Divinity: Original Sin 2

On the continent of Rivellon, nearly every book about the world's creation tells of the Seven Gods and the origins of Rivellon. No one can vouch for how true these stories are, but they have been passed down through the ages among every race.

The Birth of the Seven Gods

Legend has it that before the planes, the worlds, and everything within them came to be, there was nothing but pure, untapped energy—the raw material of creation and life, known as Source. Opposing it was the Void—destruction and nothingness. These two opposites existed in balance with one another. Where there is balance and friction, life takes root and universes are born. Then, just as a plant reaches for sunlight, Source found its way to the planes it could create upon. Likewise, the Void drifted toward the planes of the universe and began to exert its enormous influence. On many planes, Source and Void each fought for the upper hand. Where Source prevailed, life flourished. Rivellon is one such world.

Its potent concentration of Source spontaneously conceived primal beings of power—elemental gods, the earliest known instances of divinity. Over time these gods either grew stronger or withered away, their fortunes shifting according to the deeds of their creations. Gods of the earliest primitive faiths soon emerged—a god of war, a god of love—growing ever more powerful as mortals came to know war and love.

As the gods grew, six rising races formalized this concentration of Source through what would later be called worship. Thus arose the Seven Lords—each corresponding to one of the races (one of them to the wizards). The Seven drew Source from the worship of their followers and used it to gain power—and as their gods grew mighty, so too did the races. The gods who could not compete, or whose power was lesser, faded into oblivion along the way.

The Rise of the Divine and the Godwoken

As the power of the Seven kept growing, the friction between them grew fiercer. None would yield, and their contests were fought out through their respective races. War raged, and for a long age nothing could unite them again... until the Void came.

Though the veil of the real world holds firm, it is not perfect. The Void could periodically find a crack through which to invade, threatening the races and the gods themselves. The Seven knew they had to unite to stop it, and so they created the Divine—a lone mortal champion. They granted him their divine power, making him a hero who transcended death to become an avatar of the gods. This Divine would beat back the Void, driving it out beyond the veil of reality and back into its own realm. And so it happened many times over—a Divine would arise and repel the Void. The most recent Divine to save the world was Lucian, who fought the Void again and again and prevailed. But Lucian is now dead, and a new Divine has yet to appear.

Descended from the mortal heroes who helped repel the Void in the first Chaos War, a lineage of people known as the Godwoken kept emerging. Their bloodline lets the Godwoken perceive and manipulate Source with a deftness rare among mortals. With these abilities, the Godwoken became the only mortals capable of receiving the gods' gift—the full power of the Seven. The divine awakening appears across all races and manifests differently in each individual. All of them possess an innate ability to perceive Source and, with proper training, to absorb it and wield it for feats of incredible creation and destruction.