I would point out that if Matias is Calmemnon, and he's trying to keep his identity secret why would he fight with a gladius? I'm sure he's just as competent with a short sword. Using a gladius just screams "Coryani." Just saying.

Haakon, could a Beltinian Exorcist detect the number of souls within a body? Is there the possibility of expelling them from someone trained to contain them?

There are no mechanics among the current books for a "Southern" Beltine an to detect number of souls in a person IIRC.

Hypothetically, if there were extra souls contained with the body of a priest who was trained to "carry" them, what would happen to the souls when the carrier died?

I recall a note to the GM from the mod Upon A Distant Shore that basically nixed my ability to "scan" Matias. Which means of course there's got to be something there Henry doesn't want us to see. Probably a big juicy red herring.

Based on the metaphysics of the universe as we know it, presumably they'd either go to the Cauldron or be released as Shades. To be honest, I don't know which is more likely, but if a Beltinian willingly traps souls in them knowing that they'd be damned as Shades forever, I think they'd be horrified.

Haakon would be most unhappy with anyone or anything that would deny a soul passage to the Judgement of Nier and either the Paradise of the Gods or the Cauldron. No one should pass on before their time (hence the beef with the Grey Crones), but "trapping a soul" sounds bad to me. To be honest I wrestled with the issue of bringing Nasha back, but convinced myself that if Beltine didn't want it to happen the process would fail. She is a goddess after all.

Assuming She was looking in at that time, one would presume.

The Human Pantheon have never been associated with omniscience, so Beltine or one of Her Valinor would have to have been present or aware of what was occurring.

Hmm given the mojo we saw with Illiir and his Cursing the Dwarves I got the impression the Human Pantheon was pretty "Omni" everything. Besides when playing that mod with Haakon and "playing in character" it would have violated rule zero (Don't be a jerk) to kick up a fuss about returning Nasha. At least that's the way it seemed to me at the time. So I dialed the exorcist back a bit so we all had fun at the table. Having fun with friends is the whole part of the exercise to me.

That said thanks for the update Henry. Food for thought as it were. I was raised Catholic with that whole "infallibility" thing you know.

In terms of Illiir knowing about the subjugation of humanity, if you trust the Encali and the Reavers, they were the ones who told Illiir about the shenanigans that the Tir Betoqi and Solani were doing, not Illiir's omniscience. When they call got Cursed for their trouble, the Encali turned to Sarish, and the Reavers. . . well, into Reavers.

How true this story is, however, is subject to debate.