Deities

The existence of gods is no longer questionable in the modern times. Gods do exist, however they vary in strength and influence they have over the world. They also vary in morals, goals, and numerous other things, while being so deeply tied with both the System and the modern concept of civilization that it's almost unheard of to have a civilization lacking any sort of divine backer.   In fact, many if not most civilizations are a result of gods resettling their followers elsewhere, to some empty (or collapsing) space in the multiverse after shaping their morality, culture and general aesthetics (if not their racial status) according to their whims. At any given moment, some nation within the Thousand Worlds is collapsing into nothingness or is ripe for the taking - and there are gods ready to take advantage of that.   There are several power levels on which deities operate, each with its own place in the general scheme of things. What is common to them all is that they are NOT disrespected (save for the Ashen Covenant followers), because joining a god's kill-list is generally a very, very bad prospect.

Demigods are not yet gods, but no longer mortals that serve as an introduction to the godhood proper for the aspiring ascendants. They are (former) mortals who have achieved some outstanding things or become powerful enough to be recognized by the System and ascended into a demigodhood.   Ascension is always voluntary. The results of it are relatively well-established in general godhood. First of all, you transcend the system of Classes, and instead become a class on your own. What's more, some (or all) of your skills will be reshaped to best fit your nature, even beyond established list of abilities governed by the System - while the rest will receive significant power boost.   Demigods whose former species did not allow that will become capable of establishing foldspaces to serve as their personal domains. They will also gain access to the what modern humans would have recognized as social media, working through the System and allowing demigods to exchange knowledge, plan cooperation (or backstabbing) and seemingly know about things way before the messages reach them in more 'conventional' manner.   Demigods can be worshipped. They can choose to exalt a priest for themselves, who can not only 'operate' their demigods' foldspace when they are gone, but also make offerings and pray to their patron. Both acts will lead to said demigod gaining additional, special form of power that it can then use to exalt more servants (by granting them special powers, for example sharing with them a scaled down version of their own skills), bless some location (making their servants stronger and healing their wounds), and do a number of other things (including an ascension into full godhood). Although it has to be said that not all demigods decided to pursue that branch of their own nature, as many are content staying when they are, but with additional power and many useful connections.   The demigods can be roughly divided between those who are demigods openly, and those who prefer to remain a secret. The latter are more common - announcing that you are a demigod is often (if not always) a dangerous option. Some demigods hide in their domains in the middle of nowhere, content doing their own things. Others play wargames and intrigue against each other, with many non-demigods being caught in the crossfire. Some are good, and some are evil.   Divines is a general term for what can be considered an unranked deities - who, despite everything, ARE deities. Divines haven't ascended to godhood on their own, and instead are posthuman 'satellite' beings of more powerful deities. For example, you can expect a newly ascended demigod to take their spouse(s) and some closes allies with them, making them into divine entities, but without predefined ranking. This is also the eventual fate of many notable followers of the Cults of the Ascended who end up qualifying for the afterlife.   Divines are naturally empowered by their status. However, these empowerment has less to do with their combat skills (although it's notable there) and more to do with them being extremely hard to conclusively slain - the best you can hope for is to send them back to the god's realm in the Astral Network. Their form is also sometimes altered during the ascension according to wishes and thoughts of the entity whose ascension they joined.   On the other hand, they are almost unheard of - they aren't really summonable (unless you are one of the most powerful of the summoners out there), since that's something that the divine spirits are for. They can't offer you magical skills for worship, because that's what demigods and gods are for. They sometimes do appear on their own as a part of some divine game, but it's extremely rare.   Gods are former sapient mortals that have ascended into godhood through the System recognition. They typically seek to organize themselves into a more or less full pantheon (with all major domains taken) and find a civilization to worship them (or build one from their worshippers), almost always in different world than the one they came from. There are outsiders though, especially common with the evil gods - the System doesn't judge morality when allowing an ascension, after all.   Gods on their own are way too powerful to show up personally anywhere else (avatars are possible, but rare). They are, in a way, moderators of the certain parts of the System - for example the fertility gods can offer you an exception from ban on interspecies procreation. They also have their own dedicated character classes. They are the backbone of the religions of the Cults of the Ascended.   They cannot be slain by mortals, but it isn't unheard of for them to die at the hands of other gods. This is extremely rare, and tends to happen to either solitary gods who pissed off a pantheon somewhat, or when one pantheon loses a serious religious war against much stronger pantheon (although even here, vassalization or in some rare cases borderline enslavement for humiliation sake does happen way more often).   Powers are entities recognized by the System enough to be granted character classes and general participation in the religious framework, that however aren't of human origin. There is a certain degree of doubt concerning their origin, nature, long-term goals and in some case even existence - demigods and up tend to believe in them unquestionably, though. It's hard to not believe in entities that sometimes manifest their existence in the 'divine facebook', although typically in a way that puts an accent in their alien mindset and almost infinite power.   Those Powers that showed up interest in mortals' attention can be expected to lead their own small army of gods and demigods - it's hard to find a religion out there that doesn't 'believe' in gods and demigods, and the System ascends every social group, culture and religion equally. The list of those includes the Highmost (represented by His much less known executive, the Principality of Mankind and his Aspect Saints), the Primal Lords, the God-To-Be, the Terminal Sun, the First Overseer and the High Archons. Existence of more of those is suspected, but their interest in affairs of mortals tends to be very low - although Dark Lords, for example, would also qualify.   The main difference between them and the Gods (save for different origin and vastly different power level) is that most of the Cults has a relatively standard list of character classes (think paladins/clerics mix from DnD) with changes depending on their domain, while Powers tend to stray from universally accepted system and possess their own classes (and even magic forms).