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The The Gods Are Bastards is a self-published web serial by D.D. Webb. Described as a "genre-blending fantasy epic", which includes elements of westerns and sword and sorcery. It is published on Wordpress and is currently on hiatus. The title is sometimes shortened to TGAB by both the author and its readers.

Publication
The story is divided into several volumes, currently 5, which are further divided into books, which is currently at 16. There are also several bonus chapters that acts as interludes which provides further backstory to characters and the setting. In total the story is currently a little over 670 chapters long. The story is free to read on Wordpress and is published every Monday and Wednesday. There is a Patreon through which subscribers get to read an advance chapter in return for their monetary support. There is also the option to support the story by donating through PayPal. Every week there is a weekly donation goal, which when reached unlocks one extra chapter on Fridays. The donation goal is reached by doanting through Paypal and by dividing the total current pledge amount gained through Patreon by four, which counts as a standing donation.

Hiatus
On the 8th of February 2021 author D.D Webb announced that he would take a pause from writing TGAB and would focus on a new story that he would publish on Royal Road called Only Villains Do That . The reasons for this is due to a combination of the authors mental health and burnout on writing TGAB. There has been no updates since then and as such there is no end date for the hiatus.

Setting
The story being an immersive fantasy takes place on another world which is several millennia old and was created by beings called the Elder Gods. The Elder Gods also created magic and all of the flora and fauna of the world, including the sapient races such as the humans, dwarves, elves etc. and ruled the world for several millennia. The Elder Gods were “nightmarish beings” and treated the sapient races much like how the sapient races would treat cattle. Their power was noted to function differently from the gods that would come after them. The new gods were bound by concepts and phenomena such as War and the Sun which the Elder Gods weren’t. They were in the end killed off by what then became the new gods of the world approximately 8000 years ago. The exact connection between the new gods apotheosis and the Elder Gods deaths are unknown but it is known that there is a connection. There were two Elder Gods that survived this war, Naiya who had supported the rebels that would then become the new gods and herself transformed into the goddess of Nature. Scyllith was the second Elder god to survive, she'd remained neutral during the war and transformed into the goddes of light, beauty and cruelty. After their victory the new gods collected the metaphysical power that was released by the Elder Gods deaths and from this created divine magic. The majority of these new gods would then form themselves into the Pantheon, some gods however choose to set off on their own. Most notably Elilial, the goddess of cunning, who rebelled against the Pantheon for unknown reasons. She went to hell, overthrew and exiled Scyllith, becoming the new Queen of Demons and started a war against the Pantheon and their followers.

The story takes place on the continent Tiraan, in which the principal power is the Tiraan Empire. The Empire is currently undergoing a silent power struggle with the Universal Church. After 20 years since the death of the last active paladin the gods Avei and Omnu has both called new paladins.

Magic
The magic of the world is primarily made up of four different "schools" of magic which interact with each other in various ways. The magic schools - divine, arcane, infernal and fae - are predisposed to various effects, which also limits its versatility. These four types of magic are generally grouped together into one overarching system called the Circle- or Circles of Interaction. This takes the shape of a circle with arrows and lines, where each of the four schools is laid out in such a way as to easily showcase how these magical energies interacts. With divine at the top of the circle, fae to the right, infernal at the bottom and arcane to the left. The way these four types of magic can interact with each other are categorised into three different ways. First comes opposite actions, which is when the magical schools directly across from each other interacts e.g. divine and infernal magic. This type interaction is considered to be violent as the opposing magical energies immediately tries to 'snuff each other out'. In this case the amount of magical power at one's disposal is more important than the skill which ones wield it with. The second category is the Circle of Interference, this goes in a clockwise fashion and indicates what type of magic disrupts what. This is considered to be much gentler than the previous category, rather than clashing violently the opposing magical energy simply causes the other to fizzle and sputter out into nothingness. The last category is the Circle of Augmentation, this goes in a counter-clockwise fashion. This describes the way one can use energy from one school of magic to empower the preceding magical school in the circle. The way one does this varies depending on the type of magic and requires a certain amount of skill.


 * Divine magic is based upon the concept of 'order' and is one of the two types of magic that readily lends itself to healing. It can only be channelled with the help of a god e.g. becoming a priest.  Its opposing school of magic is infernal magic. It interferes with fae magic and can in turn be interfered with by using arcane magic, it can also augment arcane magic. It can be used to create various constructs such as staffs and envelop the caster in a shield of light. There are limits to this, for example the constructs can not be complex nor can they be larger than the caster.  Divine magic burns the caster if used for a prolonged time, the only way to overcome this particular limitation is by building up a tolerance.


 * Fae magic is embodied by the principle of organic growth and is one of the two types of magic that readily lends itself to healing. Its opposing school of magic is arcane. It heavily interferes with infernal magic and can in turn be interfered with by using divine magic, it can also augment divine magic. Fae magic can only be accessed and grown through forming relationships with fairies and gathering fae-blessed objects such as totems. It was created by Naiya. Users of this magic are usually called shamans or witches.


 * Infernal magic is based upon the concept of chaos. It is the most dangerous of the four schools to use and master, it is highly destructive and corruptive to the point of causing cancer. Its opposing school of magic is the divine and interferes with the Arcane can in turn be heavily interfered with by using fae magic. It was created by Scyllith.  Users of infernal magic are called warlocks.


 * Arcane magic is of mysterious origin but can be used by anyone without any drawbacks, unlike infernal magic, or committing themselves to a patron unlike divine and fae magic. Its opposing school of magic is fae magic and it can be used to interfere with divine magic. When used it is usually blue in colour. A limitation to using arcane magic is that it is stored in the aura, which has a limited amount of arcane energy it can hold. This storage capacity grows over time by using it. Users of arcane magic are usually called wizards.