Material God
Masters of the Weave; the local demigods of Waking Materia
for in you is the power
to create gods
The Curated Reflections of Zaffa the Idiot
If she is still there, does she thank us?"
Author's Note. For a brief overview of all deties by Domain, see: Gods of Waking Materia by Domain. For a brief overview of all deities by Alignment, see: Gods of Waking Materia by Alignment.
The Material Gods (or more accurately the Material Demigods) are the most powerful residents of Waking Materia, divine representatives of Material cultures, physical forces and phenomena. They are also known varyingly as the Waking Gods, the Tuatha and the Kunitsukami. In the First Age these gods were extraplanar Colonial or Insurgent, as well as a wide and largely forgotten array of Elder Spirits. As the millennia pass, they are increasingly ascendant: Materians born mortal who achieved demigodhood in [un]life.
The Waking Gods are, in a sense, opposed by the Duskscape Regents, alien gods of concepts and possibilities. However, individual relationships between the Material and Duskscape gods (and indeed, relationships with each other), vary greatly. Rare tolerances and even partnerships notwithstanding, you will not find a Tuatha or Fomoraigh on the opposing side of the Veil without very good reason... individual gods are powerful but not infinitely so.
Though colloquially called "gods", they are demigods at best compared to the True Deities that rule over wider swaths of the Known Universe.
One is said to be able to detect an ascendant being by perceiving their "halation": reality is said to warp strangely about their heads, but in a way that we mortals can only see out of the corner of our eyes.
The most commonly worshipped of the Material Gods are the Pantheon of the People: a general term for the gods most sympathetic to Waking Civilizations.Cosmology
Chronology
Theo-historians sometimes attempt to rank the Material Gods by "order of appearance"; though there is a considerable volume of scholarship on the matter, the ranking is still approximate and heavily debated in parts. A list with a wide consilience is as follows:The Overbeings
Actually evolved interpretations of The Tower and the Helix.
Outsider, Extradimensional
Unknown; Possibly Primordial or Extraplanar
- Ahm
- Tariel
- Raggedy Azra and the other Hecath Queens
- The Totem Kami of Marai
The Colonial & Insurgent Gods
- God-Emperor Inum'indiron'aravaut / Ina'ut and the Kelpeater Lichlords
- The God-Emperors Nir & Nef, and under them the immortal Vierices of New Rozsa
- Insurgent God V'Shaat al-Avra / V'Shaat
- Insurgent God Emeliat Reis / The Lady of the Mountain
- Insurgent God Merlinkainen
- Insurgent God Galadnock mac-Kenzie
The Early Ascendant Gods
- Asphodel
- Solonn
- Kaleva
- Silas
- The Field Marshal
- Morrigan
- Ronom and Ranarim
- Laila By-the-Sea
- Shauku
- Ninalta & Saint Ajora
- Jarl Juulnir
- The Skull Knight
- Shelas Ob'Silexia
- Zaffa the Idiot
- Saint Frances Heronseye
The Later Ascendant Gods
Higher Pantheons
The Colonial and Insurgent gods (ascendants originally from other planes) are less bound to the plane than native Materians, but still hold smaller spheres of influence than the Daybreak God's interplanar hegemony or the Rebel Gods that oppose it. Though you shouldn't say it within Daybreak hearing, The Tower and the Helix are a mysterious dual being whose scattered worship is even more widespread. These beings are sometimes called True Deities.
Only very high-level Materian PCs or advanced scholars would have much knowledge of these pantheons, with average knowledge increasing as one gets closer to the Daybreak God's core plane of Eridún.
Banner (from left to right): V'Shaat, The Lady of the Mountain and Merlinkainen.
Profile: A mortal portrait of Laila By-the-Sea.
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