Tue Feb 15, 2005 10:14 am  
Gods & Immortals, defining the terms for Old Lore D&

Now, to explain a little bit about how gods are handled.

The AD&D games, and D&D games, break gods into various levels of power, but for ease of play, we only use two categories:

  • Gods These are the true divinities, capable of granting spells to followers. Note that some powerful demons and devils are included in this group.
  • Immortals These are the legendary heroes and demigods of the setting, who are immortal and have a spark of the divine in them, but are not full deities and cannot grant spells.
    Note that in some cases, there will still be clerics who worship them and can use spells, the spells being granted by an allied god. For Example: Kyuss, lord of the undead, is an Immortal, and incapable of granting spells himself, but his followers still recieve spells, through the power of Nerull.
    It is also important to understand that the term Immortal here is not related in any way to the term Immortal in the Classic D&D rules, which are not used in our game.


Another concept which is worth keeping in mind is that of Manifestations. These are the physical forms a God can take on Oerth, similar to what other editions of the game have called Avatars. Destroying a God's manifestation generally wounds the god's essence, restricting them to their home plane for a period of time to recover. This period of time varies by god. For the purposes of the Old Lore project, the actual statistics for Gods are not provided. Killing gods is epic business, generally involving the completion of decades long quests or the destruction of artifacts, and is not accomplished through mere combat.

Immortals do not have the ability to create manifestations, but they are not bound by the divine pact of non-interferance, which prevents true gods from manisfesting their true being on Oerth. In other words, an Immortal can materialize on Oerth at will, but they are reluctant to do so in any but the most extreme circumstances, since their complete essence is at risk. Defeating an Immortal in combat is not easy, but it destroys them permanently, so most will send servant NPCs or creatures to work their will, rather than risk personal involvment.
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