Chapter Text
As you may or may not have figured out from the title of the worldbuild (Temple of Many Gods), this religion has a lot of them. Colloquially, it's usually known as the Temple of 100 Gods. Don't call it that to any of the actual priests, though (priests here being a translation of the gender-neutral word used in the Temple's nearly dead language). It's irritating. There are 129 of them, and frankly it's debatable whether or not they are traditional gods at all, as they are not all-powerful or omnipotent, being more akin to patrons or cosmic-beings-who-occasionally-deign-to-interact-with-humans.
Further expanding on that, the gods the Temple worships are extremely powerful beings, but are not believed to be supreme. They are mighty and wise and probably not the strongest thing in existence. But so long as the priests live without breaking any Temple rules, they are granted power by their chosen deity (chosen at age 20) and even an elongated lifespan, although they might also be subject to the less-than-benevolent whims of their deity.
None of the gods have names, or really even defined physical appearances. However, due to their hands-on approach when dealing with mortals, they have several avatars. The most common avatars are given titles (e.g. the Gatekeeper), and those titles are often applied to the gods themselves.
The creation of the gods goes like this:
The beginning of time housed many beings. Most of them were formless and thoughtless and out of the realm of mortals. They had existed for who knows how long before, and who knows how long they will remain. Out of this chaos, two beings were growing restless. The first, the Mother/Daughter of All, proposed to the other, the Father/Son of all, that they should involve themselves in the species that most amuses them.
Many years of observation followed, and the sentient races of the land (the land being the quasi-fantasy realm the first temple was founded in in this case) were observed. Over the years many, many other higher beings made themselves known, and claimed a people for their own, all except the two that started all of this. After a while the two finally made a decision, although it may have just been the last option: No beings had claimed the human race, a struggling species with no innate magical or physical ability.
Now that wouldn't do at all; the humans must be helped somehow. And so it was decided between the two of them that they would spawn a set of humans each. These humans would then be born to the world below. When they died, they would be reborn by their supreme parent as a similar being. For example, the Mother of All conceived and birthed the one that would become the High Empress, independent of the Father of All, who did similar. This was the second generation of gods, which was then followed by their offspring, and so on.