FrivYeti/PCECelestialBureacracy

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Yu-Shan And The Celestial Bureaucracy

The gods of Heaven look down on Creation, toiling to ensure its prosperity. In better times, they were efficient and skilled, but now Heaven has been reduced to a tangled mass of red tape, corruption and strife are rampant, and the skies weep as they behold the pain that has fallen upon Creation.

Yu-Shan

Yu-Shan is an urban metropolis the approximate size and shape of Mount Meru, from its lowest slopes to its upper reaches (where the Jade Pleasure Dome sits atop the highest peak). A gleaming city five hundred miles by two hundred and fifty miles across, it is different from its description in the Compass of Celestial Directions: Yu-Shan only in scale. Yu-Shan is divided into three sections: the slums, the central city, and the abodes of the greater gods. These take up one-sixth, one-half, and one-third of the city respectively, and hold two million, six million, and roughly twenty thousand people.

The Heavenly Bureaus

As a general rule, only the Celestial Incarnae have Backing NA. The gods who direct each of the five Celestial Bureaus (or in the case of the Bureau of Heaven, the two gods who share those duties) are considered to be Backing 6, which the Daimyos of each department are ranked at Backing 5. Backing 4 represents upper managers of the gods, who report directly to the daimyos, of which there are roughly a thousand. Their own subordinates are Backing 3, and represent every god in Yu-Shan who has their own office and affairs (every employed god of Essence 5 or greater, and most gods of Essence 4) - personal assistants of Backing 5-6 gods also qualify for this (and because of this, there are over 20,000 such positions). Backing 2 is reserved for the most important subordinates of Backing 3-4 gods, who manage teams of weaker gods and keep the glue of Yu-Shan running; there are well over a quarter of a million such souls in Yu-Shan. Finally, every god with an official position in the Hierarchy is considered to have Backing 1 (such gods are always Essence 2-3), meaning that there are millions of them running around the Celestial City.

Essence Ratings

A god's Essence score is based around both what his current purview is, and what it once was. As in normal Exalted, a god cannot drop more than 2 dots of permanent Essence from his highest rating, even if his purview is restricted or weakened (gods who never exceeded Essence 3 cannot drop more than 1 Essence dot from losing support, while gods who were always Essence 1 stay there). Godly Essence ratings are as follows:

The Incarnae

The Incarnae are the leaders of Heaven and the empowerers of the Celestial Exalted.

• Essence 10: The most mighty of the gods possess an Essence rating that can only be envied by others. This rating is restricted to the Unconquered Sun and to Luna.
• Essence 9: A god who reaches this tier of Essence would be considered a Celestial Incarna. Since the Primordial War, the only gods with Essence 9 have been the Five Maidens, whose powers are vast enough that each has a subordinate to help them at all times. It is said that there were other Incarnae in the Primordial War, but none living recall their names or positions.

The Greater Gods

The greatest of the gods encompass global concepts, with enough power to require regional subordinates. They are usually highly placed in their respective fields.

• Essence 8: There are only ten Essence 8 gods in Heaven; five who descend from the Unconquered Sun's nature, and five who descend from Luna's. One of these ten (Agralzo, God of Discovery) remains imprisoned for supposed crimes; the others are all leaders of Bureaus or Departments, and include such luminaries as Yo-Ping, god of Peace, Uvanavu, God of Health, Ryzala, Goddess of Bureaucracy, Tara-Han, the Daimyo of Souls, and Flashing Peak, Goddess of Tradition (and of the Imperial Mountain). These gods are the incarnations of the most powerful principles of Creation (Ryzala in particular has her position mainly due to the importance of the Celestial Bureaucracy as a whole, which she also theoretically oversees). In theory, there could be more or fewer gods as time passed (for example, Discovery is likely weaker than it once was, and Agralzo might no longer meet this standard even if released.) Like their immediate subordinates, they usually have Essence 5 gods who embody regional incarnations of their areas of endeavor.
• Essence 7: Gods of this Essence rank embody the great principles of Creation - such as Shining Barrator, the god of Law (and leader of the Celestial Lions), Lytek, God of Exaltation, Ruvia, god of Roads, or Nara-O, Keeper of Secrets. There are roughly fifty gods of this level, including the five leaders of the Bureau of Destiny, and the leaders of the Bureaus of Seasons and Humanity. These gods always have five regional subordinates, who are generally Essence 5 beings in their own right.
• Essence 6: The lowest-ranked of the greater gods, gods of this level still embody principles that are of importance to all of Creation, but which are far less central than those held by their superiors. Examples include Luranume, God of Luck (whose power is weakened by the might of Destiny in Creation), Amoth City-Smiter, god of Bribery and Ruin, Hran-Tzu, god of Decay, or the deceased Pai Yi the Sail Maiden. There are approximately two hundred and fifty such gods.

The Lesser Gods

Lesser gods typically oversee principles that are not critical to Creation, or else handle regional understandings of the great principles.

• Essence 5: The highest-ranked of the lesser gods, these gods often hope to raise their profile through spreading skills. They cover important but non-critical aspects of the world, or aspects that the gods have little control over, such as Luxana, Goddess of Recorded Knowledge (who has lost Essence in the Age of Sorrows), Scarazan, Goddess of Divine Reallocation, or Xaos, God of Things Undiscovered - or, of course, many of them are the regional subordinates of the sixty greater gods (such as Ahlat, Southern God of War, who has been angling for promotion through expanding his domain). There are roughly 1,500 gods of this Essence level at any given time.
• Essence 4: The weaker of the lesser gods, these gods cover any domain considered important enough to need any watching, but unimportant, self-involved, or static enough to not need true backing. These gods watch over such domains as Intoxicants, Artwork, Terrestrial Exaltation, or Smithing. There are over 20,000 such gods in Yu-Shan, nearly all of them employed. (There are also a very, very few Essence 4 gods who are unemployed, and were once Essence 6 gods who lost their purviews.)

Servant Gods

• Essence 3: The majordomos of Heaven, these gods typically exist to serve their direct superiors. Many of them are high-ranking servants of the Greater Gods, while lesser gods can consider themselves fortunate to have one or two such subordinates in their purview. There are nearly 500,000 gods of this level, who fall into type rather than occupying a unique place in Heaven's hierarchy, and a few thousand of them are unemployed.
• Essence 2: The rank and file of Heaven's citizens, Essence 2 gods are those who have enough of a place in the Celestial Bureaucracy to have direct superiors that are Lesser Gods (or occasionally other majordomos). These gods serve various simple functions, often having to travel to Creation or else toil for their masters. There are over five million gods of this Essence level, of which hundreds of thousands are unemployed gods leftover from the days when Heaven could afford to give them all positions, many of which were once Essence 3-4.
• Essence 1: The weakest wisps of Yu-Shan, these gods serve as minor servants wherever they can. They have no official connection to a Bureau, even in the vaguest sense, and many of them are literally unemployed, or are employed in positions that most gods would rather remain unemployed than attempt. There are close to two million such gods in Yu-Shan, with close to half their number being unemployed wisps haunting the edges of Heaven's back alleys.