[Raven Bloodmoon]

What is the rate of DR decay? Is it like some sort of divine radioactive decay? Is there divine radiation?

[Rintaran]

It doesn't quite work that way...

It's not that the deities are in a constant state of losing their abilities and power. Certain event in the past, namely bridging between planes, creating life on the material, and chaining down Kaltesh, caused them to sacrifice some of their power in exchange for those events to occur.

Now, a deity must sacrifice a portion of its power in order to grant divine spells, miracles and the like. The deities have found that they can no longer feed from the original source of their power, and have instead turned to their creations. Instead of sacrificing their own power to grant divine magic, they convert the energy of the sacrifices into the power they bestow on their followers.

[Axel]

If a god is killed, what happens to its energy? Does it simply reform itself, or does the killer absorb the energy? Or is it spent in random spells and miracles?

[Rintaran]

An explosion in relation to the deity's portfolio erupts in a range equal to the deities DR * 100 km. This can be good, this can be bad, depends on the DM, though if someone's managed to kill a deity in combat, as opposed to suck it dry in energy and then kill it as a mortal, the DM should be hung. Preferably from the top of the CN Tower in Toronto. That DM should then be cut up, the organs sold for medical purposes, the head used in football, and the various other limbs turned into some sort of morbid art piece... But that's just my opinion...

There are ways for the deities to lose their godship and be destroyed, but combat shouldn't be that way, which if you read "What the Mind Forgot", the ongoing story I have running through The Emerald Altar, you'd figure out one of the reasons why pretty quickly now that the descriptions for the deities are up here...

[Axel]

I'd think the gods capable of killing each other. Though Kaltesh's fate belies that.
They can't breed either can they?
And how many people know who the true rulers of the world are, anyway?

[Rintaran]

Nope, the gods can't die. That's what makes them gods. Now, they can be stripped of their godhood if brought below DR 0, and then, being mortal, they're not gods, and can die quite easily.

The thirteen are incapable of having children. Kaltesh can (being the goddess of childbirth), but her children are mortal. In fact, if you have a look at the latest issue (#3) of The Emerald Altar and read the third part of "What the Mind Forgot", you'll see exactly what creatures she did birth prior to being locked down. You'll also have some idea about the backstory of the gods (just as the second part of the story, found in issue 2, reveals some information about the races).

Many people think they know who the true rulers of the world are. They tend to be wrong, at least to some point.

[Axel]

More to the point, how much of the population is distracted from the real power by the president?

[Rintaran]

The vast majority. The true powers are secretive and work behind the scenes. The "president", king, speaker, tsar, or whatever the despot chooses to call him or herself is a visible, known power, and therefore, with the vast majority of the population being clueless, their attention is on him/her, provided they give a two hoots and a handwhistle about the bigwigs to begin with.

[Axel]

But those among the intelligencia, the group most likely to care anyway, know better?

[Rintaran]

They think they do.

[Axel]

As in, they know that the president doesn't hold power, his job is to distract people from it. But they suspect groups other than the true rulers of the world, to be the true rulers of the world. What groups? And do those groups think they control the world?

[Kristal Lee]

Personally, I'm most interested in seeing the vicious elves take their place in the world... what is their fate, and how does it come about...?

Oh, and the feathered people you've told me about are going to be [darned] interesting to draw!