Help:Writing an article about a deity
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The term deity is used within PathfinderWiki to describe any greater being that has ascended in power to a point where it is worshipped and followed by other creatures. Deities can usually provide their divine followers, such as clerics, with spells. This means the term deity, as a concept, would include gods as well as lesser beings such as demon lords, archdevils, etc.
Begin the article by using the {{Deity}} template. Visit that template page, and copy the text from the usage box. You can paste this at the beginning of your article and fill in the blanks. The template automatically knows only to display the information that you fill in, so if you leave any of the fields blank, they will not be displayed.
See the example template for Erastil on this page or the {{Deity}} template documentation. You might also want to refer to the policy on citing sources to provide references for the statements in your article.
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Summary |
Sections
There are no hard-and-fast rules on what sections should and should not exist within an article, although there is some logic to the convention that has built up with the creation of many articles about deities. You might consider using, but are not forced to use, the following sections in your article, which are largely based on the deity articles found within the Pathfinder Adventure Path books:
- History
- The deity's background
- Home
- Where the deity resides and a description thereof
- Relationships
- Description of the deity's peers, allies, and enemies, and how the followers of the deity might react to worshippers of other deities
- Appearance
- How the deity manifests itself, and how it is depicted by its worshippers
- Emissaries
- Information about the deity's herald, how the deity might communicate to mortals, and specific entities associated with the deity that may, for example, be summoned via planar ally spells
- Church
- Information about the organizations formed to worship the deity: priests, followers, temples, organizations, holy texts, holidays, aphorisms, religious services, geographic centres, racial associations, monster associations, and subsects or heretical groups
- References
- Note any articles that comprehensively describe the deity, and add the {{Refs}} template
- Deity navboxes
- Add the appropriate navbox template to append a navigable list of other deities to the bottom of your page. There are many such navboxes, including (but not limited to):
{{Deities navbox}}
{{Powers_of_Hell_navbox}}
{{Daemonic_powers_navbox}}
{{Demon_lords_navbox}}
{{Eldest_navbox}}
{{Elemental_lords_navbox}}
{{Empyreal_lords_navbox}}
{{Dark Tapestry deities navbox}}
{{Psychopomp Ushers navbox}}
{{Qlippoth lord navbox}}
Categorization
Although the following list is not exhaustive, an article about a deity should generally be categorized according to the following category areas. To add a category to an article, place the category name at the bottom of your article using the following syntax:
[[Category:Vudran pantheon]]
Deity name
For each deity, add a category in the deity's name. This category serves as the root for subcategories of areas associated with the particular deity, such as followers, servants, or locations.
Using Erastil as the example:
[[Category:Erastil| ]].
The | symbol followed by a space indicates that category should be sorted separately and before anything else in that category.
Power level
There is a hierarchy to deities worshipped on Golarion, and the deities should be categorized according to their status in this hierarchy. The list of possible power levels is located at Category:Deities by power level.
Categories are not exclusive, and a deity can be placed into multiple categories. For instance, Asmodeus is in both Category:Archdevils and Category:Major deities, because he is both an archdevil and a major deity.
If possible, avoid categorizing articles directly into Category:Minor deities unless they cannot be placed within any of its subcategories.
Within power level considerations, there is also the Category:Dead deities for deities who have been slain or are otherwise no longer.
Building upon the previous example, Erastil is a major deity, and would be categorized:
[[Category:Erastil| ]] [[Category:Major deities]]
Alignment
Each deity has one of the nine alignments and should be categorized accordingly into a [[Category:(alignment name) deities]] category.
Building upon the previous example, Erastil is a lawful good deity, and would be categorized:
[[Category:Erastil| ]] [[Category:Major deities]] [[Category:Lawful good deities]]
Note that there are categories such as Category:Lawfully aligned deities, Category:Goodly aligned deities, Category:Neutrally aligned deities, etc. These "aligned" categories represent an entire axis of alignment; avoid adding deities to those categories unless their specific alignment is not known.
Domain
Each deity is associated with a number of domains from which divine magic spellcasters, such as clerics, may choose. For every domain that a deity possesses, add a separate domain category. For a list of domain categories, see Category:Deities by domain.
Building upon the previous example, Erastil has the Animal, Community, Good, Law, and Plant domains, and would be categorized:
[[Category:Erastil| ]] [[Category:Major deities]] [[Category:Lawful good deities]] [[Category:Animal domain deities]] [[Category:Community domain deities]] [[Category:Good domain deities]] [[Category:Law domain deities]] [[Category:Plant domain deities]]
Subdomain
Each deity also has associated subdomains from which their servants may choose. For every subdomain that a deity possesses, add a separate subdomain category. For a list of subdomain categories, see Category:Deities by subdomain.
Building upon the previous example, Erastil has the Archon, Family, Feather, Fur, Growth, Home, and Cooperation domains, and would be categorized:
[[Category:Erastil| ]] [[Category:Major deities]] [[Category:Lawful good deities]] [[Category:Animal domain deities]] [[Category:Community domain deities]] [[Category:Good domain deities]] [[Category:Law domain deities]] [[Category:Plant domain deities]] [[Category:Archon subdomain deities]] [[Category:Family subdomain deities]] [[Category:Feather subdomain deities]] [[Category:Fur subdomain deities]] [[Category:Growth subdomain deities]] [[Category:Home subdomain deities]] [[Category:Cooperation subdomain deities]]
Mystery
Deities might also have associated oracle mysteries. For every mystery that a deity possesses, add a separate mystery category. For a list of mystery categories, see Category:Oracle mysteries by deity.
Building upon the previous example, Erastil has the Ancestor, Nature, and Wood mysteries, and would be categorized:
[[Category:Erastil| ]] [[Category:Major deities]] [[Category:Lawful good deities]] [[Category:Animal domain deities]] [[Category:Community domain deities]] [[Category:Good domain deities]] [[Category:Law domain deities]] [[Category:Plant domain deities]] [[Category:Archon subdomain deities]] [[Category:Family subdomain deities]] [[Category:Feather subdomain deities]] [[Category:Fur subdomain deities]] [[Category:Growth subdomain deities]] [[Category:Home subdomain deities]] [[Category:Cooperation subdomain deities]] [[Category:Ancestor mystery deities]] [[Category:Nature mystery deities]] [[Category:Wood mystery deities]]
Pantheon
A pantheon is a group of gods or other beings that have an affiliation that ties them together. This may be that they are predominantly worshipped by a particular race of creatures, specific human ethnicities, or the inhabitants of a specific place, such as the Category:Goblin hero-gods, Category:Elven pantheon, and Category:Vudran pantheon, respectively. For a list of existing pantheon categories, see Category:Deities by pantheon; if a relevant pantheon category doesn't exist, consider creating one, especially if other deities would belong to it.
Building upon the previous example, Erastil is one of the deities especially associated with worship in the area around Sandpoint, and would be categorized:
[[Category:Erastil| ]] [[Category:Major deities]] [[Category:Lawful good deities]] [[Category:Animal domain deities]] [[Category:Community domain deities]] [[Category:Good domain deities]] [[Category:Law domain deities]] [[Category:Plant domain deities]] [[Category:Archon subdomain deities]] [[Category:Family subdomain deities]] [[Category:Feather subdomain deities]] [[Category:Fur subdomain deities]] [[Category:Growth subdomain deities]] [[Category:Home subdomain deities]] [[Category:Cooperation subdomain deities]] [[Category:Ancestor mystery deities]] [[Category:Nature mystery deities]] [[Category:Wood mystery deities]] [[Category:Sandpoint pantheon]]
Home
Many deities have a realm, almost always in the Great Beyond, that they call home. Much like people, we categorize them as inhabitants of this realm.
Building upon the previous example, Erastil's realm is in Requius, a region of Heaven, and would be categorized:
[[Category:Erastil| ]] [[Category:Major deities]] [[Category:Lawful good deities]] [[Category:Animal domain deities]] [[Category:Community domain deities]] [[Category:Good domain deities]] [[Category:Law domain deities]] [[Category:Plant domain deities]] [[Category:Archon subdomain deities]] [[Category:Family subdomain deities]] [[Category:Feather subdomain deities]] [[Category:Fur subdomain deities]] [[Category:Growth subdomain deities]] [[Category:Home subdomain deities]] [[Category:Cooperation subdomain deities]] [[Category:Ancestor mystery deities]] [[Category:Nature mystery deities]] [[Category:Wood mystery deities]] [[Category:Sandpoint pantheon]] [[Category:Requius/Inhabitants]] [[Category:Heaven/Inhabitants]]
Unsure about categories?
If you have written an article and are unsure about which categories to apply, or simply want your categories reviewed by another chronicler, feel free to add the Please check categories category:
[[Category:Please check categories]]
This flags to others that the article's categories need checking or revision. Another chronicler should be along to help soon thereafter.
You can also ask for help in the Discord chat.
Portal
For every new deity added to the wiki, if you are confident, you may directly edit the following portal:
Once all is done, double check the main deity page and its links to see that all your work is successfully added to the main 'Religion of Golarion' Portal:
Below this text are some of the currently available deity navboxes. To update them, click the "e" button at the top left of the navbox, or locate them in Category:Navboxes.