Tales from Gorgh

It is difficult to talk of the Gods of Gorgh without first adressing the nature of the world. Gorgh lies on the Material Plane, a nexus of various other planes of existence that lie alongside it like tiles in a mosaic. Between the planes is the Astral Plane, a spiderweb of interplanar channels.

In the metaphysical space around the Material Plane, there exists a fractal pattern of other planes. Like a clear piece of glass, the Ethereal Plane covers the Material Plane, existing alongside but not quite touching. To the planar north lies the Celestial Plane, and beyond that, the Positive Energy Plane, from which flows the power to heal wounds and bolster life. To the planar south is Hades, the land of the dead, and beyond that the Negative Energy Plane, the equal and opposite force that harms all living creatures and invigorates the Undead. To the metaphorical east is the Plane of Law, Mechanus, and to the west lies Limbo, the Formed Chaos.

Beyond the planes is Formless Chaos, and beneath it all is the Void. Not much is known to mortalkind about either of these, for they both corrupt and disrupt the naturally occurring forces that sustain life on the Material Plane. Those few foolish souls who attempt contact without an intermediary find their brains burnt out into gibbering insanity or their flesh melting and twisting into new, horrific forms. Even with an intermediary, be it a being of another plane or some arcane device, they inevitably go mad, and typically traffic with such beings ends in tears.

Within this network of planes, most of the good gods reside in the Celestial Plane, and the evil gods reside in the Inferno. Other gods reside where they will, in the Feywilds or the Elemental Planes, in microplanes of mist and shadow or growing things and forest groves. A god is defined as any being with enough power and metaphysical weight to cross the planes freely, although never into the Material Plane, for fear their power would shatter the balance that holds it suspended in such a unique position. It is this unique position that allows the Material Plane to form souls, and why it is so coveted by the beings called gods. It is a delicate balance, and one hotly contested by the deities, demigods, demons, and devils is a cosmic struggle for power. That the balance be preserved, all the major players have agreed to a sort of treaty, called The Pact, where no being of sufficient power will step foot on the Material Plane, under pain of destruction and Final Death.

The gods, instead, channel their power through their followers and receive worship and the souls of the faithful as their due. The nature of divinity is complex; some beings seem to only be gods within a strict set of geographical boundaries, while others are universal. Some major aspects of divinity, such as Death, will always have a god, while others seem to fade away, as in the elven pantheon. It is known that it is possible to kill gods, although the gods themselves have obscured the exact means, and no small amount of mortals have themselves ascended to godhood, taking up an aspect and channeling their power through their worshippers. But while the gods can influence mortalkind, shaping their forms and encouraging behaviors, so too do worshippers shape their god. So it is that Moridin, the father of the dwarves and god of smiths and craftsmen, grew a little taller and a mite less broad as his worship was taken up by humans in chaotic years after the Schism.

Gods may be known by many different names to many different peoples; the god of the harvest is the same whether the harvest is wheat, rice, or breadfruit. Additionally, some aspects change hands, such as the God of the Dead changing from Myrkul to Kelemvor. Additionally, some gods may just be aspects of others, or vice-versa. In this complicated landscape, most civilized places make use of pantheonic temples, wherein one may worship any of the thousands of gods. When traveling, it is customary to pay obeisance to both the gods of one’s own homeland, and also the gods of any new lands. Most private homes also include a small alcove, with prayers said to small gods of hearth and home, as well as any gods one may worship, such as of Knowledge or Craft.

Inherent to the god’s power is their magic. Divine magic is orthogonal to arcane magic. Both are the intersection of extraplanar power through the Material Realm, but the main difference is that Divine magic is channeled through clerics of a god, and arcane magic is channeled through the mind and soul of the caster themselves. While both types of magic have some overlap, able to reproduce similar effects, some things can only be done by one type or another.

The nature of magic has changed throughout the long centuries. It is said that, before the fall of Mystara, the two types of magic had a much greater degree of overlap, and what one could do, so the other, but such is no longer the case. In modern times, even the divine must seek out mortal magic.