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"I am happy to note that at least some of you returned after the break. I guess those that are not here are wasting their time at the festival on the streets of Clerksburg. According to the calendar, Brewfest only lasts for one week. Why the city officials allow you young hooligans to start celebrating early is beyond me. It must be due to the libertarian policies of that new mayor Nerof."
"Anyway, let us continue with our lecture. As I stated before the break, when two deities share a source of power they can combat directly. The mortal mind can imagine it as two massive armies, composed of minions from each side, charging across a landscape and crashing together in a loud display of combat. This landscape is what mortals routinely refer to as planes of existence. Unfortunately, when two deities using different source of power wish to do combat they do not have a common landscape or plane to fight on. Therefore they have three options - to either combat on each other's plane, to combat on a neutral plane, or to create a temporary plane to combat on."
"Before going into these three options, a brief note on the planes of existence is in order. As was stated previously a source of power can be perceived as a cloud. It can also be perceived as an infinite flat surface or plane. Both of these concepts are inaccurate when describing what a source of power actually is, but suits our purposes for teaching. Therefore when visiting these planes of existence it is not a physical location but one that gives the illusion of being physical so that our mortal minds can understand and function in the plane. Deities are not bound by this and thus can see the source of power for what it truly is."
"The first option gives the advantage to the deity whose home plane is used as the war zone. The home deity can adjust the plane's geography and rules to hinder his opponent. The second advantage is that the home plane deity can bring to bear his full power whereas the attacking deity must retain a conduit to his source of power. The conduit must also be protected so that it is not severed during the combat."
"There are some consequences to the inhabitants of the plane on which deities battle. The unleashing of that kind of power will certainly cause a large amount of damage to the plane. This is what prevents good deities from coming to Oerth to combat the Old One."
"The second option is to combat on a neutral plane. This removes the advantages of giving one deity their home plane. Unfortunately this means both deities must create and protect conduits leading from their home plane to the neutral plane. In addition, a deity cannot be fully destroyed on a neutral plane as he must retain a certain amount of power on his home plane to keep the conduit attached at that end. The benefit this gives a deity is that they can remove themselves from the conflict at any time as well as not committing their full power. Unfortunately, the opponent can follow the retreating or losing deity back to his home plane via the open conduit. This eliminates some of the penalties for fighting a deity incurred for fighting on another deity's home plane."
"Much like option one, when two deities battle on a neutral plane, the unleashing of that kind of power will cause a large amount of damage to the plane. This can adversely impact any residents of that plane. For this reason, many deities will actively prevent other deities from fighting on a plane that they have interests in."
"The final option is to create a temporary plane to do battle on. This is preferred method of combat for two deities that do not wish to conduct a complete campaign of destruction on each other. This allows two deities to meet to settle their differences in a smaller scale. One or both deities invest the some power to create a temporary plane. They then open up a partial conduit and transfer a fixed amount of power to the temporary plane. The conduit is then closed. Both deities then resolve the conflict and limit the affects to the temporary plane. At the end of the conflict the residual power is lost once the temporary plane ceases to exist. This method allows each deity to perform a show of force to try and intimidate the other into surrendering on an issue of importance. Of course, even if a deity loses this particular encounter he does not need to accede to the request of the victor."
"A particular interesting twist on the third option of combat is how it was used to defeat the Dark God. The other gods created a temporary plane as a lure to do battle with the Dark God. In his vanity, the Dark God sent a substantial amount of power onto the plane to intimidate his foes. This was exactly as predicted. While a small portion of the opponent gods' power was used to occupy the Dark God on the temporary plane, a massive strike was sent against his home plane. The home plane was destroyed and the Dark God was defeated. Or so it seemed. Some whisper that the Dark God corrupted the temporary plane and took partial control over it due to the large amount of power he transferred to the plane. The other gods could not destroy the Dark God on the temporary plane, but were only able to contain him. Without access to his source of power, the Dark God is slowly weakening."
"This concludes this lecture on Vying for Power. Next lecture will be on what happens to the losing deities."
