[quote=@Stern Algorithm] [@Rune_Alchemist] My god would argue that, given the evidence of the human communities that have formed, and the discoveries that they have made, that a 'state of nature' in which humans must live like beasts and focus entirely on survival is not conducive to them making discoveries. Only an ordered society, one where tasks concerning survival are delegated, will allow a subset of the population the luxury of seeking knowledge. At least, this would be his proposal to Iva. My god wants to build good relations with the gods, and wants all or most of the gods to be in some sort of tentative non-aggression pact, and will gladly be the mediator between the gods and their worshipers (ie. middle management), since many of the more arrogant gods may feel that dealing directly with the mortals is beneath them. Basically, my god sees a pie and many hungry gods, so my god has offered to slice the pie. I may also relinquish making a mad dash-grab for Mathematics, since I agree as a player that that would fall under Iva's domain more. [/quote] Iva, would counter argue that stability and order are inherently enemies of invention and discovery. Plagues make it so people develop medicine. He is the type to create a disease, unleash it on people, and then see if they can make a cure for it, or will they succumb? War makes it so people develop better weaponry & tactics. Iva would argue this, is how people learn and best adapt & create new things. As well, There doesn't need to be a singular cast of people focused on research. As long as humans have desire to learn, [i]anyone[/i] could make a discovery. From a lowly farmer to the wealthy merchant. The moment he starts restricting that to a certain caste or class, is when you start closing your ears to other ideas and avenues of thought. If humans become stuck on one area of research, build their entire civilization on that without exploring other avenues (Using real world history here - Steam powered things being beaten by modern methods of power and the argument of our world being reliant on fossil fuels still with people being reluctant to change or explore other avenues), then its time for a chaotic and messy status quo change to see what humans can make if they must start over with nothing. Iva can and will destroy entire civilizations if he grows bored with them, hence why I wanted him to have that Archival ability. He's not evil or cruel. He just gets bored easily. As long as he's entertained by the current civilization, then he'll let it thrive and watch. Maybe offer help here and there. But the moment he gets bored...well, he'll start thinking about another experiment. That's all humans are to him, one big experiment. And when one experiment ends, another must begin. He'll take a lesser known form of technology in a previously made civilization, and give it to another human and tout it as 'the most powerful force in the world'. In the previous real life example, he'd destroy our currently world and tech, and then give humans working steam technology and thus watch as a literal steampunk world unfolds. But of course, this is all hypothetical situation and much better decided ICly. Your god could very well sway Iva to perhaps, entertain the idea of a world government of sorts. It would certainly be an entertaining idea for Iva for awhile...until it started to stagnate and become boring. If he did do this, he'd probably advocate free education and that no one be barred from attempting scholarly pursuits. But even so, at some point, he [i]will[/i] grow bored if the civilization fails to produce anything significant after awhile, or becomes so entrenched in tradition that it refuses to consider and at least attempt to employ other avenues of thought. If you want, as soon as the RP starts we can have these two get together and discuss such things, if you want.