Hi everyone. I have some questions about, you guessed it, divine interaction.

1. Is praying good or bad for relations?
2. How effective is sacrificing stuff for improving relations?
3. Approx. how much do I need to sacrifice to become the champion of Valpurus or Mortifer? Same for Atavus.
4. If I pray to a god, then will other (similarly aligned) gods also improve their relations to you, or not?
5. How can I tell if I'm eligible to pray to Valpurus or Mortifer?

Thanks for any responses.

1. It's good when done with good timing (the regular timespace between prayers is 3 hours)
2. Sacrificing "favourite" items, out of a god's tied material and enchanted, hi quality etc - very visibly. In general, even lanterns are good to make up with some less angry gods!
3. I dunno, never done it.
4. Yeah, praying to neutral dieties slightly improves relations with all the neutrals, evil for evils etc. Also, for example praying to Silva slightly improves relations with Sophos (for example) IIRC.
5 I don't know.

I think in order to pray to Valpurus or Mortifer you must be their Champion through sacrificing / tons of reading.

You might not have to be their announced champion judging by recalled wizmode screwarounds, but you'd better be damn close before trying.

Only "good prays" improve relations, "bad prays" decrease favour and even wisdom.

Sacrificing is a reliable way to improve relations. Though most items aren't worth much, by the time you've waited 3 hours to pray again you could have gotten that much and more through sacrifice.

There's no need to become Atavus' champion, the only thing he's good for are chests with random loot or the arcanite platemail which can be gotten anywhere above 500 favour, halfway to champion which is 1000.

To become a champion of Valpurus/Mortifer you need to sacrifice a lot. You better be damn sure you have 1000 favour with them before praying to them. A quick way (this spills over to the next question) is to regularly pray to their second-in-command (Legifer/Cruentus).

Depending on your wisdom, the gods 1, 2 or even 3 over will increase, while the others decrease. This means that praying to Cleptia will not improve relations with Cruentus (too far apart).

The best way to make sure is to find an altar of theirs and sacrifice something. If you're declared a champion, you may pray. Once you've gotten your gift however, it's advisable that you don't pray to them 3 hours later (they have a massive timer).

Readig books can change relations with gods. I would advice you to read all the avaliable books of the gods on the same side of the force that the one we want to champ with is on, then his books and after that give him loads of stuff. The timer shown in praying menu for Valp/Morty resets to 0 each time you get your champing prayer in CVS, so be damn sure to wait 2 days and 3 hours before praying again.

Thanks for the advice. One more: I prayed to Mellis once, and he spread bad rumors about me. WTF, is he that severe? Everyone was very angry or extremely angry at me afterwards, even Loricatus and Atavus, to whom I have been praying to regularly beforehand. Also, how can I possibly make up in such a situation? How can I earn the favor of any very angry god?

I didn't do detailed research, but it seems to me that the magnitude of Mellis' rumours depends on how much mad he is, so he must've been very, very angry himself.

To make up, it's the regular stuff - read books (of the ones You wish to be in good realtions with) and sacrifice stuff. Eventually, it will fix the relations... There is nothing as global good-rumours though... Collect orc, dark knight equipment on a level with the proper altar (polymorph another altar if necessary), and sacrifice it, again and again. It's tedious but with some effort, it should bring the good times back

This is IVAN. Severity should not come as a surprise. Though, I am surprised how badly your relation with others suffered. As I understand it, that result only reduces your relationship with Mellis by 100. Perhaps Al is right in saying that it depends on how mad he is with you. This warrants testing.

EDIT:
Tested. As far as I can see there's only a global reduction of favour by 100 each time.