Deities

Orrin is overlooked by a pantheon of deities whose interests often affect the affairs of mortal beings.

Description
Deities are incredibly powerful beings with nigh immortality and the ability to shape reality at their will. Having existed for eons, the various gods and goddesses of Orrin each represent and control natural phenomena (such as life, death, time, and weather), elements (fire, air, earth, and water), and other important concepts (honor, wisdom, good, evil, luck). This set of aspects controlled by the deity is called their domain.

The Overgod
While each of the many deities is an independent being capable of conscious thought, the Orrinian pantheon is ruled by a mysterious entity known as The Overgod, a being which regulates the existence, domains, conflicts, and worship of each deity. It is believed (though not confirmed by any mortal beings) that the Overgod created the deities that exist today, that it is capable of creating/destroying deities or elevating beings to godhood, and that its influence prevents the gods from directly interfering with Orrin's material plane, relying on their influence over mortal worshippers to alter the world to their liking.

Abilities
Though limited in the material plane, deities can still perform incredible feats and miracles. Most are capable of feats such as reviving the dead, creating magical items, directly communicating with mortals (granted their mind could handle the deity's presence), and granting divine magic to chosen followers. The domain of a deity also grants them control over aspects of that domain. For example, Terra, Goddess of Life, can easily manifest plants and animals at will. They can also take on numerous different forms, though most choose to occupy a "standard" form when interacting with followers.

Outside of the material plane, deities wield great and terrible power unmatched by almost all other beings. They wield powerful magic that could easily destroy most mortals, often command armies of powerful divine servants (such as angels and elementals), control divine dimensions, and can even warp the fabric of reality to some extent. They are not completely immortal, however, and may be weakened to the point of effective destruction by something sufficiently powerful, though this has never been done.

Mortal Followings
As they cannot directly interfere with the material plane in any great capacity, deities must rely on their mortal following for their power. In addition to holding influence over a greater number of beings, the actual power of a deity relies at least in part by the size and fervor of their following. Adhering to this rule, deities such as Arabella generally wield greater power over lesser worshipped gods such as Feydrid, though the size of their following is not the only factor that affects their overall power. Deities also gain some power in the material plane from mortals that represent their domain, though they receive a greater amount from direct worshippers. Outside of the material plane, the god's powers are somewhat more comparable.

Deities with larger followings often grant divine powers to followers, creating paladins and clerics. Unlike regular followers, true paladins and clerics are extremely rare and are often regarded in their religious communities as saints or messiahs. Usually chosen for their extreme devotion, potential, or embodiment of a domain, each true paladin and cleric receives a small portion of the deity's power; thus, it is ill-advised for a deity to elect too many paladins and clerics lest their power be spread too thin. Beyond paladins and clerics, particularly outstanding devotees of a deity are very rarely chosen to serve as divine champions for a deity. Though their roles and abilities vary greatly from deity to deity, champions share a more intimate connection with their deity and actively carry out the wishes of their patrons. Deities will rarely hold more than a few divine champions at a time due to the extreme standards required to be met and the drain that holding champions have on their powers. When selecting a champion, most deities will only choose an individual if they stand to gain more from the champion's service than they would lose from the reduction of their divine power.

Mortal Pantheons
Although the Orrinian pantheon includes all 18 deities, several smaller pantheons also exist. Mostly formed by mortals, these pantheons group deities into pantheons based on similar or related domains, alignments, races, cultural relevance, and other factors. These smaller pantheons form the basic religious systems of most mortal societies, and most mortals acknowledge and worship a smaller pantheon rather than one deity, though they may choose to primarily support their favored deity. Mortals may also choose to include or omit the worship of certain deities in their local or regional pantheon, and many deities and their roles are represented differently from pantheon to pantheon.

There is significant overlap between the members of the mortal pantheons. Arabella, Bjorn, Feydrid, Hyriat, Terra, and Yeri all belong to the Pantheon of Virtue, a grouping of all morally good gods in Orrin, but only Feydrid and Yeri belong to the Divine Expression, a grouping of gods related to artistic expression. Even further, Feydrid also belongs to the Avian Trio, a group of gods whose domains and moral alignments are completely unrelated but whose most common forms are birdlike in nature. While the gods are not related in any mortal sense, these groupings define the relations between deities and dictates rules of discourse between them.

Moral Pantheons

 * Pantheon of Virtue
 * Pantheon of Impartiality
 * Pantheon of Malice

Orderly Pantheons

 * Pantheon of Order
 * Pantheon of Indifference
 * Pantheon of Chaos

Racial/Societal Pantheons

 * Aquan Pantheon


 * Draconic Pantheon


 * Dwarven Pantheon
 * Elven Pantheon
 * Forgotten Pantheon
 * Halfling Pantheon
 * Human Pantheon
 * Orcish Pantheon

Other Pantheons

 * Avian Trio
 * Divine Expression