Glossary

* Aspect: Not as powerful as an avatar (see below), but can manifest on any outer plane. An aspect is normally reserved for when a god wishes to join a battle personally, but with minimum risk to themselves. If an Aspect falls, the god is weakened for a time (usually a year and a day), and is unable to grant 9th level spells during that time.
* Age: An age is a period of time while the world is relatively stable. The world is currently in the fifth age (represented with an 'E' after the year), and advanced to that after a cataclysm caused by a group of mortals directly challenging gods. The gods won, and stripped the mortal races of much of their power
** The Third age was the Age of Grandeur. It was named so because of the impressive power of the mortal races, and the beautiful world they were said to have built. Few records survive the third age, and no magical items (other than artifacts) exist from that time. "Mortal races" is a bit of a misnomer, most living creatures carried some spark of the divine.
** The Fourth age was the Age of Pity (or the age of Glory, depending. Some time around 7,000 years before the age ended, most of mortal history was wiped from the globe an an unknown catastrophe.
** The Fifth age is the Age of Loss (or the Lost Age) as the mortal races learn to rebuild in a world where they were no longer the top of the food chain. Dragons, magical beasts and others threaten the humanoid races, and the world has fallen into decline.
*thumb|190x190px|A flowchart of all the various forms of divine creatures.Avatar: The physical form of a god, which can only manifest on the god's home plane. If the avatar is destroyed, the god is unable to grant spells above 6th level to their followers for some period of time (usually ~1000 years), and is unable to create a new avatar in that time. The avatar itself is immensely powerful, and wields much of the power that the god does.
* Champion: The lowest rank mortals who have been directly blessed by gods' own creations, forming a divine bond with the spirit. While the boon champions receive is smaller than that of a favored, they are usually tough individuals (such as high ranking paladins) who have earned the respect of their god through strength and piety alone. Muir had hundreds of angelic minions, and many of those were more than happy to lend their strength to mortals. Tsathogga once had many "frogs" who're willing to return to the material plane to assist his heroes likewise. This is why there are still Champions of both around, even though the god is dead. Lady Kingsley is likely a Champion of Muir (by virtue of simple fact of being a high-level paladin). She has a divine spirit bonded to her, but without her sword she is powerless to call upon it.
* Chosen: A high-ranking mortal, selected by the god as an exemplar of everything the god stands for. Gods can only have one chosen at a time, and the title confers a lot of power upon the user. If the god dies but the chosen survives, upon the death of the chosen they will ascend to the god's throne, although such an arrangement eventually erodes the chosen entirely. Bofred was the chosen of Thyr, and Swordsister Macry was the chosen of Muir. Shades is a chosen of Bofred.
* Deacon: A creature imbued with the same essence that makes a chosen, albeit a lot less. These are independent creatures that exemplify everything a god stands for, but is normally used for particularly great extraplanar creatures (angels, devils, etc) that mirror the god well.
* Favored: A favored is a particular mortal that a god has shared some power with. Gods can have any number of favored, but it drains the god's power if they have too many. Orcus and Muir both create a lot of favored, while gods such as Telephos never create any. Being a favored confers some light benefits, elevating the mortal slightly. 
* Herald: In this case a god has split off the part of themselves normally reserved for creating a Chosen, and has instead given it it's own form. Heralds are basically mini-copies of a god, with great physical power but with no more divine power than a mortal. Heralds exist almost solely to speak and act on a god's behalf, as they can go places where the god couldn't or dare not. Avatars normally clock in at the peak of mortal power.
* Manifestation:A (relatively) weak physical form that embodies a certain deity, but does not share a mind with that deity, nor have any special bond. Manifestations are usually used when a god wishes to meet a follower 'personally', or wishes to make some minor physical change on a plane other than their home plane. They can be thought of a representative of a god, and some gods can generate them freely, like Dwerfater.