The True Gods

Dyeus and the Abyss are both Primordial/Eldritch Gods. Dyeus is the source of all sapience and the Abyss is the source of all magic. They benefit by infecting things and growing. The intermixing of their powers in this generally created 12 Godlings.

Eris

The Abyss

• Impossibly grand and incomprehensible

• Humans literally can only filter the sapience of the Abyss through cultural expectations

• Nearly all-powerful but not quite

• All-knowing of FACTS but cannot comprehend human emotions in the slightest - or rather, is dismissive of human emotion because it's weak and meaningless in comparison to the nuance of emotions it can feel

• Definitely is NOT all-good

• Legitimately interested in the affairs of humans but in the same way we are interested in ants - we kinda only pretend to care and we make up more interesting storylines and significances for them but they don't actually mean anything or reflect the actual moral judgement of ants

The Void Princess

Eris is a chaotic shapeshifter who tempts mortals to do unspeakable things. However, she does not do this purely out of malice — or at least, not out of hatred — as she truly enjoys mortal folk. She sees them a bit like ants, upon whom she can impose strange narratives and stories. All of her stories, however, end in tragedy as she enjoys most when humans reach the depths of despair. (She grows bored of winning easily.)

As the only Godling who came into the world alone, however, Eris is also very lonely. Her closest sister, Yeulia, is always surrounded by humans but the other Godlings easily tire of her irresponsible antics. Perhaps the right person could teach the Abyss the joys of a genuine relationship… but probably not.

Eris might interact with mortals by:

• Giving someone unusually potent powers

• Causing someone to hallucinate

• Opening Ysse springs under a city

• Giving a King the secret to nuclear power

• Stick Ysse crystals into a creature until it changes into something unrecognizable

Dyeus

The Radiance

• The source of all the world's Sapience and sentience and also is legitimately the sun, but now can be found in every being.

• Dyeus has a separate magic system that is invisible and inheritance/their whims-based.

• Dyeus is not-all-good, Dyeus' only interest is in survival of the most.

• It grows and replicates as more beings are born and the more beings are smarter and wiser - which is something that happens when there aren't conflicts and when there is love and understanding.

• Dyeus does understand human emotion and does benefit more from humans being happy.

• Dyeus is basically an eldritch parasite that doesn't care about you but does benefit from all the things that would genuinely benefit you.

• Dyeus also exists through their Dragons.

The Godlings

Godlings are specific individual entities that can be contained in one place but due to Dyeus, have access to the memories of all creatures and due to the Abyss, have access to all powers.

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From oldest to youngest, the Godlings are:

• Asarlai & Aselei

• Danvyr & Damaer

• The Black King & The Red Monarch

• Eternity & Ephemera

• Unnamed 5th twins

• Eris

• Yeulia

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They were almost all formed from various mixtures between Dyeus and the Abyss. You could call it "being born" but we don't really say that mold was "grown from water". The only exceptions are Eris and Yeulia - as these Godlings were stand-ins created by The Abyss and Dyeus respectively.

Asarlai, the Godling of Winter, Secret, Magic, and Death

Asarlai is worshipped in the North as the God of Winter, Magic, and Secrets. It is said he, particularly, had a hand in fathering humans. He is also attributed with dominion over death, the ocean, and the Abyss. Legends say that if you give him your eye, you will be able to see Ysse — the magical particle of the Abyss. From this, he is typified as a clever, cunning, and ruthless pale man with raven black hair and an eye patch.

Asarlai and Damaer are lovers and the “head” of the Northern Pantheon. They rule over the Lower Continent and created everything else with the explicit intention to be parents. While Damaer is responsible and loving, Asarlai is emotionally distant but generally proud of his kids.

Asarlai might interact with mortals by:

• Telling someone the secret to complete a project or recipe

• Refusing to turn someone into a mage, even after they sacrificed their eye

• Punishing guilty criminals with blindness if touch a Ysse crystal

• Isolating a city-state with a wall of Ysse

• Making an ordinary creature into a black, impossibly light Kaiju which leads wanderers home

Aselae, the Godling of Fall, Music, and the Arts

Aselae is worshipped in the North as the Goddess of Fall, Music, and the Arts more broadly. Her domain is considered to be the sky and stars. She is hailed in poetry as the Mother of Dragons and depicted as whimsical and unconcerned with worldly things. She is visually portrayed as a woman made of clouds and rainbows.

• Aselae and Danvyr are lovers. They created the Dragons using Dyeus' magic. Dragons are capable of reproducing asexually, and some even suspect they can enable other things to reproduce asexually as well. Aselae loves romance and good stories, and often will use her Dragons and whispers of inspiration to convince humans to start good ones while Danvyr prefers to advise humans with more mundane problems.

Aselae might interact with mortals by:

• Singing to herald in the dawn

• Finishing an artist’s carving

• Sending a Dragonstorm to burn down a village

• Blow the ships of an opposing army astray

• Grant a creature the ability to fly

Danvyr, the Godling of Summer, Fire, and Conquest

Danvyr is worshipped in the North as the God of Fire, Summer, and Conquest — though his golden flames, dark skin, and domain in the Upper Continent might lead some in the South to believe him to be a manifestation of Dyeus Themself. He is styled the Father of Dragons — a noble and industrious king.

Danvyr might interact with mortals by:

• Consulting with a King on how best to rule

• Teaching a child how to use a flint-and-steel

• Sending a Dragonstorm to stop a Queen from burning a village

• Imbuing a sword with the power to call Dragons

• Forging a new Dragon

Damaer, the Godling of Spring, Earth, and Life

Damear is worshipped in the North as the Goddess of Spring, Earth, and Life. She is portrayed as having dark skin, like her brother, and clothes overgrown in the dark greens and blacks of Northern mosses. She is frequently portrayed as crying olivine tears over the lives of little lives of common folk — the loving mother of humans — but despite her open emotions, is also characterized as sensible and practical.

Damear might interact with mortals by:

• Helping a woman in give birth

• Pretending to be an old woman to give advice to a village

• Crying olivine over an impoverished city

• Creating an island so a rare plant can grow

• Send creatures into the Abyss as gifts for Asarlai

The Black King

This Godling is concerned with Death and Endings specifically. He “killed” his twin — The Red Monarch, the Godling of Beginnings & Birth — by removing the conditions under which the twin could form and made the Red Monarch’s body into the Demons (hence their blood magic).

This was so unacceptable to the other Godlings that he was permanently cursed to be forgettable — no one can remember who he is when they stop looking at him, including himself. He is probably a middle aged man with an absolutely average face — the only notable thing about him are his black pearl earrings. The other Godlings say they will keep him in this state until he achieves “world peace”. This is, of course, impossible. 

They are denying him a satisfying ending.

The Black King might interact with mortals by:

• Gathering friends and followers to be his memory when he cannot remember

• Sabotaging a country’s invasion plans

• Giving black pearls to unusual people

The Red Monarch

Not much remains of the Red Monarch. They were the Godling of Beginnings and Birth and deeply associated with blood. Now, their body and powers are scattered across the Demons around the World. Only a few Demons and the other Godlings know of their origins. Some of the Demons even crave Godhood again.

Red Monarch’s cult might interact with mortals by:

• Healing a non-Demon of an affliction

• Drain a power Demon of their blood

• Seduce a Senator into allowing more blood sacrifices

• Give blood to a creature to make it into a Demonspawn

Ephemera & Eternity

The Godlings of Ephemera and Eternity have visited the known world very infrequently. Their cosmic dance seems far more concerned with the shadows of elsewhere, but their words of power and stranglehold on time itself can be seen in the fabric of reality the world round.

Yeulia, Daughter of Dyeus

Yeulia is the youngest Godling — a mere 2,000 years old — and is the most adept at living alongside humans. Instead of living one protracted life, she ages normally, dies, and is reborn again with her memories intact. As the Dyeus’ Godling and the greatest of all the Seeresses, she leads the Ecclesia of the Dyeus — though her opinion on the politics of her church changes from lifetime to lifetime. 

Yeulia might interact with mortals by:

• Giving love advice to a young couple

• Escaping to a cottage in the woods with a pretty lady

• Ordering emergency supplies be sent to a city before

• Leading an army to battle the Demons

• Putting bells on a peahen to warn people not to eat it or misfortune will befall them

Notes on Gods & Godlings

• As humans all over the world have surmised, when you die, your soul returns to dust but your memories remain intact in the minds of the gods. The more humans that exist, have existed, have lived fulfilling lives, and die, the better off the Gods are.

• The last and 13th Godling may have just been born - Sirqa Sirutaq.

• Diacaius wants to turn Kalliopeia, the Philosopher King, into a Godling or even a proper God.