In Planescape, many of the locations visited and sights seen are connected with the mythic gods who feature in the various worlds of the setting. For a planewalker, the gods are real. Of course, the Sigilian faction known as the Athar deny that they deserve any special status, but just saying so doesn't save an Athar member from the anger of a god, should he incur it. Religion is more than just a matter of trust for those who dwell in most of the worlds of AD&D - it's an everyday fact. On Toril, most people remember the gods walking the planet during the Time of Troubles. On Krynn, they still remember the gods who have vanished from them. And so on. In Sigil, the City of Doors, the name of the dead god Aoskar is familiar, slain as he was by the city's enigmatic guardian the Lady of Pain. So what can be said about the gods that so influence the lives of the characters?

The first thing to note is that 'god' is a term with many associations, and moreover it is masculine. For the purposes of Planescape and other AD&D settings, the gods, who range over both genders and none, and sometimes deny the word 'god', are referred to as 'powers'. Talk about the gods, and everyone knows what you mean. But 'power' is preferred for a variety of reasons.

The definitive resource on gods for Planescape is the sourcebook On Hallowed Ground (OHG), which describes in detail the dealings of the powers, their influence, status, identities and domains. Most of the material here is presented in the same format, to act as an accompaniment to that volume. An explanation is given below of the format used for the descriptions of gods in OHG. However, in Planescape, the gods do not exist in isolation, but have diplomatic and other relationships. Whilst in reality the Japanese goddess Kannon has nothing at all to do with the Greek god Zeus, in Planescape the two will certainly have heard of one another, and may even have met. Powers with similar portfolios (areas of control) may be allies, rivals or even enemies. Moreover, in addition to talking about fictionalised versions of gods revered or imagined at times in past history, Planescape introduces some powers of its own, and utilises those gods invented for use in other AD&D settings such as the World of Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, or the Birthright world of Cerilia. These, too, form relationships and alliances. And each of the non-human races in the game has at least one pantheon (group of gods) which it reveres. One world whose powers have recently come in for deep scrutiny in other sourcebooks is the Forgotten Realms world of Toril, and its continent of Faerun. The gods of this world recently had to fight for their survival in what was called the Godswar or Time of Troubles. The status of the Torillian gods since that event is described in the excellent Faiths and Avatars series, which to date consists of Faiths and Avatars and Powers and Pantheons, with a book on the elven, dwarven and similar gods provisionally titled Demihuman Deities coming out later this year. I have employed the more detailed and complex format for the descriptions of gods that this series uses in some of my articles here. This, too, is explained below.

The gods of Planescape are an area of special personal interest for me, and if you have any questions about my work or about the topic in general, please feel free to mail me.

KEYS:

On Hallowed Ground format:

AoC: Describes the power's Area of Control, ie: the things that this god is god of. Typical portfolios include war, love, wealth and justice.

AL: Gives the power's alignment, in the usual AD&D abbreviation.

WAL: Worshippers Alignments; Describes, in terms of alignments or otherwise, who worships this power.

Symbol: A holy or unholy symbol by which the power is known, either to its own worshippers or to the general public.

Home P/L/R: (Plane/Layer/Realm name); Where the power lives on the planes. Such realms are usually pretty unapproachable, but the surrounding territory can befascinating and useful to visit.

Known Proxies: Any special angelic, demonic or other agents who serve the power.

Then follows a description of the power's physical aspect, aims, interests, intrigues and other details.

Faiths and Avatars format:

Not all the details of this format are explained here: I hope most of them are self-explanatory - the list would be long indeed otherwise!

Name of Power (Titles)

Power Ranking of Plane Name, Alignment

Portfolio: Identical to 'AoC' in the OHG format.

Aliases: Other names for the same power.

Domain Name: The planar layer and realm where the power lives or works from.

Superior: Any power to whom this power owes allegiance.

Allies: Any powers who are friendly to this power.

Foes: Any powers to whom this power is opposed. This does not include rivals.

Symbol: As above.

Wor. Align: Worshipper's alignment again.

Then follows a long and detailed description of the power, the power's realm, interests, clergy, proxies, avatars and speciality priests. Speciality priests use an experience table identical to that used by druids (see the Player's Handbook), but without the 'reset' at 16th level.

The 'Power Ranking' sections of the above format stand for one of the following terms, with the meanings listed:

Demipower: A very minor power, with little influence, whom many people may not have heard of.

Lesser Power: A power whom many people will have heard of, with quite strong following.

Intermediate Power: A power with a strong following, whom everyone has heard of, and whose portfolio is quite important.

Greater Power: The creme de la creme of powers. The greatest, most potent gods are ranked 'Greater'. They tend to have extremely prominent churches. Everyone swears by them, and their portfolios are crucial ones like war or rulership. Pantheon leaders are a special case of greater powers: they also rule all the other gods of the same culture as themselves. Zeus, for example, is the Greek pantheon leader.

Overpower: An overpower is not a power at all. I've prepared an FAQ on the subject, but the long and the short of it is that the overpowers (that have been revealed) watch over the gods and see that all goes fairly.