Chapter Summaries

Lolth spread her account of the Elf Empress and the Natural Ancient God’s betrayal among the elves, turning their doubts into a schism and a civil war. After the Drow were expelled to the Underdark, Lolth attained deification in the Abyss and rose to become a greater power.

• In the year 126 of the Calendar of the Gods, Lolth sent revelations to her remaining fanatics, accusing the Elf Empress and the Natural Ancient God of betraying her.
• Lolth’s story spread among the elves, and nearly half of them sided with her as they learned she was still alive.
• Nearly a third of the elves became Lolth’s true believers, and she corrupted them into the dark-skinned Drow.
• The Elf Empress prepared to massacre the Drow, but the Natural Ancient God persuaded her to expel them to the Underdark instead.
• With the Drow’s faith, Lolth attained deification in the Abyss, received four divine portfolios, and rose to the level of a greater power.

Dunn experimented with the Devil Fruit Tree to remove the poison from Faith Power and discovered that it absorbed the Faith Power, producing new Devil Fruits while leaving the remaining power clean. He gave one of the unusual fruits to a Petitioner to test its effects.

• Dunn failed to remove or weaken the poison in Faith Power using other energies or filtration, then considered the Devil Fruit Tree.
• Dunn decided to risk feeding Faith Power to the tree and watched as it absorbed a small amount without issue.
• Dunn poured a vast quantity of Faith Power into the Devil Fruit Tree, which absorbed it and grew Devil Fruits across its branches.
• Dunn found that the remaining Faith Power had been stripped of its poison and suspected the new fruits had absorbed it.
• Dunn summoned a Petitioner and ordered him to eat one of the newly grown Devil Fruits; the Petitioner swallowed it after praying.

Dunn discovered that faith-powered Devil Fruits granted great strength but caused permanent physical changes and extreme emotional side effects, then decided he needed to expand his Source of Faith to prepare for divine war. In year 131 of the Calendar of the Gods, the Death Overlord ordered Atlantis to seize people and spread its faith across the New and Old Continents, promising the most outstanding Legendary figure a chance to become a Demigod.

• Dunn tested faith-powered Devil Fruits on Petitioners and found that they caused permanent transformations and left each consumer dominated by a single emotion.
• Dunn realized the fruits resembled smile but were created from both faith’s power and its toxins, making them stronger and more harmful than ordinary Devil Fruits.
• Dunn concluded the fruits could make useful cannon fodder but were of little value to him, and he cast them into the Astral Plane.
• Dunn decided to expand Atlantis’s Source of Faith so he could safely advance to Greater Power before the coming war between Deities.
• In year 131 of the Calendar of the Gods, the Death Overlord ordered Atlantis to expand its territory and seize people across the New and Old Continents, offering the most distinguished Legendary figure a chance to become a Demigod.

Dunn’s offer of Deification places drew Atlantis Empire’s Legendary beings into an expansion war that lasted several years. In the war’s third year, the Fate Overlord summoned Dunn to a council, and the Silver Mirror brought his divine projection to the Pantheon in the Astral Plane Depths.

• Dunn’s Deification reward tempted Atlantis Empire’s Legendary beings, who needed faith and faced deadly odds to become Demigods.
• After the Death Overlord’s divine decree, Atlantis Empire sent more than fifty Legendary Battleships to conquer four sea routes in a month.
• Other powers responded, and years of coastal fighting followed across the New and Old Continents.
• In the war’s third year, the Fate Overlord summoned Dunn to a council through the Silver Mirror.
• The Silver Mirror carried Dunn’s divine projection to a magnificent ancient temple, which Dunn recognized as the Pantheon.

Dunn joined the Fate Overlord and four other deities for a council in the Pantheon, where the seating shifted as participants arrived. The Fate Overlord announced that future councils would admit only full-fledged deities and explained why the remaining former members were absent.

• Dunn entered the Pantheon, found his divine power projection suppressed, and received no clear answer when he questioned the Fate Overlord about ascending to greater power.
• Miriil, the God of Music and Song, Cyric, the God of Murder, and Tiamat, the Five-Headed Dragon Goddess, arrived and took seats that rearranged themselves.
• Lolth, the Spider Demon Queen, arrived as a greater power and displaced the Fate Overlord from his original seat, prompting the other deities to greet her with awe.
• Tiamat questioned why only six of the original thirteen members had attended the council.
• The Fate Overlord restricted future councils to full-fledged deities and explained the other members' deaths, limitations, or departures.
• The Fate Overlord revealed that Chou Ox had become a demigod but had submitted to Lolth, who would represent him.

The Fate Overlord explained the Pantheon and announced that he had found leads on a method of ascending to greater power. Dunn grew suspicious and frustrated that fate had guided the Fate Overlord to discoveries that had taken Dunn years of research.

• Dunn recalled the Silver Mirror Council's members and learned that Lolth had forced Moradin to submit, prompting the Fate Overlord to remove Moradin from the council.
• Lolth redirected the gathering toward the Pantheon, and the Fate Overlord explained that it was a naturally formed treasure open to deities and that it suppressed entrants' strength below high rank.
• Miriil asked whether all deities could enter the Pantheon, and the Fate Overlord said he would later announce it as a place for the gods to deliberate.
• The Fate Overlord said that he had found leads on a method of ascending to greater power under the guidance of fate.
• Dunn wondered how the Fate Overlord had found both the Pantheon and a path to greater power through fate.

The Fate Overlord explained that becoming a greater power required immense, high-quality Faith Power and multiple saints, while toxins in Faith Power could drive a Deity mad upon advancement. He revealed that reproduction between Deities could transfer those toxins to their offspring, offering a way to purify Faith Power.

• The Fate Overlord said greater power required hundreds of millions of true believers, believers at other levels, and more than one saint.
• The Fate Overlord revealed that Faith Power contained toxins, and Dunn confirmed they could trigger when a Deity advanced to greater power, as with the War Overlord.
• The Fate Overlord told Lolth that her unusual advancement came from the Abyssal Will's blessing and asked whether she was truly fine; Lolth realized her personality had changed and screamed Angharradh's name.
• The Fate Overlord explained that reproduction between Deities transferred both Divine Power and Faith toxins to their offspring, thereby purifying the parents' Faith Power.

Dunn learned that divine offspring could provide the gods with powerful subordinates, though he recognized that faith contamination could turn them into Divine Abominations. When the Fate Overlord explained that greater powers needed a sacrificial ritual, Dunn realized the example had singled him out and that his standing among the gods might be lower than he believed.

• The Fate Overlord explained that divine offspring could be born with demigod-level power, tempting the gods who lacked capable subordinates.
• Dunn realized that faith contamination would likely transform the offspring into Divine Abominations, but chose not to warn the other deities.
• The Fate Overlord revealed that advancing to greater power required a sacrifice tied to a deity's rules and divine name, and gave the Death Overlord's world-spanning death ritual as an example.
• Dunn recognized that the example had directed the other gods' attention toward him and suspected the Fate Overlord wanted him to test the path to advancement.
• Dunn reconsidered his belief that he was second only to the two greater powers after the Pantheon's seating order challenged his view of his standing.

Dunn considered the Fate Overlord’s suspiciously far-reaching influence and agreed that his method for purifying faith power might work. He avoided becoming a test subject by claiming that his mastery of the Death Rule had left him unable to produce offspring, while the Fate Overlord and Lolth reacted with shock.

• Dunn reflected on the Pantheon’s ranking of the Fate Overlord above him and suspected that the Fate Overlord was acting as a guide for selected people in the world.
• Dunn told the assembled Gods that the Fate Overlord’s method for producing Divine Scions seemed likely to work, pleasing the Gods who wanted to purify their faith power.
• Lolth urgently asked Dunn what he meant when he sighed that there was a problem.
• Dunn explained that his essence had drawn close to the Death Rule, making reproduction impossible, and said he could not serve as the method’s test subject.
• The Fate Overlord and Lolth stared at Dunn in shock, and Dunn realized the Fate Overlord had not known about his inability to reproduce.

At the gods’ gathering, Lolth asked Dunn for troops to help her drow secure territory in the Underdark, but he refused because Atlantis’s wars left him unable to spare forces. Tiamat then offered a powerful dragon contingent, leaving Lolth with a promising alternative.

• Lolth chose Dunn as a candidate to produce divine offspring, but Dunn said he was infertile, disappointing her and prompting the Fate Overlord to remark that the Death Overlord would need another solution.
• The Fate Overlord invited the gods to discuss matters among themselves, noting that they might not gather again soon.
• Lolth asked Dunn to lend troops to help her followers establish a foothold in the Underdark, where they would face powerful native races.
• Dunn refused because Atlantis’s wars of expansion had reached a point where he could not spare fighting forces.
• Tiamat offered to send Lolth five hundred adult dragons, ten Legendary dragons, and one ancient dragon at the High Legendary level to help her rule the Underdark.

Tiamat agreed to send dragons to the Underdark in exchange for the right to spread her faith among its intelligent inhabitants other than the Drow and Duergar. Miriil then asked Dunn whether his pantheon was accepting members, leaving Cyric watching Dunn expectantly as well.

• Lolth offered Tiamat the faith of the Underdark’s intelligent creatures, excluding the Drow and Duergar, in return for dragon support.
• Tiamat accepted the deal and said she would send her subordinates from Dragon Island through its passage to the Underdark.
• Miriil told Dunn that her weak faith and lack of territory threatened her power, and asked to join his pantheon.
• The deities considered Miriil’s reasons for choosing Dunn’s pantheon over Lolth’s or the Fate Overlord’s.
• Cyric, whose situation resembled Miriil’s, looked expectantly toward Dunn.

Dunn rejected Miriil’s request to join his pantheon and proposed that the council’s deities infiltrate other pantheons, influence the gods, and eventually control the world. The Fate Overlord supported the strategy, and the council began discussing where its lesser powers would go.

• Dunn told Miriil that she could not join his pantheon, arguing that the council members were already allies and needed no further assurances.
• Dunn proposed spreading the council’s influence through powerful pantheons and uniting the gods against obstacles such as the Ancient Gods and the Destiny Legendaries.
• Tiamat questioned whether the council could overcome the eight Ancient Gods, and Dunn argued that they were divided and might be won over or eliminated individually.
• Dunn assigned Tiamat, Miriil, and Cyric to choose powerful pantheons to join, while he, Lolth, and the Fate Overlord established their own pantheons.
• Cyric announced that he would join the War Overlord’s pantheon, hoping to exploit the War Overlord’s trust and inherit his power after his death.

Dunn created the Land of the Dying, a contest that promised its winner another life and brought him believers and Faith Power from across the world. As rumors about faith’s dangers and a supposed cure spread among the gods, Dunn suspected the Fate Overlord was behind them.

• Dunn judged that the Atlantis Empire’s territorial gains had nearly reached their limit and focused on gathering Faith Power and preparing to advance.
• Dunn built the Land of the Dying, drawing in the souls of dying believers to compete for a chance at another life.
• The Land of the Dying spread across the Main Plane and beyond, earning Dunn countless new believers despite local bans and Lolth’s furious curses.
• The gods learned rumors claimed that Faith Power could alter their wills and personalities, with the War Overlord as an example.
• A second rumor claimed that intercourse and offspring between deities could cleanse faith’s toxins, and Dunn suspected the Fate Overlord was behind the rumors.

The Gods’ race to conceive Divine Scions intensified while Dunn used their distraction to move his new believers into the Atlantis Empire. The first birth ended with the Goddess of Joy dead, revealing that the offspring might be Divine Abominations rather than divine children.

• After a Goddess conceived and reported that her faith toxins had diminished, most Goddesses accepted offers to bear Divine Scions, while Gunara asked Dunn if he would father one with her or let her take other offers.
• Dunn told Gunara to wait and used the Gods’ distraction to bring believers from across the Main Plane into the Atlantis Empire.
• Some Goddesses made suitors duel for the chance to father their children, triggering small-scale divine wars in the Astral Plane.
• The first Divine Scion was born, and its cry carried immense power across the Astral Plane; Dunn heard hatred and madness within it.
• The newborn attacked the weakened Goddess of Joy and killed her, causing her divine kingdom to collapse.
• The Gods realized the offspring they had hoped would consume their faith toxins might actually be Divine Abominations.

A Divine Abomination killed its mother, grew stronger, and attacked a nearby Divine Kingdom before more than a dozen Deities sealed it away. Terrified Goddesses reconsidered carrying Divine Scions, and one nine-month-old fetus killed its mother as she prepared to abort it.

• After absorbing its mother's power and faith, the Divine Abomination attacked a nearby Divine Kingdom and fought the Pantheon's seven Deities' clones.
• In Dunn's Divine Kingdom, Annie told Gunara that a Divine Scion's consciousness could be corrupted by faith's poison before birth.
• The battle lasted three days, and the Divine Abomination overwhelmed the seven clones until over a dozen Deities joined forces to seal it.
• The Gods hesitated to breed Divine Scions, and pregnant Goddesses began preparing to abort their fetuses.
• As a Lesser Power prepared to terminate her pregnancy, her nine-month-old fetus tore out of her abdomen and killed her.

As Divine Abominations spread through the Astral Plane, the Fate Overlord called the gods to the first Assembly of the Gods at the Pantheon. The gods reluctantly agreed to attend after Lady Lolth and the War Overlord’s representative confirmed they would go, and Dunn arrived early with Annie and Gunara to assess the assembled deities.

• Goddesses carrying Divine Scions sought protection, while five newborn Divine Abominations roamed the Astral Plane and attacked Divine Kingdoms.
• Many solitary deities joined pantheons as Divine Abomination attacks made the Astral Plane more dangerous.
• The Fate Overlord announced that he would hold the first Assembly of the Gods at the Pantheon in one month.
• Lady Lolth confirmed her attendance and praised the Pantheon as a natural creation, while Cyric announced he would attend on the War Overlord’s behalf.
• The gods agreed to attend, and Dunn brought Annie’s and Gunara’s divine power projections to the Pantheon early so he could examine the deities’ strength and potential.

Dunn, Annie, and Gunara attended the Pantheon gathering, where the gods’ seats revealed their relative strength. When newly deified Mystra arrived, she ranked above both Dunn and the Fate Overlord despite being an intermediate power, leaving Dunn baffled.

• Dunn warned Annie and Gunara to speak little and follow his lead at the Pantheon gathering.
• Dunn took second place behind the Fate Overlord, while Annie and Gunara sat among the lesser and weak powers.
• As more gods arrived, Tiamat surpassed Annie as the strongest lesser power, and Gunara rose from last place among the weak powers.
• The Fate Overlord welcomed the newly deified Mystra, Goddess of Magic, and introduced her to the gathered gods.
• Mystra took her seat, shifting Dunn to third place and ranking above the Fate Overlord, which left Dunn wondering how an intermediate power could be stronger.

At the Council of Gods, the Fate Overlord revealed that deities would eventually die if they lost all their believers, then used the danger to push the gods toward unity. He proposed that they kill the Heaven’s Mandate Legendaries in the Main Plane, led by the Wizard Speaker, while Mystra sat at the table as the speaker’s wife.

• Dunn considered whether the rulers at the pinnacle of Heaven’s Mandate could surpass Greater Powers after becoming deities.
• The Fate Overlord opened the Council of Gods, announcing that 186 deities had gathered and warning that a deity without believers would fall into eternal slumber as their Divine Kingdom withered.
• Lolth and the other gods reacted with shock, while Dunn remained calm and the Fate Overlord wondered how much Dunn knew.
• The Fate Overlord called on the gods to unite against the danger threatening them.
• Cyric, speaking as the War Overlord’s representative, asked how the Fate Overlord planned to remove that danger.
• The Fate Overlord identified the Heaven’s Mandate Legendaries, led by the Wizard Speaker, as the target and proposed wiping them out, prompting the gods to glance at Mystra.

The Gods debated how to deal with bearers of Heaven's Mandate, agreeing to eliminate the Elf Empress and Wizard Speaker while seeking allies among the others. Dunn proposed winning over Wrath of the Firmament, but the Sun God objected and Lolth challenged his right to speak.

• The Goddess of Magic explained that she had sided with the Gods because refusing to choose a side would likely get her killed, and the Fate Overlord vouched for her.
• The Fate Overlord proposed winning some bearers of Heaven's Mandate over and eliminating others, with those recruited required to undergo Deification and ascend.
• Lolth demanded that the Elf Empress die, and the Gods accepted her and the Wizard Speaker as targets.
• Dunn recommended winning over the Dragon Emperor, but Tiamat objected before falling silent after Dunn defended his proposal.
• Dunn proposed recruiting Wrath of the Firmament, and the Sun God objected before Lolth asked who he thought he was to speak.

Lolth declared that the Sun God had no right to speak, revealing the Silver Mirror Council’s plan to restrict the council’s voices to the first four seats and the War Overlord’s representative. Shar recognized that the plan excluded her, and the higher-ranking gods began to realize what Lolth was doing.

• Lolth rebuked the Sun God and declared that he had no right to offer an opinion.
• The Sun God’s divine power began to boil, but an inexplicable force suppressed it before he confronted Lolth.
• Shar urged Lolth and the Sun God to stop wasting time, but Lolth turned her insults on Shar as well.
• Shar realized Lolth was limiting the right to speak to the first four seats and the War Overlord’s representative, excluding the fifth-ranked Shar.
• The gods understood Shar’s observation, and one deity challenged Lolth’s overreach while addressing Mystra.