Deity / God

The world in which Etheria exists possesses a unique metaphysical property produced by Anima: things believed and dreamed here eventually become real. The collective unconscious of mortal people has the literal power of creation, though the process unfolds over the course of countless centuries. Thus, the gods of Etheria and their servants were believed, dreamed, and narrated into existence, materializing and becoming fully real as a result of mortal belief in their power just as any of the other pantheons of gods that populate the world and rule over the peoples from places far-flung from Etheria.
As stories were told, sacrifices made, and devotion given over ages, the gods formed and gained lives just as real as the mortals who dreamed them into being and who see them moving across the sky at night and sometimes encounter them face to face. Mortals tell and retell the stories of the gods' deeds, even as they watch those stories continue to play out in the vastness of the night sky overhead. Not every mortal serves or acknowledges the gods, though. Some philosophers teach that gods are subordinate to a higher reality, perhaps Nyktheon itself. And other people believe that gods are undeserving of mortal reverence. Despite all this, most of the gods do not even realize the nature of their being, believing that they have existed since the dawn of time since that is what mortals have willed into being. Few mortals, likewise, realize their hand in the creation and maintenance of the gods.
Does the fact that the gods are but mortal imaginings made real make them less powerful than a deity from another world or dimension? Not at all. Once a dream or belief in the world in which Etheria exists becomes reality, it is just as real as any other thing, and the gods have been real for a very long time, their existence long predating The Draconic Exodus, though even the gods too were changed by this event. The people of Etheria believe them to be divine, ageless, and all-powerful, and therefore they are.
A single individual can't do anything to make the gods less real or change the nature of a god. Threatened with the wrath of a deity, for example, a mortal can't simply "disbelieve" the god out of existence or turn its wrath to kindness. Thus, most people perform rituals and devotions that honor various gods, hoping to win their favor and stave off their wrath. Moreover, it's the collective unconscious of every sapient being that shapes reality, and changes to that reality occur on the scale of ages, not moments.
The gods of Etheria are particularly active deities, overseeing major aspects of daily mortal life. But that doesn't mean they are ordinary creatures—they aren't mere mortals, nor are they monsters that can be fought, and the same can be said of any other deities in the world.
Further, gods aren't omnipotent. Although they are physically and magically powerful, ageless, and all but indestructible, their actions are bound by the decrees of divine edicts and rules of Anima. They can tangle the threads of destiny to a point, but they are forbidden from overstepping their assigned places in their respective pantheons. Some gods, especially those of destiny and horizons, are able to confine whole pantheons to Nyktheon, preventing any direct interaction between the gods and the mortal world, causing the beautiful starfield of the celestial realm to go dark.
Likewise, gods aren't omniscient, though they see and hear everything that occurs inside their temples and before their altars. They have perfect recall of everything they experience. Certain liminal spaces—cave mouths, shorelines, crossroads, forest edges, and so on—enable mortal voices to reach the gods as well, though most gods have little reason to pay attention to what is spoken there.
Gods can speak directly to their oracles. They can appear in the dreams of mortals or manipulate natural phenomena to create omens. They can also create Godborn creatures to serve as messengers or emissaries. Gods grant their clerics the ability to cast spells, and they can effortlessly duplicate the effect of any spell they could grant. They also have broad influence over aspects of the world associated with their portfolios, beyond what can be defined by spell effects. For example, gods of the deep earth can make a volcano erupt, and gods of the vast seas can call up a tidal wave. Gods can bestow supernatural blessings on mortals, and they can lay terrible curses, such as when Thanatimetra the Merciful Mother turned a team of four draft horses into Fleshmad Steeds.
Gods can assume any form they choose. They most commonly appear as humanoids-the form in which people most easily imagine them but on an enormous scale. They often seem to be walking across the dome of the sky, with their feet disappearing just below the horizon. Any part of a god's body that isn't directly lit takes on the appearance of the starry night sky of Nyktheon. The gods sometimes also appear as animals or magical creatures, or they manifest in insubstantial forms like sunlight or wind. When physically present in the mortal world, a god is capable of devastating physical attacks, striking entire cities into oblivion or reshaping mountain ranges.
The power of the gods exceeds that of any mortal being. Even so, a god killing another god-let alone a mortal attempting the task-is virtually inconceivable. Any kind of direct confrontation against a god by mortals would require the assistance of at least one other god, and ideally more than one, to have any hope of success. A group of adventurers might try to convince a group of gods to lend their aid against a god who has become a threat to the mortal world, hoping to get thegods to band together to restrain or punish the offender. Deities of destiny and liminal spaces might be able to force a god into a physical form that doesn't fill the sky, which could enable adventurers to battle the god, especially if they have access to a divine weapon. But defeating the god in that form would merely weaken the deity, allowing other members of the pantheon to capture, bind, or punish them.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Gods / Deities can appear in any form that they like at any time they like, but they most often appear in humanoid forms as those are the forms most immediately recognizable to the mortals that revere them. That being said, it is rare for any god to appear in a humanoid form in a scale that is not astronomically large. Gods sometimes also appear in other forms, though, such as in the forms of other creatures, mythical beings, and/or natural phenomena.

Ecology and Habitats

Gods / Deities collectively reside in Nyktheon, the celestial realm of the gods whose underside is visible to mortals below in the mortal realm as the the night sky.
A paranormal realm associated with dreams and the subconscious, it is a literal and proverbial night sky where the gods dwell. Nyktheon is so closely tied to the world's deities that, whenever they manifest, where they should be shadowed they instead display the glorious starlight of the night sky. Dreams are seen as gifts from the gods, and so are enchantments, due to their connection with this realm; whenever mortals sleep, they are said to be "visiting Nyktheon." Tales of gods can be seen played out in the constellations overhead, specific to each region of the world where gods hold the greatest sway.
Besides gods, Nymphs are also formed/dwell in Nyktheon, as do other celestial entities and celestial versions of earthly creatures like elks and crabs. All dwellers of Nyktheon are living enchantments, formed from the collective subconscious and by the divine will of the gods. Creatures born in Nyktheon are referred as godborns, and their numbers have increased in recent years, as the boundaries between the night sky and the living world decreased.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Gods / Deities have no need for food, drink, or any other biological necessity which most other creatures require to survive.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

While gods are not omniscient or omnipotent, they do have incredibly fine perceptive and sensory capabilities that grant them the illusion of omniscience and omnipotence. Though they may not know everything in the universe or be all-powerful, they do have perfect recall when it comes to any experience of bit of knowledge they have.

Civilization and Culture

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Gods are best known for having particularly troublesome relations with two unique populations: Titans and Demons and Devils.
At the dawn of humanity, even before the gods, titans — horrific primal urges made flesh — roamed the mortal realm, sowing death and destruction in their wake. The mortals, powerless to defend themselves, turned to prayer in their hour of need. From this prayer and concentrated devotion sprang forth the gods themselves, who in return defended the mortals and engaged the titans in divine combat. Though it took many mortal lifetimes, the gods were able to triumph over the titans and imprison them in the darkest depths of the realms adjacent to the mortal realm, consigning them to fates of suppression and becoming distant mortal memories. The titans remain jailed today in their eternal extraplanar prisons, greatly weakened from being removed from the mortal plane where mortal primal urges could feed them and from being nearly erased from collective mortal memory, and the gods, particularly Kryphios the Hidden One, still act as their jailers, ensuring they never slip back across the horizon and terrorize the mortal realm again. 
In place of titans, though, demons and devils sprung up to replace them and fill the power vacuum left behind by their predecessors. Less powerful though more intelligent than the bestial titans, demons often represent and are the personifications of humanity's fears, darkest desires, and wickedest impulses, though some gods also embody or experience domain overlap with such things. Philosophers heatedly debate the differences between divinity and infernal natures with some of the most preeminent minds ultimately asserting that the distinction is one of origin: a god is a god not because it is inherently good but rather because it originates from Nyktheon while a demon is a demon not because it is inherently evil but because it originates from the infernal realms. Both are willed into existence by mortal belief and both are not confined to strict binaristic models of mortal morality. Devils, on the other hand, are far less powerful and nowhere near as ancient; in fact, they used to be mortals. Some are merely souls corrupted by the taint of demons while some are foul souls who can't let go of the miserable lives they led. Having been despicable in life, these spirits fester in death and their punished afterlives. The worst of these hateful dead, through ages of bitterness, gradually transform into fiends recognized by the people of Etheria as devils.

The celestial starfield of Nyktheon where gods manifest in the sky, enacting and reenacting their great feats.