Ethereal Forces: 4 Intelligence: 8 Precision: 8

Celestial Forces: 4 Will: 9 Perception: 7

Skills: Dodge/3, Emote/3, Fighting/1, Knowledge (Diplomacy/3, Theology/3, Hindu Mythology/3, Indian customs and beliefs/6), Languages (Hebrew/3, Hindustani/3, Greek/3, Latin/3, Sanskrit/3), Savoir-Faire/6

Songs: Dreams (All/3), Entropy (Ethereal/3), Healing (Corporeal/1, Ethereal/3), Light (Celestial/3), Motion (Celestial/6), Shields (All/3)

Attunements: Blessed, Divine Contract, Vassal of Trade

OK, his title is a misnomer. He is not the Ambassador to the Hindu pantheon. After all, the presence of an Ambassador would imply that Heaven has formally admitted the right of the Hindu pantheon to exist, right? Seeing as the Saint is formally in Marc's service, this would mean that the Archangel of Trade would be flouting the will of the Seraphim Council, and one step away from open rebellion against that body. Dominic's whole purpose in life is to uncover those about to rebel against Heaven. The Archangel of Judgement has chosen not to investigate this matter, despite the fact that he has been apprised of the Saint, and his permanent presence at the Hindu ethereal Court. If Host's acknowledged expert at treason does not feel the situation worth investigation, then obviously Marc is not guilty of flouting the will of the Council, and just as obviously St. Francis Xavier is not an official representative of Heaven.

Seraphim may wince at the above, but the fact is that the Saint has no 'official' designation at all. It's just that ... well, absolute bans are all very well, but the Hindu gods exist, they've got a lock on the Indian subcontinent, and they can't safely be ignored. Furthermore, Heaven simply can't write off the homeland of over 700 million people: Hell would just love that. St. Xavier's presence at the Court of Brahman is a triumph of practicality over ideology: even Dominic just - well, he no doubt has the part of his brain that rationalizes working with Asmodeus handle the contradictions inherent in having a Saint at an ethereal domain.

Now, bear in mind that the Saint has not always enjoyed this duty. Marc (no doubt Francis Xavier should have ended up working for Faith, but Khalid was being ... difficult ... at the time) handles diplomacy for the Host, for the most part. This is possibly why he gets so many Jesuits, although the snide have suggested that the real reason is because he also runs Heaven's spy agencies. Angels make bad ambassadors to ethereals: aside from the entire 'wings soaked in ethereal blood issue', celestials have all sorts of complicated restrictions on their behavior. Humans work much better for this sort of delicate work. In Francis Xavier's case, the fact that the Saint was familiar with the region from his Earthly life seemed to make him perfect for the job.

Not to second-guess an Archangel, of course, but Marc may not have been correct in this assessment, at least in the beginning. Francis Xavier used to have a problem with languages (something he's since corrected), for one thing: for another, his hosts weren't pleased to see what they considered an unwitting agent of ethereal genocide. It took forever to counteract his missionary work, after all. Still, they didn't weren't quite ready to start a war, that day, so they simply gave him the cold shoulder for about two hundred years.

Things still aren't warm between the Not-an-Ambassador-Saint and his hosts, but they are no longer actively hostile. Francis Xavier is endlessly patient, and he's managed by now to get it through their heads that he can be useful to them. It's amazing how much tension can be avoided, on either side, by a simple dialogue between the two sides. There's nothing formal, of course, but the Hindu gods have noted that particularly egregious violations of sovereignty or corporeal destruction by the Host have been corrected or ameliorated after complaining to Francis Xavier. He's managed to accumulate a small but real amount of goodwill, and has stopped at least one armed conflict between the Hindu Pantheon and Heaven. Seeing as neither side is absolutely certain about the results of a war, this is generally considered a Good Thing by both.

Francis Xavier is, by now, a good diplomat - and he knows infinitely more about India than he ever did when alive (he's more than a little embarrassed about that). He's not as busy as he'd like to be - frankly, he long ago came to the opinion that Heaven's position on the ethereal pantheons is dangerously mistaken - but he's busier than he was. By now, the Saint has gone somewhat native (the better to be less overtly annoying to his hosts), but the core of a sincere Jesuit remains, no matter how many dancing girls dream-shades his hosts try to foist upon him. Francis Xavier uses them for secretarial work instead - and sometimes courier duty. Doing so leaves his hosts slightly dissatisfied that they aren't suborning the Saint - and leaves Heaven slightly dissatisfied that the Saint isn't indulging in conversion efforts.

And after all (to quote Harry Turtledove), what is diplomacy but the art of leaving everyone dissatisfied?