The core issue is that most cabals depend on one or two immortals for day-to-day interaction, improvement, and monitoring. Sometimes, issues come up unexpectedly and a central figure has to go dormant or semi-dormant on short notice.

When this happens, we can't just immediately throw someone else at the cabal. For one thing, the majority of staff members already have commitments to cover. For another, they might not have the background to cover the opening in question, or more simply they aren't interested in it. Finally, we might not know the exact status of an existing immortal in that cabal- if someone just doesn't log in for a week or two, we're not yet talking permanent replacement, even though the need is perceived on the player side. They might pop back up tomorrow.

Even when a person becomes available, we need to work out a new persona, with background, a defined role in the cabal, often a shrine, etc. We don't want to make rash moves and create a 'religion of the week'-- sometimes this happens because someone leaves unexpectedly, but we try to guard against it.

All of this takes time, often more time than we have after knowing the position is needed. We have a big chart which gets constantly updated, and we're generally on alert to make sure every cabal has at least one person actively participating in it from the immortal side. We often cover interim need by having ohter immortals work through NPCs as well, which might not be visible at all if you aren't in the cabal.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com