As the vast majority of the followers of any of the gods of Malice tend to commit acts of harm that would send the souls of said followers to the Gray Waste for eternity it can be somewhat difficult to convince a mortal to stray from the straight and narrow. To that end the gods of Malice employed various methods to attract followers and keep them. The most simple and obvious method was for the gods of Malice to simply help the mortal get what they wanted. Most benevolent and neutral gods might help with things like a better harvest, your sick relative gets better, you find something of an emotional nature/family heirloom that went missing, so and so forth. But for things like getting another man’s wife, getting all your grandfather’s inheritance instead of sharing it with your cousin, getting rid of the old king so you can be the new king, one would have to turn to the gods of Malice. In these kinds of endeavors the easiest form of assistance here (and in general) is by giving information. And this did give the gods of Malice a certain appeal, as did their clerics and paladins showing off divine powers, and the gods themselves showing what they could do – in the First Age when the gods could walk the Mortal Plane. But none of this gets around the fact that causing harm, malicious harm, can send a soul to the Gray Waste forever. To that end some of the gods of Malice became creative. For their most loyal and/or favorite followers, to act as sort of advertisements for the rest of the followers, the gods of Malice had an assortment of tactics at their disposal for keeping their followers out of the Gray Waste, at least for a while: The follower could be turned into a being or creature of extreme longevity and/or increased power. For instance a human follower could be turned into an elf and get perhaps an extra thousand years of life, then be turned into a dragon for an extra ten thousand or more years of life plus all the power that comes with being a dragon. Then, turn that follower into an elf again for another thousand years, then after that a dragon again and on and on and on. A second popular tactic was to have a cleric, or Gifted worshiper, resurrect a loyal follower and thus reunite their soul and body in the Mortal Plane. A third tactic was Lichdom/undeath. A few others tactics, somewhat less used than the first three included hibernation, suspended animation, putting the soul in some inanimate object, possession of another mortal’s body, or any combination of any of the discussed methods
The gods of Malice tended to use these methods sparingly as they didn’t want to give the game away completely or reward the undeserving, yet the other gods found out about these activities and this infuriated some. Some gods saw a number of these death-cheating methods as anything any of the other gods could do for their followers and anything Gifted individuals could do, and just delayed the inevitable. To other gods, this was more insidious and thus added more fuel to the fire that became the War.
As part of the Treaty divine power was not to be used to permanently transform individuals into other beings or things – unless as a form of punishment and could only be done by a god to their followers, or the followers of a Compact partner that allowed such an action. Transformation could be used for defensive purposes, but not last more than one day.
The issue of resurrection was trickier as what of goodly beings that had been killed before their time? Should they not be allowed to finish their work in the Mortal Plane? The gods of Malice were however out-voted and they could not directly or indirectly use their divine power to resurrect their followers, nor were the Gifted worshipers of the gods of Malice allowed to resurrect their brethren. This was done thru divine decree rather than the gods toying with the fabric of magic. It was pointed out that some Gifted could, using magic, cloak themselves and their activities from the eyes of the gods, and the gods don’t know everything their followers are doing. Should the Gifted of the gods of Malice use magic to do anything to help their brethren cheat death that their gods were not allowed to do, and it was found out a god assisted in the process, that god would lose some number of their mortal representatives and other rights based on the number of followers that had been given extra longevity thru divine intervention. If no god had been involved then the Gifted mortal would be bound and those they assisted killed and thus sent directly to the Divine Plane for judgment.
As per the Treaty, here are some of the other methods the gods of Malice, and their Gifted followers, were not allowed to use to unnaturally extend the lives of the followers of the gods of Malice: hibernation/deep sleep; suspended animation; cloning; lichdom/undeath; possession of another mortal’s body or of an inanimate object or a living creature or being; make someone young again; alter time to slow down the aging process; place a follower or followers in some type of pocket dimension or space where the follower or followers do not age.
Natural, non-magical means of life extension, such as the use of specific herbs, was acceptable.
Amongst the gods it was pointed out that longevity can be looked at from at least a few different points of view, and using divine power or magic to heal a mortal technically extends life, whether it be closing a wound and stopping infection or getting rid of some disease. Does that mean the gods of Malice could not use their powers to heal their followers? It was debated and narrowly it was agreed they could, depending on the type of harm that was to be healed.
Harm was broken into two broad categories: harm that mortals caused themselves due to vices – imbibing alcoholic beverages, eating too much or eating the wrong types of food, smoking, etc versus the harm that comes from accidents, attack, work and living environment hazards, and things usually outside the mortal’s control. This second category of harm was acceptable for the gods of Malice and their Gifted followers to heal, as was the healing of sexually transmitted diseases due to the fact one mortal could infect many. Healing a mortal that inflicted harm upon themself or attempted suicide was also allowed to the gods of Malice and their Gifted followers.
Along with healing came the idea of enhancements or modifications. In general, these were allowed for limited time periods (not more than one hour). As far as more permanent modifications the gods of Malice and their Gifted could use their powers to modify their followers in the following ways: make them stronger, faster, smarter, wiser, more charismatic, denser bones, more agile, better senses/heightened sensory perception. What they could not do was to enhance or rejuvenate their cardiovascular systems, immune systems and internal organs. So, a follower that was an eighty-year-old human could be made stronger, given denser bones, better vision, but still had the heart, lungs, immune system, endocrine system, and internal organs of the eighty-year-old they were before the modification. Basically, those things that did not functionally prolong the life of the follower and fell into the second/allowed category of healing were acceptable.
The followers of the gods of Malice that had been turned into beings/creatures of extreme longevity had to be moved to the Demi Plane. Those beings that had been changed this way cannot commit, initiate, or instigate acts of violence; they can defend themselves and others.
Lots of liches, dragons, and elves that worship gods of Malice live in the Demi Plane –There may be cities of them. – Fixed places that one can find.
Should the mortal followers of the gods of Malice find their way into the Demi Plane and make it to the homes of their gods these mortals are allowed to visit the homes of their gods for only one day.
How did the gods of Malice reward their followers in the Second Age, Post Treaty of the Divine Plane?
With all the restrictions of the Treaty of the Divine placed upon them it seemed as though the gods of Malice had finally been put in their place and now far less mortals would come to worship them as the tricks that had been used to keep their followers out of Hell were now gone. Or so the other gods thought.
Just because the gods of Malice had less rewards to dole out did not mean the ill desires of mortals and the harm some wished to cause was going to go away. These mortals were rewarded or given information and/or modifications and with them some increased abilities. That took care of the immediate, short-term issues. But what of the prospect of an eternity in the Gray Waste?
One way that got around the wording of the Treaty was to put the souls of followers into living things that were not inanimate objects, beings, or creatures per se – such as trees and other plants that could live for thousands of years. This was not all that common.
A second loophole of the Treaty led to the god of Efficient Destruction inventing the practice of reincarnation. He, like a fair number of the gods of Malice, and some other gods in general, thought the idea of eternal damnation or reward was irrational. And as he wished to be seen as more than just a destroyer he had been toying/tinkering with the idea of a second birth for mortals for some time. It wasn’t resurrection as the soul was in a different body. It wasn’t possession as the body was empty, devoid of a soul. It wasn’t lichdom or some undead route as the soul would go into a body that would come alive upon being united with the soul. It was clever, and elegant, and did not violate the Treaty and thus the gods, thru their representatives, and their Gifted followers, were free to use this method of extending the lives of loyal worshipers. Still, sparingly of course. You have to earn this. To not enrage the other gods too much when a follower of a god of Malice was reincarnated they were escorted to the Demi Plane.
A third option that the gods of Malice had been using a bit during the First Age was to simply direct some of their followers to places in the Demi Plane where based on the stories of mortals wonders of all kinds were to exist – waters that would make one young again or grant everlasting life, certain crystals with the power to turn back time or stave off aging, creatures and beings that could be coaxed into healing a mortal of all their ills, legendary items of all kinds that could do everything a mortal could dream of. So the gods of Malice had their followers modify some of these old legends, create new ones, and spread these tales all over the mortal world. And in time, with enough telling and retelling changes in the Demi Plane came to be. The stories were retold not just by the followers of the gods of Malice but by mortals across the belief spectrum as even at least some of the followers of benevolent gods would like to put off death for a little while and make some dreams come true.
Some of the changes to the old legends and the new legends would, in small amounts, find their way into the Mortal Plane. Fountains of youth where some of the water trickles into the mortal world and collects in some small, innocuous pool somewhere. The roots of some tree that bears fruit of rejuvenation winding their way into a forest in the mortal world and a seedling begins to grow. And there were still many things specific to the Demi Plane that followers of the gods of Malice could find and bring back to the Mortal Plane for their brethren, if one knew where to look, if one knew the signs. Some of the clues became built into some of the religious practices and prayers of the followers of the gods of Malice. Even with all this it was still difficult for a mortal to get into the Demi Plane. Teoheon would take care of this.
Up Next: What Teoheon did to help the gods of Ill Desire find another way to reward their followers without breaking the rules of the Treaty of the Divine Plane
