Gods

What is a God?

For the purposes of this scholarship, we base the bounds of divinity on the Fishermen's proverb "Gods live in the god place." Such a God Place, a home to all divine, is an ubiquitous concept among mortal cultures of the realm. This place is called various names by various groups, but we will here refer to it as The God Place, The Albued Almantique, or the Eloquent Plane. The gods here described are those beings who both reside in the Eloquent Plane and who concern themselves with the events of our world.

Major Gods

These gods are attested by well-developed complexes and ranks of clergy in the Myriad Cathedral. Their correspondence(s) with the Icons are a complex and deeply political subject, with the exception of the Wyrm. If you literally believe your faction leader is a divinity incarnate, you're a fanatic.

The canonical gloss given by the Synod of the Splinter Kingdom follows. In the Myriad Cathedral, you can find any number of priests who will take up a vigorous debate about it.

The Gods of Light

Savras	Groth-Golka	Trithereon	Shinare	Sif	Ralishaz	Great Gold
Archmage	Emperor	Crusader	Dwarf King	Priestess	Lich King	(itself)

• Savras (Knowledge, Arcana) god of divination and fate
• Groth-Golka (Tempest, Blood, Twilight) the Demon Bird god, or the universal power of sky and rain
• Trithereon (War, Zeal) god of liberty and retribution
• Shinare (Any) goddess of wealth and trade
• Sif (War, Unity) goddess of the well-protected home
• Ralishaz (City, Solidarity) god of ill-luck and and insanity
• The Great Gold Wyrm (Light, Grave), an ancient dragon who holds back the Abyss

The Dark Gods

Ptar-Axtlan	Toth	Aphrodite	Scathac	Gruumsh	Ut'Ulls-Hr'Her	Tiamat
Elf Queen	O	Diabolist	Prince of Shadows	Orc Lord	Broken One	Three

• Ptar-Axtlan (Beast, Night) the god of zoomorphic shapechangers, the leopard that stalks the night
• Toth (REDACTED) the inscrutable
• Aphrodite (Love, Beauty) the god of operatic decisions and doing it to be legends
• Scathac (Tournaments, Strength, Skill) the warrior mentor god
• Gruumsh (War, Civilization) the benevolent oni god of progress
• Ut'Ulls-Hr'Her (Family, Life) the salpic god of bodies
• Tiamat (Tyranny, Darkness) the fivefold dragon god

Aspect Gods

While they may not be the most powerful, the Eidolai certainly provide direct interference in mortal events. Each Eidolai is associated with a concept, and they intervene in support of actions coherent with these identity-concepts. With rare exceptions, they must usually be invoked, and the invocations appear to be secrets granted to--and rescinded from--the minds of mortals they favor.

Household Gods

There appear to be deities with powers limited to a specific familial group (band, clan, tribe, family, etc.). These beings often serve protective roles, but are highly varied. According to scholars familiar with divinely-inspired accounts of the God Place, such beings have an existence there and draw their limited powers from that place. This is not inconsistent with the accounts of Jenoh Riess and Sirah. As such, they have been included as gods until more conclusive evidence to the contrary becomes available.

There also exist many cultures in the known world that venerate or worship their ancestors. The Nikim Farmers are a notable example. The ancestors' role is usually protective and limited to their own family. They are only true gods, however, if mortals experience an afterlife in the God Place, a proposition with little support.

Local Gods

Gods of place are acknowledged or revered by many cultures, most notably the Fishermen, the Druids, and the Nikim Farmers. The Living Dungeons also appear to accept this paradigm, though it is unclear if they are being self-referential.

Some groups identify gods only for a few exceptional locations; other groups hold that every locale has one or more such gods. There is also much variety in the power ascribed to such beings, ranging from harmless prankster spirits to near-omnipotent prankster deities. The fall of Ruihe may have been such a prank.

The barbarians also worship animal spirits, but these are not true gods. They make themselves manifest to the tribes that follow them, and have guided those tribes for centuries. These spirits are probably not long-lost Vat-Born Monsters, nor indeed their restless ghosts.

Far to the west, it is said people worship great spirits of the elements. Nobody knows if they are true gods; they claim to be, and the gods haven't explicitly refuted that.

Given the variety of beliefs, it is impossible to make blanket statements about whether these are true gods (having a presence in the God Place).

Universal Powers

There were three gods worshiped in the time of the Empire: Life, Death, and the Balance. Death went mad in the First Age, because there were no endings, and he now vacillates between "keeper of the departed" and "devourer of all." Life is still in love with Death, and she created mortals as a gift, a labor which rent her asunder.

The Balance wishes to destroy Death so a new god may be raised. As the desire of the Balance is an unknowable truth, however, this request cannot be communicated to Life in her present state.

Personal Faiths

If you want to roll a faith, get a 1d4 and a 1d6. Consult the table for your alignment and aspiration, respectively.

If you rolled a 1, your character's faith is underdetermined or nonspecific. Maybe it's less important to them, or more idiosyncratic. If you rolled two 1s, your character is an adept possessing the identity-concept of an eidolon, as most of the icons once were. This can make them a target for icons who don't want the competition.

	4: Lawful	3: Neutral	2: Chaotic	1: Universal Domain
1	(a household god)	(a quiescent god)	(an upstart god)	(an eidolon)
2	Savras	Ut'Ulls-Hr'Her	Ralishaz	to know and remember
3	Gruumsh	Tritherion	Ptar-Axtlan	justice; to begin
4	The Wyrm	Aphrodite	Tiamat	desire; to end
5	Sif	Scathac	Toth	the home and rest
6	Shinare	(a foreign god)	Groth-Golka	travel and the sky

Examples

cleric, 1/4: 'Desire and dragons.' Scholar of the White and its purported necromantic powers.
warrior, 3/5: 'The warrior mentor god.' Trained gladiators for the arena.
thief, 4/2: 'God of divination and fate.' A superstitious person with a risky trade.
wizard, 3/6: Wants to hear all about their companions' beliefs. Doesn't talk about theirs.