Fiction:The Firmament/Deities

A deity, also known as a god or goddess, is a being of fantastical power who is able to interact with mortals through worship, having the ability to grant them a portion of their own essence in the form of divine magic. Deities are associated with a number of spheres which they embody, and most of them claim a realm within the greater planes as a home.

Deities are divided into three categories: greater gods, cultural gods, and demigods.

Greater gods
The greater gods are the oldest and most powerful deities in existence, having governed the Firmament since its inception. Due to their sheer age and influence, they are worshipped through most of the universe, from the Material Plane to the outer realms.


 * Aether - greater goddess of souls, time and space
 * Aldirei - greater goddess of honour, valor, justice and order
 * Dominus Mortis - greater god of death, mortality, fragility and the end of all things
 * Infinitum - greater goddess of magic, knowledge and the stars
 * Shenryundi - greater god of peace, wisdom and the skies
 * Skasdrumri - greater god of architecture, craftsmanship, creation and tradition
 * Varagarash Narahil - greater god of domination, conquest, tyranny and corruption

Pantheons
The rise of mortals led to the inception of numerous pantheons, with gods being given form and purpose by association with certain races or populations. Such deities, sometimes known as cultural gods, hold great influence among the folk that worships them.

Arkhan Pantheon=

Dwarven Pantheon=

The Dwarven Pantheon is a collection of deities worshipped by the dwarves. They are heavily associated with the greater god Skasdrumri, who is considered the king of the gods, and according to legend, they were heavily involved in the founding of the Dwarven civilization, teaching the arts of architecture, language and other such concepts to the first generation of Dwarves.


 * Breldikig - god of toil, war and strength
 * Hurgrih - god of grudges, justice and vengeance
 * Miludir - goddess of marriage, love and family
 * Kivaedir - god of alcohol, merrymaking and respite
 * Reimdorlig - goddess of magic, runes and language
 * Skasdrumri - king of the dwarven pantheon, god of architecture, craftsmanship, creation and tradition
 * Strerderimm - god of death, fate and judgement
 * Thar-Thrassan - goddess of forges, invention and gunpowder
 * Thunardormir - god of lightning, martial prowess and honour
 * Varmumli - god of travels, roads and guidance
 * Voniana Theevrolde - goddess of gemstones, luck, trickery and gnomes

Elven Pantheon=

The Elven Pantheon is the collection of deities worshipped by the elves. A tumultuous pantheon, its worship has been fractured with the splitting of the Elves between four cultures, with numerous gods being shunned away across them. The wood elves are the only practitioners of the entire pantheon, though they treat the deities as merely neutral aspects of their highest divinity, ignoring their more extreme facets.

Beyond their cultural gods, a number of greater deities have also found their way into Elven faith.


 * Gods of Light
 * Aether - goddess of souls, time and space
 * Bel-Vinis - god of the sea, sailing and fishing
 * Cenalvel - god of hunting, taming and loyalty
 * Dominus Mortis - god of death, mortality, fragility and the end of all things
 * Eondrassla - goddess of nature, growth and prosperity
 * Infinitum - goddess of magic, knowledge and the stars
 * Tobinnel - god of honour, martial prowess and protection


 * Gods of Shadow
 * Konakis - god of lust, promiscuity and assassins
 * Lelaugith - goddess of war, armaments and cruelty
 * Sethneas - god of darkness, blood, slaughter and vengeance
 * Shihe - goddess of slavery, despair and terror
 * Versorneh - goddess of magic, domination and monsters

Lechner Pantheon=

Rusclander Pantheon=



Demigods
Demigods are the 'lowest' caste of divinity; they blur the line between gods and common immortals, but nonetheless possess a spark of divinity which allows them to associate themselves with worshippers like true gods do. Despite their lower level of power, even the weakest of their kind is generally powerful enough to cause great devastation in the mortal world.


 * Archangels - the greatest of the angels
 * Demon lords - the greatest of the demons
 * Elemental lords - the greatest of the elementals
 * Eternal guardians - the guardians of Telamon's continents
 * Forces of nature - the greatest of Telamon's nature spirits
 * Psychopomp Gravekeepers - the greatest of the psychopomps

Characteristics
All deities are immortal and extremely powerful beings, generally only ever being threatened by others of their own kind. All of them associate themselves with a number of spheres, which are concepts mortals relate them to and worship them over. Deities grow more powerful and influential depending of how many worshippers they possess; the complete disappearance of a cult is not enough to erase a deity from existence, but it may weaken them enough for their rivals to destroy them. Divinity may be passed from beings to others through the death of an old deity, or from being willingly given away.

Deities are forbidden of directly intervening in the Material Plane in ways deemed extreme; the balance between light, darkness, order and chaos are tenuous, and the intervention of a deity may lead to a war of cataclysmic proportions. Because of this, deities generally interact with mortals in a covert and simple manner at most, and only truly intervene if the world is under threat, such as from the summoning of a powerful demon lord bent on the conquest of their worshippers. In either case, deities not already native to the Material Plane are not capable of freely entering it in their true form and full power without being summoned first by someone already there.

In rare occasions, deities may have children with mortals, usually with a greater purpose in their plans for the Firmament. Such individuals are known as godborn, who do not have true divinity due to their mortal heritage but tend to be much more powerful than even the greatest members of their species.