The gathering proved fruitful, and Tycha didn't mind contributing to the anti-IO Alliance. Information gleaned from others indicated that IO did not have complete control over this world.
The fragmented laws left the world of Faerun unable to assist IO in its complete ascension. A transformed primordial deity, coupled with a sufficiently powerful material world, was necessary to create a true god of creation.
Tycha estimated that IO was currently stronger than herself, but as the possessor of the Entropy portfolio, she was not without a fighting chance. Once she fully mastered the Entropy portfolio, she could even create a real material world herself, but this process would require immense effort and time, so long that even an eternal deity would find it tedious.
After successfully deifying, Tycha established her divine realm in accordance with the world's rules, residing there in her true form while moving about in an avatar.
Having chosen the path of absolute neutrality, her divine realm was inevitably drawn by the planes, gradually approaching the Hall of Knowledge, the domain of the gods of knowledge.
Four divine realms were situated within the Hall of Knowledge. The pantheon of knowledge, led by Oghma, were the masters of the Hall. This powerful deity, who held portfolios such as inspiration, creation, and knowledge, along with his two lesser divine power subordinate gods, Deneir, the god of literature, and Milil, the god of poetry, formed the pantheon of knowledge. However, the only one worth Tycha's attention was that the god of knowledge, Oghma, like herself, hailed from beyond this world.
Another divine realm belonged to Gond, the god of artisans and smiths. This intermediate deity was the master of portfolios such as skill, craft, architecture, and smithing. However, like Tycha, he had come here merely due to his alignment with absolute neutrality and was not subservient to Oghma.
Tycha had no intention of visiting these neighbors, and she even politely declined the invitations from the gods of knowledge, citing the need to perfect her divine realm.
The importance of a divine realm to a deity was self-evident. Taking Gond as an example, an intermediate deity could easily withstand an attack from a powerful deity within their divine realm. To forcibly breach the divine realm of an intermediate deity would require at least one powerful deity with a similar or counteracting portfolio, followed by an assault from several times the number of intermediate deities, without regard for losses, to have any chance of success.
After seeing off the envoys from the gods of knowledge, Tycha's divine realm welcomed its first batch of mortal souls; these petitioners could still provide Tycha with faith. This faith was channeled into the construction of her divine realm and the optimization of the petitioners' living conditions.
Having settled the petitioners, Tycha began to consider how to deal with Max, the god of thieves. Deities of the absolute neutral alignment could have followers of neutral good and neutral evil, which was the basis for Tycha's cooperation with the Thieves' Guild.
The Spellplague had ended, but some deities remained unaccounted for, as if they had vanished.
Among them was Max, the god of thieves. He had certainly not perished, otherwise, his clerics would have lost their divine magic.
Just as Tycha was contemplating how to find the god of thieves' whereabouts, avatars of four deities personally descended to the outskirts of her divine realm.
Since they had come all the way to her doorstep, Tycha couldn't very well refuse to open the gate. She, too, dispatched an avatar to welcome the guests.
"Welcome, Your Excellencies, to my divine realm."
Tycha led the guests to the garden in the front hall. The scenery here was modeled after Toussaint from the Witcher world, with windmills and wineries dotting the landscape, creating a scene of idyllic countryside.
The petitioners brought wine and then retreated to the vineyards to continue their harvesting work.
The goods produced by the divine realm were real. Celestial beings would trade with the petitioners, and the wealth obtained would be used for the church's relief projects. Work within the divine realm was also voluntary. Petitioners only needed to work for a short period each day to reap sufficient rewards. The grapes in the divine realm matured at an astonishing rate, their plump fruits remaining unfallen, awaiting harvest.
The purpose of the gods' visit was related to the new god of death, Cyric, who refused to allow the souls of the gods' followers to leave the Underdark. Cyric, who had ascended overnight, was arrogant and openly declared himself the only true god, forbidding humanity from worshiping any other false gods.
Such a threat was met with amusement by the gods, and no one took it seriously, all watching Cyric's folly.
However, Cyric's subsequent actions began to worry the gods. As a transit point for souls, the Underdark was regularly visited by the gods' envoys, who would take the souls of their respective followers back to their divine realms to enjoy blissful times.
Cyric refused to fulfill this duty and would not return the souls of these followers unless the gods submitted.
This caused an uproar, and the gods, for the first time, collectively rejected Cyric, including the evil deities. The powerful deities issued an ultimatum: if Cyric persisted, divine war would be his only recourse.
Tycha's followers were not yet numerous, and only a small portion of souls of those who died unexpectedly had reached the Underdark, so they had not yet discovered this matter.
"The Pantheon is about to convene a meeting to discuss how to resolve Cyric's dereliction of duty."
Oghma's avatar appeared as an elder clad in ornate armor, his wooden lyre emitting clear, resonant notes. This namer of all things, while holding dominion over knowledge, also dabbled in the portfolios of travel, luck, and trickery. He rarely engaged in combat, usually spending his time chatting with scholars and travelers.
Setting down his wine cup, Tycha immediately rose and, along with the four deities, set off for the Pantheon. As the sole powerful deity of the absolute neutral alignment, Oghma felt obligated to offer assistance to new gods of the same alignment. Since it was Tycha's first time entering the Pantheon, Oghma naturally took it upon himself to explain certain taboos.
Within the Pantheon, the gods were seated, with deities of the same alignment gathered together. Tycha carefully observed the assembled gods. Besides Max, the god of thieves, the goddess of wealth, Waukeen, was also conspicuously absent.
Before the Spellplague, Waukeen had entrusted her portfolio to Lliira, the goddess of joy, while she herself attempted to return to her divine realm through the Abyss. According to Milil, the god of poetry, who learned from Lliira, Waukeen had reached an agreement with Graz'zt, one of the three rulers of the Abyss, after which she disappeared.
The god of poetry was Lliira's closest friend, and Waukeen herself was a deity of absolute neutrality. Therefore, Oghma was somewhat concerned about Waukeen's whereabouts.
Waukeen's divine realm was not located in the Hall of Knowledge but had been moved to the Brightwater region, the domain of Sune, the goddess of love, where she associated with the gods of chaotic good. As a goddess of commerce and trade with considerable influence, Waukeen naturally maintained a degree of independence. She moved among the gods, having no enemies except for the god of thieves, whose portfolio was completely antithetical to hers.