Minor worldbuilding help

[mrissa]

So I'm working on a thing, and in this thing, some gods have devised a system of handing out magic powers based on birth order. These gods are non-hypothetical: they show up in person. They are also highly idiosyncratic. So the question at hand is not going to be a matter of The Universe Is Like That, because there are other gods elsewhere in this thing that do things very differently. So it's not that All Firstborns Everywhere Are Like X, it's that these specific local powers have decided to treat firstborns in a certain way and secondborns in another and so on.

I got to thinking -- not that it's going to be relevant, of course -- about what happens if one of the older siblings gets killed while the parents are still having kids. And so far I don't have a very good story-related way to say that it should work one way or another, so here I am asking you:

[Poll #674498]

If your answer is, "Don't do it that way at all," please just don't answer.

I'm also very charmed by the elephant selkies timprov and I have been discussing. "Because selkies are all 'oooh, I have soft brown eyes,'" I said, "and then, hrrrronnnnnnnk!" There will also be walkies. Not the kind I'm taking Ista on in a minute, either. The kind with tusks. But not in this thing. Not until the next thing, because there's not room in this thing for half of what's in it, much less more stuff, and I know more stuff will sneak in accidentally. So we will plan the elephant selkies ---hrrrrronnnk! -- for later.

Now I'm going around the house going hrrrronnnnk!

Because I am delicate and demure, is why.

Comments

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

I agree with dd_b here about #3 producing more interesting problems. My second choice would be option #1. #2 only really interests me if there are certain social roles which come with having certain magical powers (sort of a magical equivalent of the old medieval problem where the oldest son, who had been trained to rule, dies without issue and the second son, who had been trained for the church, has to try to rule).