The Moirae's Mirror - March

Hi everyone! This month's Mirror is a detailed preview with some commentary, as I've done a few times in the past.

Chapter Six hits upon a lore point I've had in mind for a while, but never really had the chance to explain. It is, however, suddenly very relevant to the PC's situation. Specifically, this month's topic is the relationship between deities and their worshipers!

One of the branches in the story the PC can take is to travel to the source of their prayers: the settlement of Laüs, in what corresponds to modern-day Italy. Since this will likely involve dealing with the problem directly (likely by solving it), Hermes and Alekto, the PC's companions for this branch, fill them in on some things they need to know.

So for starters, the worship 'relation' if you like isn't simply one-directional, with gods being such powerful beings that humans come to worship them in hopes of getting them to do things. That's definitely part of what's going on, but humans have their influence on the gods as well.

This is something I had in mind from FoA's very creation, and it figures prominently in at least one RO's backstory. I wanted to play with this theme of humans shaping gods to their needs, which I think is something they in fact do. In Asphodel, that takes a very literal form; while the gods of course are people with their own identities, I wanted human influence to be a powerful force in their lives, just as they are a powerful force in the lives of humans. 

(Spot the typo, heh.)

Anyhow, as hinted here, the gods have an independent motivation to take on the risks associated with large groups of worshipers: essentially, the belief of a lot of people is something that can make a deity significantly stronger. This need not necessarily be worship, though in general worship is the most empowering form of belief. So someone like Hades, feared by many but worshiped by pretty much no one, receives a substantial boost from human expectation, but not as much of one as Zeus, who is feared and worshiped. Additionally, the specific and widely-held belief that Zeus is the most powerful god makes him stronger still—this is part of why he's King.

The drawbacks are, well. Specific and strongly-held beliefs don't always have positive effects on the god they're about.

Of course, getting a reputation among humans for anything isn't a simple matter of showing up and being seen. The true deific form of a given deity can be harmful for humans to even see, and by default they can't. This is something PC would have learned on Alekto's outing, hence the option to not know this not appearing if the PC went with her. I've been sort of surprised by how often those have been relevant this chapter; so far it's been pretty fun writing little variations for all that.

Anyhow, that's the Mirror this month! I hope you've enjoyed the preview; all of this will be playable when the BIP comes out, so if you're at all looking forward to that, I hope you enjoy getting to dig a little deeper into it!