Help:Writing an article about a deity

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The term deity is used within this Pathfinder wiki 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.

You should 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. You might also want to refer to the policy on citing sources to provide references for the statements in your article.

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 background to the deity
Home: where the deity resides and a description thereof
Relationships: discussion of the deity's allies and enemies and how the followers of the deity might react to worshippers of other deities
Appearance: how would the deity manifest itself?
Emissaries: information about the deity's herald, how the deity might communicate to mortals, information about specific entities associated with the deity that may, for example, be summoned via planar ally spells
Church: information about the structure of the organization formed to worship the deity: priests, followers, temples, organizations, holy texts, holidays, aphorisms, religious services, geographic centres, racial associations, monster associations

References: add the following text to the end of the sections which will automatically add a list of all the citations made within your text

{{refs}}

Deity boxes: add the appropriate template to append the correct deity box or boxes to the bottom of your page. You may choose one or more from the following list and they are all appended at the very bottom of this help page to aid your selection:

{{Deities navbox}}
{{Archdevils}}
{{Daemonic powers}}
{{Demon lords}}
{{Eldest}}
{{Elemental lords}}
{{Empyreal lords}}
{{Dark Tapestry deities navbox‎}}
{{Psychopomp Ushers navbox}}
{{Qlippoth lord navbox}}

Categorization

Although the following list is not exhaustive, generally an article about a deity should 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 construct:

[[Category:Vudran pantheon]]

Deity Name

For each deity a category in the deity's name may be added. From this top category, subcategories of areas associated with the particular deity may proceed, such as followers, worshippers, or churches. This should have the form as follows, using Desna as the example: Category:Desna.

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 held here: Category:Deities by power level. A deity may be in multiple categories, for instance, Asmodeus is in Category:Archdevils and Category:Major deities. It might be best to reserve Category:Minor deities for those entities that cannot be placed within any other category. Within power level considerations, there is also the Category:Dead deities for deities that are no longer.

Alignment

Each deity has one of the nine alignments. It should be categorized accordingly, for example, Category:Chaotic good deities or Category:Neutral deities.

Domain

Each deity is associated with a number of domains from which, for instance, clerics may choose. For every domain that a deity possesses, a separate category should be added, for example, Category:Air domain deities.

Subdomain

Each deity also has associated subdomains from which their servants may choose. Please add a category for each and every subdomain a deity possesses, for example, Category:Night subdomain 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 monster, humanoid or particular human race such as the Category:Goblin Hero-Gods, Category:Elven pantheon deities and Category:Vudran pantheon, respectively. Currently existing pantheon categories are shown here: Category:Deities by pantheon.

Home

Many deities have a place they call home probably somewhere in the Great Beyond. Categorization of their home can be made by adding a category with the following format using the Abyss as an example: Category:Abyss/Inhabitants.

Unsure about Categories?

If you have written an article and are unsure about which categories to apply, or simply want your categories double checked, then please feel free to add this text at the bottom of your article in this format:

[[Category:Please check categories]]

This will flag to others that the article's categories need checking or adding. We hope that, soon thereafter, another wiki member will be along to help.

Portal

For every new deity added to the wiki, if you are confident, you may directly edit the following portal:

Portal:Religion/Pantheons

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:

Portal:Religion

Deity Boxes

Below this text are the currently available deity boxes; to update any of them, you will find them in Category:Content templates or Category:Navboxes.

Template:Archdevils Template:Daemonic powers Template:Demon lords Template:Eldest Template:Elemental lords Template:Empyreal lords Template:Dark Tapestry deities navbox Template:Psychopomp Ushers navbox Template:Qlippoth lord navbox