Another experiment that would be useful would be to check if we could Command another necromancers undead. Also, Monk are there active gods in this one?
Short answer: Deities of various flavors are going concerns, but much less active than, say, Dungeons and Dragons- you know they exist, but what the extent of their power, influence, or plot significance is remains a mystery.
Longer answer: One of the tradeoffs for the Elven start choice (and its associated magicalness) is that you don't know much about the world at large- between the Elves' near brush with extinction (during which remembering how to farm and use magic at all was more pressing than preserving any Creation Mythos) and the Elven tendency to live in the present, You don't have that much knowledge on world religions.
You know that the Elves pay homage to Aye Valleymists, less a God than the guardian Spirit of the Walled Jungle (aka that forest you're walking around in.) It isn't so much worship as it is respect for a great Guardian of Life, but it's something. You know from listening to the merchants of the semiannual Caravan that Thrimesdur has a much more organized religious system, and that the cosmopolitan cities of the Jeweled Coast play host to a wide variety of theological beliefs and practices from across the world. You've got the vague idea that most religions advocate one of the Magical Faiths Pevo talked about a while back, but you aren't sure how accurate that is. What does that even mean, Magic is Magic and Faith is Faith, right? Something to look forward to.
Of slightly more immediate concern-
Two in favor of leaving immediately,
Two in favor of checking out the Caravan first for supplies and sticking around to hear the results of the Council (although I think lockman may be in the latter camp now.) Anywho, update will be up eventually. I'd say tomorrow, but every time I do say it something comes up and pushes it back another day or three