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Three godlings are the three deities contained within a small box carried by [[Yasnic|Jack]] across his years of itinerant preaching, accumulated one by one as he moved from congregation to congregation and absorbed the worship directed at each. They are not a pantheon that acted in concert or a fellowship of allied divinities; they are, by the time they are accounted for, a hoard - three separate wells of accumulated faith held in a single container, one of which is identified as [[God]], the sole deity to whom Jack had given his personal faith and devotion. Their significance to the series lies not in what they did but in what is done to them: they are the proof-case for the proposition that deity is, in practice, a quantifiable energy source no more sacred than any other fuel.

In a single laboratory session, the three godlings are drained of every scrap of accumulated worship and converted into charged tablethi for artillery use, yielding a finite and measurable output of conventional ordnance. The box that held them collapses empty once the contents are spent. No godling is preserved, returned, or mourned by a surviving congregation; the container simply ceases to function. This is the point at which the novel's theology becomes physics: what Jack had carried as a lifetime of spiritual practice is reduced, before a single senior academic's eyes, to nine artillery rounds.

== The Group ==
=== Composition ===
Three deities, no more and no fewer, are named or accounted for. One is identified as [[God]], the deity Jack followed and to whom he had given his faith - ch 42. The other two are not individually named in the available record; they are described only as further deities accumulated over the course of Jack's itinerant ministry, suggesting each was gathered as Jack moved between communities and absorbed the faith directed at their respective worshippers - ch 42. There is no internal hierarchy, leadership, or communication among the three recorded; they are held in a single container and processed together as a single quantity of extractable resource - ch 42.

=== Purpose & Method ===
The three godlings exist in the narrative solely as accumulated faith made portable and, ultimately, consumable. Their function within the plot is to be drained: converted into charged tablethi suitable for the artillery, a process overseen by a Decanter and witnessed by a senior Sage - ch 42. The method involves the preparation of racks, cords, and artefacts before the faith is drawn out and re-encoded into military-grade tablethi - ch 42. The output is quantified in conventional munitions terms rather than in any spiritual register - ch 42.

=== Standing ===
The three godlings have no standing as active powers within the story's geopolitics; they are a private collection, carried in a box, and their only institutional encounter is with the [[Correct Erudition|School of Correct Erudition]]'s laboratories, where they are treated as a technical resource rather than a theological concern - ch 42. Their extraction is witnessed by [[Maserley]], who insists on watching the full draining procedure, and carried out by [[Thurrel|Fellow-Archivist Thurrel]], serving as Decanter, who is visibly shaken upon recognising the container's contents - ch 42. The three godlings answer to no one at the point of their destruction; they are consumed as fuel rather than preserved or returned to any worshipper - ch 42.

== History ==
=== House of Open Wounds ===
Three godlings are the three deities contained within [[Yasnic|Jack]]'s box, accumulated over the course of his itinerant ministry; one of them is identified as [[God]], the deity Jack followed and to whom he had given his faith - ch 42. In Chapter 42, [[Maserley]] has the box brought to the School's laboratories via [[Caeleen]], and [[Thurrel|Fellow-Archivist Thurrel]], serving as Decanter, recognises the container's contents and is visibly shaken by the sight of them - ch 42. Maserley insists on watching the full draining procedure; Thurrel prepares additional racks, cords, and artefacts before converting the three godlings' accumulated faith into charged tablethi suitable for the artillery - ch 42. The conversion yields a finite and quantifiable output: "Hey presto I shall now convert three godlings into around nine artillery rounds or a hundred charged batons, and if you can do that, who needs religion?" - ch 42. The box collapses once its contents are spent, and the three godlings are thus consumed as fuel rather than preserved or returned to any worshipper - ch 42. - implied, ch 42 (the fate of the godlings: drained into tablethi, box collapsed).

== Relationships ==
* '''[[Yasnic|Jack]]''' - The three godlings are his life's accumulation, gathered across an itinerant ministry; one of them is the deity to whom he gave his personal faith. By the time they are accounted for, Jack is no longer present to reclaim them; the box is brought to the School's laboratories via [[Caeleen]] and drained without his participation or consent - ch 42.
* '''[[Thurrel|Fellow-Archivist Thurrel]]''' - Serves as Decanter for the draining procedure; recognises the container's contents and is visibly shaken by the sight, yet proceeds with the full conversion regardless - ch 42.
* '''[[Maserley]]''' - Insists on witnessing the entire draining, treating the three godlings as a demonstration of institutional capability rather than a spiritual event - ch 42.

== Notable Quotes ==
:"Hey presto I shall now convert three godlings into around nine artillery rounds or a hundred charged batons, and if you can do that, who needs religion?" - Thurrel, House of Open Wounds, ch 42

== Tags ==
#deity · #divination-power · #contained · #drained

[[Category:Groups]]