Overview
Gods are powerful essence-based divine beings worshiped by nations, bonded to shard wielders, active in the God Realm, and sometimes housed in Malverand god cores. They grant divine-scale power, advise or rule nations, take physical form in mortal combat, and draw strength from followers across Valrindor. They include natural gods such as Ozaith, Nahm, Tianlei, and Xoh'Tenol, as well as engineered god-core beings such as Hrzai, Nerissa, Tal'Massar, and Kharvos.
Natural and engineered gods have different origins. Both kinds become true gods when essence stabilizes into sentient divine beings.
Nature
Gods are made from, housed within, or sustained by essence. Their visible forms include radiant humanoid bodies, immense elemental bodies, miniature projections, voices through shards, bodies shaped from divine essence, and projections sent from the God Realm. Divine bodies can dissolve back into essence, speak through wielders, or act at a distance through shared essence bonds.
The God Realm is Valrindor's shared divine essence realm. Gods use it to observe, communicate, descend, retreat, and maintain contact with followers and wielders. Through it, divine beings can outlast a single mortal body or projected form.
Gods anchor specific religious and political traditions. Tianlei belongs to Thundermarch's storm tradition, Nahm to Haverloch, Ozaith to Ulzathir and old Thalassai Ozaith worship, Xoh'Tenol and Xoh'Metztli to Thalcoris, Hrzai to Xalmyrra, and Nerissa and Pyragos to Theryssa and Thiravos.
Followers and Belief
Followers share belief and essence with gods. More followers and stronger followers can make a god stronger. The gain has limits. Shared essence also adds to a god's reserves and lets the god stay active longer before running out.
Gods can see or hear through followers who share essence strongly enough. Natural gods can be born when enough humans share belief and essence around a singular cause.
Rules & Properties
- Followers share belief and essence with a god through the God Realm.
- Follower belief sustains a god, strengthens divine perception, and anchors descent into the mortal world.
- A god can grant power through shards, pacts, god cores, or divine bonds, creating shard wielders, pact holders, and god-core wielders.
- A descended god can be destroyed or forced back into essence. The God Realm remains the god's retreat route until that route is severed.
- A god dies when that escape route is severed and the remaining divine essence is destroyed, trapped beyond recovery, or unmade.
- Unmaking, black hole magic, source-level forces, and similar extreme powers can kill gods by reaching and destroying their remaining divine essence.
- First-generation god cores sustain an independent divine being. Second-generation god cores place the power directly into the wielder.
History & Origins
Gods arise through concentrated essence shaped into sentient divine beings. Natural gods form through collective need, belief, and shared essence. Tianlei answers Thundermarch's need for rain and storms. The God Realm is the birthplace and meeting ground of divine beings.
The Malverand Empire creates engineered gods through concentrated essence, will, and spellcraft. Arcanis's first successful god core is Hrzai's golden tree, which brings forth a golden being after Thamrielle establishes a mind link with it. The being heals Arcanis, reaches for the tree, and vanishes when she touches it. Centuries later, the golden being reappears in Xalmyrra during a plague and becomes Hrzai; her deeper origin is Malverand's god-core project. Later first-generation cores produce or house beings such as Tal'Massar, Nerissa, and Kharvos. These engineered gods become true gods once their essence stabilizes into a divine being.
Gods rule, advise, manipulate, defend, and oppose mortal nations. They choose wielders, empower followers, join coalitions, fight over Xolterra, and intervene when Thalassai, Ulzathir, Haverloch, Xalmyrra, and Malverand remnants fight over divine rule, shards, gates, and source-level power.
Effects on Nations and Magic
Gods legitimize religious traditions, empower followers and shard wielders, and draw nations such as Ulzathir, Haverloch, Theryssa, Thiravos, Thalcoris, Xalmyrra, and Thundermarch into divine politics. Worship strengthens them, shards give mortals divine-scale power, and rival gods can push national disputes into armed state action. Hrzai is worshiped as a god and originates in Malverand's golden tree; second-generation cores can put god-core power directly into a mortal wielder.