Considering death magi isn't just killing living things, I'm pretty sure they could kill it.
When did they kill nonliving things?
Regardless, even if they couldn't, it would die once it tried to awaken if inside their bodies.
The idea isn't to infect them, it's to prevent easy sterilization. If they want to make sure their grain is good, they'll pretty much have to burn in.
I just don't think creating a gravemind, or making spies of this sort, fits in with our 'character' as established so far.
Why not? You've been saying this without explaining it.
As well, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be able to make it perfectly; something like that will cause a lot of symptoms, if only because a fungus has to have a 'host' to feed off of, and can't do everything animal cells can do.
1. We have creatures that feed off of heat already. This isn't even flying around.
2. There probably would be symptoms past the "somewhat chilly and hungrier," but it should be possible to make the syndromes (like those) be well within normal variations until it's too late.
3. Magic. Our entire creaturebase is built on magic.
As well, I don't think one side of someone's liver will respond well to the other half effectively being eaten and turned into fungi-liver. Plus, in only two weeks? That's bloody fast for something like that.
Again, I'm not sure if this would work IRL, but neither would shambling corpses infected with fungi or the Gold Dragons or Firejackets.
Finally, in that dormant state, it is able to respond to stimuli, because otherwise how would it awaken? And if it doesn't maintain homeostasis, it's going to have a rough time not 'dying'.
Okay, that's one stimulus. And lots of critters can go into dormant states and be pretty much immune to
everything, expecially the single-celled ones. And those also apply to, say, a computer or a climate-controlled building. Neither of those is likely to be affected by death magic.
now that I think, I realize I meant more the nation itself, and realized that is not as good as I realized now X3
Well...why would random refugees know anything about the nation's plans, either?
I'm also pretty sure a God would be able to tell his follower has a growing fungus parasite in him. Particularly any god of death or order; having a thing like that grow in you is certainly not part of the order they will have made, and death probably lets them see life auras or something. I would think.
That would require them to actually pay attention. Sure, if we infected the High Priest or a Justicar, but Justicars' death auras would probably finish off the fungi once it awoke (or keep it dormant, perhaps), and once we get the fungus to the priests it's too late. The Empire's gods don't seem like the kid to perform routine physicals even if they only had a few hundred subjects. They have millions. It should be entirely simple for a subtle little disease with minimal symptoms to slip under the radar and get established.
I am I the only one who thinks that...
a) creating a decease that will kill anyone, including innocent civilians isn't benevolent at all, moving us in a bad guys part of the spectre
b) such an action will lead to severe political disadvantages ( instead the benevolent god who fights a tyranny we become a massmurderer that order rightfully want to destroy)
c) enemy gods aren't idiots. Neither they are weaklings. They'll find a cure. Just in case if you forgot: they have orders of magnitude more mana
d) few citizens of the empire will consider to switch to the god, that killed their relatives with a plague and will fight against Donut till the end
e) consequences of bad rolls when making that will be severe
f) protecting existing worshipers and getting new ones should have priority over making WMDs
g) we should lay low and not provoke the empire to divert more forces on us
?
a. Why do you think I agreed to and expanded on the idea of controls?
b,c,d. How would it be traceable to us? Also, the Empire already hates our guts...and let's face it, their gods are complete monsters. We'd still be better for the people.
e. Probably, but we're a god of fire. I noted that the dormant spores could withstand extreme temperatures, but I'd imagine that the active fungus is a bit less resistant, and even if not Divine Fire should be able to heat up enough to burn it (assuming normal fire doesn't); if not, we really suck. Also, this would give us an opportunity to act as a hero.
f. Where are the two goals counteracting each other? After all, delaying an attack force by having several of them turn out to be Fungus Sleepers could save dozens if not hundreds of lives. (Probably dozens, if the attack force is headed to us; we don't have hundreds yet.)
g. That's why this is subtle. By the time we want to attack, we're able to attack with such devastating forces that the Empire of Tranquility would be massively weakened, if not outright cowed. Probably not cowed, but definitely weakened if we did it right.
h. Care to offer suggestions on how to improve it?
Why don't we just give a symbiotic relation here if the person minds have certain barriers such as critical thinking and creative thinking. The virus will then remove these barrier allowing the user to see the world in a different lens.
Not sure if you've noticed, but that's not much like what I suggested.