Essays Index
Pantheon series: Part 1 - Elder Gods and Outer Gods | Part 2 - Greater Deities - Eternals | Part 3 - Greater Deities - The Great Wyrms of Time | Part 4 - Lesser Deities - Earth Gods | Part 5 - Lesser Deities - Alien Gods

Lesser Deities - Alien Gods:
Lesser deities are spirits who embody psychic impressions of particular concepts, which are formed by the collective consciousness of a planet's inhabitants. In the Nine Realms, this collective consciousness forms the Dreamscape, but other worlds have their own separate psionic fields, and so form their own psychic concepts, and thus also their own gods, equivalent to the Earth gods of the Nine Realms, but separate. Despite this, lesser deities are not limited to their planet of origin, and are free to travel into space and visit other worlds, though naturally, if they leave for long enough, a new concept and a new god may form in their absence back home.

Several lesser deities hailing from other worlds have visited the Borderworld over the years, either drawn by the Split or following in the wake of the Eternal War, though of course there are plenty of others across the stars that have never visited, but are still notorious in the universe at large for one reason or another.

Hixelkicks, Godmother of Chimeras:
Hixelkicks is the shape-shifting Godmother of Chimeras, and an ally and occasional adoptive mother to Discord. Born of chaos magic on the distant world of Chimeros, she was a god of nature, animal life, and birth, similar in some ways to the Borderworld's Headless Horse. For eons she ruled over her world as its mother, interfering with the natural path of evolution to create new and unusual hybrid species. Her efforts began as mere whim and spiritual instinct, creating twisted new life as a form of biological art to amuse herself. However, in time, she grew genuinely attached to her creations, who in turn revered and worshipped her.

As a being of chaos, her de facto rule of Chimeros was a rocky one, with many civilizations rising and falling, and ideological wars and interspecies violence breaking out constantly. Hixelkicks's most famous creations were partially an attempt to resolve this, as she would create crossbreeds of various warring tribes as a middle ground between them in a crude but well-meaning attempt to bring about peace. However, these efforts were rarely ever successful, and her chimeric creations more often than not only joined the fighting and made it worse.

Eventually, Hixelkicks was drawn into the Eternal War when Order noticed her planet and the Eternal Empire invaded Chimeros. Unlike the much later invasion of the Borderworld, in which Midgard was left untouched except by Order's native allies and proxy agents, the Eternal Empire's invasion of Chimeros was direct and brutal. A space age fleet of warships appeared in orbit and began dropping power-armoured shock troopers onto a world just barely out of the iron age, and the invaders began systematically purging all resistance, as well as any species they deemed unnatural. The Eternal Empire's campaigns of genocide lasted for several weeks, during which time old enemies set aside their differences to resist the invaders together, and Hixelkicks led her children in an all-out war against Order's forces, though it was a losing struggle.

Salvation finally came when Discord arrived to liberate the planet with a legion of chaos demons. Having sensed their need, he besieged Order's fleets, sending wave after wave of demons onto their ships to smash their defences, while also distributing stolen alien technology to Chimeros's various resistance groups. Further contributions included ripping open portals to other planets to provide routes for off-world escape or reinforcements, and unleashing more chaos demons upon imperial ground bases and occupied cities.

By the end of the conflict, the Eternal Empire's forces were driven off the planet, the destroyed remnants of their ships floated lifelessly in orbit and burned as flaming wreckage across the alien countryside, and the culture of Chimeros was left irrevocably changed by their contact with other worlds and exposure to advanced technology. While the collateral damage of the rescue was huge, and angry demons still roamed the planet for centuries after, the people of Chimeros as a whole were deeply thankful to Discord for saving them, and Hixelkicks in particular considered herself to be in his debt.

However, not all was well for Discord, who had been poisoned by a new experimental magic-inhibiting weapon while fighting the imperial forces. Though he survived long enough to see his victory, that incarnation of Discord died less than a week after the Empire's retreat, leaving his soul adrift to find a new form. He was eventually reborn as an infant chimera, and spent thirteen years growing up on Chimeros, during which time he was taken in and raised by Hixelkicks, seeking to repay her debt of gratitude.

As was often the case, Discord's memories resurfaced around puberty, and he came back into his full power and resumed his role as the Spirit of Chaos. At first, he was angry and resented Hixelkicks, believing that she was trying to manipulate and control him, but in time he made his peace with her. His childhood on Chimeros ended up having a profound effect on Discord, as Hixelkicks was the first parent he had in any of his lives who raised him fully knowing what he really was. While many of his numerous birth parents in the past had rejected him upon learning the truth, Hixelkicks loved and accepted him regardless, and so elements of their maternal relationship remained even after Discord's memories fully returned.

Discord soon left Chimeros for other worlds, while Hixelkicks stayed and continued creating new species as she did before. The addition of alien DNA from Chimeros's contact with other planets allowed her to create even more diverse and bizarre species than before, and through the following centuries, her chimeras began spreading out across the stars, thanks to the portals and technology Discord had left behind.

When news eventually reached Hixelkicks that Discord had died again out on a distant asteroid, she was distraught to have lost him, and travelled out into space herself for the first time to find out what became of him. After locating Discord's drifting soul, she brought him back to Chimeros and created yet another chimeric body for him to inhabit, similar to his previous one. Once again Discord was reborn and spent several years being raised by Hixelkicks, who this time was more upfront with Discord about his true identity. This time, when his memories eventually returned, he more readily accepted what Hixelkicks had done for him, and continued to regard her with a degree of affection, even returning to Chimeros to visit on occasion.

This cycle repeated several times across the millennia. Though Discord was not always reborn as a chimera or raised by Hixelkicks after reincarnating, he greatly preferred the times when he was. Discord came to regard Hixelkicks as his true mother, despite her being a significantly younger deity than himself, and she felt much the same in return. Discord developed a heavy preference for Hixelkicks's creations, often choosing to reincarnate as a chimera whenever possible, and he even began enchanting his organs to send out a signal to Hixelkicks whenever he died, so that she knew to come and get him whenever he needed her.

Hixelkicks eventually lost her homeworld when it was destroyed by Orsim Desmenee. The outer god challenged Chimeros to send a champion to face him to determine the fate of their world, or else he would devour the planet. As one of the most powerful gods in existence, let alone on their world, Chimeros chose Discord as their champion, who faced Orsim in an intensely complicated game, which he unfortunately lost. Discord's surprise defeat sealed the planet's fate, and Hixelkicks and many of her chimeras were forced to flee through a portal, while Orsim Desmenee made good on his promise and consumed their world.

Hixelkicks was devastated by the loss of Chimeros, and although many of the planet's native species and her own creations still survived on other worlds, she was never able to resettle with the other refugees. Instead, she was filled with a burning desire for vengeance, and she and several of her followers reunited with Discord to pursue Orsim, determined to kill him no matter what it took. But despite her drive and Discord's assistance, Hixelkicks never got her wish, and they never did defeat Orsim.

For several billion years, Hixelkicks was a cosmic wanderer, pursuing her revenge quest against Orsim between other more immediate matters. She travelled with Discord on and off over the years, continuing to act as his mother when needed, and always producing new chimeric species on every world she visited. Sometimes she created chimeras for her own sake or for the good of others, while other times she created them as footsoldiers to use against Discord's enemies or her own. As the ones who invaded her planet all those years ago, Hixelkicks still held a grudge against Order and his Eternal Empire, and was more than happy to assist Discord in tearing them down wherever possible.

When the Split occurred and the Borderworld was created, Hixelkicks joined Discord's latest incarnation, Havoc, in her attempt to occupy the Nine Realms. However, they were late arriving in Mutter's Spiral, and were beaten to it by the Tree of Harmony, and so took over what became the Realms of Chaos instead. As one of Discord's staunchest allies, Hixelkicks was granted use of Jotunheim as a testing ground for her latest creations, based on Midgard's native species.

Hixelkicks was responsible for creating the vast majority of all chimeric species in the Nine Realms, most of which originated in Jotunheim before being unleashed upon Midgard later to disrupt the Tree of Harmony's hold on the planet. Hixelkicks created the griffons, centaurs, gargoyles, draconequui, cockatrices, manticores, seaponies, merponies, kelpies, thestrals, and countless other species, and even a few entirely unique chimeras such as the Arimaspi and the Bugbear. In time, most of the Midgard chimeras forgot about her and began pursuing their own goals independent of her and Discord's agenda, but Hixelkicks still continues to enjoy a strong following among the centaurs and gargoyles of Tauros, as well as the Jotunheim chimeras.

After Order's ploy to seize control of the Nine Realms, Hixelkicks fought in Asgard during the War of the Sun, leading the Jotunheim chimeras, and even briefly fought alongside the Woodfather and his own creations against Order's forces. She ultimately survived the battle, but was injured in the process, and forced to retreat to Nexus in Jotunheim to heal. For this reason, she was unable to find and recover Discord's soul after the battle. He reincarnated as the draconequus Loki, who was instead taken back to Asgard to be raised by Odin and the alicorns, and the two would not see each other again until Ragnarok.

The Lost Beast:
The Lost Beast is a god of the seas from an unknown aquatic world far from Earth, similar to King Leo, but born of chaos rather than harmony. She is known by many names and epithets in nautical folklore, "the Lost Beast" simply being one of many, but the names for her vary by region. Her form is that of a deep one, one of a race of enormous white telepathic squid creatures presumably native to her homeworld. The Lost Beast and several lesser deep ones came to the Nine Realms shortly after the Split for reasons unknown, and began inhabiting the oceans of Midgard and Jotunheim. Though nominally considered a chaotic deity, the Lost Beast is not explicitly allied with Discord, and her motivations remain unclear.

In the centuries since their arrival, the Lost Beast and the other deep ones have done relatively little. Though they rule the oceans of Jotunheim and are hostile towards Aquastria on Midgard, their race as a whole have seemingly been content merely subsisting like animals, while on rare occasions sinking passing ships or attacking Aquastrian patrols. The Lost Beast in particular, however, has shown more signs of intelligence and agency than the rest of her brethren, and has been known to telepathically communicate with the occasional sailor or fisherman, usually to deliver cryptic messages or ominous prophecies.

Because of this, the Lost Beast's appearance is considered a sign of ill fortune among sailors, and she features prominently in many songs and stories of nautical folklore. Such stories often characterise her as a cruel, callous, and fickle being who will either spare sailors or bring them to their doom on a whim, likely a metaphor for the sea itself. It remains unclear how much of this interpretation is based in truth, or how much may actually be influenced by stories of other, lesser deep ones. In some of her more charitable interpretations, she is also associated with the myth of the Locker, a kind of hell for pirates and other seafaring villains, which in some stories she is said to drag the unworthy down to, like a seafaring Grim Reaper or guardian of the underworld.

The Lost Beast presumably still inhabits the oceans of Midgard to this day, but it has been many decades now since her last confirmed sighting, and it remains unknown if she will ever surface again, though unsubstantiated rumours continue to persist among superstitious sailors.

The Traveller:
The Traveller was a relatively obscure god from a faraway world, thought to be a god of death, destruction, or wilful evil, though few details about it were ever confirmed. It was a genderless, chaotic god which lacked a set physical form, instead choosing to create new forms for itself on each planet it visited, based on what it thought the mortals of that world feared the most. As its name suggests, the Traveller travelled from world to world with its two loyal minions, bringing destruction in its wake, and would then move onto the next once it was satisfied.

Shortly before the passing of the Secreteriat comet, the Traveller arrived on the Borderworld, and took advantage of the planet-wide magic-boosting effect of the comet to attack Manehattan, where for unclear reasons it took the form of a giant marshmallow pony. Fortunately, the being was defeated and presumed destroyed by a local exorcist company contracted by the city.

The Hated Galaxy:
Much like Sol and Luna before they were incarnated as the Royal Sisters, almost all celestial objects and bodies in the universe are host to enormously powerful spirits, though most are barely sentient and remain bound to their physical forms for most of their existence, meaning very few ever get to experience life in the way that mortals do. The Hated Galaxy, also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, is one of the few exceptions.

The being that became the Hated Galaxy began life as a simple sentient star like any other, but was worshipped so intensely and for so long by all the mortal races of its solar system that it achieved true sapience in a relatively short timeframe. It soon learned to reach out with its consciousness, and was able to make contact with its followers, and in time even learned how to inhabit their bodies. The obedient priest classes of the various sun-worshipping peoples allowed this, and intentionally opened themselves up to become hosts for their sun god, which then used their mortal bodies and knowledge of magic to learn how to expand its consciousness further.

Over time, the sun came to dominate the minds of every living being on every planet in its orbit, and even linked its magic and consciousness to the other barely sentient spirits inhabiting the planets and moons themselves, effectively becoming the entire solar system. Inevitably, it did not stop there, and expanded its influence further to spread out to other stars and planets and infect them like a virus. Within a few billion years, it came to dominate nearly every star, moon, planet, and mind in the entire Pinwheel Galaxy, adding their power to its own.

The hivemind entity that is the Hated Galaxy is spread thin across so many stars, so its influence is not absolute. Many individual beings and even entire worlds within the Pinwheel Galaxy remain defiant to its overbearing will and find the strength to resist it, but they are the exception rather than the rule, and its corrupting influence is constant and unrelenting.

Entire civilizations within the Pinwheel Galaxy revolve around this spirit of resistance, whether they achieve it through technology, magic, religious practices, or sheer force of will, and even those few who do maintain their freedom do so through extreme measures. The free inhabitants of the Pinwheel Galaxy are locked in a state of constant war, eternally besieged by the Hated Galaxy's indoctrinated species, and are intensely and rightfully paranoid of everybody around them, as any of their friends and family could fall to corruption at any moment if they are not vigilant. It is not unusual in the Pinwheel Galaxy for neighbours to execute each other in the street on the first sign of suspicion, and in many cases, such suspicions are even proved to be correct.

The Hated Galaxy is one of the most dangerous and malignant lesser deities alive, and is regarded as an existential threat by all of its closest neighbours, many of whom have spent millions of years fighting off its scout fleets and preparing for all-out war with its inhabitants. Even among the gods in the universe at large, the Hated Galaxy is generally avoided, with only the most powerful or the most evil ever daring to approach it.

The First Corpse:
The First Corpse is an ascended god of many unrelated spheres, which it gained by killing and consuming many other gods that came before it, taking their psychic impressions into itself. In life, the First Corpse was an alien time traveller from the distant future, part of an unknown but highly magical race of bipeds. He was a part of the force which came back in time to combat Reality's Traitor near the beginning of the universe, but fell through the Time Void after his craft was damaged, leaving him unable to make a return trip.

The time traveller quickly asphyxiated and died after the accident, but as he had travelled so far back in time, there were no other lifeforms around for his soul to reincarnate into, and not even any fully formed planets for him to wander or explore yet. Left with nothing else but the ruins of his craft and the cold darkness of space, the time traveller's soul was forced to simply inhabit his own corpse for millions upon millions of years.

In time, the so-called First Corpse gained awareness of its state and surroundings, and fell into deep depression and madness. For lack of anything else to do, it began drawing in and consuming any stray magic it found, finding some comfort in the vaguely familiar feeling of nourishment it brought, a sensation which reminded of it of what it was like to be alive. The First Corpse grew powerful from the magic it consumed, and consuming magic became an end unto itself to it, an addiction and coping mechanism keeping the being almost close to sane.

When life eventually began appearing in the universe again, the First Corpse had already been drifting in space and consuming magic for so long that it had forgotten it had ever known any other existence. Though it now finally had the opportunity to reincarnate properly, as mortal souls were supposed to, the First Corpse forsook this opportunity, and chose to remain a corpse so that it could feed on these emerging lifeforms instead.

For billions of years afterwards, the First Corpse terrorised both spirits and mortals alike across the universe, consuming the souls of others wherever it found them. It became enemies with the gods of time first, and then later with the Eternals as well, as well as any others who stood in the way of its ever-driving hunger to consume. In time, it did regain some degree of rationality, and forged tentative alliances with other powerful gods that chose not to stand in its way, such as Orsim Desmenee and the Orphaned Starchild, though mostly just because they were all too powerful for it to betray.

Today, the First Corpse still drifts between the galaxies, its eternal hunger driving it further and further into the darker reaches of space in search of more lesser deities to devour. Its current whereabouts is unknown, but it was last seen in the vicinity of the Pinwheel Galaxy, leading many to believe that a confrontation between the two may be imminent.

Acknowledgements:
-I actually don't think I have any particular fandom influences to credit this time, but I will point out that while the Traveller is obviously a huge reference to Gozer from Ghostbusters, he is actually an element from canon, believe it or not. The giant marshmallow pony was mentioned in a throwaway line at the end of Return of Chrysalis. Much like Slender in the previous essay, I just wasn't passing by the opportunity to give it an in-universe explanation.

Lesser deities are spirits who embody psychic impressions of particular concepts, which are formed by the collective consciousness of a planet's inhabitants.

Oh hey, that's familiar.

... and unleashing more chaos demons upon imperial ground bases and occupied cities.

I like how this has gone straight to Warhammer 40K fanfic.

Shortly before the passing of the Secreteriat comet, the Traveller arrived on the Borderworld, and took advantage of the planet-wide magic-boosting effect of the comet to attack Manehattan, where for unclear reasons it took the form of a giant marshmallow pony. Fortunately, the being was defeated and presumed destroyed by a local exorcist company contracted by the city.

Magnificent. Especially since, as you noted, it is comic canon.

Fascinating stuff, especially how it fleshes out the history and cosmic drama of this universe.

7345923

I like how this has gone straight to Warhammer 40K fanfic.

Now that you mention it, I can see it. I never actually considered it, because I characterise the Eternal Empire as antagonists of the setting rather than a somewhat sympathetic POV, but yeah, there's totally a comparison to be drawn with the Imperium. The Eternal Empire is like the Imperium if it were still technologically progressive rather than stagnating. It even has a god-emperor and a dogmatic state religion. And yet, I'm still not sure which one would actually be the worst to live under...