Difference between revisions of "Jewel of Prosperity"

Latest revision as of 02:22, 2 November 2017

Jewel of Prosperity is the God of Southern Peace, serving under the God of Peace Yo-Ping in the Department of Abstract Matters of the Bureau of Heaven. Jewel of Prosperity is a god of Peace by Contract and Rule of Law, seeking to spread peace through treaties of alliance and contracts of trade... if each side is confident debts will be honoured, trade can flourish between lands and tribes and in so doing make war less likely, if persons feel that their disputes can be arbitrated according to a common code, they are less likely to turn to violence in order to resolve them.

Jewel of Prosperity’s preference for contract and law aligns with that of other gods in Yu Shan, such as the Lady of Bureaucracy and Paperwork Ryzala and the god of marriage Resplendent Bestowing of Prosperity. However, this oft results in sympathy more than support, for Jewel of Prosperity’s position in weakest by far amongst the Peace Gods: even before the Primordial War, her interests and those of the God of Southern War Ahlat, who had the favour of the Unconquered Sun, were constantly opposed, and his ascendance since kept her largely sidelined… the cultures of the South and Southeast were shaped by the Bull God, cattle raiders and constant skirmishing between villages have been a constant, neither the Solar Exalted of the Golden Age nor the Dragonblooded Daimyo of the Shogunate Era interested in their power (and freedom to wage war so it might expand) being limited by contracts or agreements.

However, though she remains far the lesser in relation to her War God (surely due, she has oft argued without success to Heaven’s Censors, his corrupt melding of War and Cattle purviews), the Age of Sorrows following the Great Contagion has seen Jewel of Prosperity gain ground. The society of the Varang has brought unity to city-states which might be rivals, the Prefect of Paragon has sworn a contract upon his populace which enforces peace, and though far from perfect the arrival of the Scarlet Empire has imposed a form of calm even in the Bull God’s heartland of Harbourhead. It has also brought the Immaculate Order and the Perfected Hierarchy, which imposed a peace of their own on the region. While the hierarchical order of that peace was more to the liking of Dalam-Rendal, God of Central Peace, than to Jewel, it has reduced conflict and brought with it a Prayer Calendar where she receives some recognition, a vast change from the paucity offered her from tribal faiths who were taught by Ahlat that praying for peace was akin to praying for one’s own destruction.

Though not amongst the panoply of gods known to be active associates of The Guild, the nature of that Creation-spanning trade alliance means she certainly favours it. In particular, Jewel has influenced the investigators of her Bureau’s Division of Divine Order to overlook (in exchange for a small cut of the take, of course) the flagrant violation of law that is the system of active Caravan Gods arranged by the Guild and Creation’s Road Gods… a crime that the Bureau would otherwise exploit to damage its rival the Bureau of Humanity.