Aeons
Aeons are powerful entities whose origins are unknown to the people of the setting. They may be extradimensional creatures, embodied concepts conjured from fundamental physical or mental forces, cosmic archetypes, the result of collective belief, or something else entirely. Whatever the origin they are beings who, through various means, have grown so powerful that they each become a sort of metaphysical singularity. The result is an entity that does not age, cannot die or be killed by normal means, does not need to eat, drink, or breathe, and wields tremendous eldritch powers given them the ability to bend certain features of reality to their will. Having access to this kind of power alters the entity itself, usually eroding its character to only the most enduring psychological elements. This effect creates god-like creatures that appear archetypal or conceptually constrained.
An Aeon can be banished from a place by certain means, including the powers of other Aeons and some eldritch rituals, and their physical body can be destroyed with sufficient force, but they always reconstitute within their Domain. The only exception is if they are devoured by another Aeon or an Eidolon. The consuming entity absorbs the knowledge and memories of the victim, its Domain and, in some cases, portions of its personality.
Some Aeons claim to predate humanity while others claim to have once been human. It is not clear if either group is lying, but most who study them believe that their visible influence on the world predates humanity and therefore suggests an origin external to mortals.
Most Aeons are volatile. Many are petty, vindictive, and arrogant. A rare few are wise and generous. No Aeon perceives as much as it claims to, and the gap between claimed omniscience and reality has produced some of history's more spectacular divine blunders.
Worship
Aeons are drawn to worship but not out of necessity. True worship creates a bond between the Aeon and its supplicants that gives them access to feelings they cannot access otherwise, and abilities that are much easier to channel via mortal or near-mortal hosts. They do not, as many suppose, feed on worship and belief in the sense of sustenance. It would be more accurate to say that many are addicted to it.
Types
Aeons can be placed in broad categories:
- Ancients are the eldest, rarest, most powerful, and least well understood. Nemo, Nox, and others whose names are not widely known. They appear to have formed without the involvement of mortal belief and their natures are accordingly opaque.
- Elementals are younger but begin to resemble human concepts: Fire, Famine, Blood, Metal. The youngest Elementals arose within the past few centuries and have begun to embody stranger modern ideas like Networks and Quantum Physics.
- Pantheon Aeons are the most obviously godlike. They take the form of deities from mortal religious traditions: Greek, Norse, Celtic, Sumerian, Egyptian, and others. Some Pantheon Aeons are Elementals who rebranded after growing close to humans. Others have less clear origins. All are defined by their bonds to mortals.
Eidolons
Aeons can create servants by investing a mortal creature with a piece of itself or by shaping raw forces and materials into a new being. These servants are called Eidolons. The process costs the Aeon something permanent, as each Eidolon is a fragment of the Aeon that made it. This limits most Aeons to a modest retinue, though those who have consumed many rivals can create larger hosts.
The power invested in an Eidolon can also be reabsorbed by consuming them, and some Aeons create Eidolons with this explicit goal in mind, allowing them to grow in their own power before devouring them.
Eidolons fall into the same broad categories as their creators: Ancients, Elementals, and Pantheons, defined by the nature of the Aeon that made them.