The Consensus

Before the beginning of time the cosmos was an empty gray void.  The gods beheld a realm into which they could exercise their divine creativity.  A number of deities recognized that creatures like unto themselves would soon be created and saw that a conduit would be necessary to connect the Prime realms to the planes of the gods. These gods decided to work together to create a world within the Prime as a joint venture, and to ensure that this world would act as a passageway into the Outer Planes.  This was the origin of the Consensus.
The progenitor deities met and focused their divine powers onto a single point in space.  From that point in space the primal energies flowed and tessellated outward and the primal essences began to take shape.  Matter and time flowed downward from that single point to create a pillar, and at the base of the pillar a wide platform that the deities found themselves standing upon as they poured their essences into the creation of a world.  Around the platform, ideas rooted in the nature of the divine essences began to take physical shape.  Mountains, deserts, water, and forests all came into being as the gods set the initial parameters for their experiment.
The gods then began working on minutiae, but regardless of an individuals efforts all concepts were voted on by the Consensus before they could be implemented into the world.  A concept could be introduced by an individual god and the combined Consensus would vote; a concept could be approved, conditionally approved, or denied.  A concept that was approved would be introduced into  the world and individual gods could implement variations on it to their liking.  A conditionally approved concept would be created as a proof of concept, but would not be allowed to be implemented for reproduction or modification until it received a full approval from the Consensus.  Denied concepts were banished from of Possibility and could not be implemented.
As the world developed the gods also saw the need to define their responsibilities and the scope of their domains.  It was decided that the Divine Spark would be the principal method of defining what is a god.  Any being in possession of a Divine Spark would have access to a portfolio and the right to a vote within the Consensus.
Divine portfolios were able to be divided and cross-sectioned so that deities would be responsive to local concerns.  A god could possess dominion over all waters, or only over seas or oceans.  A local deity could hold multiple portfolios, such as by being the god of a great river and of all marriages celebrated within its basin.  Gods could form cabals, such as deities of water, deities with mercurial natures, or deities worshipped in a specific geographic area; these cabals could act as powerful interest groups within the consensus.  Most importantly, a god could sponsor another being coming into godhood by granting a splinter of divine power.  A being could become a god by seizing a divine spark and assuming responsibility for that portfolio, as well.
Finally, when the rules of the Consensus were established, the gods went about populating Orbis with concepts.  A number of gods rebelled against the rules of the consensus and were named Titans.  The rebels warred against the Consensus but were overthrown and found their divine sparks stripped from them.  However, since these were primordial creatures, they remained incredibly powerful within their former domains, so the Consensus imprisoned them in Tartarus and decreed that they would no longer be given access to Orbis.