Eminence

An Eminence is a ranking god within the Bureau of Nature’s Hierarchy of Type or Hierarchy of Function, holding broad responsibilities over the various forms of life and geography the Bureau holds responsibility for. While the individual committees and offices for various species and families of life see a great deal of shifting and politicking in their membership and relations, the broad categories ruled by an Eminence are far less mutable and carry much greater metaphysical significance.

In the Hierarchy of Type, there are Eminences of things such as Fresh Waters, Mammals, and Trees. In the Hierarchy of Function, there are Eminences of things such as Predators, Mountain-dwellers, and Things that Shine or Glow. Most forms of life in Creation will (with a few exceptions) answer to a single Eminence of Type, and to a minimum of one Eminence of Function, and it is only by receiving authorization by one Eminence of each Hierarchy that a new type of life can be accepted as legitimate to Creation (and be assigned a god). Eminences are often eager to add new life to their purviews, but they work according to a set of basic principles and traits required to assign a base Type or Function, and (though many gods wonder if it is out of devotion or necessity) they make few exceptions.

The nature of the Celestial Bureaucracy means a life form’s affiliation with an Eminence is vital: if a Lion is not placed properly under the Eminence of Predators, then the various gods overseeing local and general predation will not fill out the paperwork required for the process to go smoothly: the Lion would very rapidly suffer inconsistencies in its existence: when hungry, it might fail to identify its prey as targets, when it took a bite of flesh it might find no sustenance in it. The Eminences thus hold much respect from the gods of their Bureaus, and though their rivalries with each other can run deep indeed the nature of their purviews means the greater threat is often from attempts from the universal-concept offices of the Bureau of Heaven & Bureau of Humanity to claim portions of their portfolios. Many gods of the Nature Bureau also covet the positions of Eminence, but it is notable that the heads of the Bureau Hierarchies are not and have never been Eminences… the workload of an Eminence is immense, and once achieved it leaves little time for political maneuver to gain greater advancement.