Overbeing Organization in Waking Materia | World Anvil
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Overbeing

Gods Even Unto Gods

"Overbeing" is a general and poorly-defined term for deities that are at least multiplanar in scope. Usage varies depending on the cosmological knowledge of the speaker; The Author is aware of at least three "tiers" of multiplanar deities and reserves the term only for only the topmost members: The Tower and the Helix. Below this tier is the Daybreak God, followed by the powerful Void travelers who seek an end to Daybreak, namely the Rebel Gods. The Overbeings are also known as the True Deities, the Silent Gods or the Amatsukami.

As these true deities are more cosmologically distant than local gods, collection and distribution of Divine Quintessence within their churches tends to be done communally within regional churches, as opposed to unilaterally by the Overbeings themselves; as such, their churches tend to be more varied and prone to flux. These regional "personas" of true universal deities are sometimes called "Consilient Gods".

See also: Deities of Waking Materia by Domain  

On Modern Materia

The two predominant Overbeings on Waking Materia are Aios and Uhrmazd, who are thought by most interplanar scholars to be analogies of the universal gods the Helix and the Tower respectively. This conceptual distance makes Aios & Uhrmazd a particular type of divinity known as "Consilient Gods", wherein the divine power is contained locally and communally among their worshippers. (To be clear, this divine quintessence is no less real than any other; its distribution is just not beholden to a single god.)

The idea that gods can be from outside Waking Materia is rare. Churches of foreign, Voidwalker gods like Ina'ut, V'Shaat, the Lady of the Mountain, Merlinkainen and Galadnock mac-Kenzie have some inkling of their gods' otherplanar origins at the higher echelons, however they accept that Materia is truly their adopted home and do not place much importance on origins as opposed to motivations.

Similarly, churches of gods of knowledge like Tallari-Anaviri-Irallat and the Owl God are aware of the multiplanar nature of the Universe in their higher echelons, but also acknowledge these 'Overbeings' are largely uninvolved in local affairs, and therefore more a matter of scholarship than reverence.  

On First Age Materia

The antediluvian empires of Lorgaine and Rozsa brought with them knowledge of the The Tower and The Helix, however in both cases knowledge and worship of these beings was supressed in order to protect the divine right of the nations' god-emperors, collectively known as the Colonial Gods.

Part of how the Insurgent Gods combatted these god-emperors was to reignite belief in the Overbeings (who would eventually evolve into the modern personas of Aios & Uhrmazd) to erode the divine authority of these tyrants. The Archmage of the Insurgent Gods, Merlinkainen, was especially prolific in this regard, rarely appeareing as himself but rather moonlighting as a cleric of the Overbeings, performing many great miracles in their name.  

On Ancient Eridún

The nature of The Tower and the Helix were more well-understood in antiquities Eridún, and as such were worshipped for reasons more directly to do with their natures, e.g. The Tower as a patron of observation and neutrality; The Helix as a patron of flux, evolution and organic decay. Eridúns also worshipped more local deities on ideological grounds, even though they were not as powerful or wide in scope as the True Deities.

Profile art: Eridún artwork of The Watcher, an anthropomorphized persona of The Tower and root of its Material persona, Uhrmazd.

Art credit: Guillem Ferrer


Banner art: A depiction of Aios.

Banner art credit: Trungles

Type
Religious, Pantheon

Articles under Overbeing


Character flag image: by Guillem Ferrer

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