History Main / DivineRanks

* Creator/NeilGaiman's [[ComicBook/TheSandman Endless]] are explicitly said to be above the gods. Individual aspects of them can be destroyed or imprisoned, but when this happens a new one will appear to take the previous one's place. Death is shown to be formally responsible for all death everywhere, but lets other people handle the details, especially when it comes to the afterlife: Hades gets the Greeks, Lucifer (to his annoyance) gets the [[SelfInflictedHell guilty and masochistic]], and so on.

** The Ephemeral Tier spans [[{{Muggles}} Ephermals]] and [[BadassNormal Perpetuals]].

** The Ephermal Tier spans [[{{Muggles}} Ephermals]] and [[BadassNormal Perpetuals]].

** However, this pecking order doesn't even end at the super-eternal tier; there's three more categories above it, each of which counts as a tier of its own, namely [[FantasyPantheon the Guardians]], [[GuardianOfTheMultiverse Genevieve, the Archangel's Vicereine]], and finally, [[TopGod the Archangel herself]].

** However, this rank doesn't even end there; there's three more categories above the super-teternal tier, each of which counts as a tier of its own, namely [[FantasyPantheon Guardians]], [[GuardianOfTheMultiverse Genevieve, the Archangel's Vicereine]], and finally, [[TopGod the Archangel herself]].

** The Super-eternal tier includes the [[AlienSpaceBats]] and the [[EldritchAbomination Old Ones]], as well as [[MadGod Michel]].

* In FantasyKitchenSink settings like the ''Creator/{{Vertigo|Comics}}'' universe that use the Judeo-Christian {{God}} as a character, the standard portrayal seems to be that he's not the One True God, but is a step above the other gods in terms of power. He rarely stoops to appearing on stage and [[CouncilOfAngels acts through archangels]], who are the peers of other pantheons' gods.

[[folder: Comic Books]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Web Comics]]

[[folder: Web Original]]

Few long-running SpeculativeFiction franchises go without a writer trying to include some sort of god or at least SufficientlyAdvancedAlien in the plot. Then another writer does it, and another, until you've got a whole cast of such beings populating your universe. Frequently, though, they aren't all on the same level: some are noticeably more powerful than others. This may be especially noticable if the writers decide to take all their creations and [[CrossoverCosmology put them alongside each other]]. The result is an implicit, if not explicit, pecking order among the gods.

* The CelestialBureaucracy in Myth/ChineseMythology works this way. The highest of them is the [[KingOfTheGods Celestial Emperor]], followed by major gods and many celestial functionaries, followed by other gods and powerful ancestral spirits. However, some sufficiently powerful beings are both divine and are outside this system.

* In keeping with Creator/{{Gene Roddenberry}}'s staunch atheism, any "gods" encountered in Franchise/StarTrek are either SufficientlyAdvancedAliens or just plain frauds, and humankind will usually have OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions. That said, representative members of the TrekVerse hierarchy can be given as:

* The designer and editor of the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' RPG were initially forced to clear up the tangled relationships, allegiances, and power level ambiguities between different kinds of gods and godlike beings in the CthulhuMythos (see Literature) in order to create a playable background for the game. While doing so, they also edited out some of Creator/AugustDerleth's less helpful contributions to the study of the Cthulhu Mythos, such as connecting gods to philosophical elements and the Good-vs-Evil dynamics. However, decades of adding new, sometimes not quite consistent, material in supplements, adventures, and companion volumes have somewhat re-tangled the Mythos in the game context. Arguably this has been addressed in later incarnations of the game.

** Divine ranks do feature in 4e, they just aren't as prominent. In the core, there are two main divine ranks: Gods and Exarchs, or demigods. In the ForgottenRealms setting, the top gods are Greater Gods, then there are intermediate gods, lesser gods, and finally exarchs. Ao the Overgod is still mentioned; he appears in one of the novel series as being less of a god to the other gods and more as their boss. Moreover, even he has a higher ranked boss who he reports to, suggested to be the Abrahamic God or the [[NoFourthWall Dungeon Master]].

In The Pantheon/TropePantheon, the Manager of Divine Ranks is [[Manga/MagiLabyrinthOfMagic Uraltugo Noi Nueph]] from the anime ''Magi; The Labyrinth of Magic''.

In The Pantheon/TropePantheon, the Assigner of Divine Ranks is [[Manga/MagiLabyrinthOfMagic Uraltugo Noi Nueph]] from the anime ''Magi; The Labyrinth of Magic''.

* That is also how Hebrew and Arabic Religion used to work before the Israelites and Bedouins rejected all the lesser gods and decided to worship only the supreme one. According to ''Pslams'' and ''Isaiah'' most of the lesser gods have died or fallen and people who cannot move on are just worshiping figments of their own imagination. ''The Book Of Idols'' states the Arab gods were slain by Muhammad's followers (though canon Islam is less clear on the matter).

* In ''{{Exalted}}'', a rough estimation of a god's power can be determined from their Essence stat. The gods of small things usually reside in Creation and have a low Essence score (1-3), while gods of large cities and concepts usually have Essence in the 4-7 region. The highest-ranking gods, the Celestial Incarnae, have the maximum Essence rating of 10. However, given the nature of the CelestialBureaucracy, a god's political connections are just as or more important in terms of getting things done.

Few long-running SpeculativeFiction franchises go without a writer trying to include some sort of god or at least SufficientlyAdvancedAlien in the plot. Then another writer does it, and another, until you've got a whole cast of such beings populating your universe. Frequently, though, they aren't all on the same level: some are noticeably more powerful than others. This may be especially noticable if the writers decide to take all their creations and [[FantasyKitchenSink put them alongside each other]]. The result is an implicit, if not explicit, pecking order among the gods.

* The authors of the WhateleyUniverse kindly put some of the details of this [[AllThereInTheManual in a section on their web forums]]. It's needed, since there are Great Old Ones, Outer Gods, demons and devils, God and Satan (or so it seems, anyway), mythological creatures, mutants wielding major magical powers, and so on.

* In FantasyKitchenSink settings like the ''[[VertigoComics Vertigo]]'' universe that use the Judeo-Christian {{God}} as a character, the standard portrayal seems to be that he's not the One True God, but is a step above the other gods in terms of power. He rarely stoops to appearing on stage and [[CouncilOfAngels acts through archangels]], who are the peers of other pantheons' gods.

** The Dicefreaks variant divine rank system expands the available rankings to 30, each number exponentially more powerful than the last. 21-24 are the Overpowers, holding sway over entire pantheons, worlds, and galaxies; unspeakably powerful even by the highest "normal" divine standards, but still only charged with overseeing temporal, physical reality. And though a tiny fraction of the most learned mortals even suspect their existence, the Overpowers can still be seen as "real", with distinct names and roles. They '''exist'''. Then there are those even greater. Ranks 25-27 represent the various alignments in the D&D alignment system; the entire planar cosmology of the multiverse is constructed around the traits they embody. A popular theory on the Dicefreaks forums is that Her Serenity, the [[{{Planescape}} Lady of Pain]], fulfills this role as the embodiment of True Neutral. As the creator and ruler of the greatest city in all the planes, where even the greatest gods are held at bay and the most vile demons and angelic heralds can converse in relative civility, it's a hard claim to dispute. Ranks 28 and 29 were [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Anthropomorphic Personifications]] of the many universal laws: Life, Death, Time, etc. As for rank 30, it was reserved for... well... [[{{God}} Him]].
** In 2nd Edition, god "ranks" were broad terms meant to give an idea of how powerful they were in relation to one another, and about how large their faith was. Further detail usually wasn't necessary because You Do Not Mess With Gods and their possible death was a matter of plot rather than dice (especially in {{Planescape}}). Their ranks went, from lowest to highest:

* The Archailects of ''OrionsArm'' range from level 3 to 6 on a scale of sentience where 1 is already superhuman. In fact they're so far above humans that the divine ranks they use to rate their abilities are nearly incomprehensible to human beings.

** The ranks are Overdeity, greater god, intermediate god, lesser god, demigod, quasideity.

* ''ShinMegamiTensei'': Gods, like everything else, [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve draw power from humans' faith]] [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly and prayers]]. As a result, the hierarchy is always shifting around as to which gods are strongest at any given time. It gets ''really'' weird after awhile, especially since different forms of worship can even create ''multiple versions of the same deity''. However, above all these stand {{God}} and [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]], who will never truly fade [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil as long as even one person desires salvation over freedom, or vice-versa]].

* In the ''LeftBehind'' series, [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]] claims that God is merely the oldest of the angels. Jesus makes it very clear that Lucifer is mistaken about this, and God is everything Christian theology has ever claimed he is.

** In a nod to the appropriately universe shaking power levels of the {{Eldritch Abomination}}s of the CthulhuMythos, the most powerful God in the D&D multiverse - arrived at by reverse engineering his (or, more appropriately, its) stats as presented in the TabletopGame/D20System version of TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu, is Azathoth, the ONLY God with a an OFFICIAL Divine Rank of 21.

* Even Creator/HPLovecraft himself did it to a extent, although in a somewhat muddled fashion. The strict delineation between Servitor Race, Great Old One, and Outer God of the current CthulhuMythos didn't come about until later writers and game designers added to the expanding Mythos and desired more concrete definitions; Lovecraft himself was more interested in creating a mysterious and eerie mood than establishing a coherent cosmology and didn't specify whether Cthulhu was greater than Shub-Niggurath or Mi-Go were greater than the Elder Things or which race served what God, and the fairly rigidly defined Mythos as it exists today (or at least the fairly rigidly defined Mythos that humanity has constructed around these beings) didn't originally exist as neatly in Lovecraft's own stories. Although Lovecraft DID point out that Cthulhu wasn't in the same league as Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, and Yog-Sothoth, merely being "cousins" of those beings, not on the same level of power, and in at least one of his stories he even went so far as to hint that perhaps the Great Cthulhu itself actually SERVED these other, greater beings, which he variously named Outer Gods, Elder Gods, or Other Gods, as the fancy struck him.

* The {{Nasuverse}} doesn't particularly have a formal hierarchy, but one can easily enough be made. At the top are the spirits of [[GaiasVengeance the planets themselves]] and their champions, [[EldritchAbomination the Types]]. Under them would be any other agents of a planet, such as the Beasts of Alaya and Gaia, though they share the place with the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent True Ancestors]]. Just a touch under them should be the other Counter Guardians, such as the Heroic Spirits, most likely with the Demons and Divine Mysteries. A tier under them should be most of the Dead Apostle Ancestors who don't have the Brunestud title. Now we finally reach most Magus, though they have been able to range all the way to [[ColonyDrop defeating a weakened Type]] in their outliers. After ''all'' that we've got normal humans. [[GoMadFromTheRevelation Enjoy being at the very bottom.]] Trying to make a list like this isn't helped by the anyone-under-special-instances-can-beat-x rule system. Let's not even try to fit in the [[PersonOfMassDestruction Ether Liners]] or multitude of [[InfinityPlusOneSword rule breakers]].