The Divine Ministers

Overview

• “As a Primordial, Autochthon exists as the sum of his Charms, made physically manifest through his jouten (physical bodies) and spiritually expressed as a pantheon of devas. The world-body of Autochthonia is his most important jouten, as it simultaneously contains all other bodies and maintains the shroud of Elsewhere into which the titan banished himself.
• Other known bodies of the Great Maker include a construct in the likeness of an advanced Six-Metal Alchemical and the giant mechanical behemoth that harvested Creation for human colonists during the Primordial’s exodus. These and other unknown forms slumber within heavily-armored crystalline storage silos encysted within the Pole of Crystal. Should any of these bodies face spiritual destruction at the hands of the Chosen, Autochthon will perish as he collapses fully into death as the Engine of Extinction.
• Stunted and sickly by comparison to his siblings, the Great Maker radiates only nine Third Circle devas. He has transformed all of these, collapsing the Second Circle souls of the Eight Divine Ministers so that they cannot individually create subsidiary spirits. Instead, the Machine God’s souls may collectively tap into their shared wellspring of progenitive might to construct specialized subgods equivalent in power to Second Circle devas. All of Autochthon’s component souls retain the power to fashion the least of machine gods as needed, programming mass-produced models for specific custodial functions. Each of these are effectively First Circle devas.
• Far more radically, Autochthon heavily modified his own fetich, excising the deva’s free will and grafting the resultant lobotomized thought processor directly into the centrality of Autochthonia. He did this in the Time of Glory after giving the Jadeborn purpose for the third time, realizing he needed better understanding of how his creations thought. The resultant artifact-organ is the Godhead itself, a place where Autochthon can artificially think outside of his own limits (at reduced competency), enabling more nuanced tactics and meaningful communication with lesser beings.
• The Core conjoins Autochthon’s fetich with the purest expression of his consciousness, a focused opposition against the growing Voidtech cancer degrading his Charms and threatening him with the impossibility of mortality. The death of the Core would inflict fetich death upon Autochthon, transforming him into a new Primordial with marginal thematic overlap. Of the heart sacrificed to create this great cognizance engine, all data resides within the memory of the Core itself. It long ago purged such secrets from the recollection of his other souls.”

Runel

“Divine Minister of Order, Smooth Functioning, Productivity, Efficiency, Cities, Commerce, Life and Health. Goddess of Child-Birthing, Marriage, Healing, Job Promotions and Alchemical Exaltation. Chief Regulator of the Element of Steam.

• Runel represents the Maker’s desire to nurture and to promote harmony. The Maker’s dominant soul for most of recorded history, Runel advocated in favor of overthrowing the Primordials because she felt compassion for Creation’s poorly treated mortal inhabitants.
• Unquestionably the most nurturing of the Divine Ministers, Runel represents that part of Autochthon that is still more living being than machine, as well as that part of him that truly loves human beings. A force for harmony and peace within Autochthonia, Runel is constantly tried by the militancy of her peers, especially Mog and Debok Moom. Her cult is enormous, and Mog has challenged her repeatedly over it on the grounds that the size of her cult draws Essence that should properly belong to the Maker himself. Thus far, Runel has shown little interest in Mog’s hypocritical posturing in light of the size of his own cults.
• Although identified as the Goddess of Alchemical Exaltation, Runel does not oversee that process, which is completely under mortal control. Rather, the Scholars invoke Runel’s name during the process of Exaltation in hopes of seeing to it that the operation suffers no errors or hiccups. Such invocations are made as part of nearly every important procedure, and the fact that Runel receives a measure of credit every time something goes right is a source of incredible frustration to her rival Ministers.
  • Runel appears as a distinctly female automaton with an orichalcum exoskeleton that exposes moonsilver wires and cables at its joints. Her face is a mask of white jade with eyes of starmetal.”

Kek’Tungsssha

“Divine Minister of Smelting, Craft, Tools, Industry, Mass Production, Fertility and Reproductive Sex. Goddess of Assembly Lines, Creativity and Productivity.

• Kek’Tungsssha represents Autochthon’s creative impulse, which was limited by the caprices of his bullying Primordial cousins and which could be freely expressed only after their death or imprisonment.
• Also referred to as “She Who Produces“ or “the Mistress of Pistons,” Kek’Tungsssha is the font of Autochthon’s creative impulse. Eccentric and somewhat flighty, Kek’Tungsssha seems always more concerned with coming up with her next innovation than with making sure her last innovation works properly. While these traits often make her seem charming in person, they have had an unfortunate side effect on her purviews.
• If Kek’Tungsssha were more attentive to what was in front of her than on some future design project, Autochthonian workers might not be plagued by such an abysmally high rate of on-the-job accidents and fatalities. Kek’Tungsssha holds dominion over all forms of mass production, including assembly lines. That procreative sex falls under that purview is a depressing commentary on the sexual attitudes of contemporary Autochthonians.
  • Kek’Tungsssha appears as a stunted, four-armed automaton of crudely shaped black iron, a somewhat rustic form given her association with craftsmanship. It is her view, however, that a craftsman should concern himself with the appearance of his creations, not himself.”

Debok Moom

“Divine Minister of War, War Machines, Violent Paradigm Shifts, Privacy and Wealth. God of Evolution, Adversity, Violent Crime and Unexpected Change. Chief Regulator of the Element of Metal.

• Debok Moom represents the Maker’s urge to evolve. The most violent aspect of Autochthon’s personality, Debok Moom hated the Maker’s weakness relative to the other Primordials and constantly sought the means to assert dominance over them.
• More pragmatic than many of his kin, Autochthon always recognized the need to evolve in order to meet new challenges. This understanding is reflected through the activities of Debok Moom, who once drove the Maker to seek out conflict in order to be changed by it. Today, the Warbringer brings those same lessons to the mortals of the Realm of Brass and Shadow, whether they wish to learn them or not.
• Debok Moom holds dominion over every facet of war in Autochthonia, and he was the original architect of most of the war machines that have ever been constructed in this place. A perfectionist, Debok Moom is also that part of the Maker that is responsible for quality control, a euphemism for violently weeding out that the weak or the obsolete, whether among mechanical designs or people.
• Debok Moon’s sanctum lies deep in the Far Reaches. It is a mighty structure of brass and black iron, a temple of destruction and death. Located far from any of the Maker’s sensitive organs, the Warbringer uses this sanctum as a proving ground for every new weapon system developed by man or god.
  • Debok Moon appears as a tall, well-armed man in glistening articulated power armor of black jade. Nothing can be seen of his features, and some say that he has no features to see, that he is naught but a suit of warrior’s armor brought to life.”

Noi

“Divine Minister of Curiosity, Research, Exploration, Innovation, Rebellion and Progress. God of Sleep, Recreation, Toys, Children and Non-Procreative Sex. Chief Regulator of the Element of Oil.

• Noi represents Autochthon’s urge to experiment. A capricious being, Noi chafed at the imperious commands of the other Primordials.
• A capricious and strange god, at least in comparison with his peers, Noi represents Autochthon’s non-conformist tendencies. Noi creates not for any purpose, but for the sheer joy of discovery and innovation. A capricious god, Noi is a trickster, and often far too taken with his own cleverness. Mog openly despises him, and the Minister of Authority’s cults regularly harass those of Noi, but the geas prevents any overt god-on-god hostilities.
• Noi exists to prevent stagnation, a job he readily admits might be beyond his powers where the hidebound Autochthonians are concerned. Despite his cheerful and frivolous nature, Noi knows perfectly well that the Maker’s situation is dire, and he will pursue any stratagem to introduce some much-needed life and diversity into the decaying Autochthonian society. He is cautiously optimistic that reconnecting with Creation could be the spark that he needs. Even losing to the forces of Creation would do more good for the Maker than doing nothing.
  • Noi appears as an androgynous humanoid figure made of liquid moonsilver. He can control the color of his liquid body at will and often turns it jet-black so that he resembles crude oil. A gifted shapeshifter, Noi can wear any shape he desires.”

Mog

“Divine Minister of Authority, Proper Functioning, Dogma, Righteous Action and Just Punishment. God of Police, Executioners and the Tripartite. Scourge of the Lumpen. Chief Regulator of the Element of Lightning.

• Mog represents that part of Autochthon that prefers the status quo. Although he was initially opposed to overthrowing the Primordials, Mog was finally won over to the cause by the cavalier manner in which the Primordials disrupted the careful workings of Creation according to their own mad whims.
• Ruthless and driven, Mog represents the urge to take corrective action and to resist change. The personification of the status quo, Mog seeks to preserve an idealized view of Autochthonian society that most likely never existed outside of Mog’s own fantasies. The histories of Autochthonia are replete with tales of how entire cities were judged as corrupt or apostate by the Lord of Dogma and destroyed in horrific lightning storms. Such tales are fanciful, of course. Lightning storms of that scale would be highly inefficient and might also endanger the Maker’s internal organs, so Mog usually relies on armies of clockwork automata to exterminate cities that displease him.
• Mog’s cults are more like secret societies than religions and often take the form of cabals hidden among the upper echelons of society. He also benefits from a sort of inverse-cult. Millions of mortals fervently pray every day that Mog does not smite them for some sin, real or imagined. The Lumpen rarely pray to Mog. His antipathy toward them is legendary, and Lumpen prayers are as likely to offend him as they are to placate him.
  • Mog is the most anthropomorphic of the Divine Ministers, which is surprising since he is also the most inhuman of them. He appears to be made of solid lightning, but his face is that of a mortal man, albeit one that crackles with electricity. Mog wears robes of burnished copper that cover most of his body, and when his hands are visible, they are covered in gloves of orichalcum. He usually bears a staff that crackles with electricity.”

Kadmek

“Divine Minister of Architecture, Design, Structural Integrity, Biogeomancy, Arts, Wisdom, Strategy and Prophecy. God of Beauty, Cities, Serenity and Music. Chief Regulator of the Element of Crystal.

• Kadmek represents the Maker’s capacity for forethought and planning. Agnostic on the wisdom of overthrowing the Primordials, Kadmek threw himself into the war preparations once the other component souls reached a consensus on the matter.
• The manifestation of Autochthon’s ability to plan and then execute those plans, Kadmek is the Minister most often viewed as a proxy for the Maker himself by the great majority of the Autochthonian people. He isn’t, of course. The Ministers collectively represent the Maker’s true personality, but comprehending that idea requires more nuance than the typical member of the Populat or Lumpen has. It is more accurate to say that Kadmek represents what most Autochthonians wish the Maker were like: a figure of beauty and grace surrounded by music and art, epitomizing the best that this world has to offer. Such a view doesn’t even properly describe Kadmek himself, let alone the Maker, for the God of Beauty and Art spends most of his time besotted by the phenomena under his purview.
• Kadmek holds the largest number of worshipers of any of the Ministers, despite the fact that he grants the least in material benefits to cultists. Occasionally, Kadmek rewards faithful priests with visions of the future, but more often, he simply rewards the faithful with moments of reverie, brief daydreams that transport the worshiper away from the drudgery of Autochthonian life, if only for a moment. For many worshipers, that is reward enough.

Kadmek draws his largest source of power from his patronage of the Prolific Scholars of the Furnace Transcendent. This Sodality is responsible for designing, planning and constructing nearly every physical structure in the cities of Autochthonia. As a result, Kadmek’s iconography is everywhere, a constant reminder of his status and power, which, ironically, also helps to create that status and power. Of course, Kadmek also relies on his formidable political position in preserving his status. As the God of Cities, Kadmek is responsible for assigning Alchemical Exalts who reach Essence 8 and are poised to become new cities to the location of their new domains. Fearful of being exiled to some forgotten hinterland within the Maker’s body, most up-and-coming Exalts feel compelled to seek Kadmek’s favor.

• • Kadmek’s usual form is that of a gleaming humanoid figure of pure adamant that glows with Essence.”

Domadamod

“Divine Minister of Reuse, Repair, Recycling and Cannibalism. God of Maintenance, Regulatory Stasis, Survival, Conservation and Noble Sacrifice. Enlightened Guardian of the Eternal Cycle.

• Domadamod represents the Maker’s instinct for self-preservation, the impulse to do whatever is necessary to survive. Domadamod argued in favor of overthrowing the Primordials from the beginning, as he was constantly aware of how easy it would have been for another Primordial to slay the comparatively weak Autochthon over any imagined slight.
• Born of Autochthon’s obsessive need to survive, no matter the cost, Domadamod holds dominion over every practice that allows an Autochthonian to extend her life, if only for just another day. It is a testament to the grimness of life in Autochthonia that a Divine Minister should hold the practice of cannibalism within his purview. This is not to say that cannibalism is a well-regarded practice, even among Domadamod’s cultists, but when all other food stocks have been depleted, it is considered neither a crime nor a taboo to eat the flesh of another person provided that Domadamod gives his blessing to the meal. Less luridly, Domadamod also holds dominion over Autochthonia’s vast recycling systems and over most repairmen of any type.
  • The least anthropomorphic of the Maker’s brood, Domadamod appears as a misshapen figure of discarded pipes, tubing and broken glass bound into a crudely humanoid shape.”

Ku

“Divine Minister of the Reaches and the Far Reaches, Seals and Thaumaturgy. God of Mystery, Fear and Death. Chief Regulator of the Element of Smoke.

• Finally, Ku represents Autochthon’s fear. Once, Ku obsessed over fear of the other Primordials. Then, during the First Age, he obsessed over fear of the Solar Exalted, ultimately persuading the other Ministers and the greater Primordial they represented that escape to Elsewhere was Autochthon’s only hope for survival. Now, with millennia to meditate on his rashness, Ku obsesses today over the possibility of Autochthon dying alone in the cold void of Elsewhere, a doom largely of his own making.
• Both hated by and essential to the functioning of the Maker, Ku represents those parts of Autochthon that the Maker wishes he could excise: his fear, his doubt and his awareness of his own failures. The least loved of the Eight Ministers, most Autochthonians view Ku as a bogeyman, if not an actual god of evil, and nearly every unfortunate or tragic event is blamed on him. This does not deprive him of worshipers, however. Like Mog, many Autochthonians pray ceaselessly to Ku that he simply ignore the worshiper and not visit destruction upon her.
• For all the dread that Ku inspires, however, he too has his role to play. The youngest of Autochthon’s component souls, Ku represents the Maker’s fears but he also exists in part to see that those fears are not made manifest. Of all the Ministers, Ku is the one who is most proactive in seeking to understand the Void that surrounds the Maker and the blights and gremlins that tear at his innards. While the other Ministers distrust Ku (and not without good reason), if any long-term solution to the problem of gremlinization is to be found, it rests with him. Alone among the Ministers, Ku has actually demonstrated the ability to override and control gremlins. For that reason, Lumpen who have been exiled to the Reaches often worship Ku, as do those Meticulous Surgeons of the Body Electric, who spend much of their time studying the Reaches to learn their mysteries.
  • Ku’s usual visage is the most frightening of all the Ministers’. His is a skeletal form of pure soulsteel, with bones and ribs made of repurposed pipes and tubes. His head is formed from a mutilated soulsteel helmet from some forgotten war, complete with goggles and gas mask.”
  • Dead in Gunstar! or is he

The Core

“The Mind of Autochthon

• In addition to the Eight Divine Ministers, Autochthon also possesses a ninth soul, of a sort. Identified as the Core, this ninth soul is the Maker’s guiding intelligence and the repository of his personality. Before the Primordial War, the Core listened to the conflicting advice of the other component souls, moderating their differences and guiding them to a consensus upon which the Primordial would act. During the First Age, the Core represented the “true self” of Autochthon. The Divine Ministers remained, for the most part, within the estates in Yu-Shan where the Core’s crippled physicality rested, but the Core itself explored Creation, Yu-Shan and other, stranger places by remote-controlling any of several humaniform “encounter suits.” (detailed on p. 52 in Alchemicals) Mortals, ignorant of the true nature of Primordial existence, often believed that these encounter suits represented Autochthon’s true form. Exalted were much less likely to be fooled by an encounter suit, but few among even them had any idea of the vastness of Autochthon, compressed and folded as it was within the interior of the Core.”
• The true heart of Autochthon—to the extent that a sentient, god-like world can have a “heart”—lies in the Core. The Core is not a being so much as a place. Specifically, it is palace of adamant located at the precise center of the Elemental Pole of Crystal whose every surface resonates with undulating harmonic frequencies that reflect the totality of the Machine God’s life experiences. In the center of this memory palace lies a dome spanning many miles and filled with untold quadrillions of sheer starmetal fibers that allow or the transmission of the Maker’s thoughts and desires. These fibers are both generated and maintained by design spiders, a species of machine god created by Autochthon as the successor to the pattern spiders that maintain the Loom of Fate. Specially designed for the purpose they serve, the design spiders alone may travel the starmetal network that forms Autochthon’s higher consciousness without fear of annihilation from the titanic lightning bolts that light the central dome with every flash of genius the Maker has.
• The Core is not worshiped by the people of Autochthonia. While they are aware of the Core, Autochthonians view it not as a being worthy of veneration but as a place, a techno-heaven. A common heresy among the Lumpen and Populat states that those who have perfected their souls through millennia of rebirth and reincarnation via soulgems may eventually be reborn amid the crystals that make up the Core and achieve unity with the Maker himself. This creative apotheosis supposedly liberates the soul from the cycle of Autochthonian existence.

Presently, the Core is quiescent. As the Primordial slumbers, the lightning bolts that flash across the Core are the result of dreaming reveries rather than deliberate contemplation. Should the Maker return to full consciousness, it is likely the Core’s essential nature would change, perhaps even to the point of becoming a sentient being equivalent to the other Divine Ministers. Should Autochthon die, the Core would be the last part of the Maker to retain any semblance of its former self after all else had been reformatted into a gremlin.”

Autochthonian Soul Hierarchy

• “Instead of relying on gods of the sort Creation knew, Autochthon decided on a different approach. He would first reformat his own component souls, making subtle changes to their nature to both eliminate the possibility of betrayal and make sure that his offspring would develop and maintain a divine hierarchy within the new world of Autochthonia that would be responsive to his needs. They, in turn, would fashion new gods through processes similar to those used by the Solar Exalted to create animating intelligence, the specially crafted little gods used to give sentience to certain First Age artifacts.
• Among the alterations made to the eight sub-souls, perhaps the most significant was their metaphysical castration. The Divine Ministers would not be able to breed lesser versions of themselves in the way that their distant cousins, the demons of the Third Circle, gave birth to the demons of the Second and First Circles. Instead, the Divine Ministers were to manufacture gods through automated processes ultimately regulated by the Core. When a new god was required, all eight Ministers would need to agree as to what said god’s purview, powers and even appearance would be. To facilitate this process, the Maker placed a powerful geas on each of his own component souls rendering them incapable of ever placing their own desires above the well-being of the greater Primordial. Thus unified of purpose, the Maker reasoned, the Divine Ministers would refrain from creating new gods for frivolous purposes and thus overpopulating the Autochthonian pantheon with layabouts and good-for-nothings, as Yu-Shan had already become.”
• “After completing his preparations, the Maker withdrew the totality of his awareness into the Core, and at his bidding, the Eight Divine Ministers enacted a ritual to transfer the entire Core Elsewhere. At the same time, the ritual also inverted the Core, literally turning it inside out. The multi-dimensional space that had previously rested within the heart of Autochthon spilled out into the infinite expanse of Elsewhere, unfolding countless layers of reality before stabilizing into a roughly spherical shape. This is the body of Autochthon.”
• “Wary of allowing deities to develop a lust for power over mortals, Autochthon decreed that the gods would maintain the mechanical, biological and philosophical needs of the newly created mortal societies, but it would be the mortals—supported by their Alchemical champions—who would actually rule.
• In this manner, Autochthonia developed a divine hierarchy quite different from that of Creation. The Autochthonian people are not monotheists—they are well aware of the existence of a multitude of gods surrounding them. They just don’t really respect most of these gods in the way that Creation’s religions would demand. The Eight Divine Ministers maintain cults of varying degrees of power, but even they are recognized as being merely facets of Autochthon’s own godhead, a fact that not only limits each Minister’s ability to draw Essence from worshipers, but also each Minister’s capacity for spiritual evolution.
• The lesser gods don’t even get that degree of respect. The various gods get worship, but only through specific rituals and holy days regulated by the Theomachracy in a manner not unlike how the Immaculate Order regulates the veneration of Creation’s deities in Realm-controlled areas. In the latter case, however, the Immaculate worshipers really do worship the deities in question, venerating them out of a largely genuine belief in each god’s spiritual superiority. The Autochthonians worship just as fervently, but out of rote. Autochthonians have little fear of reprisal from a god who is not properly worshiped. Rather, they pray to a particular god so that she doesn’t succumb to a lack of Essence and, due to her weakness, become unable to play her role in Autochthon’s continued survival. While some Autochthonian deities do inspire genuine worship, many gods view the Essence they receive from worshipers with the same mixture of greed and disdain that a back-alley prostitute in Creation would have for the siu dropped at her feet by a contemptuous john.
• As a consequence of the severely regimented nature of Autochthonian religion, most gods are indifferent to mortal existence. To make matters worse, a significant percentage of the least gods never interact with humans at all. Custodian-deities assigned to regulate arcane processes in the Reaches or the Far Reaches might well live for centuries in some misbegotten corner of Autochthonia without ever even seeing a mortal being save for the occasional cleric who came calling with a gift of Essence and some menial request.
• When the Maker established this religious system, his intentions were noble—to prevent the system of spiritual bribery and divine blackmail that marked Yu-Shan’s relationship with Creation. Unfortunately, he unwittingly went too far in the other direction, making his worshipers’ continued existence dependent on gods who didn’t care whether those worshipers lived or died.”
• “While the Divine Ministers regularly launch crusades to root out gremlin infestations, Mog has privately begun to question whether they are fighting a losing battle, while Debok Moom now wonders whether the evolutionary processes that created the gremlins might be something worth study or even emulation.”
• “The Eight Divine Ministers are the only beings other than the Maker himself to receive widespread worship in Autochthonia. For the most part, even this worship is ceremonial, with each Minister worshiped merely as a facet of the greater Primordial. Yet, the distinction between god and sub-god is one that is lost on many of Autochthonian’s uneducated citizens. Accordingly, each Minister has a Cult rating derived from the extent to which that particular Minister is worshiped in his own right as a being distinct from the Maker himself. The geas that binds the Ministers ensures their loyalty to the Maker and prevents open conflict between them, but it does not expressly bar them from forming cults. Therefore, each Minister has rationalized to himself that the benefits of cult worship outweigh the negative effects of diverting Essence away from the Maker, even in his weakened state. Of course, each Minister makes this rationalization with regard to only his own worshipers, and the Ministers regularly betray the cults of their rivals to the local preceptors.
• The Ministers represent the highest order of Autochthonian deities and hold the same stature among the Autochthonians as the Incarnae do among the Creation-born. Below them in importance are the ministerial subroutines, which roughly correspond to the celestial deities who serve the Incarnae in Yu-Shan. Below them are the Autochthonian elementals, who perform the same functions as their Terrestrial kin. Finally, the lowest tier of divinity belongs to the machine gods, a collective term used to describe the gods of various machines and mechanical processes. Some are equal the ministerial subroutines in power and stature, while others are little more than divinely fashioned automata. The machine gods defy easy classification.

• Status within the Autochthonian pantheon is rigidly organized. Each subroutine is identified by a class and a rank. The three classes for ministerial subroutines are alpha, beta and gamma. Alpha subroutines are barely sentient and have no Motivations more complicated than performing the functions for which they were created. Design spiders, custodians and animating intelligences fit into this category, although such spirits have the potential to evolve a higher degree of self-awareness over time. Beta subroutines are fully self-aware and have interests and drives separate from their duties. They still have limited spiritual awareness (as represented by Essence rating) and personal power, however, so their capability to pursue any private agenda is limited. Gamma subroutines possess both self-awareness and personal power; both ambition and the means to effectuate it. Most gamma subroutines work directly for one of the Divine Ministers, but some, aware of how jealously the Ministers guard their own power, conceal the fact that they have achieved gamma status so that they can remain free to pursue such personal goals as they wish.
• Technically, the Divine Ministers are considered delta-class, but this designation is rarely used outside of formal occasions. The rank attached to each class ranges from 1 to 10 and denotes the subroutine’s approximate Essence. Rank 10 deities are largely theoretical. Some of the Divine Ministers may have achieved that level of power, but no lesser machine spirit has ever risen above Essence 8. Generally, all subroutines are expected to defer to the opinions and instructions of any other subroutine of a higher class, and within each class, to subroutines with a higher rank. In practice, however, ignoring or even flouting the commandments of a subroutine from a higher class or rank can be punished only by the Minister to whom the offending subroutine reports. As long as the subroutine’s defiance was in furtherance of her master’s own agenda, such violations of Autochthon’s divine order are rarely punished.
• The Ministers must agree among themselves before forging any new ministerial subroutines, and a newly created ministerial subroutine is typically assigned to the personal staff of one of the Ministers. This is perhaps the biggest obstacle to the Ministers coming together to forge new deities. None of them wish to see their rivals gain the benefits of an increased staff. Traits for the Ministers are not provided. A Storyteller may presume that the Ministers range in power somewhere between a Third Circle demon and one of the weaker Incarnae, with Essence ratings ranging from 7 to 10, depending on the needs of the series.”
• “Below the Eight Divine Ministers is a pantheon of lesser ministerial subroutines. Generally, only the most ignorant and uneducated of Autochthonians would truly consider these subroutines to be “gods” in the same way that a Creation-born person might. Officially, ministerial subroutines are viewed as simply discrete parts of Autochthon’s own inner workings, machine-creatures that exist to facilitate the Maker’s proper functioning. That said, ministerial subroutines are usually sentient, intelligent and often personally powerful. While worshiping such beings is inappropriate (as they are ultimately just facets of Autochthon’s existence), they are all worthy of respect and placation.”
• “In addition to the ministerial subroutines (who roughly correspond to Celestial gods in the Autochthonian cosmology), the Maker is also dependent on a host of lesser deities that correspond somewhat to the gods of the Terrestrial Hierarchy. This analogy is imperfect, however, for the lesser gods of Autochthonia are far below their Terrestrial counterparts in both power and wisdom. Referred to as “the mechanical gods,” these minor deities bridge the gap between automaton and spirit and are not truly gods as much as sentient Essence matrices with just enough intelligence to perform certain specific tasks. A few do rise above their station through strange chance, but most have intelligence comparable to that of a well-trained animal or a small child and are treated as such by both the higher-ranking gods and the Autochthonian populace. Those who do have superior intelligence were most often granted that benefit by their creators because it was necessary for them to do their jobs. Except for design weavers and destroyers, it is rare for any of these mechanical gods to ever rise above alpha-class, or even to improve their own Essences after their initial creation. It can happen to some exceptional individuals, though.”
• “the other mechanical gods, animating intelligences are the product not of godly action but of human ingenuity. An animating intelligence is a minor spirit created to give intellect to either an artifact or edifice. An artifact or building invested with such a spirit is capable of communication and even of performing actions on its own initiative that benefit the owner of the artifact or structure. Artifact AIs are relatively rare, as common warstriders are the smallest items capable of supporting one. AIs are common in municipal buildings as well as manufactories, recycling centers and nearly any other large structure with any sort of important, civic purpose. The patropoli and metropoli typically have a legion of AIs that maintain the important structures of each city according to the will of its base Exalt. Additionally, most tram systems have their own AI networks, and each tram is capable of piloting itself and opening and closing doors for passengers as needed.
• Nearly all AIs are intensely loyal to the master of the item in which the AI has been imbedded. AIs are capable of limited evolution but only when directed to evolve by their owners. No AI has ever evolved past alpha-rank or Essence 5, and while a few are quite intelligent, most are limited to Intelligence 1 or 2. AI generation is the province of humans rather than gods and is, therefore, more susceptible to flaws in the making than the creations of deities. Approximately one AI in 30 develops some minor quirk or personality defect that impairs its functioning, usually in some inconsequential way. Roughly one in every 200 is demonstrably insane and is usually deactivated as soon as possible after its madness is discovered. Perhaps one in every 1,000 is cunning enough to conceal its madness from all but the most perspicacious of observers. These rare ones, effectively gremlins lodged in the highest councils of Autochthonian society, do incredible damage to the Maker without anyone ever suspecting the source of the corruption.”