There are several important notes to be made of the gods of Gaeleth. Each is bound to the plane of Gaeleth by a Relic -- an object that exists on the prime material plane of Gaeleth. The Relics are indestructable by mortal hands. The gods alone can destroy another Relic, bringing to bear the full deitific weight of an entire Church upon the one object. The destruction of a Relic instantly kills the god, and all the souls in his heavens are thrown free -- free for the taking. When any god can kill any other god, a state of balance exists between all the gods. They play by mutually agreed to rules, and cannot break those rules without fear of suffering the ultimate wrath of all the other gods. No truly insane (or Chaotic Neutral) gods exist on Gaeleth for this very reason. Mortals are not bound by the rules of the gods, and their priests and agents are free to function without the constraints of immortal rules. What has developed is what could be called the most complicated game of strategy in all of creation. The rules appear simple to mortals: survive to carry on, without invoking the wrath of the other gods. Yet the oversimplified rules mortals attribute to the gods are broken again and again. Even the Chosen hesitate to speculate on what the rules truly are. The Chosen is the priest of a god that is directly favored by that god, and is chosen to represent that god on the prime. The Chosen takes up several Disciples that study under him, and might one day replace him. The Chosen of all the gods, and their Disciples, were horrified during the Shaping Wars, as Giran Howel strode across the face of Gaeleth. Impossibly, it could kill a god and destroy his heavens and his Relic, through the destruction of his avatar on the prime. Giran Howel (see details in the items section) upset the balance, and was somehow also a part of the master game that the gods themselves play. Alliances and enmities between the gods exist, and though they cannot strike at one another's Relics directly, they often strike at the mortal representatives of other gods on the Prime, continually maneuvering in the Great Game. At stake is not just the survival of the gods, but of their followers, in a symbiotic relationship of need beyond mortal comprehension. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
