Godmind

Godminds are immensely powerful entities on par with normal deities in terms of power. Although some godminds were individuals of such immense psionic power that they transcended mortality and gained mortal worshippers, granting them abilities on par with standard deities, some are conceptually so alien that normal mortals cannot comprehend the nature of the godmind and instead typically believes they are like normal deities. Unlike standard deities, godminds do not grant their worshippers special abilities, such as divine spellcasting. The use of godminds should also accompany utilizing the default rules of psionic-magic transparency to minimize difficulty in having interaction between psionics and magic.

Unlike many deities who are active in their worshippers’ lives, a godmind is typically more of a greater consciousness than an active party. So long as their advocate adheres to the tenets that attune their body, mind, and soul to their godmind, they may gain special psionic abilities such as access to psionic nodes. The doctrine listed for each godmind is a guide for each worshipper to follow if the godmind is expected to grant abilities such as access to psionic nodes; the doctrine is not necessarily a comprehensive list of expected behavior and may be modified as needed.

Listed below are the twelve known godminds and what they control. One does not need to worship the specific godmind to gain access to powers or abilities that godmind represents, as an agnostic egoist may still utilize powers such as thicken skin, but it is not uncommon for manifesters of the appropriate discipline to venerate the godmind who embodies the spirit of that discipline.

GODMIND ENTRIES

The description of each godmind is presented in a standard format. Each category of information is explained and defined below.

Name:

The first line of every godmind description gives the name by which the godmind is generally known. A godmind might be known by other names in some locales, and specific sects might have names of their own for these godminds.

Rank:

Beneath the godmind’s name is a line giving the rank of that godmind. Similar to divine ranks of standard deities, major godminds control more power and have more influence than moderate godminds, who in turn have more power and influence than minor godminds.

Worshippers:

The next line of the godmind description gives the typical type of individuals that will follow the tenets of that godmind. This group usually corresponds to the areas of control that godmind represents.

Nodes:

Every godmind grants access to psionic nodes to those exemplars who take the appropriate character options, such as class levels or feats. This line lists which psionic nodes the godmind can allow a follower access. Psionic nodes are not universally controlled by any single godmind, so it is not unusual for multiple godminds to have access to the same psionic node.

Alignment:

Although godminds effectively represent a single aspect of psionics, each godmind has a corresponding alignment. Those aspects of psionics that typically reflect selfish or evil actions may be represented by an evil godmind, while the more selfless parts of psionics may be exemplifed by a good-aligned deity. Most worshippers have alignments similar to their godmind, although it is not a strict requirement.

State of Consciousness:

Different godminds manifest in different ways. This line of the godmind’s entry explains if the godmind is an active entity, directly influencing the inhabitants of the world at large, or if the entity is more passive, allowing its adherants to further the aspect of psionics the godmind represents without taking an active role. Neither type of godmind, active or dormant, affect the godmind’s ability to grant access to psionic nodes or other special abilities gained from following the tenets of a
godmind.

The second part of a godmind’s state of consciousness is the form in which they manifest. Some godminds are elevated mortals and are still tied to this sort of form, such as a typical deity’s avatar. Others may be more ephemeral, such as a persistent worldthought network, touching the world and its worshippers with mental connections. Others may be purely mental in nature; a consciousness on a massive scale, but not necessarily tying its members together like a worldthought network.

Favored Weapon:

Conflict is inevitable, even for beings of such immense power as godminds. When such a conflict comes to pass, a particular godmind will often rely on one weapon of choice. This weapon may be a true weapon, such as a sword or bow, or it may be something more cerebral, such as fear or a particular psionic power.

Descriptive Text:

This portion of a godmind description details the background of the particular godmind and how it came to be a godmind. If one of the previous lines in the description included “see text,” this is where the explanation is found.

Doctrine:

The last item in each godmind entry is the doctrine of that particular godmind. This doctrine represents how a worshipper of a godmind is expected to behave in order to align their state of mind to match the aspect of psionics with that godmind. Failure to follow this doctrine causes the individual to lose access to any special abilities or nodes granted by the godmind, although if the infraction was not extreme, methods such as atonement can be used to regain these abilities.

Godminds and Divine Ranks

Unlike deities, who gain divine ranks as they gain worshippers, the power of a godmind is not tied to worshippers, adherants, or followers. Instead, a godmind’s power is tied directly to their own command of psionic power, not based upon others. Those godminds that control entire disciplines wield the ability to create virtually any effect with that discipline.

Because godminds do not gain their power from those who worship or follow them, they are often less active in the lives of their devotees. Some were directly created from the actions of mortals and, in these instances, may still draw power from those mortals. However, after a godmind is established and comes to embody an aspect of psionics, a critical threshold is reached and that godmind becomes self-sustaining, no longer drawing upon whatever power initially gave it rise, be that a group of mortals, an artifact of incredible power, or some other source of energy.

Conflicting Godminds

The doctrines and existences of certain godminds can be anathema to another godmind, causing natural conflict. As the nature of some of these beings is quite alien to that of mortals or even other gods, the nature of the conflict can also be quite alien.

This does not necessarily equate to two godminds being actively hostile with each other. The two entities may not realize what the other is doing, or, in most cases, simply not care, accepting what the other godmind is doing and taking steps to do what they perceive as correcting the mistake. Mortals, however, typically do not understand this nature of the godminds, instead believing that these higher powers are as petty as kings, emperors, and even some other divine beings. This can and has led to followers of godminds to take up arms against other followers, believing that by doing so, they are doing what their godmind wants.

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