Help talk:Writing an article about a deity

Deity categorization

I moved all of the Tian Xia World Guide deities I added out of Category:Deities and into Category:Minor deities since it seems no named deities should actually be categorized in Category:Deities.

However, I have no meaningful way to gauge the power levels of 2E deities using our current categorizational split of "Major deities" and "Minor deities". Help:Writing an article about a deity and Help:Creating category pages offer no guidance for 2E deities.

Paizo staff have variously suggested that power levels as defined in 1E are less relevant in 2E, if at all. Most notably, James Jacobs rather clearly stated that most power-level categories in 1E have been removed as of 2E except for "deity" (divinities with no creature statblock), "demigod" (divinities with creature statblocks of level 26 or greater), and "quasi-deity" (divinities with creature statblocks of level 25 or lesser). He also states that these categories would be further de-emphasized in the Remaster.

Between this and alignment going away as a categorization trait, this means there are fewer ways to categorize deities, especially those that don't have a strong geographic connection or defined pantheon. Our guidance in Help:Writing an article about a deity and Help:Creating category pages is primarily keyed on categorizing first by power level, then by alignment, but since we do not (and cannot?) use Category:Deities, 2E-only deities have no clear split between major and minor, and Remaster deities have no alignment, that leaves only domains and pantheons (if any). I expect Divine Mysteries to further test this by introducing new deities that are an even poorer fit for our categorizational structure.

I also put the TXWG deities all in Category:Please check categories, but likely more 2E-only deities also need a second look. The existing guidance needs revision, and additional guidance might be required for new deities going forward. I do not have any recommendations. -Oznogon (talk) 19:59, 8 July 2024 (UTC)