The Balance

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The Balance was formed in the Year 1 of the First Epoch. The founders were Arcana and Silvanus. A faction of Higher Powers, it is made-up of neutral deities (neutral, lawful neutral, and chaotic neutral alignments). Their primary mission is to maintain the balance of divine power across the Mortal Systems.

This group came about from Higher Powers violating the Mandate of the Heavens; a decree forbidding direct intervention in mortal affairs. In the Horgon Era, the most notorious god to break the mandate was Poseidon. On two occasions, he wiped out mortal populations and disrupted the harmony of the realm. One of the first acts of The Balance was the ascendancy of Talos to a demigod as a way to curb the power of Poseidon.

The construction of an Entropy Arch (and use at Sapthiladân) caused much discussion among The Balance's four leading members — the nature goddess Aredhel, the primordial lord Geb, the death goddess Kebechet, and the goddess of magic, Arcana. Of this group, Arcana had witnessed the use of Entropy Arches in the Creation War. The primordials used them to open rifts between worlds and the heart of the universe, where Chaos is said to be infinite, a place far older than anything created from it in the past 14,000 years. The leaders of the heart of Chaos, the primordial lords, were many. They engaged in a great war to undo Creation. Chaos's aim was the destruction of everything, returning it to its raw state. They believed giving Chaos structure and form, setting out order in lifeforms, and world-building was unnatural and abhorrent. They named it Law.

The Balance seeks to keep another war like the Creation War from happening. Sometimes, they're slow to make a move. This happened with the Black Tide War — a conflict not between Law and Chaos, but between Good and Evil, two quite different things. The losses in that conflict were horrendous, with hordes of undead scattered across two vast regions. It was said that at one point, the undead outnumbered the living by three to one. Athena, a goddess of Law and Good, took it upon herself — and without The Balance's approval — to undertake a low-level meddling in mortal affairs to turn things back to what they had been. She countered Thasmudyan's mortal pawns with her own. Since that time, The Balance, probably out of shame for what they'd allowed to get out of control, has taken a more active role in maintaining equilibrium in the mortal realm.

- from the Godspawn Saga

Over the epochs, more deities have been admitted to The Balance. To maintain balance among the Higher Powers, this group must maintain divine power greater than any other deity or pact of Higher Powers. When this opposing pact gains too much power, a new Higher Power is promoted by The Balance. The subject, if they are willing, passes through the Temple of Ascension, becoming a deity. They acquire a Divine Domain, becoming a Cult Power. Their chosen divine domain is typically one similar, or the same, as that possessed by the opposing pact. This is The Balance's way of re-balancing the pantheon so that no particular god, ethos (law, chaos, neutral) or morality (good, evil), becomes too powerful.

When a Higher Power abuses their station, like intervening in mortal affairs, they may suffer censure. Doled out by The Balance, this punishment can reduce a deity's divine power and their divine rank. When Neld-Rac used a spell to affect the entire mortal population of Bal-Kriav, The Balance punished him by reducing him from lesser power to minor power. Neld-Rac's punishment was severe, some would say too much, as it lasted 250 years (c.f. Duplicity Period).

Who are they to hand out sentencing! There will be a reckoning for this heavy-handed punishment.

- Neld-Rac, "The Duplicity Punishment"

The Balance also keeps a watch on those that seek to upset the stability of the realm through world changing things and those that change time. They monitor deities like Chronos and his ability to manipulate time and those that seek to abuse the time-line.

One of the powers of The Balance is sending special individual through the Temple of Ascension, making them a Higher Power. Jurmalon, Aredhel, and Thasmudyan were all Ascended by The Balance. They also elevate celestials to godhood, like with Lokestant.

Some worship The Balance, favoring the collective ideals of group over the individual interests of a particular deity. The strongest group of enforcers for The Balance are the Nature Protectorates.

In every major region of Midrêth, a high-level druid called a Nature Protectorate monitors the events of their respective region. They may act to keep the balance, or get the aid of others to keep the pendulum from swinging to far away from the middle.

- Oakenbeard, "Keeping the Balance"