Divine Spirit (神霊, Shinrei^?) is the classification for the gods of the world, the highest rank of Nature Spirit.

BirthEdit

Gods are beings formed by the thoughts of humans and born into the world without being influenced by the will of the people. They grow stronger the more people worship them and those that are no longer worshiped become Elementals. There also exist cases like gods becoming infamous as icons of terror, distorting their appearances through the human thoughts and ideals that formed them.

Gods are split into two categories, those things that were already there that became gods after becoming objects of worship and those that were reborn as gods. Those that were already there include heavenly bodies like the sun and moon, natural phenomenon like storms, earthquakes, thunder, and wind, or others like the "power of the planet that stabilized the surface of the earth." Those that were reborn as gods were close to human originally, but deviated from humanity through various factors to become objects of worship. Beings like heroes and messiahs that are "systems necessary to thrive" fall under that category.^[1]

The gods of ancient Mesopotamia, the gods of antiquity, were part of the first category, natural phenomena possessing intentions and personalities. Ea was one such god that performed the act of building the planet, and many others began to build nations after the primordial earth was stabilized. They reigned as the laws of heaven, controlling humans through methods like the birth of Gilgamesh, though that worked against them to end their age.^[1] The second category, the gods of modernity, came to the forefront after their passing.

HistoryEdit

The gods of Mesopotamia found themselves lacking viability towards the end of their age and the start of the human age. Living things normally have the instinct to adapt their surroundings to something better suited for the habitat, but gods merely "existed" no matter their power. The viability of humanity was exceptional at the time, as though it was slight counting singular humans, their force in sheer numbers was high. They did not have any transcendent beings commanding the vast majority, but they had a higher level of intelligence than all other living beings that was distributed across all of them. This differed from the gods, no matter how powerful, whose acquired personalities were not much different from humans in their inventiveness and cognizance.

Though the gods were omniscient, each could only come to one conclusion and acquire one personality, differing from the threat of the vast number of humans with their large amount of cognizance, their capacity for change. Their desires were boundless, relentless, and unrestrained, causing the world to evolve in accordance. The gods feared that the rules of the planet would change as they continued to breed, bringing about a time where it was no longer necessary for natural phenomena to have wills. They brought about Gilgamesh for that reason, believing that a sovereign belonging to the human side and championing their cause would allow them to keep humanity in check.

He was to be a keystone hammered into the earth by the heavens to delay the complete fracturing between themselves and humanity, but he rejected their ways and brought an end to their age.^[2]

AttributesEdit

High level gods like Amaterasu are powerful enough that even the time axis has almost no bearing on them.^[3]

Gods are able to mate with humans, bringing about demi-gods of various strength like Heracles and Cú Chulainn. While full gods cannot become Heroic Spirits, demi-gods and those who lose their divinity like Medusa and Chiron are applicable. It is also possible for demi-gods to ascend to full godhood like Heracles. Heroic Spirits like Alexander the Great can obtain some Divinity through the addition of their legends to their power, even if they may not actually be true.

ListEdit

Gods that are prominent within the Nasuverse.

• Amaterasu is the deification of the sun who created Tamamo-no-Mae as a unique facet of herself.
• Balor, the ancient Celtic god of darkness and great-grandfather of Cú Chulainn. He is the predecessor of Shiki Tohno’s Eyes of Death Perception. He could actualize the death of the target by just glaring at him.
• Bull of Heaven, Gugalanna, was the greatest of divine beasts released by the god Anu after Ishtar clung to her father in tears to obtain revenge on Gilgamesh for his insults and refusing to become her husband. It was a disaster of extreme magnitude that was clad in storms. It brought about a flood and dark clouds that covered the world, causing a seven-year famine and destruction to occur on earth. It was a beast none could stand against, bringing the downfall of Uruk. Gilgamesh and Enkidu stood against it and repelled it splendidly, binding it with his chains and destroying it with his weapon. The clouds faded and the land was saved from the flood, but Ishtar plead for their deaths due to one with a human body killing a beast of the gods being a sin. Enkidu was subsequently killed afterward because he could not resist the gods.
• Chiron is a former god who gave up his divinity to spare himself the agony of pain from being poisoned. He qualifies as a Heroic Spirit due to this, and he wishes to restore his divinity.
• Earth Mother - The power of creation of the mother goddesses originated with Catalhoyuk's forgotten goddess 8000 years ago who was the mother of the earth goddesses who created the earth and the “root” that created all creation.^[4] It branched to many others goddesses over time, including Tiamat, Cybele, Ishtar, Inanna, Anat, Astarte, Gaia, Hera, Artemis, Aphrodite, Demeter, and Athena. The earth mother is a protector guardian deity revered by the people, and she is the sacrifice that feeds them with the crops born from her body and the beasts of the fields and the forests. Her true nature is the cycle of life and death, the circle of the food chain where she feeds man with her blood and flesh, kills man over time and absorbs him as nutrition, and once again feeds man with her replenished blood and flesh. She represents the system of life itself, so those born of the earth cannot deny her authority. Only when they have fulfilled the wish of the Çatalhöyük, leaving the planet for space and ending the infantile stage of intelligent lifeforms, will they no longer be bound to it.
  This authority over the power of bringing death and giving life, symbolized by holes opening in the earth and the sky, caves and the moon, the whirlpools and typhoons of the sea, the craters of volcanoes, and such, first births evils that bring forth all manners of death. Once the evils are are finished spreading death, they leave the promise of good harvest and fertility. The goddesses that followed inherited this authority, and many were imaged with mural crowns because many were also the guardian deities of cities. Most used the authority to give birth to countless monsters and giants and posed a threat to the gods and man, or give birth to heroes and became protectors of man. Tiamat and Gaia are examples of those who became threats, and Hera is an example of a mother of heroes.^[5]
• Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale were born from the wishes of mankind for ideal goddesses.
• Zeus is the father of Heracles, and although there is no proof, Alexander the Great was also called his son in some stories and gained Divinity as a Heroic Spirit. The Divine Bulls that pull Gordius Wheel, which were an offering to him stolen by Alexander, are called the "Children of Zeus" and generate lightning that is said to be a manifestation of Zeus.

ReferencesEdit

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Fate/Extra CCC Gilgamesh Secret Garden - Lynchpin of Heaven
2. ↑ Gilgamesh Secret Garden conversations: 1, 2, 3, and 4
3. ↑

   Fate/Extra CCC encyclopedia - Konjiki Hakumen

   Golden Fur, White Face. The nine-tailed divine spirit we get a glimpse of in Casko's third SG. Deification of the sun. Amaterasu gone delinquent. When Casko goes to nine-tails mode this is what she will......not be. All this is is the distantly ancient but still existing original source of Casko. When you're a divine spirit of this class, the time axis has almost no bearing on you. Normally someone entering the mausoleum would be burnt to a cinder, but our Xavier, meeting our expectations like always, not only is not incinerated, but demonstrates his usual reckless bravery (stupid menu choices). She would have been in a naked nine-tails spin on the naked apron, but the ethical barrier couldn't be breached so we made sure she wore formalwear. Oh and if a person who doesn't dream go in, all he'll see in the mausoleum is a huge sun.

4. ↑ Fate/Extra CCC BB profile - Cursed Cutting Crater
5. ↑ Fate/Extra CCC BB profile - Potnia Theron