Credits
Homebrewer
- Written by /u/GoliathBarbarian
Illustrations
- Hammer Time by Brandon Moore
- Speedpaint #40 by Mateusz Ozminski
- Fatima's Followers by Pedro Sena
- Eistibus, Angel of Divination by Peter Mohrbacher
- MtG: Gift of Orzhova by Johannes Voß
- Black Hole by Erik Shoemaker
- Orphic Egg by Matt Shaw
- Hallucinated Island by Jorge Jacinto
- Ghost in the Shell by Ignatius Tan
- Of These One and All by Noah Bradley
- Urza's Ruinous Blast by Noah Bradley
- Fallen Titan 1 by Jinho Bae
- Mirror by WL OP
- The Ragged Astronauts by Alan Gutierrez
Table of Contents
Preface
If you're reading this expansion of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, I would like to sincerely thank you for giving it the time of day. I hope you enjoy it and find it useful, regard-less of if you use everything in this document or not.
The aim of this book is to provoke thoughts about setting design in a way that challenges the run of the mill tropes in common D&D games. This book will try to give you the tools you need to make worlds, gods, and nonplayer characters in ways you may not have explored before, and it will hopefully enhance your fun as a Dungeon Master, which in turn will make everyone's experience at the table that much better.
on the cover
This scene illustrated by Brandon Moore shows Ur, the first god and god of creation, splitting apart the primeval chaos to forge the universe, and thus creating a home for all living things.
Chapter 1: A World of Your Own
When building a world with a living set of gods, it's important to keep in mind that the mere existence of these powerful beings will alter the current shape of the world in all its aspects—including geography, culture, social hierarchy, norms and customs, and so on.
It's easy to think of gods in an oversimplified way: they power divine spells and they sometimes intervene in mortal affairs—that's it. But if you imagine an entity imbued with a limitless lifespan and unimaginable power, it stretches credulity to think that they would not use these resources to pursue their own agenda, instead relying on lesser beings to do it for them. After all, if a mortal can do it, why can't the gods?
There are many ways to explain this away, such as introducing a barrier between gods and mortals, or divine laws that tie a god's hands from acting except through clerics, or simply indifference from the gods as they have things to do that are beyond the comprehension of lesser beings.
But from a storytelling perspective, there are flaws in these explanations. In this chapter, we will analyze the problem, and craft a pantheon while avoiding these flaws.
The Big Picture
We cannot tell stories about the gods if we do not have a universe to tell it in. Before we build the universe, though, we need to define the key concepts that our world is based on. Without these concepts, we cannot mold a world or setting—much less a sensible pantheon in its context.
The worlds of Dungeons and Dragons have a set of core assumptions about their settings which they do not stray far from. You can find these rules in Chapter 1 of the Dungeon Master's Guide.
This section presents its own core assumptions which will set the stage for new gods to appear in. As you create your own world, it's up to you to decide where on the spectrum you want your world to fall.
Core Assumptions
The setting is based on the following core assumptions about the game world.
Gods Live In The Material Plane. Gods are not the embodiments of certain ideas or beliefs, but are tangible beings that live among their creations. The universe exists separately from them, and it can exist without them. Though the gods have clerics through which they exert their will into the world, they themselves are directly capable of taking action without the aid of clerics—which they often do.
Gods Are Limited. Gods, regardless of their power, cannot do everything. They are not immune to physical and mental stress. They need allies among the mortals to perform or oversee activities that they cannot do, whether it's because of a lack of time or simply because they cannot be everywhere at once. And while the gods are all but invulnerable, they can be killed, and there are always creatures willing to try.
The Gods Are Dead. Though not all gods are dead, most of them are. Whereas before, there existed a goddess of love to seek help from concerning matters of the heart, now she is a corpse that can be discovered in the Material Plane. Among the greater deities, only one or two have not yet been killed, and as such, any remaining deities are filled with paranoia as to who might next try to assassinate them.
The World Is In Ruins. Empires rise and fall, but during the last major conflict, society has found it difficult to rise again. People are picking up the pieces and starting anew, but while they know the area they live in well, they are aware that much of the world, which was once in their grasp, is now outside their control.
Exploration Drives the World. Society is starting again, but the space they live in has shrunk severely. The process of exploring is thus important to them, and so they are laying down the groundwork to rebuild by reclaiming their lost territories from the forces that caused their downfall. Whether this is through aerial, naval, or ground-based transportation, expanding their reach is important, urgent, and prestigious to this new society.
Subterfuge Directs the World. In the wake of recreating the fallen institutions of the land, power has become easy to grasp for those who know how. Chaos and confusion are tools to seize more control without anyone noticing—except, in this case, everyone notices, and everybody is trying to get there first. Political turmoil marks a troubled empire, and here is no exception. Be it in the arenas of law, logistics, land, medicine, or security, there is no field that is untouched by the machinations of these dastardly schemers.
The World Is Magical. Practitioners of low-level magic are everywhere, as long as they are authorized by the government to wield such powers, but there is nobody alive who can cast past the level of fireball. Alchemists, blacksmiths, artificers, wizards, and scholars are always hard at work trying to rediscover the secrets of applying permanent enchantments onto mundane items, but it is a long and difficult road and they have all just started the work. Outside the boundaries of civilization, ancient artifacts might be found that can reteach society the secrets it has lost.
Magic Exists Independently Of The World. Magic, like the gods, takes a physical form, be it of solid stone, a glowing liquid, or a never-ending storm. Converting this fuel into work, perhaps via using the arcane arts or channeling it through a divine connection, is the mechanism by which magic is made useful. In addition, the gods may have been born from this pure essence of magic, or they may have come into being simultaneously with it. Regardless, magic is easy to come into contact with but is incredibly dangerous to wield. Untrained mortals may die from improper handling of the stuff, while even trained Wizards risk some chance of harm to themselves when they use it haphazardly.
Monsters Are Common. In the outer edges of society lay uncharted lands inhabited by dangerous beasts, aberrations, monstrosities, and even fey. These manic creatures cross the border into civilized lands regularly, creating an urgency for the people to organize themselves into groups that can fight, survive, and recover for the next battle. Aid from the Crown, Empire, or government (whatever form it takes) is needed to keep the borders secure. Adventurers can be born from such conflicts, and very often, they are.
Examining the Nature of Divinity
Before deciding on the identity of the first god, there are several unmentioned assumptions about the nature of gods in general that we should consider. These are questions that fall outside the realm of the universe of the game and inside the purview of worldbuilding.
The purpose of this examination is to understand the issues that the concept of godhood presents as a storytelling device and thus avoid them for our own campaigns.
Why Is A God, A God?
For many works of fiction, a god is a god because the author said so. Regardless of their mortality, power, rank, or age, a god retains their godhood at the arbitrary whim of whomever is at the helm of the plot.
This statement may sound overly reductive and simple, but there is a nugget of truth behind it: as the absolute master of your universe, your limitations on who qualifies as a god is up to you. This freedom carries with it the responsibility to define your own limits in such a way that they are meaningful and interesting to your audience.
In the novel American Gods by Neil Gaiman, the gods are creatures who were born from the faith of the people and who grow weaker as their followers dwindle in number. They can die and be reborn according to how strong the faith of their followers are towards them.
In this context, what was the purpose that their godhood meant to serve?
From the lens of cultural analysis, we might say the gods represented the cultures of the people who created them in the first place, and that their death represents the death of that very culture.
The creation of the New Gods such as the Internet and television represents the changing priorities of the people, and the drastic difference between Wednesday and Odin at the end of the novel might represent how much the meaning of the old gods have been lost in the modern era.
In this sense, the godhood of the characters served as a vehicle to ask interesting questions about the world and our relationship with culture. It was introduced purposefully and was an essential aspect of the story.
Compare this with the "standard" Dungeons and Dragons setting assumption where the gods live in the Outer Planes, grant divine power to their clerics, and rely on these clerics to further their influence in the world. Why does the god not do this themselves if the goal at hand is truly important? As they can give and take magic from anyone they choose at any time, can they not exert their own magic and orchestrate their own victory? The cleric's 10th level ability, Divine Intervention, is a mechanical implementation of the god's ability to manifest themselves inside the world of the characters. But surely, having the ability to directly intervene in the world, if they are truly godly beings with immense power, they can do this whenever they want and not just whenever a cleric decides to call on them?
The point of this section is not to say that gods in your world must be like that of Neil Gaiman's, but rather to stress that it is important to create your gods sensibly. If you introduce an immortal and omnipotent being to your story, think what do they want to do, and why aren't they doing it? Is their purpose more than just to serve as a backdrop for your cleric, or is that the full extent of their existence—in which case, how are they different from a curtain?
The Pitfalls of Omnipotence
In settings with omnipotent or pseudo-omnipotent gods, a problem is introduced: if they possess so much power that no mortal can behold them, why aren't they solving the issues of the universe? Don't they have their own agency? Why must they rely on mortals?
There are many ways that have been used to resolve this. One way is, given a pantheon of equally powerful gods, they have all agreed that none of them can directly interact with the Material Plane outside of very specific but well-defined terms, as otherwise there will be no Material Plane to speak of. Or, a barrier might have been erected long ago, preventing the gods from passing through and directly stopping them from messing with the Material Plane.
The flaw in taking this path, beyond any explanation that justifies any such plot device existing in-universe, is that it removes the agency of the gods of your setting. That stops you from fully integrating them to your world in a meaningful way. A god without agency is just as interesting as a curtain: you can remove it and still get the same story. If this barrier ultimately makes the gods essentially just a magical bank to get divine spells from, then your gods are unnecessary and only incidental to your world.
Another common resolution to this problem is that gods are simply too mighty to care about the lives of lesser beings. They may be out in the cosmos doing things far more interesting than helping a cleric defeat a lich, living far better lives than any mortal could ever dream.
The severe problem with this solution is that it moves the point of interest away from the focus of the campaign: the players. If the gods are having such a great time compared to the protagonists, then why aren't we telling that story instead? The answer: because there is no story. The gods aren't doing anything while the players aren't looking at them. Thus, this solution is not an explanation, but an excuse. It is smoke that the author pulls out when the underlying meaning is "there is nothing here."
Doing Omnipotence Justice
With so many problems that omnipotent beings introduce, what can we do to address them? There are two ways that this section will discuss.
The first is the simplest: do not have omnipotent gods. Limit their power and lifespan to something significantly below that of canon gods and the problem goes away.
The second is more difficult to show, and will be discussed by way of example. In the film Watchman, Dr. Manhattan is an omnipotent being who sees the past, present, and future in the same instant. At the start of the sequence, he loses his humanity, at one point calling life "an overrated phenomenon" and that "miracles, by their definition, are meaningless." By the end of the movie, however, he admits that he was wrong. He says that the birth of Laurie is "like turning air to gold," that it was a "thermodynamic miracle," and that life, if viewed from a different vantage point, "may still take our breath away." He has become so changed that he protects the false peace brokered by Veidt, even at his own expense.
The intervening events that moved him from an uncaring god to a human one forms a character arc. This, showing his humanlike quality to learn and grow, makes him a character integral to the narrative, one that cannot be cut from the story without damaging its quality.
The Parameters of Divinity
Let us lock in the traits and aspects of the divine, thus defining the meaning of "divinity" in our setting. This section will list these aspects and describe them in a way that is useful in a worldbuilding context.
Immortality
The first question is the length of a god's lifespan. Remember that gods are only gods because the author says so, and thus, even mortals can be gods if the author so chooses.
Like omnipotence, immortality brings with it problems. For example, if someone cannot die, then anything they try will succeed given enough time. How can you control the brazenness that would be logically characteristic of your pantheon?
Many traditional gods of mythology are immortal because they represent an escape from death, a fear that all humans share. They have overcome the inevitable effects of time and aging, and thus they are dreams their followers aspire to. But in a setting where the gods are not dreams, what purpose does their immortality serve?
Power and Agency
How much power do our deities have, and how much agency are they granted?
As a rule of thumb, agency is better than power. If your gods can play a larger and more integral role to your campaign despite having no power, that's better than an absent god that can end the universe with a sneeze.
A god that has a lot of power and a lot of agency will not leave much room for a campaign because there will not be a logical reason as to why reality isn't simply shaped according to that god's will. Beware this combination.
Historical Domains
When choosing the pantheon's domains, you can tackle it in three ways: culture first, gods first, or a mixed approach.
A culture-first approach means that culture writes the gods. For example, Sumerian tribes view natural phenomena like the earth and sky as taking precedence over human actions and emotions like joy. They have a sky god, but not a god of joy. In this approach, cultures create the gods.
A gods-first approach, on the other hand, means that the world is shaped by the gods and the cultures adapt. It is the reverse of the first approach.
There is also a mixed approach, where the gods shaped some societies but are sufficiently distant enough from others that those people have their own ideas of that god instead of going by what is "canon."
Ascension
Powerful characters might undergo a ritual to become a god, potentially stealing the throne from a living deity to ascend.
Most often, in Dungeons and Dragons, this is done for the Rule of Cool. If this is the basis of your ascension rules, that is fine. But you might also consider other motivations, such as: rebirth of the soul, rewards for a life of piety, or perhaps mortals who were so heroic and legendary that their stories became mythical, and the hero became a god.
Need for Worship
A common theme among fictional polytheistic pantheons is that gods need worship or else their power wanes. While this can be effective if used well, you should do it for a reason.
Are you copying Neil Gaiman's approach or are you using a traditional mythological approach? Why did you make that choice? If your pantheon needs worship to survive for no strong reason, consider a different route. If the gods are the most powerful beings in your universe, why can't they find another power source aside from mortals' thoughts and prayers?
Divine Ranks
The divine beings of the multiverse are often categorized according to their cosmic power. Some gods are worshiped on multiple worlds and have a different rank on each world, depending on their influence there.
Greater deities sit at the top of the divine pantheon. They are the twelve Greek Olympians or the thirteen Norse Aesirs and Vanirs. Creator gods or god-kings typically are greater deities themselves.
Lesser deities are placed one step below, whether that is because they are weaker or were designated there. Perhaps their influence is smaller, or their role in people's lives are understated. In Greek mythology, they are the children of greater deities. Examples of these are Demeter, the daughter of Cronus and Rhea, or Eros, the son of Aphrodite. They are full deities themselves in their own right.
Quasi-deities are the lowest on the totem pole but are still divine in some aspect. These include demigods such as Hercules, or champions such as Beowulf. In canon D&D lore, they may also include vestiges, dead gods who have lost their followers, and titans, gods created by the gods.
The Cycle of Time
When fashioning a world with strong divine connections, the best place to start is at the beginning.
What the Beginning Means
In mythology, creation stories might evoke key themes about the culture that tells it, letting us know what those cultures value. For example, in the origin myth from the Kuba people of Central Africa, Mbombo, the creator god, felt a great pain in his stomach and vomited out, one by one, the sun, moon, stars, and eventually, man, producing life and the universe. One possible interpretation of this story might be that this culture thinks about creation in the same way it does about childbirth: that it is painful, but it begets life. Thus, we might say that childbirth is very sacred to these people.
Contrast this with the story of Izanami and Izanagi from Japanese myth. In the story, they perform a marriage ritual where they walk around two pillars, greet each other upon finishing one turn, and then procreate. However, on their first try, Izanami, the woman, greeted her husband first, and as a result, their first child was born without arms, legs, and bones. When they did the ritual again, Izanagi spoke first this time. Then their children were "normal" gods and goddesses, not deformed. One interpretation of this myth is that the culture viewed women as subservient to men because the reason their first child was born hideous is that the wife took the initiative when it was not her place.
In a setting where the gods are real, however, the directions are flipped. The themes from myths are not reflections of the cultures they exist in, but rather talk about the values of the gods themselves. Under this regime, Thor is not warlike because Norse culture was warlike—rather, Thor is warlike, therefore his followers are warlike, too.
Thus, the process of knowing how your universe came to be is an exercise in weaving the key themes of your world into the fabric of reality itself. Myths are how people find their orientation in the world. These ideas and biases will form the backbone of your cosmos on an ideological level.
Modes of Creation
Creation myths in real life have similarities, grouped into categories that we can use these as material for our own stories, so let us briefly look at some of them.
Creatio Ex Nihilo
Literally "creation out of nothing," this trope is invoked when a creator god forms the universe from their word, thought, dream, or bodily secretions, which could be vomit, blood, or semen. A related trope, creation from chaos, happens when the creator gods use a primeval material to forge the world. In most stories, this substance is either water or chaos.
Examples of these myths can be seen in the Abrahamic religions, in Greek mythology, and in the Big Bang.
When ex nihilo is invoked, it usually starts by bringing light out of darkness. It suggests that before anything existed, there were already primordial entities outside of the universe—a god, a sea of water, or a sea of chaos. It may imply that the gods are a force not just of creation, but of order, because they tamed the chaos that existed before time began.
The Cosmic Egg
In these stories, the universe and its god was hatched from an egg, which is sometimes lain upon a primordial water that existed before creation itself. In these stories, material things come forth such as living things, land, and the seas; it might also cause chaos, order, light, dark, hot, cold, wet, and dry to come into existence. The parts of the egg can form the world, such as the dome of the sky and the lands of the earth.
Examples of these myths are in Indian scriptures, ancient Persian myths, and in the Taoist Chinese story of Pangu.
Cosmic egg stories are part of a greater series of tales called world-parent myths, featuring a creator god that brings the world into existence using literal or metaphorical sexual reproduction. In this case, the cosmic egg can be created by a god which then hatches the universe, or the god can hatch from the egg and its remains forms the universe.
As opposed to ex nihilo which might feature male gods, world-parent myths usually show a maternal creator—an earth mother. This may imply a stronger role of women in the cosmic order of things in these stories.
Made By Animals
This section combines two types of similar stories: the earth-diver and the emergence myths. Whereas humans are given dominion over all the plants and animals on earth in certain tales of creation, these types of myths show animals working with humans to bring it about.
In earth-diver myths, a diver such as a bird or amphibian (which existed before the instance of creation) plunges into the seabed of the primordial ocean to bring up mud, which develops into islands and continents.
In emergence myths, the progenitors of humans originated from an underground world and were helped by animals such as spiders, chipmunks, or birds in their quest to reach the surface. In their journey, they pass through a series of interim worlds and transform along the way until, upon emerging into the final world, they become human.
Examples of these stories can be found among the native American tribes. These tales are still alive today as they are passed on and preserved through oral tradition.
While sharing many elements as the other creation myths, especially the existence of primeval waters, what is unique is the relationship of the animals to people. Rather than being treated as dumb, soulless, and unthinking beasts, the animals are given agency and play an integral role in creating humans and the place they live, without which human life would not be possible. In the cultures that share these stories, it thus is important to respect the animals and be grateful to them.
The Apocalypse
Many religions have a concept of how the world will end. War, famine, disease, and oceans turning to blood is just the tip of the iceberg for some apocalypses.
Tales of civilization coming to a halt, however, are not just found in ancient myths. Humans from every age seem to gravitate to these dark tales. Other than religious foretellings, we also have stories of how the apocalypse could be caused by zombies, nuclear war, aliens, AI, natural disasters, and countless more. We are addicted to these grim themes.
But regardless of the function they served for real life cultures at the time they were made, if the gods are real in your setting, then the apocalypse must be true by necessity. This means the end of the world will not have a cultural function because it would have been codified by the gods independently of the mortal races.
Still, there are a few patterns that will be useful to us as we build our worlds.
Vague or Indeterminate
This is the easiest path to take. Your world may or may not end, and there are no guarantees that it will go either way. Your villains can try to end the world, but it's always possible to defeat them and avert the disaster.
Cyclical
A common way to end the world in myths is to do it cyclically. This means that the world will be destroyed and created in periods, sometimes forever, but also sometimes limited to just a certain number of turns.
In the Hindu religion, Kalki, the final avatar of Vishnu, will descend on a white horse to end the current age, amass a great army, and leave the minds of everyone as pure as crystal, triggering the beginning of the next age.
Though unlikely, the heat death of the universe will also cause a cyclical death and rebirth of the cosmos according to science.
Regardless, these stories have a unifying theme of perpetual death and rebirth. As such, it isn't avoidable, and the heroes of the story simply have to live or die with it.
Rebirth
This category is where the Abrahamic religions fall under. The end of the world will bring destruction to society, but survivors of the event will be able to move on to the next world. For the Abrahamic religions, this accompanies the day of judgment, when believers are saved and go to heaven while everyone else suffers and goes to hell.
The Norse version of it called Ragnarok can also be said to fall under this basket. In it, after nearly everyone dies, two survivors are foretold to repopulate the earth.
These stories can get very grim and terrifying, but it is worth noting that they are not the actual end of everything. There is a world after the apocalypse—it's just not this one.
True End
The grimmest of the choices, a true end is one where nothing survives. The cold death of the universe or the Great Rip is like this, according to science.
Shell of the Gods
A pantheon cannot exist without its gods. However, to make a compelling one, we need to learn about the godstuff that comprises them, which we will focus on next.
For our purposes, we define godstuff as the relationships of a god that fully describe who they are. We will do thus by examining their relationship with three things: the universe, the mortal races, and themselves.
Take note that as we explore these concepts, you don't have to be bounded by any of their limits. Feel free to combine ideas that might seem unrelated and morph them in ways that serve to make your gods more vivid and interesting.
Domains
In polytheistic religions, gods are given domains to rule over. This represents their role in the universe according to the people that invented them, and serves to explain why natural events occur. Domains are the outer shell of a deity. It is the first layer of them that we see.
A god's domain represents the natural force outside the control of the culture that made that god. Storms might be attributed to an angry sky god, while a bountiful harvest might be the gift of a fertility god. In courtship, the god of love might be prayed to for future success, while in funerals, the god of death might be appeased to so as to let the deceased pass safely to their next life.
Not all natural forces have gods, though. Which ones get a place in the pantheon depends on the values of the culture that made those gods. For example, most cultures believe in gods of death because everybody dies, so everybody needs an explanation on what happens after death. However, maize gods are much rarer because corn was not historically important to most peoples.
In a world with real gods, their domains instead explain the purpose of their birth or creation. Broadly, there are two ways to approach domain assignment for your setting.
Domains are Fundamental
The gods are integral to your world. They are the physical manifestations of the concepts they represent.
Using this approach, the death of a god has huge, world-shattering consequences for your world. Perhaps no one can smile if the god of joy is killed; or the sun will never rise again if the solar god is murdered.
Note that you might run the danger of making shallow gods this way, especially if they represent an emotion or feeling.
Domains are Incidental
The gods are creatures who control aspects of reality, but their powers are separate from the world itself.
Using this approach, gods do not have domains innately. Thus, people can assign them after witnessing their godly powers, allowing society to define its values with respect to your pantheon. For example, a deity good at killing could be a god of glory or violence. Regardless of the domain, of course, the god is the same. But the culture that calls them the god of glory will have vastly different values than the one that calls them the god of violence, adding layers to your world.
Also, since your gods are just powerful, not all-powerful, you can even introduce justified nonbelievers to your setting.
Divine Archetypes
To peel back the second layer, we need to discuss some of the archetypes that gods tend to assume from real world myths. This represents the nature of their relationship with people, forming a core part of their identity.
Archetypes in this context are patterns that emerge in a large number of myths across time, place, and people. Nearly every god of every culture seems to obey them, hinting that there is an underlying fundamental symbolism that humans seem to share just by virtue of being human.
The Triple Goddess
Stories of goddesses appear from every place and from every era, and they all share commonalities. One way to interpret these ideas is through the Triple Goddess, a system which analyzes their core ideas via the stages of a woman's life.
Suffice it to say that different people will give different interpretations of this trinity, and we cannot even begin to scratch the surface of this complicated topic. Thus we will settle on one interpretation: in particular, life, death, and regeneration. Note though, many valid readings exist such as birth, life, and death; or past, present, and future.
The Triple Goddess can describe an actual trinity of women—for example, the Greek goddesses Artemis, Selene, and Hecate—or it might describe one entity with three aspects—such as Hera the Girl, Hera the Adult, and Hera the Widow. It might also refer to both at once, three women who embody the Triple Goddess individually and collectively—one example in Greek mythology comprised of Clotho
the spinner, who spins the thread of life
(the Virgin); Lachesis the alloter,
who measures it with her rod
(the Mother); and Atropos
the unturning, who cuts
it with her shears (the Crone);
these three women
together form the Fates,
which symbolizes the Crone
as a collective unit.
This is a useful system for
writing multi-faceted goddesses
with compelling personalities.
Though we will use a specific
interpretation in this section,
feel free to change it according
to the needs of your story.
The Virgin: Regeneration
This archetype is characterized by youth, beauty, and pulsing sexuality. It might also describe purity and passion. Examples of Virgin goddesses are the Mesopotamian goddess Inana, whose domains are love, beauty, sex, desire, and fertility; and Aphrodite Urania, an aspect of Aphrodite who represents pure celestial love.
The Mother: Life
Mother goddesses may represent the life-giving Earth, one of whom is Mother Earth herself; or primordial creation, such as Tiamat from Sumerian myth. They are nurturers and protectors of the people. In an arid and dry desert, they may be water goddesses; whereas in the cold tundras, they could be goddesses of heat and warmth.
The Crone: Death
The symbol of the Crone may represent wisdom and age, while the goddesses who rule over death might be queens of the underworld. They may also control life, death, and rebirth. Goddesses such as these include Isis, the Egyptian goddess who resurrected her husband Osiris; or the Norns of Norse mythology, women who rule the destiny of gods and men.
Male Divinities
Just as goddesses can be grouped into categorical baskets, so too can male gods. Understanding them lets us see the values that inform men of that culture what it means to be a man in the context of that society.
A god can assume any number of these archetypes at the same time. As a general rule, the more archetypes they fit, the more well-rounded they are. But beware of adding more for its own sake. You might end up making a deity with forced and incoherent qualities. Be sure to use only what you need.
Father and Son
Patrofocal stories talk about the struggles of sons in the context their father's love. A poor relationship can lead to rebellion, as can be seen in Chronos and his castration of his own father. Alternatively, in a good relationship, the sons might exemplify aspects of their father, which can be seen in how Thor's battle prowess and reproductive powers reflect Odin's own. In other words, this archetype talks about the love, or lack thereof, given by a father to his son.
King and Judge
Gods ruling other gods people justifies the rule of kings in the real world: kings, like gods, keep their subjects safe. Also, gods may play the role of judges, especially in the fates of mortals when they die. This trope is invoked as a means of conveying the societal power that the god holds. Examples of this can be seen in Odin as the All-Father and in Osiris as judge of dead souls before Egyptians entered the afterlife.
Savior and Sage
Saviors deliver people from evil while sages impart wisdom. This archetype invokes both together. Often, the savior god shares knowledge that, if followed, leads to the salvation of their devotees. In the Christian religion, Jesus falls under this archetype. It should be noted, though, that saviors do not need to die in the process of saving and teaching. Rather, this archetype invokes ideas of love of the gods for their followers and fosters a positive relationship between them and humans.
Breaking Boundaries
Though these archetypes are sorted by sex, that's only how they broadly occur in stories. However, myths do cross these lines, too. The Corn Mother in native American mythology is both the Mother of the Triple Goddess and a Savior from this list.
Shaman
Gods that fall into this category share qualities with shamans of the real world: they can use their powers to interact with the spirit world to see things others cannot, or are able to move between the realms of gods and men with ease. Messenger gods fall into this archetype, such as Thoth from Egyptian mythology or Hermes from Greek mythology. In popular fiction, the avatar from Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra also falls under this archetype.
Trickster
Gods that fall under this archetype exemplify using their wits to cause, and get out of, tricky, crazy, and hilarious situations. Trickster gods are often the butt of their own joke when a scheme of theirs fails to work as planned. They remind us that life can be chaotic, and that it isn't always fair. Anansi the Akan spider god is an example of this, and so are Loki from Norse myth, and Hermes from Greek myth.
Lord of Destruction
Typically kings of the afterlife, a lord of destruction is a god who has dominion over life and death. They are linked to greed—plutocracy takes its name from Pluto, Greek god of the underworld, since riches and minerals can be mined underground in the domain of death. War gods also fall under this archetype as they embody violence and destruction, an example of which is Balor, the Celtic god of the Fomorians, who could destroy anything by simply looking at it with his single giant eye.
The Dying God
There are numerous stories about gods who die and rise again, although being reborn is not always part of the trope. Baldr from Norse myth is a famous example of a god who dies but is not resurrected, instead his death signaling the arrival of Ragnarok. Adonis is another example of a god who dies, but in his example, he rises again symbolically by becoming a flower that grows and dies cyclically every year. Arguably, Jesus is the most notable example of a dying god who actually rises again.
The archetype of the dying god can be grim, but
it also serves as a way to ease our fear of death.
In stories of gods under this archetype, their
deaths can form a cycle of rebirth. In some
cases, this trope is combined with the Savior
archetype to paint an image of a god who dies for
the sake of their people, which can bring comfort to
the followers of that faith.
Queer Manifestations
Strictly speaking, this is not an archetype in the
same way that the previous items are. Rather,
these are the themes of LGBT expression that
have found themselves embedded into the
stories we tell each other. Despite this, it is
interesting a facet enough that it deserves
mention.
In the real world, where not being straight has
been a socially shameful or unacceptable gender
from a historical—and in many places, even still
contemporary—perspective, myths exist to draw
out these repressed variant sexualities that society holds
at large. It posits that if a culture says one thing but wants another, this hidden, secret desire can weasel its way into
the myths which that culture shares.
Themes like this can be found in Chinese dragons and their desire for older men, in Loki's gender fluidity in his shapeshifting, or in the Arabian Al-Zahra, a spring that changes a person's sex upon drinking or bathing in it.
It should be emphasized that this is not an archetype as it relies on imposing Western gender binary ideology to identify stories that reject heterosexuality or find evidence of sexual repression, even if the culture where the myths come from might not necessarily see it that way. Thus we cannot say that the queer archetype actually exists, because it may not have been queer for that ancient society, and usually, the stories only touch of LGBT themes without explicitly stating it.
Regardless, the idea that myths might contain hidden meanings that serve to escape social mores makes sense and only serves to add layers to your own pantheon if you use it.
Psyche
The final layer left to examine is the gods' psyche—the sum of their conscious and unconscious mind. This is no different from creating a good character in any work of fiction. We will define them in formal terms to use as tools in the context of making new gods.
We use Sigmund Freud's ego psychology as a model due to its simple lines of organization. This method has fallen out of favor among psychologists due to its many flaws, so you can say it is fictitious. Incidentally, that's perfect for our purposes.
In this model, the id, ego, and super-ego coexist in the mind, which ensuring your character is always internally layered. One of these agents may be dominant over the others, or they may be well-balanced in a mature person. Regardless, they are always in a tug of war with each other.
Id
The id represents the unconscious part of our personality. It rules over instinct, sexual desire, libido, bodily needs, creativity, aggression, and other body functions.
A human governed only by id behaves like a wild beast incapable of thought. If they have a dark side, the id is the embodiment of that aspect of their personality.
To form the id of your gods, assign to them flaws, fears, bad habits, and other negative character traits.
Ego
The ego modulates the desires of the id and the demands of the super-ego while acting in response to what is realistic.
It is the seat of consciousness, reasoning, judgment, self control, and memory, and also one's defense mechanisms against guilt and shame, such as repression, denial, and fantasy.
A human governed only by the ego has no emotions and will behave only in the most rational way possible. To form the ego of your gods, remove all their emotions.
Super-Ego
The final aspect of one's psyche is their conscience or higher self. The super-ego upholds morality according to the cultural values held by the person. It demands perfection in all facets.
Someone governed only by the super-ego will act only in the most virtuous ways, like running into a burning building to save a child, jumping in front of a bullet to push someone out of its way, or donating all their resources for a just cause. The super-ego does not heed reality, only the values that society wants to see.
The super-ego needs to have significant cultural overlap. Its values echoes those of society, so you need to define these societal virtues before you can assign a super-ego to a character.
A Changed Society
Depending on the level of involvedness of the gods in your setting, the culture will be completely different as opposed to the ones in the real world. In order to have a living, breathing, integrated society, we should explore these changes as a result of the introduction of living gods.
We will mention these concepts in broad strokes, as there are far too many pieces that can change in too many ways to meaningfully attempt discussing them all. However, we will break down each societal component, describe them, and establish their scope. You can use this as a springboard for your own worldbuilding framework.
Institutions
Institutions are mechanisms of social order that govern the actions of a set of individuals. Like norms, institutions can exist at any level of society.
Family
Families are the basic unit of society.
Education and Academia
Comprised of schools, universities, research facilities, and so on. Where comprehend languages exists, imagine the boons to society.
Medicine
Comprised of hospitals, clinics, temples with healing pools, and so on. Imagine a world with lesser restoration and the new system of health care that emerges from that.
Law and Punishment
Comprised of the courts, laws, and prisons, and so on. Imagine the ramifications of zone of truth and augury and go from there.
Economics
This is the pattern of consumption society follows, of which capitalism and socialism are the two main types. Other systems exist as well, such as feudalism or mixed economies.
Media
Comprised of newspapers, books, publications, news criers, and so on. Sending can facilitate long distance messages to form its backbone.
Government
This is the system of government in place to rule the people, some of which are democracy, monarchy, oligarchy, or fascism, though the spectrum is very wide.
Religion
Comprised of churches, chapels, clerical training centers, and so on. Though the world has real gods in it, religious institutions may not be central if the gods do not want to be worshiped.
Military
Comprised of the armies, navies, air forces, and other elite units of a country designed for warfare. Unlike the real world, magic is a new domain that wars must also be fought in, and the applications are broad and far reaching.
Industry
Comprised of all the businesses that run in the society, plus the distribution of goods and services produced by the industry for consumption.
Language
The systems of language that are spoken and the subcultures they are associated with.
Chapter 2: Welcome to Stormcrest
The lands of Stormcrest is a setting based on the application of the rules and guidelines explored in Chapter 1 of this document, which serves as both a setting that you can explore on your own games, as well as an example of how to apply these guidelines.
We will explore the pantheon, magic, and society together as we journey through the skies of this new setting.
Divine Limits
The gods of Stormcrest were originally called titans by the creator god, born alongside dragons and giants, forming the first races. They ascended into a position of divinity with the help of the creator, and now having attained godhood, they all share these traits in common.
Not Immortal
The gods have very long lifespans, but are not immortal. They can be killed by weapons and starvation, but time will probably not kill them. In addition, lesser deities are tied to a place that they cannot leave without getting severely weaker. They are very vulnerable in this state.
Lots of Agency, Low Power
They are very involved with the lives of mortals, but their abilities are far from omnipotence. They can supply the divine magic needed by clerics, but their
Gods Shaped Society
They gods first and all the people followed. Thus, cultures patterned themselves after the gods.
Ascended to Power
When the titans were created, they were originally born from the blood of the creator god. Together with Ur, the creation god, they performed the ritual to ascend, thus creating the Stormcrest pantheon.
Needs No Worship
The gods derive their power from a substance called Order Deus, which flows in their bodies in large quantities and maintains their godhood. They also need to consume distilled Chaos Arcana, the equal and opposite substance of Order Deus, to remain alive and in homeostasis. Essentially, they are creatures with large stores of magic inside their bodies and so do not need worship to keep themselves alive.
Size
The true size of a greater deity is around 15 miles tall, but they maintain a humanoid size in daily life so as to not be disruptive. Lesser deities, though, are the typical size of humans.
Dwellings
The gods live in the Material Plane along with their creations. There is no special plane reserved for them and they did not create one for themselves.
Myth of Cosmogony
In the beginning, there was chaos. From this roiling sea emerged two drops of magic which were perfectly and exactly equal and opposite one another.
The first drop was the distilled essence of Chaos Arcana, but it was too erratic for anything to grow in it. Thus, it drifted in the void as a droplet of pure white liquid energy, remaining lifeless and without form.
However, the second drop was the pure aspect of Order Deus which sought to organize itself spontaneously and without an external mover. Thus emerged from this drop Ur, the first god.
Now the first god beheld the universe in Their eyes and saw that it was formless and full of chaos. And lo, They said: "Let the cosmos be partitioned in two halves, one a plane of order and life, and the other a plane of dreams and chaos. Let chaos be removed from the first plane and move to form the substrate of the second, and let order be taken from the second plane to build the foundations of the first. Let the two planes be differentiated by the amounts of chaos and order that exist within them, so that life may exist in one, and be devastation contained in the other.
"Let water fill the first plane so that life may grow inside it, and let the firmaments of the heavens rise in the air so that there may be space for creatures to fly. Let the sun rise in the first plane so that it may light it with its warm glow, and let it sink and shroud the plane in darkness so that it may not burn the creatures in its perpetual heat. Let this form one cycle of night and day, and let one hundred thousand million cycles come to pass before it is no more.
"Let the second plane be filled with everchanging reflections of the first, but grounded by the first by way of thoughts, so that the chaos contained within it can never grow to an extent that threatens the first. Let the plane be formless and boundless, so that nothing that floats within it may ever touch anything else without an external mover. Let the two planes be divorced from each other except by way of an astral bridge through which energies may flow between the planes, and let the bridge be accessible from the first plane through the invocation of proper rites."
These words were said, and it was so.
As the first god shaped the cosmos, the roiling chaos disappeared and gave way to order. And the first god saw the drop of Chaos Arcana and said to it: "You are a part of me, and I you. For while we may not be one, we are two halves of a whole, as the two planes form the universe. But whereas I am life, you are death, and when we shall meet, there will be destruction. For you are the opposite of I, and I you, for I am life and you are death.
"Thus, I shall teach life to wield you so that obliteration may not prosper when Chaos Arcana intersects with Order Deus. You shall be a force of nature among the peoples, and the peoples shall you use you to further their great histories. These are my wishes, and so they shall come to pass."
A great heave was given by the first god and Chaos Arcana was thrown into the second plane, where it eternally remains.
The hand upon which the first god held the drop of distilled Chaos did throb, and immediately They severed it from their body, and it fell upon the waters of the first plane. The floating appendage formed the first island.
Now the first god sat upon the waters and saw the fruits of Their labor, and thusly They spoke: "From my breath I will create creatures of the sky, great lizards that shall freely roam the heavens to construct their homes across the face of the earth. From my bone and flesh I will craft behemoths whose purpose is to live upon the land and waters and know its bounties. From my blood I will forge servants and helpers in my image so that they may finish the world with me. And they will reproduce within their own races, where man will provide the seed, and woman the womb, and they will multiply and populate the earth. Once these deeds are done, we will live our days upon this world until our deaths."
And so the sky lizards were the Dragons, the behemoths Giants, and the servants of Ur Titans. And together they changed the faces of the world.
Reviewing the Myth
In our origin story, there were several themes built into our universe that should be explicitly stated for the purposes of clarity.
Gods Are Part Of The Universe. Unlike traditional ex nihilo myths, our progenitor god was not eternally present before creation began. Rather, the creator god was born from the preexisting primordial chaos, and as they are not outside the universe, they are also subject to its rules and laws.
Everything Is Equally Balanced. A foundational aspect of this myth is that everything is equal. The two drops of magic that emerged are equal and opposite each other. The two planes contain chaos and order in equal parts, as the chaos of the first plane was thrown into the second plane, and the order removed from the second plane was used to create the first. This balance is akin to yin and yang, but also harkens to the zero energy universe hypothesis in science.
Magic Has Duality. As a fundamental force in the world, the existence of magic and its relation to different types are explored in this creation myth. Chaos Arcana represents the raw magical energies of the cosmos, and the astral bridge is its Weave-analogue to the Forgotten Realms. Creatures can harness the powers of Chaos Arcana via the bridge; thus, arcane magic is born. Similarly, Order Deus is the primal magic of the gods, and thus divine magic also exists.
The Gods Are Among Us. In our story, the progenitor god commands the first races to live on the earth. This means that there is no metaphorical heaven, hell, or afterlife that exists, so even the gods live in the same place as their creations. And, like any mortal, they die as well.
Sex Was Created Last. In many creation stories, male and female form an important duality to establish the social order, usually to rank a sex or gender above the other. In this myth, we begin with a sexless progenitor god and introduce male and female only after everything else was made. There is also no concept of marriage, just of reproduction.
The Pantheon
We now have the tools to create our pantheon. Presented below are the gods built from the previous rules.
Greater Deities
In this section, we will list all the greater deities. Note that most of them are dead. If so, their description will note it.
Ur, God of Creation
Ur is the creator god. Born from a drop of Order Deus that spontaneously formed in the great primordial sea of chaos, they created the Material Plane and the Energy (or Dream) Plane immediately upon inception. They are responsible for storing the essence of Chaos Arcana in the Energy Plane and built a connecting astral bridge to enable magic users to draw upon those energies safely.
They also created the first dragons from their breath; the first giants from their flesh and bone; and the first titans from their blood. The first continent formed from their severed hand which then housed the original races.
They created the titans specifically to turn them into gods through the ritual of ascension so that they may help finish the act of creation. However, once they were done, the titans remained as gods, which caused jealousy among the descendants of the first dragons.
Stealing a portion of Chaos Arcana which the gods housed, Dovanax, a Gold Dragon, created sixteen weapons that could slay gods, and he used one of them to kill Ur. This sparked the Dragon-Titan War. The blade Dovanax used is now called Ur Killer, one of the four legendary Major Pieces.
Ur did not have a will of their own. They were made entirely of Order Deus, thus there was not a drop of chaotic tendency in their body. This rigidness made their thoughts inflexible and unadaptive, lacking natural instinct, making them easy to murder.
Ur is depicted as a nude sexless humanoid figure with white hair, two wings with feathers of platinum, silver, and gold, perpetually blindfolded eyes, and light brown skin.
Manneo, God of Strength and Sports
Manneo's contribution was the creation of new landforms. He shaped mountains with his hands, and his footsteps became deep crevices which formed canyons. He also swam to the ocean floor and lifted up the land to make new continents.
Though he had relationships with a multitude of women, he ultimately fell in love with Marais, a human. They had a child but she died from childbirth, leaving him to raise their daughter, Daphiel, by himself.
During the Dragon-Titan War, Manneo reshaped the earth a second time. In his grief for Ur, he picked up large chunks of rock and threw them across the earth, destroying entire islands and creating new ones in the process.
His death came at the hands of Obsidiana, a Black Dragon, who used the arrow Heartseeker on Daphiel, one of the twelve legendary Minor Pieces. When it was about to hit her, he stepped in front and blocked it. Before he died, he pulled the arrow from his chest and stabbed Obsidiana with it, killing her too.
Manneo is depicted as a bald man with a thick black beard, a hairy chest, brown skin, rippling muscles, and the physique of an Adonis.
Arstis, God of Seasons
Arstis made his contribution by planting four seeds infused with his life force, scattering them throughout the world. The seeds grew into the Trees of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. When one is in bloom, the season it represents takes hold over the whole Material Plane, so that if the Tree of Spring blooms, it is spring everywhere on the plane.
Because of this act, he lost a significant amount of the Order Deus within him, as instead it was transferred to the trees when they germinated. In return, as long as one of these mythical trees lived, Arstis could not be killed.
During the Dragon-Titan War, despite being the weakest god, the dragons feared him the most because of his apparent true immortality—he did not die even after he was impaled by the Ur Killer.
In his battle with Dovanax, he wrested away the Shield of Time from the dragon's hand, one of the twelve legendary Minor Pieces. When Dovanax ran away, Arstis gave it to Sven to reforge into a ring, which he now wears and calls Solstice.
Afterwards, he designated four lesser deities, the Wardens, to watch over each Tree. All four Trees are still alive.
Also, as he believes he is the only living greater deity left, Arstis is incredibly paranoid. He has worked to erase any information about the past, especially where it includes stories about the gods or the weapons that can kill gods. To do this, he has built nation after nation, rebuilding again when the last one falls, so that he can sit at the helm of society and dictate the Churches and schools. While he tries to be fair in every other aspect, he is prepared to end whoever tries to unearth the secrets he needs to stay hidden.
Arstis is depicted as a young, muscular man with white hair, a full beard, dark eyes, and a scarred body. However, when he is straining beyond his natural capacity, his left eye changes from black to golden orange.
Sven, God of the Forge and Volcanoes
Sven is known as the lame god because he was born with disfigured legs. However, his contributions to creation were not minor: he installed a molten layer of rock under the ground, giving rise to plate tectonics, volcanoes, mountains, and geothermal energy.
During the Dragon-Titan War, he armed the gods with the Sacred Relics, four legendary weapons made from his own Order Deus to counteract the weapons forged by Dovanax. He was killed by Eridor using the Sword of the Blood Moon, one of the twelve legendary Minor Pieces.
He had only one lover in his life, and he was famous for it: Panamare, the god of love, had chosen him as his main lover. Everyone was jealous of him.
He is depicted as a man with a thick torso and muscular arms, withered legs, sitting on a flying chair, and always wearing a horned helmet.
Panamare, God of Love, Sex, and Fertility
The most powerful of the gods aside from Ur, Panamare's contribution is the flora and fauna of the entire plane. He gave life to every beast and plant, and once the mortal races were born, he made them multiply very, very quickly.
Panamare was omnisexual, and among his many powers was the ability to make anyone desire him, and the ability to cause those he kisses to reach sexual orgasm immediately.
Panamare was one of the main threats the dragons faced during the Dragon-Titan War since they themselves were not immune to his charms and thus could not fight him. In the end, however, they did not kill him. When he saw Sven's dead body, he fell into such grief that he grabbed the Sword of the Blood Moon and drove it through his own heart.
He is depicted as a beautiful fair-skinned man with large brown eyes, shoulder length wavy blond hair, a toned and slender body, a large exposed phallus, and a hole where his heart should be.
Novana, Goddess of Clay and Birth
Novana's contributions are the mortal races: humans, elves, orcs, gnomes, halflings, goblins, kobolds, and so on. The only humanoid race that she did not create are the goliaths, who were descended from the giants, and the dragonborn, who were descended from the dragons.
Her true gift to these races was not life, which the other gods could also bestow, but sentience. She envisioned people in her head, those that could talk, laugh, share stories, and, most of all, think. To do this, she opened the astral bridge to the Dream Plane and mixed Chaos Arcana with clay. Then she bled on the clay, imbuing it with Order Deus and mixing the two forces of magic into her material. When the magic had set, she would then mold it into a humanoid shape with a head, two arms, and two legs, and then soaked it in a specific type of liquor, depending on the race. After twenty four hours, the dolls came alive and became the race she designed.
She did not participate in the Dragon-Titan War because she never stopped making clay dolls. When she was killed by Glacirus, a Silver Dragon, using the legendary Minor Piece called Fatebringer, she had already made one million three hundred thousand and fifty six dolls.
Novana is depicted as a beautiful and plump woman with large hips, dark hair, brown eyes, and dark skin.
Caela, Goddess of the Sea and Sky
Caela stands equal to Panamare in the pantheon, second only to Ur in strength. Her contribution to creation is weather, which changes quickly, and climate, which changes gradually. She also set into motion the water cycle, which gave rise to storms, temperature differentials, the wind, and underwater ocean belts. These factors combine to sustain mortal life and support the flora and fauna of the Material Plane.
She loved Ela, and so she flew to the moon every night and wooed her. Eventually, Ela returned her feelings. Their love was so strong that just being together was not enough, but marriage had not been invented yet. So they formalized the ritual and introduced the idea to the people, and Caela and Ela became the first married couple in history.
During the Dragon-Titan War, she was given three the Sacred Relics: the Lightning Quiver, the Thunderbow, and the Glove of Swift Shooting. These, and her ability to call storms, killed thousands of dragons in one attack.
In one skirmish, tens of thousands of dragons sieged her, with a god-killing weapon hidden in the crowd. She held them at bay easily, but then she felt Ela die, causing her to flinch for just a moment. It was all Glacirus needed to plunge the axe-head of Fatebringer into the godess's neck.
Caela is depicted as a fully armored woman wielding a platinum longbow with a golden bowstring, a quiver filled with arrows of lightning, long white hair tied in a ponytail, brown skin, and red eyes.
Gladia, Goddess of War and Death
Gladia is the only goddess who did not contribute to creation. Ur made her formless from the start and made it so that she would only gain a body in times of crisis. As the goddess of war and death, she was needed only in times of extreme upheaval and chaos to bring enemies to their graves.
Like Ur and Novana, Gladia does not have free will. She is compelled to accomplish her task regardless of the personal risk, not having a single drop of Chaos Arcana in her body.
Unlike any other god in the pantheon, though, she is not truly alive. When Ur made her, they did not put in the breath of life into her lungs. Instead, they put the curse of undeath in her body, so that she might move without the burden of pain or fear.
As she is not alive, she cannot die. The dragons defeated her many times, but she just rose again and kept fighting. Gladia was the undying sentinel who kept the dragons from murdering the rest of the pantheon in the wake of their shock of Ur's death, allowing them to gather their wits and realize what had just happened.
When the Dragon-Titan War ended, her corpse fell to the ground and became air. This nature of hers—that she would rise again in times of tumult—was known only to Ur. With their death, nobody alive knew. Those who saw her fall assumed she was dead for good.
Gladia is depicted as a muscular woman with very pale bluish-white skin, long waist-length braided hair, eyes that are completely black and glossy, purple lips, and wielding an axe.
Ela, Goddess of the Three Moons
Ela's contribution to creation is the three moons and their lunar phases.
The closest and largest moon is Elena, the aspect of life within Ela. When it is full, nocturnal life is energetic. Healing under the moon also becomes more effective. Water that has been soaked in Elena's moonlight can gain curative powers temporarily. This property gets weaker as Elena wanes and approaches the new moon phase.
The second moon, Eliza, is the aspect of death within Ela. When it is full, spirits and ghosts tend to be more active. Necrotic energies flourish and necromantic spells are stronger under the light of this moon. Similar to Elena, as Eliza wanes and approaches the new moon phase, this property becomes weaker.
The third and furthest moon, and also the smallest, is Elona, the aspect of regeneration within Ela. When it is full, sexual energies are strongest, and the sense of pleasure from intercourse is heightened under the moonlight. As with Elena and Eliza, this property fades as Elona approaches its new moon phase.
Her mood and personality changes gradually as the moons move, the Order Deus within her forcing her to conform her behaviors with the lunar energies.
Ela is extremely vulnerable when all three moons are in the new moon phase, but her power is overwhelming when they are all full. Generally, any alignment or synchronicity between the moons is rare and usually signifies some form of disaster. She was killed by Dovanax under three new moons using the Ur Killer.
Ela is depicted as a beautiful woman with pale skin, black shoulder length hair, large dark eyes, and rosy lips.
Lesser Deities
The following lesser deities once lived, but there are only three living ones left, so some on this list are dead.
Centurion, the Spring Warden
Centurion is the spirit of celebration and the protector of the Tree of Spring. In his past life, he was called Sol, a boy who was born after the Dragon-Titan War, but who met his fate at the age of twelve from being burned to cinders in a fire. Arstis saw this happen and, under the guise of a Wizard, offered to the mother to bring the boy back to life, but that Sol will not be the same when he wakes up. The mother agreed, and the boy rises from the dead with green skin, the ability to control plants, and the inability to leave the area of Tree of Spring.
One day, when the moons realigned, great walls of water rose from the oceans and threatened to destroy all, including the Tree of Spring. Sol, now Centurion, used his powers to call Manneo's corpse, which was buried nearby. The dead god stood at least 13 miles tall and so was able to pick up the land around the Tree and lift it up above the relentless tsunamis. However, the stress of it drained Centurion's life force and he died on the spot.
To honor his sacrifice, Arstis, disguised as King Abraham, holds the Contest of Olympians once a century, and every night of the Second Trial, he summons a heroes' feast and calls it Centurion's Feast instead.
Clark, the Summer Warden
Clark is the spirit of joy and rage and the protector of the Tree of Summer. In his past life, he was called Summer. When he was a boy, he lost his parents to a roving band of bandits, but he was able to escape. A kind lady named Dayana took him in and cared for him for three days, and then she died of an aneurysm. Summer was raised by Hank, the lady's partner, after that. When he was old enough to adventure, he sought out Arstis and asked to see Dayana again. In doing so, Arstis told him he must also do something in exchange, and the boy agreed. Thereafter, he became Clark.
He became romantically involved with Centurion at some point, and upon his death, Clark blamed Arstis for being unable to resurrect him. He then abdicated his position and left the Tree. The role of Summer Warden is not a title, though, and so Arstis could not replace him. In the wilds and away from the source of his life, Clark grew weaker until, almost dying, he met a man named Dovanax who gave him a drink of pure Chaos Arcana. This revitalized him, and they began to scheme against Arstis and how to kill him.
Cassandra, the Fall Warden
Cassandra is the spirit of temperance and patience and the protector of the Tree of Autumn. She lives inside the Tower of Autumn, a pocket dimension which was built after Clark's betrayal, so as to better protect the Tree from him. In her past life, she was a girl named Mare, a commanding officer in King Abraham's army. She died from an attack of fomorians swarming the outer cities. After the dust was cleared and the borders re-secured, Arstis asked her spirit if she would like to continue serving him. When she said yes, she woke up with dark skin, orange hair, and powers to control leaves.
She oversees a group of nine clerics, paladins, druids, and sorcerers, who together are called gardeners. They maintain the health of the Tree in non-emergency situations.
Claire, the Winter Warden
Claire is the spirit of coldness and hostility and the protector of the Tree of Winter. She lives inside the Tower of Winter. A fantastic warrior and skilled with a blade, but not a lively person, and she doesn't talk at all.
In her past life, she was Mare's bitter rival, a woman named Patricia. She died on a mission in the Storm as a stormchaser. Her body was recovered and, like with Mare, Arstis asked her spirit if she would like to return. Upon saying yes, she woke up with blue skin, white hair, and powers over ice. She was Claire.
Like Cassandra, she oversees a group of divine magic users to ensure the Tree of Winter is nourished and healthy. Her pocket dimension is frigid and cold, so all of her gardeners need to have some form of cold resistance to pass inside her realm.
Daphniel, the Wind Spirit
Daphniel is the daughter of Manneo and Marais and was born with the ability to influence the wind. However, somewhat ironically, she was not free to roam the land as she was bound to the place of her birth.
After the Dragon-Titan War, she and Arstis started a romantic relationship. However, when the Storm rolled in and wiped out nearly all of civilization, Daphne could not move from her spot, which was consumed by it. She died there with Arstis in her final thoughts.
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