The Pantheon

## The Divine Pantheon

The Divine Pantheon of Eshun encompasses the most powerful and prominent gods of the world. Current understanding dictates that ascension to godhood is achieved by gaining enough divine energy to become omnipotent. The most consistent way of this occurring is becoming "chosen" by the celestial forces of the multiverse, which is theorised to happen when an individual achieves a certain feat of grandeur. Once ascended, gods gain strength from worship of their followers, and can even lose True divine status if their followers are lost. As seen with the Raven Queen, defeating a god can allow a creature to absorb its power and take on their divine status and domain, but such a feat is nigh impossible.

### Powers

The gods have unlimited power over their respective domains, and can grant pieces of that power to their followers in the form of divine magic and boons. Worshippers of these gods follow teachings mostly spelled out in various religious tomes, but sometimes from visions and messages sent to them from the outer planes. Due to the banishment rites conducted in the Divine War, most of the gods themselves cannot contact the material plane directly, but lesser creatures working under them can do so on their behalf.

### The Divine War

Around 1,000 years ago, the gods broke out into war. The Prime Deities fought against the wanton destruction of the Betrayer Gods to protect Eshun from their evil. The war ended with the betrayer gods being imprisoned in various outer planes, and the prime deities banishing themselves to keep the shackles in place. Deities cannot interact with the material plane directly because of this, instead using servants and disciples in their home plane to establish contact to the material plane.

### The Prime Deities

The Prime Deities stand for the forces of good in the world, and directly oppose the actions and beliefs of the betrayer gods. They are the divine protectors and teachers of the world.

* **Avandra - The Changebringer**
* **Bahamut - The Platinum Dragon**
* **Corellon - The Archheart**
* **Erathis - The Lawbearer**
* **Ioun - The Knowing Mistress**
* **Kord - The Stormlord**
* **Melora - The Wildmother**
* **Moradin - The Allhammer**
* **Pelor - The Dawnfather**
* **Raven Queen - The Duskmaven**
* **Sehanine - The Moonweaver**

### The Betrayer Gods

The Betrayers are deities who went against the laws of creation and cultivated corruption, destruction and violence against Eshun. Some theorise that some of the betrayers were twisted into evil, originally ascending with purer beliefs and teachings.

* **Asmodeus - The Lord of the Nine Hells**
* **Gruumsh - The Ruiner**
* **Lolth - The Spider Queen**
* **Tharizdun - The Chained Oblivion**
* **Tiamat - The Scaled Tyrant**
* **Torog - The Crawling King**
* **Vecna - The Whispered One**
* **Zehir - The Cloaked Serpent**

## The Lesser Pantheons

Outside the main pantheon, each race or culture may have a different collection of beings they worship. The beings within these are not as powerful as the main deities, but may still be imbued with divine power or have the following to make them eligible for ascension.

### Demigods

Demigods are beings who have ascended to godhood, but do not have the following in order to take a position on the main pantheon. These beings domains often cross over with many of the pantheon's, making it hard for them to have a major influence across the planes.

### Lesser Idols

A lesser idol is a blanket term for beings that have a lot of followers or influence, but do not have the divine power imbued within them to make them a god. The term can be misleading.

## Fallen Gods

* Sardior - The Ruby Dragon
* **Bane - The Strife Emperor**

## History of Ascension

### Dawn of Time

At the Dawn of Time, cosmic matter and ancient magic coalesced into creatures beyond comprehension and power. Like the first single celled organisms, they had one goal in mind; expand and thrive. And so they did, venturing out across the vast void they found themselves in. Where they travelled, they spread matter and chaos, forming material with the potential to be shaped and manipulated. Some of these creatures began to do so, amassing fragments of each other into their own collective spaces and playing with them in ways that seemed fit. 8 of these beings obtained mastery over matter relatively quickly compared to the others, and began to shape their matter rather than play with it. These beings had achieved a higher level of power and understanding, and became Creators. The others drifted off amongst the void, slowly finding their footing.

The 8 creators formed their masses in entirely different ways, taking on different ideas and ideals. Their masses soon become expansive enough to support life, and the 8 Outer Planes were born. Each creator experimented with life in different ways to expand on their newfound beliefs of the wider concept of existence, which can be seen from the Outer Planes taking on a prominent alignment. These creators were worshipped by their creations that knew of them, but none moreso than Tharizdun, the creator of The Abyss. Tharizdun despised all creation and saw its fellow Creators as fools. All the demons birthed from its power were filled with the same hatred for life and longing for destruction, and this shared belief and vast power is what allowed Tharizdun to become the first god. The other Creators drifted off into the void to watch their creations from afar, but Tharizdun stayed close by to nourish its demons.

Other beings had learned the art of Creation by this point, but lacked originality. Some combined two or more of the existing planes to make their own, but these tended to be smaller than the current 8. Others took aspects from all the planes in different quantities and made lands that were shaped by the inhabitants, rather than the other way round. The remaining beings lay lost and wandering, but decided to use their powers to shape themselves rather than the matter around them. These beings became lost in a dimension called the Far Realm, turning into maddened monsters and eldritch abominations.