Demigods, Quasi-deities, and Remnants in the Unbalanced Pantheon

Completing the work on the unbalanced pantheon, I want to take a quick look at demigods, quasi-deities, and remnants. For the purposes of Terafa these are distinct, but closely related, things:

Demigods are the lowest rank of gods. These come about in several different ways: they could be a child of a god with a mortal, they could be a mortal who has ascended to godhood through acclaim, or they could be a lesser god who has further fallen in rank.

Quasi-deities are things that in some sense should be gods but which are not, for whatever reason. This typically includes extremely powerful monsters, and some mortals who are on the cusk of reaching demigod status. The distinction between demigods and quasi-deities is flexible, but typically it is that demigods enjoy the immortality of gods while quasi-deities are mortal (albeit extremely powerful). However, as with all things divine that distinction is not absolute.

Remnants are what is left over when a god dies or is killed. It is not clear whether a remnant is in any sense a part of that god, or if it is instead simply a pooling of the remaining worship ascribed to that god.

Demigods, quasi-deities, and remnants all have something of the divine about them, even if none are true gods. They are all able to grant spells, although none tend to have established churches or more than a few Clerics. (Technically, none of them should be able to grant spells above about 5th level. However, that's something of a moot point - if any of them ever had a Cleric powerful enough to receive higher level spells, that would generally indicate that they have themselves been elevated in rank. Either that, or some higher power has taken an interest in that Cleric and is therefore granting spells on the demigod's behalf.)

For the most part these lesser powers are local heroes and myths. However, a small number are of wide enough interest to be discussed futher here:

Randor: A half-elven hero from the old empire of Solrakion, Randor is said to have led a successful resistance against the tyranny of the elves. Unfortunately, no record of his mortal life remains to corroborate this story. However, Randor is fairly widely revered as the patron of all those who stand against tyranny. He was thus elevated to demigod status over time, as his legend far outlived his mortal life.

The Stonefather: It is not at all clear what happened to the being known as The Stonefather, or indeed if such a being ever truly existed. However, so many dwarves cite The Stonefather as the ultimate progenitor of their race that the existence of The Stonefather as a remnant was inevitable.

Memory: During the Upheaval, The Usurper broke free of his bonds and attempted to overthrow the pantheon. During this time, the being now known only as Memory was slain - it was out of this void that The Thought was brought into being. Memory is therefore a remnant, albeit a rapidly fading one. Those who continue to worship Memory are confounded by confusing visions that things are not right in the pantheon...

Behind the Curtain

Demigods, quasi-deities, and remnants mostly exist to soak up all the other messy bits that don't really fit elsewhere, and to allow for the injection of local colour into the setting.