The Concept of Deity - Viyan Nesrin
What exactly is the relationship between ourselves (sentient mortals of the Material World) and those we name gods (sentient immortals of the Extramaterial World). It may lie within that first descriptive word known as sentience. I believe it was The First Head Priest who claimed that sentience itself was a gift only a god (Hormus) could provide. Originally in my thinking I was inclined to believe that a deity figure capable of granting sentience must have something more than sentience at its disposal to have created something capable of, as we perceive it, free will of thought and action. However, after my meeting with two different Awakened and one of their masters I was gently corrected from this line of thinking. Our ability to “pass on” sentience might still be in whole different from the idea of “created” sentience, but such a thought should be argued in its own right, not clumsily pressed on about here.
Though deniers of the term god(s) in its entirety exist within our midst I do not intend to argue against their premises since they are bound up in a subset of ideals I do not currently wish to unearth. For our purposes the following can be assumed: The gods are real beings which exist wholly separate from our own existence, that is to say they are completely different creatures, so much so that perhaps the word creature or even exist do not apply well. However we define them we may agree that the continued observable presence of entities outside the Material World that are Higher beings than us is factual.
Higher beings. An implication believed by many to imply a requirement for worship. Head Eemeli wrote in Why Do We Worship?: “That you were created by [it], must it beg for your attention? That you and [it] exist, you second [it] first might enlighten you towards proper worship of [it]?” of course this feels like a very natural conclusion to arrive at, but I have always believed Sundered Priests should abstain from philosophical pursuits considering their immense bias evident by their missing flesh. What does Higher mean in these contexts? To Eemeli it appears to mean “Better, deserving of worship by the fact of its existence”. This conclusion is simplistic and I mean no disservice to Eemeli, and were he still here I would ask him eagerly to divulge a more full bodied definition. Instead I proffer my own definition: “Closer to the Truth, capable of observing both Worlds, imbued with power.” I hope that you would agree with me, that this definition of a Higher being does not incorporate the idea of Deity: something requiring worship.
If this definition is accurate there are Material World versions of such a being. Take for example, the Visare of the Ornsiire Empire. He is by his position imbued with power, someone might argue against the idea of imbuement vs. adornment but if some stories are to be believed such an idea is not foreign to deities such as Aoire Sléibhe. As for seeing the Truth and observing the Extramaterial I defer to Adlanna Caladwen and her How the Extramaterial Permeates the Material in which she postulates that wealth and debauchery increase the exposure of one’s Soul to the Extramaterial, perhaps even in a similar way to Over Transfusion. With these conclusions at my behest were I to journey the streets of Ornsiire not one who I asked but those with some Soul Illness might affirm the following question “Is the Visare someone to worship?“. He is definitively not a deity, having not claimed such a position or believed to be in such a position by those closest to him (his people and officials), despite fitting this set of criteria.
I should now address my own biases. Being an ex-tribal Girav gel of the Giravian Archipelago I was inundated with the idea that the Bin av Kirin were beings to worship, they were deity and I was mundane. I was meant to live a life conducting Ritualistic War until eventual death, either from battle or old age. My Bavwin was replaced by my Bavyek within my eighth turn and by my twelfth four more had come and gone and I forever new a Bavcar until I finally escaped. I do not doubt the existence of the Bin av Kirin but as for the actions begged of my people I make no such claim. If the stories are true our due was paid when we fought in the western coasts. So I am inclined to claim that such behavior, belief and subservience is not only unnecessary but perhaps not even truly requested by those we call gods. The Premise of Contract disputes the immutable nature of contracts made with Higher beings quite convincingly. If this point of view and my own definition are at all correct it is more than possible that many of these so called “deities” are more flexible in what they might ask of us “puny mortal beings”. Do they even seek some kind of worship out of an innate need? Or is this an assumption we assign to appease our anxious efforts to pull stability from the Extramaterial? I suggest the latter, but with gentle conviction.