[WFRP2e] The Power of One - Part 2 - "Transire Benefaciendo"

[MrAbdiel]

The sorella huffs, and gestures to the false statue once more helplessly, then forces a hospitable smile to answer your question. "Oh, just Giuliano Mancini and his Ranaldites. They do this nonsense often enough out of their own idiot piety; mostly here over other temples because they know if they tried this business in Mymidia's temple, they'd be lucky to come out with enough fingers left to cross."

"Ranald's work?" Bella asks, as curious as you in this matter, "I fear I'm too provincial to know much of Ranald at all, sorella. Is he to be... feared?"

But the sister waves the idea away with one hand. "No, no... Scorned, perhaps; but not feared. Ranald is the lord of scoundrels, and sneakers, and the downtrodden who most need to appeal to fortune. Naturally, that is a wide swathe of humanity. There are gentleman pickpockets, and striving beggars, and professional crime lords, and merry travelling do-gooders who all give homage to Ranald; and having no real temples or episcopate, no one exists with authority to gainsay who is 'really' serving him. But most of my time dealing with Ranaldites has left me with the impression that they are generally good, if on the rougher side of good. They like to antagonize our temple like young boys pull the girls' hair out of idiot affection. Shallya, after all, is the reason Ranald is a god. Or so they say. The legends vary. There are two gods who have known mortal lives; three, if you are generous. If you are inclined to consider the moustache-men of the Empire, they have their God, Sigmar, who fought befriended the dwarves and fought a great war against orcs, and drove the Norscans into Norsca, and did many deeds, so they say; and as reward, his god, Ulric, raised him up to glory. Of course, you can go to Luccini and find they worship Lucan and Luccina; many tribes worship their ancestors as gods, but few have an Empire and a record of miracles to back it, like Sigmar does. But Sigmar was a man, who became a god by deeds. And Myrmidia was a goddess who became mortal by choice to gain wisdom, lived, and then died; and the tears of her sister Shallya falling on her face restored her to divinity. But Ranald's legends say he conducted some ruse to gain Shallya's attention, feigned a suffering death, and when she came to weep for his death, he drank up her tears and stole a morsel of godhood for himself. Other stories say he caught her in a trap where she raised him to godhood to avoid marrying him; and there's another where he wins godhood from Morr in a bet, by making the old man smile. But whatever tale it is, Ranald is also sliding into the pantheon of mankind on his rump before the curtain can fall; and usually, Shallya's kindness and generosity is exploited for it."

The sorella looks back at the statue, vexed. "...And now I have this; with Shallya's face, so I can hardly destroy it; but with Ranald's sign, so I can't honor it. Is this the joke? Hrmph..." She rubs her temples, and calls a favor from a couple of temple-goers to carry the statue to storage for her.

Bella looks to you, as the scene returns to its placid equilibrium. "I should like to see what temples there to the foreign gods, in the places we go. Sigmar, in the Empire; and Ulric too, though I understand his and Myrmidia's are rival priesthoods. Bretonnia has their Lady, too - though I am not sure which Lady she is, whether she be Shallya or some other. The elves have all their own gods, too; and the dwarves. I wonder if halflings have gods. And I wonder if their gods rely on the human gods, like the halflings themselves."

The dove in her hand coos. The seems to have forgotten it, until it does. "One more prayer, and then the Colosseum?"