FrivYeti/PCETerrestrialBureaucracy
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The Terrestrial Bureaucracy
Living amongst the mortals of Creation, the gods of the Terrestrial Bureaucracy are often scorned by their heavenly peers, but they have the power of their followers and allies within the world to use to their advantage. They may be weaker and more poorly organized than the gods of Heaven, but they are fully strong enough to cause trouble to their enemies.
Structure of the Terrestrial Bureaucracy
Unlike the Celestial Bureaucracy, the Backing levels of the Terrestrial Bureaucracy do not add to their power. In the days of the Primordials, the Terrestrial gods were merest functionaries, forced to kowtow to the whims of the favoured races of their creators. Later, when the gods gave the Mandate of Heaven over to the Exalted, they did not attempt to grant titles within Heaven to the Terrestrial gods, reasoning that reliance on mortal cults for power would help ensure that their kin obeyed the wills of the Exalted. Furthermore, over the course of the First Age, Heaven mostly ignored their Terrestrial compatriots, leaving it to the Exalted to govern them.
Because of this, corruption set into the Terrestrial Bureaucracy earlier than it did in Heaven. As early as the middle Shogunate, Terrestrial gods were finding ways to circumvent the restrictions placed upon them by Heaven in order to gather cults and power bases within Creation. Those who survived the ravages of the Contagion, furious at the uninvolvement of Yu-Shan during their disaster, ignored ever-more rules in order to protect their domains from the dangers of the Second Age. Now, most of the Terrestrial Bureaucracy pays only lip service to their official duties, flagrantly and obviously interfering on behalf of their followers. Only those forced into servitude by the Immaculate Order do their duties as originally intended, and even they must be bribed into support of the Realm's regime.
Conceptually, every god of the Terrestrial Bureaucracy must report to a superior within the Bureau of Nature, Humanity, or Seasons. In practice, most of these reports are half-hearted affairs, and the gods of Yu-Shan are too busy to worry about it unless actual trouble develops.
The Gods of the Terrestrial Bureaucracy
Theoretically, the Terrestrial Bureaucracy is led by the Five Elemental Dragons, but this is generally agreed to be a symbolic position, as the Dragons are too busy with their own affairs to watch over those of their inferiors.
With that in mind, the Bureaucracy is managed by Direction, with individual gods covering increasingly-small regions. Divisions are as follows:
- Directional Gods: The five Directions are overseen by the six Directional Gods, although only four of these six gods are actual members of the Terrestrial Bureaucracy. The gods of the four outer directions, such as the Ocean Father, are Essence 7 gods who typically have massive cults in their names. The Blessed Isle, however, is governed in two parts by Flashing Peak, Goddess of the Imperial Mountain, and Jagalza, Satrap of the Realm. This is because in the early days of the Bureaucracy, the Blessed Isle was the abode of the gods, and had no patron deity.
- Regional Gods: Every direction in Creation is divided into several smaller regions. How these regions are divided varies based on region - for example, the West is divided into the Seven Seas, while the East is divided into ten smaller areas. In total, Creation is divided into forty smaller regions, each measuring over six million square miles. The gods of these regions are almost always Essence 6, although a few Essence 5 gods manage to cover particularly unimpressive areas such as the far northwestern seas.
- Creation's many domains: Each region of Creation is further subdivided into what are commonly known as 'domains'. Creation's domains are regions such as the Hundred Kingdoms, the Madaghest Range, or other large and wide-reaching territories. There are close to a thousand domains within Creation, with between thirty and forty in each region, and they range in size from around a hundred thousand square miles (the size of South Korea on Earth) up to four hundred thousand square miles (about the size of Germany on Earth). The gods who manage these domains are typically Essence 4 for minor domains and Essence 5 for mighty ones. Overall, there are about three hundred and fifty Essence 5 gods in the Terrestrial Bureaucracy and around five hundred and fifty Essence 4 gods.
- Beneath the domains are what are known as Creation's districts. Unlike the larger areas, a district is a single quantifiable feature of terrain or culture, which can be rivers large enough to deserve notice, cities powerful enough to need watching (typically any city with a population of 10,000 or greater), mountains, forests, lakes, and the like. The gods of these locations are typically Essence 3, although the gods of particular important areas (such as the god of Lookshy or the god of the Yellow River) reach Essence 4. This is the bulk of the Terrestrial Bureaucracy; a typical district covers only a few miles, and while large areas of a domain do not generally have enough important to have a lesser god watching them, there are still usually around two hundred such gods within a typical domain (roughly one per 1200 square miles). This translates to there being close to two hundred thousand Essence 3 gods in Creation.
- The weakest gods are Essence 1 and 2 servants, who work in the courts of greater gods. These gods fall into two groups. Most of them live quiet lives away from the domains, watching over small towns, tiny rivers, or similar miniature regions; every domain holds close to a thousand such minor deities. Others join the spirit courts, jostling for position under domain-gods, regional masters, or even directional gods. A typical domain's court will contain twenty or thirty spirits, none with any power to speak of. Regional courts are far more bustling, with hundreds of minor gods crowding in an eternal search for a fragment of power, and the great directional courts each feature several thousand fragmentary gods trying to demonstrate their capabilities. In total, there are over a million minor gods in Creation, beings capable of managing minor Charms but vunerable if they choose to challenge even a heroic mortal.
