Deities, Religions, and Philosophies

## Deity and Religion Index

This table lists the deities, religions, and divine philosophies of Creation. See below this table for additional information. Entries marked with an \* indicate a special exemption or restriction applies to the deity and/or their followers.

## Gods and Game Rules

Some gods and religions have exceptions from mortal norms that apply not only to them but to their followers as well, usually related to a Unique Divine Power.  Deities which create these exceptions have them noted in their information text before their details and description.

Additionally, characters who are stated to gain proficiency with their deity’s favored weapon and who worship any deity or religion whose favored weapon is an unarmed strike gain the benefit of Improved Unarmed Strike.  Furthermore, the character’s unarmed strike damage is equal to that of a Monk with an effective Monk level equal to half their class level in classes granting this proficiency plus their actual Monk level (if any).

For religions that have a focus on shapeshifters or animalistic themes, if the indicated weapon is listed as being an unarmed strike or natural weapon, one type of the character's natural weapons receives the effect if they possess any at all. If they do not, they gain the unarmed strike benefit as listed above. If the character gains proficiency with their deity's favored weapon and gains this benefit to their natural weapon, their natural weapon gains the benefits of a Shifter's Claws with an effective Shifter level equal to half their class level in classes granting this proficiency plus their actual Shifter level (if any).

## Deity Classifications

Like other creatures, many deities have some traits in common with each other that don't fit neatly into their own Pantheons.

### Ascended

While rare, Immortals and even some ordinary mortals not born to divine power find a way to become deities.  Like the ordinary races they once were a part of, these Ascended run the gamut of good and evil, law and chaos.  While they are more fundamentally part of the Many Divines, Gray Faiths, or Dark Pantheon, many Ascended are considered patron or matron deities of their race or culture and might be worshiped in a manner similar to dragons respecting the opposing end of the Draconic Pantheon.

### Celestial

Angelic- or formerly-angelic-looking deities, the Celestial Pantheon is often mistaken for being purely good.  Sadly, this is not the case, as the ancient Celestials of the Eternal Ring could not agree on how to manage Creation’s moral, ethical, and spiritual concerns.  Their imbalance and subsequent fragmentation directly resulted in the formation of the Planes of Purity and Planes of Essence, and also drew Chaos and the Demonic Realms close enough to Creation for them to anchor to Creation and form Anar in the process.  With Creation stabilized into its current form, the Celestials retreated to domains in the newborn realms to practice what they felt was the ideal method of running Creation.  The first Celestials carefully watched and protected the fundamental forces of Creation to assure their continued operation, indifferent to any other concern, but Celestials that came later are almost exclusively denizens of Heaven. Unfortunately, the primal Celestials who gravitated to Hell were equally industrious in their own domains, and the fiends of their making are often twisted mockeries of their creators' formerly-angelic appearances.

### Conduit

Even in death, some Fallen deities can still grant spells and magic to their worshipers. Whether this is because the deity themselves only served to focus power regarding fundamental forces of Creation, or the deity's power was so great death itself could not diminish it, is a question of theology and philosophers, for the gods themselves cannot or choose not to give a clear answer. If a Fallen deity can still grant spells and powers, they also possess the Conduit descriptor.

### Demonic

Even in the Demonic Realms, not all who are counted as part of the Demonic Pantheon are actually demon princes or demon princesses. The entities marked with this descriptor are those who are truly demons and not other creatures who have carved a domain for themselves from the Demonic Realms.

### Draconic

Spanning the entire moral and ethical spectrum, dragons and Dragonfolk races gravitate towards the worship of the deities most like them.  Unlike the Many Divines or the Demonic Pantheon, the members of the Draconic Pantheon are often worshiped as a whole by adherents of the Draconic Pantheon, even paying respect to deities they fundamentally oppose.  Thus, it is not uncommon for followers of Pendaryion or Keragyxin to also have icons of Vulcarus and Naruyxz or to invoke them as appropriate.  Members of the Draconic Pantheon also belong in the Many Divines, Gray Faiths, and Dark Pantheon.

### Elderkind

Not to be confused with the Elder Mythos, the Elderkind are primordial deities dating back to the very beginning of Creation’s history or are even older than that.  Elemental deities formed from cosmic forces and exotic energies, the Elderkind have motivations and perspectives alien to mortal life but are rarely either benevolent or malevolent and gravitate towards the Gray Faiths.  This is not a universal rule, however, and some of the Many Divines and Dark Pantheon are Elderkind.

### Elder Mythos

Terrifying, mind-shattering, and god-like entities from the Beyond, alternate realities, and the dreams of madmen and madwomen, the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods are two halves of a sub-pantheon collectively known as the Elder Mythos.  The Great Old Ones are comparable to the most powerful Immortals and demigods, while the Outer Gods are essentially deities in their own right.  At best indifferent to the creatures of Creation, the Elder Mythos remains an anomaly to much of Seedorus and its people generally remain blissfully ignorant of the horrific things swirling in the dark spaces between spaces.  Some, however, know better than that and seek to either draw the attention of the Elder Mythos or stop those insane enough to do so.  Members of the Elder Mythos are marked by the Mythos descriptor in their entry.

### Fallen

Sometimes confused with the Dark Pantheon, the Fallen Pantheon consists of deities whose deaths did little to nothing to put a stop to their worship.  Some members of the Fallen Pantheon even continue to grant spells to their followers somehow, but the deity itself is truly dead, at least physically.  Deities of the Fallen Pantheon sometimes escape confinement in the Soulkeeper’s Realm and their spirits or essence seek to influence a creature of sufficient power to provide them a way to return to life.  For better or worse, the Soulkeeper prevents divine resurrection where possible, refusing to release such spirits from confinement in his personal realm, complicating the efforts of any that might hope to use a standard spell.

### Fey

The most powerful Fey, like Celestials and demon princes and princesses, are capable of god-like deeds. Though typically uninterested in mortal worship, Fey still sometimes amuse themselves by meddling with their lives. In other cases, the Fey Courts use mortals as pawns in their schemes and machinations against other Fey Courts, or are honoring pacts long-since forgotten by anyone else. Even the most noble and benevolent Fey Courts should still be regarded with great care and caution, as their idea of whimsy or help can prove jarringly different from mortal expectations, and the most powerful Fey do not take kindly to perceived ingratitude. Unlike most religions that involve a deity, Fey Courts almost never involve a direct connection between a mortal worshiper and the god-like ruler of that Fey Court, but rather invoke a particular Fey who isn't necessarily representative of that being. Where a deity of other pantheons might have heralds acting in their name with a predictable code of conduct, the relation between worshiper and representative of a Fey Court is anything but predictable, as the representative may not even be loyal to their ruler or their ideals, and two populations revering the same Fey Court can have radically different interactions as a result.

### Godless

Religions and philosophies that invoke no deity at all are, in a word, godless. These religions and philosophies still grant divine magics, but the exact source of those magics remains a mystery.

## The Seedoran Pantheons

Many religions on Seedorus teach that the gods of the Pantheon are absolute truths across all of Creation and are omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient, and anything not of the Pantheon is lesser in comparison.  As a result, many mortals and Immortals alike believe the same, and are wholly unaware that this is not in fact the case.  The members of the Pantheon are fantastically powerful in every way, but rivals, primal entities, and abominations all can match or even exceed their power.  Sometimes these entities wreck havoc in Creation or even across the Multiverse, but most play such a long game that they escape mortal notice altogether.

### Many Divines

Taking their name from the Church of the Many Divines they agreed to found together, the holy good-aligned deities are collectively referred to as the Many Divines, whether they are actually affiliated with the Church of the Many Divines or not, though the exceptions are rare and usually demigods.  As the Succession War intensified the temples of individual member deities began opening dialogues with adherents of the other Many Divines for mutual protection and aid.  Over time, these temples gradually morphed into places for all followers of the Many Divines while retaining the central focus of their patron or matron deity.  To most people, there’s no meaningful difference between a temple of Parason or Pendaryion and the Church of the Many Divines beyond whose icon dominates the building.

### Gray Faiths

The deities who care nothing for the struggle between good and evil are collectively known as the Gray Faiths.  Selfish (or at least disinterested in others) but not actively malevolent, most of the deities of the Gray Faiths tend to focus on esoteric concepts, elemental nature, or pure personal power to satisfy personal agendas.  A rare few such deities are simply beyond being limited by moral and ethical concerns as they protect fundamental forces of Creation and do as they must no matter the cost.  It is not unknown for deities of the Gray Faiths to fall into the ranks of the Dark Pantheon once the temptation to harm or corrupt takes root in performing these tasks, however.  At the same time, some begin to see it as their purpose to undo such harm and corruption and redeem themselves into acceptance with the Many Divines.

### Dark Pantheon

Unlike the deities of the Gray Faiths, the evil-aligned deities of the Dark Pantheon intend active harm or corruption to much or all of Creation, and feel no remorse in pursuing such goals.  While deities of the Gray Faiths sometimes perform monstrous actions when they feel it necessary, the Dark Pantheon prefers such acts over others, whether they are justified or not.  Some deities of the Dark Pantheon - particularly those who were once members of the Many Divines or Gray Faiths - delude themselves into thinking their actions are in fact good and serve a higher purpose when in fact they do not.  Most make no pretense of righteousness and revel in the horror they bring or simply don’t care.

### Demonic Pantheon

Technically a subset of the Dark Pantheon, the Demonic Pantheon consists exclusively of demon princes and princesses too numerous to count, and almost as a general rule seek to commit unspeakable atrocities to everything in their path, living or dead.  Thankfully, most of the Demonic Pantheon has neither the interest in or access to Creation, and of those that do their cults rarely grow large enough to threaten the world.  Individual representatives of the Demonic Pantheon tend to have substantially smaller congregations than the Dark Pantheon and frequently only take interest in one world for any length of time.  Taken together across all worlds and planes, however, the Demonic Pantheon is perhaps the largest segment of the greater pantheon of Creation in terms of both worshipers and representatives.  Fortunately, they spend as much energy fighting among themselves as they do battling and scheming against anyone else.  Unfortunately, the list presented here is far from exhaustive, and for every demon prince or princess slain, there is always another to take their place.

### Fey Courts

The most powerful Fey are mysterious and inscrutable entities dwelling on the far side of the Fey Veil from the rest of Creation and whose powers equal or even exceed many demigods.  Served by the Fey of their realm, these rulers preside over the Fey Courts, at once devoted to aspects of nature and aspects of primal arcane magic.  The Fey Courts interact with the rest of the Pantheon in unpredictable ways, usually content to ignore mortals and obsess over their specific areas of concern, but their seeming aloofness should never be mistaken for weakness or complacency. Paladins and Antipaladins cannot select a Fey Court or Druidic faith as their deity, but Worldmender Clerics must choose from these options and Clerics who choose not to revere a deity can opt to select a Fey Court or Druidic faith as the source of their divine powers.

### Path Druidism

Though the Many Divines, Gray Faiths, and Dark Pantheon generally loathe Old Ways Druidism, Path Druidism weaves a balance between the structure, order, and civilization necessary for the rest of the Pantheon without entirely crushing the natural world in the process. Forged over centuries of turmoil and compromise, Path Druidism emerged as an acceptable alternative to the Old Ways in much of Coznakk and other parts of Seedorus where the gods hold sway. Paladins and Antipaladins cannot select a Fey Court or Druidic faith as their deity, but Worldmender Clerics must choose from these options and Clerics who choose not to revere a deity can opt to select a Fey Court or Druidic faith as the source of their divine powers.

### Old Ways Druidism

Druidism of the Old Ways, unlike the accepted modern Paths, refuses to compromise with the rest of the Pantheon and seeks to break the hold of the gods over Seedorus and its people.  Finding capricious allies among the Fey Courts and Elderkind of a Druidic leaning, adherents of the Old Ways still revere nature itself first and foremost, but their rites and beliefs are more feral, virtually primal, and they often traffick with forces rightly feared by most mortals.  Paladins and Anti-Paladins cannot select a Fey Court or Druidic faith as their deity, but Worldmender Clerics must choose from these options and Clerics who choose not to revere a deity can opt to select a Fey Court or Druidic faith as the source of their divine powers.

### Philosophies

Not exactly a deity or even really a segment of the Pantheon, some philosophies carry a fragment of divinity in their own right nevertheless. Different from simply being a strong cultural belief or set of customs, these philosophies have spiritual power that can attract or transform both mortals and Immortals to embody the philosophy, often figuratively and sometimes literally.  Paladins and Anti-Paladins cannot select a philosophy as their deity, but Clerics who choose not to revere a deity can select a philosophy as the source of their divine powers.

## Alien Pantheons

Creation is a big place, and the other worlds of the Material Plane have their own gods and goddesses unknown to Seedorus. Like the generally-infinite scale of other planes of Creation and the Multiverse itself, these alien pantheons may have different structures, different myths, and even different forms of magic, but what they all share in common is that none are truly omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient... though their domains and powers might be so vast that mortals can't tell the difference.