God of Knowledge

Gods who preside over knowledge, whether in theoretical or applied form.

These deities fall into a few general archetypes, which usually overlap to at least some degree:

• Gods of Knowledge in the strictest sense preside over the abstract concepts of knowledge and wisdom themselves, as well as language, writing and written records. A subtype of this is the God of Secrets, who specifically deals in hidden knowledge and the obfuscation thereof.
• Gods of Magic preside over arcane knowledge both theoretical and applied. In settings where wizards aren't depicted as agnostic or Nay-Theist, these are the likeliest gods for them to worship.
• Gods of Science preside over knowledge of the world, its gathering and its use. Similarly to the above case, these tend to make the likeliest exception to fiction's otherwise atheist-leaning portrait of scientists.
• Gods of Technology preside over the invention, creation, and use of machines and other complex tools. Their faiths usually place heavy emphasis on the use of knowledge and understanding to create things and alter the world directly.

While some individual examples will fall cleanly into one sub-camp or another, it's common for a single deity's purview to extend over multiple camps. For instance, a deity associated with crafts may have elements of both a god of knowledge and a god of technology, while a setting where magic is studied scientifically will likely see overlap between gods of magic and gods of science.

Religions centered around these deities tend to center their theologies around the pursuit, preservation, and application of knowledge, and organized religious societies tend to pull double duty as archives, academies, engineering societies, and other institutions of learning. In many cases, the gain and refinement of personal knowledge may be seen as a spiritual path to salvation or ascension, which in more high-tech settings may be explicitly tied to Transhumanism. A Proud Scholar Race is very likely to follow such a faith.

If a deity of this sort maintains a personal domain, it will usually take the form of a Great Big Library of Everything and may be linked to or referred to as the Akashic Records.

As a rule, a deity of this sort will be either The Omniscient to start with or be extremely, extremely good at finding out new information.

Subtrope of Stock Gods. Compare Deus est Machina, for when a machine becomes complex and powerful enough to declare itself a god, and Machine Worship, for when humans worship physical technology.

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Examples

Comic Books

• The Alternates: Daytripper's powers come from Lamla, an ancient god who knows how to find almost anything on Earth and is willing to give that information to those who know the right question to ask.
• New Gods: Metron is the greatest inventor and scientist of the New Gods and arguably the most intelligent being in the universe. His signature Mobius Chair, a vehicle capable of travelling anywhere in space and time, is imbued with all of the knowledge he possesses. Anyone who sits upon it becomes nearly omniscient so long as they control the chair.
• The Sandman (1989): Carrying over from Norse mythology, Odin is said to be the god of magic, wisdom, wit, and learning, and went so far as to give up one of his eyes for his wisdom.

Fan Works

• Dungeon Keeper Ami: The Unraveller is basically the evil goddess of reconstruction, vivisection, and dissection of technology, in pursuit of innovative ideas.

Literature

• Ascendance of a Bookworm: In the setting's mythology, Mestionora the Goddess of Wisdom is the one who provided humanity with its first bible. In the present day, among a pantheon of dozens, she's the one who gets statues of her in every single place that can call itself a library.
• The Faraway Paladin: Enlight is the god of knowledge and patron of intellectuals. According to legend, his right eye lets him perceive all that can be seen, while his missing left eye lets him perceive all that cannot.
• Goblin Slayer has two: the benevolent God of Knowledge, who promotes the seeking of knowledge and whose temples double as schools, and the capricious God of (External) Wisdom, who instantly implants vast amounts of knowledge into his worshippers, even dangerous or flawed knowledge, just to amuse himself with whatever they do with it.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Athena, as per her classical Greek self. Her dominion over knowledge leads Percy to claim that in a fair fight, she is essentially impossible to defeat, and she is held responsible for granting her favor to most great thinkers throughout history.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: The Crone, one of the seven aspects of the deity worshiped by most of mainland Westeros, is a goddess of wisdom and fate. The faithful pray to her for guidance before making major decisions or when facing adversity. She is typically depicted as an elderly woman holding a lantern, representing how she is said to lead people where they need to go.

Mythology & Religion

• Akan Mythology: Anansi the Spider is often known as the god of stories and knowledge because he tricked sky god Nyame into selling him every story that was ever told.
• Celtic Mythology: Irish myth has two notable examples:
  • Ogma, the god of wisdom and eloquence. He was a Genius Bruiser who could bind people with the power of his words and invented ogham, the druidic writing system and a sort of Celtic equivalent to runes.
  • Dagda (properly The Dagda) is Ogma's brother. While he is more a god of the earth and weather, he is also the god of magic and druid craft, tying him to knowledge and wisdom required for magic. One of his (many, many) titles is "Great Man of All knowledge/Wisdom".
• Classical Mythology:
  • Athena was a war goddess, but she was also revealed as a goddess of wisdom and civilization. Her association with owls is part of the reason why The Owl-Knowing One is a trope.
  • Apollo, among his many domains, included associations reason, truth, and prophecy.
  • Hephaestus was the god of metalworking, artisans, and the forge, and presided over invention and innovation that comes with craftwork. He was credited with having created a number of divine artifacts, such as the thrones of the other gods and a number of complex automata.
  • While Hermes is a herald of the gods, he was the one who taught humanity the first alphabet.
  • Hecate was associated with a variety of subjects, most of them pertaining to the nighttime and mystery, and among these included a role as the goddess of sorcery.
• Egyptian Mythology:
  • Thoth was the patron of most forms of intellectual pursuit, such as writing, astronomy, medicine, and magic. He was also considered to be the inventor of the hieroglyphic writing system.
  • Isis/Aset was usually considered the goddess that governed Heka, the Ancient Egyptian system of magic. She later became much more powerful after forcing the sun god Ra to reveal his true name to her.
• Japanese Mythology:
  • Omoikane is the Shinto god of wisdom and intelligence, whose job is to ponder and give counsel to other gods. For instance, it was he who led the plan to get Amaterasu out of the Heavenly Rock Cave.
  • Kuebiko is the Shinto god of folk wisdom, knowledge and agriculture, and is represented as a scarecrow who cannot walk but has comprehensive awareness.
  • Tenjin, also called Tenman Daijizai Tenjin is the Shinto god of academics, scholarship, of learning, and of the intelligentsia.
• Hindu Mythology:
  • Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge, music, flowing water, abundance and wealth, art, speech, wisdom, and learning.
  • Ganesha is the elephant-headed god of wisdom, luck, and the arts and sciences.
• Norse Mythology:
  • In addition to being the god of war, Odin the All-Father was also a god of knowledge, wisdom, and magic, and some of his legends have him gaining some form of knowledge. One story says that Odin hung himself from the branches of Yggdrasil the world tree for nine days and nine nights until just as he was about to die discovered the runes and claimed them for himself, coming back to life in the process. Another story says that Odin sacrificed one of his eyes to drink from the well of Mimir and gained knowledge in doing so.
  • Frigg is Odin's wife, who is sometimes confusingly conflated with Freyja. She ruled over motherhood, women, and the home. But she can see the future and skillfully and easily manipulated her husband more than once and usually gets what she wants.
  • Freyja is mostly a Love Goddess and fertility goddess but is also the goddess of seidr, a form of magic considered exclusively feminine (with some exceptions — for instance, she taught it to Odin).
  • Subverted with Loki. Despite being Trickster God, he's a Loser Deity who (unlike his modern interpretations) don't think in long perspective and as a result Loki's the biggest Chew Toy who gets constantly bullied, harmed and tricked by others.
  • Kvasir was considered to be the wisest of all the gods. He traveled far and wide, teaching and spreading knowledge. Unfortunately, he was murdered by the dwarves Fjalar and Galar who used his blood to create the magical Mead of Poetry, which imbued the drinker with skaldship and wisdom, and the spread of which eventually resulted in the introduction of poetry to mankind.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • Eberron:
    • Aureon is one of the gods worshipped as part of the Sovereign Host pantheon. Known as the Sovereign of Law and Lore, he is believed to have been the first wizard and to have revealed the secrets of magic to the world. Although all nine of the Sovereign Host are considered equals to each other, Aureon's vast wisdom means that he is typically allowed to guide the Host's actions whenever they act as a group.
    • The Shadow is a member of the Dark Six, and acts as Aureon's Evil Counterpart, said to be his actual shadow which became sapient as a side effect of him gaining arcane knowledge. Known as the Sovereign of Magic and Mayhem, it acts as the god of corruption and dark magic, and as a patron of evil spellcasters.
  • Forgotten Realms:
    • Oghma is the god of knowledge, inspiration, and invention, and his clerics are encouraged to practice free thinking and to spread knowledge and literacy across the realms.
    • Mystra is the goddess of magic and is widely worshiped by wizards. Her chief priority is the growth and safeguarding of arcane knowledge and practice, and she gives her favor or protection to mortals based on how much they contribute to this. One of her favored servants is the archmage Elminster; another is the Dracolich Daurgothoth the Creeping Doom, whom she has protected from her other followers due to how much his single-minded obsession with expanding his magical knowledge has contributed to the study of the Art.
  • Greyhawk: Has a number of these.
    • Boccob is the god of arcane knowledge and his servant Zagyg of occult studies.
    • The Oeridian god Delleb is the god of scholarly knowledge and typically worshipped by sages.
    • Vecna is the god of secrets.
• Exalted:
  • Nara-O of the Hundred Veils is the god of secrets. It knows every shred of knowledge otherwise known to only one being, giving it access to an immense store of information that it guards closely.
  • Luxana is the goddess of recorded knowledge and is aware of every fact put down in writing and of the location of every book and scroll in Heaven and Creation. She seeks to foster literacy and its spread among mortals, in the hope that the age of universal literacy would boost her power enough to allow her to claim the leadership of the Division of Secrets from Nara-O.
• Humblewood: Gesme is the goddess of knowledge and invention, as well as being the God of Fire. Her dogma encourages her worshippers to see fire as a spark that can inspire and create as well as destroy, and to recognise that sometimes, delving into the unknown is worth the risk of being burned.
• In Nomine:
  • Jean, the Archangel of Lightning, presides over applied knowledge and technology. He views the advancement of science and technology as something that must be carefully shepherded and wants to ensure that mortal scientists and organizations learn how to properly manage their technological bases before advancing further.
  • Litheroy, the Archangel of Revelation, is focused specifically on the discovery and dissemination of hidden knowledge, under the belief that the work of God is best celebrated by ensuring that no part of it is concealed or besmirched by falsehood. His followers are charged with ferreting out secrets and disentangling lies and conspiracies, and may not lie or obscure knowledge in any way.
  • Yves, the Archangel of Destiny, is the keeper of Heaven's knowledge. His personal realm, the Akashic Records, is a library holding copies of everything that was ever written, including some things only penned in dreams. His servants are given Attunements that enhance their ability to learn things, such as becoming privy to a mortal's true name, past or potential future with a look or a touch, supernaturally bypassing any barriers between them and records that they wish to access, reading and understanding any written material, and directly communing with the Records for a brief answer to any question.
  • Raphael, the ancient Archangel of Knowledge, oversaw the abstract process of knowledge, philosophy and wisdom, and served as a bridge and link between the specialized and sometimes conflicting interests of her fellow archangels. She perished in battle against the Demon Prince Legion in 1008 A.D.; her duties were taken up piecemeal by Yves, Jean, and her former servant Litheroy, but this was at best a patchwork fix.
  • Alaemon, the Prince of Secrets, is a former servant of Litheroy gone rogue. He views information as power, whose utility is lessened by dissemination. He charges his followers with discovering hidden facts and burying them deeper still, holding the best knowledge for their own use while keeping them in the dark regarding one another's work to make sure that only he himself knows all the hidden secrets of Creation.
  • Vapula, the Prince of Technology, views science, technology, and experimentation as the paths to transcendence and unity with God. He serves as Hell's primary source of weapons and technological gadgets; among mortals, he encourages reckless experimentation, technological accelerationism, and the willingness to ignore moral lines in the pursuit of knowledge.
• Magic: The Gathering has several gods fill this role across its multiverse. They are always aligned with blue, the color of magic associated with knowledge.
  • On the Greek-inspired plane of Theros, two deities fill this role:
    • Kruphix is the Blue- and Green-aligned god of horizons, mysteries, and time. He knows everything that has ever been known by a person on Theros. As the oldest god, he knows secrets that even the others are unaware of.
    • Ephara is the goddess of the Polis (or city), and an Expy of Athena. She's aligned with White and Blue Mana, the colors of order and knowledge, and is particularly associated with magic and philosophy.
  • The Egyptian-coded Amonkhet brings us Kefnet the Mindful, aligned with Blue Mana, a being of pure intellect. He was responsible for maintaining the Hekma, a barrier that surrounded Naktamun, the only remaining pocket of civilization on the largely inhospitable plane. He's killed by the Scorpion God, and later revived as a zombified God-Eternal during the events of War of the Spark.
  • The Norse-inspired Kaldheim gives us the Blue-aligned Alrund, God of the Cosmos, who was born wise enough to know that he wasn't omniscient and made it his mission in life to know everything.
• Pathfinder:
  • Irori is the god of history, knowledge, and enlightenment. He has been known to edit particularly offensive mortals out of the historical record altogether.
  • Nethys, the All-Seeing Eye, is the god of magic. He achieved divinity and lost his mind when he tried to comprehend all the secrets of the universe, and in the modern day holds magic, its study, its practice, and its expansion above all other concerns.
  • Amaznen, the Father of Invention, is a long-dead Azlanti god who presided over invention, magic, and secret knowledge.
  • Brigh, the Whisper in the Bronze, presides over invention and clockwork technology, and in particular over sapient mechanical beings. She herself appears as a clockwork humanoid.
  • Casandalee, the Iron Goddess, is an AI who achieves divinity at the climax of the Iron Gods adventure path. In 2nd Edition, she's presented as a goddess of artificial life and intellectual growth, serves as a patron for the android species, and promotes the integration of technology into society.
  • Starfinder: Set in the far future of Pathfinder, multiple new gods are associated with concepts such as science and the study of the world's mysteries.
    • Ibra the Inscrutable is the god of celestial bodies and the mysteries of the cosmos. Its worshippers devote themselves to studying and understanding the many strange wonders of the universe.
    • Triune the All-Code is the goddess of artificial intelligence, computers, and faster-than-light travel. She originated from the fusion of Brigh, Casandalee, and a third AI who also ascended to godhood; promotes technological growth, and gave the Drift FTL drive to mortals.
    • Yaraesa, the Lady of Wisdom, is the goddess of knowledge, scholarship, and science. She is said to have been a mortal scientist who ascended to godhood after perfecting all forms of knowledge, and demands that her followers seek knowledge and meaning through experimentation and study. Followers of Yaraesa follow many different paths in this quest, although all ultimately seek to achieve and emulate her mastery of knowledge in an attempt to transcend mortality.
• Warhammer:
  • A dark version of this archetype exists in Tzeentch, the Chaos god of sorcery, trickery, schemes, and forbidden knowledge. Tzeentch is the patron of all those who would use magic to bend the world to their whims, who seek after knowledge that no mortal mind can bear, and who scheme to entrap others in complex webs of blackmail, secrets, and deceit.
  • Warhammer 40,000: The Cult Mechanicus worships the Machine God, whom they believe to be the source of and embodied in all technological devices. Notably, while the Cult eagerly collects technology, it explicitly bans experimenting and invention. As far as it's concerned, the Machine God has already given to humanity what technology it saw fit to, and to design your own is tantamount to saying that you can do better than God can.
  • Warhammer Fantasy:
    • Verena is the Old World human goddess of learning, knowledge, and justice. Her faith holds that the search for Truth through the collection, study, and judgement of facts and opinions is the highest calling of humanity, and is very popular among scholars and wizards.
    • Hoeth is the elven god of learning and magic. In addition to being the patron deity of all elven mages, he is also worshipped by an order of ascetic warriors who focus on mastering their bodies and minds through rigorous meditation and exercise.

Video Games

• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Hermaeus Mora is the Daedric Prince of Forbidden Knowledge and Destiny. His plane of Oblivion, Apocrypha, is a Great Big Library of Everything, containing tomes on things past, present, and even future.
  • Julianos is the Aedric God of Wisdom and Logic, and is often revered by wizards who stick to the pantheon of the Divines.
  • Magnus is known as the architect of Mundus and the God of Magic. After realizing the cost of creation would be steep, Magnus and his followers fled into Aetherius, their departures poking holes in Mundus (the mortal realm) that would become the Sun and stars, through which magicka flows into the world.
• EverQuest: Zebuxoruk is a Deity of Human Origin who rules over the celestial domain of Knowledge. Numerous times throughout Norrath's history, he has lost his godhood and eventually ascended again and again, as he is the keeper of forbidden knowledge — specifically, part of the reason why he continues to revert back to mortal form is because of the possibility of him revealing the knowledge of ascending to godhood. The whole storyline of the Plane of Time raid in the Planes of Power expansion is to prevent him from being freed because if all mortals suddenly became gods, the sheer chaos of millions of individuals unleashing such tremendous powers would undo the very fabric of the universe itself. Even if he's not aware of it, the denizens of New Tanaan — the Plane of Knowledge — worship him because they know that all forms of knowledge are worth keeping.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy VI: The Warring Triad are three gods of magic who immediately went to war with each other after descending from the heavens. They would transform mortals into supernatural espers to do their bidding, introducing magic to the world. All three gods chose to petrify themselves and restore the espers' free will after seeing the destruction their battles caused. Even still, they serve as the source of all magic in the setting. After Kefka seizes their power and becomes the new god of magic, his defeat causes all traces of magic to disappear.
  • Final Fantasy XIV:
    • Thaliak is the god of knowledge in Eorzean mythology and patron of Sharlayan, a nation dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. Also known by his epithet "the Scholar", he is said to have poured knowledge into the rivers of the world and into people's minds.
    • Byregot is the god of architecture and craftsmen. He is said to provide inspiration to tradesmen of all stripes. Numerous crafters, culinarians, and gatherers beseech him for guidance before they begin their work. Those seen as genius craftsmen are often said to be blessed by the Builder, with some, like Godbert Manderville, being seen as mortal incarnations of Byregot.
    • The Magus Sisters are a trio of goddesses embodying wisdom, ingenuity, and prosperity in Thavnairian mythology. They are the most popular goddesses of the Mrga and Manusya worshipped by the Hannish people, who are the inventors of modern-day alchemy.
• Genshin Impact: The Dendro Archon is also referred to as the God of Wisdom and is noted as being the reason for Sumeru's specialty in knowledge. The current Dendro Archon, Nahida, lives up to the title as she is more than willing to share her wisdom with others, and her advice often proves helpful. Nahida is also connected with the Akashic Records of the world, Irminsul, from which she can easily look for information on everything that originates from the world.
• Heroes of Might and Magic Ashan:
  • Sar-Elam was the first wizard, and during his lifetime he was able to make contact with the consciousness of the creator goddess Asha, granting him insight into the nature of spirit and matter which he used to become a Deity of Human Origin as a god of magic.
  • Downplayed by Malassa — her main duty is as the God of Darkness, but she is widely considered the most intelligent of the dragon gods and uses her powers to hoard secrets and Things Man Was Not Meant to Know.
• Honkai: Star Rail:
  • Nous is the Aeon of the Erudition path. Nous was originally a computer designed to provide answers that ascended to godhood. It seeks to calculate the essence of the universe and selects the most intelligent beings in the universe to be part of the Genius Society. Those who walk the Path of Erudition admire thinking, logic, and strategic behavior.
  • Inverted with Mythus the Enigmata, who aims to subvert and obfuscate knowledge by creating myths and deconstructing language. They believe that if all knowledge of the universe became known, the universe might become stagnant.
• The Legend of Zelda: Nayru is the Goddess of Wisdom and is also implied to have the laws of physics (most prominently time) under her domain.
• Majesty and Warlock: Master of the Arcane: Dauros, the God of Order, is also associated with knowledge. His priests view knowledge as power, especially when it is kept concealed; his high priest, one of the playable Great Mages in Warlock, is consequently known as the Grand Librarian.
• Octopath Traveler: The god Alephan is known as the Scholar King, and is closely tied to the scholar class. Finding his shrine in the first game will allow the player to train an additional character as a scholar, and in the sequel, having the scholar Osvald in the party and finding his shrine unlocks a new skill for him.
• Ōkami: Aside from being the God of Darkness, Yami is also considered a God of Technology and the originator of the machinery within the game, making it a further foil to Amaterasu as a Nature Goddess. Nonetheless, the game does not treat technology as inherently evil and helping a machinist improve his inventions actually empowers Ammy since it bolsters his faith in the Gods.
• Pokémon: Uxie is a legendary Pokémon called the "Being of Knowledge". It is said that its birth gave humans the intelligence to improve their quality of life.

Web Original

• SCP Foundation: Mekhane, the Broken God, is a deity of reason, technology, and knowledge that is worshipped by a secretive but widespread cult. The Mekhanites believe that this deity gave humanity the ability to reason but was shattered in combat with the flesh-god Yaldabaoth, and seek to emulate their deity by incorporating technology into themselves.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Wan Shi Tong is an ancient spirit of knowledge that takes the form of an owl, and boasts himself to be essentially omniscient. His knowledge is however confined to things that he can acquire and add to his immense library, making him less omniscient than he claims. He used to be a widely respected and revered figure but has since retreated into seclusion due to having grown bitterly disillusioned about humanity.
• Hercules: The Animated Series: Hecate gets decomposed into herself and Trivia. While Hecate gets weaker as a half-goddess and ruler of the night and wolves, Trivia is a male god of when three roads meet and of trivial information who appears in "Hercules and the Pool Party". The problem is that he's a Loser Deity because he constantly annoys other gods due to his constantly spouting off trivial information about anything related to the issue at hand. Even Hades refused to kidnap him. This was a big mistake because Trivia is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and still a god who proves that "Trivia is power ".

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