Deities

The deities of Tellus only came into existence after the Cosmic Sundering, in which the great cosmic serpent was felled and shattered into thousands of shards, each scattered across Tellus, burying themselves into the farthest corners of the realm.
These shards, often called Cosmic shards, contain an immense power, the power to create deities. Indeed, each and every deity was born from a cosmic shard, just as each and every cosmic shard can become a deity.  

Cosmic Shards

Since their initial appearance in the world after the Cosmic Sundering, the understanding of what Cosmic Shards actually are has gone largely unknown, until recent years. Their entirely alien appearance and lack of discernible similarities led many to never make a connection between them, simply regarding each individual case of them as anomalous, incredibly powerful magical artifacts. As such, they were oftentimes used as incredibly powerful energy sources, or as embellishments onto magical weapons and equipment. It wasn't until the accidental creation of the first artificial deity, Panoption Prime, that the connection between Cosmic Shards and the deities was fully understood.  

Deities

As numerous as deities are, the majority of them do not reveal themselves to the mortals of Tellus, preferring to keep themselves hidden away, dormant, or silently amongst them. However, there are a few deities who brandish their title with confidence, and use their powers for all to see.
There are two commonly labeled 'types' of deity:   Formed Ones are deities which have a physical presence in the Tellurian Plane, and a defined appearance which represents them. These deities are generally the weaker of the two kinds, though their ability to physically interact with Tellus gives them a solid advantage. Some examples of Formed Ones include: Ambaxt, the Great Vassal Beast, Sibrandiel, the Holy Avenger, and Panoption Prime.   Outer Ones are deities which lack a defined physical form, and cannot enter the Tellurian Plane. These deities are the far more potent of the two, though their inability to interact with Tellus hampers their efforts regarding it quite considerably. Outer Ones are named as such because they are known to exist inside their own demi-planes, away from all the primary planes around Tellus; from this outward point they stage their efforts, infiltrating into the other planes through essence and energy rather than physically imposing themselves upon it. Some examples of Outer Ones include: Auga, the Eye of the Sea and the Vortex Lord.     However, there is a group of deities which stand out from the rest, known as the Scribes.
The Scribes are an outlier because they had existed before the Cosmic Sundering; knowledge of the Scribes is documented as far back as the founding of Karathus, forming the foundation of many aspects of folklore and myth dating back thousands of years. This has caused many to ask whether or not they should even be called deities at all; if they are not formed from cosmic shards, why should they be?   Another outlying case is that of Kymar, the High Lord of Cinder, emperor of the Cinder Empire.
Kymar is so infused with the power of the abyss that he is often regarded as a deity in his own right; his strength is almost equivalent to that of the Formed Ones, though without a Cosmic Shard, he can never reach the level of metaphysical power that a true deity possesses.   The last known case of non-congruent deities is that of the Metallicans.
The Metallicans were the first group of mortals that ever ascended to the Celestial Clocktower, back in a time when very little was known about the cosmic plane. Each of the Metallicans had different means of doing this, but all of them involved the usage and aquisition of a Cosmic Shard. The first of the Metallicans, Omniseer Metallican, combined his own physical form with that of the shard; though it was not his goal, as the connection between deities and Cosmic Shards was not known at the time, Omniseer Metallican became a malformed deity through this fusion, but he never fully realised this before it was too late. The Metallicans all returned to the Tellurian plane, sharing the enlightenment they had recieved, but as time went on, they all began to discorporeate, becoming intangible before entirely disappearing from existence. Modern day debate among scholars asks what truly happened to the Metallicans, some think that the power of a Cosmic Shard is simply too much for a mortal to contain, and as such they simply stopped existing; others think that they became Outer Ones, disappearing from the Tellurian plane, but still existing outside of it.