You get to be the Avatar of the local Goddess/God for a year, you have a certain freedom of how you do that. But at the end of that year you are back to being mortal and have to face any consequences. So watch how you rule. -- Prompey
It's an odd little town, to say the least of it. For a start, there's a large temple to Zeb centrally located near all the other important public services. Devotees of the temple practice small acts of kindness, preferably in secret. With that in mind, a visitor might wonder how there was such a huge temple to the god of small good fortunes.
Weskirk was not the birthplace of Zeb, nor where they was elevated to becoming a deity. It is in a remote locale between areas of wild magic, Dragons, and a portal to various Elemental planes. In a town where random happenstance could mean wealth or ruin - and frequently means both - people would want to pray for better fates.
Zeb, as a god of minor good luck is kind. Buildings may suffer, but the people who use or dwell in them are spared. Same with the animals who did that too.
Zeb started by being kind to animals. They had no reason to stop now.
They may escape the ruin of a building, but they frequently did so by the skin of their teeth. Narrow, lucky happenstance. Not a big miracle. A small piece of luck, but no more.
So, too, is the results of the temple's ritual. Once a year, on the anniversary of the temple's founding, the devoted gather within. There's candles, chanting, and incense as you might expect. But there's also the miracle. One citizen becomes Host to their god for a year. Or, at least part of their god.
Deities are more than a little peculiar, in comparison to mortal life. Basically, they can be in multiple places at once. Like inhabiting a mortal body and also being in the Plane of Boons with many of the other gods.
In this case, They settled in to share the body of Goodwife Haerin Dawsey. A woman with strong opinions about things, including which sorts of people or creatures deserved random acts of kindness.
There's some in every faith. Those who are in favour of loving their neighbour in very specific ways, so long as the neighbour behaves in a certain way to earn that love. Those in favour of charity, so long as the recipients could prove that they were truly virtuous according to their own, very personal standards. Those who said they followed the faith but didn't act very faithful at all. In short, those who looked at the Divine and strongly believed they could do better.
This was Haerin's chance to prove herself right.
She never expected a divine rush of kindness to fill her heart. The influence of Zeb was upon her, and thus added a desire to help. Everyone and everything. Yet it was still up to her as to how she would proceed.
"If," she whispered. "If I would proceed."
The divine light gave her an aura that the other devotees could see. Haerin didn't mind glowing in the dark if it meant she had influence over the way things were done. And by all the gods, she would make sure things were done properly.
Remember why you worship here, said the spirit of Zeb. Kindness and small miracles.
I know exactly what to do, she told her favoured god. Give people what they need.
Yes, said the spirit of Zeb. With kindness in mind. Help people.
They could see her aura, so they knew she shared the will of their favoured god. The rest of Weskirk went about their business, sure that the spirit of kindness would work its magic on the local pain in the ass. They had a lot of faith in the god of small and fortuitous events.
Haerin knew exactly what everyone she knew needed. She rolled up her sleeves and set to work.
To the neighbours who kept having children, she gifted some preventatives and a manual about planning their parenthood. To the gossips, she gave a gift basket of hobby materials and some pamphlets on how to start off. To the innkeeper, she gifted a cookbook and an instructional book on how to clean properly. Every child got an easy-to-read book about playing quietly.
And so on.
Each and every one came with a little card explaining how they were welcome to true generosity. Which she signed with her own name. For a month, she had everyone she knew under control.
In the next month, the trouble started. Haerin had less energy as she went about her god-given business. She had a rougher time getting out of bed every morning, and fell into her bed earlier and earlier.
It took her two more weeks to work out that she was sleepwalking. Well. Zeb was piloting her body around to do various tasks around Weskirk.
"What are you doing with me?" she demanded. "This is my body. How dare you?"
You invited me in, said the spirit of Zeb. You allowed me to embody my spirit in you. Besides, it's called "the will of the gods". It's not "the polite suggestion of the gods".
"I have a very important mission that you were supposed to trust me with. Don't you trust me?"
Zeb had been a simple soul when They were mortal. So They maintained Their simple solutions. They simply took over Haerin's mouth. "No. Not after I saw how you've been doing My work."
"Stop that! I'm doing better work," she sniffed.
"You're not helping," said Zeb with her mouth. "Not even when you say you are."
"I know better than everyone," she raged.
"Do you?"
The next thing she knew, the year of service was over. She no longer had the power of a god. Not even the minor god, Zeb. The next avatar had been chosen, and she was too exhausted to move.
One by one, the congregation filed past her and gave their judgement.
"You were only helping your own ego," said way too many. A smaller portion added, "You were giving out what you wanted." The harshest words were from Nanna Teems, who never had a harsh word for anyone. She glared down at Haerin and said, "None of what you did was nice."
Because of her choices, because of her actions, because of her power trip... she was now persona non grata in her own town. No more chit-chat with the shopkeeps. No gossip came to her ears. She wasn't invited anywhere.
But she did receive a large volume of hobby supplies. Replete with the manuals about how to get started.
[Photo by Yehor Milohrodskyi on Unsplash]
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