Deity

A **deity** is a being of great power that controls some aspect of mortal affairs, referred to as the god's portfolio.

Worshipers are necessary for the continued existence and powers of a deity. The numbers and fervor of a god's worshipers determine in large part the power of the deity. Deities without worshipers or who are fading in popularity fade in power, and in extreme cases can even die from neglect.

## Types of deity

Deities could be divided into categories, either by rank, origin, or by life and death.

### Types by status

Deities were ranked in increasing divine power from the so-called quasi deity, to demigod, to lesser deity, to intermediate deity, to greater 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.

#### Quasi-deity

A quasi-deity, or hero deity, was a creature with divine characteristics, such as immortality. Children of real deities were generally quasi-deities. It was possible for mortal true dragons to become quasi-deities by becoming and fully developing their capabilities as a Dragon Ascendant. Unlike normal quasi-deities, who couldn’t grant spells to their worshippers, these dragons could do so after the worshiper in question formally swore loyalty to the dragon.

#### Demigod

A demigod was, contrary to its name, not a half-god but a full deity, though the weakest of these and only capable of the most basic abilities of a god, which were still of superhuman nature. They generally represented one aspect of mortal life and had hundreds, or even thousands, of followers and were capable of granting spells.

#### Lesser deity

A lesser deity was more powerful than demigods and had more abilities. They generally had thousands, if not tens of thousands, of followers.

#### Intermediate deity

An intermediate deity was more powerful than lesser ones and had more abilities. They generally had over 100,000 followers.

#### Greater deity

A greater deity was more powerful than intermediate ones and had more abilities. They generally had millions of followers.

#### Overdeity

An overdeity was, as the name suggests, over everything, including mortals abilities to understand them, and concern about mortals on their side. They didn’t react in any way to anything a mortal could do, and they didn’t grant spells. They generally had no followers, if mortals knew of their existence at all.

### Types by Life and Death

Deities could be categorised by being alive or not alive. This category held because a dead deity wasn’t necessarily unable to influence the world.

### Dead deities

Deities, while immortal, were capable of dying. Conflict with other deities, conflict with great mortal heroes, and neglect were the most common causes of a divine demise, though it was also possible for a god to lapse into apathy, drift into sleep on the astral plane, and eventually perish. Ulutiu is a prime example of this last possibility.

Though a deity may die, at least a part of them will always remain. There have been instances of worshipers of these deities tapping into these remnants to wield divine magic. Dead deities also had the potential to be resurrected if they can maintain some kind of physical or metaphysical presence and a significant base of worshipers.

## Abilities

Deities had a number of inborn and learned skills just like any other sentient creature, these abilities grew in potency as a deity grew in divine power, yet they were in no way omnipotent, though superhumanly powerful and skilled in a chosen area and those related to it.

### Special Abilities

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

#### Basic Abilities

A deity grew in its mastery of its skills with increased diviner rank and from demigod status upwards learned to rapidly conduct actions that had something to do with its portfolio. The number and complexity of these actions increased with its rank. Once a lesser deity, a deities skills stopped fluctuating and once intermediate were always conducted at its maximum capabilities, not only their skills but at everything they did.

#### Physical Attacks and Defences

With increasing rank, it became more and more difficult to hit a deity with a physical attack, and even when hit, deities were resistant to attacks made by weapons that weren’t enchanted with, from mortal perspective, exceedingly strong magic, this all while their own attacks increased in accuracy and ignored the resistance against creatures, whose resistances were keyed to a creatures’ philosophical orientation against the deity.

#### Defences against Magic

With increasing rank, spells had a decreasing likelihood to work against them 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 fire and gained outright immunities against some effects, though these immunities were generally ineffective against higher standing gods.

A quasi-deity was immune to effects that forced alteration of its physical form, tried to sap vitality, temporarily or permanently decrease its physical and mental capabilities, addled their minds. From demigod and onwards, deities gained additional immunities against harm from acid, cold and electricity, these immunities were effective against no matter what enemy, as well as against various physical disabling effects and sources such as poison, diseases, sleep, stunning and paralysis, disintegration and magical effects that could kill them if not for the immunity. A lesser deity was also immune to any magic that was directed at binding or imprisoning it.

#### 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 free *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 stronger ones 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 its 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 among and awe mortals, bolster the resolve of its mortal allies and crush the one of its 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 parallel and deities could use this ability also 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 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 and 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 and limit magical travel inside it. From intermediate status on wards, a deity could strengthen weaken certain magic of its choosing while greater deities could even change gravity and time.

## Pantheons

A pantheon is a grouping of deities, often with overlapping worshipers. All of them are based on races or cultures, usually with strong geographic ties.

### Glainian

The Glainian pantheon is the primary human pantheon that is venerated across Glainia. It is composed primarily of native deities, and is the result of millennia of cultural blending of various other pantheons to bring out a moderately unified whole. There are remnants of other human pantheons that have been combined into a single pantheon as their source cultures have blended, merged, and conquered one another.

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