THE SIXTH MAIDEN
Early in the First Age, the Five Maidens realized that running the massive Bureau of Destiny would seriously interfere with playing the Games of Divinity. At the same time, they didn't really want to delegate full authority to any mere god or Exalt. Since no god was trustworthy or competent enough to oversee the Bureau's functioning, the Maidens simply made one who was. The Five Maidens combined their powers and forged... a Sixth Maiden. "Little Sister," the god whose pronouncements shape nearly every aspect of Sidereal existence, manifests as a six-year-old child clutching a china doll, sitting in a tiny chair in a hidden and door-less room beneath the Loom of Fate. She never moves or speaks above a whisper, but the Loom itself responds to her words. Fortunately for Creation, the child has no agenda of her own, or even any personality beyond that of the frightened little girl she appears to be.
Little Sister reflects the consensus viewpoint of the Five Maidens. She monitors every action of the Sidereal Exalted and the gods of the Bureau of Destiny. When she confronts any controversy or indeed anything at all that might interest the Maidens, she considers it from the perspective of each of her creators. If all five viewpoints agree on what should be done, Little Sister communicates this consensus through the Loom. If even one Maiden dissents, however, Little Sister does nothing. Thus, Little Sister is also the source of the malaise that has infected the Bureau of Destiny, especially during the Time of Tumult: the Maidens disagree on how to deal with the returning Solars and the other crises that affl ict Creation. This disagreement has
paralyzed Little Sister and resulted in her routinely giving contradictory orders that benefit the Gold Faction one day
and the Bronze Faction the next. As the Maidens become more divided over the state of Creation, the Convention on Oversight is doomed to drag the entire Bureau down into apathy and ruin.
THE FORBIDDEN INCARNA
Every child in Creation knows of the Five Maidens who rule the night sky, but how many of them know that the Maidens once had a brother? Nox, called the God of Night but actually an Incarna equal to the Maidens, represented the infinite, unformed potential for action that underlies all fates. While the Five Maidens operated the Loom of Fate, Nox monitored the Loom to observe Creation and report any potential threats to the Lidless Eye That Sees, the great Primordial who oversaw Yu-Shan's security. The Dark Incarna remained loyal to the Primordials. Thus, before the Primordials could be brought down, Nox would need to be co-opted, a duty that fell to his sisters.
First, Venus whored herself, seducing Nox into a sexual relationship that would have embarrassed him before the Primordials. Jupiter caused him to fear his secret incest's exposure, rendering him susceptible to blackmail. Saturn ended his loyalty to the Primordials, finally bringing him into the conspiracy of the Incarnae. In this, Saturn miscalculated. Nox's loyalty to the Primordials always came second to his own forbidden lust for his sisters. While he pretended to acquiesce to the conspiracy, he actually planned to expose it right as the coup began in hopes of being rewarded with his five sisters as concubines. Fortunately, Jupiter divined his secret intent, Mercury led him astray before he could warn his masters and then Mars
bested him in battle. For his treachery, the other Incarnae condemned Nox and stripped him of all his power.
But the Incarnae refused to slay one of their fellows, for they had all been created together, and they feared that the Primordials might have linked the Incarnae's fates together in some way. Autochthon then came forward with a solution. He broke Nox's mind and then linked what remained of his intellect to the Loom of Fate so that the Loom would have a limited sentience, just enough to coordinate the activities of the Bureau of Destiny—and perform the functions of Oversight.
Some might question the wisdom of putting a brain-damaged Incarna sympathetic to the Primordials in charge of the Loom of Fate. Nox has never consciously abused his Oversight position to the detriment of Creation. Unfortunately, he often does so unconsciously. For instance,the commands given him by Autochthon included one to suppress all knowledge about Nox's continued existence, lest the idea of a Forbidden God controlling the Loom of Fate undermine the gods' confidence in the Bureau of Destiny. Nox interprets this order to include using the Loom to suppress all knowledge about Forbidden Gods,
lest interrogation of one of them reveal Nox's existence.
Thus, with the best of intentions, the Convention on Oversight has systematically erased every hint of the Forbidden Gods from the knowledge of the Bureau, which is why no one outside the two paranoid Sidereals who comprise the Convention on Forbidden Gods believes that such powers still lurk in the Underneath, all invisible to the Loom's gaze.
