Peek: Order (Patreon)
Content
The god of Order exists quite comfortably in his domain. The other gods like to joke about him being antisocial, but they don't have 4th dimensional forms. He is quite happy to not have to unfold his tesseract self to fit properly into the mortal plane, thank you very much.
It helps that his adherents are few and regimented enough to not require his direct involvement often. Besides, in his estimation, he interacts with the mortals plenty, as his system is the backbone upon which their classes function.
He doesn't let his pride in his work tip over into smug satisfaction. As much as he feels his system is a marvel of order, it's not perfect. That outsider dungeon is a prime example. It had been over a century since he had needed to make a patch for it, and now he feels like he's constantly having to make adjustments and closely inspect the logic of each function. All because that outsider tried to use the library system to talk without a Voice.
If it were up to him, he'd have the Raven shuffle that soul back where it came from. Unfortunately, its presence is because of a Law from ages past, before Order achieved apotheosis. Now that is a piece of perfect order, much as it makes Order's job more difficult.
He can only take small consolation in the fact the soul doesn't seem to deliberately be trying to cause chaos. Honestly, it does like most mortals and attempts to find some kind of balance and place in the world around it. Unfortunately, unlike most mortals, it has a habit of doing things that cause ripples. Add in the Fate affinity it has, and it's a bull in a china shop, making a mess, even if not a deliberate one.
It causes ripples enough to capture the attention of some of the others, too. The Raven actually spent a few of his precious free moments to examine the dungeon. Despite Order's hope, he did not gather the soul, and instead seemed to accept its presence. But even casual acceptance is better than the Shield!
While Order appreciates the stability the Shield's followers tend to enforce, the other deity is taking far too much of a shine to the dungeon for Order's taste. If Order didn't know better, he'd think the dungeon deliberately influenced that young orc to gain a new variant of paladin. But no, Order has to grudgingly admit the dungeon did its best to only provide a chance to grow, and not encourage any specific direction.
The other new class also has the attention of the goddess of magic, though she's much more inclined to simply watch and study, instead of trying to propagate the new class as quickly as possible.
He allows himself a few more moments of complaining to himself, before coming to his real concern. As much as the dungeon grates on his system, it's at least trying to work within it. But the dungeon has revealed something actually corrupting the system! Even worse, it was something that Order didn't notice until it saw that odd scion embrace its title. While new titles are perfectly fine, even odd ones like No Kid Gloves, something about that harbinger was deliberately twisting the rules of his system! More than that, it's somehow fully within the rules!
He's traced the Harbinger to its spawner and dungeon, and he can see he's going to need to take a long, hard look at his system. This kind of rampant abuse cannot stand! And while he'd love to simply let the outsider dungeon come and clean the mess, as it seems inclined to do, Order doesn't think this is the only bit of abuse of his system. The Maw is simply not smart enough to have come up with this kind of subtle subversion. The Harbinger seems to be that clever, but it's also not a native of the Maw.
Something is going on in the Depths, and Order doesn't like it. The fact he doesn't sense anything particularly wrong only makes it worse. Maybe he'll be lucky and it's just the scattered forces of chaos coming up with yet another new tactic. It'd be far simpler to handle than some perversion of his own order.