Representatives of the Pentide
Representatives of the Pentide are people blessed by the five gods of the Pentide to carry out their will on the mortal plane. At any given time, there is typically only one representative for each god and another will not be appointed until the previous representative has died. Representatives are appointed by the gods themselves through holy visions and blessings that allow them to perform feats that normal people are incapable of. They are the de facto leaders of Shindus, with each representative being responsible for managing the affairs of the nation related to their patron god's domain.
The first representatives were known as the Five Heroes, the members of the First Settlers of Shindus that led the their people to prosperity, who first made pacts with the Pentide for the strength necessary to make the difficult journey. Because of the pacts they made, representatives are normally only born within the nation of Shindus and can frequently tie their bloodline back to the first settlers directly.
Because the appointment process is restricted to the domain of the gods, there is only a limited understanding of the criteria necessary for a person to be appointed. Typically, new representatives are people that have shown shown strong devotion to the ideals represented by their respective gods. They are frequently high ranking members of religious organizations dedicated to their respective gods - such as the University of Bamalion or the Kikerion Cooperative - and will have a strong connection with the representative that precedes them, although this is not always the case. There have been a few cases where lower ranking members of those organizations, or even people completely outside of them, have been appointed. For instance, Ekrar - the 10th representative of Kikerion - was a forager living in a small town near the forests on the eastern edge of Shindus, well known for having a strong intuitive connection to nature. The previous representative was a high ranking member of the Kikerion cooperative but had a greater focus on administrative and logistic management than a practical connection to nature. They reevaluated much of the trade routes and agricultural procedures used by Shindus' farmers to significantly increase their yields and efficiency. They also expanded the arable land used by Shindus, in order to help handle a boom in population caused by recent military expansion to the north, by clearing large swaths of forest and establishing several new farming communities in the newly conquered regions. It was believed that Ekrar was appointed because of his closer relationship to nature, a trait that Kikerion considered crucial in that age, despite his relative inexperience with the organizations that explicitly served Kikerion.
Typically, the night after a representative dies, the new representative will be granted a vision in a dream about what they need to do to serve their god and the blessings they will receive. They are then expected to present themselves and perform a miracle prophesied in the dream, in order to prove themselves to the rest of the world. This can sometimes lead to conflict, where multiple people claim to be the chosen representative in the wake of a representatives death, but normally the proof of the miracles performed by the true representative are enough to clear up these conflicts. However, on at least one occasion, there have been two or more similarly viable candidates capable of performing great feats that each claim to be the true representative. These circumstances lead to significant conflicts, in one case even starting a civil war, but they are resolved when one of the candidates inevitably overpowers the others.
Another aspect of the representatives that is not fully understood is related to the disappearance of the representatives of Pitelion, God of Warriors and Victory. Ratsuik, the 12th representative of Pitelion, was the first and only true representative to have died by unnatural means. He was slain in battle with a neighboring nation and a successor was never appointed. To this day, there is no representative of Pitelion in Shindus. It is unknown why specifically the representatives of Pitelion disappeared, but it is believed that Ratsuik's death in some way disgraced Pitelion or broke the contract originally forged with him by Zhurhan of the Five Heroes, which led to him refusing to bless Shindus any further.
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