A text recovered from the sealed archives of the Summa Lux, a temple dedicated to Khysia, God of Light, in Lumeria.
Presumably seized as heretical in times past and then forgotten. Author unknown, but the original language - an older version of Secca - indicates that it was probably written by an Ionian.
I am more sure than ever now: The Gods are inhuman.
Of course they're not humans. Their very flesh is so suffused with magic that it's not entirely real. They can perform free-form magic and impose their will upon the world however they like, unlike that strict and regimented kind that wizards learn to wield. Their minds do not work the same way, perhaps as a result of seeing or feeling different things than we "mortals"... And they can cross the barrier between Heaven and Earth.
(A note for readers: It is not always agreed whether "Heaven" is one world like our own, or many disconnected realms. Some say that Heaven and the Celestial Garden and the Rivers of the Dead and various other places the gods speak of are all different places - I can offer no insight to this, but will use "Heaven" to refer to all places outside of Earth.)
So what is a God, exactly? I will use a definition that brushes aside all quibbles of kami versus deus versus djinn, which excludes clerics, paladins, demigods, and monsters. Let more academic tomes on theology quibble and debate the barriers between kinds - I am making general observations about the family. For my purposes, a God is a person who comes from Heaven, who wields magic in ways human wizards never could, who is unaging by nature, and who makes it their business to interfere in the affairs of humans if they encounter any.
What drives them on a fundamental level? We mortals are sometimes said to be driven by greed or fear or lust, and sometimes by love and compassion, or hope. There are stories of goodness and evil from every human culture in the world, and in my years of travel I have found that men and women all ultimately feel the same drives, whatever their beliefs and ways of living are.
Gods do not follow the same drives as humans. There are gods of compassion, yes. Gods who embody bloodlust and revenge, or any other human emotion, and gods who have little to do with the people of Earth at all. There is a clear pattern to my mind - not an ironclad rule without exceptions, but a general trend sussed out from a thousand fragments of stories. Weaker or lesser gods almost always seem obsessed with a tiny domain, with no care for anything that does not relate to what they want, even as instruments of long-term gain or cooperation. Only once they have decades or centuries of experience or vast power gathered - however gods gather these things - do they become more sophisticated.
I once observed the development of a kami of a young spring for two years. I was lucky enough to witness her descend from Heaven one spring morning and immediately fixate on a beautiful mountain spring. Her form was that of clear, flowing water that shifted from one moment to the next and glowed with a faint blue light. For the first several months, she did nothing else besides rest in her own waters, wander around the edges and imitate the shapes of any animals or people who approached.
When anyone tried to talk to her, she would imitate the noises as one might imitate an animal's, but clearly did not understand that they had meaning. She showed little curiosity about anything beyond her source-waters, and besides clearing leaves and other debris out of the water and blessing several trees in the area did nothing of interest.
That changed when a wandering Saur took up residence in the spring. Its foul presence drove away the animals and was slowly poisoning the water. The kami was frantic, trying to drive it off with spashes, light, and steam, but she was too weak. I ran to the nearby village and paid a party of local toughs to return with me and kill it - kill it they did, slaying the Saur but taking several nasty injuries in the process. The kami's expression was unreadable. She healed them... And then tried to get them to stay, and grew alarmed and upset when they wanted to leave. They eventually managed to escape, thankfully.
After that point she paid a lot of attention to me when I visited. I taught her to speak - her attention was still hyper-focused on her source spring, and she only wanted to learn about monsters that might threaten it and how to get more men with swords to come after the monsters, or how to kill them herself. I had to leave for other lands soon by that point, but I introduced the kami to a friend I had made, and from her reports the God slowly began to understand humans - though things like children, modesty, and needing to eat were unfamiliar, the ideas of nations, wars, and barter were comprehensible as soon as she had words for them.
A more full recollection of this kami is included later in these pages. I hope the observations will be useful to theologians.
The workings of older and more powerful gods achieve far greater sophistication. Take for an example the God with the most human support anywhere in the world, the one widely regarded as the single most powerful entity on Earth: Khysia, the Eternal Light. While Khysia's tales exalt her compassion, honor, and love in modern times, upholding her as a guardian of order in a chaotic world and a wise caretaker for those who follow her, the early myths of Khysia reveal a far more spotted history. Early stories include actions like burning cities that had surrendered to her armies, ending a plague by killing everyone who was currently infected by it, and asking parents to sacrifice their children to prove their devotion to her faith was sufficiently great.
Even now, everything I have been able to research in the stolid land of Lumeria indicates that Khysia herself does not comfort petitioners or give sermons. I cannot help but wonder, given my experiences with other gods, whether this is because she would be bad at it. Perhaps it's no wonder that all the truly "successful" gods have large and devoted priesthoods and ecclesiastical traditions. Humans understand humans, and by working together with a god can wield the god's powers to exercise great influence on the mortals of this Earth. Thus I envision priests and clerics not as servants, but as partners of a sort - the same way a knight is almost seen as a partner of his noble patron, and with gold and guidance can achieve goals that his lord cannot.
Other examples include-
Most of the rest of the pages are badly damaged. A note in Lumerian is scrawled at the bottom of the last one.
Volan,
We found this on a foreigner arrested for unauthorized possession of alcohol. I've only translated a bit of it, but it's obviously the ravings of a madman. He questions the nature of gods and compares the Good Light to heathens who worship mud, sex, and murder. Ludicrous! Khysia's nature is inherently superior to heathen spirits, and her love is perfect and eternal. Her honor and guidance is the only thing that protects us from the monsters we could be. Perhaps he wanted to mislead the people for his own gain? Regardless, he has been dealt with. This rag may be of interest to the Lightbearers, so they can better learn what misleading lies are being told in our lands. Archive it for now and hand it over at the next annual visit.
Aeternum Lux.
