Clerical Nature

Lets talk clerics. These men and women of the cloth devote their lives to serving the gods. In exchange the gods are more apt to intervene in the affairs of their supporters than with those that mearly ask for their help but offer no worship in return. In terms of the cosmos, the gods feed off the worship of their followers so that they can give their followers power and influence even more people to worshipping them — giving them more power. This great circle keeps some gods on top and others are beginning to fade as fewer people worship them.

One of the best sources for the nature of the deities in my world is to read Primal Order. While the follow on books stunk, the initial book gave a good breakdown on how I see my gods working in conjunction with the mortal world.

Worshippers to Gods

The gods originally came from outside of this mortal plane, which consists of the real world and all of its shadow worlds. Because they came from the outside (which we shall call the divine worlds), they are restricted in what they can do in this world. Worse, there is no divine energy on this world they can use to sustain their own lives; this means when they use up their divine energy they will cease to exist.

Into this void rushed the people of this world. When they worshiped these powerful gods, they gave up some of their own inherent spiritual energy which would renew itself for as long as they are sentient. Creating powerful avatars, the gods were able to change this spiritual energy into their own divine energy. This allowed them to sustain their own lives inside of this world. The small pockets of divine energy that the gods lived in came to be called Godshome, Atlys, Stonehall, and myriad of other names.

Gods to Worshippers

Because their divine power had such a powerful and destructive effect upon the world, the gods would simply have their avatar turn a small portion of their divine power into a great deal of aspectual power that the avatar could then use upon the world. This aspectual power was very limited compared to the unlimited nature of divine power, but it was more than enough when compared to the powers available to mortals.

For a cleric to draw upon the power of their god's avatars the purchase a VPP. The pool's control is limited by a Faith roll and whatever other limitations the cleric believes they need to call forth the power of their gods. However, it is possible and sometimes desirable for the cleric to have a larger pool than they can control. In this case, the remaining bit of the pool is under the control of their gods. This pool size simply represents the amount of aspectual energy that the cleric can withstand before being destroyed. The control of the VPP represents the cleric's faith which enables them to call down the power they desire.

This VPP is not a Cosmic Power Pool. All effects must be written up and approved by the GM before the game begins to avoid the abuse that often comes with such a pool. However, the cleric can swap out the effects of their pool as they desire. In addition, when the cleric turns their pool over to the avatar that heeded their call — the pool is unavailable to them until the avatar returns it. This can often be several days or even weeks. Usually it involves the priest doing a great deed in the name of their gods.

To power the effects of this pool a cleric purchases a Endurance Reserve with no Recovery capability. Instead, the cleric gets recovery based upon what they are doing in the name of thier gods. The more spiritual energy the cleric can set upstream to the gods, the more likely the god is to send apectual energy down to the cleric. This reserve represents the amount of aspectual energy the cleric can hold within themselves without fear of changing.

Pantheons

As you might have guessed from the frank discussion above, the gods don't really gather in pantheons as believed by the mortals. Instead, the gods move among each other as potential allies and predators. The weak are taken in by the strong and their power joined. With this power they can then increase their own aspectual capabilities, which will hopefully allow them to increase their base of worshipers. Several gods have gathered in groups to share worshipers so that none would grow weak, but none will grow very strong. Still, five gods working in concert where each is weaker than other gods — are stronger than any one gods because they draw strength from each others.