Since I was in this timeless space, I took a moment to consider my choices, before making them. I would have to find a place for my new godly realm, since I also knew that I would not be allowed to remain on the Material Plane once I had finished the transformation into a goddess. It felt like I could delay things, a bit, but only enough that I could make my presence known. A day, maybe two, and I would be forced out, if I had not already left.

That wasn’t an inherent restriction of being a god, I saw, but an edict passed down from Ao, the god above gods. It was his dictate that barred gods from the mortal plane, and it was by his edict that a god’s power was tied to how many followers they had. The more they were worshipped, the greater their power.

So, I skipped the choice of my realm, for now. Instead, I focused on the portfolio. This was the basis of my godhood. In other words, what was I to be a goddess of? This would determine how people in the world viewed me, so it would be best to decide that, before looking at other abilities or domains.

So, what manner of goddess would I be? Obviously, I wanted to be the goddess of the Twice-Born, but they were rare, so I couldn’t make that my entire gig. Being the wrath of women scorned sounded fitting, as I had laid my wrath upon more than a few people in this second life of mine. Rebuking the righteous, and taking down those who sought to inflict their religion on others was another part. Or, perhaps expanding that to hypocrites in general? And then there was also the idea of taking in the outcasts and bringing together those who would otherwise be on the out with ‘civilization’, like the orcs and goblins I had brought into my army.

Portfolio: Women, outcasts, warlocks, monsters, retribution, Twice-Born

Hmm. The Voice of the World translated my will differently than I had phrased it, but I could see how it would work. That would cover everything I had said, and I could refine the definitions easily enough once I got around to finalizing the dogmas of my church.

Next was domains. I knew from talking to Vestele that Domains granted a cleric extra spells that they could prepare, as well as some small ability that was either passive, like gaining a bonus on certain checks, or limited in its use, like being able to increase your strength temporarily. These would help mold how the people who worshipped me saw me, and how the outside world saw them, in turn.

Picking ‘Evil’ as a domain, for example, would firmly set my followers as opponents of many religions. On the other hand, choosing Artifice would make me appeal more to crafters, but I wasn’t really a crafting goddess. Charm, meanwhile, would entice people like Siora or Vestele to my following, if they weren’t already following Malcanthet.

Chaos Domain

Granted Power: You cast Chaos spells at +1 caster level.

Chaos Domain Spells

Level

Spell

1

Protection from Law: +2 to AC and saves, counter mind control, hedge out elementals and outsiders

2

Shatter: Sonic vibration damages objects or crystalline creatures

3

Magic Circle Against Law: As Protection from Law, but protecting a 10ft radius for 10 min/level.

4

Chaos Hammer: Damages and staggers lawful creatures.

5

Dispel Law: +4 bonus against attacks by lawful creatures.

6

Animate Objects: Objects attack your foes

7

Word of Chaos: Kills, confuses, stuns, or deafens nonchaotic subjects.

8

Cloak of Chaos: +4 to AC, +4 resistance bonus to saves, SR 25 against lawful spells

9

Summon Monster IX: Only as chaos spell. Calls extraplanar creature to fight for you.

The first domain I picked was Chaos. In my life, so far, I had a pretty strong run of doing my own thing, regardless of what the powers that be might think. I cursed entire tribes because they tried to go against me. I brought down a god of law because he was acting like a prick. Sure, I was a Queen, but my laws were only the basic ones you needed for a society, and I wasn’t exactly sending storm troopers about to invoke martial law or anything like that.

Destruction Domain

Granted Power: You cgain the smite power, the supernatural ability to make a single melee attack with a +4 bonus on attack rolls and a bonus on damage rolls equal to your cleric level (if you hit). You must declare the smite before making the attack. The ability is usable once per day.

Destruction Domain Spells

Level

Spell

1

Inflict Light Wounds: Touch attack, 1d8 damage +1/level (max +5)

2

Shatter: Sonic vibration damages objects or crystalline creatures

3

Contagion: Infects subject with chosen disease.

4

Inflict Critical Wounds: Touch attack, 4d8 damage +1/level (max +20).

5

Mass Inflict Light Wounds: Deals 1d8 damage +1/level to multiple creatures.

6

Harm: Deals 10 points/level damage to target.

7

Disintegrate: Makes one creature or object vanish.

8

Earthquake: Intense tremor shakes 5ft/level radius

9

Implosion: Kills one creature/round.

This one was also fairly evident from how I lived my life. Whenever someone opposed me, I destroyed them, typically with a nice helping of eldritch blast to the face. I didn’t torment or torture them, unless they forced me to do something like that in order to make an example of them. My followers would follow in the same path as I did, and lay waste to their foes.

Liberation Domain

Granted Power: You gain a +2 morale bonus on all saving throws against enchantment spells or effects.

Liberation Domain Spells

Level

Spell

1

Remove Fear: Suppresses fear or gives +4 on saves against fear for one subject + one per four levels.

2

Remove Paralysis: Frees one or more creatures from paralysis or slow effect.

3

Remove Curse: Frees object or person from curse.

4

Freedom of Movement: Subject moves normally despite impediments.

5

Break Enchantment: Frees subjects from enchantments, alterations, curses, and petrification.

6

Greater Dispel Magic: As dispel magic, but up to a +20 bonus on the dispel check.

7

Refuge: Alters item to transport its possessor to you.

8

Mind Blank: Subject is immune to mental/emotional magic and scrying.

9

Freedom: Releases creature from imprisonment.

Now, this one might seem odd to some, considering that I freely used curse powers and other things to weaken and debilitate my foes. But I was firmly against such things being laid on me, or being forced upon me in any way. Even when bargaining with Indsamling, I fought to keep free of any lasting entanglements. No, I would not be chained again, even if it meant I had to lock others up to protect my freedom, and my followers would do so as well.

That left Salient Divine Abilities. Apparently, these were some of the cheating abilities gods could get away with, like how Torm was using that Divine Shield to reduce the damage we dealt to him. I was only able to get two of them, so I had to pick ones that would be useful if I ever had to fight someone off. After all, I’d just shown that even gods may die at the hands of mortals.

There were a lot of interesting choices. Alter Reality would let me change things on a whim, at least, to a degree. There were restrictions on the ability, such as forcing a deity to rest after going beyond the bounds of what the Wish spell could normally do. That was probably why Torm didn’t use the ability, if he had it, while fighting me. He didn’t have the luxury of resting, since we had already overcome things like his divine aura and the dragon’s frightful presence.

Alter Form was interesting, since it basically allowed me to shapeshift at will, disguising myself as any number of different types of creature. However, it required Alter Size as a prerequisite, which was less useful, in my opinion. Becoming as small as a grain of sand was nice for getting places you weren’t supposed to be, but it made actually doing anything at that scale impossible, while turning into something the size of a castle was foolish, since that just made you a bigger target. Sure, you could hit harder, but didn’t actually keep you from being attacked at all. Not a fan of that.

Banestrike was another interesting power, since it basically let me treat any weapon I wielded as a Bane weapon. However, it only applied to a single type of enemy. If I wanted to change that type, I would have to ‘buy’ the ability multiple times. That might be good for gods with distinct racial hatreds, like a god of dwarves picking giants, but it was useless for me.

I looked at the Divine Shield ability, since I’d seen how useful it was, but quickly tossed it aside. It protected against 10 points of damage per divine rank when used. Since I was only Rank 1, that meant it was effectively useless to me right now. Maybe later, when I had grown my influence and my following, I would consider it. But, for now, it went on the reject pile like the others.

Likewise, I considered Divine Blast, since it was effectively similar to my Eldritch Blast in use. Could use it 3+CHA times per day, which would be twenty-three uses for me, and at a range of up to one mile per rank. Given my rank and Charisma, the ability would do 21d12 divine damage each time it hit, which was not anything to laugh off. However, because it was so similar to my blast, I held off on it, hoping for something better.

Scanning through the list the Voice of the World gave me, I was disappointed to see that most of the abilities on offer were either useless for me at my rank, a bad fit with my existing powers and abilities, or had requirements that I didn’t meet. Still, I wasn’t giving up. After all, I did see several things that actually did look promising. Eventually, I made my choices.

Lay Curse

Benefit: This ability works like the Bestow Curse spell, except that mortals get no save. Deities of equal or lesser ranke are subject to this ability, but are allowed Will saves (DC 10+CHA+Divine Rank) to resist. The curse can be removed only by a deity of equal or higher rank than the cursing deity. The deity can affect up to one creature per divine rank at once, but no more than that number each day. All must be within the deity’s line of sight when first affected.

This was basically an amped up version of the curse ability I’d had and used for a while. The fight against Zadkiel had proven once again how useful a properly timed curse could be. If other mortals decided to attack me, as I attacked Torm, and I was somehow prevented from fleeing, then this would allow me to cripple them in many ways.

On the other hand, it could also be used on those my followers brought to my attention, who were deemed ‘worthy’ of special attention. A curse of impotence, for instance, could make a man who got a girl pregnant and then threw her aside regret his actions until the end of his days. It was a more fitting punishment than just killing him, and wasn’t actual torture, not really. Yes, this was definitely going to be a tool I would use to good effect.

Sunder and Disjoin

Benefit: If any weapon or item is used against the deity in combat, the deity can destroy it with a touch. Treat a successful touch as a combination of a Disintegrate spell and a Disjunction spell, both targeted exclusively at the touched item. The save DC for both effects is 19+CHA. An item remains vulnerable to this ability for up to one day after being used against the deity.

This was an ability that I doubted most deities would truly consider. There were more straightforward ways to win a battle, after all. However, I had used my powers to destroy a foe’s arms and armor before, when I was overmatched. If I had an ability like this, I could have destroyed Torm’s weapons and armor with a touch, weakening him greatly. And it was not just arms and armor. A ring of protection that defended against an attack would have been used in battle against me, and so on.

While this wouldn’t provide an absolute defense against people wanting my head, it would dramatically increase the potential risk of attacking me head on. Even gods couldn’t just replace their divine weaponry on a whim, after all. That meant that, if it was known I had this power, I would instantly make it less profitable to attack me. Even if a god took Umbridge with my methods, they would think twice about risking their favorite toys, even if I barely had a chance of it working.

Satisfied that I had made the best choices, I next looked to my physical form. I was comfortable with this body, and saw no reason to change things too much. I just made a couple minor changes, so that I would look more divine. My blonde hair became actual strands of gold, indestructible, yet still as soft and malleable as normal hair. My feathers sharpened to a razor’s edge, becoming hard like obsidian, but they would only cut those things I wished them too, and they still carried me as easily as ever. Yes, that was all I needed. I was not so vain as to try and give myself a perfect body, or make myself the apex of physical beauty. Let the gods of lust and love worry over such things.

Time resumed its pace, and I saw my friends staring at me, their eyes blinking as the radiance around me died away. With a tired smile, I said, “Well, it seems that my story as a mortal has come to an end. But do not worry, my friends. I still have a bit of time to settle things, before I must leave the material realm and find a new home amongst the planes.”