Terrestrial God Replacements

[The Matt]

Now I don't remember any page reference, but I think that if you kill, say the god of a particular forest, either a replacement is made or other gods are promoted and one of them is replaced by a new god. Is this the case in canon? Or in anyone's games? And what bureau's in heaven or creation are responsible for all of this, and how is the new god made? Does someone order it done? Do the pattern spider's do it automatically? Where would the god appear? As you can see I'm fishing for ideas.


My PC's are due for a confrontation with Elder Oak, the god of those woods the Ten Tribes live in. I've portrayed him as rather egregiously corrupt and thought it might be cool if his replacement was kind and humble and ready to serve the solars. But then I also worry about setting the prescedent that the way to deal with unruly gods is by offing them and waiting for a more tractable one to replace him - but then I imagine I could


1- make some of the replacements only seem to be helpful


2- assert that new gods may have a full compliment of powers but that their lack of experience means they require centuries to get up to speed without intense micromanagement. To say nothing of their peers walking all over them.


Sorry, that was me thinking while I post.  ops:


But any input would be appreciated.

 

[Flagg]

The 1E Sidereals book says that Yu Shan is littered with unemployed gods, due to Creation shrinking drastically several times. I'm sure if there was an opening, one of these gods could be called upon to fill the position. The appropriate Bureau would make the assignment.

 

[Acidburns]

If they start offing Gods left, right and centre the Bureaucracy is going to take notice.  Maybe a written warning at first, with further attempts followed up with a firebird strike team.

 

[Persell]

Depends on how corrupt the god they kill was...


Getting rid of some of the nastier corrupt gods can get you quite some favours in heaven.

 

[The Matt]

The god they might kill is intensely corrupt - assuming his superiors in heaven pick and send his replacement I have a choice;


1- his superiors didn't know, or didn't care what he was up to. It will take some outside interference for them to even realize he's dead. Replacement will be a while... or


2- They were in on it. Replacement is either bland and unassuming or much worse. Hell maybe one of the superiors ends up demoted because of all this.


In either case I'll have to decide just how far reaching this corruption was and if his superiors seek revenge or just pretend they didn't know, or maybe even claim to their superiors that they instigated dead god's removal.


Of course, if the PC's don't seem interested I can just assume that some sidereal NPC's got another mini-adventire out of this.


In hindsight, I don't think my player's would really try to just kill all inconvenient gods, but if they ever do it's good to know I've got some plans. One of my player's does like to lean a little heavily on that whole Divine Mandate to Rule Creation law.

 

[Persell]

speaking of which, should a powerful enough celestial exalt, be able to ... arrange for a god to be promoted...


might get a sideral some handy shock troops to promised some of the disenfranchised god's in Yu-shan that if they fight well enough they'll be promoted...

 

[Persell]

Promoted? Hell, from what I remember of the Sidereal book alot of those unemployed gods would storm the Games if they were promised something to eat....or whatever passes for food in Yu Shan. [/i]

 

[The Matt]

Although a celestial exalt who has enough power to gain entry to heaven or to gain the respect of important celestial gods and is savvy enough to garner influence with same, could certainly arrange a promotion, I also think that solars definitely, and lunars maybe,  should have an occult or lore charm that accomplishes the same thing. Maybe with an xp cost, as it would really screw up heaven if this kind of thing was used willy nilly. It would probably only work on gods with essence lower than the exalt.

 

[The Matt]

But yeah, more directly, those homeless gods would work for a little statue that mortals pray to once a week.


Maybe a charm for craft and bureaucracy that lets you assign a willing god to whatever you make with them.


"Henceforth this is the capital of the Deliberative-in-Exile, Neo-Meru. You, for meritorius conduct under fire, are now the God of Neo-Meru. You, for your extreme valor in the face of overwheming odds are named god of the Deliberative-in-Exile. And you, who we all saw run when the legion charged, shall be god of this mass grave we bury that legion in. One hungry ghost and you'll be lucky to be the god of this drainage ditch. Thus does the Unconquered Sun reward his faithful and deal with cowards. Now get to work."

 

[Persell]

I remember reading somewhere fairly recently that the god is remade, but is likely to be completely different in personality, Motivation, demeanor and paradigm, but fits the same role as the former god.


As for worrying that your players are going to try offing any recalcitrent gods they meet along the way, just set the next one you planned on having be cantankerous (or even this one) up to be such a pain in the tail to take out it wouldn't really be worth doing it as a common thing.


Of course, the slaying of god after god after god is probably going to be taken very seriously in the Bureaucracies of Yu-Shan, and "troubleshooting" squads of more powerful gods or possibly Sidereals could be dispatched to, well, shoot the trouble.

 

[The Matt]

As it turned out, they didn't kill the god, they just narced on him to his superior. His superior chastised and imprisoned the corrupt god, then demanded the PC's visit his party sanctum before calibration. Now they can deal with his corruption.