Deity

Deities or Gods are a class of entities that exist in the Overlord series.

YGGDRASIL
In YGGDRASIL, gods were commons existences encountered by players. Some existed in the game as special event bosses, enticing players to engage them in a battle for rewards.

New World
In the New World, gods are held as existences that were pinnacle of divine power. They were seen as a standard in which mortals could never reach.

Entire religions have been forged based on their beings, like humans who are creatures that rely on faith in gods as a pillar of moral strength in their everyday lives. The religion the surrounding countries believe in are called the Four Elemental Gods. Each of the Gods represent a particular element which are Earth, Water, Fire and Wind. Nonetheless, there were respective Gods that created and governed the New World. While there were minor gods ranking below them that had a small influence within the surrounding regions. Additional deities like the Gods of Life and Death are exclusively worshiped by people of the Slane Theocracy.

From how the story goes, in the beginning there was light and darkness, and from them, the Four Elemental Gods were born afterward. The Theocracy viewed the Gods of Life and Death more respectfully than the Four Elemental Gods as they are considered to be the most powerful deities whom are above all. However, this way of thinking by the Theocracy was shared by the surrounding human countries as it had a very bad affinity to the religion of the Four Elemental Gods. According to the Theocracy, the highest strength of the Six Great Gods starts from the God of Death > God of Life > Four Elemental Gods.

Deities have minor gods as their own subordinates to lead by its example.

Several existences like players from YGGDRASIL who have made their way into the New World and reach godhood. They create a sphere of influence upon the native, making the people spread their names through parts of the world and eventually become deified by the inhabitants as the ages pass. A number of these people includes the Six Great Gods, the Buddha, and even Ainz Ooal Gown. The Theocracy have reverence towards the Six Great Gods who saved humanity from complete extinction.

However, while some may have become glorify as a deity, it does not speak of the divine being's alignment. For instance, Evil Deities like the Demon God of Insects and Divanack are treated as a sinister force committing to evil deeds. The god, Jashin for instance, had a collection of evil followers from Zurrernorn who is willing to carry out such action on its behalf through conducting sacrificial rituals. Nonetheless, Evil Deities are a notable example of being hellbent in causing destruction throughout the continent two centuries ago.

On the other hand, gods have the power to create top-class magic items known as artifacts which cannot be made by the likes of humans.

Faith-based Magic Connection
Deities in YGGDRASIL and the New World play a pivotal role in faith-based magics. Clerics and priests who recite prayers to their patron divinity would be able to cast divine magic. They call upon the gods to either control, repel, and destroy beings like demons, undead, and angels.

Many priests of the temples in the New World take these blessings as proof that their gods exist. However, Ainz Ooal Gown dismisses their notion to have any validity to it, believing that their so-called gods were merely great men who had been deified. However, Roberdyck Goltron doubts the undead's explanation since if the Four Great Gods were mere mortals, it doesn't explain on how affiliated priests are able to use resurrection spells and raise the dead.

This in mind Ainz speculates that the gods in the New World are perhaps super-dimensional beings — which are generously term gods for apparent purposes — that exist originally as colorless entities. Simply put, they are chunks of power that priests draw power from. Because Ainz finds himself to exist in a world with magical laws, he does not dismiss the possibility of gods. Using this knowledge the Supreme Being performed an experiment with a captured cleric, altering his mind to see whether changing his belief in a god would allow him to still cast divine magic. The results left the man unable to speak properly, and so far it is unknown if Ainz gained any insight on the confirmation of gods.

YGGDRASIL Deities

 * Cainabel
 * Buddha

New World Deities

 * Ainz Ooal Gown
 * Sea Dragon
 * Surshana
 * Alah Alaf
 * Divanack
 * Jashin

Trivia

 * In the Web Novel, as part of his experiment in confirming the existence of gods, Ainz Ooal Gown desires to ascend to the status of a deity within the New World.
 * The 41 guild members of Ainz Ooal Gown are regarded as gods by their NPC creations.