Dead Power

Even the gods aren't immune to tragedy.

— Excerpt from a poem about the Menedynn Gods

The term dead power is used to refer to a dead deity.
When a power (not just an avatar) dies, it is transported mystically to the Astral Plane to float for all eternity, moldering away slowly. The power itself drifts helplessly in the silver void of the astral, occasionally stirring as if in slumber, but never reawakening unless special actions are taken to reinvest it with the power to act.

Some powers are separated from their divine natures upon death; that is, their personalities and memories are separated from their powers, abilities, and true form. This phenomenon is usually caused by the interaction of a magical item of artifact or relic strength and exrremely strenuous and turbulent magical forces in the region of the power when it dies. The artifact, intentionally or unintentionally, acts as a magnet and draws in the personality of the deity and entraps it. Such entrapped powers remember everything they did while they wete alive, but cannot use any of their godly powers anymore (although they can sometimes twist the powers of the item they are trapped in if they can convince a mortal to activate its powers). They are also extremely uncomfortable in their entrapped state as they cannot either reinvest themselves as deities or pass on to whatever afterlife the spirits of deities may have. This generally leads to a continuous struggle on the part of the personality to escape its prison. Such imprisoned powers are cunning manipulators, treacherous liars, and devious foes.
While a power is dead, priests and any other beings (such as paladins and clerics) who relied on the power to grant them spells receive no newspells. Pray all they might, they get not a one. Dead powers learn nothing new, are unaware of activities in the Realms or elsewhere, can use none of their former divine powers, cannot move themselves from plane to plane, and, in short, are about as conscious and useful as a rock. The only thing a dead power can sense, under special circumstances, is the speaking of its name during a ceremony attempting to restore it to life.

The portfolio a dead deity ruled over in life is usually passed on to its destroyer. If that being is incapable or carrying out the duties because of moral and/or ethical differences or the inability to deal with such huge amounts of power, the portfolio is splir up among the next most suitable candidate who are already deities in the dead power's pantheon. This second procedure is also followed if a deity dies of worship starvation.

If a demipower who shares a portfolio with a higher-ranked power is destroyed and the destroyer cannot hold the power, the power of the demipower automatically goes to the higher-ranking owner of the portfolio in the same pantheon.

Deific Death

Deities are not wholly immortal; it is possible for them to be killed, though they are also known to come back from the dead. As a general rule, a deity can only be slain in their home plane, by another deity (except for demipowers, who can be killed by exceptionally powerful mortals). Deities can also fade away and apparently die when they are forgotten. A deity can also seem to die if their connection to a given sphere is severed.
The sheer power and responsibilities of a deity are typically passed on or taken by their killer. However, if the killer is incapable of taking up the power, it is instead split amongst the next most suitable deities in the pantheon, or, if the dead power's portfolio is a subset of a more powerful deity's portfolio, then their power passed to their superior.

Deific Dead

When a deity is actually dead, their body is mystically transported to the Astral Plane, to drift there for all eternity. Such bodies are largely inert, save for occasionally seeming to stir as if asleep rather than dead.
Sometimes, the memory and personality of a deity is separated from their power and true form at the moment of their death, typically by the interaction of the magical turbulence of their death with the magic of a powerful relic or artifact into the same area. In such cases, the deity remain awake but imprisoned, in a sense, though vastly uncomfortable with their much-reduced state.

Deific Resurrection

While it is theoretically possible for a deity to be utterly destroyed, in practice, deities are more than capable of returning from the dead. One way this can occur involved a great deal of worship and a long ceremony with many offerings. Additionally, in Theras, Ao has the final say over whether a deity of that sphere can return to life. However, newly risen deities are not more than demipowers in might.