What is the highest god in your setting? Who is the supreme divine authority?

Rolled 5, 1, 5 = 11 (3d6)

The dice.

Theoretically, there is an all-powerful God, whose name is long since forgotten. Ancient, tattered remnants of scripture attest to his existence, and lesser divinities often confirm that He exists, when they are asked. However, He has abandoned the world, and takes no interest in its affairs. Nobody remembers why He left, not even the current Gods. The most accepted theory is that mortals had become so corrupt, and rejected Truth so thoroughly, that He turned His back on the world and left it to its own wickedness.

>fedora

Humanity. Customer is always right

Disregarding the fedora thing, how would this setting be like? Are there still clerics and stuff? How do you cast healing magic without these classes?

All the gods are incredibly powerful, but they can only meaningfully affect the world through their followers' actions and power. As such, even if one were significantly stronger than another, a weaker one could be more "powerful" because high level human-channellable magic is well within all of their grasps.
Likewise, high rank demons and devils are also incredibly powerful, but they struggle to be able to expand their influence outside of the hells because most of the space "between" planes is where the gods reside, and hence sanctified and will fuck demons up. To summon a demon/devil from the hells to a non-hell plane requires making an appropriate passage safe from that holy influence, which must have a "size" proportionate to the power of the being. As such, all the little shit (eg. imps) leaks through all the time, but the demon/devil lords require serious magic to bring forth.
As such, the actual "most powerful" being is a thousands-of-years-old dragon who went to hell to hunt devil lords for sport and hasn't returned to the material plane since, though not for lack of ability to do so.

So called Divine Magic is powered by belief, whether it's belief in a distant creator god, the fellowship of sentient life, or simply in working towards a better world.

>peter griffinos
no I'm not kidding

Well there were clerics in the real world.
They were useless but they existed.
And there is no magic in the ancient Rome, the wild west or at the time of the cold war.

gtfo if you have nothing

My setting doesn't really have any creator gods or supreme divine authorities, but it does have divine entities. I designed my campaign setting with the intent to bring back a sense of mystery, rather than having absolutely everything about where souls go and what this and that is be explained and known.

Angels are mostly mythical, but celestials are entities that have attained a higher spiritual and mental state and have shed their mortal forms, and dwell primarily in the realm between this one and the Great Beyond. Some of them guide souls, others take an interest in mortal life and answer prayers and grant spells, and some of them just prefer to ponder the true nature of reality. These are the closest things to proper gods, but they still don't really fit the designation like traditional D&D or Greco-Roman pantheon gods.

Demons and devils are also mostly mythical. Most of them are entities summoned from the depths of the Void, the realm between realms, or created from lingering negativity or corrupted magic. There's no heaven or hell that souls go to, just the Great Beyond, which nobody (soul or living astral explorer) has ever returned from, with reincarnation being the sole exception (and also a complete fucking mystery).

The closest thing to a proper capital-G God that has ever existed only stuck around for a few minutes. The ancient precursor race that seeded the moons of a gas giant with life and were guiding those civilizations was having yet another war, and their greatest mage got sick and tired of it and cast a grand spell that caused every member of that race to shed their bodies and merge their souls into one collective entity. It them promptly fucked off to the Great Beyond.

All the gods disappeared in an effort to prevent the removal of magic cast by a single word. A dead god of forbidden knowledge in the astral sea is the only thing left and he knows the word.

>The GM unironically puts Peter Griffin as the supreme deity of the setting
>The GM unironically puts peter in any part of the game

If you are the player, pic related
If you are the GM, kys.

P = NP

Canonically I, as the GM, was murdered and replaced with a wizard in setting who now runs my game.

That would be Mir, the entire universe is its body, immaterial planes being its dreams.

Though she's certainly not a supreme deity in any sense of the word, or even a major one, I do have a gender-bent self-insert of myself as an ascended mortal, who became a minor goddess of literature, frustration, and obsession, after unsuccessfully attempting to break the concept of writer's block her entire life via a series of increasingly powerful written scrolls, just incase I'm ever transported into my own setting, so I have a way to ensure I'm not killed, mutilated, or have my soul consumed. The deity's name is literally my own name spelled backwards, she has a vague attraction to herself, and while the party has met her once, no one noticed, despite my lack of a deific voice change. Should I be ashamed, or is there nothing to be worried of?

tell me more of this setting

>What is the highest god in your setting? Who is the supreme divine authority?

Unironically Death, but she's only a supreme, divine, authority in the same way a gardener is a supreme, divine, authority over a garden: she's responsible for existence, she responsible for it's continued existence, without her it would cease to exist, and without the garden she would be deprived of purpose and spiritual fulfillment.

To make a long story short, Death made THINGS to create a self-fulfilling cycle of life and death in order to prevent herself from being the last thing in existence, I.E: truly alone, forever, in eternal nothingness.

My setting has one, technically two "highest" gods, but the second is more akin to a physical law that supplies gods their power and that only the gods truly believe in.

The actual highest god is an elven deity of law and magic who established a theocracy early into the lifespan of civilization when all of the other gods were still establishing pantheistic societies or weren't even deified yet and the only other god who has a claim to being the "highest" god he long ago branded a traitor and god of lies after a series of unfortunate accidents nearly destroyed the theocracy. He's an asshole but a well-meaning one who genuinely cares for his followers and after millenia of the rest of the pantheon tearing itself apart through wars and infighting he's now considered a pillar of stability for staying the hell away and isolating himself to his island nation, though he still has plenty of followers elsewhere.

Tiamat, she's also dead/sleeping

a little girl

that's a neat enough concept.

Existence itself is the highest being although it is not sentient in any meaningful manner. Even the oldest eldritch beings are lesser in comparison and are simply another rung of "mortals" just like the many gods worshipped by mortals lesser than them

Basically all gods are killable and replaceable hence why religions come and go

I didn't vote for you.

It varies, but generally speaking no one deity is far and away the most powerful. All deities are powered by belief from one of the sapient races of the world - humans, the ever-fewer corvids or the octopi. Currently, the most powerful single deities are the genocidal Goddess of the Future, her nemesis the God of History and the calm, alien and reclusive God of Oil.

The universe itself has sentience, but it's basically in coma. It made endless gods as symbiots with each having their own world.
First Sentience is in slumber because there were a dude who feasted on the essence of things he killed, and at some point he decided to kill the universe itself. First Sentience didn't like it, and, shattering from dude's actions, divided itself on endless sectors\world with each sector getting a "god" and little chunk of a dude who couldn't be killed at this point.

Me.

>Highest god
Snoop, God of Weed. Actually, it's an entire bureaucratic process where pleas and prayers are filed and sent through different departments, and specific gods would take the plea, demand payment, and will get it done at their earlierst convenience.

The catch of my setting is that there is a point in the divine ladder in which you begin to lose freedom the more you climb it, that level is Demiurge, when you become a demiurge you are assigned as responsible of a universe and basically become one with it in some fasion (this is what the Lady of Pain is, she is connected to the universe of D&D through its suffering)

A demiurge along with other 9 demiurges are under supervision of a demiurge of a higer rank and he in turn is supposed to treat his juniors as a parliament of sorts that needs to approve decisions he takes and on top of that he is supervised by a demiurge of an even higher rank, the ladder goes up and up which somehow turns out with 10 supreme demiurges each with 10% of the authority over the omniverse but barely get to do anything themselves

There are two, the wife and husband pair of the sun and moon. They chill out in the heavens keeping an eye on their multitude of children (the constellations) making sure they all play nice and don't break each other's toys (mortals) or burn down the house (all of existence) while at the same time keeping an eye on their neighbor (Cthulhu) to make sure none of it's existentially horrific crab grass starts growing in their pristine lawn.

Started out strong but got progressively less interesting.

Creator aka Devourer aka that bright thing that shines in the sky, we call it the Sun.

there were The Ancients, but they died in the attempt of killing Darkfall for trying to create it's own "paradise". Ironically this event created the whole universe, while Darkfall is now imprisoned in the center of the earth, even if basically powerless

The Jester, he’s the only god left alive after several calamities and divine wars, although the Divinities (humans who became as powerful as gods) are MIA. Of course his current status is entirely up for debate by those that live in the setting itself.

YSHR, the Firstborn

He who has mastered every Martial Way, who knows the Secret Names of the Moon, Sun and Sea, who is the King and the Kingdom both, who all creatures great and small grow upwards in an attempt to reach.

He also fails to grasp the subjective in any meaningful way, and so while he surrounds himself with the finest swords and most beautiful concubines and so on, he does so only because others see them as such. He has no capacity to grasp them as such himself.

Ehehehehehehehehehehehehe...

Universal War did it better

Chad, the god of keg stands and broing out.
He's not just the god of the frat, he IS the frat, he is the alpha and omega.

Manus. But it's more like the god head or something. The force that creates and recreates the universe. The Manus does not interact with creation though.

The Architect (an extradimensional alien demiurge, basically) was killed by apotheosized (former) mortals, and the game setting consists of her planet-sized corpse, now a fossilized skeleton, which fell from heaven onto the old world.

The gods of the present age are the much less powerful cosmic equivalent to microbes, decomposers, and plants that grow on a corpse or a fallen tree, rising from the Architect's body. They're inherently connected to the lands in which they "grew". They can be killed, but only by other gods, whether directly or by other gods' divine magic, wielded by their paladins/clerics or used to forge divine weapons. The gods form a savage ecosystem, absorbing one another's power when they kill.

The gods bless the ground to which they are connected; all who die outside sacred ground rise as undead. When the Architect fell, so did her angelic psychopomps, so souls are no longer ferried to the afterlife. Instead, the new gods can take the dead to many afterlives of their own creation, but only if their souls are released within those gods' spheres of influence, i.e. if they're buried on holy ground.

Yahweh is the most powerful but he spends most of his time hiding so the surviving pagan gods don't gank him.

hey lois

I feel like his domain should be time travelling or the ability to alter the past.

Aeon the Creator is the Creation Deity of our dimension.

The only other named Creation Deity is Fina, who's dimension is linked to ours due to forbidden magic taking place.

The Overlord, a powerful antihero/devil, is said to have learned Creation magic and left this dimension to create his own, however he's actually still around, just biding his time until he's required.

A nameless essence that has no physical or ethereal form that simply exists everywhere at all times. For unknown reasons this nameless power used a fraction of a fraction of it's power to create the 9 gods known to mortals, but despite the small amount of power it used the gods were still infinitely stronger than their creations.

The 9 gods are as follows:

>Lord of Below
The creator of caves, caverns, and everything under the world. The main deity of Dwarfs, Gnomes, Kobolds, and other races that prefer to dwell under the earth.

>Earth Mother
Creator of the flora and fauna of the forests and the main deity of Elves, Nymphs, and Fairies. She is said to be a beautiful elder Elf with a caring nature

>Lord of Fire
The creator of the sun and fire, he is said to be a being made of flames. His worship is divided between followers of life and chaos.

>Ocean Queen
A beautiful mermaid-like being that created all of the oceans, lakes, and rivers. Most seafaring creatures and sailors pay their respects to the Ocean Queen, especially before a long journey

>The Rainmaker
A powerful god capable of conjuring everything from a gentle mist to a torrential downpour, the Rainmaker is worshiped by nearly every creature.

>The Warlord
The Warlord doesn't necessarily favor war, but he is very good at it. Commanders will often pray and pay respects to the Warlord before, during, and after battles in hopes of being granted victory.

>Harvester
The Harvester is a master of farming and peasants will pray to him along with the Rainmaker for a bountiful harvest.

>Plague Lord
The only god that is considered inherently evil, the Plague Lord is responsible for every disease that has ever existed. Worshipers of the Plague Lord voluntarily infect themselves and work to spread their diseases.

>The Chieftain
The Chieftain is considered to be a primal god, valuing the land and the hunt. Tribal societies worship him almost exclusively and engage in various rituals for tribute.

The denizens of my setting believe there to be a God that blesses the virtuous, rewards the extraordinary, and keeps the beast races at bay. The REAL higher power lives beneath the realm, roused from his slumber when civilization starts heading down a ruinous path.

There are 3 Pantheons, the New Gods, the Old Gods and the Primal Gods.
The New gods are reflective of humanity's current state, their pantheon is ever changing and many members don't last more than a few years, the most powerful of the New Gods is Myciell, the god of culture and art, he is by his nature the only New God to never fall out of favour.
The Old Gods are essentially the New Gods who have passed, they are individually the weakest of the gods but their numbers are greater, the head of that pantheon is Vikar, god of survival.
The Primal gods are gods of concepts and nature, they've been around since the dawn of the earth and aren't likely to go anywhere any time soon. The head of the primal pantheon is Astorr, god of the night.
There are also lesser gods which are basically humans ascended, though the only ones of any influence are Yorick the Denouncer and Shiel the Eternal King.

There are three Main Gods and then at one point thousands of minor gods. At this time in the story though most of the minor gods were killed and the three main Gods are currently locked away in a device created by a long dead Empire.

It's a bit complicated, but the primary deity is essentially the god of balance, who's power is nigh limitless, but who only ever intervenes to prevent the forces of Light and Darkness from gaining the upper hand in their celestial war long enough to achieve victory.

Sounds like a fun little easter egg.

Not a god per se, a solar system-scale machine created by a race that has since then ascended. Invisible to the mortal eye, said 'AI' shapes the setting's 'planes'.

Penumbra is the highest god in my setting.
She had three children, Alar, Alur, and Pell.
Alar and Alur went off to do some stuff, then got jealous and butthurt at what the other made.
They began to have a good ol god brawl.
Pell came in to try and stop them and was struck down by an errant blow.
Penumbra fell into depression, gave up, and exploded into a million pieces, each piece becoming a star.
Alar and Alur fought even harder, till eventually they became as weak as cats.

Long answer for a short question: No one now. They're all dead or useless. Fun times.

Jesus.
He's an amalgamate of magical artifacts left behind by the creation of the universe, and leads armies of angels who are also in some sense artifacts.

He's in a constant multidimensional struggle against the hordes of the Unholy Roman Empire, lead by Emperor Vlad Dracul III.

None. All gods are vile and hungry and stupid whose massive brains can't even really think.
Too bad they're the biggest, toughest things out there.

> That image
SHOW ME WHAT YOU'VE GOT!

>Emperor Vlad Dracul
Don't you mean the Unholy Romanian Empire?

Two opposing forces trying to rip the universe apart and trying to compress it into a single molecule, plus a demiurge who creates stuff sitting between them.

Death/void is generally agreed to be the strongest spirit. Because all things, even spirits, and gods can die. But there are no set pantheon, each tribe prays their spirits and it's generally agreed other tribe's spirits are just as valid, just not theirs.
Strongest spirits represent big chunks of the world, like the Sky, Land, etc. Death is the only one whom all must fear and respect.

Buluc Chabtan?

very asoiaf

Literally God, except this version of God doesn't send messengers/prophets to explain shit and doesn't care about being worshiped.
Worship actually strengthens the powerful mortals who ascended to "divinity" which makes them powerful and immortal, but not all-knowing nor invincible. These are the gods who are currently worshiped and have cults and religions, the only way to find about the creator God is through meditation and deduction. Not that it changes much.

The gods are all battling to gain control over the cycle of souls, and none of them succeeded. God protects its creation in the form of souls, but when alive, the creatures are immune to no danger. When dead, a soul is free to forsake its spirit (memories, personality...) if, when going back to God, it feels like it brings an unworthy "work". So this causes the soul to be re-injected in the flow of life to construct a better "spirit" through its life.
When a soul loses its spirit, this spirit can be captured by the lower gods or powerful magicians who try to conjure the dead; they think they're able to animate corpses and objects by catching a soul except it's just a soulless spirit, like an AI. One can animate a robot with an AI, but that doesn't give it an immortal soul. Oh, and ascending to godhood implies the loss of one's soul, so only the spirit remains.

Angels make sure the souls travel safely and severely punish any attempt at catching them. Demons try to ensure that every soul has a violent and sinful life so as to be reincarnated; demons live off of the suffering of souls during their lifetime.

It doesn't really matter that much to the game.

Nothing in particular, the state organized churches to be accepting of all beliefs and the interfaith church is a massively powerful organization that works to encourage any worship at all.

All that worship basically influence the form of the True God, but the founders of the interfaith realized having the largest mass of power regardless of form is better for everyone than trying to force all people to encourage a single form, granting additional magic to the land instead of meting it out. Secret cults work in the shadows to try and change the form of the True God into something concrete and under their influence, so it’s really just extremists or fundamentalists that are shunned from society and the church.

The highest God isn't a personal kind of deity. It's basically just the concept of Truth. There is a pantheon of "gods" loosely based on Hellenic religion, but they are pretenders/ascended mortals.

The collective conciousness of humanity.

Nah, he took over Rome with some friends.

so if your players reached high enough would your game go full meta?

Neck yourself my man

There are two, the Void (primordial Order), and the Erlkönig (primordial Chaos).

That's actually kind of neat.

An unknowable demi-urge called Om, birthed from the carnage of the First War that created a stable reality in a sea of quantum chaos. It tore this universe asunder, and layered it; a plane containing the cosmic gore that had birthed it which would become the defacto Brahmin for the souls of all living things, the material world, the Fae, and the plane of death and dreaming called the Murk.

Om is extremely detached, however, and has no clerics or worshipers in any meaningful numbers. The few cases where it showed up in any tangible form were always when the fabric of the material plane was torn, and after this, only its herald, a formerly mortal cleric, would appear to handle these breaches.

Let's go up the levels of my setting:

>Old Gods and New Gods
Your standardised pantheon, 8 gods of various cleric classes, then the old gods for the druids/barbs/rangers etc, gods of the forest etc.

>The Devourer
An interdimensional predator that devours gods and eats faith.

>The Fey
Beings outside of time and space who play with reality like a child plays with an ant colony. Think the Q Continuum, fantasy edition.

So that's about it, but as you pull back in the cosmic microscope, you see that the player universe is one of many layered over one another.
Pull back again and you'll see that these are all simply simulations of fictional universes held within neurons, which themselves are mere cellular constructs and combination of information giving rise to great complexity.

They themselves are held within the mind of the dungeon master, and though he weilds almost infinite power over the universe, he himself is merely mortal when compared to the forces above him - whatever they may be.

I like DM-inclusive cosmology because it implies that the player characters have something innately divine within them, like a powerful soul, because they are being played.

They triumph because a god acts through them.

Death, An old Pagan diety and a pacifist Myconid that got accidentally fused into one being in an old campaign. The entity is strong enough to usurp the creator if left unchecked for too long.

My setting doesn't work like that, there is no clear concept of divinity and cultures disagree on what is worthy of whorship. There is no established cosmic order and there are certainly no gods in the classical multi-theistic pantheon sense.