Power gained
2 Worship Points gained
[MINOR ROCK NUMEN LEVEL 2
POWERS
Inconsequential Miracle (WP 1)
Minor Miracle (WP 2)
WORSHIPPERS: 1
WORSHIP POINTS: 3
INFLUENCES
None
DOMAINS
None]
That's different. There's a level included now. It's no replacement for a life, though. If any of that garbage about being dead was real, I mean. I’m putting my money on this being a dream. Second guess is I'm in a coma. My back-up plan?
Voice, what’s the highest level Miracle a… numen can have?
The Divine Miracle is the highest level Miracle I have in my records as accessible to numen.
And what level numen can have it?
The lowest level I have in my records, for a numen with access to Divine Miracles, is level one hundred and fifty, with Dominion over a Domain.
So there's my back-up plan. Get to level one hundred and fifty, get Dominion over a Domain, learn Divine Miracle then Miracle myself back home.
Simple.
Simple, not easy.
Time has drifted on again. DeeDee and her father must have gone, because now the shepherd is walking back towards me with a woman beside him. Her clothes are in a similar style to his, brightly woven with embroidered boots, but with long skirts and a patterned head-scarf knotted over her hat and under her chin. She looks about the same age as him, I guess. Her face is so much an older version of DeeDee that she must me related.
“I don't think it could be,” she's saying. “Not really.”
“But the lamb was dry, my love. It was cold and raining, and yet the lamb was warm and dry. And Bobo did come back.”
The woman tutted. “She's too rough with that poor urval. I wouldn't be surprised if it had run away, and only came back because it was hungry. I keep telling her to be more gentle, but she never remembers.” She smiles teasingly up at the man. “She may have my looks, but she has your memory.”
“I never forget a sheep!” he says, with a huff and a mock frown.
“Perhaps I should name a sheep after our daughter's birthing-day, then!”
The couple is right in front of me now. The man reaches into the cloth bag that is slung over his shoulder by a strap woven with a pattern of stylised sheep. He takes out what I guess is a coin, although it's square with a hole at its centre. It's too yellow to be copper and too brown to be gold.
“Ganzor, it's too much!” the woman protests as the shepherd- Ganzor- places the coin on top of… well, on top of me.
“I would give more if I could, my petal,” Ganzor says with soft assurance. “How much is another child worth?” He kneels, facing me.
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Worship Points received: 1
You have been offered Tribute! Do you accept it? Y/N
“You'll get your good clothes all muddy,” scolds the woman- his wife, I'm guessing. She reaches into her voluminous skirt pocket with a put-upon sigh, bringing out a cloth-wrapped bundle. This cloth looks coarse and plain. She puts the bundle beside the coin, pulling apart the folds to show the contents. Two plump-looking, golden pastry cakes, elaborately shaped and glazed into glossy works of art.
“There. Happy?”l
You have been offered Tribute! Do you accept it? Y/N
Interesting. No Worship Point that time. I accept both Tributes, but only receive one additional Point. I'm starting to put together some ideas about Worship. I'm pretty sure the belief of the person doing the Worship makes a difference.
Time to do something about that, if I'm going to work towards my back-up plan. All I need is to figure out what the shepherd and his wife want.
Ganzor does not leave me waiting. “Please, rock. I know it's not something that is lost, but it is something that is missing. We have only one child. We have wished for another, for many years, but there is still an empty space in our family.”
Uh. Oh-kay. I hope they weren't planning on the practical side of that right in front of me! They've both got all their clothes on still, thankfully. Maybe Miracles can be a bit flexible in when they work?
This doesn't sound Inconsequential. It doesn't even sound Minor, but that's all I've got. Hang on though. Making something like a tree grow a bit better and produce a bit more fruit, that doesn't sound like a big Miracle. Maybe I can do something along those lines.
I concentrate, first on Ganzor, then on his wife. Two Minor Miracles, to make them more, ahem, fruitful.
The drain of four Worship Points leaves me feeling light-headed, despite not having a head. Just one Point remains, but if this works, well, I might even get one or two more Worshippers.
Voice, what do I need to reach Level Three?
Two Worshippers.
Can you skip Levels? If I got enough to qualify for Level Four all in one go, would I still only get given Level Three?
All levels include the requirement for the previous level. In the scenario you give, you would receive Level Three then immediately receive Level Four.
Another thought strikes me, prompted by the phrasing “requirement.”
Voice, what would happen if I lost all my Worshippers?
You would be reduced to Level One. All Powers requiring a higher level would be sealed.
So I could build up a whole crowd of Worshippers, get to level one hundred, and a single plague or war could wipe out everything and bump me back to nothing? That's total BS!
That is why the Gods seek alliances among themselves.
I pause to think.
So… alliances with, say, the God of Health? I agree to help his-
Her
-Worshippers find missing stuff if she agrees to cure mine of plague, that sort of thing? Or, we both agree that our Worshippers won't beat each other up?
Either is known.
And what would a numen gain from not allying? From killing someone else's Worshippers instead?
Influence.
And what can a numen do with Influence?
Anything that can be done with any level of Miracle.
So… why bother with Influence, if you can use Miracles instead?
Influence does not require Worship Points.
If I could breathe, I would gasp at the implication of that. Killing people is basically a really cheap way to perform Miracles. Miracle-equivalent actions?
An expensive way. It would require hundreds of deaths to attain a related level of Influence.
I think of how a Miracle could turn a well into deadly poison. How easily humans can be manipulated into violence. Not expensive at all, when you think of it that way.
Voice, are there any consequences to gaining Influence by killing people?
Gaining Death as a Domain by taking sufficient lives would place you beneath the authority of the god with Dominion over Death. The current holder of this position is Winslow the Precise. Winslow is a Level one hundred and fifty-nine numen with Dominion over Death, Law and Taxes.
Sounds delightful. I can see how that could be an unpleasant consequence.
The shepherd couple have gone. Time has done its timeslip thing again. It's dark, two of the three moons forming indistinct crescents behind a thin veil of mist. I couldn't say if it was the night that followed the visit by Ganzor and his wife, or many days later. Hadn't the moons been full the last time I looked?
Voice? Is killing people the only way to gain Influence?
There is a soft chime.
Power gained
3 Worship Points gained
[MINOR ROCK NUMEN LEVEL 3
POWERS
Inconsequential Miracle (WP 1)
Minor Miracle (WP 2)
Bless (Max WP L)
WORSHIPPERS: 3
WORSHIP POINTS: 4
INFLUENCES
Life
DOMAINS
None]
No.