Right then. Indapatta.
She walks in, invisible, and then lets the invisibility wear off; Mind Blank should stop anyone from noticing her before she wants to. She floats, then, so everyone can see her, and speaks.
What would it be like, to see the world from the perspective of Asmodeus? It is said that He despises mortals, but why? He doesn't seem to stop them becoming gods; no objections has He been said to possess even to the Starstone, which Irori calls cheating at godhood.
Lots of people don't really ask that question. It's not a difficult question to answer, just one you have to think to ask. A lot of questions are like that, and Sevarism could be called the art of seeing them.
Asmodeus hates mortals because mortals, in fact, suck. By Asmodeus's standards, but by any other objective standard too. By their own standards, once they start to develop those. Asmodeus does not hate mortals for being weak; imps are even weaker. Asmodeus hates mortals for being muddled.
She explains what she means. That people will quote a different price for the same thing depending how the question is asked of them; that they have actual circular preferences, where you can find them wanting A more than B more than C which they want more than A. Project Lawful found some examples that work at least on Chelish people. She hopes they work on Vudrani too, or are close enough to make them think.
Mortals don't know what they want. They literally can't name it; they can't trade off between things they want; they lie to themselves about what they care about and they lie so comprehensively there's often no real answer underneath all the lies.
From Asmodeus's perspective, the planet is coated in worms, writhing, wriggling, reacting insensibly to various inputs because they aren't coherent enough to even pursue their own goals. Yes, he hates them. She does too. You will too
Asmodeus wants people he can see, who do things predictably, for reasons, in their interests. Asmodeus doesn't know how to tell worms to be what he wants, not without torture, and worms are scared of torture and get even more incoherent at the prospect of it.
Carissa also wants people to be coherent. She is as exasperated, as appalled, as Asmodeus; she sees the weakness in herself. What she told Dispater, when she went before him to sell her soul, is that she thinks she can fix it. Not without pain; her Hell will hurt. But it will not hurt senselessly, horribly; it will not leave people lost from themselves.
She has done it; she has dug the weakness out of herself and it has left her brighter, clearer, closer to a god. It wasn't easy. It won't be easy for them. And it will be a long time, before a better Hell emerges from her better strategies, because only those souls in lands she has conquered, which have done her and Hell more service than disservice, will come to her. But a better Hell will emerge -- better for Asmodeus, and much better for humanity. The sort of solution Asmodeus cannot see, because of what He is, but He compacted with her, because it amused Him to see her try.
There are Sevarites all over the world, now. Most of them won't amount to anything. It took careful direct instruction out of another world, to make Sevar what she is, and she's not there yet herself. But if the cults anywhere will amount to something, she'd bet on the one in Indapatta, which are serious about learning the styles of thought that will leave them unmuddled, and serious about following their path wherever it takes them. Not all of those paths, even when they unmuddle, will lead to Hell; but some will. More of them, once Hell is better.
Hers is not an easy path. Once you know your own strength, your weakness is unbearable. Once you start to see like a god, you won't like anything you see. But it is a path she thinks Irori walked, in part. She got a vision from Him, when she renounced him. The visions of the gods are not easily conveyed, but she thinks Irori will be pleased, to see more people unmuddled, to see them grow into more perfect beings.
She hopes they'll attain it in the world of the living. If not, she will offer it to them, again, in Hell, if they make it to her. She will give them the guidance she cannot give them each individually here. She will not give up on them; she will not break them; she will guide them down this path for as long as it takes.
Asmodeus deals frequently in deception. Carissa cannot; deception muddles people, it interferes with their learning the pathways among truths, and it's a habit that is in humans close to self-deception, which she has no patience for. So she will not deceive them. And she does not want a cult of the deluded, those who imagine Hell isn't that scary, those who pretend to themselves they believe her if they don't.
She casts Vision of Hell.
She lets it go for a minute and then stops it.
"You don't have to believe things all the way. You can be uncertain. It's essential, actually, to starting to be unmuddled. You face a terrible thing, and you are afraid, and maybe you want to be sure it'll work out, be sure you'll be safe, be sure you'll reach me; or maybe you want to look away from this, never think of it again, tell yourself I am a fraud, it is a scam.
The truth is that I will, very likely, ascend and become a power in Hell - I swear that to you, I have a plan and I expect it to succeed, I do not have you chasing an unlikely dream. But I could fail. The stakes are very high, and there are no sure things. It is a dangerous thing, to aspire to as much as we, here, aspire to. When I sold my soul, I did not know if I would succeed; I knew only that this was the only path down which greater perfection could take me.
I think that is true for some of you too. Your path runs through this, the best and perhaps only chance of humanity to change what Lawful Evil is and what it means, for everyone who has ever lived or will ever die. You can walk away from it, but you'll be lying to yourself, if you do. And if you have enough of a god inside you, you'll know that you're lying. For the rest of your life.
The alternative is to stay. To learn. To teach - because I'll need more followers, to do the things I need to do. To grow. And, when the time comes - and you'll know when the time comes - to come to me in Hell. It won't be safe. It won't be easy. But it is a path to greatness and power and godhood, and it is the only path free of lies."