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The Gods

The bridges built and abandoned


Overview

Though the pieces of the Motherlight that sustain them are far smaller and thus render the Gods singificantly less powerful then their awe-inspiring parents, they're still plenty capable of shaping and using what the Eldest provided to create wonders and cause discord. Their births took place before the Timeline was established, meaning none of them have concrete ages, so they make due by building their social heirarchy around magical capability and potential instead. Death found himself at the top of the pile and was warranted a certain deference and respect by all the other Gods. The heavy responsibility that would later come with his position was, in his opinion, unfortunate and vastly, vastly irritating.  
  When the Eldest were Called to the Heart of the Universe, deep, aching compulsions to be near parents that were hopelessly out of reach swept through the Gods that were left behind. They drifted aimlessly, wallowing in the shattered remains of their blissful, uncomplicated lives. As the search for the Heart of the Universe grew ever more hopeless, Death decided enough was enough and rallied them to Do Something. Ideas and plans were bandied around and arguments on how to proceed were fierce, but Death put his foot down and declared that if they couldn't go to the Heart of the Universe themselves, then they would fill the Universe with life until it was fit to burst, and entice the Eldest back to their existence. Thus, the first Soulbound were born.

Social

Due to their fierce individuality, fights and disagreements are common. Death is tired of mediating these conflicts, but he's the only one who can reliably bully his siblings out of laying waste to huge swathes of the Universe when they're in a temper, so most disagreements are the equivalent of hushed, angry whispers out of Death's earshot.   Humanoid physical designs are fairly common and honestly, fairly coveted. Many Gods who weren't blessed with this shape have draped enough magic over themselves to fool even the Motherlight into thinking they were made that way, though all the magic in the Universe doesn't increase their magical potential despite the appearance change. Death abhors this vain use of a resource that's abundant but ultimately finite, but given that he's humanoid himself and doesn't know what it's like to be anything else, his siblings rail against any attempt to squash the practice.   "Etiquette" is perhaps a strong word for the interplay between the Gods, but it's generally agreed that they won't go around destroying each other's planets or leave each other high and dry when the Deepdark comes calling. Beyond that, pleasantries end, and attempts to be polite are regarded with the suspicion they're due.   They regard the Eldest with a grudging sort of love they can't escape tempered with bitter resentment, and deeply love the Soulbound and do what they can to help them survive.

Biology

Much like their parents, the Gods take on a vast variety of shapes, though a startling amount of them are humanoid to mimic the Motherlight. It's also suspected that humanoid physical forms have the greatest potential for harnessing magical power, as the overwhelming majority of the strongest Gods take the shape, but nobody really knows for sure.
When the Eldest disappeared, the population growth of the Gods came to an abrupt halt. Any attempts to make more Gods have been resounding failures, so the elder siblings have forbidden this dead end of creation and make sure the rest of the bunch are only releasing more Soulbound into the Universe.
Like their parents, they subsist on the fragments of the Motherlight granted to them by the Eldest.

Skills

They can't create magic the way their parents can, but there's so much of it lying around that they hardly need to. They're able to shape it at will to do whatever they please.
Their major creations revolve almost entirely around building Soulbound, though they're very deft at utilizing the resources available to them left over by the Eldest.
Appear to speak one common language, though shaky alliances and other close-knit groups of Gods have been known to develop their own languages on the fly to lock others out of the discussion. Petty, but there you have it.

Trivia

They can't touch their creators in terms of raw knowledge, but they sure do beat out any Soulbound from the sheer amount of experience they've gathered. Less powerful/younger Gods retain their experiences somewhat imperfectly, so they appear to be "dumber," but despite the elder siblings' doubts, they're perfectly capable of learning and growing over time.
The only events that could be argued flowed with some kind of time cycle was when the Motherlight vanished and the Eldest were Called. They were there, and suddenly they weren't, in any time, in any dimension, in any plane. Not long after, Entropy reared its ugly head and began making life as miserable for the Gods as it could, and the Gods retaliated by locking it away, inflicting the Timeline on its creations, and ruthlessly crushing any signs of the Deepdark's corruption to be found in the Universe. Unfortunately, their inability to actually create more magic means they can't replace what was lost, so they fiercely protect what they have left and hope they can bring the Eldest back before the Universe is too far gone to save.

Further Reading

Lifespan
Ageless?

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