Decent plan. Keeps to our mercantile nature, focuses on our domains, and branches out to a pretty closely related domain that would be useful both on the sea and on land so I can't complain. Doesn't recruit the nomads though so here's to hoping they're still around to recruit next turn for a bit of extra power.
I don't know why we'd lose access to healing? Even if our people forget the healing rituals we still have some benevolence which would allow us to do it as a blessing.
If nothing happens to them and they aren't snatched up they should only be ever more likely to come back, and potentially convert without us doing anything ya.
Eh, I'd like to finish the research into our power before we decide our stance either way or if we'll even potentially swap back, and forth between polytheism, and monotheism as depending on the mechanics our powers operate under there could be specific advantages for both approaches that might change as we change.
I do not think we will be able to convince our people not to be polytheist mostly because it seems to be the objective truth of the world. There are more gods, now we could try to convince them that all other gods are evil but that too would be an uphill battle and a bit of an issue for a trading civilization.
Adhoc vote count started by Azel on Oct 27, 2021 at 12:29 PM, finished with 36 posts and 26 votes.
[X] Plan Lord of the Sea
-[X] Bless the fishers by spending 1 power.
-[X] Bless the bay by spending 1 power.
-[X] Improve the weather by spending 1 power.
[X] Plan: Wouldn't you like to know weatherboy?
-[X] Try to learn more about the nature of your power by spending 1 power. -[X] Explore the sea by spending 1 power.
-[X] Improve the weather by spending 1 power.
[X] Plan: Cleansing Waters
-[X] Heal the people by spending 1 power.
-[X] Bless the bay by spending 1 power.
-[X] Try to learn more about the nature of your power by spending 1 power.
[X] Plan Sea Saftey, Land Labours
-[X] Bless the hunters by spending 1 power.
-[X] Bless the bay by spending 1 power.
-[X] Try to learn more about the nature of your power by spending 1 power.
[X] Spreading the Faith
- [X] Bless the nomads by spending 1 power.
-[X] Try to learn more about the nature of your power by spending 1 power. -[X] Inspire the boat makers by spending 1 power.
[X] Plan: The Fisher King -[X] Inspire the boat makers by spending 1 power. -[X] Bless the bay by spending X power.
-[X] Try to learn more about the nature of your power by spending 1 power.
It is the bay that sustains the people, even if you certainly slant things in their favour with your efforts, so it would help them greatly if you could make these fishing grounds richer. And better fed people would mean more and greater offerings for you in turn. The prospect alone made it worth investing your power into this and the urge to experiment with your abilities certainly did not hurt either.
First you turned your attention to the fish. You had already plenty of experience to guide them and since the building of the shrine that had become even easier, but never had you tried to imbue your power into them like you did when healing the people. Sickness was of no great concern, for the predators quickly weeded out those fish from the swarms, so instead you tried to simply have them grow larger. The first few attempts were quite promising, though there were a few short-lived failures that you deeply regretted, and while there seemed to be a limit to how far you could push them, the bay was soon home to great and healthy swarms.
Instead of tinkering further with the fish, you instead began to reshape the bay itself to give them a better place to grow. With the outgoing tides, you swept out the detritus washed into the bay by the small brooks feeding into it and when the water rushed back in, you made sure it carried seeds for sea grasses, mussels, and limpets to establish large colonies on every rock that they could find. Just a lifetime after you work had begun, the bay was so clear that a man could see all the way to the bottom and the people dined well on shellfish and oysters.
5
Besides food, the villagers also found something precious in those mussels. White orbs that shone and shimmered in the light and which they named pearls, the finest of which they brought as an addition to your shrine to increase its splendour. It was a good thing too, since all the time and effort spent on the bay itself left you with less time and power to aid the fishers more directly. The most you could do for them was to guide their boats and protect them from the waves, but their nets were less full than in other times.
1
It would have been a lean time for the village had they not the pearls to trade with. The nomads always had brought some food with them to trade for tools and dried fish, but recently they also brought animals that followed them as if they were kin to another. One of these goats even was offered to your shrine in thanks for the pearls that had been used to buy it and some of its brethren. A few times you peered in on these trades, hoping to find our how the nomads had made these beasts so docile, though it turned out they had done no such thing.
They themselves had bought them from another village in the foothills of the mountains where large flocks grazed all around. By now they had their own few that kept travelling with them, though they still often traded with these mountain people to replenish their herds whenever they had to butcher too many in a harsh winter. The people were quite intrigued by these tales and there was even talk about more trade if the nomads were willing and the mountain people interested in the shells and pearls that the village had to offer.
Would people living in the mountains even appreciate the treasures the sea had to offer? Would they have use for a spirit living in the spray of the waves and the cold waters of the depths? You pondered these questions every time you saw the mountains in the distance as you herded the clouds hither and yon. Even though it was not as easy to make them do your bidding as it was with the currents, they still obeyed readily enough, leaving you plenty of time to think as you broke up the winter storms and scattered their winds into the empty forests around the village.
4
On one of these days in a late fall, something odd startled you from your thoughts. The winds behaved oddly, guests breaking up where they should not and plummeting into the trees and kicking up the dry leaves. Your first thought was that your had gotten distracted and your control had slipped, but then it happened again with the next gust. Now with intent you steered another on there, firmly gripping the air to keep it steady, yet just like the others it broke apart and whirled through the trees, this time hard enough to snap even a few thick branches.
More startling though was that you had felt something push back against you just before your control slipped. When you sent the next gust flying there, you let yourself get dragged along for a bit, trying to see what the cause for this was. Among the trees you could not so much see it but feel it's presence none the less. Another spirit was twirling through the forest and catching the wind, throwing up leaves and dancing with them through the chill autumn air.
What did you do?
[] Approach the other spirit and try to befriend it. It seems to be playful and likely means no harm.
[] Try to lure it further away from the village. It seems harmless, but you would rather see it gone.
[] Drive it off. It has no reason to be here and bother your people.
[X] Approach the other spirit and try to befriend it. It seems to be playful and likely means no harm.
The worst thing that can happen is we get rebuffed which means we lose nothing, on the other hand having another spirit on call would allow us to specialize.
I do not think we will be able to convince our people not to be polytheist mostly because it seems to be the objective truth of the world. There are more gods, now we could try to convince them that all other gods are evil but that too would be an uphill battle and a bit of an issue for a trading civilization.
We can personally still decide if we want to encourage them to believe in other gods alongside us though, and if so which specific gods we wish to work with or if we want to discourage such a thing which would have a large effect on how our civilization reacts to the existence of other gods. For, example if people wish to worship a god of fire, volcanos, magma, and so on we could easily just stop blessing or dealing with those people, and potentially if we ever gain any punishment disposition even punish them for doing so.
This would heavily discourage our people from converting, and would most likely lead to a monotheistic culture as polytheism just isn't a thing we allow to happen among our people.
[] Approach the other spirit and try to befriend it. It seems to be playful and likely means no harm.
I wish there was an option to eat it. But since that isn't a thing we might as well keep a close eye on it, for now, to see if we can't find who's worshipping it.
Edit: Meh, screw it I want to see if I can get us to unlock a punishing nature so that we're prepared to deal with more hostile forces in the future, and so that we can potentially devour other gods for power later.
[X] Drive it off. It has no reason to be here and bother your people.
We can personally still decide if we want to encourage them to believe in other gods alongside us though, and if so which specific gods we wish to work with or if we want to discourage such a thing which would have a large effect on how our civilization reacts to the existence of other gods. For, example if people wish to worship a god of fire, volcanos, magma, and so on we could easily just stop blessing or dealing with those people, and potentially if we ever gain any punishment disposition even punish them for doing so.
This would heavily discourage our people from converting, and would most likely lead to a monotheistic culture as polytheism just isn't a thing we allow to happen among our people.
[X] Approach the other spirit and try to befriend it. It seems to be playful and likely means no harm.
I wish there was an option to eat it. But since that isn't a thing we might as well keep a close eye on it, for now, to see if we can't find who's worshipping it.
Well yes, we could imply by our acts that we do not want them worshiping others, however that will not stop them believing in others, which is a necessity for monotheism as opposed to henotheism.
[X] Approach the other spirit and try to befriend it. It seems to be playful and likely means no harm.
Worst case the playfulness is a ruse and we get the well earned lesson that not everyone is playful.
Best case we get a friend/ally/subordinate to help expand our influence. Seems like a win win to me
Eh... not sure that would be so bad. Since the relationship between spirits and humans seems to be reciprocal a spirit which is not willing to treat humans as having some value would remain weak, perhaps even fade in time. From what little we have seen gods can be cruel to mortals and still get worship but they still have to engage with them to keep up a constant source of power.
What @DragonParadox said, but also it does mean that we can use our Nurturing nature to perhaps extend said nurturing to spirits as well. Wouldn't a wild weather child be pretty neat?
Well yes, we could imply by our acts that we do not want them worshiping others, however that will not stop them believing in others, which is a necessity for monotheism as opposed to henotheism.
I'd say the worst-case scenario is that it has a punishing disposition and is luring in other gods to try, and devour them but I find such a situation unlikely because it doesn't seem that powerful or aware.
