NOTE: This page is very much in beta. Rules for how to select aspects are missing, as are several other areas. Expect updates in the next few days, and as we play test.
Our sector is littered with religions. Most worship dead gods, but that can still entail very real power. If those followers accumulate enough worship and magic their god can and will be reborn, sometimes with the reincarnated soul of the original deity.
For me personally gods have always been mythical, and larger than life. Then I discovered an archive aboard the Flame of Knowledge that totally changed my view. During the reign of the dragonflights gods were assigned classifications, and they had an extremely well-documented system for identifying and categorizing every known god. There are even primers for prospective gods on how to attain divinity.
Each god had a Natural Divinity rating, explained below. They also possessed a Worship rating. Worship adds directly to a deity's divinity score, which gods use to create covenants, and to grant or perform miracles.
Collectively a god's Natural Divinity, and Worship are referred to simply as divinity. If a god had a six NA, and a 4 W, then they'd have a 10 divinity.
Natural Divinity Scale
0 = Demigod (6-9 magic)
1 = Minor god or fragment of a true god
5 = Lesser god or large fragment of a true god
10 = True god or fragment of a greater god.
25 = Greater god or fragment of a titan
50 = World Devourer or large fragment of a titan
100 = False Titan
Attaining Divinity
Any mortal can ascend to divinity, which is both terrifying and inspiring. Every god, no matter how old, began as a mortal, unless we're talking about the original titans.
The quick and easy way to become a god is to ingest divinity. When the new Lady of Light arose she ascended by drinking a literal pool of life magic. That granted her several points of initial divinity. From there Voria gained more divinity in the second way, the pyramid scheme, aka worship.
After a god attained their first point of divinity they may create covenants. A covenant is a spiritual highway, which transmits worship to the deity, and allows the deity to pass back uses of a miracle.
For a mortal to ascend to godhood without ingesting divinity they must first become a minor god by going to 10 Catalysts. This allows them to begin receiving worship, and grants them their first point of Natural Divinity, though they cannot yet grant covenants.
If they can find 10,000 faithful willing to accept a covenant, then the strength of those follower's prayers will cause the minor god to ascend to full godhood, with enough strength to answer.
Permanent versus Temporary Divinity
Permanent divinity determines a god's overall power level. It caps the number of miracles they can grant, the strength of their spells, and the types of divine miracles they can perform. Increasing permanent divinity is a new god's first priority, especially in our sector.
Obtaining indirect worship is fairly easy if you have some power and a social media account. Capitalizing on that worship to perform divine miracles is something else entirely.
Every god works to form a core of true believers who take a covenant, and grant the god the bedrock of their power. Smart gods treat these core followers with reverence and respect, and are always looking to increase the size of the flock.
During the reign of the dragonflights all eight flights had trillions of true believers, and quadrillions filled their coffers with indirect worship.
In practice a god gets their permanent divinity score from a combination of worship and whatever divinity they've ingested from another source, if applicable.
Any time a god gains a permanent divinity it also refills their temporary divinity, and many gods plan around utilizing this phenomenon. The only other ways to regain temporary divinity are through worship, or through performing a Divine Deed.
Natural Divinity & the Circle of Eight
Natural divinity is pure primal magic. This is the raw building blocks of the universe. All gods have Divinity ratings in one or more aspects, and their Natural Divinity is the sum of those totals.
For example Lady Voria has 5 life. Her natural divinity is 5. Krox had 30 spirit, 10 fire, and 5 void. His Natural Divinity was 45.
Whenever a god gains natural divinity they will need to record the specific type. Some miracles require a specific aspect, though many do not and can be performed by any god. Note that any time a god obtains divinity, they may choose to transmute it to their primary type.
Most gods centralize their power in one aspect, at least until they hit 10 and can start qualifying for the really broken miracles. However, after that point they tend to branch out, as Krox did.
Direct Worship
Direct worship requires a covenant between god and mortal. The mortal swears a vow to adhere to certain tenets, and the god usually (but not always) agrees to grant miracles in return. When this bond is created the mortal is tithing a portion of their belief, their spiritual power, directly to the god. You can see the miracles in this book, or the main book, as examples.
Only the most dedicated followers will pay this cost, which means that a deity's true believers are incredibly important. They are the influencers who build the religion. They are paladins, and soulcatchers, and influencers.
You gain permanent divinity when you reach the following milestones. Note that these bonuses are not cumulative. Think of direct worship as the size of the cup, and indirect worship as the spiritual energy that fills it. Note that all true believers also count as followers, and thus provide both direct and indirect worship.
1 Worship = 10,000 true believers
2 Worship = 100,000 true believers
3 Worship = 500,000 true believers
4 Worship = 1 million true believers
5 Worship = 10 million true believers
6 Worship = 100 million true believers
7 Worship = 1 billion true believers
8 Worship = 10 billion true believers
9 Worship = 100 billion true believers
Indirect Worship
Indirect Worship can be unintentional, and much diffused. The things sentient beings believe are true, are true, if enough people believe them. Gravity exists as it does because sentients all over every galaxy have studied it thoroughly, and agreed that it does. If you wiped all gravity-believers out across all of reality, then it would be possible for a titan to alter the law of gravity.
In practical terms the more people who are aware of you, the more indirect worship you receive. Once you gain enough followers on social media, or believers (not necessarily worshippers), then you begin receiving temporary divinity via the following scale. A god may hold a number of temporary divinity equal to their divinity.
1 Temp Divinity /
Year = 10,000 followers
Quarter = 100,000 followers
Month = 500,000 followers
Week = 10 million followers
Day = 100 million followers
Hour = 1 billion followers
The deity gains one additional divinity per hour per each extra billion followers they possess. Note that any divinity beyond their pool maximum is lost.
Divine Deeds
Ten thousand followers is a lot of people to convince you're worth noticing, much less following. This means that many new gods are restricted to one point of temporary divinity, and once it's spent they have no followers to refill it.
A god may choose to perform a divine deed in order to gain temporary divinity. A divine deed represents an act that the universe itself recognizes. Killing another god might be the most barbaric. Making something truly wondrous and unique is another.
A deed need not be known to grant divinity, and gods like Inura used this to great effect by making a string of divinely empowered eldimagi. Each time he completed one it granted divinity, which he spent to empower his creations.
The game master has final say on what an appropriate deed might be, but it should fit the type of god you represent. If you're a war god, then expect to murder something impressive in order to receive divinity. The average person would need to go...holy crap...he actually beat that thing? How?
Many smart gods, especially war gods, have figured out that the Arena and the SEIZURE social media platform are excellent ways to achieve deeds. Many demigods and gods fight on a galactic stage, with millions or even billions of viewers.
Smashing a war god on stage is an excellent deed, and a way to gain additional followers.
Uses for Temporary Divinity
Granting miracles- All deities have a daily upkeep. Worshippers pray for miracles, and if a god who cannot answer them loses worshippers very quickly. Each god must keep a reservoir on hand to answer prayers. In practice this means that gods never spend their last point of temporary divinity, or the GM may rule that their religion downgrades.
Amplifying Spells- The most common use for divinity is spell amplification. A god may spend temporary divinity to make any spell they cast a Divine Spell. Divine Spells either have vastly increased effectiveness (a spell doing far more damage), or vastly increased area of effect (a counterspell dispelling all bindings on an entire planet).
Performing Divine Miracles- Gods can directly influence reality. They decide something is so, and it is. Maybe they need a planet to move from one star to another. Maybe they need to extinguish a name so that no one in the universe can recall it. The more powerful the need, the more expensive the miracle. If the cost is high enough, then the deity may pay a permanent divinity instead. This point comes from Natural Divinity first, or worship if they have no Natural Divinity remaining.
Covenants & Miracles
Creating a Covenant- A god may spend temporary divinity to create one or more covenants, which they may choose to bestow upon faithful followers. The faithful bear the complete cost of installing the covenant, which costs the god nothing. Providing miracles to followers does cost a god, however, so most young gods find themselves able to do little else while initially building their religions.
Granted Miracles- Gods may purchase miracles exactly as mortals do. The only difference is that in addition to being able to use that miracle themselves they can also grant its use to anyone bearing a covenant.
Divine Miracles- Below you'll find the costs for both lesser and greater miracles. All gods can perform either, however a GM can always rule that a miracle is simply beyond the reach of a god. This is especially true of weaker gods. Even if they sacrifice a permanent point of divinity there is only so much a weak god can accomplish.
Lesser Divine Miracle Costs
1 TD = affect an entire city with a spell or change (up to magnitude 3)
2 TD = affect an entire continent (M3), or a city (magnitude 6)
3 TD = affect an entire planet (M3), or a continent (magnitude 6)
4 TD = affect an entire planet with a magnitude 6 spell or change
1 TD = Make a divine spell selective to exclude targets
1 TD = Make a spell divine. All dice are automatic successes, and the spell cannot be countered unless by a divine counterspell. If the spell does damage increase it by the god's total divinity.
1 TD = Make a counterspell divine
Greater Divine Miracles Cost
5 TD = Make a fundamental alteration to reality. A name is instantly forgotten everywhere. Everyone in the sector wakes up remembering the same dream. GM has final say on what change is possible.
10 TD / 1 PD = Create something wholly new in our reality. This is a monumental act. Fabricate a planet, or bring one from another reality into our own. Most of the miracles used in the novels fall under this classification, and cost those gods dearly. As always GMs may rule some acts too great even with the expenditure of permanent divinity.
2 PD = Empower a divine eldimagus
3+ PD = Shape a primal into a new life form with a magnitude equal to the divinity spent. Once this template is created all untyped primals in your vicinity will begin to share it
5+ PD = Create a Catalyst with a rating equal to the permanent divinity spent, - 1
The Rite of Ascension
It is possible for weaker gods to grow stronger directly through worship. The simple explanation for a complex ritual is that you convince your followers that you are stronger than you are, they believe it, and you become stronger. You consume permanent Worship, and grow in Natural Divinity.
The advantages of performing such rites are that they centralize power in the hands of the god, and remove the dependence on their religion. They also make it possible to exploit cults. Grow your following to 10,000, and then have them drink the poison punch and pledge their souls to you. The point of permanent worship becomes natural divinity, and your Divine Spirit grows by 1.
You create a new cult, grow it to 10,000, and do it again. Ruthless, but hey most necromancer-gods aren't known for their retirement plans.
Rite's of Ascension aren't always so dark. If you are a life god you might declare a holiday where your followers revel and couple, and the children born of that night are blessed heroes, born with life magic.
Your religion downgrades in size as the unpaid alimony and child support mount, but then fifteen years later the heroes rise, powerful children of the life god. You gain Natural Divinity, but lose Worship. Pro-tip make the night of revelry part of your back story so you don't have to wait 15 years in game.
The rite is almost always a structured event planned long in advance (sometimes decades or centuries), but sometimes history takes an active hand and gods ascend in the middle of combat. If you're watching a battle play out on Quantum, and see a fire god battling demon hordes, then you and millions like you believing your champion will win could cause them to do so.
Xal'Aran, the famed demon prince, and probably most well known hero in our sector, has milked the shit out of this process. He's fought and won multiple battles on camera, and each time has cashed in worship, and walked out with more natural void divinity. You can see him getting stronger, month after month.
One has to wonder how many demonic worshippers he has on Xal. Looks like you've got some catching up to do.
Granting Catalyzations
With great power comes the ability to give others great power. How much power can you give? What does it cost you? I'm glad you asked.
The archive was clear on how this worked. There is a transactional cost to bestowing non-trivial power. For a strong god granting a Catalyzation costs nothing. For a weak god it will cost permanent divinity. Here's how it works.
1-4 Divinity (Minor god or fragment of a true god)
May grant lesser Catalyzations in their Divine Aspect(s). Every 10 Catalyzations will reduce your Natural Divinity in that score by 1.
Note that while the system doesn't have them get weaker until the 10th Catalyzation the god can feel themselves losing strength each time they grant one.
5 = Lesser god or large fragment of a true god
May grant lesser Catalyzations in their Divine Aspect(s). Every 25 Catalyzations will reduce your Natural Divinity in that score by 1.
10 = True god or fragment of a greater god.
May grant greater Catalyzations in their Divine Aspect(s). Every 100 Catalyzations will reduce your Natural Divinity in that score by 1.
25 = Greater god or fragment of a titan
May grant greater Catalyzations in their Divine Aspect(s). Each 100 Catalyzations costs 1 temporary divinity.
50 = World Devourer or large fragment of a titan
May grant greater Catalyzations in their Divine Aspect(s). Catalyzations carry no cost.
100 = False Titan
Can do pretty much whatever they want. Are you going to tell them no?
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