Yanan Fortress.
Wearing a Divine Artifact mask, James David stood atop the spire of his temple and looked down at the Priests in all kinds of robes patiently recruiting people on the streets. His heart felt heavy.
The God of Agriculture had brought high-yield seeds, Fertilizer, and intensive farming methods. Everyone expected the Main Plane's population to boom, but that had nothing to do with him.
Yanan Fortress stood on the border between human and Orc territory. Its soil was hardly fertile, and worse, Orcs bred quickly but never had enough food. Every year, armies of starving Orcs assaulted the fortress, leaving it no chance to develop its agriculture in peace.
What did concern him was that the anticipated population boom had made the gods more active than ever. They were showing miracles across the Main Plane.
With their gods watching, Churches large and small had sent hundreds of thousands of Priests out of their churches and temples, scriptures in hand, to preach their gods' teachings and win them worshippers.
The Priests of the gods had nearly beaten each other bloody over worshippers, but people like him—Demigods—were the ones who truly suffered.
His base of worshippers was in Yanan Fortress, and dozens of Priests serving different gods had arrived there recently. Every day, they went out into the streets and patiently worked on people until they had stolen all his worshippers.
People called Demigods gods-in-waiting, blessed with eternal life. One more step, and they could raise their Divine Kingdoms and ascend from earth to heaven... But in truth, Demigods had it worse than Legendary Professionals. At least Legendary Professionals weren't viewed with hostility by the gods. They were honored guests wherever they went. They didn't have to wear themselves out chasing worshippers every day, face the suspicion of the Churches