Timeless Threats: Deity

Introduction

In the countless Worlds, some beings can only be classified as “deities”. These deities can produce calamities or work miracles on a grand scale. They have cults, sects, or entire religions dedicated to their worship, and priests of these sects can accomplish magical or miraculous feats. Sometimes these deities descent to earth in a mortal form or disguised as mortals, but most of the time their true bodies dwell in an earthly or extra-planar paradise of their own making. Only their senses, powers, and servants frequent the places where mortals dwell.

Appearance

Deities fashion themselves in the image of their worshipers, although that image can vary greatly. Some affect animal features or animal heads, while others’ “true forms” resembles a terrestrial animal, a blend of different animals, or a wholly unknown creature. The number of arms, heads, and faces can vary as well.

When mingling with mortals, a deity will generally resemble an average mortal flawlessly. Some wear the guise of a poor or maimed person to test the charity of mortals; others prefer the trappings of wealth as befits their divine status.

Tactics

Deities generally preside over or control one or more natural phenomena, human activities, or human ideals. In these areas of control, herein called Domains but also called “portfolios”, they cannot be equaled except by a superior god of the same Domain. Thus they attempt to move any contests with other gods to their own Domain.

The prime business of deities, however, is securing and increasing the numbers of their worshipers. For deities, worship is life and power; being neglected, shunned, or forgotten is death. Thus the host of deities in a particular World play a delicate game of increasing worship without overwhelming or intimidating their mortal worshipers.

To deities, mortals are merely numbers, or occasional amusement. A very rare deity indeed takes interest in individual mortals who are not key to their survival strategy.

Deity Characters

Extra Dice Needed: None

Deities seldom interact directly with mortals, although they may take an interest in Timeless whose immortality is so very near theirs. Thus Timeless the game defines Deities only in qualitative terms. Priests, miracles, messengers, and even incarnations are best left to the Host System.

The Deity Sheet

• Name: the Deity’s most common name.

• Epithets other names or epithets of the Deity.

• Worlds: one or more Worlds in which the Deity has a significant number of worshipers, perhaps under a different name.

• Domains: aspects of reality under the deity’s supervision or control.

• Rank: the deity’s relative power:

  • Demigod – a god who still retains their mortal form, albeit with enhancements like agelessness, and mingles with mortals.
  • Godling – a god newly emerged as a fully divine being, divorced from mortality but still in danger of extinction due to lack of belief.
  • Minor God – a god of some minor aspect of reality or a particular place or people.
  • Major God – a god of a significant aspect of reality or a large nation of worshipers.
  • Great God – the primary focus of a religion with hundreds of thousands, millions, or even billions of worshipers.
  • Elder God – a god with tenure, associated with a fundamental linchpin of reality who derives their existence from that reality, not worship.

• Corpus: location of the deity’s soul, mind, or main body:

  • Causal Plane – the plane of prophecies, outside time, which makes engaging with worshipers far more difficult.
  • Psychic Plane –_ the plane of purely mental phenomena, within time but without sensation, only pure thought.
  • Astral Plane – the most common plane for Deities, a place of illusory sensation and malleable reality without entropy or decay.
  • Corporeal Realm – part or all of a corporeal world dedicated entirely to the Deity’s repose and amusement.
  • Corporeal Titan – a colossal creature somewhere in corporeal reality as the true body of the Deity, no matter where its senses or spirit may roam.

• Location: name of the Deity’s home in the Astral Plane or a Corporeal World, possibly shared with other Deities.

• Manifestation: ways in which the Deity reveals itself to potential or current worshipers.

  • In Person – in complete, bodily form, which may require a disguise lest a mortal be overwhelmed or burned to ash.
  • Incarnation – as a mortal creature with a fragment of the Deity’s spirit.
  • Messenger – as another creature that carries messages from and to the Deity.
  • Miracle – as one or more unique occurrences inexplicable by natural means.
  • Priestly Power – as a group of mortals wholly dedicated to the Deity’s worship and service.
  • Voices / Visions – as messages delivered directly to mortals which may be dismissed as hallucinations.

• Appearance / Symbol: the deity’s traditional appearance, holy symbol, or anything else that distinguishes or identifies the Deity.

Special Abilities

Religions develop a plethora of rituals, traditions, myths, and legends about their deities. which player characters will encounter far more often than visits from the deity, their incarnations, or their direct messengers. An organized religion may become more significant an antagonist than its deity. Referees should develop these in as much detail required for the adventures player characters find themselves in.

Here we concern ourselves with what Deities actually do.

Deities In Person

Typically only demigods appear in person, as they have yet to shed their original mortal form and become entirely divine. A more mature deity may choose to concentrate all of themself in one form in order to spy on mortals, rather than depend on an incarnation, to make full use of their divine senses.

Wandering the mortal realm in person carries several risks for a deity. First and foremost, it pulls their attention away from their home realm. Who knows what the other deities may get up to in their absence. Second, there is a slight risk of some maniac with a god-killing weapon killing them, wholly and completely, while concentrated in the mortal realm. Spending time among mortals may also offend a deity’s senses, offend their dignity, lower their opinion of mortals, or lead to dalliances with the opposite sex that cause marital strife.

Incarnations are, all in all, safer.

Incarnations

Incarnations place a fragment of a deity’s consciousness in a mortal form, either created for that purpose or born naturally. Whether the incarnation has its own will or is wholly possessed by the divine consciousness is a thorny theological and ethical issue best left to others.

Incarnations may have mere mortal characteristics, but most deities prefer that their vessels have superhuman abilities to defend themselves and impress mortals in the rough-and-tumble mortal world. However, the more powerful the form, the more divine Numen the deity must expend. (We will not cover Numen here; suffice to say it is an energy exclusive to gods.) Then, too, one must consider the delicate mental balance of mortals: they may consider vessel too strong a monster, not the incarnation of a god.

A deity can split its consciousness among numerous incarnations at the same time. Most deities prefer to have at most one primary vessel and a few auxiliary vessels to use as messengers or delegates for convocations among gods.

Messengers

Instead of communicating directly to mortals, a Deity may employ enhanced animals, animal or human oracles, or servitor spirits. This avoids the mess of traveling to the mortal realm personally or as an incarnation, but does have risks of its own.

Divine thoughts relayed directly can overwhelm a mortal mind. Oracles therefore are prone to speak in riddles because the true message became garbled. (Oracles are also prone to substance abuse.) A Deity may therefore invest Numen in upgrading an animal or spirit to carry a direct message, but mortals often take fright at unusual circumstances like a talking animal or a sudden apparition.

If only there were a group of mortals who were used to the supernatural who could carry messages …

Miracles

Deities have experimented with showing, rather than telling, their messages through so-called “acts of gods”, i.e. miracles. Unfortunately, one mortal’s portent is another’s coincidence. Worse, mortals are prone, through stupidity or malice, to twist the meaning of a miracle to suit their own agendas.

If Deities want to expend their Numen doing good works, they may prefer to do so through mortals.

Priestly Powers

Most gods, not always willingly, rely on a priesthood of mortals to interpret and disseminate the will of the god to all the faithful, and possibly beyond to convert the heathens. To reinforce the message, the Deity grants his priests and priestesses supernatural powers.

(Many fantasy-based Host Systems have special rules for “priest” or “cleric” characters to use magic distinct from “magician” or “wizard” characters. If not, select a subset of spells as “divine” and give them to priests.)

Unfortunately, human perversity strikes again. Organizations of humans often fall to infighting, cliques, internal politics, and group-think. Without constant maintenance a priesthood can stray away from the Deity’s message and purpose to enshrine a person or rigid dogma instead of the deity’s own will. Worse, the old priesthood will oppress any new priesthood the god attempts to inspire.

Relics

Some Deities create Relics that carry on their purpose long after mortals return to dust. Relics, however, do not communicate well (or at all) and humans may use them for the wrong purposes. Even the will of a relic may be overridden. They cost a fair bit of Numen to produce, which even when extended over centuries make them prohibitively expensive, far out of the range of anything less than a major god.

Voices / Visions

Deities can speak to mortals directly, but doing so has, unsurprisingly, risks of its own. First, just like messengers, humans may misinterpret the visions and voices the deity sends. Even if they get the message right, they may not be believed, even when backed by judicious use of miracles. Humans being what they are, they may regard the Deity’s new prophet as a simple mad person, and either ignore them or lock them away.