The Gods here look more or less like ordinary humans but with distinctive features: uncommon skin or eye colours, archaic dress, or what have you. In their presence, an imperceptible aura fills the mind with awe or fear.
Crown of Heaven. Sovereign ruler and patron of monarchs. Not necessarily the same as Celestial Sovereign!
Lawgiver. Created society’s rules and gave them to mortals. Patron of lawyers, legislators and peacekeepers.
Averter of Curses. Priests may care about theology, but ordinary folk have curses to worry about.
Minor Gods
Fisherfolk. Life or death to those who make their living at sea; They are little thought of in the halls of power.
Knives. Not swords, just knives. Cutlers and murderers pray side by Side.
Arrayer of Armies
All-ruling All-Seeing Sage. A bloody brute whose reckless might the gods barely restrain. Let my name be in the bronze-voiced trumpet, and let my offerings be made with the sword. War, its virtues and its ills: courage, glory, cruelty, loss, suffering. Collective strength. The prop, or ruin, of the state.
A once-centralised faith has divided into rival sects aligned with different states or political factions. Sacred feasts, open only to initiates. Scandalous rumours circulate. Sacred treasures, never shown otherwise, are taken from the temples and paraded through the streets. Offices and scriptoria full of civic records, religious texts, and identically-robed students diligently memorising the sacred scriptures. Prototypes of humanity, surpassed by mortals but still useful to the gods. Clay tablets on which the gods inscribed the divine speech that animates the cosmos.
Monster Slayer Avenging Uncreated Judge. A Feathered Great Cat who Manipulates Living Tissue Telekinetically. Once a monster, now reformed and devoted to protecting civilisation from others. Bold and warlike, the champion of the gods. Then the holy weapon raised, the divine panoply flashed and glittered, and heaven trembled. The cosmic struggle of good against evil, order against chaos, or us against them.
Carefully-preserved shrine lineages lead to different, even competing sects among worshippers. Elaborate pageants reenacting myths, using real monsters whenever available. Sacred treasures, never shown otherwise, are taken from the temples and paraded through the streets. Winding passages of chambers decorated with cryptic symbols representing stages of initiation; solve the riddles to prove initiation and pass to the next area. The souls of the faithful, whose reward is eternal bliss in the divine realm that has oceans. A ship of gold with sails of gossamer, capable of sailing to any plane that has oceans.
The Outsider Cloud-born Illuminated Sister. Inhabitant of wild places: hunter, traveller, friend to animals A shared deity also found in the pantheons of neighbouring -- and rival -- nations. Wolf-friend, swift-footed, exulting with wild cries, O you who love hot blood, hear us.
Carefully preserved shrine lineages lead to different, even competing sects among worshippers. Sacred feasts, open only to initiates. Scandalous rumours circulate. Devotees dance through the streets in animal costumes. Public tables are heaped with sacrifices; once they are offered, the poor and hungry may come to share. Animated objects imbued with life by the gods’ will. Clay tablets on which the gods inscribed the divine speech that animates the cosmos.
