>BTW, does Nils or anyone else think there are intermediaries for this
>power between the people and the Exarchs? I sort of assumed that the
>"priests" of Godunya were the ones who received the initial
>worship/reverence, then passed this on to the exarchs themselves, then on
>to Gondunya.
IMO as always. I think that most 'priests' of Godunya are village headpeople who carry out the weekly worship of the Emperor as part of their duties (ie ensure the local poplace at least prostrates themselves before the statue of Godunya). They are not full priests in the GoG sense (many of them are illiterate for a start) and recieve little benefit for their pains.
The worship goes through a complicated hierarchy which eventually cumulates in the local exarch. Personally I think the basic structure is that the worship goes to a local office of the Ministry of Religious Affairs (This hierarchy is seperate from the Army, Magistrates or Tax Collectors). There, specially trained bureacrats - - called apportioners - siphon of some of the worship to local temples, the army, the local magistrate, deserving folk and (unofficially) personal expenses, bribes and people to whom they owe favours.
Now if a region falls persistantly behind in its duties - like the people of a small town in Boshan smear their statue of Godunya with excrement and throw it in a refuse heap, or a village has had its statue of Godunya stolen and replaced by an imitation - then the loss of worship will be noticed by the authorities. Their response will be to dispatch a team of auditors into the region. They will most likely order special (costly) sacrifices to re-establish the link to the empire or double the amount of worship owed (ie they have to worship Godunya twice a week). If the locals are hostile or kill the auditors, then the region will be cursed with visitations by demons or Huan To to compell the locals to worship Godunya with renewed fanaticism.
As with most goverment functions, the nature and organization of this hierarchy differs from exarchy to exarchy (for instance in Boshan - all government officials are part of the Army). The worship rate is largely set by the Exarch's officials and is dependant on the latest census data (be they 5 or 500 years old). At certain levels, other officials (like Governers and Exarchs) have some influence or authority over how the worship is to be dispensed.
It is very difficult to cut down on corruption within the Ministry of Religious Affairs as they are the most adept in handling the transferral of worship. A Governer or a Exarch who does not have a background in Religious Affairs (but still extremely potent in mystical terms) will have an attache to handle those affairs for him. The attache handles all the hard stuff and makes the official powerful. As well as a small stipend for his tasks, the attache also plays a huge part in concealing the misdeeds of his associates.
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