animarums asked:

Do you mind if I ask about you being a god/deity? What's that like? (sorry if someone's asked this before, haha!) I'm currently grappling with a deity paratype and it is. Well, it's going. >_> - Alex

i dont think i've talked about it on tumblr, yet! hopefully i can help out, but my specifics are different from other deities that i've talked to, though some things like omniscience and omnipresence (even if limited) are somewhat universal.

in my specific type of deityhood, i wasnt a totally omniscient, omnipresent sort, but i had a much more restricted version of it applied to my area of "expertise"--if i can describe it that way. the way that i can comprehend it, (as trying to even think about exactly how BEING a deity worked makes my mortal brain hurt) my type of deityhood "began" at the formation of a power of nature; in my specific case, i was "born" at the time of the formation of a new river, that river being me.

my power, my omniscience and omnipresence, was focused on this specific area, tied to my location, the physical locality of where the waters inhabited--from between the banks, to where my tributaries filtered in, and to the delta where i emptied out. but i was also the water within the location, every last drop. i assume i shared and intermingled with the tributaries and delta, unless i was also those as well? (i'm not entirely sure, i dont identify as those features so i assume not) i was not only the physical waters, but the spirit that ruled over the area, and could manifest in a physical form to interact with others. (i had preferred forms, but i was technically a shapeshifter)

in my sort of deityhood, we're formed from the laws of physics and the rules of nature themselves; we understand down to the finest detail how our existence interplays with others, from how a ripple on the surface of my waters effected a spider's web on the bank, to how much water a local human took would effect next season's migration. i knew how to care for the ecosystem that inhabited my waters (from which rocks sheltered the frogs' eggs and the tiny fish that were prey, to how the algae and aquatic plants would hide the young from too much predation) and how to intercept major catastrophes that might cause a species extinction. (think, a landslide on the bank destroying a small subspecies' last breeding ground) i had no master, no overseeing god/dess, but i did convene with other water deities during the dry season in a well that also functioned as a local temple; i like to think that it's where the last remaining bits of our waters collected during that time. during the time in which the waters were minimal to none, and we followed the last essences of ourselves, we were typically in manifested form, as there was just so little of our physical selves left.

how i understand the deity vs god dichotomy is that all gods are deities, but not all deities are gods. deities are what i am, possessing minimal omniscience and omnipresence and focusing on/understanding only their small section of the laws of nature. god/desses are far more powerful, with multiple understandings of nature and thus far more omniscience and omnipresence. our functionalities are the same, just, on a smaller or wider scale.