Simply Divine: The Bold Ambitions of Pilgrim Daniel Obrove; Or, Other Gods Before You; Or, Idol Hands; Or, Faith Before Reason
A cleric, priest, or shaman's usual course of action is to swear their loyalty to their patron god, pantheon, or unifying world-spirit, and from there draw power from them in order to cast divinely-fueled magic. They are healers and guides, helping others while helping their god to spread their respective doctrine. The stronger their god becomes, the stronger adherents of the faith become as well.
Daniel Obrove does all of that, of course, he's just not so concerned with quality as he is with
quantity. His goal is to form bonds of fealty with as many different deities as possible, and from there reap the rewards.
Daniel spent his early years possessing only a cursory interest with the divine. The gods of his world were aloof and distant, only reachable through prayer, and even then prayer was often a one-way channel. If there was a means to summon them and speak with them directly, the priesthood wasn't giving that secret away. The gods were placed in the back of
the young man's mind as he continued his foray into learning all that he could about magic. When he discovered an ancient spell used by the long-dead Ur-goblin overlords to form dimensional gates, Daniel's eyes were opened to the wonders of the multiverse, what he called the Hither and Thither. He began travelling from one plane to the next, learning new magicks, meeting strange folks, and seeing remarkable new places. Chief among these discoveries, though, was the realization that with new worlds came new groups of deities to govern them.
The gods of other worlds were often found interacting openly with their followers, not hidden away on some high peak or sequestered to the depths of the sea. These gods were sociable and ready to hear prayers personally. And there were so many of them! No two pantheons were like the other, whether the gods interacted with mortals directly or were more difficult to reach, as on Daniel's home plane. The young magician got to thinking that, aided by the Ur-goblin gates, he could swear devotion to any number of these foreign deities and benefit equally from each bond created. It would be exhausting work, convincing multiple gods to share a single follower and then going about placating each of them to maintain the boons they granted, but in this multiverse full of different possibilities, there had to be a handful of deities that would agree to the magician's plan. In time Daniel expected that, through the aid of all these disparate divinities, he would accrue power enough to keep the bunch of them satisfied while also having time to enjoy the boons granted to him. Hopefully.
The experiment began during a chance meeting with a down-on-her-luck land goddess. She had been languishing, trapped on her world for years and unable to return to the realm she had originated from for fear of being annihilated by the other beings present there. Daniel carefully and subtly drove the conversation toward the subject of vassalship, and convinced her to take him on as her own. The workload seemed as though it wouldn't be too difficult to start: All this poor creature required was a sacrifice here or there to maintain her. Daniel held out hope that he could maybe even restore her base of worship on that world and see her full strength returned. In any case, he had done taken his first step toward becoming mediator and priest to a legion of gods, all vying for...his attention...
Daniel panicked. He left for home, believing that he hadn't quite fully thought the plan out. Doubt clouded his mind; how could one man hope to serve so many powerful entities? How would he ever get more than one to accept him? What would happen when the tangle of rivalries between different powers prevented him from taking any action for fear of cosmological backlash? Daniel studied ancient texts and pored over treatises and discourses regarding higher powers. He attended lectures on theology and held his own heated debate with those devotees who were quite convinced that one could not maintain favor with more than one god, let alone more than one pantheon of gods. Yet their own skepticism made Daniel defiant, and renewed his desire to see the plan through. It
could work, he just needed the right place to start. After a year of studying and learning all he could about divine magic, Daniel again became confident that he was up to the task. The plan would work. All he needed now was to find a god or goddess and--
He remembered that he already
had a goddess, and that he had been neglecting her for a year.
Daniel returned to the home plane of the land goddess to find her in worse condition than before. He spent a few days trying to rush her back to some semblance of health. In a hasty bid to see her well, he sent forth twin mimic-monsters to pose as the goddess and perform feats that would gain her new worshipers. It seemed to work, for a while, until one day Daniel learned of his summoned thralls breaking free of his control and slaughtering the townspeople, leading to the goddess's name being cursed rather than being offered prayers. She was damaged, poisoned, and he still needed to ask her permission to carry out his ambitions and seek the favor of other deities. What more did he have to lose? Either the goddess would see the potential benefits of having a follower to share with others, or she would consider it a betrayal and demand that he stand by her alone. Really, the latter case was only a minor set-back. She was weak. She couldn't keep him. Daniel was guilty for having done this to her, but if he had to leave again and try to make it up to the goddess, his
first goddess, at a later time, then he would.
So he was honest with her. He told her the plan.
Of course, she was livid. But as she turned him away, demanded he leave her sight and never come back, the goddess
did technically give Daniel permission to seek vassalship elsewhere, and without removing her previously-established connection with him as well. He was free to continue his great work.
Daniel Obrove's mission to devote himself to as many gods and goddesses as possible had a rocky start, but he intends to see it through and make up for past mistakes.
The Hither and Thither Expanded; Or, Drawing Back the Curtain!
Daniel Obrove is the alternate universe analogue of the brilliant but greedy traveling potioneer, Danielle Obrove. He is not her former life, her blood relative, or a close acquaintance. He's the Obrove if Obrove were a cleric on the road to serving several disparate divinities, while
the alchemist is Obrove in the form of a silver-tongued young lady with a proclivity for turning lead into gold.
Additionally, this instance of Daniel Obrove is not the same as the younger Daniel Obrove you may have seen getting into shenanigans. Their timelines run parallel to each other, rather than consecutively. This Daniel is one
possible future for the young man, but he is one which the young man has yet to achieve. Savvy?
Less pious Obroves can be found on their alt list,
here.
There are more "Danalogues" to come, eventually, so we kindly ask that you...
STAY TUNED!