Pantheon



= Overview =

Role of The Old Gods in the world
Arkhalea has a Pantheon consisting of 10 eternal, unknowable, and apathetic creator gods. Their unique characteristics form the foundational aspects of the world. While every race, culture, and cult claim to understand them, they are alien and unknowable. What each claims to know about The Ten tells you about them, not about The Ten. In this, they are perhaps the ultimate litmus test. The world is not defined by The Ten - the varying beliefs about The Ten define the world.

Role of the New Gods in the world
Most day-to-day divine encounters are with beings that were once mortal but became deities through the worship of their followers. As transient as The Ten are, the vast pools of belief must find some outlet, some form in the world. Thus are born The New Gods. Acting to harness some portion of The Ten, the New Gods demonstrate their divinity by being able to react to the worship of their followers. While their power is but a tiny fraction of The Ten, their ability to act in a manner understandable by mortals gives them great sway. Where The Ten are a supremely powerful yet incomprehensible and unreactive set of gods, the New Gods will grant prayers, demand sacrifices, and punish those they deem wicked.

While a massive asteroid might present a dire, world-ending threat, a pack of wolves outside will keep you up at night and demand your attention. Such are The Ten and the New Gods. One is a distant concept that few really understand or consider, yet which could end all life as is known and understood. The other could end your life tonight if it wishes and if you make a mistake. How do you pick which to worship? How do you pick one to pacify?

The answer is that you do not. You appease The Ten in hopes it makes a difference. You appease the New Gods knowing that if you do not, it might mean your end.

= The Old Gods =

The Old Gods are to us as a star is to us. There before us, there after us, but something that we can guide our lives by. Once adrift in the endless void of time and space, a chance meeting of The Ten created the world. In that brief instance it came into being: civilizations rose and fell, and Arkhalea lived out its days from beginning to end. For The Ten, it was a flicker in time. An interesting quirk where their energies merged for a brief second, interacting in new and interesting ways, before they departed again, to continue their journey through the cosmos. For the world, however, it was all of time.

These gods are not the gods that you and I know. They are not even the gods that Arkhalea thinks they know. A chance superposition of The Ten created all that any of Arkhalea will ever know. All that they could ever know and more. But for The Ten, it was a passing fancy. As much to us as a butterfly on a summer's day. There have been many, and there will be many more. Inconsequential albeit interesting and beautiful. A distant memory of a concept, and nothing more.

Arkhalea, however, sees The Ten as much more than this. To the beings of this world, these things are life itself. They are responsible for all that exists in the world. They are the Gods of Earth, Flame, Life, and the Sea and Sky. They are the Gods of Mystery, Power, Wonder, and Change. To deny The Ten is to deny Arkhalea itself. But when a Priest goes on about The God of Stasis, pay heed to what he says; For what he says tells you about him, not about the God he professes to understand. For none understand The Ten.

= The New Gods =

For many eras, Arkhalea existed and thrived. Some time, long after it was made, and long before it was destroyed, things became unbalanced. Known as The Falling by the beings of the world, this cataclysmic event represented the point at which The Ten separated and began their drift apart in the cosmos. It was at this juncture that the energy and divinity of the gods began to work in a slightly different way. Where The Ten once commanded all worship, their departure allowed other beings to begin to rise in power. Mere specks to them but heroes to Arkhaleans, beings of great power began to be able to harness belief and worship. Kobolds worshiping a dragon meant nothing before, but after The Falling, this belief had nowhere to go. Instead, that focus of their belief, that dragon, that warrior, that living stone came to life. Nowhere near the power of The Ten, that New God could react to its followers, something The Ten never could. And reacting to and drawing in power is all that is needed for a God to be born.

The New Gods are all similar in this way; beings that have come to power through devotion, required to address the cause that brought them to divinity. To fail is to die. To succeed is to become immortal; at least for the duration of Arkhalea, which exists due to the tiniest interaction of The Ten.

What causes do these New Gods champion? Often, it is that of semantics. Lawful Good. Chaotic Evil. True Neutral. From the standpoint of The Ten, some odd concept that makes little sense. What do you understand of the motivation of a butterfly, after all? What do you recall of the motivation of a butterfly ten years later? That is how The Ten perceive the motivations of the New Gods. For the people of Arkhalea, it may mean life and death. It might be even more important than life and death.

It is a matter of perspective, after all. And none have the perspective that The Ten do.