Faith, Worship and Gods

Faith, Worship and Gods
Creator The great Dreamer, the Imaginer or Worlds
Type Apocalyptica

Note: Pretty much everything herein is for player musings only.

Faith and Worship

When a creature of enough sentience performs a rite of the Prime plane Faith is created, an energy that ties all of Creation together. Perhaps the very energy of Creation. Faith does not flow freely as every rite has a recipient, often a God or some other Divine being. The creator of Faith cannot be the recipient, you cannot Worship yourself. While there aren't strict requirements of who or what the recipient can be there is a requirement that Faith cannot exist on the Prime plane. When it is created it is done so on the Ethereal plane. If there isn't a Divine being as the recipient it will be banked in what can be imagined as a leaking bucket. The Faith that leaks out dissipates back out into Creation. In the instances where enough Faith is being banked a God will manifest.

Worship is a collection of "standardised" rites and together with doctrine forms a religion. This means two rites can be done for fertility but the faith is generated to different gods as Worship is different. When Worship is "close enough" similar rites can have the same recipient, the Abrahamic religions for example would generate Faith to the same recipient.

Usurpation of Faith

In transit and when banked, which also happens when the God is not on the Ethereal plan, Faith is vulnerable to being Usurped by other Divine beings. It literally can be and often is stolen.

The importance of the act of Worship

Without worship there is no Faith and with no Faith divinity starves and Gods die.

Divine beings

A Divine being is just a creature that is capable as being the recipient of Faith. This ranges from Gods to Creation taken life (Titans) to "Creation spillover" (Elemental spirits and Spirits of Creation). Also souls of sentient beings can in some cases be classified as Divine beings, in general they will have to have had impact in life.

Categories of Divine beings

Gods - Divine beings that are recipients of faith and has a place in the Celestial Bureaucracy.
Titans - When creation happens it is common for the energies involved to create sentience spontaneously. When this happens a Titan is born, a child of Creation itself. The younger a world is the more Titans remain as they die as the world ages.
Daemons - The Ethereal plane is home to other beings than Gods, all those who dwell outside of the Celestial Bureaucracy are considered to be Daemons. Viscous, vile and jealous creatures they hunger for the sweet, sweet Faith that leaks out from the Celestial Bureaucracy.
Devils - While technically a subset of Daemons the Devils require their own category as the Invisible Hand that keeps the Celestial order uplifted some Daemons to serve as gatekeepers of the Celestial Bureaucracy and their enforcers. Few Devils can walk the Celestial Halls but none are allowed to reside within them.
Elemental spirits
Spirits of Creation
Souls

Godhood

God is a generic term denoting a Divine with a residence and place in the Celestial Bureaucracy. A Divine being on the other hand is just a being acting as a recipient of Faith.

Achieving Godhood is as simple as enough Faith being directed towards a Diving being or idea/concept and it manifesting itself within the Celestial Bureaucracy. The new God manifests as a representation of the doctrine they are Worshipped for. Gods does not need a will of their own and generally Gods born from "nothingness", as a manifestation of an idea for example, does not have one. However it is common for the manifestation to be an honoured ancestor, in which case much of the personality and memory manifest with it. Another common origin is that of a worshipped spirit, like the Great Eagle Soaring High. Gods manifesting from Divine Beings will generally have the beings' home plane changed to the Ethereal plane as they take up residence within the Celestial Bureaucracy. This act is called Ascendency.

The Celestial Bureaucracy

Influence on the Prime Plane

Avatars

Killing a God

Killing a God is easy in theory, all that is needed to be done is making sure it is no longer Worshipped. Well rather making sure it is no longer a recipient of Faith. How this is done depends of the usurper's means and motivations. It can range from genocidal slaughter and prosecution of believers to inserting itself or an agent as an interceptor of the Faith. Key is, which needs to be reiterated, a God can only die (loose Godhood) if it is starved of Faith. Divine being that Ascended to Godhood will upon being stripped of Godhood be kicked out of the Celestial Bureaucracy and often forced back to it's previous home plane. At that point the former God has no special protections anymore and is just as vulnerable as before Ascension.

Secret stuffs

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