Gods

Gods

Gods in Duela exist through belief, authority, origin, and the imprinting logic of The Essence. Not all gods are the same kind of being. The differences between them are real and consequential: they affect power, vulnerability, requirements for continued existence, and relationship to The System.

Types of gods

Original Gods

The oldest gods. They did not ascend and were not worshipped into existence. They emerged directly from the Essence, shaped by the imprint the Old God left before there were any mortal minds in Duela to believe in anything.

Original Gods are more powerful than later gods and hold higher authority over the Essence. They cannot be killed. They do not require worship to continue existing.

They are few, ancient, and mostly separate from the day-to-day religious life of Duela's mortal races.

Precursor Gods

Gods who ascended before modern mortalkind came into being. They emerged after the disappearance of the Proto-Hyu and before the current mortal races were established.

Precursor Gods occupy a middle tier: more powerful than New Gods, but not as foundational as Original Gods. Hauru is the most significant Precursor God in the current era.

New Gods

Gods who ascended after The System was in place and mortal civilization existed. New Gods are made through Ascension: a process requiring sufficient authority over the Essence, a high enough level, and a class brought into being by being perceived as divine.

Most New Gods were once mortal. Ascension prolongs their existence and grants them power expressed differently between individuals. Their continued existence depends on worship. A god whose followers fall away weakens and may eventually cease to be.

New Gods can enact miracles using levels as a tool. They are always aware of the System and can use it to partial advantage. They can bestow classes, though doing so carries side effects.

The line between a very powerful mortal and a newly ascended god is sometimes blurry.

Conceptual Gods

Gods who embody a concept, such as war, knowledge, love, or health, and hold partial authority over it.

Conceptual Gods typically emerge from collective need rather than individual Ascension. When enough people direct belief toward a concept and want something to govern it, the Essence may produce a god to fill that role.

Conceptual godhood is contested and fragmented. There is no single God of War or Goddess of Knowledge for all of Duela. There are many regional and cultural figures who hold pieces of those domains, sometimes overlapping, sometimes in tension with each other. Writers creating new gods in this category have significant room to work.

Local and regional gods

Gods whose domain and worshipper base are geographically or culturally limited. A village guardian, a river deity, a god of a single craft tradition.

Local gods are the most common type of god in Duela and the least documented. Most mortal religious life is conducted with local gods rather than the major figures known across the continent. They vary enormously in power, personality, and origin.

This is the category most open to writers. A story set anywhere in Duela can introduce a local god without contradicting anything established.

Properties of godhood

Across types, certain properties are shared by gods in general:

• Godhood prolongs existence and grants power, expressed differently between individuals.
• Gods are aware of The System to at least some degree, unlike most mortals.
• Gods can enact miracles using levels.
• Gods can bestow classes, though this influences the world itself and carries side effects.
• New Gods and Conceptual Gods require worship to sustain their existence. Original Gods do not.

Major divine figures

These are the gods and divine figures with dedicated wiki pages. Individual pages contain full descriptions.

• Old God ("Jerry") - the being who installed the System and left the imprint that shaped creation. Not a god in the usual sense; categorized separately.
• Hauru - Precursor God, the Accursed. Origin of the vampire lineage. Lives under her mountain.
• The Stranger - eyeless wanderer of unknown origin. Grants gifts to individual mortals for reasons of his own. His mechanism of power is unresolved.
• Julietta - Goddess of Love. Granted all Proto-Hyu descendants the ability to procreate regardless of difference.
• Grimkr / Grimekar - Chief God of the Orckin. Symbolizes strength, battle, and survival.
• Aerendir - Creator God of Elvenkind. Kind-hearted trickster who made elves out of love.
• Lyon - patron god of the Lion-folk.
• Ryuuga - Dragon of Eternity, main deity of Ezuna.

Notes for writers

Writers may create new gods freely, particularly local gods, Conceptual Gods, and recently ascended New Gods.

A few things worth keeping in mind:

Conceptual godhood is culturally fragmented. If a story introduces a God of Justice, that god holds partial authority over justice in a region or culture. There is no contradiction with another story's regional God of Justice. Both can exist. Neither is the God of Justice for all of Duela.

Local gods do not need to be consistent across stories. A village's guardian spirit described one way in one story and differently in another is not a contradiction. Local religious life in Duela is diverse, undocumented, and variable.

Major established gods should not be casually rewritten. Hauru, Grimkr, Aerendir, Julietta, and the other named figures on this page have material other writers depend on. A story may use them, but should treat them as described on their wiki pages.

A god created in a story belongs to that story's canon by default. If other writers build on it, it may over time become part of Living canon. See Canon Structure.