Him otherwise, but does not expect to be persuaded."

And she'll hand the shopping list over. Razmir put theoretical limits on the quantities of spellsilver He values as moderately above its Absalom market price if he can get the money (and if its safety can be guaranteed on the way to Razmiran) and it is about the total amount used by Galt and all of its client states, combined. This is probably a bluff, especially given all the reports that he's so short of non-priest arcane casters he's hiring mercenaries.

That's a lot of spellsilver. Lastwall doesn't actually have that much spellsilver. He had kind of hoped Razmir had a cheaper way of obtaining the stuff, since all the histories agree it was way easier to get in Azlant and Razmir almost certainly has some source of forgotten lore from the Age of Legend.

"Reasonable. It is our hope that this changes, one day, but we recognize that the Lawfulness of Golarion as a whole...leaves something to be desired.

"If there is nothing else, I will let you report all this back to Razmir now. Matters regarding the proposed alliance in Ustalav, humanitarian aid, or ordinary trade ought to proceed through regular diplomatic channels henceforth, or at least less extraordinary ones—I do recognize that normal diplomacy is impossible for several reasons. I have a few letters of safe conduct here, for Razmir's ambassadors." He hands them over. They bear a magical seal which, as is customary for diplomatic passports, grants the bearer preternatural familiarity with a specific spot in Lastwall's capital, for Teleportation purposes.

"Matters regarding Razmir's potential ascension, or the purchase of rare magics, or anything to do with opposing Cheliax, really, remain considerably more secret and ought to continue going through me. I am still not reachable by Sending, but you may propose a meeting via my superiors in Lastwall, without needing to specify what the meeting is about.

"Are you capable of getting home yourself, or do I need to Plane Shift you?"

"Understood. I expect Razmir will send his ambassadors shortly, and I will contact Him and can arrange matters for another personal meeting should it prove to be necessary."

And she'll smile and say, "I can manage a Plane Shift." By reusable item. Because Razmir.

"Farewell, then. The house is under a Forbiddance, so you will want to step outside first."

And she will do that, and step outside, and Plane Shift back to Razmiran with her enchanted amulet, where before long a second Plane Shift can deliver her back to Razmir's palace in the Thirty-Ninth Step. And there she can describe what happened to Razmir.

Who spends a long time silent.

He is not, in fact, used to being offered his wildest dreams.

And an Atonement. He's also been offered an Atonement. There is a sense in which Razmir regrets his decisions, but it's the specific sense that he regrets that the world sucks enough so that the right thing for himself to do screws over so many people. He does not seriously think that, instead, he should do what does not serve his interests. Thassilon was not founded on the idea of people serving each other, but rather on the premise that everyone who could should learn magic. He has learned magic - he is literally the only Runesage alive - while they are a collection of ignorant savages, and really the answer is clear.

... His wildest dreams are not, in fact, to become a god, though; he's pretty sure of that. Whenever he imagines what he most wants, his most implausible desire, it is to wake up back at home in a world where he is completely irrelevant and completely replaceable. Axis is honestly as close as he can come, and yet he has spent the past decades desperately trying to escape it.

Why didn't he? The spite of the gods? Dreams of grandeur? The desire to outdo the Runelords, and prove himself the greatest wizard ever to live? None of these sound right.

He is pretty sure that it started off with wanting not to die and go to Hell, and also to fix the world, which was dumb. He is also pretty sure it didn't have anything to do with wanting other people not to go to hell. He's not that dumb. 

But this is a very simple offer. He might make Lawful Neutral purely from donating his secrets to Lastwall; if he did, Iomedae would, obviously, pay him, because She wants to incentivize future defectors. And He's already old; 

And yet, he does, in fact, want to be a god. He's not sure why this drives him so much; why fading into the background in Axis is so impossible. But he is sure that being a ninth-circle wizard is not enough power, and that he needs more power than this for his goal of... becoming a god? Rebuilding civilization? Constructing an Age of Glory?

- It doesn't matter.

"Crafting custom magical items is not difficult for Us." Technically, remembering how to do so is not that hard; His only limitation is that His nation is already spending more than its income thanks to the fraction of its budget that is spellsilver imports. "And if Laswall will give Us Ustulav, their price is fair." He might need to reinvent one a customized magic item for road-building, but doing it with sheer pressure would be... not all that technically complicated? Just a very large set of Telekinesis spells. And constructing an impossible road in a night is really good for looking like a god.

(Razmir is not, in fact, thinking about the economic concepts of 'opportunity cost' and 'comparative advantage' here at all. The question 'should I solve this impossible problem with my favorite solution' has not occurred to him; he skipped straight to 'how'. This is one of the reasons Razmiran is broke.) 

PROGRESS!

"And - uh - did I correctly guess -"

"Frankly We are slightly disappointed you did not guess faster, though We suppose it is reasonable, since you had not had your attention pulled to the Reincarnation spell directly. The key to infinite wealth, the key to solving all the troubles of Golarion, was monopolized by an obscure cult of tree-dwellers actively opposed to the transformation of Golarion into a utopian civilization. The industrial production of the ingredients cannot presently be carried out, but the fact that they are naturally-derived oils, rather than diamonds, will make this simpler. We hope to develop an item for turning the ingredients into Reincarnate spells within a year at the most, a week at the earliest, depending on Our other concerns, though ending death even amongst Our second-circle-and-above spellcasters will take slightly longer."

We they aren't opposed to turning Golarion into an utopian civilization, they just don't think you can do it! And our cult isn't that obscure!

"So I'm covering reincarnations until then?"

"Indeed. Does the spell function on those dead of old age?" How much of the population of Hell can he steal?

"It does not." 

"And you said the race was random -"

"Sixth circle variant lets you choose it." And choose what you want the reincarnated person to look like.

"Mmm." He cannot throw Telriana into a series of gladiatorial battles to the death in which the winner will receive fame and fortune and the loser a humiliating death, diamonds are too expensive and also she might quit and she's the only person he can talk to. "That would be - considerably more difficult to derive than a simple replication." 

Considerably more difficult. Right. Well, He is a god.

"And how long after their death can it be used?"

"A week at fourth, a year at sixth."

"Mmm. Unfortunate." So much for emptying Hell directly... which weakens the extent to which industrial production of Reincarnate spells is a threat to Cheliax. So.

Does he have the power to take a middle road.

This is a surprisingly difficult question. Cheliax's protection of Razmiran comes from their (correct!) belief that he can be paid to support them in their inevitable-unless-Cyprian-dies war with Galt; they therefore consider him a useful ally amongst the minor powers. Razmir is not so ignorant in the ways of savage Avistan that he does not comprehend this; his diplomats are corrupt and mendacious, but having grown up amongst the barbarians they understand their ways, and they cannot hide their thoughts from the Living God. He therefore has an excellent theoretical understanding of the logic of diplomacy.

His practical experience, however, remains a series of bungles and failures matched only by all the other low-WIS, low-CHA people who have managed to conquer countries by being Just That Badass, mitigated only slightly by Detect Thoughts. Razmir does not know if Him supporting Lastwall will so greatly offend Cheliax that they decide he is better off dead; they probably cannot kill him - they repeatedly failed to kill Felandriel Morgethai during the Andoran war, and her school is much more accessible than the set of demiplanes that is where his power lies, and which he never leaves save to one of the most defended fortresses in his kingdom. Perhaps they could throw a sufficiently overwhelming quantity of eighth-circle spells at him to drag him from his plane-nest, or invent a sufficiently cunning scheme to lure him out of it, or assemble a sufficient number of adventurers and constructs and bound outsiders to destroy him when he ventures outside. But these seem implausible to him.

But they could take Razmiran from him. Or, to be more specific, Cyprian could take Razmiran from him, if he was willing to accept the prospect of Razmir throwing all the offensive firepower a ninth-circle can provide at making Cyprian regret it. Razmir has the power to destroy cities from the safety of his demiplane, but he does not have the power to hold territory, collect taxes, or demand worship without administrative tools that Galt can shatter.

... In which case he does not need Cheliax, he merely wants them, and an... alternative patron... would be valuable. And - if an alternative patron would be valuable - than Cheliax will have their chance to bid to learn of it.

Unless they believe he is a firm ally of Lastwall, armed with the power to conquer death without diamonds or the vast expense of Clone, in which case destroying him becomes an absolute necessity. Asmodeus can destroy him, even if Aspexia Rugatonn cannot.

And if he does not have the power to betray Cheliax, than where will his plans for ascension go? The time will come when Asmodeus realizes that Razmir is a demigod in truth, and then he had best be able to make himself beyond Asmodeus's power to easily destroy.

"We will need to speak with Iomedae personally to negotiate the affairs of gods," he says. "Unless these go extraordinarily well, We will not provide Lastwall with anything that will greatly alter the balance of power, but We can engage in lesser exchanges, of recruitment of new servitors, of mundane trade, and of operations against the Worldwound paid for by Lastwall but that serve all the allies of the Worldwound Treaty. These details will be handled by Our ambassadorial staff and Our priesthood," specifically loyal priests incapable of considering that Razmir might not be a god serving to monitor the loyalty of his treacherous and deceitful diplomatic corps. "You are correct that Our negotiations with Lastwall would need to be handled as a supplement to the Worldwound treaty; We can provide support for the Worldwound without recognizing Lastwall in a unique manner, nor without them requiring Us to deny Our own nature."

The Ustulav affair is much better than he'd hoped. Which is the most obvious trap by Lastwall, but...

... But as long as He is not required to appear in person, there are very few opportunities for an overt betrayal.

(Well, by Lastwall. If Galt or Cheliax has subverted Riudaure and is trying to use him to send Lastwall and Razmiran into a war, there are a great many opportunities for an overt betrayal - prospects that he can recognize in theory, but has no idea how to avert in practice.)

"Understood." Speak to Iomedae personally. Right. Well, Razmir is Razmir.

"I've been using my fourth-circle slots for more Plant Growth."

"None of Our servants urgently require resurrection." All of his elderly priests either died more than a week ago or are not in poor health for their age. "It will take Our servitors some time to obtain the required spell components," since he personally has more important things to do. "We will alert you when Our servants require your services." And study the spell himself.

"As you command."

And Razmir will toss her a small sack containing two Lesser Extend metamagic rods.

"From my private workshop," he says. "To make up for the spells, once We have need of them."

SHINY

"Thank you, my Lord."

And then she'll accept dismissal with her shiny new magic toys.

And Razmir, alone save constructs and inevitables, will sigh, and go to his workshop and spend a while tinkering with the Greater Quicken metamagic rod he's working on until he feels better, and then he'll stop procrastinating and Plane Shift to one of his most secure fortresses.

One of his divine-imitating staves appears with a finger-snap (His gloves are, among other things, a substitute for a Bag of Holding), and he begins work.

"Delay Pain. Owl's Wisdom." He'll keep casting; there are other spells, and more obscure, to improve your mental functioning and protect you from mental harm, and while he does not actually think that he can match wits with a god (for, in fact, Razmir is not a god yet), he still wishes to ensure that he has as much ability as he can to resist her trickery.

(Perhaps He should not pray to her, since it gives Her an easier opportunity to trick him - to use an Evil ninth-circle wizard against Evil is all to her advantage. And yet - 

- The gods do not need prayer to grant visions - and yet Cyprian has not abruptly been hijacked by sixteen different gods -

- And there are texts, in the fire-scarred libraries of the forgotten Runelords, in books warded against age and time in which the timeless monarchs of Thassilon prepared their rites of ascension, in how to deal with gods, who alone save Aroden amongst those not of their order could threaten their power -

- And he'll need to take the chance some time - )

And when his rites are finished, and his demiplane-fortress warded against attack, attended only by constructs and simulacra and inevitables, Razmir will pray.

For him to turn his mind to the works of Iomedae is, in fact, exceptionally difficult. He is not, fundamentally, a good person; if he had been when he was young, his life would have rubbed it out of him. Everything in Golarion is a parade of petty inconveniences that he still cannot adapt to, from the texture of silk to the incompetence of his subordinates to the very bed on which he sleeps. Nearly all of his attention goes to burying himself in pleasures that distract him from the fundamental suffering of reality, admittedly most commonly the extremely useful pleasure of turning spellsilver into magic items.

But there is still something in Razmir that can look at Hell, and everyone in it being tortured forever because Asmodeus negligibly prefers that even His weakest devils have the chance to engage in tyranny, and rebel, and want that to end. And he can turn his attention to that, and exercise his withered empathy for all of his colleagues who thought they could escape Hell, and were wrong, for thus could he have been.

For he wishes to speak with Iomedae, to negotiate possible terms by which that can be weakened.

The only reason she notices this at all is because She's already paying Razmir much closer attention than she would the default mortal. She's attuned herself to hear the prayers of all who comprehend Her domain, regardless of what Pharasma thinks of them, but Razmir really does...not.

(This is going to be expensive, as answering prayers goes.)

She has not the bandwidth, over this connection she's barely holding with ten times the usual effort, to bring him into the shared mindscape she usually uses for communication—a location near the Worldwound, because there's just something about having deep philosophical conversations amid dramatic snowy landscapes. She drops words in his mind, a bit clumsily, instead. It feels a bit like doing brain surgery from another plane, because it kind of is.

R̶a̸z̵m̵i̴r̷.̷

WELL THIS IS UNPLEASANT.

Still, the writings of the Runelords taught him how to negotiate with gods.

And so, in a language that is very close to Ancient Thassalonian, he tries to send, 

Do you swear that you will not use information gained from this [prayer-conversation] against my interests, as opposed to your actions in the counterfactual in which I did not attempt to [pray-initiate communications] today.

I̶ ̴s̴o̶ ̸s̶w̶e̴a̶r̸.̵

(She would not use information revealed in negotiations against Her counterparty, in almost any case, even if he had not asked Her to swear otherwise, for She does not mean to disincentivize talking to her, and it is part of Good to try to establish trust in the middle of an equilibrium of universal defection, even at some small risk to Herself. Also Razmir is not capable of keeping the same oath, but She's already accounted for that.)

(She doesn't say this, because, this conversation is expensive.)

I request information about how [loyal to you/aligned with your interests/capable of doing what you want] and [honest in the context of diplomacy/trustworthy by me to coordinate fairly/capable of delivering on his word] the person who represented himself to me as your agent and as Jean Riudaure is.

Fortunately the answer to this question is actually a very short message in Her internal representation! Unfortunately, Razmir isn't a god, so it might be a bit difficult to interpret on his end.

Riudaure doesn't think of himself as Good, considers himself to be trying to destroy Hell for entirely selfish reasons, went for Lawful Neutral when offered an Atonement—but when they offered to make him a statue in a vault in Heaven until either all Hell or at least his own soul-contract was dealt with, he refused. He's risked his life in Lastwall's service many times, in spite of having Hell awaiting him—and though he's by now valuable enough that Her church would have him Wished back, he wasn't always. He tends to use methods that are...expensive...for Her (like talking to Razmir), but he's never done anything in Her name that was actually net-negative-expected-utility by Her values.

(He doesn't call himself an Iomedaen; has said, instead, that the both of them are Arodenites now in want of a god.)

He's not a diplomat, but he is Lawful, more so than Razmir, anyway. It's not that he never lies—he could hardly have survived this long in his usual occupation without it—but that he draws a very sharp mental distinction between contexts where his words are meant as communication and those where they're meant as optimization over the listener, and this, She will swear, is the former. (She recognizes that from Razmir's perspective, She could be optimizing over him just the same—if Razmir were an actual god she could show him proof otherwise, but few mortals, and none in Golarion, could understand what they were looking at anyway.)

She is confident that his specific statements about Her were truthful and correct, but Razmir can submit specific ones for clarification, if he likes.

Ow ow ow ow ow pain should not be possible. Apparently "discomfort" still is???

He thinks he got "yup, that was Riudaure and he's on my side and trying to communicate honestly," but he now intuits all the horrible words of warning about trying to communicate with gods much better.

I request that you clarify the offer your agent made me about enabling my ascension to godhood, or tell me who [will serve as a proxy for you/will honestly represent your opinions/is capable of speaking for you without deceit] in this matter who I can speak to.

(She is, of course, aware that Razmir has the Gate spell and can just summon a Solar for negotiations, if that's the simplest solution.)

(And he is not deliberately giving the information, but She can, in fact, pick up from examining his soul, if the distance between them is not too great for her to do that, that he actually does have a plan to ascend that he thinks will work and does not require her help, though learning whether or not it is justified might take a little more work.)

S̸h̶o̸u̷l̸d̴ ̶y̷o̵u̷ ̶a̴s̸c̵e̶n̶d̵ ̴t̸o̸d̴a̵y̸,̸ ̷w̷i̵t̶h̴ ̵n̴o̶ ̷a̶l̴l̷i̴e̴s̶ ̵a̵m̸o̸n̵g̴ ̵t̴h̶e̶ ̵e̶x̶i̶s̵t̴i̶n̴g̷ ̷g̸o̴d̴s̵,̸ ̵y̷o̷u̸ ̶w̶o̸u̴l̵d̴ ̷b̵e̶ ̷d̴e̷s̴t̴r̷o̶y̴e̷d̶ ̵b̴y̴ ̴A̴s̸m̷o̶d̸e̶u̴s̷,̷ ̶w̴h̷o̸ ̶d̸o̶e̵s̷ ̷n̵o̶t̶ ̷s̵u̶f̶f̵e̶r̵ ̵r̵i̸v̸a̸l̷s̷ ̷w̷i̶t̶h̸i̴n̵ ̶L̴a̶w̸f̵u̸l̴ ̶E̴v̷i̴l̷ ̴l̸i̵g̶h̴t̴l̴y̶.̷ ̸I̷ ̸o̴f̴f̶e̸r̸ ̶M̷y̵ ̸a̷l̵l̸i̶a̸n̵c̸e̴ ̶a̶g̴a̵i̴n̵s̷t̵ ̴H̶i̷m̴ ̷a̷n̵d̸ ̷a̷n̶y̷ ̴w̵h̴o̴ ̶m̸a̴y̵ ̸s̸e̴e̷k̸ ̴t̶o̶ ̴d̷e̶s̵t̵r̸o̵y̷ ̶y̵o̶u̴,̴ ̷s̶o̸ ̴l̶o̸n̷g̸ ̴a̵s̴ ̴y̴o̶u̶ ̵r̸e̶m̵a̸i̵n̴ ̷i̵n̶d̷e̷p̷e̷n̸d̷e̷n̶t̶ ̴o̷f̷ ̶H̷e̵l̷l̶ ̷a̵n̵d̵ ̵n̴o̶t̸ ̶i̸n̴ ̸f̶a̷c̷t̶ ̴w̸o̴r̵s̴e̵ ̶t̶h̶a̵n̵ ̴i̴t̸.̵ ̸O̶t̸h̷e̷r̴s̶ ̴a̷m̷o̶n̵g̸ ̸t̸h̶e̶ ̵G̸o̷o̶d̶ ̴a̵n̶d̴ ̴N̴e̷u̵t̵r̸a̷l̵ ̴g̴o̵d̷s̷—̸A̶b̸a̶d̷a̴r̷,̵ ̶S̶a̷r̷e̵n̵r̶a̷e̵,̸ ̴E̷r̸a̵s̸t̸i̴l̸—̷m̸i̷g̸h̵t̷ ̶a̶d̵d̴ ̵t̵h̵e̶i̷r̷ ̴s̶u̷p̵p̷o̴r̵t̷ ̵t̵o̵ ̵M̸i̵n̴e̵,̷ ̷g̵i̸v̴e̵n̴ ̴m̶o̴r̸e̵ ̵c̴e̴r̷t̶a̵i̸n̸t̷y̶ ̵a̶b̸o̷u̵t̸ ̴w̷h̵e̵t̷h̸e̴r̷ ̵y̸o̵u̸r̴ ̸a̴s̶c̶e̸n̶s̶i̸o̸n̶ ̴w̸o̷u̵l̷d̵ ̸b̷e̸ ̴p̶o̴s̴i̸t̸i̶v̷e̵ ̷b̸y̶ ̵T̵h̷e̸i̸r̵ ̷v̷a̸l̴u̵e̴s̵—̷I̴ ̴b̵e̵l̴i̵e̵v̵e̸ ̶i̶t̶ ̷o̴u̶g̵h̴t̸ ̴t̷o̷,̷ ̴b̴u̷t̶ ̵a̵m̸ ̶n̵o̵t̸ ̸y̷e̵t̶ ̵s̸u̵r̵e̶ ̶M̴y̴s̷e̸l̷f̵.̸

(Of course She's assuming he has a way of ascending without Her help; that isn't in fact a thing gods can do, just make mortals into other gods, or She would have done it to a hundred of her paladins already. She's offering Her help with what comes after.)

̴Y̷o̸u̸r̴ ̸d̶r̸u̴i̶d̸,̴ ̸T̴e̶l̷r̵i̷a̶n̶a̷,̵ ̶o̴u̸g̵h̵t̸ ̵t̴o̶ ̵b̶e̷ ̷a̶b̸l̵e̴ ̴t̵o̵ ̴s̵p̵e̷a̵k̶ ̴t̴o̸ ̶M̶e̸ ̸w̵i̸t̷h̵ ̴l̵e̵s̴s̵ ̶d̷i̷f̸f̸i̸c̶u̵l̸t̷y̶,̶ ̸o̸r̷ ̵y̵o̸u̷ ̷m̸a̷y̶ ̴s̷u̵m̷m̴o̴n̷ ̵o̷n̶e̷ ̸o̸f̸ ̷t̸h̴e̶s̵e̴ ̷a̶r̵c̵h̷o̶n̶s̵—and She transmits their identifying information. There's also at least one person in his command chain who's even more aligned with Her than Telri, but he'll totally betray Razmir as soon as he realizes he's actually Good. Which normally She would encourage, but it would kind of be negotiating in bad faith here.

... Damn.

Razmir had hoped that the example of the lesser Lawful Evil gods (dwindled Lissala who does not answer her last's cultist's pleas, General Susumu the exiled conqueror, Achakek-or-Yaezhing the Lord of Assassins, and all the petty Asura ranas and Oni daimyos and Raksha princes) might proof him against His wrath -

- But he was not the first to walk the Path of Pride, and the Living Gods of Thassalon are no more, and if they did not die in Earthfall then -

Do you Swear that [what you said since my last message] is true.

There are caveats that she didn't explain because they aren't relevant to Razmir—Achaekek, who serves the interest of many gods of all alignments, including Asmodeus; Susumu, whom the Prince of Hell tolerated exactly as long as His half-sister Shizuru was functional to protect Him; many other minor Lawful Evil deities who have domains too specific to possibly threaten or even compete with Him; and Zon-Kuthon, who is an exception to nearly all the usual rules—but yes, if Razmir tries to become a god by his own strength alone, he is very, very unlikely to last long. She so swears.

And Razmir will attempt to break the connection.

Iomedae is not opposed to that! The expense of this conversation was already rapidly nearing the maximum She was willing to pay for it.

And then he will cast a number of combat buffs on himself and his guardians and dispel the Delay Pain.

And almost black out.

Ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh

After he is not ambushed and murdered for long enough, and after his headache becomes slightly less punishing, Razmir considers.

So.

Iomedae is not, in fact, on his side. She is on Her side. Persuading him that ascension is possible only through Her is in Her direct interest. Possibly She cannot get out of an oath or possibly he made some error and She can with great ease; aiming him against Asmodeus is something she would undoubtedly use deceit for.

On the other hand, Riudaure can at least be trusted not to betray Iomedae (even if he can only mostly be relied on not to betray Ramzir), and Telriana can communicate with Iomedae more directly. He would have to admit to her that he isn't a god yet, unfortunately, but...

He is going to write down everything that happened before he forgets.

And then... ugh. Then he's going to take a break from worrying about GODS and POLITICS and go back to tinkering with his metamagic rods. Razmir is NOT A HAPPY RAZMIR.

It's not that many days later when the embassy teleports into Lastwall and let the servants out of their Bags of Holding, having used Sendings to arrange a reception in advance. It is officially here to engage in business up and down the major rivers on behalf of a not-tremendously-important firm of Absalom bankers, and while it has security appropriate for bankers who have no intention of sticking around, the wizard who cast the Teleport does not, actually, head home when they head to the large house they're going to be staying, he instead casts Invisibility and follows the group.

(This is because he is a fifth-circle Razmiran Priest, and he and the various other priests mingled with the group are here to make sure none of the treacherous diplomats, half of them inherited from the old regime, betrays Razmir. Lastwall knows they're there, of course - it's not like Razmir would try to sneak them past his allies - but they still don't want casual observers to know that Razmir and Lastwall are talking.)

The head of the diplomatic expedition calls himself Ferdinand von Falkenheim in Razmiran, and he is known to have arrest warrants out for him for fraud, forgery, seduction and impersonating a nobleman in six different countries and at least six different names. His publicly-known history began when he boarded an airship in Absalom dressed as a prosperous merchant and cursing his runaway slaves who had so left him alone, offering extensive financial help to those who would assist him in his difficulty. He spent the airship trip lavishly gambling and equally lavishly distributing his former owner's gold as tips to the staff, and the makeup covering his slave-brands did not, in fact, begin to fade before the ship landed in Isarn.

His alignment is Chaotic Neutral, he's widely agreed to be an excellent negotiator, and he has publicly sworn loyalty to Razmir under Zone of Truth possibly just because nobody else will take him.

Lastwall, obviously, has a Security wizard with permanent See Invisibility stationed near the Teleport plaza, because they would like to have some idea who's entering their country, especially if they're fifth-circle wizards. A note goes out to everyone cleared to know about the cooperation with Razmiran that their diplomatic party contains an invisible fifth-circle wizard. The only practical effect of this communication will be that the Security in the room during the upcoming diplomatic meetings will be somewhat higher level than usual.

...also, some people in Lastwall have heard of this Ferdinand Falkenheim person, albeit by a different name, and are not particularly pleased by his presence in Lastwall under diplomatic immunity.

(A different deceitful and treacherous diplomat would ordinarily be a potential asset, if negotiations were to go poorly, but Riudarure doesn't see a point in trying to turn Falkenheim; this would imply that he can be confidently pointed in a specific direction at all—though Razmir seems to think he has been. He will wait and see how foolish this was.)

(Riudaure really does not like Chaos.)

A few hours after the diplomatic party arrives, a courier arrives to deliver an invitation to a meeting between the "bankers" and officials of Lastwall's "finance ministry", scheduled for the following morning.

The 'bankers' are happy to accept the invitation!

(In between sweeping the house for listening devices and scry targets, putting up wards against burglars, unpacking, and heavily bribing any of the servants who came with the house.)

When they arrive the next day, they'll bring along secondary diplomats and scribes for various side notes, but the core group consists of Ferdi, a member of Razmiran's secret police to keep an eye on Ferdi, and someone Lawful Neutral, just so the Lastwallers aren't too uncomfortable.

(Ferdinand himself, as Lastwall can notice, is under six-ish Geas spells, not to mention other magical effects, none of which diminish his natural flair, nor his willingness to give expensive-for-a-non-adventurer and well-considered gifts to practically everyone he meets.)

The headquarters of Lastwall's government are plain, plainer than the house the party is renting, and a far cry from the great palaces of Taldor or Cheliax or even Razmiran. Lastwall is a place dedicated almost entirely to the service of others, mostly far beyond their borders, and they are not poor, they are simply budgeting. There are, admittedly, people who argue that the impression they leave on foreign dignitaries ought to be a matter of greater concern than it is, but even so this would not extend to impressing the servants of the fake Lawful Evil god of luxury.

The room the meeting is in is in an outer wing of the government building, outside its Forbiddance; Razmir's people are not yet trusted with that password. It is, however, shrouded in a curtain of black mist that anyone reasonably knowledgeable of Golarion's magics would recognize as a Mage's Private Sanctum.

The leader of the other party introduces himself as Ernesto Zampetti, a middle-aged yet still-fit man of probably Andoren ethnicity, judging by his accent, and bald except for his mustache. He gives his title as Chief Undersecretary to the Tribune for Trade and Foreign Affairs, &c &c, and appears to be a Lawful Good cleric, though not a very powerful one. He's flanked by several junior diplomats, but the most notable person on the other side of the table is the red-haired half-elven sorceress who sits unmoving and says nothing through the introductions. Those well-acquainted with the affairs of Lastwall will recognize her as Veena Heilu, Lastwall's Precentor Martial for Magic, which is to say the commander-in-chief of all its military casters, though hardly the most powerful of them.

(Rank and level are largely decorrelated in Lastwall, except at the very top. Whether this is meant to be a lesson in humility or merely because those best suited for leadership are not necessarily those best suited to being powerful combat casters, their Goddess has not said.)

...also Riudaure isn't going to miss this, though he's invisible and undetectable to anyone without considerably more magical power than anyone else present in the room possesses.

(The Lastwall side does know he's there, though.)

"Greetings, from Lastwall, to the ambassadors of the Lord Razmir," says Zampetti. "We are glad you've made it, and though our nations and patrons be very different, we hope that we will find common ground for a productive collaboration.

"These proceedings are, of course, entirely secret, though we trust you were informed of that before arriving."

"Of course, all of us were fully briefed," says Ferdi, offering a firm handshake and honest, steady gaze for the consolation of anyone who thinks he's bad at lying. "- Undersecretary," he says, "I was passing through the market and they had this at such a wonderful price I thought your wife might like -"

(it's a very tasteful imitation Cathayan statuette, exactly to his wife's taste.)

And he has presents for everyone! Favorite sweet candy! Favorite year of wine! Latest chapter of favorite serial!

And, given that someone in the room looks determinedly unbribeable, "- and please, don't ask," detailed copies of private orders given to a Chelish captain on the Molthuni border by his commander with exact troop numbers for his unit and instructions on how he should position them, for Veena Hailu.

Lastwall's diplomatic corps has a policy about bribes: accept them graciously, put the money directly in the central coffer, and don't let them influence your decision-making in any way. This policy isn't followed perfectly, but Lastwall is a Lawful country and also a Good one.

For the moment, however, as far as Falkenheim is concerned, they all appear very bribed.

Someone in the room is a little bit concerned about the amount of spying and/or mind-reading implied by the exceptionally thoughtful gifts, but talented diplomats for some reason seem to just know stuff like that, and their skills never do seem to extend to acquiring any useful information.

"We have this," she says, the first words she's spoken in the meeting. "Thank you, nonetheless, for the corroboration."

"The first item of business, unless you would like to begin elsewhere, is the proposed project to secure territory for and then construct a road from the shore of Lake Encarthan to one of the major Iomedaen fortresses defending the Worldwound. A detail which may have not been previously mentioned is that the county of Canterwall in western Ustalav is an informal client of Lastwall, and has asked for a guarantee that their independence will not be threatened by this project, which we are inclined to require of you before it proceeds."

"Of course not," he says. "We wouldn't dream of infringing on Canterwall's rights, though we'll need to discuss the details of road security later so as to ensure they are compatible with them." He pauses. "The Furrows used to be prime agricultural land, and are now a haunted waste and a horror blighting the country. Milord the Living God feels that once transport to it is simpler and the persecutions of the present rulers ended" (count Neska of Barstoi, who made the Furrows, has won the enthusiastic approval of the Hellknight Orders and has banned arcane magic to boot; Countess Ardis would be more malevolent if she had the power to rule or any interest in doing so) "it may be worth the expenditure of Lastwall's resources to purge the undead from the region."

(Quid pro quo. We abandon any interest in your western allies, you kill the undead blocking our ability to govern northern Ustulav after we conquer it. You like killing undead, don't you?)

And he had thought it was going to be hard to get Razmir to agree to Lastwall troops in his newly acquired territory. The problem being, of course, that Lastwall doesn't exactly have troops to spare for cleaning up Ustalav or keeping an eye on Razmir.

"Certainly," he says, "we would like to purge the undead of Ustalav. We would have done it years ago, except that our full military capacity is deployed at the Worldwound itself and is not, in fact, enough, to prevent the likely destruction of Golarion in thirty years or so unless something changes. Something such as, for example, the assistance of a ninth-circle wizard powerful enough that some consider him a god."

And that is why Razmir can afford to make it contractually obligated to instead of stay out!. Because Lastwall will not, in fact, be able to keep a military force around, and will need to immediately send their troops off elsewhere as soon as the Furrows are cleared up, leaving Razmir to profit.

(Also leaving Ferdi to profit. It's amazing how cheap deeds to Furrows land are on the markets of Ardis.)

"Indeed," Ferdinand says politely. "It is often said in Razmiran that Lastwall is our shield against Abyssal horrors. Milord the Living God does no more than answer the pleas of His people, by lending his support to the defense of the Worldwound." That's our story and we're sticking to it. "No doubt He will be pleased when the King of Ustalav invites Him and the paladins of Lastwall in to resolve the nation's troubles." We can sort out mind controlling the king ourselves, we won't need your help for that.

It seems to him that anyone who actually deserves to be called a Living God ought to be able to close the Worldwound in a day, although, on second thought, none of the actual gods have done anything direct about it.

"We require only enough assistance that the situation does not get irreparably worse while some of our forces are diverted. I expect that a ninth-circle wizard ought to be able to do this quickly and at very little risk to himself—Lastwall will, of course, provide necessary material components." They have more money than combatants at this point; people are far more willing to donate the former. "If these general principles are agreed to, I will leave the details for a strategy meeting."

He gives an honest smile. "The Living God does not intend to let Golarion be destroyed. He'll charge you a fair price, but He's not going to leave the world to rot, He's not Tar-Baphon. He has given His word that He can handle this, and will keep it."

"If Razmir's plan includes any expensive material components which he expects Lastwall to pay for, then he ought to provide us with the details of such plan before a formal agreement is signed. In any case, I have prepared a list of options for temporary ninth-circle support at the Worldwound, from which he may choose, or he may submit to us his own plan, though I reserve the right to pass judgement on whether it will work." She doesn't at all expect this diplomatic party to be able to bind Razmir, personally, to anything, so there's no point going any further than that.

Her list of options ranges in audacity from 'just summon a bunch of outsiders' to 'exploit the well-known tendency of Wishes to create gigantic explosions'.

Razmir was just planning on going for "summon lots and lots of outsiders, then sic 'em" as a strategy! He's prepared to Planar Binding as many cooperative angels as they can provide spell components and names for (within reasonable limits) during the specified period that their paladins are off working for them; absent Lastwall being willing to dump ridiculous quantities of incense on him, he'll just locate demon camps then Teleport or Greater Teleport implausible numbers (even for a master-conjurer) of moderately buffed summoned outsiders on them; they'll only stick around for a couple minutes, but during that couple minutes they can cause tremendous damage since they don't need to fear death.

And then they can proceed with the remaining details of the arrangement. Lastwall's position on the remaining issues can be summarized as follows:

The Palatinate counties of Ustalav, which are democratically governed, mostly free of undead, and all have some kind of existing relationship with Lastwall, are to remain independent states under Lastwall's protection. Razmir can have the rest of the country as long as he doesn't tax the peasantry into starvation, force people to worship him (they will reluctantly allow him to accept voluntary worship), or violate any of several other humanitarian conditions which really should not be that hard to achieve although they mostly do not obtain within Razmiran's current borders. The mountainous wasteland county of Virlych is currently de facto part of Lastwall, although no one lives there (at least not if one defines 'live' in such a way as to exclude undead), but Razmir can have it too if he'd like to put the resources into cleaning it up—excepting, of course, the region around Tar-Baphon's prison, which it's Lastwall's sacred duty to guard.

They can also negotiate the exact cost-sharing plan and toll rates for the new road through Razmir's new territory, and make overtures toward free trade—they're open to it, of course, but they definitely don't plan to allow Razmiran 'missionaries' into Lastwall. This isn't even because Razmir isn't really a god; they ban all Evil churches.

They're willing to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Razmiran, in food and other resources, but on the condition that their own people distribute it, and that Razmir not raise taxes above their current level in response (as would be equivalent to him just taking Lastwall's money for himself, which isn't the idea).

Razmiran does not want Virlych, and will fight over a few of the richer and more accessible palatines but not that hard; mostly just Ferdi using them as a bargaining chip so that he can yield them in exchange for concessions elsewhere. Razmiran reserves its fighting for making people worship Razmir; it is absolutely going to continue its religious policy (of 'the church of Razmir is the official state church, only worshippers get the goodies it provides, and worship of gods who do not recognize Razmiran is banned'.) It is persuadable to not literally put swords to the throat of people who refuse to worship Razmir, but is not going to allow clerics of gods opposed to Razmir to wreck Razmir's monopoly on divine magic. (Razmi's negotiators can be persuaded to yield on a few ridiculously minor terms - maybe allow Lawful clerics to practice in Razmiran if they swear an oath of fealty to the nation above their god and acknowledge Razmir's divinity, that sort of thing - but nothing that would ruin the monopoly.) Razmir is also fine with low tax agreements and humanitarian rules, though he obviously wants them all to have expiration dates in case the economy completely changes, and similarly for basically all other provisions of the treaty. He wants to keep his Lawful alignment, even if in a hundred years when everyone else is dead the entire population of his empire has moved to Ustalav for the guaranteed lower taxes.

Razmir is not prepared to sign a free trade agreement with Lastwall, because of the precedent, but his agents are prepared to work some clauses about providers of militarily relevant supplies into the Encarthan-Worldwound Transport treaty that is the fundamental baseline of their alliance, then stretch the definition of 'militarily relevant' to include a lot of staples and spellsilver.

And his negotiators are also fine with the provision of humanitarian aid, on condition that the people don't include clerics or equivalent sworn-servants-of-gods, they agree to follow the laws (with a few negotiated exceptions for laws like 'worship Razmir'), it is not just an excuse to spread propaganda against his regime, and Razmiran's hierarchy can deport individual aid workers who break the law or cancel the project if Lastwall double-crosses him / the situation completely changes in chaotic manner. (And Razmir's taxes are already inefficiently high, and he is prepared to not raise them while Lastwall is sending aid or up to X years thereafter. He's fine with that.)

Razmiran would also like to include a clause in the treaty vis-a-vis arcane spellcasters who are too evil for Lastwall to approve of being allowed to go free and too hard to imprison to instead be given the option of defecting to Razmir and be spared provided they serve Him loyally. (Methods of ensuring their loyalty are unspecified but almost certainly Evil.)

(It is also fairly clear that Razmir wants to get his hands on the treasury of Ustalav, whatever's in it, but this is less important to it - though it is very important - than maintaining the religious monopoly.)

Lastwall...does not hate the 'Church' of Razmir. Razmirism is mostly the kind of Evil that the other Evil churches would pretend to be if they thought they could get away with it, and there might even be variations on it with a place in the world they mean to build once they've won. They hope it won't have many adherents, in that world, but people are always going to end up with different values, and the world of Good's final victory will be—big enough, and safe enough, that it won't be a problem if some people only care about themselves, as long as they don't directly value the suffering of others, which it doesn't seem that Razmir actually does.

But, in the meantime, worship of Evil gods is generally considered an Evil act, and they're genuinely unsure whether this still applies when the Evil god in question is, in fact, not really a god at all. They knew that Razmir was going to expect to have his cult be the only public religion in his new territory, and to maintain his monopoly on 'divine' magic, and given the current state of religious affairs in Ustalav they're willing to concede that much—but giving Razmir resources to do anything that results in more people going to Evil afterlives is a line they absolutely will not cross. If Razmir were actually a god and could provide his Evil followers with a better afterlife than the defaults, there would be difficult tradeoffs to make, but as things stand, Hell gets most of his followers, and there is almost nothing in Golarion worth increasing their number if that continues to be the case. Accordingly, they demand:

• that public worship of Razmir not include any Evil acts, and that services be open to non-worshippers, including Lastwall's representatives, who can verify this;
• that Razmiran not, in general, take any actions aimed at making its citizens Evil;
• that the private worship of other gods (which, they will remind them, even Infernal Cheliax largely failed to ban) be permitted;
• that mind-reading not be used on anyone not suspected of a crime (which should not include 'not worshipping Razmir') or voluntarily seeking a position of trust in the Razmiran state or church;

and in general that all the tactics used by Cheliax to damn its population, as well as several Cheliax hasn't thought of yet, but they have, not be used. Permitting Lawful clerics who recognize Razmir's divinity is kind of an empty concession, seeing as there are approximately none of those—

Message: No, you in fact want that clause in there.

Why? I mean, Iomedae might possibly tell people to admit he was a god, if it would help, but they'd be, uh, lying, and I'm pretty sure they'd lose Law about it, which would violate the condition anyway.

Please just put it in and refrain from asking questions you're obviously not supposed to know the answers to.

—anyway, they're going to want the methods Razmir has in mind for ensuring people's loyalty to be a little better specified before they agree to permit them, but they'll at least allow him to make his case to captured Evil casters, alongside Lastwall's usual offers of Atonement or statuing until they fix everything, as long as he's not misleading about what the process actually entails.

They have no objection to any of the rest, although they aren't particularly expecting Razmir to still be alive at the time the expiration dates arrive.

- Razmir does not care about his subjects' alignment, is the thing here. Public worship of Razmir includes no Evil acts, except to the extent that priests of Razmir will say prayers before, say, executions (because prayers usually occur during important things), and this could theoretically be considered "evil" "acts" "during" "worship" "of" "Razmir". Razmiran already does not try to affect its subjects' alignments, and it is happy to agree to not try to drive them to Evil, since in a practical sense Razmir would prefer Lawful Neutral subjects to Lawful Evil ones anyway. As far as Razmir is concerned, "worshipping gods who deny his divinity" is basically a subtype of "swearing fealty to foreign powers," i.e., a subtype of treason. They can agree that failing to worship Razmir will not result in any punishments from the government of Razmiran; what they object to is cults of gods who are Razmir's enemies doing things Razmir disapproves of (like, though they won't put it exactly this way, "competing with him for worshippers") and while they may be prepared to adopt some kind of 'primary worship' compromise, they are not prepared to ditch their laws against illegal cults entirely, even inside Ustalav.

And they're going to engage in a brief fight about not using mind-reading on anyone not suspected of a crime but concede that in order to get more of other things they want, since there's lots of crimes on the books and usually you can suspect someone of some of them.

Nope, the methods Razmir has for ensuring people's loyalty are secret, and also Evil. If Lastwall wants to limit Razmir to humane methods of making evil necromancers assets in the war to secure the Ustalav road, they're cooperating with the wrong self-proclaimed god.

Prayers before executions are fine, in general, the Church of Sarenrae does that in lots of countries and it obviously doesn't make Sarenrae Evil, but, like, the Church of Asmodeus would tell you that they're doing the same thing, whereas it's in fact obvious, if one actually sees their version of the thing, that torturous public executions are an important part of Asmodean religious services. They're not accusing Razmir of the latter, they're just going to check.

They recognize Razmir's interest in banning 'foreign' gods, and they don't in fact complain when Rahadoum does it, but—it's incredibly hard to consistently stop, say, farmers from privately praying to Erastil, or similarly for the patron gods of other professions, and if Razmir were to make sweeping laws about that and then enforce them inconsistently—such as by, say, arresting bankers for worshiping Abadar and confiscating all their money, while not bothering to prosecute worship of Erastil because peasants don't have very much money, even though if anything Abadar is probably less opposed to Razmir—that would be the sort of un-Lawful behavior which would lead them to seriously question the feasibility of working with him.

(They do not accuse Razmir of having already done this, but they are aware that something happened to all Razmiran's bankers a few years ago.)

And ugh. Fine. Razmir can mind-control captured Evil casters who prefer that (given the little information they have on it) to being statues. In their experience people usually object to being made statues for bad reasons, such as that they don't think Iomedae is going to win, or are too attached to being Evil to expect that they could be happy in a world where She had, but they're at all willing to explore alternatives, if any are available.

(It occurs to him that he should probably, in fact, check if the leader of Rahadoum is planning to ascend to godhood. It's definitely rumored that he's a far more powerful wizard than he openly admits to being, and banning all the gods from your country is the sort of thing that makes a lot of sense in that situation and not a lot otherwise.)

And they can check, as long as they are in fact just checking, and not spreading foreign propaganda (like "Razmir isn't a god") while they do it.

Razmiran has in fact tried to stop farmers from privately praying to Erastil! It... hasn't worked... at all... but they aren't so much deliberately not enforcing laws evenly when it comes to praying to other gods as they are being very, very bad at things.

(And those bankers were actually engaging in embezzlement and contract fraud. Razmiran has very severe laws on embezzlement and contract fraud, if inconsistently applied.)

Great! Razmir is happy to take Evil arcane casters who prefer swearing fealty to him to death. Pleased they can work on that one.

They swear not to publicly deny Razmir's divinity or otherwise spread 'propaganda' within the (new, extended) borders of Razmiran.

Lastwall feels that a law which the tyranny of Hell itself failed to consistently enforce is just a law that can't be consistently enforced, and that having laws you can't consistently enforce is contrary to the spirit of Law. (Cheliax agrees with them on that, and where Lastwall and Cheliax agree on a statement about the spirit of Law, they're probably right.) They're...very concerned...about how Razmir would go about stamping out the worship of Erastil if he had the resources to do so, but given that he certainly doesn't, they're not going to make it a sticking point of negotiations.

(If he pulls the banker shit with anyone even slightly affiliated with Lastwall, however, that will pretty conclusively answer the question of whether Razmir is Lawful enough to work with.)

Does that conclude things?

Yeah, probably. Everything else is tactical implementation details, not diplomacy.

For the first three hours of Razmir’s coup, practically nothing went wrong.

Some of the groundwork had, of course, been laid in advance; Count Ristomaur Tiriac, lord of Varno, had been a quiet ally of Razmir’s for some time; the vampire count cared little for his domain compared to the magical secrets Razmir could sell him, and his signature was fairly won with the twin promises of autonomy and continuing to receive his share of the tax income. Countess Solismina Venacdahlia of rich Ardeal, aging star of court and stage, was told by Razmir’s masked servant under a scroll-cast Abadar’s Truthtelling that eternal youth would be hers if she acknowledged the Living God as her master, and the oath and the spell (and her desperate hunger to outlive her four daughters) sufficed to bind her to Razmir’s cause; she, too, was bought and paid for.

For the rest -

There are two great castles in Caliphas, greatest city in all Ustalav and the nominal capital. One is Castle Stryithe, the fortress of Aduard Ordranti, hereditary Prince of Ustalav and monarch-in-name of the kingdom; it stands at the very center of the city, imposing, spire-crowned, a fortress of crimson stone and black basalt and buttresses mounting to cast its shadow over the city, while inside Aduard obsessively trains his faithful soldiers, seeking to one day restore his power; the other is the gentle, pleasant Lethean Manor, in which Carmilla Caliphvaso, countess of Caliphas and true ruler of the city, enjoys her suspiciously unchanging life’s pleasures.

Both of them are taken, simultaneously, in the midst of the night. Razmir does not appear in person, for that is not his part in the night's festivities. That is for his two mightiest priests, the Twins of the Sixteenth Step, so called for their identical masks and dress - though Eike is male and Erna female, there is little difference between their words or their actions, for both are loyal conduits of their master’s will. They appear simultaneously, and with each goes a mighty, masked Inevitable, a Priest of Razmir of lesser degree, and a gray-eyed shackleborn champion, hugely muscled frames covered with black-forged armor with gilded spikes. A moment after follows Koldunya Ognya, Witch of Flame in a thousand languages, and four of her sorcerer-slaves; two wear armor, Agate whose helmet is carved in a snarling leopard’s face to match his vicious grin, Emerald with a ruby on his forehead and a shining rapier in his hand; two more wear Mage Armor. Of the thirteen, all are in midair, all are invisible, and all have already had spells of empowerment cast.

There are a few moments of spellcasting, and then they turn to their destinations.

Castle Strythe is easiest to capture; Countess Caliphvaso did not intend, when she invited the Prince to come to her domain, that he would be able to defend himself against her machinations, and so it is not warded with a Teleport Trap, nor with Mage’s Private Sanctum, and only with defenses against mundane matters. When Erna appears in his bedchamber, Inevitable and Priest and warrior with her, the Kolaryut suggests he let the spells take effect normally, the priest lays a curse on him to weaken his will, and Erna Dominates him to enslave his will to her own, and then Prince Aduard Ordranti, ruler of Ulstulav, dismisses his soldiers and agrees to hand his nation over to Razmir.

Lethean Manor is trickier. Carmilla’s home is not warded with Forbiddance, for she would hardly wish for the Church of Pharasma to ward it against her own alignment and there are no clerics of sufficient power who are aligned with her own interests, but the witch who has served her since her true youth has warded it against intruders with skillful arcane magic. This is why when it falls, it falls to Greater Dispel Magic wielded by both Eike and Koldunya Ognya simultaneously as their followers hurl their own spells against it, shattering the wards against intrusion. A round later the scryings that had been begun in Razmiran completes and the round after that the Sending, timed with inhuman precision, confirms that Countess Carmilla is in her bedchamber, along with three of her bodyguards; both mages are chanting as soon as the spell lands, and Carmilla is now wielding an enchanted rapier and benefitting from Mage Armor, while the bodyguards are still desperately looking around and grabbing their weapons -

EvileyeHoldmonsterquickenedsuggestionsuggestionholdpersonquickenedsuggestionholdpersonbestowcursedominateperson -

Carmilla is a good deal more formidable (and Agate is bleeding from three wounds that his armor did not, quite, deflect), but, ultimately, two rounds’ warning was not actually enough.

The rest of the Counts fall in short order, Eike and Ognya (and Razmir’s other chief mercenaries and greater priests) striking each one after another, enslaving counts and leaving behind ‘vicars’; Ognya takes pleasure in targeting the aged Count of Barstoi, infamous witch-hunter (whose domain had given her three sorcerer-children whose parents had sold them into her slavery to protect them from his inquisitors), and the Sons of Flame get his signature on a contract and have him dismiss his hellknights and swear his soldiers to the services of Razmir’s vicar and quiet a little more internal opposition, and then send him to Lastwall, there to rest as a statue until that impossible day when Hell falls.

The longest delay comes when the Vision sent to Amaans discovers that Count Galdana is “in the woods hunting somewhere” and it takes forty-three minutes to locate him for a Dominate Person, but every other Count is dealt with before a Sending can be cast. As each one falls, Razmir, watching through the masks of His priests, sends His faithful soldiers and bound servitors to maintain order, Teleporting them to wherever the need is greatest. In this moment He is vulnerable, on the material plane as He never is save in the moments of greatest need, but the Living God is needed here, for there are not, actually, enough fifth-circle spells in Razmiran without Him.

The contract that the counts and prince are to sign was drawn up in advance, by Razmir’s delegates in consultation with Lastwall and Count Tiriac; it is plain and formal and invites Razmir to return to restore order, mend the Furrows, subdue witches, necromancers, anarchists and forbidden cults when they pose a threat to the stability of the nation, maintain supply lines to the Worldwound, and deal with the nation's crises; all agree to submit themselves to the will of the Living God and grants His priests full rights to exercise power as deputies of the government of Ustalav east of the Palatinates, and when dawn comes copies of the proclamation are being read in every city in Ustalav, now, functionally, seven provinces of Greater Razmiran.

(There was, in fact, a moment where Razmir wondered why, if it was so easy for half-a-dozen fifth- and sixth-circle casters and perhaps a hundred elite troops of less skill, with only a little support summoning outsiders from a more powerful caster to seize control of Ustalav, nobody had done it before, but - alas - he failed to notice his confusion and dismissed it with the thought that everyone in this barbarian land was a fool, for Intelligence is not, actually, the same thing as Wisdom.)

To say that no one in Ustalav with a brain believes Razmir's official story would be prejudicial against Ustalav's unusually high proportion of immaterial residents, who also don't believe that anyone surrendered without the aid of Dominate Person. This is not to say that all are unhappy with the change of leadership; there are many, many places in Ustalav where, if Razmir were to stamp out all cults which did not pay him obeisance, this would be a sometimes-considerable improvement on the previous state of things.

(If.)

The most powerful public institution in Ustalav of which Razmir did not seize control is the Church of Pharasma in Kavapesta, which immediately issues a long and scathing condemnation of the invasion, calling Razmir a false god and imploring him to remember that death will come for him in the end, and judgement thereafter. Privately, however, the Archbishop wonders if he's serious about doing something about the country's undead problem. If there's one thing her goddess hates more than false gods—

The Church of "Pharasma" in Ulcazar is silent. Razmir was wise enough to leave them well enough alone.

A dozen or so powerful but less public organizations set secret plans into motion.

The people of Ustalav mostly watch and wait to see how things will shake out once the news reaches the wider world. Immediate resistance to Razmir's rule is scattered and easily dealt with.

The wider world mostly...doesn't care? If the evil wizards are busy conquering each other it means they're not conquering them. The great powers of the Inner Sea grow watchful, but even if Razmir fully integrates Ustalav (lol), it won't give him the strength to challenge any of them.

Carnaneth, Red Mother of the Winter Council of Kyonin, cares.

This should not, perhaps, surprise anyone who has met her daughter, who cares deeply about many things, including starving children and souls damned to Hell and small bunnies her pet tiger eats, and it is perhaps unusual for a druid to care about the fate of a distant civilization, or for an elf of Kyonin to care about anything outside the world. This Carnaneth knows is a precious luxury, bought for them with the blood and fear and watchfulness of those who watch the forest's borders, their tranquil joy a precious luxury that so few others can afford. Carnaneth once had a home; it burned. She once had a world; it was broken. Every year a tree she has known for a thousand years burns, every year a friend she has watched grow from a youth is slain, and it is Carnaneth's duty to do what must be done to preserve all that remains of Kyonin. One day she will fail, and the humans will sweep over it, and the last and most sacred refuge of the elves will be destroyed. Until that day the Red Mother stalks the forests of Kyonin, and Razmir's encroachment into Kyonin's forests is met with lightning from the skies and Treerazer's marauding demons are torn to shreds by bestial claws and Galt's 'liberators' are wrenched limb from limb by the trees themselves, and those who can keep their hands clean are lucky, for they are not the Red Mother.

- And, in the ancient castle that was founded before Earthfall, Carnaneth (who can tolerate civilization so long as it knows its proper place) speaks with her friends of the Winter Council, of how they can save the last remnant of elven civilization from the enemies who surround it. To most it is an obsolete advisory council, of no relevance in the modern day, but its members know that what they are in truth is the thin red line that separates the joy of Kyonin's elves from the savages of the world beyond. They are the protectors of Kyonin; not Telandia Edasseril, "a tragic choice for the nation," who tolerates the manstained and the frivolous gnomes and even Greengold, where the slaughterers parade their slaves in front of the free people of Kyonin and barter their pathetic trinkets for the relics of a finer age. It is they who understand the nature of the enemy, and they who must destroy it.

What is the reaction of Kyonin? The reaction of Queen Telandia Edasseril is to mourn the horrible tragedy that is violence, open Greengold to refugees, and hope that the people of Ustalav can free themselves from the tyrant and false god Razmir, who knows neither Good nor common humanity. (That is, she does nothing.)

The reaction of the Red Mother is to send out her daughters to burn the twelve Razmirani nearest towns to the border and summon the Winter Council. If Razmir, sworn enemy of the elves of Kyonin, believes that they will take this expansion of his power lying down, he is even more of a fool than she thinks he is.

Lastwall issues a statement condemning wars of conquest in their generality, qualified by the admission that the prior state of Ustalav was not exactly acceptable, and appealing to Razmir to at least do better than that.

A week later they announce that they've reached an agreement with Razmir: he'll build a road through his new territory, for Lastwall's use supplying their forces at the Worldwound, in exchange for humanitarian aid, help clearing Ustalav of undead, and other unnamed considerations.

(This is scripted, but none of it is, in fact, false.)

It was a week that the armies of Razmir spent very productively! For instance, three hours after the Church of Pharasma in Kavapesta issues this denouncement, a Sending from one of the Twins reaches Archbishop Bavhulameta Ulametria, head of the Penitence and highest-level cleric of Pharasma in Ustalav and requesting a private meeting to discuss relations between the new ruler of Ustalav and the hierarchy of its largest faith.

The Church of Pharasma considers itself above petty questions of politics, and does not actually care who rules Ustalav. They would be happy, in particular, if Razmir were to do something about all the undead.

However, they are not above concern for proper divine honor, and demand that Razmir cease his blasphemy at once. They who were chosen to serve the mother of all the gods will not bow to a mortal fraud.

Mmm. Right.

As the 'negotiator' (wearing the golden mask of a Vision of the faith, but with suspiciously few visible magic items for one) will explain, they have three options, here.

The first option is that they can acknowledge Razmir as their overlord and stop denying his divinity. They don't have to say he's a god, just stop saying he isn't. In that case, everything can go perfectly well and Razmir will take care of all the undead for them.

The second option is that they can leave Ustalav and stop causing trouble. If they want to deny Razmir's divinity in Absalom, they can do that. Absalom isn't in his domain. Razmir would be happy to provide them the Teleports. And then he can deal with the undead who are causing trouble, but only the ones that cause problems.

(They may or may not notice, at this point, that the cathedral is surrounded by outsiders and Razmirani soldiers, all invisible and outside True Seeing range and most under cover.)

The third option is that they keep quarreling with the ruler of Ustalav and see how that goes for them.

They recognize Razmir as their overlord on the Material Plane, but he's not a god, and he, too, shall come to judgement in time. Just in case the negotiator has been deceived about that. They are absolutely not going to let him work his fraud on their faithful. He should see how trying to rule Ustalav against the opposition of its largest church goes for him.

(The Archbishop is aware that Razmir is probably going to kill her. A high priestess of the goddess of death is hardly going to be afraid of that, though.)

(Also, there's a reason they're speaking across the border of the Cathedral Forbiddance. Whatever army Razmir presumably has waiting outside can obviously take the half-dozen or so clerics inside, but first they're going to have to walk through a wall of death that can slay an only-slightly-unlucky Lawful Evil seventh-circle wizard on the spot.)

The ambassador bows. "The Living God will permit you until the end of the day to come to wisdom," and departs.

Ten minutes after the 'ambassador' leaves the cathedral, the Pharasmin Forbiddance goes down. (To describe the Witch of Flame as a specialist in unraveling others spells would not be inaccurate.) Simultaneously, Teleport Trap goes up over the whole of the cathedral.

Then Razmir's strike team attacks. They have orders to take the priests alive, if it happens to be convenient.

There are fates worse than death, and Razmir is known to deal in as many as several of them. They mostly kill themselves, when it becomes clear the fight isn't winnable.

Some time later, once news of the attack has spread throughout Pharasma's church in Ustalav at the speed of Sending, Razmir is contacted by one of the more influential lesser bishops, the abbot of a monastery in the mountains of Ulcazar.

He'll admit that Razmir is a god!

Great! Pleasure doing business with you. He's perfectly free to preach to whoever he likes, so long as he includes the important fact that Razmir is a god. The survivors will be joining him in preaching that, yup, they totally agree that Razmir is a god, at least until such time as they retire to seclusion where nobody can look at the Dominate spells and all the Will penalties they're under.

Meanwhile, Razmir needs to put down a guerilla resistance that is not spreading at the speed of Sending, but merely at the speed of rumor. (The mobs of Kavapesta riot within the hour, as word of the sudden unavailability of their priests reach them, and are put down by armed force.)

When word of these events reaches Inebni Andabar, High Priest of Pharasma in Golarion, away in Sothis, he replies that Yasmardin Senir...isn't even a cleric of Pharasma? But anyone he can think to Sending about it is either dead or too thoroughly mind-controlled for this to matter by then, and his letters are easily enough suppressed by Razmir's secret police.

What a useful cleric of Geryon. Razmir wishes he had more like him.

And, the day after Lastwall's announcement goes out, the Living God appears in person.

(Or, more accurately, an impersonator appears in person, in midair, waving a staff that looks very magical. The Living God is under Improved Invisibility, among other spells, and his conjured bodyguards are under regular.) 

He starts in Thrushmoor, at the docks, where his flunkies have cleared space; just the hovels of the poor, nothing who would offend anyone with influence. And his impersonator raises his staff, and Razmir raises the complicated magical device in his hand which should hopefully -

- "Mortals of Thrushmoor! Today you are blessed! For the LIVING GOD has chosen you to be where His salvation begins! Today ends the era of isolation that has gripped Ustulav, and to you the wealth of the world's trade will be granted!" 

- And begins to cast. It is not an easy item to use; more like an Amulet of the Planes or a minor artifact, than something that can simply be begun with a command word. It might be compared to a Grasping Hand spell, or Telekinesis; certainly it works with kinetic force, and various elements of his intended Greater Rod of Maximization found their way into it, but it takes will and concentration to shape it.

What his spell is is simple, sheer force. Force that strips away the turf, strips away the water and the dirt, and instead raises and crushes the naked stone from the ground below, gripping it and pressing it into the shape of a smooth path of rock black as night, elevated above the ground by a foot, slightly curved so water will run off it, fifty feet wide. (Thus were roads made, in ancient Thassilon, in an age now forgotten, and you may find their scars cut into the turf today, though Earthfall has shattered them and driven underground, the black rock of Thassilon still remains.)

It progresses at about eight miles an hour northeast to Lantern Lake, because even for Razmir this is, in fact, work.

Lastwall, which would consider itself to have influence over this project, given that they're, uh, paying for it, is in fact offended by Razmir bulldozing poor neighborhoods for their road! They would have helped him build a new harbor somewhere people weren't already living, if he had asked.

This goes on the list of That's Not How This Works complaints to be delivered at their next meeting, along with "when we said 'Pharasma delenda est', we didn't mean Her church, who are mostly well-meaning if misguided people".

(They're pretty impressed with the road-building spell, though.)

Meanwhile:

The Count of Odronto, Conwrest Muralt, is normally a Neutral Good man with no magical ability and only a slightly better Will save than the average peasant, which is to say that he's very, very thoroughly mind-controlled by Razmir. But he's sometimes, well, something else, and Razmir's mages did not think to aim a Dominate Person at the pickled head he keeps in a cabinet in his study—

This is not, you see, the first time Ustalav has been ruled by a mythic wizard with pretensions of godhood.

Fourteen hundred years ago, before Lastwall existed, before Iomedae was even a god, Iselin Odranti, the son of an ancient Count of Odronto exiled from his father's realm for practicing necromancy, swore eternal service to the lich-king Tar-Baphon, whom history calls the Whispering Tyrant, and was ultimately rewarded for his loyalty by being reduced to a rotting severed head in a jar, able to affect the world only by occasionally possessing the bodies of his descendants.

Well, god-kings come and god-kings go, but Iselin Odronti isn't going to make that mistake again.

He whispers to his allies of the Whispering Way, that shadowy network of necromancers and undead which has existed since the Age of Darkness, and they whisper back. Many of them, it transpires, feel the same, and he may also—though with distaste—count among his allies those still personally loyal to Tar-Baphon, who view Razmir as an usurper. But on the other side, there are also those impressed with Razmir's shocking defeat of their ancient enemy, the Church of Pharasma, and there are also those who simply do not care, but they do not need unanimity to destroy Razmir.

The whispers spread.

The house of Varga was rich in Cheliax; not noble, but rich; once they are foreigners from the east, then craftsmen, but the age when they had been shoemakers had long passed, and their daughters married into the nobility of Cheliax's easternmost province, their sons served as officers in the army or lent money to its lords. Perhaps a title would come soon, perhaps it would take longer; the Vargas could afford to wait. 

Then came revolution. And revolution. And revolution. And revolution. The family fortune was first lent to the monarchists, then 'forcibly lent' to the republicans, and then the debts were first watered down and then disclaimed entirely, and Eilisilo Varga, daughter of the line, was left with nothing but her name and her will and her hate, her absolute hatred of Chaos.

Two years as an armiger of the Scourge hardened her soul; this was the alternative, this was what must be done if all the world was not to fall to Chaos. The streets of Egorian - the center of Law in the world? Hah. Filled with scum, liars and traitors and thieves. Clearly, however Lawful Cheliax was, it was not lawful enough. She accepted her punishments as legitimate and accepted her promotions as accurate judgements of her skill by her superiors and promoted to Paralictor, in charge of investigating and overseeing investigations into heretical cells in Egorian, worshippers of gods of Chaos and thieves. Such was her quality.

Then Count Neska of Barstoi, in Cheliax on a state visit, happened to notice her while she was purging a cell of Desnan scum; he was merchant born, too, intelligent and capable, a man who had turned Barstoi from a wasteland into a functional country with nothing but Law and discipline and sheer will. When he invited her to come with him to Barstoi and serve as his right hand, she, of course, declined. She had her duty as he had his - and then her orders changed, and she obeyed again as she always had. For eight years she has been Count Neska's secretary, protector, companion - and commander of the most efficient police state north of the Menadors. Her duty - her sacred duty - was to preserve and advance Count Neska's work, the building of an Ordered state in the midst of the hell that was Ustalav.

She was despised, of course, ordinary knights not being up to the standards the Hellknights instill; her standards were correct, and she did not slacken them. They mocked her behind her back, called her the Chain Countess ("on a chain or holding one?" "Both."), and her grip did not slacken, and they were broken to Count Neska's will, by her and by her companions on the Order of the Scourge.

And then, of course, the Count informed her that he was handing all power over to Razmir and retiring to place control of the state nominally in the hands of his worthless nephew and actually in the hands of Razmir's priest. His nephew who he despised, and who he had said many times, in private and in public, could not be trusted with his Great Work - for he had never found one who could. (Hellknights did not accept titles of nobility, and she and he disagreed on the question of whether it was correct to ban all arcane magic to weed out witches, or merely those who you were not confident trained as wizards in a reputable college, nor were of noble sorcerous bloodlines, and who tested negative to Detect Law. Minor differences, but Neska had never accepted anything less than perfection.)

There were knights of Barstoi who would not be trusted with her plans, and then there were those who could, and she knew enough to restrain her conspiracy to the latter.

Amaans has never been a rich county; indeed, only Virlych, prison of the Whispering Tyrant abandoned save ghouls and Lastwall's knights, and mountainous Ulcazar (whose nominal count does not even bother trying to collect taxes from it) are poorer. Much of its territory is the Hungry Mountains; its farmlands are poor and few, its sole city Kavapesta, whose dour Pharasmin Penitence holds that the greater your suffering in life, the greater your reward in death. It is as haunted by ghosts, vampires, undead and abominations from beyond the veil as anywhere else in Ustulav, and in fact rather more, since the paladins do not actually do a sufficient job at keeping Virlych from leaking. Its government has exactly two things giving it any sort of legitimacy which the peasants bother to respect as anything except a distraction from dying: the Pharasmin church's absolute hatred of undead, and the fact that Count Galdena actually gave a shit about stopping undead from murdering his people.

So far as Gustaw, formerly the best hunter (of game and... other things) in the village of Bialyglaz, was concerned, those are both gone. Count Galdena used to visit every village in his domain on an endless procession/hunting trip; he'd show up with his huntsmen hauling six deer and his packs loaded with bottles, throw a feast for the town with meat and booze for everyone, and if he slept with a few people's sisters any children that resulted would get a rich christening-gift and an education if they wanted one - and then in the morning he'd ask the village hunters if there was anything giving them trouble that wasn't quite natural, and if there was, he'd take care of it. A real lord, was Lucinean Galdana - and then he just up and vanished, and a traveler said he's down in the big city he never visited going around in the fancy clothes he's always hated talking about how they should do what Razmir says, which is witchcraft if Gustaw ever heard of it - and their Pharasmin priest heard what happened in Kavapesta and preached up a storm, about how Razmir had had all the priests of Pharasma killed for saying he wasn't a god, and Pharasma'll catch up to him sooner or later but right now they've all got to do their part.

Gustaw's always been a good hunter, but now he's got more to hunt for than game. He's up to three Razmiran tax collectors, by this point. 

The Church of Pharasma, for their part—that is, the part Razmir hasn't yet been able to kill or mind-control—does not plan to let this stand, but they're not for the most part a militant church, and especially not the Pentinence that dominates the county of Amaans. Their ability to fight off the invasion with any weapon more potent than fiery sermons is limited.

They don't like Iomedae. Her rhetoric on the afterlives, in their opinion, borders on blasphemy. But they do have shared interests with Her church, such as killing undead, and while Lastwall, ruthless pragmatists that they are, seems to be cooperating with the invasion, Iomedae is, at least, an actual god (even if she wasn't always), and has never represented that Razmir is anything but a fraud. The Church of Pharasma in Amaans is friendly enough with Lastwall's knights who patrol Virlych, and one cleric gets off a Sending to Menas Neverion, captain of those forces, imploring Lastwall for help, before Razmir's goons get around to him.

We might be more inclined to intervene if you stopped preaching that your afterlife system was remotely just or fair.

(They don't like the Church of Pharasma any more than the Church of Pharasma likes them. Pharasmins are perhaps those mortals that come closest to reflectively endorsing the existence of Hell—Asmodeans are worse, of course, but even Asmodeans don't claim Hell is fair, just that it's pathetic to expect that anything should be.)

No.

We suggest that you, uh, just leave. We'll intervene if Razmir doesn't let you do that. We'll take care of the undead problem for you.

Many of them who can leave do, though not all.

And, meanwhile, the highest level living inhabitant of Ustalav of is under Dominate Person. 

This is not, exactly, a situation that is going to last, even though she's also under a specialize Bestow Curse designed to weaken her will, even though there's one of Razmir's most powerful priests regularly checking in on her. The spell has loopholes; for instance, she's supposed to "act normally" except for blah blah blah. No, her mind isn't working right, no, she has no ability to take volitional actions; she's still the same person who spent most of the last century masterminding the fall of a dynasty that had ruled Ustulav for eight hundred years, and that is not going to hold her without the relevant Twin actually being around to supervise her. For instance, acting normally means being protected by bodyguards, hosting elaborate parties in which she pursues her elaborate intrigues, recruiting ambitious and capable men into her harem, and spending time with her loyal advisors discussing the best way to achieve her goals for the future of Ustalav, i.e., making it be a future in which she runs it. (Admittedly, 'runs it as Razmir's proxy', right now.)

And as it happens, Countess Carmilla Caliphvaso selects her agents, especially those who will spend a great deal of time around her (such as her bodyguards), for being adorable, but she also has other reasons for choosing them. Yes, yes, "what's the point of having a man bleeding in front of her if she isn't going to enjoy watching him do it" is an argument that carries weight with her, but the good Countess cares, even more, that they be competent - and so while her bodyguards may not have the same average level as a Razmirani strike team, they are as a general rule observant, often quite intelligent, absolutely loyal to her and her alone, and - and this is crucial - not under Dominate Person.

Morthalas, the child of a brief and incredibly doomed elf-human romance, left the horrible racist backwater of her birth as soon as it was at all feasible for her to do so, made a pact with one of the less terrible demon lords for magical power, did exactly enough adventuring to be able to cast Cyclic Reincarnation, and then moved to Ustalav, intending to acquire a county because it seemed like the sort of thing that would be fun. Instead she met Countess Carmilla Caliphvaso, who didn't share exactly her idea of fun, but taught her, nonetheless, what value there could be in loyalty. She's not formally one of the Countess' bodyguards, but that just keeps Razmir's lieutenants from noticing her.

(Witches sometimes get the lower-level Reincarnate that sometimes makes you a bugbear, but she is, to her knowledge, the only one with the actually decent version, because she knew to ask her patron for it, and her patron is Abraxas, demon lord of forbidden knowledge, whose response to the concept of 'spell lists' is "fuck you".)

She made her Countess unaging. When the Winter Council, which holds reincarnation to be the birthright of the elves alone, found out, they decreed that she was to die for that—she instead persuaded them that, in fact, an immortal ruler of Ustalav who wasn't Tar-Baphon could be in Kyonin's interests. They've come to something of an understanding, since then.

She dislikes the Red Mother no less than the rest of her homeland (though for different reasons), but she knows that Carnaneth is quite powerful and absolutely hates Razmir, and what her Countess needs from her right now is for Razmir to be gone.

It may, perhaps, be worth slowing down to explain some things about Razmir's empire, very specifically, that Razmir has thought of, but has not really, in so many words, paid attention to.

First: Razmiran is smaller than Ustalav. A lot smaller than Ustalav. If Razmir had conquered only Versex and Caliphas, that might not have been true; then again, it might've. Razmiran was not large, and Ustalav may not be heavily populated, but it has an absolutely enormous land area.

Second: Razmir was not, actually, making good use of the talent of Razmiran. Good people mostly didn't want to work for him. Poor harvests meant that all additional labor (and ingenuity) needed to be devoted to feeding everyone, and also produced malnutrition in his subjects, reducing average intelligence. High-Wisdom people who would otherwise become powerful clerics have no jobs open to them; Razmir's arcane theocracy means that his ruling elite consists almost purely of high-INT nongood wizards (and high-CHA nongood sorcerers), plus some people who lack the talent for arcana to make use of his gifts but are capable of faking it, and nobody else can be recruited into it without breaking the lie. This limited talent, already insufficient to govern Razmiran up to reasonable standards, has therefore been stretched across a vastly larger territory than it was at all capable of governing, reinforced only by loyal authorities and semiliterate middle-managers who like bossing people around.

Third: Razmir's attempts to Do Something About This were mostly about breeding an army of half-kytons and shackleborn tieflings, known for their Lawful Evil unambitious sadism, their immense toughness, their tendency to have sorcerous powers, and their resistance to fire, such as the fireballs that Galtan and Chelish wizards regularly throw, and not about training a caste of intelligent, wise administrators.

Fourth: Razmir just ticked off a large fraction of the literate people in Ustalav by declaring everyone who says he's not a god is a criminal.

It might, therefore, be worth using the analogy that Razmir does not so much rule Ustalav as have a piece of paper with "you rule Ustalav!" scribbled on it in crayon. By and large, the people who ruled Ustalav before he arrived, rule Ustalav after he came, and the thin layer of Razmiran Priests and their bodyguards spread across it like too little butter on too much bread have the power to issue orders, but do actually not have the power to tell if they are obeyed, at least not outside Detect Thoughts range.

Razmir's actual solution to this, ideally speaking, is to turn every Evil-aligned wizard in Ustalav, a country that accumulates Evil wizards in a "the entire goddamn country is cursed and someone should evacuate the whole thing and burn it to the ground" fashion, into his priests.

How well that would go in the ideal case, after it has had time to work, is unknown. How well it will go in this case - 

Well. Let's get to that.

The Paralictor's coup is swift and lethal; unsurprising, as she's the highest-level person in the county and has been in control of the police of a police state for several years, not to mention overseeing much of the government. The (underground) church of Pharasma is her ally, the Razmirani garrison is miniscule, she's tenth level, and by the end of a day of swift violence, every member of Razmir's garrison is dead and his priest has been beaten unconscious, shackled, brought before a court, revived, and been accused, convicted and sentenced to death for usurpation, fraud, heresy and witchcraft, found guilty on all counts and burned alive. Count Neska's nephew corroborated the story, and is permitted to live under guard, while Sending spells to the world at large proclaim that Barstoi is faithful to Ustalav-that-was and that the Regency supports the legitimate count and the true Pharasmin faith, and urge the rest of Ustalav to rise up against the usurping false god (and everyone else to offer foreign aid to assist it in this, especially Cheliax.)

Razmir does not respond immediately, because Razmir, most powerful wizard on the continent, is busy. Specifically, he is busy summoning stupendously powerful angels from a list provided by Lastwall, listening to them patiently explain that being evil isn't good for him or anyone else, and then persuading then that he really, really does not care and they have a choice between going to fight at the Worldwound and going home.

They mostly pick the former. With a few of his excess spell slots, he's also summoning up extra outsiders to teleport straight to demonic camps in the Worldwound that his minions scried up for him, and maybe this will free up Lastwall so that they can take care of his necromancer problem for him.

To the Paralictor: we're going to stay out of this shitshow, if you don't mind.

(The Razmiran priest who was executed by the Hellknights is currently somewhere in Avernus, regretting his life choices. For example, it's really obvious, from here, that Razmir actually isn't a god at all, and that Asmodeus is, and that the latter is in custody of his immortal soul and is going to remain so for the foreseeable future. When he finally gets to the front of the line and gets sent somewhere Hell has use for him, they'll learn several interesting things of him, such as that Razmir had the Count of Barstoi petrified with Flesh to Stone and sent to Lastwall rather than killed, but this will take a while.)

First, to Razmir: DON'T PANIC.

A troop of paladins, freshly relieved from their Worldwound posts by Razmir-summoned angels, is Teleported into Barstoi's capital and politely inform the Hellknights that they are interfering with an operation providing logistical support to Lastwall's forces at the Worldwound, and therefore are in violation of the following subsection of the Worldwound treaty.

(Razmir was not going to panic, Razmir was going to unleash a mob of bound fiends on the county with orders to kill everyone on his list of rebels. Panicking would be much less friendly and polite.)

Absolutely false; not only are no logistical operations to supply the Worldwound currently taking place in Barstoi, but if that clause was interpreted to mean that anything that distracted Razmir, the lawless usurping false god, was illegal, than the following six operations by Lastwall (which caused Cheliax to devote less resources to the Worldwound than they otherwise would have) would violate the treaty.

Sigh.

Do you swear upon your Law and your honor not to allow information revealed as part of these negotiations to come to the attention of Cheliax or Hell?

(Better to ask this now rather than only when they need it, which would tend to reveal at least the outline of what they're hiding.)

"No, I expect to die in the next week."

"We can arrange not that, if you'd prefer. Also, you don't actually detect as Evil."

"My duty is to my superior, Count Neska, whom I still serve in his absence; in this I act by my judgement of his judgement, which is that I should resist the tyranny of the False God rather than surrender the county of his creation to this enemy of true religion and morality."

"And whether or not I detect Evil, I am incapable of committing that on judgement I will not go to Hell, as more than fifty percent of Hellknights do, and therefore I cannot make this binding compact."

So they can't tell her that Neska is still alive, in their custody, has atoned to Lawful Neutral, and, while he disapproves of Razmir, absolutely does not want his Hellknights mounting a pointless resistance that will get all of them killed and, as Varga correctly pointed out, half of them sent to Hell.

(The spectre of Hell had already been looming over Neska, in his old age. Capture by Lastwall was more than enough shock to make him reconsider a few things about his life.)

"Very well. Our compact with Razmir, by which he has agreed to build us a supply route for our forces at the Worldwound, does not require us to assist in his conquest of Ustalav, only to refrain from interfering in it. If you believe, honestly, that you can maintain Lawful government in this place, and do not interfere with the road-building or our supply caravans, then our only interest in what you do to Razmir's priests is that you please turn the next one into a statue instead of sending him to Hell.

"Also, if you maintain this course, you are almost certainly all going to die, and I would mourn to hear of half your number being damned to Hell."

"We intend to maintain Lawful government and secure the county against all trespassers," she confirms, "as well as working in concert with other military forces opposed to Razmiri tyranny. We do not acknowledge your interpretation of the Worldwound treaty as correct and will appeal for arbitration should you attempt to press it, but we now acknowledge your interpretation."

"And the sentence for his crimes by the legal code I enforce was and is death. If you know of specific reasons I am incorrect in my decisionmaking, you are Lawful, as an I," by a Detect Law spell and them being paladins, "and I can respect your sworn oath, but my duty is Law, whatever the price."

"We will accept the arbitration of any Lawful Good or Neutral church active in Avistan. Which of them would you prefer?"

(They don't expect to win that battle; the point is just to make it look to Razmir like they have a solution in hand, for long enough that they can persuade him into some course of action that isn't 'kill everyone'.)

"We will accept arbitration on the Worldwound Treaty from the church of Abadar," because he cares more about the treaty than about the worldly consequences thereof.

Then, if she would, she should accompany them to the Temple of Abadar in Absalom. Sooner would be better, as Razmir is not known for his patience and they'd like this to resolve peacefully. They're happy to provide a Teleport.

(A Sending goes to Razmir asking him to meet them there or send a representative, if he would like to be part of these proceedings.)

Razmir is not part of these proceedings. The arbitration regarding the road is irrelevant; these are rebels against His rule and deniers of His divinity, and they will be crushed.

She'll send her deputy; he has a summary of the information; as the highest-ranking Hellknight, it is her duty to not abandon her knights in the face of danger.

Then they'll go.

Ernesto Zampetti, Lastwall's semi-official liaison to Razmir, will also arrive at the temple, with an amount of money that should be sufficient to preempt anything else on Temos Sevandivasen's schedule.

He explains Lastwall's position. (The official one, not the one where this was largely their idea.) Razmir is the Lawful governor of Ustalav: see surrender agreements blah, blah, and blah. They have the following compact with Razmir to build them a road. This road constitutes logistical support for Lastwall's Worldwound positions, see definitions in the Worldwound treaty. By rebelling against the Lawful government of Ustalav, the Hellknights of Barstoi are interfering in the construction of said road, which is a violation of such-and-such subsection of the Worldwound treaty. They don't ask that the Hellknights acknowledge Razmir's authority, just that they...go away.

Paralictor Eilisilo Varga, the Hellknight explains, was deputized to Count Aericnein Neska by her superiors in the order, here are copies of all the paperwork; her duties officially included counterespionage and oversight of the justice system. Razmir used magic to enslave every count in Ustalav, at which point they surrendered their powers to him and his deputies; per the following codes compulsion spells are legally considered violence, not free gift, hence this transfer is legally invalid. Count Neska was teleported to an unknown location by Razmir's representatives, they haven't seen him since; here are their corroborative witnesses; as highest-ranking deputy of Neska believed free of mind control, Paralictor Varga has formed a government to act in Count Neska's stead until he is released or a successor can be found. The Worldwound treaty obviously does not include the right to conquer any country you want if it simplifies your logistics, this is ridiculous, behold the relevant subsections.

Yeah, it sure does seem like that's the case.

"Where is Count Neska?" asks Temos, mostly in Lastwall's direction. There may be no one in Barstoi capable of casting Scrying, but he can, and it certainly seems like finding the Count is the fastest way to get this cleared up beyond a doubt.

Um.

"I can neither confirm nor deny any knowledge of the whereabouts of Count Neska," he says, "unless all present swear not to allow the information to come to the possession of Cheliax or Hell."

"As I may die shortly, I am incapable of swearing this oath," this Hellknight concurs.

"You may leave the room, then, and I will hear the truth, and report what of it is safe to reveal without risking the wrath of Hell, if that is indeed a consideration here."

He will do that!

"Neska is in Lastwall's custody. He is alive and unhurt and has Atoned to Lawful Neutral. He was, indeed, compelled to surrender, but does not wish his knights to mount a doomed rebellion which will damn many of them to Hell."

"Why did Razmir send him to you?"

"Razmir's invasion was—known to us—before it happened. One of our conditions for noninterference was that he take as much care as possible to avoid any actions that would increase the number of people in Hell or other Evil afterlives. As Neska is of an age where he could die at any time, and Lawful Evil, that included sending him to us, to be given the opportunity to Atone, or made a statue forever if he refused."

"I should not need to remind you that the Church of Abadar condemns offensive war," says Temos, "and that your revelations do not incline me to take Lastwall's side in this. I will not accept that Neska wishes his knights to surrender on your word alone; I would speak with him."

"We cannot bring him here for risk of him being seen, but if you have a wizard on staff who can cast Message through a scry, and has your Church's trust, you may speak to him that way."

And one Greater Scrying later, they can both see Count Neska, and speak to him through their wizard intermediary. He is indeed alive, and unhurt, and Detect Magic reveals no compulsions on him, and he's being kept in a comfortable if windowless room.

He was, indeed, mind controlled into surrendering. He hates wizards, especially wizards who think that knowing some spells, rather than any actual skill of leadership, entitles them to rule countries. But Razmir clearly does, in fact, rule Ustalav now (or at least there's no other government that can make that claim more strongly, not that there was much of one before), and at least he's ostensibly Lawful and not a damned necromancer. Indeed, Neska does not want his knights getting themselves slaughtered as traitors, and he'll even acknowledge Razmir as his overlord, if Razmir gives him back his county and swears not to mind control him or any of his subordinates again.

(This offer can be conveyed to Razmir by Sending.)

It's beneath Razmir to negotiate with mortals, but Neska is Lawful. Here's the list of concessions required, such as payment of reparations for the death of his men, return of the bodies, and either execution or large fines and exile for the rebels, as well as acknowledgement of Razmir's divinity.

Razmir, as his mouthpiece will freely admit, prefers making examples of rebels to negotiating with them. But he takes bribes.

Reparations and return of the bodies: fine.

Executions: his first impulse is to let Razmir kill everyone else if he lets him keep Eilisilo, the only genuinely competent person in his whole organization, but this is probably the sort of impulse that had him on track for Hell before. He'll execute the leaders himself, so as to make sure it's done in a dignified manner. Executing literally everyone who participated is just, in fact, a terrible idea.

Divinity: he hasn't actually investigated Razmir's claim of divinity enough to have an opinion? He wouldn't actually be opposed, though, if Razmir were a god? It would be nice if there were a Lawful Evil god who weren't quite so into torture.

(Technically he's not Evil anymore, but this is really just a technicality.)

He can at least swear not to make public statements that Razmir isn't a god, and that he'll enforce the laws of Razmir's realm on religion as he would on other matters.

He feels that this is suspiciously easy, but will in fact accept those terms as long as Count Neska enforces his law and punishes the rebels, because he is having a day, here. How many people does he need to publicly raise from the dead for people to start admitting he's a god???

Privately, he thinks that Razmir probably isn't a god, but he is genuinely uncertain, and he has long wished that there were a formerly-human Lawful Evil god, even if Razmir isn't precisely whom he'd choose.

He's back in Barstoi within the hour. How do his Hellknights feel about these developments?

"Sir."

(She's overjoyed to have him back. Is this apparent from her face, which resembles her face at all other times? Maybe if you're Count Aericnein Neska.)

The rest of his knights, Varga's own Hellknights and all the other various enforcers of his totalitarian regime, are also mostly glad to have him back! Provided he's not under mind control. Except the ones who are going to be executed for treason and are not the Paralictor. That's going to suck. Some of them are trying to flee, which, of course, the Paralictor will do her best to prevent.

(The Church of Pharasma is, of course, terrified, and its clerics and inquisitors are also trying to flee, but once again the Paralictor is demonstrating that the difference between Lawful Neutral and Chronic Backstabbing Disorder is, perhaps, not as sharp as one might hope.)

He nods stiffly.

"Paralictor.

"I cannot fault you for what you did. There are many worlds, perhaps most possible worlds, in which it was the right thing to do. But, alas for both of us, it is not one of those worlds in which we find ourselves."

"Acknowledged, sir."

Actually she thinks it was exactly correct, since it got them to send The One Competent Person In The Province back, but. That's not what her boss, the One Competent Person In The Province, says.

"It was an honor serving under you."

"As it was to accept your service."

He beheads the traitors with his own hand and his own sword.

(Iomedae's church will Raise the ones who end up in Hell, but they're not particularly inclined to give Hellknights who make Axis a second chance to fail at that.)

(Razmir does not really care if they get privately Raised as long as everyone who witnessed the execution knows that If You Rebel Against Razmir It Will Go Badly For You, which was the point of the exercise.)

And, in spite of Heaven and Nirvana's arguments that she spent her entire mortal life pursuing the good under the mistaken impression it was called Law, and Hell's arguments that her actions mostly consisted of enforcing the rules of despotic states with horrible consequences on their inhabitants, Paralictor Eilisilo Varga does indeed get Axis and so depart from our story.

It takes Razmir about a week from the time the contract is signed to finish his road, taking two days off to summon planar allies to assist the Worldwound (and Plane Shift in teleporting strike teams to put down rebels), which he cannot do if he needs to reserve his high-level spells to be spent on anything other than defenses against an ambush that never comes. It starts at Thrushmoor on the coast of Lake Encarthan, moves up through Versex to Lantern Lake, then from Lantern Lake skirts the Hungry Mountains to its western flank to instead head in a straight line north-northwest up through Barstoi, Sinaria and Technically Ardeal to reach Lake Prophyria on Ustalav's northern border where the Worldwound fortresses loom.

At that point, he would like Lastwall to DELIVER. The road he built is presently unusable because the Furrows (thank you, Count Neska) are an uninhabitable wasteland of ghosts, ghouls, and animated war machines (why), and sorting this kind of mess out is what paladins are for.

Lastwall sends eighty paladins, of varying level, plus a smaller number of wizards and clerics and support staff, initially stationed mostly along the road and especially in the Furrows, though they'll spread throughout the country as they render it increasingly not haunted.

They do not (yet) move against undead who hold actual titles of nobility, such as the Count of Varno, who by all accounts would really prefer not to be a vampire, and who only hasn't killed himself because he would then go to Hell. (Reasonable, really.) The thing where he has to murder people to survive, however, is not reasonable, and they politely ask Razmir if his divine powers include any way of making vampires Not That.

That hasn't been his chief priority since his ascension, no. Perhaps they should ask Sarenrae, it seems more her sort of thing.

(Razmir has, in fact, done some research on it, specifically for Count Tiriac, but it was a private gift for the Count not to be shared abroad, and largely consisted of some valuable directions that Razmir thought underexplored in post-Earthfall science, as well as his own first thoughts from looking at the present state of the research. He's quite confident Thassilon had a Wish wording for simultaneously restoring vampires to life, sanity, and youth, it doesn't seem impossible, but Razmir had never been the sort of wizard who cast Wish - that was for people whose 18 INT was natural, or, better, whose 20 INT was. More necromantic research is on his schedule, eventually - Tiriac is one of his best allies, and he has no desire to offend the man.)

Sarenrae almost certainly can, and is constrained by god-agreements not to; they were hoping that Razmir, as a fake less traditional deity, might not be subject to the same restrictions—but whatever.

(It seems like, in principle, the sort of thing a Wish could do, but if they had enough money to pay ninth-circle wizards to do Wish experiments, they would have paid Felandriel Morgethai to do this a long time ago. She probably would have charged them less.)

And Morthalas, the loyal servant of the Countess of Caliphas, and who is not at all under Dominate Person, Teleports into Kyonin to petition the Winter Council for help, having alerted them to her imminent arrival by Sending.

It is really quite probable that Kyonin is the richest, most peaceful, happiest country in the world, per capita. Those last two words are, admittedly, doing a great deal of work; the elven birthrate is 'do we have to?', and the elven death rate is More Than None, and there are not so many as there once were, for Kyonin, once the greatest of their realms, is now merely the last. Nonetheless the joy and safety and wealth of Kyonin remain.

Why and how is Kyonin the richest? Why, because elves are immortal; to a first glance, elves do not have 'unskilled labor'. By the time a human craftsman has spent forty years learning a skill, his mind is slowing and his muscles are starting to go, and so he must pass some of his work to unskilled others, and by the time he has spent a century, he is dead. Elves do not have that difficulty. By the time an elf has spent six hundred years mastering a skill and has felt the weakening in his muscles, he can afford to put one hundred years of the profits aside to pay for a Cyclical Reincarnation, and so elves can reach heights of craftsmanship of which humans can only dream.

Why is Kyonin the most peaceful? Why, because elves are, to a first approximation, mostly Good. Nearly fifty percent of the elves (who read as anything) read as Chaotic Good to Detect Alignment, and another thirty percent read as the other Good alignments. Per capita, there are fewer than a sixth as many Evil elves as mortals (referring only to the elves of Kyonin, and leaving the hateful Drow aside, as the elves of Kyonin prefer to), and few of those reach the same depths of Evil as, say, a typical person born in Cheliax. With so much Good, they need little Law to cope; an elf can simply trust that most other Elves mean well, and handshake deals are made that a human would either balk at or demand sworn oaths and Detect Alignment and Zone of Truth spells, eating up the gains from trade with expensive verification methods. The few children can simply play in the streets, with no worries about harm, doors can be left unlocked, favors can be given and met with favors and all these feed into Point One. 

(Someone from outside Kyonin, who is, perhaps, used to thinking in terms of equilibria might ask, how is this stable? Won't individual evildoers prosper in this thieves' paradise, and - even if elves want so few children that they are a dying race - others copy them and learn from their methods? Why, no - elves are immortal. A reputation as dishonest will follow you for centuries, and very few people in prisoners-dilemma situations want to defect on the first move of a three-thousand-plus-unknown-turns iterated game. A smart evil elf isn't evil, and a dumb evil elf can be exiled before they reach their second century.)

Why is Kyonin the happiest? See points one and two, honestly, they mostly cover it.

... Which does not, in fact, mean that there is no suffering in Kyonin.

Elves can trust other elves. Elves can't trust humans. Almost a third of them are evil, and honestly by the time you've gotten to know that an individual human is honest, they're already dying and you need to meet their kids. And humans can kill elves, thirty seconds of violence costing a hundred years of labor to repair. And during the period that most of the elven population was off in Venus the mystical land of Sovyrian taking cover from Earthfall, humans kinda looted the whole of the country dead of precious belongings the elves thought wouldn't get stolen because they... were not really used to people stealing things when you politely ask them not to and explain this is very bad behavior???

Yeah, Kyonin got over that. They sealed the border, when they came back, and sealed it with weapons and magic and Awakened animals and trees. Most elves in Kyonin have not met a human in the past several thousand years who wasn't an invader, and as a result even well-intentioned humans tend to get the entire population looking at them like they're thieves and terrorists.

And being a half-elf in Kyonin isn't much better. People go "you poor thing!" a lot, and every time you do something wrong they wonder quietly (sometimes out loud, sometimes just visibly) if it's because your human blood is taking over.

There are reasons for leaving Kyonin, is what I'm going for, here.

And, of course, there's the reason for leaving Kyonin that is Treerazer, nascent demon lord of despoilation, waste and pollution, whose goal is to take over Kyonin, turn the old portal to Sovyrian into one straight to the Abyss, and double the number of Worldwounds on Golarion. They call his domain the Tanglebriar, and smart people do not go there.

The Winter Council is based fairly near his headquarters, because the alternative is not being near his headquarters, and they, overall, consider that to be worse. Make whatever assumptions about their intelligence you prefer.

And so where she appears is not in one of the nicest bits of Kyonin! It's not in the Tanglebriar, but not by that much; it is, instead, in the Teleport Trap in the Winter Council's favored stronghold, which is pretty close to the border. One of Carnaneth's daughters, Thossbraigh, is watching; her sword was forged nine hundred years ago by a smith who considers one sword a century to be an acceptable rate, and she never had quite as much skill with spells as she did with tearing people to pieces with shifted claws and antlers and enchanted blade.

She nods as Morthalas appears. "Welcome to Medueig. You are expected."

(Also watching: various animals. Possibly, various trees. Possibly various extremely invisible or hidden things, though if so they're doing a pretty good job of the hiding.)

She bows very slightly, really more of a nod, but a more pronounced nod than Thossbraigh's.

"Thank you for your hospitality," she says. "I have come to seek the Council's aid against our mutual foe, the false god Razmir, who has invaded my country and placed my mistress under compulsion."

"You are welcome in our lands so long as you share our enemy, kin of the blood of Castrovel," said Thossbraigh, who thinks she is being extremely polite, and then turns to lead Morthalas to where three of the actual members of the Winter Council can decide. (Thossbraigh is a flunky.)

One is Arcanist Fainalach, archmage of Kyonin and master scholar, one is the dreaded General Allevrah, scarred marshal of the armies of Kyonin, and the last is, yes, Carnaneth, druid of the eighth circle and Mother of the Forest of Kyonin. 

Carnaneth is so, so tired. She is not really sure that if she makes the Boneyard, she is going to come back, instead of just going back to following her instincts and heading to Nirvana.

But, well, she is here and it is now and she has a duty, because there is exactly one piece of the elves left, and she is not going to abandon her daughters to Treerazer. Which means, right now, putting up with a manstained youth, because she is short of better allies. Ugh.

"Morthalas Halfblooded to speak to the Lords of the Council," says Thossbraigh, bowing, before accepting a dismissal from Allevrah and departing.

"Welcome to Medueig," says Allevrah. "You bear news of our enemies?" (General Allevrah does not use the divine We, but is not actually that far from it.)

"News, and a plea, my lords," she says. "The false god Razmir, tyrant of the land once known as Melcat, came upon my adopted country of Ustalav in the night and placed its nobles under Dominate Person, compelling them to surrender and swear fealty to him. I come on behalf of my mistress, the Countess Carmilla Caliphvaso, Lady of Caliphas, who is under compulsion, and speak as I believe she would bid me speak, were her mind her own. I would ask your help in freeing her from Razmir's spell."

"Our own lands are desperately besieged," says Carnaneth, audibly exhausted, "assailed from north and south, east and west." She has SERIOUSLY CONSIDERED just murdering Cyprian already, but Fainalach is pretty sure that won't work, his defenses are too good. "We must look to our own defenses, and have little time to spare for crusades against distant evils, however dire."

"If you help my Countess," she says, "you may find one of your borders at least freed from assault. Razmir has overextended himself to take Ustalav; the whole country would rise against him, for a thousand diverse reasons, but for the compulsion-spells he has laid upon our leaders. I expect that, were they broken, he would quickly find himself with more important concerns than making war upon Kyonin."

Well. That is, in fact, an argument.

Of course, it is also true that he is probably too busy to do anything right now, what with incorporating his domains into his empire. And, being in fact a human, he will probably die before he's done doing that, and his empire will fall apart.

... Unless he becomes a lich. Another lich. They have too many goddamn liches already, the bloody things keep accumulating.

(The Winter Council presently shares a telepathic bond, and these thoughts are shared with her fellows, as are their own threads of the argument with her. They prefer not to debate in front of petitioners, so as to maintain a single, unified voice free of all dissent.)

"What assistance," says Fainalach, "would you require?"

(And what are you prepared to pay for it, in money or treasure or secrets or better yet in Lawfully sworn favors, is implicit.)

"Only the aid of a caster strong enough to reliably overcome the magic of Razmir's so-called priest—who is, to my knowledge, a mostly ordinary fifth-circle wizard, although the bonds which Razmir lays upon his slaves may, indeed, grant them some power which the contents of their spellbooks would belie."

(Neither she nor her Countess are Lawful, but they both know what it means to grant a favor, or to owe one, and the Countess is very wealthy, even more so well-connected, and would consider the Council to have her gratitude, if not forever, then for a rather longer time than humans are accustomed to live. And the Council, of course, knows that last part full well.)

The Winter Council silently confers.

"This," says Allevrah, "may, perhaps, be possible."

That part of the Whispering Way which thought Razmir was, perhaps, pretty cool, for having cowed the Church of Pharasma into confessing his godhood in a day (those of them who know who Yasmardin Senir really is laugh), might perhaps have felt pretty stupid when he invited in the paladins of Lastwall, possibly the only force upon the face of Golarion that's even worse, to keep his peace.

The whispers are now nearly of one accord: Razmir must be forced from Ustalav, and preferably destroyed. How exactly this is to be accomplished, when the Whispering Way is presently without a godlike archmage of its own—

Oh, is it?

(A brief digression:

The Whispering Way does not have leaders. Oh, they say in Pharasma’s churches that it’s the cult of the Whispering Tyrant, seeking to restore Tar-Baphon to the dominance in Ustalav he once possessed, but in fact it’s really more of a mutual assistance group for necromancers, swapping spells and trading tips on how to best animate dead so they know how to fight, bind ghosts to obey instead of tear your throat out, and dodge the paladins and witch hunters that are the perpetual bane of Ustalav. Nonetheless, there are Whispering Way members who other members are, perhaps, more inclined to listen to than others. Being a lich helps.

So does having been an Emperor of Taldor. They call him Remek Czaszar, now, for his last subjects were savages, but there was a time he was Emperor Taldaris II, and every knight from the Arch of Aroden to the steppes of Kelesh gave him homage, and - thus he told himself - he was a just ruler, wholly worthy of his name, a monarch wise and good, a conqueror and a lord feared and respected. Wizardry he had pursued in his youth and wizardry he pursued after the throne was his, to continue his rule forever and so break the laws of eternal civil war that were the doom of Taldor. But, for some reason, when he became a lich, oh no, every Good and half of the Neutral churches in the entire Taldane Empire joined his generals to pull him down and replace him. Being a lich, he survived this, and being a lich, he has spent the past three thousand years attempting to retake the Empire of Taldor against the concerted opposition of basically everyone else in Avistan, plus the Kelesh Empire, and while he’s retaken his throne before he’s never managed to hold it.

His attempt before last involved acknowledging the Whispering Tyrant as his overlord, which is why since the failure of his last attempt some four hundred years ago (involving the creation of the small but thriving nation of Videk, east of Galt and Taldor, as an accidental byproduct) left him withdrawing to a secret fortress in the Hungry Mountains warded against all detection, there to wait out his enemies while he rebuilt his strength; hidden in his fortress are deadly traps for any intruders who dare to approach it, stockpiles of weapons and armor readied against the day of his return, legions of the undead unaging until the day they are to be unleashed, and a fanatical cult of disciples, who study his ways so that they may one day approach his glory.

He’s not the leader of the Whispering Way. It doesn’t have a leader. He’s not even one of them. But of the “the Whispering Tyrant has failed us and instead of awaiting his return we should now unite under a new leader to establish a necromantic dominion over the continent” subsubfaction, he’s one of the three or so candidates most frequently brought up as a potential leader, though those three are not really a majority when combined unless you eliminate “ME!!!” from the list of candidates.)

There is a sense in which Remek Czaszar, Great Emperor, Grand Prince of Taldor, is "weaker" "than" "Razmir." He has fewer ridiculously powerful magical items. He's a spell circle lower. He's a much worse crafter, and has not even begun to study Tian ritualism.

And then there's a very different sense, which is that he is smarter, wiser, more charismatic, equipped with a large collection of capable lieutenants bound to serve him but who also desire to serve him, has allies across Ustalav, and has spent three hundred years, not twenty, building up resources.

The Grand Prince of Taldor wishes to - "discuss matters" - with his fellows of the Whispering Way, without the time lag produced by Sending.

There are, of course, customary methods of arranging this.

How does an organization uniformly Evil, without Law or leader to which they owe common obedience, meet in person without exposing themselves to an unacceptable risk of death (insofar as they can, in fact, still suffer it)? They cannot meet in the private fortress of any of their number, for no one is invited to their councils who is so weak that they could not, in their own territory, destroy any of the others; nor is there any neutral site secure enough that they would not invite the paladins of Lastwall or the inquisitors of Pharasma's church to descend upon their gathering in force in the hope of ridding the world of a dozen scourges with a single stroke. (A doomed hope, for any force which either of those factions is actually likely to muster against them, but one does not rise to be invited to the councils of the Whispering Way without being the sort of person who guards obsessively against the possibility of their enemies actually trying.)

The simple answer, then, is that they don't, themselves, meet in person. But all invited possess slaves worth no more to them than a fingernail, and the spell Dominate Person, with enough force behind it, does not actually permit the caster to see through the target's eyes, but comes close enough to permit communication. So it is those slaves, hapless and empty-eyed, who gather in a barren and nameless valley of the Hungry Mountains, chosen by throwing a dart at a map of those areas of Virlych the paladins do not frequent.

One might expect that being a severed head forced to share a body with someone Good might be an impediment to the acquisition of disposable slaves. In the eyes of Iselin Odronti, however, his condition is all the more reason to locate some anyway. He, in fact, already keeps one of his host's less remarkable servants continually under Dominate Person, refreshing the spell whenever he has control, so as to have any ability to affect the world while Muralt is in charge. (He has not, yet, figured out a way to Dominate Muralt; alas, the mechanisms of arcane magic do not appear to allow him to cast the spell on "himself".)

He Teleports his slave to the meeting place well in advance of the appointed time; he does not know how long he'll retain control. There is water here, if no food, and it is not so cold even in this high valley that the man will die of exposure in two days.

The Grand Prince of Taldor can round up a mortal; he has many servants who are of value to him, who will rise high under his rule, but there are also villages in the tall mountains that pay him homage for wiping out the truly dangerous predators near them (a failed attempt to bolster his channeling capacity; his powers have stagnated since his ascension, for nothing is capable of truly threatening him) and from these he can find a disposable mortal, who bears his Arcane Mark.

He does not particularly consider Iselin one of his main rivals; the necromancer has grit, yes, and hate, but his stagnation has left him merely fifth circle, and Remek Czaszar has servants of greater arcane power than he. Still, the Head has resources, and his secret control of a county may give them insight into Razmir's deliberations without needing to consider one of Razmir's candidates.

To Odranti, Remek Czaszar is obviously a powerful wizard, and a reasonably capable leader, and he will follow him while that seems to be the best way to rid Ustalav of Razmir and his Iomedaen allies, but never again will he swear any oath of fealty. If there were one who could restore him to his proper body, he might reconsider, but Czaszar cannot do that.

His servant bows to the Grand Prince's; this is no mark of obeisance, only an acknowledgement that Czaszar can kill him more easily than he can kill Czaszar, insofar as what is already dead may die at all.

And Czaszar's servant will acknowledge it, sham obedience though it is, with a lordly nod of his head. His own court still follows the practice of ancient Taldor, but he is not in his own court, now is he?

They are, of course, joined by a number of their fellows. The witches of Caultheart have sent their initiate dressed in the robes of a Pharasmin initiate, the black monastery of Renchurch has spewed forth an enslaved cultist eager to enter into the pleasures of death, the undying knights of Morthold have sent a disposable spawn. Cultists of Urgathoa, corrupt sorcerers and dark wizards, spawn of vampires and lich-blooded - there are a great many captains of the dead who assemble here through their proxies, to plot the end of Razmir and his paladinical allies.

And there is another.

He calls himself Mirrorgrave, the count of mirrors, lord of reflections, for this title he was given by the Whispering Tyrant. It is said that he made a pact in the Plane of Shadow with the lord of the soulslivers, these beasts that lurk in the half-world inside mirrors and sneak out and impersonate whoever catches the wrong reflection for their own ends, that they would forever serve his will, scouting and spying for him across the mortal realms. It is said that though he is a lich he has no phylactery, for his soul is hidden in his own reflection, and that he cannot be slain so long as a single image of him exists.

And it is said - mainly by him - that he is the Whispering Tyrant's most loyal servitor. 

Oh, great, now that jackass is here.

Feeling's mutual, pal.

One more arrives.

Luvick Siervage, once Soividia Ustav's marshal, was made a vampire by his own request, a thousand years before Tar-Baphon made his homeland synonymous with the undead; he had chosen altogether the wrong path in life to become a lich, and vampirism seemed the least unpleasant eternity open to him—other than Axis, which he did not expect to be granted and could not have fulfilled him anyway. For a thousand years he ruled the shadows of Ustalav, before the Whispering Tyrant came, his own vampiric lieutenant at his right hand; Siervage has never forgiven and will never forgive them, for taking his wide-open hunting grounds from him. Now he rules only the underworld of Caliphas, though with an iron hand, and he is careful—so careful, in fact, that most of the mortal residents of the city have no idea that there's an army of vampires living in their sewers.

Any change in Ustalav's leadership would have been dangerous to his position, but Razmir was a man (certainly not a god) he expected he could have come to terms with—until he invited in the paladins of Lastwall to purge the country of undead.

Well. He is older than Iomedae, and whatever Her pretensions of 'defeating Evil', he will be here long after the ancient gods tire of Her existence.

(He is not a wizard, but vampires can dominate the wills of mortals without needing to cast a spell for it.)

He regards the others with indifference, whatever his feelings toward them; he will destroy Tar-Baphon's remaining cultists later, when the immediate threat to his survival and power has been eliminated.

(Luvick Siervage gets a nod that is an actual salute from Czaszar, for being plausibly the only person in this entire mess who is not, legally speaking, in revolt against him, and not  for being the highest level, best-equipped undead in Ustalav not currently sealed inside Gallowspire, even though he is.)

(It's very important to keep these distinctions straight, when you're the legitimate Emperor of Taldor.)

The Mirrorgrave is no less respectful on the outside, though he is, of course, plotting to destroy Siervage to damn his soul to Hell, the only right and fitting punishment for his refusal to serve his rightful lord and master, the Whispering Tyrant, lich-god of all Avistan.

"We are gathered here today," says the Grand Prince of Taldor through his pawn, once everyone is assembled, "because war has been made on us. We are not friends of Razmir, that intruding false god, but we were not his enemies." His mortal puppet steeples its fingers. "Until such time as he called in the hateful servants of ascended Iomedae, to seek us out and destroy us. Brothers and sisters of the Whispering Way, this is not a war against a king of Ustalav; we have seen its kings rise and fall, survived lords and ages and dynasties. This is not a war against a mighty wizard, for we have killed mighty wizards before. This is a war in our own defense against Iomedae, the paladin-goddess who seeks our destruction; not a war with the slaves of doddering Pharasma who says 'some day' but with the Hounds of Heaven who seek to end us all today! Brothers and sisters of the Whispering Way, our enemy is here. She bound Tar-Baphon, she shattered Belkzen, and now her hosts come to end us. But in her folly there is hope, for the Hound of Heaven is distracted, her attention is diverted; some of her attention is paid to Asmodeus, some to the Worldwound. So, for a moment, she is vulnerable."

A harsh smile. "And in this moment, should we unite, we can tear down her little puppet-kingdom, slaughter her hunters, and bring death to her proxy, this 'false god' Razmir!"

"And how, Great Emperor—" his tone is not mocking though his use of the title is— "would you propose to accomplish this?"

(He could end Razmir's rule over Ustalav in a single night of blood and terror, but that would reveal to Lastwall and other forces that he and his army, in fact, exist, and that is not yet a price he is willing to pay. And there is nothing they can do against Razmir himself—the balance of power in Golarion largely holds because ninth-circle casters are incredibly hard to kill, even for other ninth-circle casters.)

(So are liches. Don't get above yourself, Siervage; you're stronger than me, but not that much stronger and I can feud with the best of them.)

"There is not a one of us," says Czaszar, "who does not have a hidden army, a trove of forgotten secrets, a secret scheme ready to unleash upon the world when the time is right." 

A dark smile. "I certainly do. The temptation we are all under -" and again his eyes scan "- is to hold it in reserve to benefit ourselves, while our brothers and sisters in the Way sacrifice ourselves. If we hold ourselves back, the paladins will come for us one-by-one, but If we all unleash our strength across Ustalav, our might combined, every scheme unleashed together - it will be effortless! Shatter his domain, slaughter his priests, crush his paladins, and this will will draw him out. And then we can strike. Though no one of us can match his greatest heights of arcane power," a galling admission, "with our might combined -" he snaps his fingers. "That! for Razmir."

"My lords?"

His voice is smaller, and not as haughty as the others', for he is neither as ancient nor as mighty as they, but he speaks up nonetheless.

"I have no hidden army," he says, "but I have something else: a count of Ustalav in my command, if I can make my possession more, ah, stable. Most importantly, we are separate people, unbeknownst to any—he is Dominated by Razmir's mages, but I am free to act.

"If Razmir has one weakness, it is his vanity. Unsurprising, perhaps, for a man who styles himself a god. But he is eager to expand his worship, and he will, perhaps, look less closely for reasons not to do that than he should. I do not know how he binds his 'priests', but he must; it is said that none have ever betrayed him, and they are all of a sort who, under the right circumstances, certainly would. We cannot, ordinarily, simply infiltrate his order. But if Count Conwrest were to become a priest of Razmir, I would not be so bound."

"My dear skull," says the Mirrorgrave from behind the mask of his mortal pawn, "I have watched Razmir's priests in Ustalav. They are Evil. A bare handful might be called Neutral. Moreover the great majority - all, frankly, save the youngest sweepers and altar-cleaners - possess arcane power of the third circle, or the trinkets to fake it, and when they discuss their tedious mortal lives they do so from the perspective of ambitious fools of low birth who sought advancement here because they could get it nowhere else. If Count Conwrest applied to become a priest of Razmir, he would need to do so from within a Dominate Person, could not pass the alignment qualification, and lacks the arcane power to be considered." He raises an eyebrow. "I do not think your plan will succeed, alas."

"And yet," says Remek Czaszar, "there is wisdom in it."

He smiles a skeletal smile.

"Before we go, let me say this: That when the day comes we must gather together in person to unite in truth, I propose we bind ourselves to our alliance via accepting through Geas an oath to this pact, never to abandon the struggle against Iomedae, Lastwall and her puppet Razmir and to devote our hoarded strength to the cause of opposing them until no fortress in all Ustalav or Lastwall is held by Iomedae's allies, one hundred years have passed, or it is the universal agreement of these pactsworn extant on this plane that the need is ended, taking no hostile action nor betrayal through inaction against any member of this pact who has not thus harmed us nor swearing oaths falsely to them, nor seeking to end this Geas except through fulfillment of its conditions, under the full pains of the Geas, and cast the first spell on myself, going to this meeting without treasures so that slaying me would avail nothing, before laying the next Geases on each of my brothers and sisters who will join me against Razmir. And then I will accept this Geas I swear to be laid on me by each fellow of the Way who can lay it, and urge them to lay it, also, on each of themselves. For I do see in the wise Head's words a way a plan might come together, and when it does, we had best be united or perish we shall."

(Geas is a funny spell; it has a useful property to wizards seeking to bind themselves to honesty, which is that it can't be broken except by a more powerful spellcaster's Remove Curse, and so no wizard can remove a geas he lays himself unless he can wish it away - there's rumors about a limited wish wording that could accomplish it, but not only does this require meddling with wish-wordings, but it would take quite a valuable diamond per Geas, making the cost to remove six different identical geases immense even for a wizard who got around the self-protecting clause. It isn't perfect security, but it's as close as you can get with a nest of treacherous backstabbing snakes like the Whispering Way.)

Given that he apparently isn't useful to the plan, he won't be swearing any oaths about it, and especially not having any Geases laid on him. Look where that got him last time.

"I will swear this oath," says Siervage, "but I offer this caution: a Geas will be visible to other wizards who might thereby uncover our conspiracy. We should, at the same time as we lay the Geas, disguise it."

(This will also make it easier to disguise not having the Geas from the other conspirators, should he find a way to achieve that.)

I wasn't born yesterday! 

"Such a disguise, lord Siervage, seems superfluous; few of us will be meeting with outsiders who know or care that we should not be so sworn, and possess the arcane sight required to distinguish the spell. Unless, perhaps, I am mistaken?"

(Czaszar already has loads of ideas for ways to mess with people trying to get around the Geas, and for that matter also has ways to get around it himself that hopefully dispelling everyone before they show up to the in-person meeting won't get around, and hopefully between everyone they can make sure that everyone, or ideally everyone but him, is actually bound.)

He does in fact have some such dealings, but not enough that he's actually worried, and on reflection the possibility of someone else slipping the Geas is a far greater risk to him.

(He didn't actually intend to break the oath anyway, merely to have the option.)

"Understood, my lord Emperor."

"And I too shall swear, Remek," he says, deliberately misusing his rival's epithet, "and take no hostile action against the members of this pact until the pact agrees the war with Iomedae is settled." It is not, in fact, a betrayal to go destroy the Whispering Tyrant's seals as soon as Razmir is dealt with, it's a recruitment operation.

And after some more inconsequential back-and-forth, the meeting is adjourned.

The proxies will be retrieved, not to spare their lives from the elements—they will be killed later—but because the Whispering Way's enemies know the method by which they conduct their business, and a circle of dead commoners in the Hungry Mountains where no commoner should be indicates clearly to those that may find them that the Whispering Way met there in conclave.

In the weeks after Razmir's initial conquest, Ustalav began to settle into something of an established status quo. A few dramatic raids by Razmiran wizards, mercenaries and soldiers had put paid to any organized centers of resistance against his rule, replacing it with the absolute, bone-dead refusal of anywhere out in the country to acknowledge him as their overlord if they did not have a Razmiran official out in their own back yard. The Hungry Mountains were totally out of his control, all except the most lowland parts of Amaans and Virlych a solid wall of resistance to Razmiran oppression, but the cities were in fact getting divine healing by Razmiran priests, who were happy to take over the remnants of the Pharasmin support organization if Bishop Yasmardin Senir (who Razmir is happy to offer the title of head of the Pharasmin faith in Ustalav) didn't have the manpower to fill it. No, no Razmiran official had any hope of traveling through the countryside without an armed escort, but the cities were, at least, pacified, at least after the first urban mobs ran into a complete willingness of the Shackleborn to unleash pike and sword on them, and individual 'pacification forces' occasionally spread out from the cities, especially in the southern coastal counties of Caliphas and Versex, to make sure the nobles whose peasants worked particularly rich and important farmland knew who was boss, and were prepared to swear under Zone of Truth that they intended to pay taxes to Razmir and follow the laws from now on.

(Outside the Palatinates, that is, who had been independent in fact before they were independent in name, their freedom bought by Lastwall and who do not here enter into our story.)

Something resembling stability appears, even if it is not, in fact, really stability. In Barstoi life goes on much as it did before; in Caliphas the king continues to reign even as he does not rule; Razmir begins considering which of the counts he will keep on under Dominate Person (which must be recast every ten days or so, at considerable expense and some risk) and which are harmless enough to be released under Geas or dangerous enough that they should be deposed for relatives who would prefer an empty title to a doomed rebellion.

Count Ristomaur Tiriac does not, overall, consider this a disaster. True, there are paladins in the west, but not in his own domains, and he has Razmir's Lawfully given word that they will refrain from interfering with him and his work so long as Razmir still holds authority. Count Tiriac is not a good person - a good vampire would have faced the sun before his first massacre - but he still, vaguely, associates goodness with things he approves of; he has made no use of the Furrows, and has no objection to them ceasing to exist. He is not especially satisfied with the research materials that Razmir has given him, but it is still some progress towards a final cure for his condition, and he can (and plans to) make any support beyond that which he is already contracted to deliver conditional on Razmir's further support for his own research.

Overall, thinks the count as he sups his brigand, this is about as well as he expected things to go, as long as no one is fool enough to take a swing at Castle Corvischior and the second-most powerful vampire in Ustalav.

Meanwhile, Jean Riudaure has been doing what he does best: keeping an eye on (ostensible) friend and (certain) foe alike.

It is not happy work. Purging a country of its secret nests of undead is uncomfortably like purging one of its remaining sparks of Goodness, modulo the amount of torture employed and, of course, the end result. But Jean Riudaure is very, very good at it, no matter whom he serves.

The chief problem with Ustalav, from his perspective, is that unsolved murders, disappearances, hauntings, and other such evidences of undead activity are by now so common that no one pays them any mind; this he resolves to change. In every city, now, there is someone to whom, it has been announced, all who wish to see Ustalav free of undead should report any and all such happenings, and another such person riding circuit around each county to get reports from the villages. The picture he thereby gets is still, he is sure, tragically incomplete, but it is complete enough that someone looking at the whole thing (such as him) might begin to see see patterns. He is nearly sure, for example, that the Whispering Way met via disposable Dominated proxies, as is their known habit—not that this is, in fact, information. Of course there is a conspiracy against Razmir; probably, in fact, more than one. He still knows frighteningly few of the details.

There's this really strange tendency for circuit riders to get jumped a lot! Totally inexplicable, of course.

(Jumping even a mid-level paladin typically does not turn out well for the thing doing the jumping.)

And a few weeks after the conquest, Lastwall requests a meeting with Razmir's representative for a routine status update.

And Razmir's diplomats will also want to touch base with Lastwall in this, to hear Lastwall's latest round of complaints about how they did all sorts of evil things they weren't supposed to do but that Lastwall had not contracted for them not to do!

Razmir's representatives will be available to discuss the situation. Do they want the con man, the priest or the Very Very Very Busy Decent Person?

They'll take Falkenheim and Telriana, if that's possible. They're not particularly interested in trying to negotiate with anyone who's been mind controlled into thinking Razmir is a god, however.

Getting both of them is in fact a concession, but not an impossible concession.

Ferdi is, after all, happy to be an above-average-alignment-for-Razmiran negotiator with Lastwall, especially since he's been trying to put together a fund to repay the dispossessed poor of Thrushmoor in his spare time!

(There may be times Lastwall notices his alignment detecting as Good, in fact. Or evil. It tends to ping-pong ball back and forth depending on where he's been being recently on the con man / throw any money he cons at good causes axis, really, and whether his current mistress has alter self.)

And Telri is VERY VERY BUSY, since being the only reliably good person in the upper echelons of Razmiran makes her VERY VERY BUSY, but is still prepared to show up. (She has not, in fact, managed to train up or locate a reasonable force of druids for more Plant Growth spells, and has been being run ragged having to fight off assassins while she attempts to fix EVERY FIELD IN USTALAV'S CROPS BY HAND with insufficient bodyguards.)

So. The problem is not so much that Razmir has been doing Evil things that they didn't compact for him not to do; the agreement covers pretty much all the areas where they expect to have terminal values differences, and expresses exactly how much Lastwall is willing to trade for the things they want. Razmir hasn't broken this, technically. The problem is that he also does Evil things that don't even achieve his goals, because he doesn't bother to think for five seconds about whether he could achieve his goals in a less Evil way before doing things, such as, for example, Thrushmoor. Also the Pharasmins Delenda Est incident.

They would, accordingly, like to appoint a permanent representative to Razmir's court, whose job is Helping Razmir Not Be Evil By Accident.

"Thrushmoor was a disaster," says Ferdi plainly, "and I've tried and am trying to arrange reparations, but I cannot say I expected him to handle the situation with the Church of Pharasma better?" Suppressing all churches that weren't his was, after all, the central thing Razmir has been doing for the past several decades. "I was mostly just trying to get people out first."

- As the person with the most actual experience interacting with Razmir in the room she would like to politely suggest that this is a terrible idea - "Razmir's court largely handles administrative affairs on His general directives and keeps Him informed of the situation at large; few attempt to give direction to the Living God."

We're kind of, um, concerned about where you're getting the money for those reparations. If the answer is anywhere other than "from Razmir's coffers, Lawfully," please stop and let us handle that.

Lots of countries ban churches without murdering or mind-controlling anyone! When Andoran gained independence and suppressed the Church of Asmodeus, nearly all His priests were permitted to go peacefully to Cheliax, and only a few were killed by citizen mobs!

They're willing to have their advisor pass advice through someone already trusted of Razmir (such as Telri), but they really do want such a person around at all.

(Unspoken: we kind of thought Helping Razmir Not Be Evil By Accident was your job, but you weren't in fact the one that stopped him from sending devils to murder the entire Order of the Scourge, were you?)

Ferdi got it from donations, actually. Voluntary donations. 

Phrased somewhat more politely than this, if she can manage to get the essence across to their diplomats: The fundamental thing you are missing is that Razmir does not consult with people before making decisions, and that if you try to tell Razmir "we want you to consult with people before making decisions," you will, perhaps, have some problems with this, related to him not doing this, and also disliking you, and so Telri will provide him advice when he asks for it, and he will not actually ask for it before responding to emergencies with overwhelming force.

Well, if he asks for advice on how to obtain Lastwall's goodwill, or anything else he wants that Lastwall has—

Message: —such as Iomedae's support for his ascension—

—then tell him that he should start seeking advice from someone who understands what Lastwall and Iomedae care about, before making decisions that might hurt their interests (which are mostly the interests of the innocent people of Golarion) completely unnecessarily.

She will attempt to pass that on to him.

And before they adjourn, he's been tracking a number of threats against Razmir, and the Whispering Way, a shadowy organization of necromancers and undead, is almost certainly plotting something that's probably against him.

Also, Yasmardin Senir is a cleric, not of Pharasma, but of an unknown Evil god. His first thought was Geryon, but he has reliable intelligence that the man is at least fifth circle and he's never known a mere archdevil to create a cleric that powerful, and also he knows about most of Hell's major foreign (to Cheliax) subversion operations, or did as of ten years ago when Senir was already around, and the only one in Ustalav was centered on corrupting the Count of Barstoi—all of which adds up to 'not Geryon'.