Gods - mlichtenstein/13thAgeSK GitHub Wiki

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

There are three deities worshiped everywhere. One God of the sun and beginnings, one God of death and endings, and the Balance. The god of death went mad millennia ago, and has since then vacillated between "keeper of the departed" and "devourer of all."

The Balance wants to destroy Death so a new one can be raised, but Life refuses to allow that (they would need to concur). Life is in love with death. Life sends death presents in the form of mortals, and death keeps them forever.

The Rain/Sky god appears to have power comparable to the three listed above, but is seldom venerated on par with them.

Minor Gods

Discord, Fertility...

Demigods

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 With rare exceptions, they must usually be invoked, and the invocations appear to be secrets granted to--and rescinded from--the minds of mortals they favor.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 dieties 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 dieties. The fall of [[Ruihe]] may have been such a prank. 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).

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.