Divinity fills the world of Eard. Gods, godlings, mythological beasts, and legendary items all have a prominent place here.
All divine objects begin with a focus of some sort. A focus requires two things to become divine. First, enough of its essence must exist to provide a framework for its power, such as a person’s memory or an item’s lore. This essence serves as an anchor for divine energy.
There are many types of things that can create such an essence, but no matter what, that essence must be so powerful that it remains, even if the source is lost or dies. A person remembered fondly, or hated, by friends and family can form a focus. Intense devotion to a task can allow a person to become a focus, as well. Items and animals can also get such a reputation as to create an essence. And, of course, so can powerful or memorable items.
Secondly, people must imbue that essence with enough power for it to become divine. Generally, this is done by the worship of a great many people, but a few especially devout disciples can do this as well.
Once an essence is worshiped sufficiently, that symbolic power becomes a divine being. It retains many aspects of the original source, but even if it was an animal or item, it is conscious of its status as a divine being. The resulting being may be limited in certain ways because of their original form, but this is actually true of humans who ascend as well.
Divine beings are immortal and can never completely die. However, without any worshippers, they are merely shades with little power to speak of, though they always have some. Conversely, a being with a large following can be extremely powerful and its symbols made extraordinarily influential.
A person can easily worship more than one divine being, and most people on Eard do. Since most cultures have their own collection of divine beings, their mythology, members of that culture tend to at least pay attention to all beings in that mythology.
Not surprisingly, many Chroniclers and scholars study divine beings extensively, of course. Several schools, most especially the Akademia Theologika in Sabine, Sabinia Province, Empire of Makhaira focus on cataloging every divine being and its origin.
This research has, in general, been successful and they have sources for most divine beings. However, this success does not include most of the major gods and goddesses of Eard. The most prevalent theory of why this is comes from the simple fact that humanity's records are only about 4000 years old. It is reasoned that most of these deities predate the Akkermenian Empire, and therefore all the records are lost.
But some scholars have other ideas, based on the writings of Shulmanu Lilith, which are some of the earliest extant histories in the entire world. She maintained that many of Eard’s divine beings came from powerful magic performed by the Kolossoi themselves. He stated that they brought the essence of many of Eard’s most well-known deities, and the basis of many of our cultures, from other universes to serve their purposes.
While this claim seems incredibly outlandish, and is scoffed at my many scholars today, it is clear that contemporaries of Shulmanu took her theories seriously. In fact, it was the predominant theory for many decades after her death and even now, scholars of the Shulmannian School are not uncommon.
Whatever the truth is, there are now a great many divine beings worshiped in Eard, many with significant organizations or churchs. There is a higher proportion of mages in churches than in the rest of the world, as divine thought often called to those who minds are capable of magic.
A god focused on knowledge, such as Naum Gropa, will tend to have a high percentage of runelord. Nature goddesses such as Artemis will have many lifelords. A love goddess like Cytherea will obviously have many enchanters. And so on.
It can easily been, with all these divine beings, their mythologies, and their churches, why divinity is such an important part of the society, culture, and history of Eard.