Divine Masks

Many gods and goddesses walk the planes of The Great Wheel. Their true power is often kept hidden and so is their true identity, for the greatest enemies of the gods are their own kind.

— Xialan, Scholar of the First Dawn

Just because you know a god's name, does not mean you know who that god is, as they have many names and faces. In fact, most gods have more than one name and several of them are known as entitely different gods, all over Arceiron, being part of different pantheons and appearing to their followers in a different guise. The names of the gods are various and ever shifting, as nations of humanoids rise and fall, so too are the gods forgotten and later reborn under a new name.

Masks

The gods wear "Masks", the better to show themselves as they prefer to be seen, as well as to avoid being replaced entirely.

Limited Divinity

Some scholars of the divine Order of the First Dawn belief that only 36 "true" gods can exist at the same time and only six, who share the same domain(s), all others being merely masks of them.
More than this, and some fall into the ranks of angels, demons, devils and other entities - stil powerful, but no longer able to posses true godhood. Those who fall from their divine standing will do anything to regain what they have lost. Their most common ploys involve much more than animal blood sacrifices - they demand the sacrifice of their followers' souls and children. These are known as the Forbidden Gods, full of promises, bringing terror to the righteous.
This theory could never be proven, but it isn't an uncommon ones amongst scholars.

The Need for Masks

Why so few true gods, and why so many masks? No one is sure. Despite entreaties and the investigations of generations of mortals, the gods keep their secrets close. They are a changing family of alliances and betrayals, who regard humans and other mortals as useful tools. All the gods hold tightly to the secrets of how they came to godhood, and they cling to their divinity with all the strength they have—for even gods fade, wither, and die.
The gods of Arceiron are friendless, and yet the greatest allies of mortals, as well as their greatest foes and betrayers. But above all other concerns, they are turned to face one another, and to most of them the voices of mortals are faint. Their wars and loves are among their own kind.
All mortals should know this and be wise, before they choose to walk the path of the priest and the petitioner

How Gods Use Masks

Behind the names and temples lies a secret of the gods’ creation: They aren’t people in the same sense as a mortal individual; rather, they arise from the strength of their priests and their place in the cosmos, and the same god can look and act entirely differently in different places. The beliefs of their followers vary from place to place. Many gods go by multiple names, have variant domains or local titles, and even switch gender and appearance.
As a result, the gods are unknowable and mysterious, and their faiths embody shifting channels of power. Their forms are variable and protean. Shrines to more than a small number of divinities rarely prosper. But the human heart has room for many gods. Faith is not a matter of choosing a single god, but choosing the right god for a particular need or occasion.
The gods are involved in the world, speaking to their priests through oracles and visions. They are also largely disassociated from mortals, because they rarely explain themselves, and their divine concerns seem unrelated to mundane or mortal troubles.
The gods seem eager to hide their true identity from worshippers, and sometimes pretend to be other gods entirely.
This deception is common:
Morrigan might also be The Raven Queen, and Tyr might also be Crome as well, and any fool can see that Temporus, Bane, and Heymdhal are clearly brothers if not entirely the same divine wellspring with slightly different avatars.

Value of Confusion

Why are the gods eager to disguise their identities?
Philosophers discuss three possible reasons, and divine heralds and messengers offer variants to their priesthoods.

First, adopting new names and slightly different avatars helps the gods steal their way into new regions and absorb new followers. In this way, the gods can be worshipped under several names and avoid the difficulty of overcoming regional or racial hostility and prejudice. Surely The Raven Queen is happy to have worshippers calling out to her as Kintala or Nera, as long as her divine goals are met.

Second, it provides a form of insurance against the decline of any region or nation. If a rampaging horde from the east burns all the temples of Aphrodia, and yet the houses of Ninala remain untouched, then the Love Goddess still retains a measure of her worship and power.

Third, the gods use avatars and masks for purposes of their own, and they want to retain some degree of deniability. This is why the exact relationships of the various masks remain in doubt. They might use masks to assassinate a god “behind the scenes” and take over his temples and worshippers wholesale, for instance. The deceased god’s worshippers still pray to a divinity and receive boons and spells, even if, over time, the god’s demands shift to reflect the goals of the god who effectively took the faith from a prior divine being of a different character.

Topic

Divinity, Gods

Type of Information

Theory

Status

Unproven

What are Masks?

• Mask = A name, appearance, portfolio, church and a set of domains a god assumes to be worshiped by mortals.
• Aspect = An actual independant part of the God, that exists under another name / appearance, but is part of the same deity.
• Avatar = A material embodiment of a god, manifesting on the material plane. They way a god appears to his followers.

Do the gods really wear masks? Are many gods actually the same person? Or is this all just heretical nonsense?
Nobody can say for sure, but for the purpose of this explanation, we will assume, that the gods really do use masks, to hide their identity and appear as several gods at the same time.