Gods and Goddesses as a whole

There are three basic levels of gods and goddesses, global, regional, and local. Gods are not viewed as all powerful beings, but beings of intense power. They can rarely directly influence happenings in the world but instead they influence their believers. Praying for a safe voyage will not weaken a storm, but the navigator may feel an urge to take a different route even though it is longer, the storm may get noticed by the look out sooner and successfully sailed around, or the cabin boy drops his apple and notices a small defect that could have weakened the ship if he didn't spot it. Few people have the opportunity to directly communicate with their god, but all of the little nudges and influences in their lives are believed to be the work of the gods. Because of that, people are more inclined to trust their gut and make a different decision because something just doesn't feel right. They will attribute these to the deity of their choice, but there is no way of knowing if the nudge came from that deity, or from any deity at all.

Global Gods

Global gods tend to stand for an ideal, such as justice or power. They have strength everywhere on the globe at approximately the same strength, though they might have additional strength near a specific place of power. Most of the major religions follow one of the global gods. While these gods benefit from being the most wide spread, you wouldn't necessarily pray to them to find your lost cat. They are more big-picture oriented.

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• Aysus the Ruthless god of war and trickery, brother to Tomos the Honorable
• Dosyn God of the physical, of pleasure and music (sex, drugs, and rock and roll)
• The Fate Weaver Goddess of order and grave, records the history and future of individuals
• Ihein God of healing
• Kenntnis the Collector God of knowledge and history in a more global sense.
• Lizrem the Creator Goddess of forge, buildings, and creation
• Rachendurst God of vengeance and death, bringer of Revenants as well as other vengeful undead
• Tomos the Honorable God of honorable warfare, brother of Aysus the Ruthless

Regional Gods

Regional gods are more closely tied to a specific region as well as some ideals that relate to that specific region. This would include things like a god of a specific mountain range, or a god of the sea. They have more power when close to these areas and less power as they move farther away. Because of this, there are many more regional gods than there are global gods as a whole. However, there tend to be few regional gods in any given area.

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• Ervos God of the Ervelt region
• Oceana Goddess of the sea and storms

Local Gods

Local gods are highly localized deities. This would include things such as the god of a specific mountain or river. The difference between regional gods and local gods is really more of a sliding scale than a true distinction. This is the god that you would want to pray to about finding your lost cat because they may actually hear you and respond while global or regional gods are unlikely to even hear the prayer. While they may not have the same level of power available to a global god, they are the ones who are seen as directly interacting with the populous and are seen as having more of a personality than a set of ideals. They have specific likes and dislikes, which may result in conflicting decisions. For example, they might be all about smiting the unjust, except for Greg who grows the best apples, and man do they love apples. They are also the most numerous type but their territories rarely overlap. The only time this may be different is if a river attached to a local god flows through the forest of another local god.

• There are no known local gods for Ansbridge

Who to Worship?

The locations of these gods may all overlap. You may have a town that has a temple to a global god, the regional god of the mountain range, and a temple to the god of the specific river they flowing through their village. These are not typically viewed as a competition and many people will worship more than one, provided that their ideas are complimentary. The only exception to this is someone who is receiving power directly through a god, such as clerics. Clerics and priests still acknowledge the existence and the work of the other gods and the only time that they would be upset about someone praying to a different god for help would be if the two gods had opposing ideals, like a god of the grave and a god promoting undead. When visiting another temple they would accept the customs of the temple that they are visiting and may pray to that god thanking them for their hospitality. Their own god would only care if they were directly opposed to that specific god.

How The Power Works-ish

Imagine a wire traveling from a god to their follower, the more devoted the person is the thicker the wire is. The thicker the wire the larger the influence that the god has on the follower and the clearer the message can be. Someone in a dangerous situation with a very thin wire might get a sensation of the hair on the back of their neck standing up, but a priest might get a voice in their head saying "leave now!" Paladins and clerics would have the thickest wires since they can directly channel the power of their gods into spells, and the gods can put more power through them as they increase in faith and experience (take more levels).
 Knowing that a god exists gives you a tiny wire connected to that god, even if you never prayed to them. Knowing their name, knowing more about them, these are things that start to strengthen the connection between a person and an individual god. So even a cleric of Oceana would have a thin wire connecting them to Dosyn and could be influenced by Dosyn, but they are going to get more and clearer reactions from Oceana. This is part of the reason why people attempt to erase certain gods from history and why speaking about them is highly looked down on.