The Center of the World and The Hot Spot (Stone and
the Media, Respectively)
These two mobile Tethers are not exactly twins and
not easily explained away as being Forked (not that a Forked Divine/Infernal
Tether could ever be described as 'easy'); rather, they are two distinct
concepts that unfortunately happen to sometimes occupy the same corporeal real
estate. This pleases neither Seneschal,
to put it very, very mildly.
The Center of the World is by far the more ancient
of the two Tethers; in fact, it's one of David's oldest. It manifests in the seat of power of the
most important nation, land or people of Earth. How this is determined is one of the mysteries of the Symphony:
even its Seneschal is sometimes surprised by a shift, although he will always
know at least slightly ahead of time where its new destination will be, and
usually the reasons for the shift will be obvious in retrospect.
At first, the shifts were infrequent, and often
oddly delayed (almost as if the Symphony needed to be convinced that a new
Center of the World had arisen). In the
past few centuries, the shifting has steadily accelerated, to the point that
the Tether has relocated more times in the last twenty years than in all of its
previously recorded history. It seems
to (barely) default to the Oval Office of Washington, DC - hardly surprising in
and of itself, given the current power of the United States of America - but
any serious geopolitical activity will trigger a shift. Note that the Tether reflects the 'most
important' place or people of Earth, not necessarily the 'most powerful'. The Center of the World has lately appeared
in several places of not immediately obvious importance: Servitors of Destiny,
Divine Fire and Faith can sometimes understand why, but their explanations tend
to be a bit too technical to more straightforward entities.
All of this would be of more academic interest to
Stone if it weren't for the Media's Hot Spot Tether. Like the Center of the World, this Tether is
also astoundingly mobile: however, it tracks the place that is most of interest
to the population of the planet. As
such, it moves around much more quickly than the Heavenly equivalent. Nybbas has been most diligent in encouraging
a short attention span in humanity; the dizzying way that this Tether moves
around is a powerful argument that he's succeeded.
Both Tethers are well supported by their own Words;
after all, they routinely go to places deemed either interesting or
important. They also enjoy special aid
from the Wind and Theft, respectively, which makes a certain amount of sense
when one thinks about it. Servitors of
either who spend a week serving the appropriate Tether (which can be somewhat
difficult, even for them) lose two points of dissonance, not one. Interestingly enough, Servitors of Janus and
Valefor are usually nowhere to be found during those rare times when the two
Tethers are in close proximity: professional courtesy, no doubt.
This is one of David's oldest Seneschals; he has
held his position since the day that the Archangel of Stone discovered that one
particular hut in one particular long-lost civilization was somehow the place
around which the entire world revolved.
He is not a particularly happy Malakite, at times: after millennia after
millennia of rare and predictable mobility, he has suddenly found himself
having to deal with a constant barrage of shifting locales at literally the
blink of an eye. Admittedly, it could
be worse - it's usually to places that he's been before - but if Sagras wanted
to go globe hopping he'd switch to the Wind.
The Malakite is one of Heaven's most fervent supporters of the notion of
a universal world government.
Everything that Sagras is not: young, brash,
enjoying her unique status and mobility - and, of course, a damned rebel
against Heaven. Some of the Princes
raised their eyebrows at the sight of the Telegenic Prince assigning such a
prime resource to such an obvious newcomer, but Nybbas knows what he's
doing. A more experienced demon would
actually be at a disadvantage at dealing with the rapid shifts: the Lilim was
carefully designed for this duty, and she's never really known any other
existence.
Keeping her alive was actually not too difficult: At
Nybbas' express orders, Saraiel has made it known to her opposite number that
she knows Sagras' most pressing Need - which is, of course, for Saraiel to
attack him and/or his Tether, thus permitting the Malakite to immediately rip
both it and her into very small pieces.
This, coupled with the fact that the Hot Spot is not the most active
Tether out there - the Seneschal is mostly involved in recording things at the
scene, which serves her dissonance conditions and suits Nybbas just fine, to
boot - means that things generally stay just barely under control on those
unfortunate occasions when the Center of the World and the Hot Spot are glaring
at each other.
Note the use of the word 'barely'.
Center of the World: Strong (16 Forces, Average
Flow, Friendly, Quiet, Special Mobility)
The Hot Spot: Strong (15 Forces, Fast Flow,
Celestial Harbor, Friendly, Special Mobility)
Special Mobility: both Tethers shift position without real warning on a fairly regular basis. The Seneschals of both can travel to the new locus simply by going celestial and making a Will Roll; indeed, they must make Will rolls at -4 every full hour after a shift to avoid trying to do precisely that. They usually have about a minute's warning that a shift is possible, and about fifteen seconds to prepare for an immanent shift; in either case, both Sagras and Saraiel will have a general idea of where they're going to end up.