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The Courts Of The Gods

Creation is filled with gods. Thousands of them slip around the edges of the world, resting in the Spirit World or travelling to Heaven, working to maintain the world and to expand their own domains at the expense of their compatriots; but always (or at least usually) with politeness, with unspoken rules followed and truces maintained. Gods are not always kind, but they are rarely truly vile – as they are tied to the hopes of humanity, they must become extremely corrupt to be monsters.

Gods were not originally required for the maintenance of Creation, and the world might still go on without them, but with the Primordials mostly sealed away, the mechanisms that kept Creation intact and functional have weakened; because of this, most gods spend a great deal of time simply keeping things running, and a great deal more relaxing and enjoying this new world of theirs. Ambitious gods keep other gods on their toes, shifting the balance of the status quo, but there is rarely any serious shift in the power dynamic.

In all, there are four tiers of godly might. These tiers have gradually grown, but centuries of worship and tradition ensure that they are not likely to change, barring a catastrophic war in Heaven.

The Incarna

At the top of the godly pyramid are the Five Celestial Incarna. These great gods are the pinnacles of the Five Courts, the ultimate incarnations of humanity’s hopes and dreams. Their power is greater than any other god’s, and they divide between them all the things that a god might represent.

It is thus ironic that two of the five Incarna are not gods at all, but Primordials. During the choosing war, a small number of Primordials, enamoured of humanity and annoyed with their brethern, chose the side of the gods instead of their kin. The greatest of these were Gaia and Autochthon, whose power and wisdom guaranteed them positions of leadership at the war’s end. Despite their natures, neither Primordial holds themselves superior to the gods – and in truth, the other Incarna are grateful for the assistance, as it gives them insight into Creation’s workings that they would not otherwise have.

The Incarna are all Essence 8, with the exception of Gaia, who is Essence 9.

The Exemplars

Each of the Incarna has five gods working for them, gods who sum up the nature of their patron Court. They are all pure gods, representing a specific thing or concept without significant overlap, and each serves only one of the Incarna. As with the Incarna, three of these twenty-five beings are Primordials, although not all three actually serve Primordials. Each Court gives their Exemplars a different name and theme, which grew up naturally as a mixture of human worship and godly prodding pushed them into certain forms and ideas.

The Exemplars are always Essence 7, even the three Primordial ones.

The Divinities

Most gods fall into the third category of power – the Divinities. At this level, Courtly organization becomes increasingly fluid, with every god being related to a number of concepts and ideas. All of the Divinities are gods of a physical object, substance, or creation, but they are also the gods of ideas, thoughts, transformations, and the like. Because of this, each Divinity is associated with a single Exemplar of every Court, regardless of which court they feel that they belong to. Plutus, Lord of Gold, is a god of the physical substance gold, but also of wealth and greed. He is associated with the Courts of Conviction, Substance, Humanity, Serenity, and Earth. However, due to his nature, he considers himself to be a member of the Court of Conviction, answering ultimately to the Unconquered Sun. Divinities occasionally move from one court to another, if they feel it will better advance their interests.

As an additional complication, two or more gods may have purviews that overlap. For example, the Court of Wood contains both a God of Forests and a God of Trees. While forests contain many plants and animals besides trees, and trees may also grow in swamps, jungles, and so on, the two gods will often bicker over who is due worship. It is from these rifts that rivalries and enemy cults arise in Creation.

Again, there are a small number of Primordials within the Divinities. In general, about 1 in 10 of the Divinities are actually Primordials, masking themselves as gods. Gods are always aware of the difference – and at this level there is occasional, although infrequent, bias and bickering because of it – but only the most highly-trained mortals can tell them apart.

The Divinities have varying power levels depending on how much they are worshipped, and how large their doman is. They have Essence levels from 4 to 6.

The Servitors

Weakest of the gods, servitors are always attached to a given Divinity, and follow them from Court to Court, serving their needs. Sometimes, servitors exist for a specific task – the Lord of Vengeance, for example, has a dozen Furies as his servitors, who can be called upon to hunt mortals who have wronged the summoner. At other times, a servitor might exist to represent a concept that has a few followers, but not enough to fulfill a Divinity – for example, Nurbaque, Lord of Gemstone, has his own Gemstone Court, with a score of servitors representing individual gems or types of gems. (Currently, only the Diamond Lord is separate from the gemstone court, and Nurbaque would be very interested in bringing him back into the fold). A Divinity might have no servitors, or he could have as many as thirty or forty. Servitors are almost never Primordials, but it has happened – perhaps 1 in 500 servitors are actually Primordials, not gods.

Servitors are rated at Essence 2 to 3, depending on their natures.