Can Deities Destroy Planets Easily in Pathfinder?

[KunikaiSakuri]

My friends and I have had some differing interpretations regarding "the extent of what deities can accomplish" in Pathfinder. Are there established canonical answers to these questions, or are they purely left to GM discretion?

1. Deific Power Over Celestial Bodies:
Can deities effortlessly (specifically, within the span of a few breaths and without exertion) destroy entire planets (e.g., Mars, Earth, Jupiter, or even Golarion) or stars (like the Sun)—not just scour their surfaces—with ease?

2. Desna's Stars and the Black Butterfly:
In the lore snippet:
"When Desna placed stars in the sky, the darkness between them birthed the Black Butterfly, also called Desna's Shadow. Notably, one of the stars on her wings is her weapon, Starblade, Void's Edge, which she can pluck and hurl."
— Are the stars Desna created akin to actual stars (like the Sun) in scale and nature, or are they more symbolic/cosmetic (e.g., stage props)?

3. Scope of Divine Authority:
If such feats are possible:
- Is this capability universal among all deities, or restricted to those with domains tied to stars/cosmos?
- How do demigods or quasi-deities (e.g., empyreal lords, archdevils) compare in this regard?

[Pizza Lord]

1. Some deities are stronger than others. Some are more destructive than others. Can a god of healing and community blow up a planet? Maybe. Can a god of knowledge blow up a planet? Maybe, but they probably know how to do it, even if they can't 'wave a hand'.

Obviously this is all interpretation and some things work for some people and some reasons won't work for others. Gods that can (and would) destroy civilization (except maybe their own), let alone worlds, tend to have been sealed away, like Tharizdun or whatever he's called now. Or at the least, they're fated and prophesized to do it (usually as the end times bringer of the end, at least for a civilization or planet or people).

I don't think it's typically expected that a god will just 'blink' or will the world out of existence unless that's their whole schtick, ala the 'sleeping or dreaming god that if He awakens will cause the world to end' thing.

Even if they could, there are other gods or the old 'no direct interference' mantras and strictures. Even evil gods don't tend to want to face every other god. Those crazy enough to, were sealed away a long time ago, because if they won, there's no world already.

I am sure that gods could 'start' the chain reaction or action that would cause a world to end, I do not think any are intended to just blow a sizable (especially inhabited planet to pieces).

2. Not sure. If what you're asking is are all the stars (or most) in the sky created by Desna, I am only guessing, but they could be, but it just says he placed them. It's entirely possible other gods made some and he arranged a few. Most stars are portals to the Positive Material Plane, and it's possible they were just 'meandering about' or in a giant clump and Desna grabbed a bunch and spread them out in a beautiful tapestry.

[Azothath]

AFAIK the outer gods are the most powerful. Luckily they are far far away and human life is not a big concern. Some {see Cthulhu, Ha$tur} have a desire to drag the planet off somewhere and devour all life on the planet (see Strange Aeons AP).

Locally, Rovagug is in there (wants to devour life) but all human deities are lesser gods and kind of piddling (according to Lovecraftian Lore).

Wishes are the biggest power and those are restricted to what they can do.

PF1 got stuck in stasis circa 2021 (PFS final updates). Now only time will destroy it from existence as people move on and the product is forgotten. So no canonical changes until it moves into public domain...

[OmniMage]

I don't know. I don't think any of the deities have been stated out. I don't think it would be a good idea to do so. One of the problems is that if you do stat out a god, the players might want to try to kill it. I think it would be better to leave the abilities of gods as unknown.

[Java Man]

Two deities died preventing Earthfall from destroying Golarion. This makes me think that they do not have world ending power levels.

[Belafon]

Yes, deities (at least some) can destroy planets. But not in a "snap your fingers and the planet disappears" way. Rovagug devoured several planets before being trapped on Golarion. It appears to have been a gradual process, as supported by the fact that he didn't just instantaneously destroy Golarion when he was fighting the other deities.

The "power level" of deities has always deliberately been left vague. And likely varies between deities. Pharasma allegedly created the entire universe (with the help of a remnant of the last universe). Meanwhile Aroden personally fought the Whispering Tyrant instead of just miracle-ing him out of existence.

While a few of the lesser deities, like Black Butterfly, have been statted out none of the Core 20 were.

[Mysterious Stranger]

The way I see it the biggest constraint on a deity’s power are other deities. If there are other deities that have an interest on a planet then it will be difficult for another deity to destroy that planet. If there are no other deities opposing the destruction of the planet a deity will not have much problem destroying one.

On a planet like Golarian where there are many deities that have interests a deity would have an incredibly tough time destroying it. An uninhabited planet that would not affect the interests of another deity would be a lot easier to destroy. In some cases, though destroying a planet might have repercussions that affect things that other deities might have an interest in. For example, destroying an uninhabited planet might affect other planets in the same system. In which case the uninhabited planet would be considered significant if the other planet has other deities with interests in them.

Another thing to consider is how much resources the deity may need to destroy the planet. Destroying a planet may deplete a deity’s resources to the point where they become vulnerable and other deities may exploit that.

[Taja the Barbarian]

The actual powers of deities is essentially irrelevant to actual game play, so the developers have no good reason to actually elaborate on them (and might possibly paint themselves into a corner if they did detail anything): Even the stories we do know are probably closer to legend than actual eyewitness accounts as they would likely be some mixture of 'from my point-of-view / outright propaganda', 'essentially true but highly simplified for a mortal audience', and delusional tales that are generally believed (just because deities exist doesn't mean they take the time to validate every tale their followers might listen to).

[DeathlessOne]

tl;dr: Gods can do what they want. Other gods can also do what they want. They stick to their domains to prevent mutual destruction. Don't blow up planets because that'll piss everyone off.

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I'd say that deities likely have the power necessary to perform such actions and it is more of a matter of self interest that generally prevents them from doing so. The material universe is a source of power for them and destroying planets that harbor the life cycles of mortal souls is generally NOT in their interests (some exceptions obviously exist). The ones that go rogue are generally dealt with but at heavy costs. These costs are up to the narrator in question.

And, it might be because of Gozreh, one of the major deities that has not really claimed a divine realm in the Outer Planes, and is Nomadic (in a sense) entity that exists within the Material Realm. It is not stated anywhere in the lore that I am aware of but I've taken the opinion that Gozreh is the unofficial enforcer of the pact primeval, always keeping a keen eye on the fundamental forces of nature to keep the other gods from meddling too much in the material realm. I think that after Rovagug went rogue and Aroden died, Gozreh has taken a particular interest in Golarion to make sure Rovagug doesn't get free.

Demi-gods fit in a strange niche area. Unless they've claimed a plane of some sort in the Outer Realms (and thus are fed power through souls entering their domains after death), they truly don't possess the full influence as a true deity. And as not truly deities, they likely don't have the same kind of mutual direct non-aggression other deities have with each other. Their minions may clash but when actual deities fight, one usually ends up dead and their other severely depleted, which can lead to eager rivals to come in to finish them off and claim a domain (maybe like a demi-god seeking that last swell of divine power to truly ascend). Not to mention the sheer chaos and power upset the mortal realms would experience with such a shift.

Fun fact: At the heart of EVERY star in the Pathfinder setting is a gate to the Positive Energy plane which allows souls to radiate into the material universe. There are beings that are native to that plane that fiercely guard that gate and what lays beyond it. Fun reading: Creation's Forge and the Garden.