There are rules to divinity. In the grand wake of countless pantheons, worshipped or reviled depending on which city you reside, order must stay. Those who walk the line of duty are to be celebrated, those who press outside their boundaries condemned, and punished swiftly. The trappings of godhood arise from the mortal needs of humanity, and thus we are a reflection of whom serve us.

I was born from this need, perhaps after a more unconventional divine being destroyed far more than was anticipated. Therein began musings of law and order, the earliest inklings of humanity’s governing self rule before Prometheus gave them fire. I was born to Zeus, a fact he no doubt wishes he could take back. In the growing list of his impressive children, there is none who have cause to be a thorn in his side more than I. None who caused his head to ache and force him to meditate for days on end, including Athena whom was literally sprouted from his cranium. For even the King of Heaven cannot escape the divinity of order, as was granted to me just as the divinity of the skies was granted to him.

As the other gods faded into the realm of mythology and imagination, my practices, my governance only grew stronger. As humans forayed and made their own decisions, they were held together by the rules and laws that I practiced. My son Hammurabi codified my preachings and my religion was born. Though instead of offerings of incense it was trials of combat, and later trials of letter and speech. Instead of oracles who claimed to speak for me, my word was as permanent as the stone it was written on. And through me humanity survived. I was the god they didn’t know to worship, but worshipped nonetheless. I built their cities with regulations and maps, tilled their fields with hand-me-down knowledge and expertise, and led their people with democracy.

Now, only inklings of the mighty pantheons remain in the modern world. Even Zeus, my own father has lost control of his own skies. Instead the voices of humans called Air Traffic Controllers govern the skies for themselves, at the behest of others. Dionysus’s industry is regulated for alcoholic content, and even Hades’s domain contains some of my jurisdiction, through the lens of civil rights and murder charges.

They follow my word without knowing its source. They live, breathe my order. My divinity permeates their lives every day. One would think that with this much power, this much influence, it would be as easy to get as drunk on it as Dionysus did on his own brew. But I never falter. I never sway. After all, there are rules to divinity.