How does kitsune cake work exactly?

[abaker]

Kitsune have found a way of having their cake and eating it too and I'm interested in how it functions.

The worship of Lumia is banned in the old country because she was the chief god of Belhar who invaded them but they still privately pray to her for safe childbirth and other things in her portfolio despite it being illegal.
What would happen if Lumia simply decided to stop listening to them?

 

[The Observer]

They don't. Deities tend to have mildly different portfolios in various places -- for example, Keros has domain over agriculture over there, which he doesn't have anywhere else. You can appeal to someone else in a roundabout way, for example, asking Tira to preserve newborns to not die before their appointed time. And yet there're some things you can observe, like Miko simply not naming her children for the first six months because "it's bad luck to do so", or more correctly, not wanting to get too attached with infant mortality being what it is.

In one of the conversations you can have with Mallach, he openly admits that building the temple for Cait is probably mildly annoying for Lumia because he's edging into one of her power bases, but she can't really do anything because Cait and Sally are acting organically in accordance with their faith as opposed to under order from him.

There probably is some underground Lumian worship, especially in not-Okinawa, but it's stamped out on the surface.

 

[abaker]

Right. Thanks for setting that straight.

 

[Burnerbro]

What even would be the extent of the practical effect a properly observed ritual or a prayer can have on something like childbirth or infant mortality, compared to the presence of priests of whatever denomination or even laymen wielding white magic? Magic that in turn seems to be coming from within the mortals themselves and not as a result of gods directly sharing echoes their powers with some designated followers ala Forgotten Realms.

On an unrelated note: since the geography of the Kitsuhon got mentions, I can't remember if the subject of the Savarran equivalent of Central and South Eastern Asia that in theory should frame the islands of not-Japan has ever been brought up.