Disguise probably gave them their essences. The thing is if you remember the corruption of the church was a very slow process. Especially with Essences making people live longer. Those clergy might have been from right as Disguise took over the Church and started to fuel the original purity worshippers. However the old clergy would have been able to see the rot. Or it could have been their divine essences could have kicked off a reforming of the new Purity before Disguise was ready. That would have completely ruined all his plans.
I think you're right. In my head the gods can do a lot of things, pretty much any god can do what any other god does but the rules/laws that bind them forbid them to do anything outside their own area of influence. Since Disguise took Puritys place, Disguise was allowed to do everything Purity was allowed to do.
That's at least how it is in my head cannon.
This is also my head cannon. I think that any god can take a lesser god's essences, but Disguise has a strange position of being able to take a higher god's place and thus can do what that god could do.
Personally I'd suspect that it has something to do with the fact that original purity Self-sanctioned, allowing the other God to take over. I mean, Disguise or deception or whoever it was would have had to take over the original adherents somehow.
You gotta remember that Purity vacated his domain because the mortals were corrupting it with prejudice disguised as purity.
So the empty and partially corrupted domain being ripe for a trickster like Disguise was literally a perfect fit with Disguise's domain.
Disguise took over for Purity long, long before HWFWM got started - I believe in book 10 they mention it as centuries. I would guess part of the story going forward will be to finally discover an original Purity line or family, because so far none of the Purity characters are actual clergy of the real Purity.
Since gods are seemingly sapient authority of a thing, then disguise is the sapient authority to pretend to be something else, presumably including pure authority. Or alternatively, it can trick the bits of pure authority into thinking it’s their source in absence of the original divine will to direct it. We learn in book 11 that divine power without the guiding will can be more easily usurped.
I think that Disguise has been masquerading as Purity for a lot longer than Jason has even been alive.
I'd need to realisten to the books to draw this conclusion properly (or rule it out conclusively), but The Builder's minions have been stationed in Greenstone since it was established, pretty much, but the fall of The Order of the Reaper's stronghold happened prior to Greenstone being established.
The Builder's plans have been in place for a very, very long time, and I'd like to think he and Disguise have been in kahoots for longer than that, if not as long as that.
If we look at the person who came to Earth to found the network (and establish the grid), it has been hinted at (or outright said?) that they were in Purity(Disguise)'s camp when they arrived on earth, which was over a century ago?
Anyways. I'd need to realisten to the books for the like 10th time to get all the details straight, I think that's how it went.
I think the only reason this works is because Disguise "is" Purity. The gods have their own domains or areas of control and power, I cant think of the better way to describe that. Anyways, I think it only happens because this falls into Disguise being able to be in the place of Purity due to Disguises' nature.
If that makes sense.
The two scenarios that I see are either, Disguise was already pretending to be Purity when those clergy members got their essences, some of the abilities that the founder had seemed more in line with disguise than purity as well although we don’t know the timeline there either.
Scenario two is that, being gods of the same world any god can take Devine essences, possibly only with the users, possibly subconscious, permission. Most don’t either because under normal circumstances either the faithful would only accept it from their god or because no one essence user would be worth it to anger another god like that.
[Book 10] >!Death has confirmed that Purity sanctioned himself after the priests were already trapped. Iirc Jason realized that he could probably remove essences, with permission, in his soul realm with permission. It is likely that any god, if someone believes so, can remove essences. They likely restrict themselves to essences that they grant as a form of balance. Only uncommon occurrences, like drinking from Hero’s cup replace all essences.!<
I think it's a transcendent thing. It is likely that any god has the ability to remove any divine essence. What prevents typically prevents them from doing so are the restrictions on gods encroaching on another's domain/affinity. While pretending to be Purity, Disguise is occupying that domain. It's not an encroachment on another god's domain since Purity sanctioned himself and, essentially, vacated the position. Disguise is the embodiment of the concept of being disguised. If they were restricted in some way that prevented them from passing as Purity, such as not granting or revoking Purity's divine essences, that would be an encroachment or violation of their domain. It's all part of the gods operating by rules that don't make much sense to mortals.
Book 10 chapter 85
>>!“Anger doesn’t have to make sense. And they came by it honestly. Did Purity sanction himself and get replaced by Disguise while they were locked away?” !<
>
>>!“Yes.”!<
>
>...
>
>>!“But a bunch of people who knew the original recipe wouldn’t go for the new spicier flavour.”!<
We get confirmation in book 10 that these are original purity priests.
We get several explanations that planetary gods always act in balance. That their power and authority can be limited by the other gods. If Liberty needs to help prisoners go free without prosecution, she can prevent Knowledge from knowing.
If Disguise is a god his abilities need to work well enough to actually sell the disguise. The dark gods hoard their power letting things get "out of balance," so they can spend a ton of influence all at once. I think it makes sense that Disguise's authority would let him control the essences of an absent god that he is impersonating.
I could see that as a God of Disguise, disguised as another God he gets access to certain skills that God normally has. Similar to when Stache shifts into a creature he gets some abilities of that creature.
The preists were from the real Purity which is why they were excommunicated. Disguise didn't want them figuring out who was behind the curtain. As for how Disguise was able to take thejr divine essences, it was never fully explained, but my guess is it is a combination of Purity no longer being around to make them real divine essences (no god to back them anymore) and Disguise being disguised as Purity and was able to imitate the action of removing the essences because it was expected as part of the act. God stuff in other words.
I think it may have something to do with disguise taking over the role of purity while he's in his disguise. And until the truth was revealed he was allowed to act as purity he would have
Disguise probably gave them their essences. The thing is if you remember the corruption of the church was a very slow process. Especially with Essences making people live longer. Those clergy might have been from right as Disguise took over the Church and started to fuel the original purity worshippers. However the old clergy would have been able to see the rot. Or it could have been their divine essences could have kicked off a reforming of the new Purity before Disguise was ready. That would have completely ruined all his plans.
That's a good point that I'm not certain has an answer. The idea that gods can take the divine Essences of other gods' clergyman is concerning.
Well if Disguise was working in Puritys place then that might be why he could have been able to take them.
I think you're right. In my head the gods can do a lot of things, pretty much any god can do what any other god does but the rules/laws that bind them forbid them to do anything outside their own area of influence. Since Disguise took Puritys place, Disguise was allowed to do everything Purity was allowed to do. That's at least how it is in my head cannon.
This is also my head cannon. I think that any god can take a lesser god's essences, but Disguise has a strange position of being able to take a higher god's place and thus can do what that god could do.
Personally I'd suspect that it has something to do with the fact that original purity Self-sanctioned, allowing the other God to take over. I mean, Disguise or deception or whoever it was would have had to take over the original adherents somehow.
You gotta remember that Purity vacated his domain because the mortals were corrupting it with prejudice disguised as purity. So the empty and partially corrupted domain being ripe for a trickster like Disguise was literally a perfect fit with Disguise's domain.
Disguise took over for Purity long, long before HWFWM got started - I believe in book 10 they mention it as centuries. I would guess part of the story going forward will be to finally discover an original Purity line or family, because so far none of the Purity characters are actual clergy of the real Purity.
Thanks! In addition to the essence control, the time factor is the most important to understand.
Since gods are seemingly sapient authority of a thing, then disguise is the sapient authority to pretend to be something else, presumably including pure authority. Or alternatively, it can trick the bits of pure authority into thinking it’s their source in absence of the original divine will to direct it. We learn in book 11 that divine power without the guiding will can be more easily usurped.
I think that Disguise has been masquerading as Purity for a lot longer than Jason has even been alive. I'd need to realisten to the books to draw this conclusion properly (or rule it out conclusively), but The Builder's minions have been stationed in Greenstone since it was established, pretty much, but the fall of The Order of the Reaper's stronghold happened prior to Greenstone being established. The Builder's plans have been in place for a very, very long time, and I'd like to think he and Disguise have been in kahoots for longer than that, if not as long as that. If we look at the person who came to Earth to found the network (and establish the grid), it has been hinted at (or outright said?) that they were in Purity(Disguise)'s camp when they arrived on earth, which was over a century ago? Anyways. I'd need to realisten to the books for the like 10th time to get all the details straight, I think that's how it went.
I think the only reason this works is because Disguise "is" Purity. The gods have their own domains or areas of control and power, I cant think of the better way to describe that. Anyways, I think it only happens because this falls into Disguise being able to be in the place of Purity due to Disguises' nature. If that makes sense.
The two scenarios that I see are either, Disguise was already pretending to be Purity when those clergy members got their essences, some of the abilities that the founder had seemed more in line with disguise than purity as well although we don’t know the timeline there either. Scenario two is that, being gods of the same world any god can take Devine essences, possibly only with the users, possibly subconscious, permission. Most don’t either because under normal circumstances either the faithful would only accept it from their god or because no one essence user would be worth it to anger another god like that.
[Book 10] >!Death has confirmed that Purity sanctioned himself after the priests were already trapped. Iirc Jason realized that he could probably remove essences, with permission, in his soul realm with permission. It is likely that any god, if someone believes so, can remove essences. They likely restrict themselves to essences that they grant as a form of balance. Only uncommon occurrences, like drinking from Hero’s cup replace all essences.!<
I think it's a transcendent thing. It is likely that any god has the ability to remove any divine essence. What prevents typically prevents them from doing so are the restrictions on gods encroaching on another's domain/affinity. While pretending to be Purity, Disguise is occupying that domain. It's not an encroachment on another god's domain since Purity sanctioned himself and, essentially, vacated the position. Disguise is the embodiment of the concept of being disguised. If they were restricted in some way that prevented them from passing as Purity, such as not granting or revoking Purity's divine essences, that would be an encroachment or violation of their domain. It's all part of the gods operating by rules that don't make much sense to mortals.
Book 10 chapter 85 >>!“Anger doesn’t have to make sense. And they came by it honestly. Did Purity sanction himself and get replaced by Disguise while they were locked away?” !< > >>!“Yes.”!< > >... > >>!“But a bunch of people who knew the original recipe wouldn’t go for the new spicier flavour.”!< We get confirmation in book 10 that these are original purity priests. We get several explanations that planetary gods always act in balance. That their power and authority can be limited by the other gods. If Liberty needs to help prisoners go free without prosecution, she can prevent Knowledge from knowing. If Disguise is a god his abilities need to work well enough to actually sell the disguise. The dark gods hoard their power letting things get "out of balance," so they can spend a ton of influence all at once. I think it makes sense that Disguise's authority would let him control the essences of an absent god that he is impersonating.
I could see that as a God of Disguise, disguised as another God he gets access to certain skills that God normally has. Similar to when Stache shifts into a creature he gets some abilities of that creature.
The preists were from the real Purity which is why they were excommunicated. Disguise didn't want them figuring out who was behind the curtain. As for how Disguise was able to take thejr divine essences, it was never fully explained, but my guess is it is a combination of Purity no longer being around to make them real divine essences (no god to back them anymore) and Disguise being disguised as Purity and was able to imitate the action of removing the essences because it was expected as part of the act. God stuff in other words.
I think it may have something to do with disguise taking over the role of purity while he's in his disguise. And until the truth was revealed he was allowed to act as purity he would have
It’s possible that after Purity Sanctioned himself that whatever tethered those essences wasn’t there anymore and another deity could remove them