At least they have some intentions toward us, for good or for ill. The world I came from seemed to lack any higher powers, or if there were, they'd become absentee landlords. I'm not an especially religious man, though I'm not an unbeliever, especially since I came here. I suppose I'd hoped when I was young that there was someone or something which watches over the world and the sapient minds which dwell within it. The Pthumerians may not be gods in the purest sense of the word, but they are the nearest thing to it.

[He smirks a tiny bit.] Excellent analogy, and I'd used it myself to explain it to some colleagues when I'd returned to my world of origin after Sodder's Nightmare had ended. There's no full cure, though there are ways to curb the worst aspects of it. Here, I've been spared the risk of the pathogen. But I am more susceptible to Corruption, especially with the work that I do.