IN> Rites in Heaven: Divine Partnerships

[James Walker]

Rite: For at least an hour, possess an object or document worth more than $10,000,000. (2 Essence if it is worth more than $100,000,000).

Human partnerships and corporations are reasonable ways of pooling capital to start a business, but are poor copies of the structures that ensure the prosperity of Commerce Park. Rather than jointly owning businesses, Traders arrange to each have exclusive ownership of the business for at least an hour. This ensures that someone is always exclusively responsible for decision-making: avoiding the dubious practices that appear when responsibility is watered down. It also avoids the slow decision making processes that lead to lost business opportunities.

The other advantage of this arrangement is that it simplifies use of Marc’s "Make a 100% profit on an honorable transaction." This Rite is nearly impossible for mortal businesses, as expenses eat up most of the profit. However, with each owner only responsible for 1/24th of expenses and no salaries to pay, sales in Heaven routinely reach a 100% profit honorably.
Suits prefer to enter business with angels (and relievers and Saints) who possess attunements they lack, ensuring that the business has as wide a range of resources as possible. Each owner will have a different special responsibility, generally linked to the time of day. Thus the Ofanite “opens up” using his knack with Area Knowledge to ensure that the business follows customers, before traveling Commerce Park finding customers to draw to the business. The Mercurian uses his Trade attunement to know what each owner has done during the day (in particular during their hour) and so works out who has earned how much profit at the end of the fiscal day – having spent the rest of the day socializing with customers, of course. 
Partners aren’t always Traders, of course. A dozen Traders can cover all Trade attunements, so angels of other Words are often coaxed to enter into business, bringing the number of owners up to about 20. Since Traders begin their first businesses while still relievers, they generally recruit other relievers: and the recruits often end up enjoying the Trader lifestyle and fledge in Marc’s service. This constant ‘headhunting’ is probably a major reason for David’s dislike of Marc. Soldiers reach Heaven with useful skills, Songs and Attunements – and lots of spare time. They are also valued recruits. Angels sometimes return to find that an ex-Servant has done well enough in Heaven that the Blessed could buy or sell their old superior, if they chose. 

The head of a PIN attunement means that 1 essence is worth $100; thus in Heaven possession of something worth 100,000 essence is sufficient for this Rite. This includes most Relics. Trading ownership of Relics costs essence – impractical and wasteful. Hence the importance of documents. A business built around a Relic (say, containing a valued Song or rare ability) will transfer ownership by contract, even though the Relic remains ‘owned’ by a single celestial. This is common with Relics that have been won from the Horde. 

Cheers, James.


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