I think I'd rather be a god than worship them. Back home that would have made me crazy, but here that's a real thing, right?
oh HELL yes. The problem is that one such as Michael here isn't likely to become a god, hehe.
There are 6 ways to become a god. The first, the "Prolix Tower", is probably hopelessly boring, probably just becoming very powerful (there's no real info on it); the second, Dracochrysalis, is to utilize a break in time to become a god (yeah, that's not happening); the third, the Scarab that Becomes the New Man (I have a feeling Vivec named that one), is to use the Heart of Lorkhan as suggested (I really don't think Dagoth Ur would appreciate that, nor would the Nerevarine); the fourth is mantling/enantiomorph, which is how Talos became Talos and involves "walk[ing] like [a god] until they walk like you" or following a narrative pattern in a specific way (again, unlikely; people throughout history who have done this are such names as King Wulfarth, Talos and Pelinal Whitestrake, most of whom are insane); the fifth is CHIM (not recommended due to having an extremely high mortality rate in achieving); and the sixth is Numidium (which is a no, unless Dagoth Ur wins, which is a big no).
Mantling is also, IIRC, the reason the PC is the Nerevarine. Just thought I'd add that tidbit.
Additionally, while not quite godhood, there's Corprus, which appears to be Dagoth Ur's attempt to 'spread the wealth'. Corprus was supposed to provide eternal longevity, bodily health, and spiritual advancement. However it seems to fail a lot and turn people into zombies, turns you into a Silent Hill-looking elephant man if it succeeds, and the only remedy for it (Divayth Fyr's 'cure') removes the bad effects while retaining the good stuff but also apparently straight-up kills everyone except the Nerevarine.
As for the Legion, it could be a problem. We'd be stationed somewhere, for one thing. Presumably for a year. Even if we had weekends off, we'd be getting
game weekends off, which means we'd have to get any business done in maybe an hour and get back to report in. And patrolling means we probably would end up having to fight things we're not prepared for. An early blighted Cliff Racer could ruin our day. And we could run into one because a) we aren't tied to the leveled monster lists and could just run into whatever whenever, or b) the leveled lists apply, but the Nerevarine's level is what they run off of, and she'll be leveling while we patrol.
On the pro side, it gives us free armor and training that should help Mike survive, and we'll almost certainly get attacked by something even if we don't join the Legion.
As for the bandit, we're not ready to take him head-on. Mictlantecuhtli's idea to talk to the guy is interesting, but even if Darius accepts our word for it (maybe he checks and sees the bridge empty) I think it will result in the bandit killing us, taking the
whole bounty, and scarpering. Or we could
not bring him his share of the bounty, in which case we have an angry bandit who either hunts us down or goes back to robbing travelers on that bridge and gets the
Legion pissed at us for conning them out of the bounty money.
Now maybe we could find where he's camped, sneak in, and poison his cookpot or something? That'd need Sneak practice, and probably a fair amount of Alchemy, but I think it might be doable.