Divine essence

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Armor of the god Gorum, shattered after his death. A warshard is embedded in the ground next to him.

See also: Immortal ichor

A deity is fundamentally composed of a poorly understood energy sometimes referred to as their divine essence. The death of a deity can result in that divine essence being lost, uncontrollably distributed, or contained, and the nature of these outcomes is also poorly understood.

Divine essence features prominently in the history of divinity on Golarion, through events such as Earthfall and the deaths of Acavna, Aroden, and Gorum, among other lesser divinities related to that planet's inhabitants.

Acavna and the Starstone

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Aroden

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Gorum

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The death of Gorum resulted in the Godsrain, a pan-Universal event in which the divine essence of Gorum mingled with his blood and shards of his armor to rain down upon the planets containing his worshippers, including Golarion. This rain imbued creatures on these worlds with various effects, such as divine and mythical powers and a thirst for conflict.

Orc pantheon

Legends of the origins of orc deities on Golarion tell that the mortals Lanishra and Verex abducted a deity of the halflings and extracted their divine essence to become gods themselves. Upon learning of this, more orcs rushed to the surface to abduct, kill, and consume the divine essences of halfling deities.

This legend also suggests a rationale for the small number of halfling deities known on Golarion, and the origin of the Crucible as a means of new orc deities arising when a mortal's soul challenges and defeats an orc deity in combat.

The Wanderer

The ancient spirit guide known as Fox, the Immortal Trickster, and the Wanderer—among many other names—has slowly become less powerful over time. Theories suggest he has weakened by sharing his divine essence with mortals, or by losing some to the beings who have killed him several times over the ages.

Zagresh

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After the mortal soul of Grask Uldeth assassinated the orc deity Zagresh, the remnants of Zagresh's divine essence retreated to his worshippers within Golarion's Death Tower. The tower's high priest Ungukk hurriedly bound the divine essence to the Carcass Man, an existing construct of dead flesh, to preserve it.

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In mortals

Some exemplars gain their powers from exposure to divine essence.

References

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