You know how Mathilde has Ranald's Coin, which is an incredibly potent divine artifact with 3 out of 4 abilities that are absolute "yes, this works"? It would not be a shocker if the Ancestor Cult Conclave has access to a few dozen divine artifacts of similar power, at least some of which have information-granting abilities. If they say they have a source of undoubtable repute (so not Ranald then) but then aren't willing to give up the secrets of their information sources, it's not a shocker.
The Ancestor God artifacts absolutely exist, and they absolutely are powerful... ... and are not subtle at all in what they do. As the things they do are stuff like "flash-flood a country", "stop volcanoes erupting" and "make airships possible to make."
To be less tongue-in-cheek, the artifacts are things like the Throne of Power, the Dammaz Kron, and the Thunder Hammer of Grungni or the Axes of Grimnir.
They are very... how to put it... very direct, very
Dwarfy, in how they get things done. Very physical or direct; you apply them to a problem like the tool it is, and it helps solve it. I don't think they do
metaphysical and mystical or grey areas very well or at all though. And the only way they do at-a-distance stuff, is if they have some way of transmitting the energy or the information across the distance.
If the Elders had access to Gazul's Lamp which identified and guided lost souls or something, presumably they would still need to bring it to, and use it on, Mathilde in order to get any sort of answer.
Even the more 'information-related' things we've seen -- the Throne of Power -- required stuff like "having the gate guards state out loud in the air what the incoming party is", needing a control object to come in range to synchronize. The Karak Vlag/Karag Dum flow however may be noticed immediately, due to differences inherent in things. Karak Eight Peaks was out for millenia, and its mountain-waystones were not all fully functioning correctly. Karag Dum's energy flow "merely" was pent up in a dam at Karak Vlag; once Vlag was returned, it's possible the flow was restored to the south too.
First, the priests of Gazul probably have a way of sensing souls. Recall that the Gunners was brought in to check the integrity of our soul. Now he did cheat out of it with common sense of pointing to our moving shadow, but the priests of Gazul are in charge of protecting all the Dawi souls, not just the dead. So they probably have some way to sense it.
Yes, but...
Their "ways of checking for possession" might just be "Daemon-check them with a crystal ball of Hysh"-equivalent. Such as perhaps "literally poke them with an axe of Daemonslaying, and see if she starts writhing and screaming in tongues."
But, well -- they would have had to haul Mathilde off to Karaz-a-Karak and
personally check on her. To check for possession. If they had to do
that in person, how could they -- without her being there in person -- determine if she has a Dawi soul?
No, this sounds like they didn't do any magical checking. It sounds like what they did do, is
debate.
They were given information from "an undoubtable source." This source told them Ranald stole a Dawi soul.
The Elders then proceeded to go 'Wtf?' a lot, and then debate what the hell to do with this.
They then finally eventually decided: 'Well uh okay... grudge Ranald for it, I guess? But write-in exceptions/potential for ameliorating it in whole or in part, due to services rendered.'
I don't think the Elders of the Conclave had any magic or supernatural abilities on their side at all.
I think they were just forced to deal with a sudden burst of huge news, and needed to adjudicate a thing.
Maybe they were the ones that came up with the 'What if... what if she's a Dawi soul in a body?' theory. Maybe they were told that by the "undoubtable source" and merely had to scramble and react to that. Not sure.
