The Firmament

The Firmament is a classification within the Phaelist pantheon. The gods believed to occupy this class are those that govern the physical manifestation of reality, including classical elements and celestial bodies. In most mythical appearances, they play antagonistic roles.

Deities
While no full list of them is present in the Book of Lophael, the most commonly cited are: As with all deities within Phaelism, each member of the Firmament was previously worshipped by people around the Hasberan Sea. Lophael, in his teachings, formalized the structure of the gods into their three classifications and clarified who some of them were, especially in relation to each other and mankind. Because of how varied and complicated the natural world is, no list of Firmament deities has ever been considered a complete closed canon - though, it takes quite a lot to convince the True Phaelist Council to erect temples to deities previously unknown to them.
 * Hassmaat, god of ice
 * Khadaka, god of earth
 * Krophis, god of the moon (and magic)
 * Mirelle, goddess of wind
 * Mora, goddess of the ocean
 * The Mountain King, god of the mountains
 * Rani, goddess of fire
 * Sholis, goddess of the Sun

Role in Mythology
Unlike the other two classifications of Phaelist deities, the Firmament is entirely composed of beings descended from or created in part by the Ancient. Lophael taught that they were created to give structure to the universe, thereby enabling the Ancient and his allies to bring order to creation and force the Banished and his allies to fall into place or be expelled from existence. In essence, then, the Firmament play an important positive role in the general worldview and history of Phaelism, and are not seen as inherently evil.

This desire, or need, for order and structure makes them somewhat distrustful of lesser living things. In Song of Winter, Hassmaat is recorded to have stated that all organic life, no matter how basic, relies on chaos for its very existence and spreads it even when trying to create organized structures. This is seen as an act undermining the very purpose of the Firmament. The gods, however, are unwilling to directly oppose the will of the Ancient over most such offenses, and choose instead to be more covert in their attempts to mitigate the 'damage' caused by life. The exception to this is mankind, which the Firmament began to fear early in history due to its manipulation of fate. When mankind stole the knowledge of magic from Krophis, this was seen by the rest of the Firmament as a personal assault, and resulted in escalated hostilities between man and the gods. While the Firmament is believed to have tried multiple times to eliminate humans, each attempt has been thwarted by other gods.