Score: 578 | 8/14/22 |
Once, there were three powerful Deific Houses, House Borath, House Korian and House Fys, rivals in various domains. As rivals do, they fought and struggled over power, control and influence over they common domains. As houses would, they fought through academic argument, debate and subterfuge, through populist movements and propagands, through assassination of mortal figures and even through war between mortal nations.
But these are mundane political trifles between houses and the egos of their leadership; such things happen all the time between houses with overlapping interests.
Somewhat rarer are relationships between gods of rival houses.
The Tryst
Jonath, Miriam and Krys each held a major Mantle within their house. Jonath the Magnificent held the Borath Mantle of Strength; Miriam the Bountiful held the Korian Mantle of Prosperity, and Krys the Wise held the Fys Mantle of Law.
Jonath, Miriam and Krys encountered each other many times through their activities and energies as active gods, and, despite their Houses' rivalry, developed feelings of respect for one another. Respect grew into friendship, frendship into quiet affection, and quiet affection grew into love.
Comradery between gods of different houses is nothing new, but it tends to be looked down upon by other members of the houses, but if they showed respect to each other in public, where was the harm? And as their relationship evolved to open friendship, mutterings began, but these were powerful and senior members of their respective houses, and opposing them could have one's Psychic Energy quota increased, or one's stipend pinched off, so the mutterings remained only that.
All three knew and understood they were crossing boundaries into politically dangerous territory as they transitioned into friendship and deeper. Jonath and Miriam felt secure in their positions and in their domains, but Krys, wielding a Mantle of Law, felt conflicted and corrupted the stronger their connection became. When Krys spoke to Jonath and Miriam about their feelings, Miriam assured Krys it would be all right in the end, and Jonath spoke reassuringly of being strong in the face of difficulties and complications.
Jonath and Miriam had a baby in secret, whom they named Joni. When Krys found out they felt betrayed, both by having been excluded by Jonath and Miriam, and by the event of something even more taboo than what their already taboo trysting: The birth of a god born of rival houses. Such a thing could have cataclysmic consequences and drive such chaos!
In a panic, Krys stole baby Joni away and hid her in the adoptive care of the mortal King Clause, a king of Prine whose last remaining heirs had died of illness, after which Joni was called Joyce, and was raised and trained with all the resources and skills of a mortal noble, and only Krys knew Joyce was truly Joni.
Jonath and Miriam never learned where their Joni had gone, even as Krys confessed to them that they'd stolen Joni away. Their friendships could never be the same, even if they still understood and respected each other, and they went their separate ways.
The Demigod
Joyce thrived. See, Jonath and Miriam truly loved her, as did Krys through their love of Jonath and Miriam. Through all this, Joyce gained a Mantle of Life, into which was poured much of the energy of Jonath and Miriam, and even of Krys.
There is, however, a reason it's taboo to have a scion of two houses; if not managed and trained very carefully, their very existence can be destabilizing to the houses they're descended from. And while demigods aren't vanishingly rare, few demigods have a wealth of untapped Psychic Energy to fuel them.
When Joyce was a child, she loved learning about everything, all the sciences, all the arts, and her tutors would remark they often felt the inferior of the two after only a few sessions' tutelage. Having absorbed every iota of information before her, Joyce spent her time dreaming and imagining things.
Prine bordered an undeveloped void, and King Clause and his court were organizing a Formation effort to build new habitable farmlands with many minable resources; such an addition of territory would be a major economic boon to this kingdom reaching middle age; within a generation or two, its seat of power would be Depleted, and its political survival would rapidly become much more difficult.
Joyce was part of the planning efforts for the Formation, having studied arithmetic, farming and economics, she understood what was required and contributed to the planning documents that were refined into training materials for the people whose Psychic Energy and will would be used for the Formation. Her contributions were ingenious and invaluable, and it was clear to the entire Court of Prine that the result was going to be far better than their learned sages had suggested might even be possible. Quiet plans and politicking had already begun to carve out the new territory's wealth amongst the courtiers.
With the planning for the new territory long-since passed, and the Formation Guild fully trained, she watched as they began their efforts. It was a slow, slow process; minutes turned to hours, hours to days, days to weeks, and the Formation could barely be seen to be happening; their goals were complicated and difficult to be universally comprehended, so it took a great deal of time for the Formation to settle.
Joyce grew bored. Around this time, she reached puberty, and her deific powers manifested, making available to her huge stores of Psychic Energy that she was only vaguely aware of and whose significance she was completely oblivious. She began to daydream of things more interesting than a slowly-boiling kettle. She dreamed of humanoid chimeras, of catfolk and werewolves, of lizardfolk and gnolls, of people with giraffe-heads and bipedal bulls. She spent her time sketching what she imagined they looked like, how she imagined they thought, what she imagined they wanted and where she imagined they lived. She spent days inventing stories so quickly she enlisted a bard to absorb and record them, even engage in a little creative banter.
The Unexpected Formation
While Joyce was so absorbed in her imaginings, the Formation Guild noticed something else; while the Formation process had been going slow, it suddenly began going incredibly, unbelievably quickly. It didn't make sense; it would have required dozens as many minds as they had to make the process move this quickly; what was expected to take several more months instead took only three days. Nobody understood it, though anyone who saw senior clerics in the street might have noticed their discomfort.
And then word came; the Formation was complete, and it was time to take the prepared teams of settlers into the new territory; Prine had a new province.
However, word was coming back from the settlers; the province already had people living there. Strange people, with blendings of animal and human features. These became known as the Chimeran People.
While some of the court argued for the purging of these interlopers, and others for their subjugation and enslavement, King Clause listened to these arguments, troubled. Such an action would be very draining on the kingdom's coffers, and there was no guarantee that an end would ever be reached. While speaking with his adoptive daughter Joyce, he expressed his concerns.
Joyce considered; she felt she knew more about the Chimeran People than any other, given they seemed to be so similar to her drawings and doodles; it must be divine providence!
Joyce joined the Court and presented her arguments:
The Kingdom of Prine was not an ethnic kingdom; it had many people of many races living within it, represented in its Court. Why should these new peoples be excluded? Not in slavery, but as merchants and workers, even citizens and nobles? Were there not numerous new races, each representing a potential ally as they spread through the world? Wouldn't it be an amazing advantage to Prine for these new peoples to have a strong connection with Prine? To be likely to respond to calls for aid?
Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, these are all represented within Prine, but they are all represented everywhere. We cannot put out a call to any race to aid us in time of need, because these races are of nearly all nations.
Here, we have a unique opportunity! What if, even as these new peoples become of all nations, they always remember that they are of Prine first? What then?
I say this is an unprecedented opportunity for us, giving us further life and prosperity for decades, even centuries!
The Court stood in silence. This was none to their individual advantage, but it was clearly to the advantage of the Kingdom, and so they dared not protest. Sabre Tombend and Umbri Hart, in particular, were displeased; Tombend had intended to use the new races as slave labor for farming, while Hart had seen an opportunity to equip the kingdom's military as it swelled to support occupying the new territory and quelling any resistance. Joyce's proposal was popular with the King and the rest of the Court, but ran counter to the interests of both Tombend and Hart.
The Mission
A diplomatic mission to the new territory was required, and Joyce was selected to speak for it. As she set out, she was discretely followed by agents of House Tombend and House Hart. The Tombend agent, Salem Shade, was tasked with ensuring Princess Joyce's death, as with her death, the mission would likely fail. The Hart agent, Vayne Mallor, was tasked with sabotaging the mission and ensuring the population of the new territory appeared hostile and unwilling to join.
Mallor rode ahead to sow fear, rumors and discontent, while Shade hired a mercenary band to lay in ambush against Joyce's entourage.
Godly Law
The rapid creation of New Prine, along with the creation of the chimeric races, did not go unnoticed by the gods.
Krys, concerned for Jodi's welfare, revealed her Joyce alias to Miriam and Jonath, who used their priests in the Kingdom of Prine to send agents for Joyce's protection; the Church of Borath sent a paladin named Aurae Omahice, while the Church of Korian sent a cleric named Folmar Bophin.
For his part, Krys sent a cleric of Fys, Uldraen Noblegrip, to bring Jodi back to the realm of the gods in an attempt to bring some order to the growing problem of anger and distrust between the Godhouses; Joyce had performed an act quite taboo in the mortal world, and had revealed a taboo act in the world of gods, and the wielder of the Mantle of Law felt it necessary she be central to the resolution of the conflict.
Meanwhile, Dugan the Deliberate, of Godhouse Logan, wielder of the Logan Mantle of Law, had a worshiper in Sabre Tombend, and learned of events of Prine through him.