God

The Astikas (Ep.99)
Top to bottom: Chandra, Vayu (right), Indra, Surya, Varuna, Agni, and Kubera

Gods (神, deva) are one of the three races in the Kubera universe. After the N0 Cataclysm, most of them were confined to the god realm by Vishnu and since then required a live summoner to remain in the human realm. If the summoner dies, the god returns to the god realm. The primeval gods are the creators of universes and all its inhabitants, including the other gods. In the past, the natural and created gods were called the Astikas, but that name is no longer used.

Characteristics

Gods have fixed jurisdictions, such as the "God of Fire" or the "God of Water"; as long as their jurisdiction exists, they can resurrect when they are killed. In order to kill a god and prevent their resurrection, their jurisdiction within the universe must be destroyed; some gods are easier to kill in this way than others, and some gods cannot be killed at all. For example, in the case of a god of a particular planet, if the planet is destroyed, that god is destroyed as well. But in the case of Agni, as the God of fire, all the fire in the universe would have to be destroyed, so he is effectively immortal.

Depending on their jurisdiction, they are classified as primeval gods (시초신, shichoshin, 始初神), natural gods (자연신, jayeonshin, 自然神) or created gods (생성신, saengseongshin, 生成神). They are generally weaker than nastikas, but are able to resurrect indefinitely as long as their jurisdictions exist, which could be a planet, a star, or a whole universe.

Gods do not grow or age, but as with the suras, certain gods can change their apparent age or appearance at will.

Gods cannot have children with others of their own kind, unlike humans and suras. In order for a new created god to come into existence, a new jurisdiction must be created. As a result, their population grows at a slower rate than that of the other races. Gods can have children with humans, though the resulting offspring are not immortal, nor are they strong like rakshasas, so they are really not worth mentioning.

Unlike nastikas, gods are not normally able to change their gender, although there are some gods, such as Varuna, who can.

Gods v. suras

The gods—excluding the primeval gods—have been the protectors of humans since the very beginning, whether it was because their intentions were pure, or for their own benefit. They consider the suras to be their enemies. The goal of the gods is to completely wipe out the nastika-rank suras who are the source of all suras. On the surface, the reason why they consider the nastikas their enemy is for the protection of humans; however, the true reason is something completely different. What that reason happens to be is still unknown.

In the struggle between gods and suras, the primeval gods do not side with the gods.

Classification

The gods are classified and divided based on their jurisdictions: primeval gods, natural gods, and created gods. Natural and created gods are on friendly terms with each other, but the primeval gods are viewed as outsiders who are distant from the other gods. Their classification does not necessarily correlate with their power, as there exist natural gods who are weaker than certain created gods. Even though they are immortal, the concept of death still exists; even though they can be resurrected, if they die, they must go to the underworld where there is a significant delay before they can return to the living.

Primeval gods

The primeval gods are the gods who have lived since before the current universe came into existence. There are four of them—Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and Kali—and they have eight jurisdictions between them, and each god controls two of them. Only their most well-known jurisdictions are known: Brahma (creation), Shiva (destruction), Vishnu (resurrection), and Kali (chaos). Their jurisdictions are independent of the universe, which makes them outright immortal. They are able to regenerate indefinitely regardless of the existence of universes. In some universes however, the physical body of a primeval god had been lost, causing them to wait for the end of the current universe to create a new one and get his or her body back.

Primeval gods are in charge of creating universes and maintaining balance in them. They also control the power of names and are usually neutral when it comes to the wars and struggles between astikas and nastikas. Primeval gods help other gods manage their duties and have authority over them.

Their influence is so great that Shiva and Vishnu's disappearance in the year N0 was considered to be the actual Cataclysm. Currently only Brahma seems to remain.

Natural gods

The natural gods were created when the universe began. They have jurisdictions that are not likely to be destroyed, unlike the created gods, so they are effectively immortal: Agni (fire), Varuna (water), Vayu (wind), Indra (sky), Kubera (earth), Surya (light), and Chandra (darkness). These seven are 5th-zen level natural gods; all other natural gods are 4th-zen and below.

They were created by the primeval gods at the beginning of the universe along with the nastikas. They are also bound by the power of their names and share between them a general hate towards the suras.

Created gods

Created gods came into being after the universe was created and more jurisdictions came into existence. Once the jurisdiction disappears, the god disappears. Among the created gods, only Yama is 5th-zen level. Among the other created gods are Asvins (recovery) and Marut (decay), who act in Vishnu and Shiva's stead, so they are involved with resurrection and destruction magic. Both Asvins and Marut are 4th-zen level, their powers only a pale shadow of Vishnu's and Shiva's abilities; magicians who have those attributes are now much less powerful.

Attributes

A god's attributes consist of one to three source attributes, unlike humans and suras, and there are many gods who possess the same attributes; for example, Agni is not the only fire god. However, he is considered the God of Fire because he is the most powerful of all the fire gods, and his jurisdiction is all fire in the universe. On the other hand, other fire gods are more likely to die out since their jurisdiction is limited to certain stars.

Abilities

Their main power is to regenerate themselves every time they "die". It can be instant or take decades in some occasions, and when regenerating, a god is placed in a sort of limbo. Their regeneration takes place faster in their own realm, which has kept them safe from sura attacks. Gods also possess insight, which can be used on any being except nastikas. Only the primeval gods can have insight on every living being. It is necessary to make eye contact with the target to be able to use insight. They can also create items to be used as mediums. These god-level items are near indestructible and enhance human characteristics thanks to their high divine affinity due to the fact that they are part of the god who created it, and as long as the god exists so will the god-level item.^{[Citation needed]}

Mental Levels

Gods are classified as 1st through 5th zen, depending on their mental levels. Fifth Zen is the highest, and their mental level is proportional to their godly power, with the exception of some gods who lack fighting power. The five zen levels are based on the number of dimensions the god can reach. This does not mean that the god realm contains five dimensions; even though there are many dimensions, the gods base their level on only certain dimensions. 5th zen is the most powerful, and encompasses the four primeval gods, seven natural gods, and one creation god—12 gods in all.

The distinction between primeval gods, natural gods, and created gods is not directly related to their power levels, so their relationship is somewhat different from a vertical hierarchy. Even though the highest-ranking 5th-Zen natural gods seem stronger than created gods, among the 4th Zen there are many natural gods weaker than created gods, so discussing the strength purely in terms of jurisdiction is a problem. In any case, the reason immortal gods need to discuss the issue of strength is because of their concept of "death." Despite their ability to resurrect, there is an issue: there is a considerable delay before they can return from the dead.

Fifth Zen

(5th Zen gods, 오선급신) The 5th Zen is the highest Zen rank among the gods. With the exception of the primeval gods, the creators of both nastikas and astikas, they tend to be weaker than nastikas, but stronger than rakshasas. There are also natural gods stronger than nastikas—often based on attributes and not strength itself, such as Varuna who had killed a dragon nastika on her own. The primeval gods and the highest-ranking natural gods belong to this Zen. Among the created gods, only Yama is considered to be of 5th-Zen rank. Aside from their innate abilities of regeneration and insight, the 5th-Zen gods are able to freely move around the dimensions in the god realm. However, despite their freedom of movement, even the 5th-Zen gods cannot break the barrier that separates the god realm from the human realm after Vishnu split the realms, except for the primeval gods themselves. The only way to do it is to be summoned by a magician, or by using brute force - but so far only Kubera has been shown to be capable of this feat. Indra's and Yama's residences are placed in the highest dimensions, thus making them unreachable for the lower ranked gods.

Lower Zen

These gods are of lower status than the primeval and 5th-Zen gods. Lower Zen gods have certain restrictions as to which god realm dimension they can visit, and apparently have less strength and fewer powers they can share with magicians. Currently known 4th-Zen gods are: Asvins, Marut, Ratri, Ushas, Pushan, and Murugan.

Notes

• Indra is considered the King of the Astikas, a job given to him by the primeval gods.
• There are only 12 primary gods, one for each month, the four primeval gods, seven natural gods, and Yama, a created god, all of whom are 5th-Zen. They are the patrons of each of the twelve months in Willarv's calendar system, and also determine the birth attributes of humans and quarters. Three of the primeval gods have vanished and two 4th-Zen gods are filling in for those months; Kali's month remains vacant.
• Although 5th-zen gods are male except for Varuna, altogether there are more female gods. As a result, male gods are practically born to be popular.
• A primeval god is not an astika.

History

Vishnu names Shuri

Before the beginning of the universe, there were the primeval gods, who created the new universe and the creatures that were to inhabit it; the nastikas (stronger but mortal) and the astikas (weaker but immortal and able to resurrect infinitely). Each of these creatures received a special name from Vishnu, and those names were embedded with power. Unlike Vishnu, Kali did not like the idea that the newly-created beings may become more powerful than her, so she took the remaining names. This gave her the power of both gods and nastikas, but were dangerous and faulty. Using those names, she created her own clan. Astikas and nastikas were natural enemies and began a war between each other. Only the primeval gods stood impartial between the factions.

In return for their Breath, dragons were not capable of reproducing. Vishnu prophesied that if things remained unchanged, the Vritra clan would be the first sura clan to die out. In order to avoid such an outcome, he convinced Brahma to help. Brahma's spell enhanced the race's characteristics (numbed feelings), in return for dragon halfs to become the equivalent of a 5th-stage rakshasa after a century.

As time went by, some gods and suras were able to develop a friendship with each other: Vishnu became friends with Taksaka, Garuda, Gandharva, and Shuri; and Agni was able to befriend Gandharva thanks to Shakuntala's intervention, although Gandharva himself doesn't trust the Fire god.

Shiva v. Kali

Kali tried to kill Shiva using a special sword. The Sword of Return, which she created, is able to inhibit the regenerative skills. She was, however, unable to kill her fellow primeval god and threw the sword away. The Chaos Temple in Willarv was built around it. Later on, Kali had a child with Garuda for reasons known only to her and went missing afterwards. She created a being called Taraka to act as a mother to Yuta and rule the chaos sura.

Year N0: Shiva v. Vishnu

Humans could borrow the power of gods through divine magic, or of suras through fiendish magic depending on their properties or descent. However, Suras were often unpredictable and harmed the humans as well. Realizing divine magic was safer for them, humans sided with the gods. In order to protect the human cities, Vishnu had Brahma create barriers. Because she was neutral, the barriers were not perfect and human vigor was not strong enough to fend off against superior suras. Natural and created gods powered the system so that not even a nastika would be able to enter the cities.

During the N0 Cataclysm, Vishnu and Shiva disappeared. Asvins and Marut took their place respectively. Before leaving, Vishnu separated the races into three different dimensional realms and promised to have an ocean built for the Gandharva clan in the sura realm. As a result of this separation, gods had to be summoned to be able to exist in the human realm at the cost of the summoner's lifespan. Since N0, three gods have been summoned: Chandra, Vayu, and Agni.