The Sanctioned Nine

The gods of the House are very real indeed, and make their existence known. In the Cities, however, ordinary people are only permitted to worship the nine Sanctioned gods.

Over the course of your travels, as you make your mark on the House, the gods will grow intrigued. When you do something worthy of interest, perhaps by completing a story or simply catering to that god’s particular eccentricities, you will accrue their Divine Scrutiny (or, if you displease thrm, Divine Reproach). Earn enough Scrutiny, and you may ask the god for a favour. Attract enough Reproach, and become cursed.

But what if you actively seek to earn a particular god’s Scrutiny, rather than simply letting it accrue naturally? Well, to me that sounds you’re on a divine mission. 

Become a missionary

After earning a small amount of a god’s Scrutiny, that god’s church will invite you over for tea. They will politely suggest that a traveller such as yourself, who has already made such a good impression on their deity, would be well-suited to missionary work.

If you accept, you can travel to distant places and attempt to convert them! Only a few places can be converted – and which ones accept conversion depends on the god you’ve chosen.

If you worship Graveddon, the Iron Swine, the Undreaming Carcass, the war-brute deity of carnage and rust… You probably won’t be able to convert a peaceable little village. So missionary work requires you to think carefully about the nature of your god and which places in the House will be most likely to embrace its worship.

Converting a city will earn you more Divine Scrutiny and will have long-term effects on that city’s story. Towards the end of the game, a converted city will look very different from an unchanged one. So choose your god wisely.

Lore snippet: Fiona McConnaghe

Fiona can be hired as your Guard Captain. She was an orphan, abandoned at the steps of Fargyle Keep, and spent her life training to be a Poet-Knight.

Unfortunately, her verse is awful. She compensated by devoting herself to her other lessons, thus becoming unnervingly lethal with a sword.

Not dissuaded by her awful doggerel, the Knights claim that Fiona has a Destiny. She’s an orphan, abandoned and trained in combat – of course the gods have something special lined up for her. Fiona would rather not have a Destiny. Fiona would rather have a small terraced house and a cat.