Agents of Otoro
Followers of the secretive deity Otoro, agents of Otoro work to help orphaned children and keep their secrets of their deity hidden from the world.
Mythology & Lore
Otoro has countless stories of his adventures, and has several different stories detailing his ascension to godhood. Such stories range from a common Ascension story, stating that Otoro climbed to the peak of the World Tree and achieved godhood like the some of the Beastman deities, while one claims that Otoro slew a powerful but forgotten Fiendish Lord, but the deed was covered up by jealous adults. One story even states that Otoro was never even a mortal to begin with, and instead is the collective embodiment of the hopes and dreams of all the children of the world.
Divine Origins
The agents of Otoro is a relatively young religion, with the first versions of the Adventures of Otoro simply appearing in general stores around the world, with no author's name credited towards its creation.
Tenets of Faith
All agents of Otoro work to protect disenfranchised children and work to spread his ideals to other children. The most extreme and damaged followers of Otoro often adhere to the following code.
- I will never allow those outside the faith to live if they learn the truth.
- Adults can never be trusted. I will manipulate and use them to my needs, but I will never love them.
- I will use my age to my advantage. If they only see a child, they will underestimate me, and to underestimate me is to die.
- I will never stay in one place longer than I need to work an angle. The longer I stay in one place, the more likely I am to be discovered.
- To simply kill someone lacks imagination. I will use my wit and skill to expose the corruption of adulthood and make them suffer first.
- Everyone betrays me in the end, so the only one I can rely on is myself and my god.
Ethics
The agents of otoro have little ethics beyond the protection of children in need, and thus many priests run their sects and gangs very differently from one another.
Worship
There is little formal worship of Otoro, as formality is a practice rooted in adulthood. The most common practice for devout followers is simply to carve his holy symbol into a slightly hidden place, so that an adult who comes across it will only think it a child's doodle.
Priesthood
Priests of Otoro are responsible for training others below them, and are often become the leader of a gang of street orphans. These priests train their followers in the art of begging, pickpocketing, and street scamming to bring in coin, and instruct their followers on methods on keeping adults believing worship of Otoro is one big game. Many priests lack much in the way of formal divine training, instead complimenting their magic with stealth training.
Granted Divine Powers
Minor powers granted to agents of otoro are the ability to easily mask their deeds as childish acts, allowing them to easily learn secrets or act without suspicion. More devout followers can gain the ability to magically avoid traps and other dangerous and surprising things; the ability to surprise foes and deal critical damage; the ability to remind creatures of their own children and subconsciously hold back when fighting them, the ability to subtly influence the minds of other children, and even the ability to temporarily revert a creature from adulthood back into a child.
Otoro blesses his followers with a prank going unpunished, finding something particularly shiny, or an unexpected feeling of wonder at a discovery. His disfavor manifests as a listless sense of boredom, the sudden over attention of adults, or the loss of something small and important.
Political Influence & Intrigue
The agents mostly keep their workings to the streets and smaller villages and towns, and thus have little influence on the national scale. However, agents are always on the lookout to for opportunities to interact with children of kings and nobility, as they can greatly increase the conditions of their followers by converting or influencing the leaders of the nation through their children.
Sects
The agents of Otoro divide themselves into three main groups. The most common of these are the ones who dwell on the streets, running gangs of urchins and attacking those who abuse children. The other large sect is those who run orphanages and perform other charity work, and this group is mostly populated by agents who have passed into adulthood and have lost most of their memories of the inner workings of the group. The smallest sect is known as the Secret-Keepers, converts who work in standard families and in more stable towns and villages. These children work to spread the word of Otoro by playing adventure games and the themes of Otoro to all of the children of the area and keeping the guise of a children's game to adults, all while looking for promising children to reveal the greater truths too.
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