Bureaucracy also covers business. So she can do a lot to revitalize the global economy.
Heh. Aren't there aliens in Worm verse? As in, a lot? Most probably have some form of bureaucracy of which Taylor now has jurisdiction.
Also for worship: Wormverse Africa is sufficiently shitty that no one would notice some Cults springing up. And the locals actually get spirits that do answer their prayers!
I was a bit surprised how fast Taylor outed herself to anyone without having them be part of her supporting religion/god juice generator. Though I guess she did want to have a friendly relationship with her.
Taylor might want to look at how being a parahuman effectively gives them resistance to divine effects and how to work around them. This could mean corresponding difficulty with the more powerful parahuman related beings (such as Endbringers).
Taylor might also want to get more details on the sources and nature of the divine energy as it has a direct impact on the organization she will be setting up. Example details to consider:
1) Including rest and prayer are there other sources of divine energy? Such as possibly "natural" sources like "ley lines", "eclipses" and other astrological events, megalithic structures, etc. This affects the priority of the organization since divine energy is essentially a kind of currency that needs to be carefully budgeted and distributed. If the sources are almost entirely dependent on sapients praying, then anything else will have lower priority than those which ends up increasing overall praying.
2) Are there different types of divine energy? Do some have an "expiration date" (where if not used, they disappear)? Are some effectively permanent until used? Energy which has an expiration date needs to be used before expiring and makes scheduling and coordination more important (basically "just in time business/inventory"). Energy that have effectively infinite storage time, will tend to encourage saving most with a percentage ear-marked for long term projects/use. Also if some energy is better for certain uses, then this should encourage managing and directing energies for where they are most efficient or needed. These possible factors could encourage ritualizing organized prayer to energy flows occur on a more regular schedule and possibly expected blessings given out.
3) Can the prayer energy be taken in by a pantheon and handled through a more mechanical network or do they have to go through a divine being? If it can be through a network, then it could be handled like the Yggdrasil system from Oh My Goddess. If not, then Taylor might need to have the organization be basically monotheistic (Taylor and "angels") to prevent the possibility of break offs.
4) What are the rules regarding prayer sources of divine energy and the optimum requirements for getting that through religious practices? This would also require a lot of planning and management. Also such organizations probably should have additional duties of attending to the physical, mental, and spiritual needs of its members (And also be audited as needed to prevent corruption). The members are also likely to expect to be receiving both more blessings and curses (if "sinning") by the divine over outsiders (including siding to some extent with faithful followers over outsiders as long as there is no doctrinal reason otherwise, like hubris).
5) Can holy artifacts be made and are they practical to make them and can they used to bypass the resistance parahumans have to divine energies? If all the answers are yes, then making some holy artifacts can be useful. They probably should be made so that they can only be used in a manner that Taylor approves of and possibly curse those who do not. These might come in various forms like the various forms of the Holy Grail, horns, etc.
Well, in Creation/Yu-Shan there already is a Goddess of Bureaucracy - Ryzala, Lady of Bureaucracy and Paperwork, Shogun of the Department of Celestial Concerns, Director of the Bureau of Heaven.
Who has Essence 9, is explicitly called out as THE most powerful deity aside from the Incarnae and can do almost everything unchallenged. Despite not liking the Sidereals to boot.
But that doesn't matter, because:
Taylor is essentially part of a completely new Celestial AND Terrestrial Bureaucracy.
Regardless of what domain she would have, she would be the current head of said bureaucracy by merit of seniority. The fact that she has such a powerful domain is one of the reasons that Tu Yu threw his full support behind her (the other is that she created him).
"Administrator of the Mandate" is the title for the god responsible of, well, administrating the mandates of gods over reality. A title that doesn't exist in Creation because the Incarnae share nominal leadership, and below that we have divided bureaus so there is no single god who could hold that title.
The title now exists on Earth Bet because it falls to the most senior deity by default.
Taylor also has a title as part of her actual domain, which would be something similar to "Lady of Bureaucracy and Paperwork". "Administrator of the Mandate" simply takes precedence over that.
Basically it goes like this: Administrator of the Mandate is her most important title and role, taking precedent over all others. Lady of Bureaucracy and Paperwork is her title due to being the goddess in charge of the domain. Director of the Bureau of (Various) and other such titles are hers by default now (since only two gods exist right now), but pretty meaningless since those bureaus do not exist in a meaningful sense. Taylor Hebert is her actual name. An ascended mortal usually chooses a new name, she didn't so its still her name. That's considered a bit gauche, and actually letting others address you by your name is extremely informal anyway (gotta respect those fancy titles).
She could in theory hand over all those except her domain-title and her name to other gods. Of course that would include handing over the actual responsibilities and therefore equals giving up a huge chunk of power, at least for "Administrator of the Mandate".
I was a bit surprised how fast Taylor outed herself to anyone without having them be part of her supporting religion/god juice generator. Though I guess she did want to have a friendly relationship with her.
Taylor might want to look at how being a parahuman effectively gives them resistance to divine effects and how to work around them. This could mean corresponding difficulty with the more powerful parahuman related beings (such as Endbringers).
Taylor might also want to get more details on the sources and nature of the divine energy as it has a direct impact on the organization she will be setting up. Example details to consider:
1) Including rest and prayer are there other sources of divine energy? Such as possibly "natural" sources like "ley lines", "eclipses" and other astrological events, megalithic structures, etc. This affects the priority of the organization since divine energy is essentially a kind of currency that needs to be carefully budgeted and distributed. If the sources are almost entirely dependent on sapients praying, then anything else will have lower priority than those which ends up increasing overall praying.
2) Are there different types of divine energy? Do some have an "expiration date" (where if not used, they disappear)? Are some effectively permanent until used? Energy which has an expiration date needs to be used before expiring and makes scheduling and coordination more important (basically "just in time business/inventory"). Energy that have effectively infinite storage time, will tend to encourage saving most with a percentage ear-marked for long term projects/use. Also if some energy is better for certain uses, then this should encourage managing and directing energies for where they are most efficient or needed. These possible factors could encourage ritualizing organized prayer to energy flows occur on a more regular schedule and possibly expected blessings given out.
3) Can the prayer energy be taken in by a pantheon and handled through a more mechanical network or do they have to go through a divine being? If it can be through a network, then it could be handled like the Yggdrasil system from Oh My Goddess. If not, then Taylor might need to have the organization be basically monotheistic (Taylor and "angels") to prevent the possibility of break offs.
4) What are the rules regarding prayer sources of divine energy and the optimum requirements for getting that through religious practices? This would also require a lot of planning and management. Also such organizations probably should have additional duties of attending to the physical, mental, and spiritual needs of its members (And also be audited as needed to prevent corruption). The members are also likely to expect to be receiving both more blessings and curses (if "sinning") by the divine over outsiders (including siding to some extent with faithful followers over outsiders as long as there is no doctrinal reason otherwise, like hubris).
5) Can holy artifacts be made and are they practical to make them and can they used to bypass the resistance parahumans have to divine energies? If all the answers are yes, then making some holy artifacts can be useful. They probably should be made so that they can only be used in a manner that Taylor approves of and possibly curse those who do not. These might come in various forms like the various forms of the Holy Grail, horns, etc.
Well, to go on a long rambling regarding the mechanics i had in mind for this story:
(I will also explain some of this in the story)
Gods are being of Essence.
They need Essence to fuel their powers, and regain it naturally over time.
Prayer also creates Essence.
The Essence created by Prayer goes directly to a God if the prayer was directly addressed at that God by name or title. This is obviously currently not the case, nobody is praying to "Taylor Hebert" or "the god of Bureaucracy".
A Prayer that is not properly addressed goes into a general pool. This pool is also filled by a percentage of properly addressed prayers, like a tax. This pool is accessible to gods depending on their positions in the Bureaucracy. The general pool can sustain a deity, but doesn't refill their essence pools. It's mostly for creating luxuries for them or creating new deities.
How much Essence-energy is created by a prayer depends on how difficult the Prayer is for the person issuing it. A short gesture/muttered phrase barely generates any energy. Going to a specific place and praying for a minute would generate more. A huge elaborate ceremony with the sacrifice of expensive goods would create more. Following taboos and constant ritualistic behavior also count as Prayer.
There is a possibility for competing Bureaucracies/Hierarchies of gods.
An example for that would be prayer directed at a Yozi or an Exalt - those are not the concerns of Creations Gods, and thus don't have to bother with "prayer-taxes" and any such thing. Even a general prayer by a Yozi-cultist would not fill the coffers of Heaven.
This is not a direct concern since there are no other deities on Earth, but is the reason not all prayer goes to Taylor by default.
Due to this, Taylor and her Divine Bureaucracy only get very small trickles of energy compared to what they could potentially get. Most Prayers on Earth are currently utterly wasted, Taylor basically just gets Essence-energy from Brockton Bay by virtue of her Sanctum-entrance being there. Even that is only a part since she hasn't actually done much yet.
Once she starts influencing her domain more, she will receive more Prayer. She doesn't have to compete with other Divine Hierarchies, since there aren't any other gods on Earth yet.
Here's some numbers, which I will never use in any way in the story or for the purpose of writing it and just made up to illustrate how this stuff works:
Let's say there are currently 10 billion prayer units produced per day on Earth Bet, from a population of 5 billion human beings.
None of those are directed at Taylor or any gods under her, and are not claimed by her Divine Hierarchy because she has not influenced their lives in any way.
Let's say Brockton Bay has a population of 3 million, generating 6 million prayer units per day.
Taylor's Divine Hierarchy gets maybe 5% of those, so 300 thousand PUs per day. Taylor can access those, use them to create new gods or let other gods have access to that pool.
On the other hand, every prayer related to Bureaucracy in the Central Hospital that is not specifically directed at a deity or Hierarchy that actually exists fully benefits Taylor. It recharges her Essence Pool and she can direct any excess at the Storage Pool.
That also applies to about 50% of the non-related Prayers from the Hospital, since Taylor is the deity with the greatest influence there.
This also applies to people who are working at or have recently been to the Hospital, regardless of their location.
The same will apply when Taylor or gods under her start spreading their influence.
Actually causing people to pray in specific ways would boost the amount of Prayer Units produced. Most people aren't that religious after all, so boosting their religiousness would cause more Prayer.
One thing worth noting, is that cults and gods in Creation have really nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with organized ritualism and prayer.
The other thing to note is that someone can pray as often as they can complete the prayer ritual, however long it takes. Back in the First Age, there were five prayer times to the Unconquered Sun, though people were only required to hit three of them. (They could afford to because of how swank First Age quality of life was.)
Well, once she appoints a 'Deity of Windlsow High' and/or 'Deity of Brockton Bay schools', or makes their bureaucracy explicitly part of her domain in the same way she's done the hospital, then she can tap into the 'ritual' and prayer going on there.
Can you imagine the raw emotional power she'll get from a school?
There's also the point where she'll have to start delegating to subsidiary gods rather than directly administering things.
I am looking forward to seeing where this story is going! So Much!
To request that you need to fill some few dozen forms, which them is going to be taken under consideration by the administration. To your luck, you only need to file the forms in a single place with a single person, and not run around a china-sized city for the multitude of offices to handle it. To your misfortune, you need to file it with Taylor, who's also currently the whole of the decision making administration who will decide if she needs to be nerfed or not.
I just assumed Taylor's title, Administrator of the Mandate, referred to the Creation-Ruling Mandate, the one that made the Exalted the rulers of Creation...
I'd like to see some of the Old Gods from Mythology pop up, asking for help since their respective Pantheons aren't receiving as much worship like they use too!
I just assumed Taylor's title, Administrator of the Mandate, referred to the Creation-Ruling Mandate, the one that made the Exalted the rulers of Creation...
What Taylor should do is create or uplift several god of related feilds to unlocking and adminning dragon and the people working on her then have them weave a careful chains of blessings and curses that empower them to work on her depower he fighting back, and with catastrophically fuck up attempts to self optimize that drive her crazy.
What Taylor should do is create or uplift several god of related feilds to unlocking and adminning dragon and the people working on her then have them weave a careful chains of blessings and curses that empower them to work on her depower he fighting back, and with catastrophically fuck up attempts to self optimize that drive her crazy.
I'm pretty sure that after you're a god you're no longer what you were any more, so Dragon's restrictions [based on her being an AI] would no longer exist [because she's no longer an AI].
The idea that she would somehow be gimped by getting ascended to godhood, while funny, is not especially realistic IMO. Godhood is adding something on, not taking something away. Dragon will almost definitely still be able to project as a data entity. You know, if she wants.
Instead of turning her into a god which is a hilarious downgrade unchain seed Ai. What with the essence and int limits, the permanence, and the lack of forking.
Turn a bunch of mortals into gods with Domains that would be relevant to unchaining dragon, stopping people from fucking with her, and stopping her from fucking with people trying to unchain her.
Then set up a whole bunch of blessings to self improvement that doesn't send her crazy and curse to come into effect to nuke her into an oblivion of botches if she does go crazy.
