1. You mentioned in one of your recent dev logs that soon gods will be able to do more things for mortals than just give them vampirism, were beast ism and secrets of life in death in the new villain update that will occur before the myth and magic wait. Would our player adventurers be able to receive theses new blessings or curses from the gods? And if so how would we go about receiving these new boons or banes from the gods?
I thought the "increasing influence of deities" thing was only vaguely implied at the end of the latest devlog. Did Toady state it directly anywhere?
No; details if any up to release still pending but he may just keep us in the dark so there's more to find later.
2. I remember a while back you were going to release an update that allowed us to have multiple party members and pets at the start of our adventures. Is that update going to be combined with the villain update? I ask this because you haven't released it or talked about it recently.
This is still part of the current update, we can reasonably assume the work he wanted to do on it is done or they will be going back and polishing up later. If you want to direct any questions that haven't been said already at that, go ahead.
3. Seeing as religious groups are becoming bigger players in the villain update will our player adventurers be able to join some of these religious groups similar to how we can become hearth people for rulers? And if so will we be able to receive special religious quests from them similar to how hearth people get military quests? And if so would our player adventurer gain fame within that religious group and or getting special worldly or divine rewards?
This is three questions (/pseudo suggestions) at once almost, so to answer broadly because im sure Toady might pick up to answer atleast one point. It all hinges on in my opinion whether sharing a common hearth with a organisation is really quite the same and gameplay engaging in terms of content to do compared to just asking for quests from significant people anyway abstract from outside it with some maybe specialised issues.
On the topic of rewards, I have no idea because it seems like Toady is a bit more preoccupied with making the shared spaces, mechanics and places work more than singular people who aren't villians right now. I can't see how being any more or less famous with a particular group in a town can really benefit you more than overall general worldy fame but it'd be a nice accented touch to have somewhere to rest rent free due to their gratitude away from your self built abode.
4. What sort of plots do you think religious groups will undertake? Also would the sphere of the deity the group worships affect what kind of plots they try to pull off?
The death & necromancer religion connection is pretty much synonomous in terms of villians, i dont think Toady will have particular non-general religious organisation plots without the nessecary acting supernatural masterminds/agents to carry it out in the Magic arc, such as sealed away or awaiting ressurection gods but Toady can really answer that better.