Gods & Divine Entities

Gods
Like in most Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings, the gods of Erasis are the most powerful immortal creatures in existence. Many of them reside across countless dominions that float through the Astral Sea, or in other realms of existence that intersect with the prime material. They appear in dreams and visions to their followers and wear countless different faces and names, depicted in art and tale in a variety of forms. Their true natures are beyond any physical form, made up of the essential building blocks of reality, spiritual energies which coalesce into spheres of power known as Celestial Sparks. For example, Ashrael is often depicted as a dawn elf of regal and commanding countenance, but he is no more an elf than he is a phoenix – he is a god, and he transcends even the physical laws which bind angels and devils to their forms. The gods are simultaneously made up of and defined by their divine sparks, and it is these wells of power that separates the gods from other powerful divine entities.

Some deities are good or lawful good, some are evil or chaotic evil, and many are unaligned. Each deity has a vision of how the world should be based on the things and concepts which define them and their celestial sparks. The gods gain power not simply from mortal belief, but from mortal actions in the material world which nurtures the celestial sparks and allows them to grow stronger. It is in this way that the god’s powers grow and their influence increases.

Most common people revere more than one deity, praying to different gods at different times. They pray the gods protect and guide them in their efforts toward the gods’ aims, and also to placate and appease the gods. These common folk may pray to Allene to heal the sick and dying, Eamon to bless new business ventures, or Thirsha for fertile crops. Others, particularly clerics and paladins, revere one particular god above all others, enacting their will in the world to increase their god’s power and influence both by acting in the interest of their gods purviews and by encouraging others to do the same.

The Gods are divided between Greater and Lesser Gods. The Greater Gods differ from their lesser cousins in that the lessers where all created by the will and dreams of mortals, representing celestial sparks that ebb and flow with the actions of mortals, while the greaters hold celestial sparks of concepts beyond the scope of mortal beings and so their existance and nature is slightly less mutable then the lesser gods. It is possible for a lesser god to attain greater god status, but it is very difficult and is yet to occur.

There are 16 True Gods, 5 of which are Greater, the rest are lesser.

Greater Gods
Janus, The Mercurial Prince; God of Freedom, Choice, and Potential.

Miranda, the Lawgiver; Goddess of Law, Order, and Justice.

Thirsha, The Three-Phased Woman; Goddess of the World and Nature.

Thanatos, The Harvester of Souls; God of Death and Fate.

Eris, The Mistress of Sorrow; Goddess of Darkness and Discord.

Lesser Gods
Allene, The Healing Touch; Goddess of Peace and Healers.

Ashrael, The Radiant Phoenix; God of Vengeance and Light.

Eamon, the Jack of Coins; God of Wealth and Commerce

Keldras, The Bloody-Handed One; God of Battle and Bloodshed.

Lithari, The Spinning Coin; Goddess of Thieves and Stealth.

Luana, The Battle Maiden; Goddess of War and Wisdom.

Lydia, The Red Lady; Goddess of Beauty, Inspiration, and Lovers.

Nestor, The Librarian; God of Knowledge and Secrets.

Reylan, The Grey Roc; God of Exploration and Travel.

The Tattered One, God of Torment and Pestilence.

Urik, the Shattered Stone; God of Permanence and Craft. Deceased.

Planes of the Astral Sea
There are many planes and realms floating in the Astral Sea, orbiting Erasis like small moons and planets, at times tugging on the Prime Material, creating tides of waxing and waning influence over events in the mortal realm. Some of these domains are claimed and ruled over by the gods, while others are shattered or abandoned, their masters long since dead or vanished.

Divine Realms
Mount Celestia

Elysium

Aurosia

The Wildlands

Arborea

Ysgard

Acheron

Nocturne

Other Planes
Bytopia

Limbo

Carceri

Gehenna

Mechanus

Arcadia

Baator, the Nine Hells

The Abyss

The Elemental Chaos

Primordials
Divided into two major groups, the Old Gods and the Elemental Lords, the history of the Primordials is a mystery to many mortals. What few know is that the myths which explain the creation of Erasis conveniently leave out the involvement of many of the Primordials. What this means is that very little is known overall about the Primordials or their natures; at least not nearly as much as is known about the gods and their servitors.

When most mortals think of Primordials, they think of the elemental beings which form the head of what is known as The Elemental Host. This Elemental Host includes all of the elemental creatures that exist in the world and are brought into harmony in Erasis by the will and presence of Thirsha. These beings differ from those that are shrouded in mystery by the ommissions of the history of the Gods in that they chose to serve the Goddess of the World instead of being exiled beyond the Crystal Veil or imprisoned deep within the earth.

Most of the Elemental Host exists at the border of where the Astral Sea meets with the Crystal Veil within a region known as the Elemental Chaos. Here the elements which forged the stable world at the center of the Astral Sea are erratic, much more like how reality existed moments after the act of creation. In this region, the elemental primordials reside.

Unlike gods, these entities do not gain power from Celestial Sparks which represent intangible concepts of reality. Instead, the elementals are made of the stuff of the raw elements themselves. While these wellsprings of power are incredibly powerful by themselves, because they are shared by the host of the elements, the individuals who draw power from these sources cannot draw quite the measure of power that a god can draw from a celestial spark. Other Primordials, particularly those exiled into the Far Realms or locked within Erasis itself represent elemental forces too other-worldly, destructive, and dangerous to life and reality to allow to be free. These entities are typically too horrific to imagine by mortal minds and either simply through their twisted natures or their burning desire to unmake the world of their usurpers make them a threat too great to allow free reign in the world.

The Old Gods
The Old Gods (a.k.a. the Old Whisperings, the Elder Gods, the Old Lords, or the Dread Elders) are mysterious, God-like, and greatly alien and malefic horrors which ruled in tyranny over the young universe. Just after the birth of the Gods of Erasis, the Gods set out to wage a war, called the Dawn War, across the young world to drive the Old Gods and their influence off of the world. The events of this age are largely forgotten. The Gods were victorious largely because of the betrayal of the Elemental Host, who aided the Gods against the Old Gods. At war's end, many of the Old Gods were too powerful even for the Gods to kill, and so most were imprisoned or fled into exile.

C'Thul: C'thul is the eldest of the Old Gods, and creator of the Illithid. It is believed to reside in one of the Far Realms known as Ry'alotha, a city of bizarre non-euclidean architecture. C'Thul fled to this realm at the end of the Dawn War to avoid capture and imprisonment by the gods.

Yogg Dhaloth: Known as the Fiend of Many Faces, Yogg Dhaloth is one of the Elder Beings who was imprisoned on Erasis after the Dawn War. Eluding capture for many ages, Yogg Dhaloth was finally captured by the Sareshi Lizardfolk and the Ancient Ones they worshiped. Its influence now goes unchecked since the disappearance of these Ancient Ones and the fall of the Sareshi Empire.

N'zoth: N'zoth is of the Old Gods said to have been sequestered on Erasis after the Dawn War. It is believed his prison lies somewhere beneath the Sea of Teeth, deep in the heart of Sahuagin territory, and so may be responsible for the corruption of these former Sea Elves.

Y'Shaarj: The Old God Y'shaarj is said to have been the only of the Old Gods actually killed by the Gods and their Elemental Minions during the Dawn War. Much about Y'Shaarj has been lost, including his remains which were never recovered.

Tulzscha: Tulzscha, also known as the Green Flame, is the name given to the youngest of the Elder Old Gods. Like its brothers, Tulzscha was imprisoned somewhere on Erasis at the end of the Dawn War. Tulzscha is often depicted as a blazing green ball of flame dancing gleefully with its brothers as if at a festival.

Theory of Assorted Veracity
First: that the Old Gods have many souls, and that each soul is a Third Circle daemon.

Second: that each Third Circle daemon can occupy multiple spaces at once.

Third: that each Old God has one heart-soul, or fetich, upon which much of its self-conception is based.

Fourth: that Third Circle beings each have seven souls, each a Second Circle Daemon in her own right.

Fifth: that a Second Circle daemon will fulfill one of seven functions for her patron Third Circle daemon. She will be her patron’s ability to reflect, communicate, protect, understand, gratify, express or define.

Sixth: that First Circle daemons matter not at all to grand questions about Old God’s nature, for they are produced wholesale by the Second Circle. They are children, constructs or stranger offspring and not actually part of their creators at all.

The seventh, and most important, premise of all accepted daemonology is this: Killing a Second Circle or Third Circle daemon carries consequences for the nature of its patron. The patron will be changed, and no observer—not the murderer, nor even any Old God—can entirely predict the form that change will take. Sometimes, this change seems small. But if a dead Third Circle daemon was its Old God’s fetich, that Old God will lose its name and itself and become something new.

Exarchs
Even the gods must have a host of divine servitors in order to manage their purviews and interests the world. Mortal followers alone could not serve all the needs of their patrons. For this reason, shortly after the creation of the world, the first beings to be given life and death were gifted with immortality within the heavens. These beings became the host of angels and other servitors that serve their godly patrons. The most powerful of these entities are known as Exarchs, typically representing a manifestation or facet of one of their god's purviews.

Dragons
The dragons are unique beings in that they share qualities of both exarchs and elemental beings. Born from the deaths of two of the three Master Wyrms created by Thirsha to act as stewards of the world, the dragons represent aspects of their original Master Wyrm. Two wyrms of each color were born from the bodies of the Master Wyrms Nelfaros the Adamant, and Mirnadros the Mithril. These wyrms are the mothers and fathers of all of the draconic flights. Many of these Dragon Aspects are reverred by mortals both for the power they have and the aspects of the world in which they represent. As a rule, dragons are immortal in that they cannot die of old age, though they can be killed and it is said some can even will themselves to die. When this occurs there is usually some kind of release of elemental power, its size relative to the age and power of the dragon in life.

Many of the aspects titles are now long forgotten by time, and some of the dragons have even dissappeared from record. Whether these dragons are dead or simply sleeping is unknown.

Some of the dragon aspects that are known by mortals are:

Seskarix, the Crimson Aspect of Dominance

Charistra, the Scarlet Aspect of Passion

Tialag, the Viridian Aspect of Envy

Saaruht, the Sterling Aspect of Charity

Haurach'vivex, the Aurous Aspect of Kings

The Dragonborn
Prophecied Chosen of the Dragon Aspects, the Dragonborn are mortals invested with a portion of the Dragon Aspects' power. Thirty-two mortal souls, bear this honor throughout the entire world, destined to wield the power of the dragons both to protect the Aspects from magical and divine influence, and to enact their will in the world. Their creation was foreseen in the Prophecy of the Dragonborn.

Known Dragonborn
Emperor Belthasar, Dragonborn of Seskarix, Crimson Aspect of Dominance

Vieryne, Dragonborn of Charistra, Scarlet Aspect of Passion

Anja Snowmane, Dragonborn of Tzaragosa, Beryl Aspect of Tenacity

Devils and Demons
Much of the history of the devils and demons has been lost to time, but what is known is that the demons have always existed so long as the Crystal Veil has stood. Where the Crystal Veil meets to entropic nature of the Far Realms which lie beyond existance is a realm known only by scholars as the Abyss. This place is where the demons come from, locked outside of the world by the Crystal Veil. Whether these entities existed prior to the gods or not is a mystery. What is known is that these beings of destruction are born from within this entropic and chaotic realm and seek to enter the world in order to cause chaos and destruction. It is said at the dawn of time, the gods sent a host of angels into the abyss to create a bulwark against their constant attempts to tear down the walls of the Crystal Veil. What exactly happened after that has been lost, but what is known is that many of these angellic servitors were led astray by their general, a powerful Exarch known as Asmodeus. Asmodeus led a rebellion against the gods which was costly, but ultimately a failure. The gods captured these fallen angels and imprisoned them in the realm of Baator, then ruled by the God of Tyranny, Ashrael to serve him and be his prisoners.

Since then the Blood War between the gods and demon kind ended, the gods not wishing to risk more of their host to fall to corruption in the abyss, they instead chose to trust to the strength of the Crystal Veil and left the demons to pound their fists against it for all eternity.

Since then, Asmodeus and his devils have not sat idly in their prisons, corrupting mortals and capturing souls from the gods to empower themselves. All the divine host now holds its breathe to see what Asmodeus will do next, particularly since he has unseated his jailor and master Ashrael from Baator.

Some well known devils and demons are:

Asmodeus, Lord of the Nine

Glasya, Princess of Hell

Orcus, Demon Prince of Undeath

Demogorgon, Demon Prince of Demons

Baphomet, Demon Prince of Beasts