Deities

*For a complete list of deities, see List of Deities.*

A deity is a being of great power, often originating from divine descent.

## Description

Most deities active in Ohura had some control over the lives of those that chose to worship them, and over those that didn't. The aspects that a god had dominion over were called their portfolio. In the complete pantheon of deities of Ohura, there was a clear distinction in power level between Major Deities and Minor Deities. Sometimes, Apostles would be regarded and worshiped like a demi-god of sorts, though they did not have the official status as deity.

A deity's origin could come from a lot of different places. It was possible for a deity to simply be born, or perhaps created by Allfather Kelrinn. If an Apostle survived the 'deification' process, they would also become a deity of their respective field. All in all, the birth of a deity is sporadic and uncontrollable. But just like that, a deity is able to perish as well. Worshipers are necessary for a deity to reign with power. A lack of followers makes a deity weak and vulnerable, and even allows them to be killed outright. While a Minor Deity could never step up to the power levels of a Major Deity, the amount of followers they had did determine their power ranking in the hierarchy of Minor Deities.

## Types of Deity

Deities are divided into different categories. While the most defined categories are those of Major Deity, Minor Deity, and Apostle, there are also lesser groupings that are determined by a god's living status and their origin.

### Types by Rank

Deities were ranked in increasing divine power from the so-called quasi deity up to overdeity. The two factors to determine the strength of a deity were numbers and the devotion of its followers. So it was possible for deities with a small follower base to have a higher standing, when the said followers consisted of fanatics.

Apostle While Apostles are not considered true deities, they are able to become one true a process called 'deification', and sometimes even rival in power to Minor Deities in rare cases. Although they aren't a deity, certain Apostles have cults or followings of up to thousands of followers.
Minor Deity A Minor Deity is the most commonly found deity in Ohura. While they are extremely powerful, they are nothing compared to the Major Deities of Ohura. They hold way more abilities than Apostles, and are generally considered more powerful and divine than their mortal counterparts.
Major Deity Major Deities are the most powerful entities in Ohura. They are either the foundation of some of the creations in the world, or hold so much great prowess that they are considered to be on top of the hierarchy in the entirety of the universe.
### Types by Origin

#### Created deities

The deities that were originally native to the planes of existence during the early stages of Ohura's creation are considered "created" deities. Each of them are created by Kelrinn or another Major Deity, such as the Elemental Lords or Griezel. In general, most of these deities aren't worhsiped by mortal races, as they generally have no knowledge of their existence, or wish to worship lesser deities instead.

#### Birthed deities

After mortal races were created by the Primael, the majority of the currently existing Minor Deities were accidentally created as the inhabitants of Ohura tried to explain that which could not be rationalized. As such, many Minor Deities were "birthed" as a result of these mortal races creating their own deities, giving form to the divine entities. Although they are not nearly as strong as the deities directly created by Kelrinn, they possess a wide array of powerful abilities.

### Types by Living Status

Deities could be categorized by their living status: alive or dead. This category held because a dead deity wasn't necessarily unable to influence the world.

### Dead Deities

Deities, while immortal, are capable of dying. Through combat or conflict with other deities or powerful heroes, a deity is able to be defeated. In extreme cases, a divine being could even meet their demise through a lack of faith from followers.

When a deity dies, their essence lingers for a period of time. In some cases, the one who killed the deity absorbs the essence and fills their portfolio. If the deity was defeated by a mortal and its divine essence is left alone for a couple of days, the deity rejuvenates entirely. If killed by another god, the deity's corpse remains and rots, such was the case with Traexhul, and will be the case with Callus, according to its prophecy.

## Abilities WIP

Every deity had a set of abilities and skills that tied together with their portfolio. In some cases, a powerful being could teach themselves a skill. As a deity gained more followers, they grew in power and thus their divine abilities became more powerful as well. Nevertheless, a deity was never able to accomplish everything and anything. In addition a deity that should be objectively more powerful than the other could still be defeated by them- perhaps because one's abilities were more versatile than the other's, or for some other reason.

### Special Abilities

Deities of a higher rank gained increasing magical powers, both in terms of strength and potency.

#### Basic Abilities

A god's "basic abilities" were ones that directly tied together with their portfolio. For example, the god of illusions, Ilnard, is able to project powerful and realistic illusions with the flick of a wrist. These basic abilities come natural to a deity, so long as they belong to their respective fields. However, a deity's follower count will still determine the strength of their abilities. While the Elemental Lord of Fire is, in theory, many times more powerful than Ilnard, the Major Deity has no large following, and thus its illusions are less believable and powerful than those of Ilnard.

#### Physical Attacks and Defences

With increasing rank, a deity's physique became sturdier and more resilient. On top of a high rate of natural regeneration, a powerful deity's flesh was hard to rend, especially without the aid of powerful magical items. The god's own attacks increased in power as they themselves did, being able to pulverize creatures with ease- and sometimes even other gods.

#### Defenses Against Magic

With increasing rank, spells had a decreasing likelihood to work against greater gods, and even if they did, they were less and less likely to work because a deity's physical resilience, reflexes, and strength of will increased with its rank. They also gained an increasing resistance against certain elements or damage types and gained outright immunities against some effects, though these immunities were generally ineffective against higher standing gods.

#### Movement

A deity generally moved fast. They could move through the earth, could swim and also climb but not necessarily fly. Once at demigod status, they could use *greater teleport* as often as they wanted and once at lesser status they added *plane shift* to their abilities.

#### Magical Abilities

A deity was capable of granting divine spells and special abilities called domain abilities, once they were at demigod status. When they could grant spells, they could cast domain spells as often as they wanted at increased strength, use the abilities associated with these domains with increased frequency and strength and, given they had sufficient training as a cleric themselves, they could cast clerical spells with great flexibility. Demigods, and those who were stronger, could turn one of their favoured animals into their familiars. Greater deities could cast all their spells at maximum strength at no cost and without fluctuation in their effectiveness. All deities could create magic items that were associated with their portfolio, just by being able to cast the magic associated with the item in question. This process was more efficient when they also had the theoretic knowledge to create the item in question. Truly unique to deities were their auras and a set of abilities called salient divine abilities. Their auras could be used to cause fear and awe among mortals, bolster the resolve of their mortal allies and crush the resolve of their enemies.

#### Senses and Communication

A deity's ability to sense things extended to a length counted in miles from demigod status and upwards. But probably their most dangerous ability was the one to sense things without being in a place. This ability to sense remote things functioned by centring their sense around something dedicated to them, a shrine or other sites or a follower of the spying deity. This ability could be used only a limited number of time, and deities could use this ability to block the senses of lower ranking deities or to send omens and telepathic messages to their followers. Creating an avatar was, as useful as it was, risky because it stunted the deity's ability to sense remotely as long as the avatar existed with heavier limitations as more avatars were made. Their portfolio gave true deities—demigods and upwards—the ability to sense whatever happened on Toril concerning their portfolio, though with some limitations. A demigod was only able to sense it when a thousand or more were somehow associated with the event, a lesser deity when five hundred or more, intermediate and greater deities sensed every event regardless of scale. A lesser and intermediate deity was able to continuously sense an event a number of weeks in the past, greater deities could actually sense future happenings.

#### Divine Realm

A deity had some kind of place it called its own, where it was at its strongest and had some control over it. They could fill the place with sensory environmental impressions, sound, smells and so on, a lesser deity even with sounds that held a meaning. Intermediate deities and upwards were capable of creating buildings and alterations to the landscape by will alone. Even more profound ability to change started with lesser deity status. A lesser deity could manipulate its realm's ties to the Astral Plane and could bar or limit magical travel inside it. From intermediate status onwards, a deity could strengthen or weaken certain magic of its choosing while greater deities could even change gravity and time.

## Pantheons WIP

*Main article: Pantheon*
A pantheon was a grouping of deities, often with overlapping worshipers. All of them were based on races or cultures, usually with strong geographic ties. Ao ensured that no two deities in the same pantheon could claim the same portfolio.

### Human Pantheons

Of all the races, humans had the most pantheons, although many of those vanished or were combined with the larger Faerûnian pantheon. Some, however, remained distinct, such as the Mulhorandi pantheon and the Chultan pantheon. Additionally, the Maztican pantheon, the Zakharan pantheon, and the Celestial Empire of Kara-Tur, all remained distinct by virtue of geographic separation. Vanished human pantheons included the Talfiric pantheon, the Netherese pantheon, which was worshiped by the middle and lower classes of Netheril; the Jhaamdathan pantheon, from what would later be called the Vilhon Reach and the Dragon Coast; the Coramshite pantheon, based in ancient Coramsham (which became Calimshan); and the Untheric pantheon, which was of similar source as the Mulhorandi pantheon, but lost all but two of its members during the Time of Troubles.

#### Faerûnian

The Faerûnian pantheon was the primary human pantheon that was venerated across Faerûn. It was composed primarily of native deities, and was the result of millennia of cultural blending of various other pantheons to bring out a moderately unified whole. There were remnants of other human pantheons that had been combined into a single pantheon as their source cultures blended, merged, and conquered one another. Only two of the old Untheric deities survived, Assuran (as Hoar), and Tiamat; the others died during or before the Time of Troubles.

The Talfiric pantheon was worshiped in contemporary of Netheril, and was the source of at least Garagos, who lost in the clash with Tempus and was reduced to demigod status. The Netherese pantheon itself claimed the worship of the lower and middle classes of Netheril, and the survivors of the Netherese pantheon were perhaps the most numerous of the survivors of the gods of old, boasting Jannath (later known as Chauntea), Targus (now known as Garagos), Mystryl (whose power lived on in Mystra), Selûne, Shar, Kozah (who became known as Talos), and Tyche (who split during the Dawn Cataclysm and became Tymora and Beshaba).

#### Mulhorandi

The Mulhorandi pantheon was a group of interloper deities that followed their people when the wizards of the ancient Imaskari Empire brought legions of slaves through gates from another world. At first, the gods could not reach their worshipers directly, and were compelled to create *manifestations* to contain a portion of their divine power.

Those *manifestations* walked among their mortal followers, guiding, protecting, or dominating according to their natures until the Time of Troubles. After that perilous time, the ancient barriers that had separated them from their true divine essences were dissolved, and the Mulhorandi pantheon left their *manifestations* behind as powerful mortal servants and took up their natural divine positions.

The worship of the Mulhorandi pantheon at one time covered Mulhorand, Thay, Semphar, and what is now the Raurin desert. During the Era of Upheaval, they began struggling to hold onto Mulhorand itself, with their worship waning in Thay and Semphar. They tried striving to convert the followers of the collapsed Untheric pantheon but couldn't survive the Spellplague, disappearing without a trace when the divine realms were forced to rearrange themselves. However, they returned to Toril during the Second Sundering.

#### Chultan

The people of the Chultan Peninsula historically developed three main forms of religion and as a whole, prior to the late 15th century DR. Unlike more rigid worship in other regions, Chultans and Tabaxi tended to worship Ubtao, the Nine Trickster Gods of Chult, or the jungle itself. All threes forms of worship could often peacefully coexist in a single tribe or temple. Which was expected, considering the jungle and nature trickster spirits were Ubtao's aspects. Eshowdow was a dark demigod of destruction and fever who opposed the worshipers of Ubtao, he however was killed in the 1370s DR and his portfolio and persona was adopted by Shar. Ubtao's powers receded in Chult, following the Spellplague and his withdrawal forced humans of the region adopt other faiths. By the late 15th century DR, Waukeen became popular in Port Nyanzaru, while Gond, Savras, Sune, and Tymora established minor shrines and temples.

### Demihuman and Monstrous Pantheons

Beyond the many human pantheons, various other races had their own pantheons of gods and goddesses. These included the Seldarine, pantheon of the elves, and the drows' Dark Seldarine. The dwarves worshiped the Morndinsamman, the gnomes favored the Lords of the Golden Hills, and the halflings named their pantheon of deities Yondalla's Children. The orcs had their own unnamed pantheon, while the giants had the Ordning. The pantheon of the dragons was among the most ancient pantheons. And finally, the good-aligned races of Serôs worshiped a loose pantheon called the Asathalfinare, which was led by the elven god Deep Sashelas.

### Other Monstrous Faiths

Monsters tended not to want to worship the deities of the more civilized races. Many monsters had their own gods, whose portfolios consisted of dominion over the creatures that worship them, such as the kobold god, Kurtulmak. Some species however, had a whole pantheon of gods, such as the yuan-ti pantheon (that had actually been secretly subsumed by Set).

### Fiend Worship

Some fiends had gained enough mortal followers on Faerûn to achieve a divine portfolio. Most of these fiends were demons from the abyss, such as Yeenoghu (a demon prince) and Baphomet (one of the demon lords), while devils, such as Gargauth, had also managed to ascend. Asmodeus even ascended to join the Faerûnian pantheon when he stole the divinity of Azuth.