Deity
A deity or god is a powerful entity, typically one that is metaphysical and the central object of worship in a religion.
Etymology
The word deity comes from deitas, which was coined by Augustine, from deus, after divinitas. Deus comes from "dyeu," referring to "sky, heaven, divine, shining." You see this also in the words Zeus, Jupiter, Tyr, divine, and deva.
The word god comes from Proto-Indo-European "invoked (one), called (one)." Probably.
In Hebrew, the word for "god" is eloah. In Arabic the word is ilah, which refers to anything that is worshiped.[1] Both are related to the words El and Elohim (plural of eloah).
Physical gods
I said in the intro that gods are "typically" metaphysical, which implies that some aren't. Some gods indeed are bound to physical forms. Speaking in D&D terms, these would be Divine Rank 0 gods, such as Bane, Bhaal, Murlynd, and Myrkul. These are "godlike men," if you will.[2]
Avatars
Main article: Avatar
The concept of a physical god is not to be confused with avatars. An avatar is a physical manifestation of a metaphysical being. A good example is Yuna.
See also
Endnotes
- ↑ See: Wehr, Hans. A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic. I have no idea where in this book this citation comes from. This is what Wikipedia cites, but it's a 10-bajillion-page book whose terms don't seem to be in alphabetical order.
- ↑ Note that Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul were once big-time metaphysical gods. Recently they bound themselves to human forms so they might influence Toril better.
