I like to have an overview of Golarion and recently I've been focussing on gods. They're kinda important for many classes so I wanted to feel comfortable with what they actually were. The whole Starstone Test stuck out as a "thing" so I decided to work out what it meant in my world, the one I GM in.
I thought I'd stick it here to promote discussion or even help out anyone who wanted a backstory without putting the work in. It feels comfortable to me personally as, despite being an atheist, I like the idea of gods in Golarion.
Feel free to rip it apart or comment, nothing's locked in.
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Nature abhors a vacuum.
If there is an overarching god, one that created the entire universe, it is unknowable. But what is unquestionable is that there are incredibly powerful representatives of good and evil- and in between- that, while subservient to the immutable laws of the universe, are still unfathomably powerful to the denizens that inhabit the worlds. These facets of creation, these deities, though undying compared to mere mortals, are just as unknowing of the ultimate true nature of the universe. As such they war and strive and struggle to manipulate the worlds for their own ends, and they do this by utilising the flow of energy from the transitory but self-perpetuating and numerous mortal races. And so is the nature of worship. Those that share the alignment of these gods, as such they are known, strengthen them through their acts, be it by intent or accident.
The relationship of some of these power exchanges can be 2 way. Clerics and paladins for instance are directly empowered with a minuscule fraction of these beings' power. But regardless, the ebb and flow of the deities' struggles reflect the balance of the whole of existence, and the wars and power transfers of mortals reflect back to the gods.
Nature abhors a vacuum.
Good cannot exist without evil. Law and chaos each play their part. The wheel turns. The scales counterbalance.
And so, should there be an vacancy in the alignment of these forces it will be filled. It must be so. Some gods are literal forces of nature, only appearing in art or tales as having a design recognisable by mortals, for we cannot relate to that which we cannot conceive. Others have arrived in their own manner, from other dimensions, other planes, for their own reasons. Mortals tell tales of their kinships, alliances and oppositions, but they have no conception of how gods truly conduct their relationships. And yet there will always be found a mechanism to address any imbalance, should it arise.
On Golarion most recently the mechanism became the Starstone Test. A renowned gateway to godhood, the only requirements to enter: the desire to arise. Those that ascended are known, the manner in which they did, utterly unknown. But see: they each conveniently filled a role that balanced the alignments.
Iomedae only needed to prove she was worthy of the role, as did Norgorber and Cayden, with regard to their alignments. Anyone true to an alignment, that was missing in the balance, would have achieved the same result, drunken, lawful or otherwise. Once taken up, their mortal failings were discarded and their essence distilled to fill the role of that alignment. Norgober's infamous secrecy and Cayden's drunkenness are simply colour, embraced by their followers, their human failings long since discarded, for we need to reproduce the gods in knowable form to worship them.
The Starstone Test is not a test to be be passed to become a god, it is not a game. It is simply a gateway that those that can help achieve universal balance pass through. The universe is the ultimate arbiter.
