Deity

### Summary

Principal objects of faith and worship in religions. They are one of the most powerful supernatural species in the world.

**Deities**, also known as **Divinities** or **Pagan Gods**, are a race of immortal supernatural entities, with each being a prime authority of worship in the religion or pantheon that they have established or belonged to.

## Overview

A **deity** is a supernatural being considered divine or sacred and is defined as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness, beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life".

Religions can be categorized by how many deities they worship. Monotheistic religions accept only one deity (predominantly referred to as "God"), polytheistic religions accept multiple deities. Henotheistic religions accept one supreme deity without denying other deities, considering them as aspects of the same divine principle; and nontheistic religions deny any supreme eternal creator deity, but may accept a pantheon of deities which live, die and may be reborn like any other being.

Although most monotheistic religions traditionally envision their God as omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, and eternal, none of these qualities are essential to the definition of a "deity" and various cultures conceptualized their deities differently. Monotheistic religions typically refer to God in masculine terms, while other religions refer to their deities in a variety of ways - male, female, hermaphroditic, or genderless.

Historically, many ancient cultures - including the ancient Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Norsemen - personified natural phenomena, variously as either deliberate causes or effects.

## Appearance

In religions, deities are depicted in a variety of forms, though most are frequently expressed as having a human form. However, in some faiths and traditions, the gods are intangible and indescribable beings beyond understanding, and it is considered blasphemous to imagine or depict them as having any concrete form.

Similar to most supernatural beings, gods often appear a lot like normal humans to the point where they cannot be distinguished from them aside from their unnatural attractiveness and the unusual presence they give off. Some gods, however, do appear as having animalistic or inhuman appearances, though this is more of a personal preference than their true appearance.

To mundanes, gods are generally thought to be invisible or inaccessible to humans, dwelling mainly in otherworldly, remote, or secluded and holy places, or in supernatural planes or celestial spheres. This, however, is only partly true, as while their true forms are inaccessible to most humans, this is because the mortal mind is too limited and grounded in reality to comprehend such powerful presence without bringing destruction upon itself if said mind isn't well-protected through supernatural means.

## Characteristics

Most deities of antiquity are gods of heavenly bodies, natural phenomena, or others like the "power of the planet that stabilizes the surface of the Earth", and can be described as personifications of concepts possessing intentions and personalities. They reign as the laws of the heavens, controlling humans through supernatural feats that gain them both fear and respect from humanity. Because of this, most of them are arrogant and don't see humanity as anything but a source of power for them to cultivate, and thus, often be seen as threats to humanity that need extermination.

However, those aren't the only gods that exist as there is also another category of gods who were reborn into their divinity. They are close to humans originally, but deviated from humanity through various factors to become objects of worship. They came to the forefront after their passing, their heroic deeds garnered them respect and reverence for centuries and granted them divinity from the human consciousness. Those who were reborn as gods are close to humans originally, but deviated from humanity through various factors to become objects of worship. According to Indra, one must have a pure soul, benevolence, and righteousness to become a god. Beings like heroes and messiahs that are "systems necessary to thrive" fall under the latter category.

Deities often hold differing stances on certain events depending on their religion's ideology, and may be sectarian and be against other beliefs and religions, including rebelling against their own pantheon's belief. They, by nature, do not hold much loyalty to each other, except for other deities from the same pantheon and seem to have hostility toward deities from outside pantheons as they perceive them as possible danger toward their religion's influence. Despite this, a deity's main interest is to look after themselves and some have been known to betray other deities and even their own pantheon as soon as they receive a better offer.

And while they are multifaceted beings, they do not have the same level of complexity as humans. They are often honest beings when it comes to their personality and intentions and on whether they are good/benevolent gods or an Evil God. According to Indra, such a thing is very important to how they are perceived by their followers and how their offerings and sacrifices will turn out, as gods who are more benevolent tend to gain greater sacrifices than those who are feared by mankind.

They are influenced by the will of humanity as a whole, not just that of their followers. They can grow stronger the more followers they have, gaining power from the sacrifices and offerings they received, but can easily become weakened if their followers lose their faith toward them. There are also cases of gods becoming infamous as icons of terror, distorting their appearance through the human thoughts and ideals that formed them.

Oddly enough, not all deities live as pagans forever, and some end up converting to another religion that fits better to their own personal belief. Despite this, nearly all gods don't seem to have much love for the Abrahamic religions as many see them as the reason behind their religion's own downfall, though none would dare to publicly oppose them due to the Three Factions' authority and influence over the supernatural world.

It was later revealed that some of the gods are angels, fallen angels, and even some demons in disguise, who joined their respective pantheons for a variety of reasons, the main one being for the sake of personal entertainment. As of the Evil Dragon War, these false gods have already been summoned back to their respective original faction to be punished per their faction's laws and their divine duties taken over by other gods.

## Weaknesses

### Harming

* **Witchcraft**: Due to its nature as a bastardization of the demons' infernal magic, witchcraft holds the power to oppose all those of celestial origins, including divine creatures like the pagan gods. There are many witchery spells and rituals that can be used to trap, weaken, and hurt the gods, with some rituals rumored to be capable of even killing them.
* **Celestial Weapons**: Weapons made out of sacred metals can be used against the majority of supernatural beings, the gods included.
* **Lack of Worship & Offerings**: Due to their nature, the gods gain more power from the prayers, offerings, and sacrifices from their mortal devotees and are dependent on them to maintain their immense power. If they stop receiving offerings from their loyal followers, their powers may become immensely weakened and become a fraction of what they once were.
	+ There are, however, many ways for the gods to prevent - or at least, lessen the weakening effects - this with these beings some of the known ways:
		- **Cultural Empowerment**: The gods whose pantheon belonged to the Western Civilization can gain power from those associated and symbolized by their divine domains, or associated with them or the myths surrounding them. However, because of this, they are usually bound to their cultural depiction, which would slowly influence their actual personality and characteristics into becoming more and more similar to what humans believe them to be. In addition to that, if a god is erased from human's memory and their legacy disappeared from any history and/or mythology record, their powers and divinity will become immensely weakened to the point where they risk the loss of their immortality or even death.
		- **Chthonic Energy**: Chthonic gods can maintain and even strengthen their divinity by absorbing the spiritual energy of the shades of the deceased or of the Realm of the Dead itself. However, the more they use this way to maintain their divinity, the more "connected" they become to the realm, to the point where leaving it may cause them to lose the majority of their power or even major pain, if not even incapable of leaving entirely.
			* **Soul Absorption**: According to Hades, during the Great War, many gods had resulted in absorbing the souls within the Realm of the Dead to empower themselves and became twisted and turned into the heretic gods as a result of such heinous transgression.

### Killing

* **Divine Weapons**: The celestial weapons of the gods, imbued with their users' divine power and made out of the highest-quality sacred metals, can be used to kill fellow immortal divinities.
* **Enochian Weapons**: Like all beings in existence, the gods can be killed with heavenly weapons made out of divine metals.
	+ **Longinus**: As immensely powerful Sacred Gears crafted from the most powerful divine metals and are imbued with immense power by the Biblical God, those with enough power and experience can use their Longinus to kill all immortal beings such as the pagan gods.
* **Faustian Weapons**: Like all beings in existence, the gods can be killed with infernal weapons made out of divine metals.
* **Primordial Regalia**: Weapons and artifacts belonging to the primordial entities can be used to permanently and absolutely destroy every and any being in existence, aside from other primordial entities, and erase their existence completely so that they can never be reborn or resurrected without the involvement of God.

## Death

While they are known as immortal beings, the gods can still be killed by many ways shown above. When a god dies, their soul and divine essence shall ascend to the Empty, where they will sleep for all of eternity alongside other celestial beings such as the angels, fallen angels, and demons. However, if said god is still widely worshipped and revered, it is possible to perform a resurrection ceremony to bring them back to life.

### Fading

**Fading** (フェージング, *Fējingu*) the process of gradually being forgotten by humanity and is the only way that immortal beings such as the gods can truly "naturally" die. It is caused, at least partially, by the diminishing of a god's realm or people abandoning their belief in them. Gods that are not well remembered or were never worshipped can also fade, though it seems that gods are able to resist fading on some level.

If a god loses their will to remain immortal or lose faith in themselves, it can have great influence on whether or not they fade. However, a god can consciously give in to the process to speed up their fading process, though if a god already shows the first signs of fading, it will inevitably overtake them.

There are spells and rituals that can summon faded gods back into the living world, or at least, aspects of those faded gods. However, for those rituals to be successfully performed, these gods need a reason to exist, a feeling that they are needed among the living world again. If the gods are then remembered and made to feel important again, they would be fine and will be able to return to their old duties again.

## Types of Deities

* **Primordial Deities** (原始の神, *Genshi no Kami*): The first known gods to exist and have existed since the beginning of the universe. They are the progenitors and ancestors of their respective pantheon, and are considered to be some of the most powerful beings in the world.
* **Chieftain Deities** (酋長神, *Shūchō-shin*): The highest deities in their respective mythological system. Due to this, they are among the most powerful of all deities within their pantheon, often possessing rare and incredible powers. They also possess an authority over their respective pantheon, which allows them to influence the mind of the gods to some extent, with the exceptions being the primordial gods themselves.
* **Buddhas** (仏, *Hotoke*): Deified mortals who achieved their godhood through their own efforts, usually by attaining true enlightenment or by performing feats of divine/cosmic importance in one way or another. Most, if not all Buddhas, are affiliated with the Hindu pantheon, as Buddhism originated from Hinduism, though there are also Buddhas who affiliated with other Asian pantheons, such as the Japanese pantheon or the Chinese pantheon.
* **Mother Earth Goddesses** (大地母神, *Daichiboshin*): Powerful goddesses who possess the power of creation and a strong affiliation toward nature. In the purest sense, they are personifications of the cycle of life and death, and "only when they have fulfilled the wishes of the world, leaving the planet for space and ending the infantile stage of intelligent lifeforms, will they no longer be bound to it".
* **Tricksters** (道化師の神, *Dōkeshi no Kami*): Gods who possess an endless craving for discord, mischief and mayhem. Despite being one of the rarest types of gods, they possess immense powers, capable of warping the reality around them to be beneficial to their desires for chaos.
* **Divine Spirits** (神霊, *Shinrei*): Gods who were once mortals but gained apotheosis through artificial ways, often though the usage of divine artifacts such as amrita or ambrosia and nectar, though there have been multiple instances where mortals were given immortality by the gods as rewards for their actions. They are minor deities who are employed by higher-ranked gods to act as their servants, retainers, or bodyguards.

## Population

According to the Hindu goddess Kali, there are billions of deities in the world, and while the truth of her statement remains unknown, evidence has shown that this might be the case in regards to the number of gods that exist. The number of deities not only depend on the size and influence of the pantheon and religion they belong to, as the more powerful and influential the religion becomes, the more gods that could manifest into existence entirely based on their worshippers' belief.

In addition, to the flexibility around the birth of a god, many gods might have their essence flinched and separated, before said essence became an entirely new entity, either a mortal or immortal, symbolizing their religion's transition from one civilization to another. And yet, despite that, the original god and their new incarnation are still considered to be two different entities with only some basic connections with each other.

Another thing to consider when it comes to the population of gods is synchronization, as sometimes when multiple cults merged or assimilated their traditions - especially in terms of theology, mythology, and religion - and thus resulted into two or more gods being combined into one singular deity, who often be the most powerful among the originals, as the result. The most notable examples are that of the Roman gods, who originated as Greek gods before being adopted by the Ancient Romans and merged with the local gods, thus forming the Greco-Roman pantheon.

## Factions

### Western Civilization

**Western Civilization** (西洋文明, *Seiyō Bunmei*) is a general term used to prefer to the pantheons whose divinity is tied to the spirit of the Western Civilization, whose culture is most influenced by Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian cultures. Because of this, they could be empowered by those associated and symbolized by their divine domains, or associated with them or the myths surrounding them in the western culture. This faction is led by the Greco-Roman pantheon, the Norse pantheon, and the Egyptian Pantheon, who together formed the "Western Triumvirate".

### Eastern Civilization

**Eastern Civilization** (東部文明, *Tōbu Bunmei*) is the general term used to refer to the pantheons who aren't associated with the Western Civilization, but chose to stay with their roots and gain powers from offerings and sacrifices from their remaining followers. And while there aren't any official leaders to this faction, it's widely-known that the Hindu pantheon, the Chinese pantheon, and the Japanese pantheon often act as the unofficial leaders, thus forming the "Eastern Triumvirate".

### New Gods

**New Gods** (新しい神々, *Atarashī Kamigami*) are a small group of gods who are born of modern society, representing technological advancements of the new world. They are formed through modern forms of belief and worship, alternative religions so to speak, practiced often in an unconscious way. According to Odin, they are the "Gods of the United States and the American Dream".

## Trivia

* Most gods have names who are indirect references to their domains, with few exceptions.
* The gods are said to be prone to easily getting jealous and tend to harbor grudges for eternity. Those who hold contempt against a mortal are said to chase after them in the afterlife and even in their following rebirth just to satisfy their need for "revenge".
	+ The Olympian Gods are said to be notably fickle, lively, and irrational even among gods.
* According to Apollo, to understand the gods based on their myths and religion alone is as hard as to write an accurate biography of someone based on nothing else but outdated gossip, false rumors, and bits of information gained through a centuries-long game of telephone, and even their most devout followers don't even come close to understand what their god is truly like.
* While it's stated that the gods are influenced by humans' thoughts and beliefs, the full extent of said influence is never clearly explained, though it's implied to be great enough for an entire pantheon to be transformed within a single night.
* Beings such as valkyries, reapers, jötnar, and asuras are either considered "half-gods" or "wild gods".
* Despite being known as the Monotheistic God, the Abrahamic God isn't considered a deity in the same way as other pagan gods.