Religion Overview
Every deity following this wields far less power than that of The Apparent, simply because there is less aether available. Furthermore, their abilities rely directly on those of The Apparent, and in many ways build on each other as well. The Balanced and The Many Saints subvert this strictly linear reliance, in different ways.
Deities up to The Many Saints are grouped in threes, but gain awareness in order. Each deity is successively less powerful, even within their trio, but greater power differences lie between groups. The steepest drop-offs come after The Apparent and again after The Balanced. The first twenty-one deities are collectively called The Endless, as they are fully immortal (compared to The Many Saints, who can die).
As more beings gain awareness - deities or otherwise - their desires, needs, and experiences influence the surrounding aether, and the next being to gain awareness has related abilities and influence. In this way, deities can be conjured into being without the help of Anai’it. This is the case in The Wanted, The Balanced, and The Many Saints.
Deities have no sense of good and evil. They embody their domain, and desire to be and spread more of it. The Apparent and The Forged are stable in their strength. Those conjured have power that waxes and wanes in correspondence with the attention their domain receives. Therefore, increases in power are exponential: the more attention their domain receives, the greater the deity's influence, the faster their domain spreads.
Communication of the deities among themselves and with mortals is impossible with The Apparent, but eases somewhat as one moves down the ordered pantheon. The Qualities are the first deities capable of speech. From them onward, interest and involvement in worldly affairs rises, though it cannot be said that any deity is easy to find or win personal favor.
The Apparent
Long before time began, there was only the aether, a sort of cosmic force filling the void of what would become our universe. Little is known of this period, except that which is written by Lotlain, and even their unerring accuracy must be regarded with suspicion, as Lotlain did not come until much later. It is believed that Anai'it first developed awareness, naturally, from the aether, and existed for some time without action. Then Gaevil gained awareness, and finally Morlet, and only then did time begin as we understand it.
These three deities, being the only ones to gain awareness on their own - without influence - are called The Apparent. They are the oldest and most powerful deities, and the only ones who can directly interact with the aether. Other deities rely on their tireless creation and manipulation to influence their own domains. Together they grant awareness to beings, form physical substance with which to create, and provide energy with which to move and grow. They are sometimes summarized as Think, Make, Do.
The havens of The Apparent, like all, are physically accessible from the mortal world, but are nearly impossible to find and enter; none have ever done so. Moreover, any who would succeed will be met with complete apathy: The Apparent are dedicated exclusively to their own domains. They do not communicate with or acknowledge anything else, even each other (this is why Lotlain's account must be questioned - how would they know?).
Should any mortal approach one of The Apparent, they would find themselves with a greater understanding of the world and their place in it. However, such understanding would be so vast as to overwhelm them, rendering them nonfunctional as a living being.
The Forged
After Morlet condensed much of the aether into Thera's star, subsequent deities had less power available to them. Anai'it granted consciousness to nine deities, and these became known as The Forged. They cannot directly interact with the aether, and instead use what has been "converted" by The Apparent. They are considered in three thematically linked groups: The Elements, The Beings, and The Qualities.
The Elements formed the physical, inanimate world around Morlet's star. They are together responsible for the earth, water, and fire, as well as the sun. They have some awareness of the mortal world, but rarely care, being more occupied with their own domains. Communication as mortals understand it is not possible, but they have what could be likened to vague and primitive emotions - anger, curiousity, desire. It takes an exceptionally sharp mind to comprehend even this little.
The Beings created the first living things: plants, animals, and insects. The complex manner in which these kingdoms interact - food chains, ecosystems, symbiotic relationships - is a testament to the foresight and intentional cooperation of these deities. Not all beings seen today on Thera are exactly those which first populated the world; many have changed and evolved over time, guided by the gentle hand of their creators. These deities do not speak, but have some ability to communicate through gestures, sounds, and movement.
The Qualities are also sometimes referred to as The Gifts, for it is their contributions which made all living beings more than bodies that move and perceive. Their characteristics define and shape each form of life. Though they are primarily associated with sentient mortals, all things that live have been granted some proportion each of knowledge, love, and strength. They are often summarized as "What do you want?" "How badly do you want it?" and "How hard can you work for it?" The Qualities were the first deities capable of speech, and tend to be somewhat more empathetic towards mortals seeking their intervention.
The Wanted
The Wanted are so named because they were conjured into being by the desires and experiences of Thera's living inhabitants. Their power and influence waxes and wanes as their domain receives more or less attention. These deities span what is known as the Age of Humanity, beginning with affluence and devolving into villainy and suffering. The Wanted comprise The Prosperities, The Ambitions, and The Endurances.
The Prosperities were the early results of The Qualities' gifts put to use, and are the most desirable aspects of these characteristics: artistic pursuits, wealth and trade, and the development of large civilizations under various forms of leadership. This early era was by no means without suffering, but it is often regarded as a golden age, when humanity was more pure - closer, some say, to what The Beings and The Qualities intended.
The Ambitions crept across the world - slowly, at first, but gaining traction as they spread. Abundance sowed sloth, greed, and other indulgences. Leaders found coercion, corruption, and deceit an easier means of gaining power. In pursuit of growth, civilizations destroyed each other and themselves.
The Endurances followed as a matter of natural consequence. The people faced death at every turn, suffered pain, and felt fear. It is perhaps the last that stretched the Age of Humanity on for so many centuries: to break free of cowardice and despair is a mighty task.
The Balanced
The Age of Humanity did not end abruptly. As people transitioned away from violence and debauchery, conflicting experiences conjured The Balanced. The Balanced are unique in the duality of their domains: war vs peace, order vs chaos, slavery vs freedom. Neither extreme is desirable, but the Cult of Balance strives for perfect accord.
The power of these deities is reflected by the attention to their domains, but only that which applies to the "strongest," and the deity may influence only that side. If peace prevails only ever so slightly, Jahra's power will be weak, but nonetheless they will be driven to pursue more of it.
The Balanced are also distinguished by their cyclical interaction (rather than linear). Peace leads to order, order to slavery - but then backwards, freedom leads to chaos, and chaos to war. The Balanced are less elusive than other deities, and the locations of their havens are known by many cults, sects, and organizations.
The Many Saints
The theme of threes ends with The Many Saints, who - despite the moniker - are still deities. It is the possession of a domain, the inherent ability to influence it across the entire world, and the unyielding desire to embody and expand it that denotes a deity.
Like all conjured, a Saint's power reflects the attention given, but even at their strongest they are significantly weaker than any of The Endless. They are the most susceptible to mundane influence: their domains can shift over time as interpretations and associations change. Most importantly, the Saints can die without enough attention, and this will happen if such change is too rapid. Their awareness simply fades away. Their domain, and its attention, need not disappear entirely for this to happen, but the threshold is quite low, so Saints do not die often. Should their domain return to favor, they are not revived; a new Saint takes their place.
The earliest Saints were intentional inversions or aspects of The Wanted and The Qualities - temperance, generosity, toil, hope, honesty, marriage, travel, beauty, games, childbirth, and so on. Lotlain keeps a record of Saints past and present.
The Many Saints do not have havens as do The Endless, existing on a separate plane from the mortal world. Some wander the earth, but most have keeps - hidden or otherwise difficult to access, but decidedly mundane in location. Like all divine beings, they are elusive, but less so than The Endless. They have greater empathy for mortal affairs, and largely take the physical form of sentient creatures.
Spirits
Spirits are divine beings, but are not considered deities, though some may be revered as such in certain areas. Their conjuration of awareness marks them as divine, but they differ from deities in many key ways.
Conjured deities are brought into being by the desires and experiences of living things, and specifically only those living things which possess awareness. Spirits can come this way as well, but additionally can embody inanimate things, and living beings with no awareness such as flowers and fungi.
The reach of a spirit's influence is severely limited; they are hyper-local and cannot stray far from the area they are associated with. There may be many spirits of the same sort in one area - such as Kofli's river spirits - or just one - such as Clack-Tok in Arzier - or none at all. Despite their geographic limitations, a spirit's influence over their local domain may be just as strong as a Saint's over the entire world. However, unlike deities, spirits only act to maintain their domain, and do not seek to expand it.
Spirits do not seek the company of mortals, but do not especially avoid them, either. There is a task to be done, and they shall do it, whether mortals be present or not. Like a whale migrating across the sea, they do not care if you follow in your little boat.
The appearance of spirits varies, ranging from natural animals and plants to elementals, mechanical beings, humanoids, and strange, otherworldly creatures. Their intelligence almost always equals or exceeds most mortals, though their knowledge and understanding of things may be limited or simply different. Their ability to speak, understand language, or otherwise communicate depends on who or what they were conjured by, as does their empathy for mortal affairs.
Spirits can die, but only if their domain disappears completely, or moves out of its original locale. A leveled forest keeps its forest spirit unless every bit of life is burned and driven out, but a shift in a river's course will kill its river spirits the moment its old path runs dry.
Structure
The Apparent
Anai'it: Awareness- Associated Domains: Perception, Consciousness
- Notes: is not personality
- Appearance: infinite mirror in all directions
- Haven: tower; go in circles
- Worship: meditation
Gaevil: Substance
- Associated Domains: Body, the Material
- Notes: substance is not any material that mortals interact with, but can be turned into it
- Appearance: big-ass spider
- Haven: web in a forest
- Worship: temporary or permanent decoration of the body (tattoos, henna, piercings, clothing)
Morlet: Energy
- Associated Domains: Magic, Time
- Notes: created Thera's "star"
- Appearance: is the star
- Haven: star
- Worship:
The Forged
The Elements
Gretma: Earth- Associated Domains: Rock, Mountain
- Notes: created all the continents; constantly making more minerals, ore, etc
- Appearance: mountain
- Haven: mountain - gotta be hard to find though
- Worship: pocket dirt lol idk
Tiom: Water
- Associated Domains: Oceans, Rivers, Lakes, Streams, Rain
- Notes: how spreading?
- Appearance: tsunami
- Haven: entrance shifts - river, deep sea, the Wild Sea
- Worship: ceremonial bathing
Phelmit: Fire
- Associated Domains: Sun
- Notes: made the sun; fire more volatile and spread-y
- Appearance: is the sun
- Haven: yeet urself into the son
- Worship: ritual fires
The Beings
Melgoss: Plants- Associated Domains: Fungi
- Notes: first plant - rose? water lily? - also created fungi, even tho they're not plants
- Appearance: made of many flowers, approximating shape of person
- Haven: meadow/garden with every plant
- Worship:
Drevith: Animals
- Associated Domains:
- Notes: first animal - deer; "plants" with consciousness considered animals
- Appearance: stag
- Haven: where animals be
- Worship:
Themril: Insects
- Associated Domains:
- Notes: how differentiate thematically from animals?
- Appearance: Koh the Face-Stealer, but with an insectoid face
- Haven: ant hill
- Worship: well for starters don't squish the buggies
The Qualities
Lotlain: Knowledge- Associated Domains: Memory, Language
- What do you know?
- Notes: Keeper of the Books; who was first to receive gift of knowledge?
- Appearance: tree covered in mouths, sitting in pool of ink; leaves are pages; each mouth speaks a different language
- Haven: desert
- Worship: read, pursue knowledge
Harlum: Passion
- Associated Domains: Passion, Desire
- What do you want?
- Notes: who first loved?
- Appearance: twin moons
- Haven: fuck how do you get to the moon
- Worship: when the moons cross paths once (twice?) a year
Olget: Strength
- Associated Domains: Courage, Willpower
- What can you do?
- Notes: who was first gifted strength? giants probably
- Appearance: muscles!!! giant? ogre? - except it's too early for deities to be humanoid sooooo
- Haven: the gym
- Worship: working out bro
The Wanted
The Prosperities
Levaium: Art- Associated Domains: Music, Dance, Poetry, Stories
- Notes: tell them a story
- Appearance: rainbow fountain with spinning top
- Haven: psychedelic forest
- Worship: make art
Dolmith: Wealth
- Associated Domains: Trade, Cooperation
- Notes:
- Appearance:
- Haven: at a crossroads
- Worship:
Ourel: Civilization
- Associated Domains: Leadership
- Notes:
- Appearance: a city building itself (Inca-inspired?)
- Haven: in the jungle
- Worship:
The Ambitions
Hyrra: Indulgence- Associated Domains: Greed, Malice, Sloth
- Notes:
- Appearance: blobby, slow, whole bunch of random (valuable?) shit
- Haven: hoard of treasure
- Worship:
Xeipent: Coercion
- Associated Domains: Corruption, Deceit
- Notes:
- Appearance: shapeshifter (consequences of revealing/seeing "natural" form? is there a natural form?)
- Haven: beehive
- Worship: telling lies
Ebsolum: Destruction
- Associated Domains: Catastrophe, Ruination
- Notes:
- Appearance: incapable of holding stable form, but what do they look like in those fleeting moments? form different, incoherent selves, then destroy themselves over and over again
- Haven: ruins of old civilization/city/castle/etc
- Worship: break things
The Endurances
Beilnoth: Death- Associated Domains: Murder, Suicide
- Notes:
- Appearance: skeleton of dragon; scattered bones but pulls them together "for company"
- Haven: crypt underground (no path; must go through the dirt)
- Worship: kill people, self
Remrys: Pain
- Associated Domains: Torture, Injury
- Notes:
- Appearance: bleeding heart
- Haven: torture room???? hospital?? no that doesn't make sense
- Worship: torture, self-harm
- Symbol: drop of blood
Evreim: Fear
- Associated Domains: Cowardice, Despair
- Notes:
- Appearance: invisible; whispers barely audible; if visible, would be small child
- Haven:
- Worship: allow these feelings to flow through oneself
The Balanced
Jahra: War/Peace- Associated Domains:
- Notes:
- Appearance: young warrior/old woman
- Haven: two entrances, depending on tilt: ancient battlefield, and uuuuuuh
- Worship:
Obis: Order/Chaos
- Associated Domains:
- Notes:
- Appearance: colorful, uncontrollably shifting vs gray statue, can't move; rapid mood swings vs total apathy; switches languages and dialects every word vs perfect, literal common (no sarcasm, metaphors, etc)
- Haven: two entrances, depending on tilt: dhfaidhj and oadifjods f
- Worship:
Meidhoth: Slavery/Freedom
- Associated Domains:
- Notes:
- Appearance: wind, what's slavery though?
- Haven: two entrances, depending on tilt: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
- Worship:
