Revision as of 12:33, 10 September 2009

The True Gods in Trinity.

Overview

It is not known how many True Gods there were; even if it were, their names and natures have been lost to the ages. The lore and ecclesiastical texts regarding the origins of some of the more powerful remaining Divine beings make vague references to these beings, but only in one - the origin of the Lucavi Ajora - is a name directly given, that of the True Goddess Kolaita.

Unlike the Scions, whose power waxes and wanes with the strength of faith placed in them, for whom it is possible to lose and re-attain Divine status, a True God's power is not dependent upon faith; their existence is a fact, made possible by metaphysical links forged between reality and the Divine. If this link is severed, the True God dies - and once such a link is severed, it cannot be reforged. In the event known as the Fracture, the links between the Metaphysic and all of the True Gods were cut; no amount of faith and no mortal attempt can bring these beings back from the dead. While it is possible for new Divine beings of other sorts to come to the fore, and old ones who had long been forgotten to suddenly return, the True Gods are truly gone.

It is known, however, that the power the True Gods held is present in the form of the still-existing Divine beings of the world: the Scions were direct creations of the True Gods, and even those newer Scions can still draw their metaphysical lineage directly to the True Gods; the Shards are creatures crafted by the Scions out of the fragments of the True Gods that still held a hint of the Divine spark; and the Servants are beings crafted by the Scions out of the leftover physical remains of the True Gods, imbued with the souls of departed mortals.

The True Gods

General overviews of each of the True Gods follow.

Tethys

Tethys

The Watcher, The Clockmaker, Keeper of the River

Lesser Deity

Symbol: Hourglass

Alignment: Neutral

Ethos: Blue/White

Portfolio: Time, travel, observation, education, prophecy

Priest Alignments: LN, NG, N, CN, NE

Priest Ethoi: Blue @ d10, White @ d8; Red at least two ranks lower than Blue and White

Domains: Balance^[1], Celerity^[1], Fate^[1], Knowledge, Liberation^[1], Oracle^[1], Planning^[1], Prophecy^[2], Time^[1], Travel

Favored Weapon: Chakram

Description

Tethys takes on the appearance of a middle-aged humanoid, whose appearance is vaguely human but with heavily Yuan-agan features. Above and behind his head floats a double-ringed halo, the outer edge of which is ringed with the numerals used on clocks, and the inner edge of which is ringed with the relevant time-period's zodiacs.

Tethys is a quiet and withdrawn deity. Unlike the other deities, he did not take an active interest in reality, instead choosing to examine the nature of time; his nigh-infinite understanding of the workings of time (as well as the foresight it granted him) led him to distance from most of the mortal races and the rest of the True Gods.

At times, Tethys also appears as a somewhat paradoxical deity - oftentimes his dogma contradicts itself. He stresses the inevitability of fate, but at the same time, insists that fate can be changed.

Dogma

No man can escape his fate, but a man's fate can be changed. Watch and wait; patience, above all else, will win the day. The smallest action can have the biggest impact, and even the largest effort may result in nothing gained. Do not let what you know limit your options; even that which seemed impossible before may be possible in the future. If you have knowledge that will prevent catastrophe, use it.

Clergy and Churches

Symbol of Tethys

Throughout the history of the world, Tethys has had incredibly few dedicated priests, and a rather small veneration amongst mortals; while he has respect as a deity, few actively worship him.

The primary exception to this is the Templars, a group of epochents, harriers, prophets, oracles, archivists, and priests of Tethys. While not all of the Templars actively worship Tethys, many at least offer him small prayers, and the priests of Tethys are the only Divine force-users allowed into their order with any regularity.

Rites and Rituals

Having a small following and even smaller priesthood, Tethys has rather few rites and rituals.

Most denizens of the world offer a quick prayer to Tethys when setting or resetting an hourglass.

Tethys does not require that his priests recite prayers to regain their ability to call upon Divine power; instead, they must simply sit and wait for an hour to pass.

The Fracture

Tethys was one of the last deities to be slain. Unfortunately, not all of his fragments nor his servants were recoverable; it is thought that, due to his closeness to time, it is possible that some of the Divine fragments of Tethys were scattered throughout time.

The largest fragment of Tethys was formed into the Angel Zodiark, Keeper of Precepts. In keeping with Tethys' detached nature, Zodiark has no affiliation with the Saints or the Lucavi; instead, he works with the timestream itself, and is known to very rarely whisper words of prophecy to mortals.

It is also thought that Tethys knew, from the very beginning, that the Fracture was coming. Those scholars who were present for the Fracture and were aware of Tethys sometimes believed that the god of time may have arranged for a way around this catastrophe, though there was no proof and prayers to Tethys continued to go unanswered.

References

1. Spell Compendium, Wizards of the Coast
2. Anger of Angels, Malhavoc Press