"We thought initially it was to build Civilization, which will have lots of amazing magic research and lots of big explosions to launch things into the sky on pillars of fire. I'm pretty sure, now, that it was never that, just like Cayden Cailean absolutely was not collaborating with Asmodeus because Asmodeus's victory was inevitable. 

But - if you look at where they've been intervening, what their interventions have achieved -

Pilar. Kind of suspect some strings were pulled, to make sure she was in the initial group. She's weirder than any of the other girls - you'd be less likely to have one like her, in.a group of twenty promising Asmodean wizard students - or for that matter a group of a thousand - Nethys and Cayden arranged for her to go to Elysium and come back still an Asmodean. They arranged for her to have incredibly bizarre powers that are like nothing I've ever heard of, that are like a game only it's never been clear what they're trying to achieve. They put what must have been an obscene amount of effort and intervention budget into helping her find the new ilani, who are picking it up really quickly - it turns out that Chelish people make worse students -

And me. If I'd figured out at the very beginning that Asmodeus won't, actually, refrain from annihilating people if it happens to be convenient, I'd have gone to Iomedae, probably, unless She sucks more than advertised which She might. I'm undecided on whether she's with Cayden and pretending not to be, not with Cayden because She is willing to tolerate more risk of the world being destroyed in exchange for not having to compromise with Asmodeus than Him in which case fuck Her, or not with Cayden because She's not okay with the very real possibility we fuck up and the world gets eaten by Rovagug, here, in which case She's good enough and I'd just Atone. ...I'm pretty sure I could Atone. I don't especially want to but I do hate the person who did literally all of the things I've done with my entire life and want that person turned into a paving stone, which seems like the right attitude. 

Anyway. Instead of cheaply telling me at the start 'hey, here's how many souls got annihilated in Hell last year', a lot of things more expensive than that to the gods have happened. Asmodeus told me to try to be corrupted and Aspexia and Abrogail and Subirachs and Maillol worked really hard on that and they shaped who I am today, and I'd try to undo that on the grounds that it was hostile interference in my personality and values except that I think maybe my being more and properly Asmodean was part of the plan. I think maybe I'm supposed to ascend and become a Power in Hell and fix it, in line with the terms already established for how I can do that, except interpreted some clever twisty way Asmodeus didn't see coming.

It's so much steering - such costly steering - I think they're aiming for a very small target, which is to say I think they have some probability of missing their target, which is terrifying given the stakes, but -"

"We thought initially it was to build Civilization, which will have lots of amazing magic research and lots of big explosions to launch things into the sky on pillars of fire. I'm pretty sure, now, that it was never that, just like Cayden Cailean absolutely was not collaborating with Asmodeus because Asmodeus's victory was inevitable. 

But - if you look at where they've been intervening, what their interventions have achieved -

Pilar. Kind of suspect some strings were pulled, to make sure she was in the initial group. She's weirder than any of the other girls - you'd be less likely to have one like her, in a group of twenty promising Asmodean wizard students - or for that matter a group of a thousand - Nethys and Cayden arranged for her to go to Elysium and come back still an Asmodean. They arranged for her to have incredibly bizarre powers that are like nothing I've ever heard of, that are like a game only it's never been clear what they're trying to achieve. They put what must have been an obscene amount of effort and intervention budget into helping her find the new ilani, who are picking it up really quickly - it turns out that Chelish people make worse students -

And me. If I'd figured out at the very beginning that Asmodeus won't, actually, refrain from annihilating people if it happens to be convenient, I'd have gone to Iomedae, probably, unless She sucks more than advertised which She might. I'm undecided on whether she's with Cayden and pretending not to be, not with Cayden because She is willing to tolerate more risk of the world being destroyed in exchange for not having to compromise with Asmodeus than Him in which case fuck Her, or not with Cayden because She's not okay with the very real possibility we fuck up and the world gets eaten by Rovagug, here, in which case She's good enough and I'd just Atone. ...I'm pretty sure I could Atone. I don't especially want to but I do hate the person who did literally all of the things I've done with my entire life and want that person turned into a paving stone, which seems like the right attitude. 

Anyway. Instead of cheaply telling me at the start 'hey, here's how many souls got annihilated in Hell last year', a lot of things more expensive than that to the gods have happened. Asmodeus told me to try to be corrupted and Aspexia and Abrogail and Subirachs and Maillol worked really hard on that and they shaped who I am today, and I'd try to undo that on the grounds that it was hostile interference in my personality and values except that I think maybe my being more and properly Asmodean was part of the plan. I think maybe I'm supposed to ascend and become a Power in Hell and fix it, in line with the terms already established for how I can do that, except interpreted some clever twisty way Asmodeus didn't see coming.

It's so much steering - such costly steering - I think they're aiming for a very small target, which is to say I think they have some probability of missing their target, which is terrifying given the stakes, but -"