So... what happens when another god dies?

[Elvencloud]

I'm running a homemade campaign, and between the events of the first campaign and the new characters, the gods of the world have slightly shifted.

Due to story/dm plot, Nethys (yes, I'm using the default gods to save time in my custom world) dies, and Irori goes missing [currently captured and imprisoned by an unknown force].

So the question is: What happens to the physical world? When Aroden died, a storm befell the world in Golarion. Nethys was slain by Rovagug in mine, but I'm having trouble picturing the result.

Footnote: One of the NPC's has since taken Nethys's place since then due to the Starstone test, but I digress.

Any ideas are appreciated!

[Coidzor]

Well, that depends, is Rovagug still out there causing trouble after killing Nethys? Because that'll be having its own interesting times as a result.

It could be argued that Aroden's death caused all that stuff mostly due to the prophecy failing or the manner of his demise rather than simply a deity passing.

My gut reaction is something involving a plague of living spells though if you want to be melodramatic about it.

[Elvencloud]

I bet a lot of the information I'm looking for is going to be in Inner Sea Gods, perhaps. But for those interested...


The players at the end of the last campaign waged war with a bold sect of cultists of Rovagug. After fighting with them over control of many different artifacts, they discovered their true purpose and intents- break the seals of Rovagug and let him roam free. Due to unfortunate events for the players, they couldn't stop them completely as a demon lord was leading an army of demons onto the material plane at the same time (she was the BBEG most of the campaign).

By the time they stopped most of the cultists and unraveled their plot, Iomedae, Nethys, Asmodeus, and Caiden Cailean offered assistance in stopping him... and hopefully killing him. The collection of Azlanti artifacts they had confiscated and collected allowed them to make a staff that could negate most of the benefits of being immortal... at a short range.

With the help of those gods, they fought Rovagug (who was escaping through a ritual on top of a mountain), "slaying" the beast... but Rovagug in his death throes lashed out and ripped Nethys's essence out of his body, leaving only a shattered mask and a rip to the Astral Plane where he stood (slaying a party member in the process from the implosion).

Rovagug is currently in stasis in the core of the planet (this time, sealed without spawn escaping), the staff was shattered in the events [especially since the gods don't want it around], and Nethys dead.

The NPC mage (the DM character) after the campaign due to DM magic, found Nethys's mask (shattered parts) in his Starstone test- and legend says that Nethys guided him to succeed, but shattered his mind in the process by making him see all things that were possible.



TLDR: Rovagug is mostly dead, unreachable by mortal or immortal means, Nethys is dead, and Irori is powerless (but just missing- all of his followers have lost their divine powers).
So no troubles from the beasts... but would his portfolio transfer to another god? Like Lamashtu? Maybe his portfolio is split up amongst the other gods?

[Aergoth]

The general setting of golarion is woefully unknown as far as your question about portfolios. The only examples we've seen really have been where supernatural beings of one sort or another either voluntarily gave a part of their portfolio to another (as with Curchanus and Desna I believe) or took it by force (As with Lamashtu and Curchanus and a number of others). Iomedae picked up some of Arodens followers after his demise, but I believe his particular concerns went unclaimed.

It's entirely possible that another god or gods could emerge that would simply fill part or all of the void left by the destroyed nethys, stepping into his shoes so to speak.

As far as Irori being missing, there's probably not actually a lot that this affects. Irori's worshippers are wise folk on their own, and worship of Irori tends not to be in the sense of veneration because of great power but they venerate Irori's achievements. (Remember he's one of a handful of mortals to have bumped themselves to godhood without the starstone).

It is largely implied that the Eye of Abendego is linked to Aroden's death but Coidzor is probably on the right path. A lot of the stuff that happened after Aroden died is probably more tightly linked to the entirety of propchecy finding itself off-kilter. It's sort of like having a snowglobe where all the snow had settled and then someone threw it into a paint mixer.

The death of Nethys isn't likely to be a problem because he doesn't inherently control magic like some other gods of magic do. Nethys is one of the other non-starstone ascendees for the record. If you want to be dramatic about it you could also see more zones of dead magic or wild magic, primal magic events could also be a thing.