Dusty Pages - The Gods

The gods are beings who are largely responsible for the form, and "creation" of the world humans live in.

Well, they didn't create it so much as organize it, taking the primordial chaos reigning there and shaping it in a fashion suitable for life.

Origins
In the Dusty Pages universe, there are three recorded origins for deities:

Descendents of Giants
A lot of gods, including the majority of the twelve major deities in the DP-verse, are actually the offspring of titans, who are, in turn, the offspring of giants - some of the mortal enemies of the gods.

Giants are primitive, crude embodiments of major forces of nature, often thoughtless with very rare exceptions. Titans embody more sophisticated elements, but are still in violent friction with each other. Gods see themselves as being more refined than their ancestors (a statement that is party true, and partly divine hubris of high caliber), and therefor fled their realms to find one where they could rule comfortably.

Gods of the higher realms of Yggdrassil
These beings come from realms of mind and spirit. While they're not the same race as the sons and daughters of titans, they share all the traits that define them as gods. The only difference is that they tend to have more trouble understanding the crude, natural ways of the world, while on the offset, tend to be more peaceful and support higher ideas.

Gods born from the humans
The rarer kind of god, and often considered "minor" deities: these gods are either ascended humans, or the result of humans "taming" the world, until it's impossible for things to be the way they were prior to humanity's intervention.

Nature and powers
A god or goddess is defined, as opposed to other beings, by the presence of ALL these defining elements:
 * 1) A connection to a natural or cosmic force (representing an element, an emotion, or an idea, such as fire, water, love, hate, war, peace.)
 * 2) Being un-aging and relatively immortal. Gods are not subject to aging, and they do not die by conventional means. While there are ways of killing gods, they are extremely exceptional and almost always limited to beings of equal power to them.
 * 3) Gods possess a quality known as "glory." As in mesopotamian mythos, this is a unique and exclusive thing to gods: while hard to describe, it's a literal aura of radiance that inspires submission or admiration from less powerful beings. Gods can literally "turn it off". This radiance is also why gods cannot be sullied: if you thrust a bucket of mud to them, it will not stick to their bodies, and spiritually, the reason why gods remain incorruptible to chaotic influence - serving as a sort of barrier that lets them travel through unorganized, chaotic realms.
 * 4) Gods have bodies of their own. Unlike cacodemons, gods don't need to possess someone to manifest in a corporeal manner. These bodies are rarely human-looking, and can sometimes be too much for human senses to comprehend: seeing a god's true body may drive a person mad, or at least, freak them the hell out.
 * 5) Gods have Names. Unlike Chaos beasts, gods have actual names, and had them even before humans existed. In this regard, gods usually have multiple given names, but only one, true, secret Name. Mortals must know any of the given names in order to tap into them as a magic source, but any mortal who knows their true Name would be able to practically command that deity - something gods don't particularly enjoy.
 * 6) The power of gods is opposite to that of chaotic beings. In an elemental rocks-pape sort of way, the power of the gods is highly effective on chaotic beings.
 * 7) Gods are affected by worship and ideas. A lot of worship will grant a god greater powers. However, gods are NOT rendered powerless if they lose all their worshippers. Furthermore, gods who are tied to certain ideas (specially social ones, such as war or the hearth) will be changed depending on the collective view of those ideas as well.
 * 8) Gods can take mortals who gain their favor to separate afterlives either within or outside the Underworld. However, gods who do this claim the mortal with a living body, effectively 'rapturing' them - for ALL souls must go to the underworld. "Killing" a divine favorite will send their soul to the underworld, with no god having any chance to reclaim it.
 * 9) Gods have a different psychology than humans. Gods see things people don't, and think in ways people don't. A god's behavior can, thus, be entirely incomprehensible to human beings.
 * 10) Gods who spend time in Midgard become more humane. One of the most notorious qualities of the gods: their very creation affects them. The longer a god remains in the land of humans, the more it will start to feel and act in a human fashion. Leaving Midgard will make this effect slowly erode away, but the memories still remain, and gods are always changed by it.

If a god or goddess is killed, the element they represent is not destroyed, but simply has "no manager" for a while. Once upon a time, this could be a major problem, and the death of a god meant that chaos took over its element again, but the gods created a curious safeguard in humanity: if a god dies, the wide-spread belief in what they represented, combined with the psychic remains of the god among all those who knew and understood their nature, "preserves" the way things are (with some limited, if tragic changes, such as long, cruel winters if a spring god dies, for example) until a new embodiment for the unoccupied role takes control.

Powers
Each god has powers exclusive and tied to their nature. A love god can induce affection or faction, for example, an ability that a war god doesn't have. However, there are some powers generally present in all deities:
 * 1) Teleportation. Gods can travel from one place to another in the blink of an eye.
 * 2) Ubiquity. Gods can be present in more than one place at once. However, this is seen as "multitasking:" gods have finite minds and cannot mind everything at the same time.
 * 3) Creation or materialization of objects: Gods can produce objects out of thin air. However, this skill is limited: they require raw materials for it, even if it is shapeless chaos which they hammer into an orderly form. They cannot create a copy of a unique object, and they cannot recreate living, sentient beings.
 * 4) Vow-taking: All gods can accept the vows of loyalty from humans and, in turn, grant their favor to them. Gods respond VERY aggressively to broken vows.
 * 5) Limited omniscience: gods can hear it when people talk about them using any of their given names. Furthermore, any image or object representing a god serves as "eyes" and "ears" for them: you don't want to make fun of a god in front of their effigy. Finally, gods may observe humans provided they just happen to have their attention on them at a given time.
 * 6) Healing. Almost all the gods can heal wounds.
 * 7) Enchantment: Gods can enchant objects, granting them unique qualities. They can create arrows that can penetrate any target, for example. This causes trouble when another god creates an animal that cannot be hit by any weapon.
 * 8) Magic: all gods are NATURAL magic users. They are sources of magic themselves.

The gods
1. The goddess of Hunt and Fauna

She who made all the beasts who walk the land and soar cross the sky. Both their protector and culler, it is she alone who judges when to side with the hunter or with the hunter. Goddess of the warrior women and chief enemy of the Mother of all Monsters.

2. The god of Passion and Flora

He who made all the plants in the world, and set ablaze the hearts of all beings with love, but also taints them with frenzy, jealousy, and mad passion. Though honored for his great gifts, he is considered an unpleasant, capricious deity, since he would ruin lives on a whim by purposefully stirring love in the wrong people at the wrong time.

3. The god of Rain and Mercy and Mathematics.

A god of the higher branches of Yggdrassil. He smells like rain, and brings gentle drizzles and good harvests. His messengers are angels, which, upon being seen, make people call out his name. Usually in this tone "oh god of the heavens, what is that, oh god!" followed by some screaming. This is because the god of Rain and Mercy is weird and naive, if well intended, and his brood of angels have forms crafted in a higher dimensional plain that the human mind simply cannot comprehend.

4. The goddess of Magic, Life and Prophecy

One of the great goddesses, if not the most powerful of all, for she is the sole sovereign of magic. No god or goddess understands the inner workings of the world besides her, and even the goddess of wisdom has been unable to pry away her deepest secrets. She is the goddess of prophecy as well, and a goddess of fertility, worshipped by many, for it is her who decides whether or not crops should thrive or shrivel.

5. The god of War and Filial Piety

Out of the gods, one of the most contradictory. The mighty lion, born from the first spilled blood, heated by an otherworldly sun that man has never known. He began as the god of predators and violence, but saw with good eyes the way all beasts fought for their own kind, and none as impressively as mankind would. He is, additionally, the god of filial piety, and favors those who honor their family, while being invoked to swiftly punish those who would betray their blood.

6. The goddess of Wisdom, Justice and Courage

The wise and mighty goddess who gave men the seeds of wisdom, and watched them cultivate them into grand ideas. She represents civilization, fair causes, and favors the meek who would stand against the strong. She often intervenes in heroic adventures in clever disguise. Among gods she is disliked, however, for being "something of a know it all", as the god of war once called her. He was also quoted, in the book of Testimonies of the poet Cassius, as crowing from his seat in the divine assembly: "NERDDDDD!"

7. The god of Luck and Travel

The great lunar bear.

8. The goddess of Sunrise and Heroes

The goddess of the triumphant sun.

9. The god of Lightning and Labor

Thor.

10. The god of Messages and Trickery

Loki by any other name.

11. The god of Craft and Secrets

Pseudo-Odin

12. The god of Music and Healing

Apollo

13. Death

The grand host.

Summoning
Out of the thirteen gods, there are known summoning methods only for six of them. One could speculate on whether or not the methods for the others are simply unknown, or if they simply do NOT respond to summons. It is important to note that any god will come to those who know their secret name.

To summon the god of lightning and labor

The easiest of them to summon. He will come to those who promise to smite a great evil and do so without assistance, bringing a treasure of the smitten enemy and burning it on a bonfire or hearth. Summoners are advised to have a banquet ready for the god. An alternate summoning method is building a house or any sort of building - provided it's done in humility and entirely through hard work - and throwing a feast in his name.

To summon the god of war

He must be summoned in the period when the setting sun is touching the horizon. Only during this window of opportunity the summoner can invoke him by lighting a great fire and spilling their own blood with a weapon they swear to use for whatever victory they seek. Upon appearance, the god will challenge the summoner to a fight, exempting this requirement to those who summon him to request protection for their family - in which case the god will postpone the inevitable battle until such a goal is met.

Anyone who has raised their hand against their own blood, except those who did so to protect weaker members of their kin, will be immediately and harshly cursed for so much as trying this summon.

To summon the goddess of wisdom

The summon must be done in complete solitude, burning a piece of paper with the three questions that the summoner must have answered. The questions will come to them as soon as they're willing to summon the goddess, and the answer must be sought without trickery or assistance.

To summon the god of luck and travel

Can only be summoned when the moon is bright in the sky and there are no clouds covering it. The summon must be done directly beneath the moon when it reaches high in the sky, and requires: land from one's homeland, fire brought from a neighbor's hearth, water from a current one has sailed on, and a flower from a land one has never stepped on.

To summon the god of mercy

Must be done by someone who has never spilled the blood of man. The ritual requires myrrh incense and a wooden carving done by the summoner, of any one man, woman, animal or being that they hold dear to them.

To summon the goddess of sunrise and heroes

While the goddess is known for appearing sporadically to aid those in need, she will come to those who have lost everything but hope itself, and are willing to share that hope with others. The summoner must do so when the night is deepest and speak the right words with a doubtless heart.