Material God

Masters of the Weave, Gods of Waking Materia

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See also: Deities of Waking Materia by Domain

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The Material Gods are the most powerful residents of Waking Materia, divine representatives of Material cultures, physical forces and phenomena. They are also known varyingly as the Waking Gods, the Tuatha and the Kunitsukami. In the First Age these gods were extraplanar Colonial or Insurgent, as well as a wide and largely forgotten array of Elder Spirits. As the millennia pass, they are increasingly Ascendant: Material mortals who achieved demigodhood in [un]life.

The Waking Gods are, in a sense, opposed by the Duskscape Regents, alien gods of concepts and possibilities. However, individual relationships between the Material and Duskscape gods (and indeed, relationships with each other), vary greatly. Rare tolerances and even partnerships notwithstanding, you will not find a Tuatha or Fomoraigh on the opposing side of the Veil without very good reason... individual gods are powerful but not infinitely so.

Though colloquially called "gods", they are demigods at best compared to the True Deities that rule over wider swaths of the Known Universe.

One is said to be able to detect an Ascendant being by perceiving their "Halation": reality is said to warp strangely about their heads, but in a way that we mortals can only see out of the corner of our eyes.

The most commonly worshipped of the Material Gods are the Pantheon of the People: a general term for the gods most sympathetic to Waking Civilizations.

Cosmology

The concept of Waking or Material Gods is not well defined. Materia is a relative backwater of a plane, with an overall poor understanding of the Weave, let alone the quintessential realities above and below it. Extraplanar scholars more familiar with divinity would only consider Material ascendants demigods at best, since they're tied so strongly to their home plane's well of Quintessence. This is especially true of the Waking gods who were born as mortals on Materia.

Chronology

Theo-historians sometimes attempt to rank the Material Gods by "order of appearance"; though there is a considerable volume of scholarship on the matter, the ranking is still approximate and heavily debated in parts. A list with a wide consilience is as follows:

The Overbeings

• Aios
• Umbraas

Unknown; Possibly Primordial or Extraplanar

• Ahm
• Tariel
• Raggedy Azra and the other Hecath Queens
• The Totem Kami of Marai

The Colonial & Insurgent Gods

• God-Emperor Inum'indiron'aravaut / Ina'ut and the Kelpeater Lichlords
• The God-Emperors Nir & Nef, and under them the immortal Vierices of New Rozsa
• Insurgent God V'Shaat al-Avra / V'Shaat
• Insurgent God Emeliat Reis / The Lady of the Mountain
• Insurgent God Merlinkainen
• Insurgent God Galadnock mac-Kenzie

The Early Ascendant Gods

1. Asphodel
2. Solonn
3. Kaleva
4. Silas
5. The Field Marshal
6. Morrigan
7. Ronom and Ranarim
8. Laila By-the-Sea
9. Shauku
10. Ninalta & Saint Ajora
11. Jarl Juulnir
12. The Skull Knight
13. Shelas Ob'Silexia
14. Zaffa the Idiot
15. Saint Frances Heronseye

The Later Ascendant Gods

1. The Great
2. Syr Gavvan Grimbold
3. Ababakar Octoflea
4. Olcadan of Dhund
5. Little Grandma

Higher Pantheons

The Colonial and Insurgent gods (ascendants originally from other planes) are less bound than native Materians, but still hold smaller spheres of influence than the Black Sun or the Rebel Gods, let alone the watchful overbeing Marelt Ekiran. These beings are sometimes called True Deities. Only very high-level Materian PCs or advanced scholars would have much knowledge of these pantheons, with average knowledge increasing as one gets closer to the Black Sun's core plane of Lotrim.

Banner (from left to right): V'Shaat, Insurgent goddess of fire; Lichlord Vierix Clymenikari of Nireau and Indus Fortesque, the mortal warrior who would eventually become the demigod of repentant monsters, The Skull Knight. They stand before The Holy City of Calm in Jura.

Banner image credit: Douglas P. Lobo

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Profile: A sketch of Emeliat Reis by an anonymous soldier, generally considered by historians to be genuine due to the make of the parchment. She is also portrayed with the slightly longer arms of a Ghent. The piece is dated to near the end of the Age of Ascension, prior to Fourth Impact. Reis was famously disdainful of her status as a demigod of war, and as such art of her was generally very plain to avoid her anger. This contrasts strongly with the prideful, religious pomp of The Lichlords and their portrayals.

Profile art credit: Eoghan Kerrigan

Type

Religious, Pantheon