No one knows for certain the nature of the Gods or how the world was created,
with each cult believing their own explanations of creation.
What is known about them all however, is they do grant their followers prayers ,
and that their names are:

• Devourers
• Gaea
• Gnarg
• Gorokh
• Ixalovh
• Lythander
• Mostrai
• Ruggilli
• Sorig
• Valkyrie
• Valriel

The following is a summary and description of the various cults in Crossfire.
Use the command crossfire-server -m8 to check if the information presented here is accurate.
(Note: you need to have compiled with the DUMP_SWITCHES and MULTIPLE_GODS flags for this to work!)
The bold attributes have meanings as follows:

Description: Summary of the gods overall abilities

Name of god: Alternate titles
Name of the enemy god: Self explanatory.
Races: Names of races friendly to the cult. The priest of this cult has greater power over these creatures. In some cases the prayer “summon cult monsters” will summon these monsters to help the priest.
Enemy races: Names of races hated by the cult. “Holy word” prayers of this god may be used to kill these creatures.
Attacktypes: Attacktype(s) used by this god's avatar and by cult “cause wounds” prayers.
Resistances: How much damage will be subtracted from successful hits made upon the character by the listed attacktype. For non damaging attacktypes, the resistance value affects saving throw and reduces duration. Higher values are better.
Vulnerable: Given to a cult priest by the “curse” prayer. Also means the character takes double damage from the listed attacktype. For non damaging attacktypes, the resistance value affects saving throw and increases duration.
Attuned: The cult priest is attuned to these spellpaths. This means spells of this type are easier to learn, take less mana or spell points to cast, and cause more damage.
Repelled: The cult priest is repelled to these spellpaths. This is the opposite of Attuned - harder to learn, take more mana or spell points to cast, and cause less damage.
Denied: The cult priest is denied use of these spellpaths. That means you are unable to use or cast spells of this type.
Special: A cult priest has these additional benefits and/or restrictions.

Granted Spell(s): Unique spells only available to followers of this particular cult. The spells are obtained when the amount of Grace is the following:

1. low = 100 grace (= 50 without altar)
2. medium = 300 grace (= 150 without altar)
3. high = 600 grace (= 300 without altar)

Altar Effects: Special effects (including weapon blessing) or abilities granted to the cult follower while praying over an altar, which are granted when Grace reaches the following:

1. low = 100 grace (= 50 without altar)
2. medium = 300 grace (= 150 without altar)
3. high = 600 grace (= 300 without altar)

Weapon enchantment goes by the following:

1. enchant_weapon_low = weapon bonus +3 is max
2. enchant_weapon_medium = weapon bonus +7 is max
3. enchant_weapon_high = weapon bonus +12 is max

Remove Curse: Removes curse property from all cursed (but not damned) items worn or carried
Remove Damnation: Removes curse and damnation from all cursed or damned items worn or carried
Remove Depletion: Removes all depletion effects, such as stat loss from death(s)

Devout followers (starting at level 10 in praying) can obtain twice the maximum amount of Grace by praying on an altar dedicated to their cult/god

Holy Relics: Special items granted to the cult follower. Items are granted when Grace level reaches:

1. low = 100 grace (= 50 without altar)
2. medium = 300 grace (= 150 without altar)
3. high = 600 grace (= 300 without altar)

Rarity is a measure of the chance of obtaining the item while praying over the altar. This can be influenced by the characters Luck. For god-granted Praying spells, the player's Praying skill must be at a high enough level to be able to cast the spell (it's sometimes possible for Grace to be high enough but Praying to be a bit too low for for a spell to be granted).

Avatar: Dimensions and stats of summoned Avatar with a link to the full stats in the Spoiler

Players can worship a god of their choosing by using the Praying skill when standing above an altar. This will immediately align them to that god, and shift their resistance bonuses and weaknesses and other status changes accordingly. Once a god is chosen there is no way to revert back to being agnostic and not worshipping a god, but generally speaking it's always advantageous to worship a god. Praying over your god's altar can grant many useful effects including removing curses from all items (note that Devourers followers cannot uncurse items), even ones that aren't equipment such as scrolls and potions, and Turning spells such as the extremely useful Banishment cannot be cast until you worship a god.

While many gods have extreme advantages that come at the cost of serious restrictions, there are several gods like Gorokh, Gnarg, Valriel, or Sorig who functionally have minimal resistance penalties or downsides, and have most spell paths open to them, and are a good choice if you're not sure what you want to focus on and want to worship a god that doesn't give you a significant elemental weakness you have to manage. Note that some gods have certain spell types repelled which can make gaining early levels in some schools of magic tricky since it limits your early spell selection, but not impossible.

You can switch what god you worship by praying on another god's altar. This takes several tries as your current god shoves you off the altar (in case you accidentally pray over an altar you did not mean to) and you lose praying exp each time this happens, but eventually you'll switch to the new god of your choosing. The Brace command can make this process easier by preventing you from being shoved off an altar.

While it's not possible to give god-granted relics to other players since dropping them or switching gods causes them to immediately disappear, it is possible to enchant a weapon while following one god, then give it to a player worshipping another god or switch gods yourself, so you get the benefits of a weapon enchantment that would not normally be available. For instance, a Valkyrie follower giving a blessed sword to a Lythander follower so that they can use a Weaponmagic sword that slays multiple enemy types. Weapons traded in this way will refuse to be equipped if the wielder is worshipping an enemy god, such as a weapon blessed by Gorokh being given to a follower of Valriel.

Other gods are mentioned at times in the game and in various quests, but are minor gods that do not form a religion significant enough to be worshipped by the player.

Father of Goblins, Lord Troll, Master of Poisons, Patron of Assassins, The Unclean One

Enemy god: Mostrai

Race: Goblin, Giant, Troll

Enemy races: Faerie, Dwarf

Attacktypes: Poison

Resistances: Poison +30%

Weaknesses: Magic -20%

Attuned to: Missiles, Wounding

Repelled to: Protection, Turning

Denied to: none

Other Special Attributes: none

Granted Spells: Poison Fog (low level), Cause Smallpox (medium level), Cause Rabies (high level)

Altar Effects: Remove Curse, Remove Damnation, Remove Depletion, Enchant Weapon up to +12

Holy Relics:

Gnarg's Orc Helmet (low level, rare) (Dex+1)(ac+3)(item_power +2)(Spell regen penalty 1)(armour +20)(resist poison +30).

The item has a story: This helmet good protection. From mighty Gnarg it is.

Bracers of strength of Wargs (medium level, rare) (Str +2)(armour +20)(resist cold +20)(dam +15)(regeneration +1)

The item has a story: An exceptional pair of bracers. Not only do they provide the wearer with protection from cold, they also increase the wearer's damage and strength, and help heal the body from damage. A mighty gift from Gnarg sent to aid you in annihilating His enemies.

Avatar: Troll, 1×1 Size, 500 hp, ac -5 wc -3 dam 50 armour 40 Attacktypes: Poison, Physical

In-Game Description: Gnarg is aggressive god, whose warrior-priests often favor indirect damage. Poison resistance is always useful to have even at very high levels, and Gnarg's granted spells allow a variety of creatures to be tackled safely from afar without destroying their items. The slight weakness to Magic is a problem, but -20% is quite manageable and is worth the advantages you get, particularly later in the game.

Notes: Gnarg is a useful, general-purpose God to worship whose advantages change depending on how far you are into the game. No spell types are denied to you, and the ones that are repelled aren't a big deal as potions of healing and resistance are always a great option. Dwarves and Faeries can be found in a couple of key, lucrative maps for early game levelling with Holy Word and eventually Banishment, namely Mostrai's Temple (Dwarf Guards) and the Dark Forest (Living Trees and Ents are classed as Faeries). As these eventually stop being worth much experience, Smallpox becomes available to flatten maps full of humanoids, Poison Fog keeps increasing in damage and usefulness, and eventually Rabies is available as a fire-and-forget spell that can kill anything that's not disease immune. Smallpox and Rabies are essentially superpowered versions of Typhoid and Leprosy, with Rabies in particular being effective at killing otherwise dangerous bosses. You need a bit of patience with diseases, but it pays off well.

Gnarg's equipment is also pretty effective; the helmet provides a lot of defense and pumps your poison resistance up even more, though loses some of its luster late in the game. The bracers however are exceptionally useful, with its stats being beneficial throughout the game due to how race bracers with special properties are. The bracers effectively means Gnarg gives both poison and cold resistance in exchange for a weakness to magic, which isn't a bad trade considering how rare pure magical damage is.

The disadvantages of Gnarg include a somewhat lackluster attack type, Poison, that isn't effective on many late game targets and takes a while to really be effective, limited enemy types for slaying properties on your weapon (though there are a couple high-level faeries to find), very limited resistance bonuses, and diseases which generally aren't quite as potent as what Devourers get. Red Death is arguably the best disease in the game, with Devourers getting a superpowered version of Cold or Flu that can hit anything living that's not disease immune, and will generally do enough damage to kill whatever it hits at high Praying levels. Gnarg on the other hand only gets to target humanoids with Smallpox, and single targets with Rabies. Rabies is however the best boss killing disease in the game if you're patient, and even enemies with super fast health regen will eventually die to it, giving Gnarg an advantage over other gods who only have the very, very slow Leprosy as an option for this sort of strategy.

Gnarg works well for nearly any race, but races unaffected by Smallpox (or Typhoid) such as Dragons, Quetzals, Fireborn, and Serpentfolk work especially well as they don't have to worry about accidentally infecting themselves. The bracers and their innate cold resistance are particularly helpful for Serpentfolk who get two bracers slots to work with and really benefit from extra cold resistance along with the damage, armour, and regeneration, and can use it alongside some of the other powerful but late game bracer options.

Elven god of Luck, Huntsman of Goblins, Trollslayer, The Trickster

Enemy god: Gnarg

Race: Faerie

Enemy races: Goblin, Troll

Attacktypes: Slow, Confusion

Resistances: Confusion +100%

Weaknesses: Acid -15%, Poison -30%

Attuned to: Missiles

Repelled to: none

Denied to: Detonation

Other Special Attributes: Spell_Regen +1, Luck +2, Stealth

Granted Spells: Conflict (medium level), Defense (medium level)

Altar Effects: Remove Curse, Remove Damnation, Remove Depletion, Enchant Weapon up to +7

Holy Relics:

Lythander's Elven Bow +5 (medium level, rare) (wc+3)(dam+30)(luck+1)(Attacks: physical).

The item has a story: You look at this wonderful bow with pride. It is only granted to the best of Lythander's disciples.

Lythander's Magic Pipe (low level, rare)

The object has a story: This pipe is the finest you have ever seen. Imagine the smoke rings you could blow with it.

Avatar: 1×1 Size, 350 hp, ac -7 wc -1 dam 40 armour 50 Attacktypes: Confusion, Physical

In-Game Description: The god of the elves, Lythander's biggest boon is arguably immunity to Confusion, a very dangerous ailment that impacts your movement and prevents you from casting spells. Lythander also provides slightly faster Mana regeneration, Stealth, the ability to target Trolls with turning spells, and eventually a potent gift for an archer. Lythander abhors the dirtyness of acids, poisons, and explosive spells, and followers of Lythander will have tremendous difficulties with these.

Notes: Slow and Confusion are theoretically useful attacktypes, but many enemies are outright immune to them, meaning you'll get rather limited use out of them. Confusion a double-edged sword; it's annoying if you're meleeing something as they will start moving in random directions, but Confusion is helpful for stopping spellcasters as it interferes with spellcasting, causing spells to fail or be selected at random, or aimed in the wrong direction. Confusing an enemy gives you an opportunity to finish them off with arrows or spells. Remember to switch your Bowmode to Threewide for best results!

The granted gifts are somewhat modest; the Pipe isn't terribly exciting as bullet spells aren't all that thrilling, but the bow is pretty helpful if you're in the habit of using bows. Lythander also gets a decent target enemy in the form of trolls. Gaeolotrolls are worth a lot of experience, but unfortunately they also deal acid damage, a type Lythander gains a weakness to.

Fortunately, in more recent years the Acid and Poison weaknesses have been toned down significantly, but they're still major headaches to deal with. Perhaps most problematic for Lythander is that Confusion is usually addressed by players with an Amulet of the Shielded Mind, which provides immunities to Confusion, Paralyze, and Fear, three ailments that are absolutely devastating and can get players killed quite easily. This means that the immunity to Confusion that's supposed to be Lythander's main benefit isn't actually helpful as the equipment you're also using to stop Paralyze and Fear already covers it.

The granted spells Conflict and Defense are interesting, but not nearly as potent in terms of killing power as what many other gods get (getting enemies to fight each other is rather less effective if they're immune to their own attack types) and so Lythander ends up being one of the more rarely used gods.

Goddess of Peace, Guardian of Life, Mother of Nature

Enemy god: Devourers

Race: Animals, Elementals

Enemy races: Undead, Unnatural

Attacktypes: None (Weapons cannot be equipped by Gaea followers and so can never be given weapon enchantments.)

Resistances: Death +100%, Depletion +100%, Drain +100%

Weaknesses: Fear -100%

Attuned to: Protection, Summoning

Repelled to: none

Denied to: Death, Wounding

Other Special Attributes: Health_Regen +2, Grace_Regen +3, player cannot equip any weapons

Granted Spells: Spiderweb (low level), Wall of Thorns (low level), Insect Plague (low level), Ironwood Skin (low level), Remove Damnation (medium level), Daylight (medium level), Sanctuary (medium level), Nightfall (medium level), Peace (medium level), Raise Dead/Resurrection (medium level), Reincarnation (high level)

Altar Effects: Remove Curse, Remove Damnation, Remove Depletion

Holy Relics:

Gaea's Shield of Earth (high level, rare)(ac+4)(item_power +3)(armour +15)(resist fire +30)(resist electricity +30)(resist cold +30)(resist ghosthit -20).

The item has a story: This shield is highly enchanted by the forces of life and nature. It is a personal gift from Gaea, to protect her beloved children.

Gaea's Tears (high level, frequently)(healing potion)

Flowers (high level, frequently)

Foods of various nutrition

Gloves of the Sun +1 (medium level, rare)(Dex+2)(wc+2)(dam+2)(ac+1)(item_power +2)(Attacks: physical, fire).

The item has a story: This pair of gloves will aid any of Gaea's most faithful in seeing her will protected.

Avatar: 1×1 Size, 500 hp, ac -5 wc -1 dam 50 armour 50 Attacktypes: Physical

In-Game Description: Gaea adores peace and serenity, disliking violence as well as things which spoil the natural world such as the undead or unnatural abominations. Her followers take a vow that denies them from ever using weapons, as such things are a symbol of worldly violence, but instead grants them many powers to deal with Her enemies in other, more magical ways. Her powers are many, and Her devoted followers gain a wide variety of immunities as well as spells unique to Her. Followers of Gaea often train in the way of martial arts, using their bodies as weapons as a last resort, and Gaea also eventually rewards the faithful with gifts that aid in this.

Notes: Unnaturals include several dangerous monsters such as Beholders and Dreads, giving you some great targets for Holy Word and Banishment. Gaea also appears to deal 50% bonus damage to undead with Turning spells, meaning they're the best at casting Holy Word and Banishment on undead foes. You also gain a wide variety of immunities with Death, Drain, and Depletion all being fairly useful to have, and the spell paths you're denied to don't impact you much as Death is extremely rare outside Devourers' Finger of Death, and not being able to cast Wounding isn't a big deal when you can cast Banishment just fine against a wide variety of dangerous targets. You also get a huge number of unique and useful spells for worshipping Gaea to play with, giving you many tools at your disposal eventually.

The biggest disadvantage is the -100% weakness to Fear. Many dangerous enemies spam walls of Fear spells that can't be evaded due to being cone spells that hit a wide area, so Gaea followers always have to content with things like high level dragons being able to push them around if they can't be paralyzed. No equipment will ever be able to render you immune to Fear, though Fear is significantly less problematic than Confusion or Paralysis tend to be. Whether or not that Fear weakness is worth all the other benefits is really up to the player. Note that many of Gaea's immunities are shared with Devourers, and Devourers have several benefits Gaea does not, such as their main weakness being one that's extremely rarely used against players.

The other major disadvantage, never being able to equip weapons, isn't actually all that problematic. The Monk class and two races, Dragons and Fireborn, can't equip any weapons anyways, and they all work fine since there's other ways to gain access to attacktypes. Gauntlets of Sorig can rarely be found in shops to grant an electric attack type to your melee attacks, and Gaea eventually grants Gloves of the Sun to give fire damage. Dragons also can eventually gain multiple elements at once on their claws, and barehanded combat works well when Karate or Clawing are levelled, although you'll never be able to gain bonus damage from slaying properties that weapons can have.

On servers with Permadeath enabled, Gaea is the only way dead players can be resurrected. Permadeath isn't generally recommended or in widespread use on Crossfire servers, so this isn't really a consideration to worry about.

Soul Eaters, Harbingers of Death, Nameless Lords of the Tomb

Enemy god: Gaea

Race: Undead

Enemy races: none

Attacktypes: Death, Depletion, Drain, Life Stealing

Resistances: Cold +15%, Poison +30%, Ghost Hit +50%, Fear +100%, Drain +100%, Depletion +100%, Death +100%

Weaknesses: Fire -5%

Attuned to: Death, Wounding

Repelled to: Protection, Fire, Restoration, Light

Denied to: Turning

Other Special Attributes: Immune Diseases, Health_Regen -1, Sustenance +100, Infravision, Player becomes Undead

Granted Spell(s): Nightfall (medium level), Finger of Death (medium level), Face of Death (medium level), Cause Many Wounds (medium level), Cause Red Death (medium level), Cause Black Death (high level)

Altar Effects: Enchant Weapon up to +7

Holy Relics: none

Avatar: 1×1 Size, 350 hp, ac -12 wc -1 dam 50 armour -12 Attacktypes: Cold, Drain, Depletion, Death

In-Game Description:

Once a player becomes a follower of Devourers, their race will change to Undead (along with all of it's penalties, specifically vulnerable to holy word spells!) Players who leave the Devourer's cult will revert back to their original race.

Notes: You get 4 immunities and 3 significant resistance boosts, tons of weapon attack types on blessed weapons including life draining, never needing to worry about starving, and a massive number of special spells including some of the best diseases for clearing entire maps of enemies effortlessly. All this comes in exchange for a surprisingly low -5% Fire weakness (rather than something like -20% or -30%) and a severe weakness to an extremely rare attack type that will rarely be a concern, Holy Word. Devourers is arguably the strongest god in Crossfire to worship by a significant margin. There's no special pieces of equipment granted to you, but there's tons of powerful equipment to be found elsewhere in the game. The immunities overlap with the ones Gaea gives too, and you gain immunity to Fear and several other resistances instead of a Fear weakness.

The slight weakness to Fire does mean you can't become immune to Fire, and having no access to Banishment or other Turning spells (they're the only god with Turning denied that can't even cast it using a Staff of Banishment) does mean you'll have to deal with undead enemies in other ways, but generally speaking Devourers are very strong to worship. They're even potentially useful for Fireborn or Quetzals as losing the Fire immunity in exchange for all these resistances is potentially well worth having “only” 95% Fire resist, equivalent to having a Potion of Fire Resistance permanently active at all times. Lots of spell paths are repelled too; Fire and Healing used to be outright Denied too but apparently these are now set to be merely Repelled, but this be addressed with attunement rings, using melee with Fire type weapons, or simply using those spells in other ways such as a Staff of Heal or Healing Potions.

Be careful about killing allies with Red Death whether it's through the damage, or the speed reduction causing them to be unable to escape danger. Red Death will give an immunity much like Cold or Flu will if you wait out the duration naturally rather than casting Cure Disease.

The biggest weakness you get is a very rarely encountered one. Specifically, undead turning spells work against you now, similar to if your selected race is Wraith. While you're immune to Death elemental attacks, your weakness actually gives you a brand new weakness to a specific instant death spell spell, Banishment. Not only does it hit incredibly hard, but it has a chance of outright killing weak targets. Generally speaking, you will very likely die if you accidentally get hit with Banishment. It's extremely rare to find enemies that cast it against players, so this isn't really a danger you'll normally contend with, but it's possible you'll eventually encounter a spellcaster that carries random prayerbooks and will happily use Banishment against you, so be prepared for that.

Note that Devourers is the only god which does not remove curses from your inventory when praying over their altar. If you find useful items that are cursed such as scrolls or spellbooks, you'll have to ask an ally to uncurse these for you. This means you lose out on some otherwise helpful treasure unless you have party members around to help you out. Equipment can still be worn and uncursed with a scroll of Remove Curse, but the spell players cast only works on wearable equipment. Switching between gods just to uncurse items isn't recommended due to the extreme Praying skill loss that happens when you do this.

Very effective with most races except perhaps Wraith. You'd think Wraith being undead would be best since it's thematically aligned with Devourers but several of their immunities and other benefits overlap with what you get from worshipping Devourers, so unless you really want the Devourers specific spells, Wraith players are actually probably better off following another god to maximize how many resistances and immunities they get.

Note that Dragons will not be able to enter the Dragon Guilds in cities to change their elemental alignment because the doors will see their race as undead rather than dragon (though they will still otherwise function as normal, gaining elemental bonuses as they level and being able to eat the corpses of monsters to gain resistances). An easy workaround is to simply purchase some of the elemental residues of each type before worshipping Devourers, and just stash those away to be eaten when necessary.

Chaos god of Slaughter and Terror, Consuming Worm, Greedy Gut

Enemy god: Ixalovh Race: Fire Creatures

Enemy races: Chaotic water creatures

Attacktypes: Physical, Fire

Resistances: Fire +30%, Magic +30%, Armour +30%

Weaknesses: Cold -30%

Attuned to: Fire, Wounding

Repelled to: Cold, Creation, Restoration

Denied to: Turning

Other Special Attributes: Reflect_Missiles, Health_Regen +1, Player cannot wear armour at any time, Player's AC and armour naturally rise as the player gains levels (needs confirmation on how fast this goes up), Player's attacks inflict Immolation, a special attack that works like poison in that the victim continues to take (fire) damage once “infected”

Granted Spells: Flaming Aura (medium level), Rage (medium level), Retributive Strike (high level)

Altar Effects: Remove Curse, Remove Depletion, Enchant Weapon up to +7

Holy Relics: Burning Tail of many lashings of Ruggilli +15 (high level, rare)(dam+40)(item_power +25)(weapon speed 0)(Attacks: physical, fire, paralyze)(resist fire +15)(resist cold +25).

Avatar: 1×1 Size, 400 hp, ac -5 wc -3 dam 60 armour 40, Attacktypes: Physical, Fire

In-Game Description: A fiery god of destruction that revels in offense, at the cost of limited defense. Ruggilli's powers manifest themselves in His followers fiercely, but with several significant disadvantages to work around.

Notes: Several extreme, unique advantages including Retributive Strike which was so overpowered it apparently received a bit of a nerf in newer builds, a unique status effect you inflict with your attacks, and a powerful weapon with built in paralyze, but some of the best features come late in the game, and you're dealing with some very heavy disadvantages. One of the most popular bracers late in the game are Bracers of Paralyzing Attack, so having a powerful weapon that can innately paralyze does free up your bracers slot for other potential choices. Lots of enemies are immune to paralyze though, and not everything is susceptible to fire either. Being denied Turning is a nuisance, but Banishment is at least available still by using a Staff of Banishment.

Further testing is needed to see how the natural AC bonus works that's apparently tied to Praying level (does it stack with Dragon or Quetzal AC?). Possibly very powerful choice of deity for a race that starts with cold resistance such as Northman or Troll.

Previous recommendations for this deity recommended that it be worshipped by Fireborn or Quetzals. While Ruggilli's temples do seem thematically appropriate for these fire-immune races (Quetzalcouatl NPCs often appear as priests in Ruggilli's temples), much like how Devourers doesn't benefit Wraiths much, it's actually a bad idea for Fireborn or Quetzals to worship Ruggilli. Both are already fire immune and thus don't benefit from the fire resist, and more importantly both have an innate cold weakness, meaning Ruggilli tacks on even more weakness and creates a massive liability. Serpentfolk already were arguably the hardest race to play on Metalforge due to an innate -50% cold element weakness, the lowest of any race (something that's been adjusted in recent years on newer servers), and deliberately lowering your resistances to this point with other cold-weak races by choosing Ruggilli isn't a great idea. Avoiding cold-themed areas isn't necessarily a workaround either, as many spellcasters in common maps can use multiple elements. Cold damage is also by far the most common attack element after Fire in the game. Having evenly high resistances is more useful than having one immunity and a massive weakness as an unexpected Large Icestorm will tear off massive amounts of health or kill you outright.

Worshipping Ruggilli as Serpentfolk on Metalforge has the dubious distinction of giving you the biggest innate weakness possible before equipment, a spectacularly suicidal -80% cold weakness.

Demon King, Duke of Hell, Tempter and Tormentor

Enemy god: Valriel

Race: Demon

Enemy races: Angel

Attacktypes: Fear

Resistances: Magic +30%, Fear +100%

Vulnerable to: Cold -5%

Attuned to: Wounding

Repelled to: Protection, Restoration

Denied to: none

Other Special Attributes: Health_Regen -2, Spell_Regen -1, Luck -1

Granted Spells: Flaming Aura (medium level), Rage (medium level), Vitriol (medium level)

Altar Effects: Remove Curse, Remove Depletion, Enchant Weapon up to +7

Holy Relics: none

Avatar: Demon, 1×1 Size, 350 hp, ac -5 wc -3 dam 50 armour 50, Attacktypes: Fear, Physical

In-Game Description: Gorokh is the demon-god, and loves blood and pain. He is reluctant to answer prayers for healing or protection, but eagerly answers prayers to cause harm. Devotees receive magic resistance, and the extremely powerful vitriol spell at high levels.

Notes: The penalties to HP and Mana regeneration and the very slight cold weakness are a bit of a nuisance, but all of these are manageable with equipment and in exchange you get a general purpose deity that allows the use of all spell types, has a good resistance bonus and a status immunity, and gets to target angels for massive amounts of damage, a particularly lucrative race that's only rarely found but is worth boatloads of exp. It's hard to overstate just how much Praying experience will shoot up if you do a run of a certain popular (and dangerous) heavenly dungeon casting Banishment on all the angels in sight. The angels there are worth staggering amounts of EXP by the end of it.

Note that no race starts immune to cold damage, so no race will lose an immunity by worshipping Gorokh.

Their granted spells are also really quite decent. Flaming Aura will tend to burn up items but adds a good bit of bonus damage when meleeing foes, and Vitriol gives you access to acid damage in the form of a cone spell, one of the rarer attack types a player can use.

Gorokh is very effective if you want to beat up angels, or if you want a god that simply has no major penalties or disadvantages. Fear immunity is quite helpful, especially early on where it can be difficult or expensive to acquire items that give immunity to it. Note that innate Fear immunity is less relevant mid to late in the game, because you'll also want Confusion and Paralysis immunity, and thus will likely be aiming to wear an Amulet of the Shielded Mind which covers all three of those ailments. The Magic +30% resistance is still useful at that stage though.

Lord of Angels, Duke of the Heavens, Healer and Protector

Enemy god: Gorokh

Race: Angel

Enemy races: Demon

Attacktypes: Blinding

Resistances: Fear +100, Confusion +20, Blinding +100

Weaknesses: none

Attuned to: Mind, Protection, Light

Repelled to: none

Denied to: Death, Wounding

Other Special Attributes: Player has a permanent aura that lights up the area around them.

Granted Spells: Sunspear (medium level), Daylight (medium level), Wrathful Eye (medium level)

Altar Effects: Remove Curse, Remove Damnation, Remove Depletion, Enchant Weapon up to +3

Holy Relics: none

Avatar: Angel, 1×1 Size, 350 hp, ac -7 wc -1 dam 50 armour 50 Attacktype(s): Blinding, Physical

In-Game Description: Valriel governs light, healing, protection, and angelic beings. Those who worship Valriel glow with an everlasting light that lights up dark areas. The offensive powers he grants are limited, but are of sizeable benefit to demon hunters, and Valriel followers have no major disadvantages to content with.

Notes: Immunity to Fear is handy early on, as is a resistance to Confusion. Blindness is quite rare as far as ailments go and isn't nearly as dangerous as Fear, Confusion, or Paralyze are, but it's still helpful not to have to worry about it. You also get a permanent light source emanating from your body, but this is a slightly mixed blessing as it means enemies can spot you at a distance on some dark maps where it'd otherwise be possible to hide and shoot them at a distance before they notice you. Many maps are brightly lit or filled with enemies with infravision, so this still tends to be more beneficial.

Much like Gorokh, Valriel has no major penalties and gives you the ability to add slaying to your weapon and cast Banishment on a special enemy type that can be found in large quantities on a popular, high level map that's great for rapidly gaining levels. High level demons such as Balrogs tend to be more dangerous than high level angels though, and the map in question has hellhounds that deal an absolutely alarming amount of fire damage with their breath attacks, so Valriel players will need a lot more preparation to safely handle this compared to Gorokh players going after angels in heaven. Valriel does have the edge in that high level demons can be found elsewhere in a variety of maps, whereas high level angels are in exceedingly limited supply.

A safe, effective general-purpose choice of god. You don't get anything super powerful unless you're going after demons, but they're exceptionally well suited to hunting demons. You don't necessarily need to worship Valriel to go after high-level demons though as ice spells are generally effective and there are a couple artifact weapons that naturally have Slay Demon on them that can be used to great effect if you prefer to melee them.

Lord of Storms, King of Thunder and Lightning, Sky Lord

Enemy god: none

Race: Lightning and Air Elementals

Enemy race(s): none

Attacktypes: Electricity

Resistances: Electricity +30%

Weaknesses: none

Attuned to: Electricity, Wounding, Missiles

Repelled to: Restoration

Denied to: Protection, Turning

Other Special Attributes: none

Granted Spells: Forked Lightning (low level), Divine Shock (low level), Cause Critical Wounds (medium level), Windstorm (medium level), Cause Many Wounds (medium level)

Altar Effects: Remove Curse, Remove Depletion, Enchant Weapon up to +7

Holy Relics: Mithril Chainmail of Lightning of Sorig +5 (high level, rare)(Str+1)(Dex+1)(speed +1)(ac+4)(item_power +10)(Max speed 2.70)(Spell regen penalty 2)(armour +40)(resist electricity +40).

The item has a story: Sorig has granted you this fine mail. It grants great protection from electricity and physical attacks without reducing your mobility. Be warned that what Sorig gives, Sorig can take away.

Avatar: 1×1 Size, 300 hp, ac -5 wc -1 dam 40 armour 40 Attack Type(s): Electricity

In-Game Description: The mighty Sorig rules over the skies, and His followers are granted many unique offensive powers at the cost of not being able to naturally cast protective spells. Lightning spells are particularly effective in the hands of His followers, and Sorig grants several electricity themed spells to those who are devout.

Notes: Sorig is a well-regarded deity due to having some potent granted spells like Divine Shock and no significant elemental weaknesses to content with. Resistance to electricity isn't quite as useful as fire or cold are though because lightning bolts are very dodgeable whereas cone spells that fire and cold get are far less avoidable, but electricity still is quite useful when the room's flooded with bolts or something like ball lightning's fired at you. Their granted spells aren't quite as devastating for large enemy groups or single high-level bosses as other gods' spells are, but their choices of spells are very reliable in a variety of situations.

Being denied the ability to cast Banishment is unfortunate, but in exchange they have a ton of useful attack spells including what is possibly the best of the low-level god-granted unique spells. Divine Shock comes early in the game, and is a version of Ball Lightning that isn't magic elemental, bypassing the defenses of enemies immune to most magic spells and making it usable against many targets. If you enjoy the Evocation spell Ball Lightning and want a version that raises your Praying skill instead, Sorig will appeal to you. Having electricity as an attack type on your weapon is also rather helpful as a lot of things are susceptible to it.

Being denied to Protection is less of a nuisance early on at low Praying levels than you'd think, since the duration of these spells is already quite short, making it dangerous if they run out in the middle of a fight without you noticing. Also, if you're a race with a significant Fire or Cold weakness in an area where that matters, you'll likely be going in with heavily resistant equipment or Potions of Fire / Cold to bolster it temporarily to 90% in serious fights. You can also cast protection spells via scrolls, so building up a stock of scrolls is a viable strategy, and as a bonus allows you to quickly recast them without having to recharge Grace each time you do.

Sorig's holy relic frankly isn't all that good; it's fine if you're going somewhere with a lot of electrical attacks, but usually fire and cold damage are far more common and difficult to content with in Crossfire, so your armor selection will generally be to select something that resists those like dragon mail. This does mean that races which can't wear armor (Dragons, Quetzals, Fireborn) can worship Sorig without feeling like they're missing out on anything!

Dwarven Deity of Metal Smithing and Warcraft, Giant Basher, Delver of Secrets

Enemy god: Gnarg

Race: Dwarf

Enemy races: Goblin, Giant

Attacktypes: Weaponmagic

Resistances: Fire +20%

Weaknesses: Slow -50%, Confusion -10%

Attuned to: Creation, Transmutation

Repelled to: Summoning

Denied to: none

Other Special Attributes: None

Granted Spells: Wall of Thorns (medium level)

Altar Effects: Remove Curse, Remove Damnation, Remove Depletion, Enchant Weapon up to +12

Holy Relics: Thorin's Plate Mail +2 (low level, rare)(Str+1)(ac+3)(item_power +4)(Max speed 1.30)(Spell regen penalty 9)(armour +50)(resist fire +30).

The item has a story: This shining plate mail is Mostrai's gift to the bravest of his warriors. It is highly enchanted, increasing the strength of the wearer and protecting against fire.

Avatar: Dwarf, 1×1 Size, 350 hp, ac -10 wc -6 dam 50 armour 75 Attack Types: Weaponmagic

In-Game Description: The god of the dwarves, Mostrai the Metalsmith grants followers powerfully enchanted equipment as well as a suit of armor to tackle His foes. For those more magically-inclined, the many types of powerful giants that exist throughout the land can be banished with holy word spells, making Mostrai also a potent deity for priests and warriors alike.

Notes: For anyone considering Mostrai, keep in mind that -10% Confusion is a bit of a problem and means you can never get full immunity to a dangerous ailment, even with something like an Amulet of the Shielded Mind! -50% Slow is also problematic, but Slow tends to never be quite as debilitating or frequently used as Confusion, Fear, or Paralyze are. As dangerous and annoying as Confusion is, unlike Slow, Fear, or Paralyze it can be fixed immediately when it hits; you'll absolutely want to carry a bunch of Scrolls of Confusion with you whereever you go. Confusion is regularly used by spellcasters including Beholders, Skulls, and Dreads, so you'll want a key mapped to “apply Scroll of Cure Confusion” to cure it quickly.

In exchange, you get a minor fire resistance which is handy, and a very powerful anti Giant specialization, both as a weapon slaying enchantment and for casting Banishment. Giants are a fairly common race found throughout the game, including at high levels late in the game where giant wizards and titans become fantastic targets for Banishment. The weapon enchantment you get is the rather rare Weaponmagic type, which only the strongest of enemies are resistant or immune to, and can be enchanted to +12, making Mostrai well suited for a variety of encounters.

Mostrai followers don't get any of the truly powerful magical tricks that some gods get through like Cause Red Death, Retributive Strike, Peace, or Cause Rabies. You do get one spell, but it's shared with Gaea, and it's a fairly modest spell in terms of damage and utility compared to what many other gods get. Also, some very high level bosses actually boast (rather alarmingly) immunity to Weaponmagic, so be warned that despite having one of the better weapon elements in the game to enchant with, you won't be able to simply bash your way through literally everything. Also note that though Mostrai is the god of smithing, Gnarg, Ixalovh, and Valkyrie can also Enchant to +12 on weapons, and there's a few artifact weapons with Weaponmagic as an element that can be found in the world, so it's an option even if you don't worship Gnarg or Valkyrie.

Mostrai is generally best for races that can actually use weapons, but picking Mostrai just to be able to cast Banishment on Giants is also a strategic option. The plate mail he grants isn't tremendous, but it's potentially a useful alternative early on to something like red dragon mail.

Be warned that if you worship Mostrai early on before you've gained any levels in Summoning, you won't be able to actually gain levels since your only spell, Summon Lesser Golem, is repelled to you. If you want to worship Mostrai without this issue, consider gaining 4 or 5 levels in Summoning first, or ask a party member to help train your Summoning skill. This is the only god that has this issue as all other gods with denied spell types are in schools where there's a couple different spells early on you can level with depending on what your god repels (Evocation has both cold and bullet spells, Pyromancy has fire and lightning, Praying has turning and wounding, no gods repel missile type spells which would affect Sorcery).

As a fun bit of trivia, Mostrai followers and Quetzalcouatls used to have a weakness to Paralysis many years ago. This was sensibly changed since it meant a lot of maps became unplayable the moment an enemy that loves to cast Paralyze or whose melee attacks inflict Paralyze appear you'd get beaten to death with no real way to escape. Paralyze immunity from something like a Ring of Halvor is an absolute requirement once you're trying to move past low level maps as many, many enemies like Beholders or Vampires will use Paralyze and will happily kill you while you're standing around helplessly. Paralyze of course is also a devastating Sorcery spell in the hands of a player and can let you keep certain enemies locked down and helpless while you bash the exp and treasure out of them.

Chaos Goddess of many tentacles, Sea Serpent and Ocean Wave

Enemy god: Ruggilli

Race: Ice/Water Creatures, Tenticles

Enemy races: Consuming fire creatures

Attacktypes: Cold, Physical

Resistances: Cold +30%, Magic +20%, Physical +20%

Weaknesses: Fire -30%

Attuned to: Frost, Transmutation

Repelled to: Fire, Detonation

Denied to: Turning

Other Special Attributes: none

Granted Spells: Insect Plague (low level), Wave (low level), Siren Call (medium level)

Altar Effects: Remove Curse, Remove Depletion, Restores Spellpoints, Enchant Weapon, +12

Holy Relics: Horn of the Sirens (high level, rare)

Horn of Ocean Waves (high level, rare)

Ixalovh's spear +12 (high level, rare)(Pow+1)(dam+35)(item_power +20)(weapon speed 3)(magic+1)(Attacks: physical, cold)(resist magic +10)(resist fire +15)

Avatar: 1×1 Size, 400 hp, ac -5 wc -3 dam 60 Attack Type(s): Physical, Cold

In-Game Description: Ixalovh governs the oceans and many creatures within it, and blesses followers with a potent protective aura that confers a variety of resistances, and also provides a selection spells and gifts without any major disadvantages.

Notes: The enemy of Ruggilli, Ixalovh is thematically similar. Turning spells are denied (but Banishment is still very effective on undead when cast via a Staff of Banishment), and you lose fire resistance in exchange for cold, physical, and magic resistance, and you get a small selection of spells including one that lets you charm large hordes of enemies (similar to what you can do at high levels of Summoning, but as a Praying spell) and a weapon as a relic. The spells and weapon aren't quite as potent as what Ruggilli has, but they're all useful and you don't have the inability to wear armour that Ruggilli followers are stuck with, allowing you more freedom in equipment selection.

The weapon enchantment on this goes up to the maximum, +12, and Cold as a weapon element has real advantages against dragons, demons, and other fire-themed creatures. Ixalovh will also uniquely restore Mana points when praying on the altar, though this more of a convenient bonus rather than a critical feature.

Useful for Serpentfolk to try and balance out their resistances, particularly on the older Metalforge server where they have a massive -50% cold weakness to content with. Potentially an interesting option for Fireborn or Quetzals too if they want to lose their Fire immunity in exchange for having fewer early game issues with Cold elemental spells. You still won't be able to get your resistance up to the high 90s with equipment since your innate Cold weakness still applies, so you will still need to have potions of Cold Resistance on hand for truly powerful monsters like high level ice dragons, but it helps you avoid getting killed by the occasional cold spells that would otherwise hit alarmingly hard.

Not recommended for something weak to Fire such as a Troll or a Wraith player, as getting hit with an even larger weakness to one of the most common elements in the game is a very bad idea. Might work for a Northman player looking to beef up their Cold resistance; you can try to use equipment to work around the Fire weakness or avoid maps with that element, and you'll naturally have a sky-high resistance to Cold if you're finding that element troublesome.

The Brave, The Just, Deathbringer

Enemy god: none

Race: Human, Troll

Enemy races: Unnatural, Angel, Demon, Undead

Attacktypes: Weaponmagic, Physical

Resistances: Magic +100%

Vulnerable to: none

Attuned to: none

Repelled to: none

Denied to: All spell paths are denied. Players cannot naturally cast any Evocation, Praying, Pyromancy, Sorcery, or Summoning spells as a Valkyrie follower. You can still use items to cast them such as Wands, Scrolls, Potions, etc.

Other Special Attributes: No spells can be naturally cast; players are entirely reliant on items such as scrolls for casting spells. Praying skill must be raised by dropping corpses on an altar to Valkyrie and praying over the corpses. Players are eventually granted potions that let them consecrate altars without being able to actually cast the Consecrate spell.

Granted Spells: none

Altar Effects: Remove Curse, Remove Depletion, Enchant Weapon up to +12

Holy Relics: Valkyrie's Holy Oil (low level, rare) - This Holy Oil given by Valkyrie to her followers can be used to turn the altar of a lesser god to Valkyrie's Holy Altar. It should be used over the altar to convert.

Valkyrie's Torc of Lifesaving (medium level, rare) - If the wearer is killed while wearing it, the amulet will break and restore the wearer to full health.

Avatar: 1×1 Size, 350hp, ac -5 wc 6 dam 20 Attack Types: Physical, Weaponmagic

In-Game Description: A warrior goddess who despises magic and magical creatures, and insists on seeing Her foes dealt with in honourable combat. Followers of Valkyrie cannot ever naturally cast spells, but in exchange become immune to magic and can bless their weapons to slay a variety of creatures. Valkyrie demands ritual sacrifice, with followers showing their devotion by placing the corpses of their enemies over Her altar and praying to show their faith.

Notes: The most challenging god to worship, or perhaps merely the most inconvenient depending on what you're tackling. You get full immunity to the Magic element, an absolutely bonkers number of slaying types, a powerful weapon element, and the max enchantment bonus for weapons available.

In exchange for all this, you're stuck with one very heavy restriction: you can't cast spells naturally. You'll need to stock up on scrolls, wands, staves, potions, and other spellcasting items if you want to cast anything, and many higher level quests in the game do actually expect you to be able to cast things like Show Invisible or Dimension Door to proceed. There are also many useful spells like Paralyze or Town Portal which do not appear as a scroll or wand, which means you'll always have to manage without those.

Of the relics you get, one is basically just lets you cast Consecrate since you'd otherwise have no way to make altars in your apartment in to altars of Valkyrie, and the other one is a standard, albeit rare Amulet of Lifesaving. Amulets of Lifesaving are a tricky proposition when they use up your one precious slot that's already being likely used for Free Action or Shielded Mind amulets (though perhaps if Valkyrie got Lifesaving in the form of equipment that doesn't normally get Lifesaving such as a weapon, armor, cloak, bracers, etc, that'd too big an advantage?). If you have Paralyze immunity from a ring then you might be able to fit an Amulet of Lifesaving in your equipment.

You also have a nuisance in the form of the Praying skill being impossible to level unless there's an altar nearby. To gain praying experience you have to carry enemy corpses to the altar, drop them, and use the Praying skill. This is a tedious process without someone using Town Portal to help you, and it's a very long walk back to most of the Valkyrie altars in the game, especially in the middle of the wilderness. If you're going to follow Valkyrie, consider switching to it after you've levelled up a fair bit with another god that can kill things more directly to gain Praying experience.

Magic immunity is great, and means Magic Missile and Mana Blast spells won't do anything at all to you, but note that a lot of higher level enemies use breath attacks that are not magic elemental, i.e. something like the Dragonbreath or Comet spell that are so powerful they ignore magic immunity and are purely Fire element or Weaponmagic + Fire element. You'll still need to make sure you have plenty of elemental resistance equipment for these situations.

Being able to have so many enemy slaying types at once is extremely convenient for being able to merrily chop or shoot your way through entire maps, but it's unclear if it's worth being entirely reliant on items for spells. Possibly not worth the hassle, especially since raising your praying skill is rather cumbersome unless you have friends to help you portal corpses to an altar. Learning to cast a wide variety of spells naturally is both convenient quite fun, too.

Valkyrie is still recommended even if you don't want to worship Her on your character full-time. She doesn't have an enemy god, so you can enchant any weapons and then switch to another god or trade them to friends to take full advantage of their Weaponmagic element and all those slaying damage types! Consider temporarily worshipping Valkyrie now and then to buff up your arsenal of weapons, or making a secondary character to enchant weapons for you and your friends, as Valkyrie arguably gets the best weapon enchantments in the game.

Valkyrie is fine for any race to worship except perhaps Dragons and Fireborn who can't use weapons. Fireborn get the distinction of three immunities at once, but can't do diddly squat with their physical attacks and can't cast any spells, which is kind of a problem on a race whose gimmick is supposed to be spellcasting! Quetzals can use weapons and with their naturally enormous strength are also perhaps the best at hauling corpses back to the altar.

Expand story of the gods and add their common titles alongside the names

• The Gaean Legend Of Creation
• The Book Of Valriel
• The Book Of Gorokh
• The Dwarven Creation Tale