What are some cool ways that people who were completely devoted to a lawful neutral Goddess of deceit, poison, order...

What are some cool ways that people who were completely devoted to a lawful neutral Goddess of deceit, poison, order, and nobility (basically god of nobles fighting over station) might worship them? I'm talking some more extreme stuff like pic related.

Good question, Perhaps some sort of ritual of ingesting a questionably survivable amount of poison to prove one's "Divine" right to hold their station.

Kidnap and potentially sacrifice a rival's most cherished person (aside from themselves) To show your superiority.

Sacrificing something important of your rival(s)

Getting rid of any potential weakness that could be used against you. Conspirators of a past plot, Mistress down in the Tavern, your bastard child. The witness you bribed to not report your crime.

about all I can think of and yes I know some of it all tends to lean a bit (or heavily) towards the Evil spectrum.

Yeah those would all definitely work, but godamn are they evil. I really like the "destroying a weakness that could be used against you." God that's good. What about becoming eunuchs after having children so that your sexual its can't be used against you?

That could work... never thought about it lol

And yes all of them are fairly close to evil, but it is a god about fighting over ones station, an inherently selfish act.

But defending one's station is also the other side of that coin. That could be any alignment.

True, defending ones station is a neutral deed. I might say giving the Church a piece of juicy blackmail on yourself might be a good sign of faith in your god?

Oh lord. Willfully showing your skeletons in your closet to the church as a show of faith is great. Good people will actually give something useful, while neutral and evil people would give something that is almost useless. Then it just comes down to convincing the church that they could destroy your life with this info.

A Lord might choose to be fused/nailed to his throne (modified for the occasion) to show his dedication to never let someone else take his role

How deliciously grimdark...

>the throne is made from the bones and flesh of those who held the station before you.

Crowns should be permentant. Can't tear them off. You have to cut someone head off to take their grown.

>Cool ways of worship
I recommend making an effort and accquire some fucking taste

Y-You too...

You cannot ascend up the social ladder without partaking in a ritual that mimicks the survival of an assassination attempt, to prove your worth and ability to keep your newfound station.

Basically, the church employs assassins, and you have to survive an attack by one of them in increasingly severe tactics as you ascend the chain. For lower level positions the 'attack' against you is painful or embarrassing but nonlethal (such as a poison that makes you ill instead of killing you) but for important positions the threat is real and deadly.

These assassins also exist to enforce the holy laws. A noble that ascends to power outside of the whims of the church is considered to be a noble that is 'unbound by faith and morality'. For the good of the people, this threat is removed and he is replace with a sanctioned person who can be trusted to use his power more wisely.

Likewise, the church and these assassins strike down any ruler who goes mad with power and abuses it. underhanded tactics and cleverness are rewarded, but any kind of Mad King scenario is a threat to the great game and risk casting the entire kingdom into chaos and ruin. For the good of the faith, the people, and the crown, they are removed.

This is fucking great

>lawful neutral
>Goddess of deceit
What? Isn't that sort of like having a Chaotic Neutral god of law, honor, and always following the rules?

Deceit can be used for either good or evil. Deceit is not lawful or chaotic.

Deceit is an inherently chaotic behavior. So is cheating at cards. That doesn't mean that all chaotic characters are cheating liars, or that lawful characters can't, on occasion, lie and cheat, but it's definitely chaotic behavior.

That depends if deceit is the law and is part of the order the goddess or not though. Lawful when it comes to being a god is how they stick to their tenants and how calm they (sheogorath for instance) don't you think? I can see it both ways though.

How do you decide WHEN to send an assassin though? Wouldn't nobles eventually start seeing assassins as a good thing?

Well, it's not like the nobles would stop trying to assassinate each other, either. The church doesn't have a monopoly on underhanded killing.

I can see the church as the primary source of assassinations, but the whole point of the ritual is to show your ability to defend against skulduggery. Defending against real attempts ought to be just as good as the 'fake' ones, since no one should be able to tell the difference. So a noble might fake an attempt on himself, but has to make it convincing and deceive others into thinking that he truly is blessed. The church leadership might keep track of who they've tried to kill and who not, and it's all part of this elaborate system of convincing people that, yes, I am able to fend off assassins and intrigue.

Why not just make it so that assassination attempts can be commissioned, but only by nobles of lower nobility against people higher than their station? Add a time limit between tries, and you've got a working bureaucratic system.

that's hardly deceitful or worth proving you can survive it, now is it?

>bureaucracy
>not deceitful
>not impressive to be able to survive

What if the gods of Nobility and Bureaucracy were in the same pantheon?

>The Goddess of Deceit's son is the God of Bureaucracy and is tired of his mom doing shit underhandedly and without the proper paperwork

They just sort of mash you back after you die, lacquer you to keep the smell down, and then nail your successor in place. It's not so much a throne as a huge, spreading pile of leathery flesh, fabric, rings, jewels, and bone, and effluvia, with an approximate seat carved out for each new ruler.

YES YES GOOD

MORE LIKE THIS

Lets get more into the morbid and funeral stuff. The ancient Egyptians put themselves in pyramids so that no one could defile their bodies. I feel like these zealots would do something similar, but more like they would encase their body in full steel or something. Or maybe even have the body imbued with poison so that if it's ever messed with then the person will surely die.

For minor dead, like low-level cultists, or failed initiates, the cult happily has a use for you. They've got a lovely brown-tinted clear resin they make in huge vats. Get enough dead together, pose them artfully, make a mould, and pour the resin around them. Instant centerpiece, building block, flooring, or other useful decoration. It's so nice to see your servants on display.

And then, if things go really wrong, you can always call up the dead to serve again. They might be a little brittle, and covered in shards of glass-like resin, but they'll still march if you say the right words.

i'm borrowing this, thanks user

>This entire thread

>that post