Stray Soul

After an hour or so of conversation, Gram and his men rested while I watched over them with a few sentries, and after they woke up, our conversation continued, and we were able to come up with a system of governance that was acceptable by both sides.

“Though I would’ve liked an absolute democracy, a constitutional monarchy is fine too I guess...” I thought to myself.

We had decided in a system where the parliament held more power than the “monarch” who would be Gram himself, but his title would remain as “Chief” instead of changing into something like king.

Though this did not mean Gram didn’t have any power, he did. And his “Pupil”, who he would choose from one of his own children or from the public, would be akin to a crown prince or princess and would have quite a bit of power too!

But the parliament just had the power to veto their decisions, and order both the Chief and the Pupil to stop, which might not happen for the first few years of Gram’s reign as the parliament will be more like a council of elders for the first few years of Gram’s reign as the concept of choosing your leaders and law makers will take some time to be instilled into people’s minds.

But after proper politicians had the time to rise to power, and were seated in the parliament, they’d be able to quell the power of both the Chief and the Pupil, and if Gram ever tried to do something in the future, which I don’t think he will but let’s assume for a moment he did, the parliament had my support too!

So, while I was not allowed to directly interfere with the state, my mere presence and the existence of my church would be more than enough to stop any power plays from the Chief and Pupils in the future.

But I was also a bit worried that a parliament which would oppose the power of the Chief would never arise because... well, the goblins had a very meritocratic society.

If you were their strongest, you would be their chief, and if you were the best in magic or were a priest of a god, you would be their shaman.

And the positions of the Chief and the Shaman were not really contested or went against until someone who was equally strong arose, or the ruler of the tribe was about to die or had died.

So, there is a very real chance that whoever becomes a member of the parliament in the future may just—not go against the chief.

But that’s assuming I only ever have goblins in my nation, and goblins continue to abide by this meritocratic structure that even determines the length of their names.

Oh, btw, no need to worry about any of my priests as I would make them take a vow to never contest the position of the Chief or go against the rules of the state.

There would be confusion among the populace for some time because a Shaman, who was a priest of a god or a deity, and a Chief usually didn’t co-exist, and the Shaman usually became their leader, but they would get used to it... hopefully.

As the night approached and we finalized our plans for the government which would take shape after the current Shaman was overthrown, Gram asked me how they should pray to me to accept me as their new deity and—I didn’t know how to exactly respond, so I just asked Rifu-san what to do.

“They are asking in which position and how they should pray to you, for example, my believers pray to me by using my god’s name, or another title like “The Matriarch” so, just tell them to use one of your names and it’s good to go.

And about which position they should use—its just superficial. You can make them pray to you with hands held up high, or with their forehead touching the ground. It doesn’t really matter.” She said and I totally wasn’t into the image of people going down to the ground and praying to me like that.

Hmm... but what to do then... how about they just kneel down? It’d still show their submission to me as their god without feeling too weird and about their hands... hmm, how about the pose of Baphomet?

I mean, not fully because that’d be too much of a copyright infringement, but maybe as both hands pointing down?

Yeah, that could work...

Then I told Rifu-san what I wanted them to do while praying to me, and repeated what she said to me, and after a minute or so, all the goblins in the camp had gathered and were kneeling down in the position I said gave them, and after a moment of them staying in that kneeling position, I heard the familiar sound of the system with a not so familiar text on it.

*ding*

Congratulations! You have gained the title False Idol (F)!

Description False Idol (F): Make at least 10 intelligent individuals pray to you as a Deity without having any Divinity of your own.

After getting a new title I was kinda surprised, and after reading it? I was surprised even more! But it kind of made sense now... didn’t it?

But I was wondering, what this divinity exactly was? So, I asked my resident encyclopaedia to hopefully answer my question.

“Divinity can be described as distilled belief. Whenever a person starts praying to you as a deity, you will gain a small amount of Divinity from their prayers.”

“Cool! So, when will I start getting Divinity? Tomorrow or in my next level?”

“Never—if you don’t increase the number of people praying you that is.

You see, Divinity can’t exist in its pure form in the world as it damages the plane in which we live, and the plane rejects it and tries to either destroy or disburse it so its effects are not focused on one place, you can see Divine Energy affecting and warping the world around it when someone uses a spell which use Holy Mana, which is a version of Divinity diluted by mana, or a Divine Artefact, for example my semi-divine core which was made using my Divinity, they all can’t exist in this plane without causing some damage, so, to negate their effects, the plane changes how they affect things.” She said, and let me process what she had said, and I couldn’t help but think that if divinity was as damaging to the world as she said, why couldn’t we see its effects?

“Because, while the Divinity used by me and other deities can be damaging to the world, we just don’t have enough of it to cause an actual problem to the world.

And the ones who do, the ones who have reached god hood, do not exist in the same plane as us.”

“Huh... Wait, can’t you then just wait until you get enough Divinity to go to the Divine Realm? If so, why did you say you didn’t know of a way to reach godhood?”

“Because I can’t. You see, like I said, Divinity damages the world, so the world disperses it, so I can’t just sit around for a few years and gain enough Divinity to go to the Divine realm, every day my Divinity is dispersed by the world, and I only ever have every day I either have the same amount of Divinity I had last day, or less as I need to convert enough mana to Holy Mana to give to my priest and priestess’, which costs quite a bit of Divine Energy.

I’ve tried before to concentrate my Divinity in a single spot in hopes of breaking through the barrier that divides the Divine Realm and our plane, but I was unsuccessful.

Though I was weaker then than I am now, I still cannot rise to godhood.”

“...So, as far as I understand, I can’t get divinity no matter how long I wait simply because the small amount of divinity I get gets disbursed by the world, and to start getting Divinity I’d have to get more believers?”

“Correct, specifically, you’d need 100 followers or believers to pray to you daily to get 1 Divinity. But 1 Divinity is... useless. As you need 1 Divinity to make a priest, and you’d need to at least spend .1 Divinity for Holy Mana so your priest can actually priest. So, you need 110 followers or more to be a functioning Deity.”

“...Didn’t Gram say his village had like 100 people?”

“Yes. He did.”

“So, I won’t be able to actually make a priest after I take control of them?”

“You will be able to—you just won’t be able to use any Divinity if you do so.”

“...Great! Really, just the greatest thing I’ve heard whole year!”

“No need to thank me!”

“I was not!

...You wouldn’t happen to know of a way for me to get more followers now, would you?”

“There is one way.”

“Oh, there is? Will you be just giving me some of your followers or...?”

“No, I will not be. That’s just inefficient anyways, their prayers will be separated into 2 if we do that, and neither of us will get a lot out of it. Something like that is only a good idea after you get a few million followers.

What I had in mind was you taking the followers from another deity.”

“...I don’t think it’s going to be a good idea to call the goblins into a crusade of some sorts just after they began being my followers. That—that just seems like a bad idea and Gram will definitely not accept it.”

“And whose fault is it that you do not have total control over them?”

“Mine—but I don’t necessarily see it as a problem, so its not really that bad.”

“...Well then, lets talk about what I have in mind now, shall we?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“You see, there are quite a few deities around my territories, and, while all of them have a few dozen followers than you, and would not be into the idea of sharing, there is a deity who is currently missing.”

“Wait? Missing? Did you kill them or something?”

“No. I wouldn’t do that for you, you should know that. The deity I am talking about is called Tilk, her domain is decently sized, and she has good enough relations with the other deities around her that her territory is hardly ever under the threat of invasion, and her followers are content with her reign.

But she has a tendency to... disappear.”

“Oh? So, this has happened before?”

“Yes, multiple times. She has been quite the curious one for as long as I’ve known her, and she has tried to go beyond The Blizzard quite a few times now.”

“The—what?”

“Don’t worry about it, The Blizzard is nowhere near you, and it’s stationary, so you don’t have to worry about it—ever.

Just know that it is the biggest mana storm in the northern hemisphere and has been active even before I existed. And because it’s been active for many a millennium, many are drawn into it for the wonders that may lay behind it.

But because of the colossal amounts of mana in the storm, the terrain around it is littered with dungeons of equally colossal size, and monsters that would boggle the mind.

Its basically a graveyard for the fool who dare approach it.”

“Ah... So, you think Tilk is dead?”

“Perhaps, perhaps not. She has been gone for longer before and she returned. But this time is proving to be quite the problem for her people as some think she has abandoned them for... some reason.

The mind of mortals is truly fascinating sometimes...

But, anyways, because of the rising tensions in wake of her disappearance, racial tensions are rising amongst her people too.”

“Ahh... I think I understand what’s happening... so, there are a few different species under her rule, and they are just... going at it?”

“Not really, its more like a one-sided massacre as both the central government and the minorities that are being subjected to the massacre are unable to stop the roaming Fox-men from burning down the villages in the countryside in order to appease their goddess and make her return.

You can probably go in, promise security to a few villages, and bring a few hundred people to here without much of a problem, and even if Tilk ever learned that you stole a few hundred people, she couldn’t do anything about it as the reason they even left was because she couldn’t follow up on her promise of safety to them.”

“I see...” I responded to her, and our conversation kind of died down there.

I mean, I was definitely going to bring in refugees here, no matter if the goblins agreed or not as I really didn’t want that to sit on my conscience, but the problem was the Fox-men that were roaming the countryside. I mean, who knows what kind of problems would arise if I killed a few groups?

Was that going to stop me from going in and trying to save people? Not really, but the prospect of further escalation was a possibility...

But that was for the future. Gram had talked to me about the defences in the village, and we were ready as we’d ever be to attack it tomorrow and hopefully scale the walls successfully and overthrow the Shaman.

Tough I was worried about unnecessary casualties, Gram had assured me that he could convince some people to stay in the sides while he challenged Krone Grone, the Shaman, for the leadership of the village.

Though, I could not help but feel like something was wrong... but, oh well. We’d see to it tomorrow.