I am going to be starting a game soon where the characters are from Real City. So the focus is more on what is going on in the Rubble and the Pavis cult than what is going in in Prax. Luckily I have access to Ian Thomson's excellent material (full speed ahead and damn the canon!) as well as the official stuff.
in Pavs:GtA (page 368) it is stated: "At the beginning of the Lunar Occupation, there were five Priests of Pavis. All were old men." By the time of the Pavis Box (say 1617-1618) Benderri is described as an old man and all the other priests are much younger. I note I'm leaving Ginkizzie out of this - he could be seen as an old man but most people don't think of him as human.
So what happened to the other old priests?
They might have died of natural causes, but the Lunars might have ensured that there was a vacancy for Cyrilius Harmonious as well. As they were all old, I can't see them adventuring so any misadventure inthe Rubble would only have occurred in trips between Real City and New Pavis, or perhaps if they visited Mani's Fort.
So I'm reaching out to the community to see if anyone has information or ideas. Given the characters will have grown up in Real City and would have been alive when all this happened it may be that they remember the events. Or one of the late priests was a much-loved relative ... or any other plot hook that can be included in their family histories.
The second part of this is that all the other priests have been promoted since 1610. Cyrilius is the newest priest and was assisted into the position by the Lunars, so there was most likely a deliberate hiring rush of new priests before him so that there is an established hierarchy of younger, healthy and competent priests ahead of him. All of this makes his chances of becoming the Son of Pavis much more remote. So there would have been a flurry of five new Daughters of Pavis (say) in the years from 1610 to 1615.
As before, looking for anyone with a greater knowledge than I (or even interesting ideas on how to have the past impact the game).