Divinity
The Power of Idols
Those beings with divine, or divine-adjacent, power have many idols and icons of which they consider sacred to themselves. These idols are usually decided by the divinity itself, or by the followers who adhere to their doctrine. Be it holy or profane, all idols possess these symbols of power. These symbols manifest through animals, iconographies, weapons, colors, materials, schools of magic, times of day, phases of the moon, constellations in the sky, and countless others. Their names, too, are icons of their power. It is the reason divine beings carry so many titles with them, and why their true names are always obscured. None of the writings in libraries or scriptoriums hold the true name of a divinity, for their true names are what they are called in the Language of Creation, and often beyond mortal comprehension. Beyond that, much like mortals, knowing how to speak a True Name in the Language of Creation grants the ability to manipulate the named being. The names for the gods are commonly thought to be still an approximation of their 'birth' names, however they are rough translations from the Language of the Creation. Some gods choose to operate under specific titles instead of their name.
Divinities are thought to be of connecting to the various planes through their sacred idols. A statue carved in the likeness of Valassin serves as a conduit for Valassin to see, hear, and exert some level of influence from the statue. A mantis perched on a wall serves as a similar conduit for Korveista, as does a warrior wielding an iron blade serves as a conduit for the Eistragen.
Conversely, some of these idols are created by mortal kind with the express purpose of avoiding the invocation of a divinity. Not many wisht to invoke the power or draw the attention of voracious daemons and scheming devils, and give beings such as the primal daemon Belphrike new names, titles that it does not recognize. Which idol invokes or avoids is believed to come down to the intent and belief of the speaker. If a farmer dubs Belphrike the Voice-Eater with true belief that it avoids invocation, avoid it does. When cultists surrounding a gutted corpse raise their hands up and chant the Voice-Eater's epithets, however, it serves as a burning beacon.
The Power of Followers
The deities of Divaan influence the lands through their worshipers and clergy. So, too, however, does the clergy influence their god through what beliefs they hold in regards to their god and their domains. Gods are, ultimately, their own beings and their core identities will always remain the same. A sudden turn of believing Vrosta is wicked and cruel will not make that so, she will always be the tumultuous midpoint between gentle, healing waters and cascading, shipbreaking tides. However, some gods are certainly more susceptible to radical change and all gods are easily moved to tangential domains. A god of the outcast can easily be twisted into a god of rage and justice.
The Alkanor
Valassin
Valassin, the Shining One, Long Hand, Master of Gifts, Crafter of Many, is the sun-beamed leader of the Alkanor, a valiant god king whose throne in the sun itself has remained uncontested since the dawn of time. Or, at least, the dawn of history.
Aenious
Valassin may be the king, but Aenious is the eldest of the gods. Aenious is a god of fate, time, secrets, inevitability, and cataclysm. The Brass God never speaks to his followers, and they never wish him to. To hear Aenious speak, to feel his presence, would mean that he leaves his endless work at the threads of time.
Enaan
Once a great war behemoth of the gods, Enaan is now a gentle god, even though his first recorded deeds were not cultivating followers but arming and armoring the gods for conflict.
Lixun
A goddess with many aspects, Lixun is a deity of law and civilization. She is never the same from one culture to another. All cultures value different things in their laws.
Geltergard
God of commerce, trade, the market, and gold, Geltergard is popular in large cities.
Vrosta
Our Lady of Storms, Vrosta is the whimsical, fickle goddess of storms, freedom, liberation, and safe passage.
Wiccaera
Wiccaera is the goddess of the harvest, rain, and agriculture. She is also, rather often, seen as a goddess of maternity.
Atris
Elder sister of Wiccaera and twin sister of the Vrestrom, Atris is the god of gentle nature, healing, and hunting. She was the first god to befriend the spirits, and in their first friendship the Faewild was created. Before then, she was merely the god of the hunt, though the Great Spirits accepted her and imparted wisdom and power to her, transforming her into the goddess of nature. Specifically, the goddess of nature in harmony with civilization.
The Vrestrom
Known by countless titles and yet no names, the Vrestrom is the god of primordial storms, the savage wild, and survival. Unlike his siblings, he despises the creations of kith and seeks to bring about the fall of civilization, to see all live as hunter gatherers, struggling to survive each day. For in the struggle is the true meaning of living, at least so says the Foe-Bearer.
Kashym
Kashym is a jubilant deity of wanderers, outcasts, exploration, and stories. They delight in discovering new places, new people, new creatures, new stories. It is for this reason Kashym is, despite their cheerful and personable ways and teachings, one of the least active deities both in affecting the world and in communicating with their clergy.
Kaskyr
The Lady of Lacerations, Kaskyr is the goddess of punishments, darkness, loss, and imprisonment.
Alvas
Alvas the Dreamer is a deity of prophecy, dreams, and luck, born from Aenious's crystalline mind splitting open in his conflict with the Mother of Monsters.
Cognouza
Cognouza is a new-comer to the Alkanor. His ascension to a greater deity of the Alkanor came about with the discovery and pioneering of alchemy in Ardoren. His involvement with his followers is few and far between, and his ranks are filled not primarily of clerics like all other gods, but bright minds or ambitious souls seeking inspiration for the next breakthrough that will bring the world's understanding of itself and where it lives further.
The War God
Once, there was a god of war, conflict, fairness, and endurance in the pantheon. The deity's name is forgotten, their edicts scoured from texts, their visage blurred and unable to be made clear. What happened to his god of war is unknown, and many scholars seek to understand. This disappearance is strange not only for the fact that the gods rarely die, but for the fact that the war god did not die by losing their followers. Temples and churches to them still stand across the land. Clerics and paladins who followed their ways still wear the armor, adorn themselves in the holy symbols, and carry weapons in their name. It is as though some twenty years back, the god ceased to exist, but their imprint on the world was left behind. The god of war is a ghost who haunts the land, clerics and scholars alike scour the earth seeking answers.