Spirits, Gods and Demons
So with the somewhat recent revelation of Gods and Goddesses in Runeterra, I've come to a very interesting theory regarding what exactly a God is in Runeterra, which actually segways into what a Spirit or Demon is as well! (Be warned, this one's gonna be a long ride...)
So this one's a bit tricky, but hear me out here. So through Shen's lore we know of a Spirit World where almost all natural magic originates, as well as the place where the Proto-Vastaya hail from. Now, due to it's name, this is obviously the place where Spirits come from. So where am I going with this? Well, in Ornn's lore, he mentions how he dislikes his 'siblings' meddling with mortal affairs and taking physical form, as seen by Volibear and Anivia, the only ones we know are canonically his siblings.
Now my headcanon is that, since the Spirit World is where magic comes from, those closer to the Spirit World are much more magical (as seen by Vastaya being closer to the spirit world and innately being more magical). So my guess; Gods and Goddesses are just really, really powerful Spirits. Hear me out, we know of a few deities in League. Some of them, such as Elise's Spider-God or the Gray Lady from the Glorious Evolved, are more like 'misinterpretations' of other things. However, there are some deities that seem very, very real. We already talked about Ornn, Volibear and Anivia, but another Champion is also considered a goddess of Zaun; Janna! However, it's clearly stated that she's just a wind spirit that favors to help Zaun, so this just proves that Spirits can be considered deities by some cultures. In a big twist, this is also the case for Volibear! As seen in the Vastaya Q&A, where he's stated as something akin to "a primal Freljordian nature spirit/force of nature," proving that he isn't a real 'God,' just a really, really strong nature SPIRIT!
Other beings we know are on this 'God' level of Spirits are Nagakabourous and Aurelion Sol (in a weird way). Nagakabourous, despite us not seeing them physically, is very real a God as seen by Illaoi's powers, probably the most powerful of them all as they don't even need to take full physical form. Aurelion Sol however has been stated to be a Demi-God compared to Nagakabourous, but still more powerful than Ornn and his siblings. However, he may be a special case since the Spirit World is purely Runeterra, whereas Aurelion is a Space Dragon, not coming from Runeterra at all. Another strange factor to this is the Aspects, but we simply know near to nothing about them so trying to guess what they are is just a whole different rabbit hole to fall in.
So now that we know that Gods and Goddesses are just glorified Spirits, what is Ornn's talk of 'siblings?' Well, I theorize that **all spirits, demons and gods/goddesses are considered 'siblings' to one another, and Ornn may just consider Volibear more of a brother due to how close they are, you don't exactly hear about Janna or Kindred's shenanigans in Freljord or with Ornn. Along with that; Demons, demons aren't as tricky, I think they are simply 'bad spirits'. Much like Kindred, a Spirit of Death, Tahm Kench has a tendency to change his shape depending on who he's talking to and which culture he's in. Now some people may be wondering; "Wait but how can something like Janna be related to Kindred or Ornn?" Well, as seen from our various Spirits and Demons, they like to take physical form in their own special ways. Some like Brand or Maokai like to possess physical bodies, while others like the Gods, Kindred of Janna live off of 'prayer' or are just that prominent and powerful in the Material world. Now finally, the list:
Gods/Goddesses
- These ones are pretty obvious and canonically called Gods, so there's not much to say for them.
Nagakabourous
- As stated before, Nagakabourous is an extremely powerful God, more so than the previously mentioned three, and even more than Aurelion, so powerful that they don't even take physical form, they just sort of cling to Illaoi and spread their faith around.
Spirits
- This one's pretty obvious and already stated above as a powerful wind spirit that is considred a goddess by Zaun.
- Now Kindred is pretty tricky and I have another short theory just for her Them (Riot, give Wolf some spotlight in-game...). Now, I highly doubt that they are Death Itself in a sense, but rather a spirit that has sort of 'clinged' to the concept of Death, which (due to how prominent Death is in the...well...living world) has grown extremely powerful and prominent in almost every culture of Runeterra. This can be seen in how the /dev on Vastayan Evolution describes the spirit world as "a mirror world where the spirit of every living thing and every of type of thing exists. The souls of every person, the spirit of animals, the essences of species and of locations, elements, and even ideas exist in that dimension as powerful forces, which interact and create a type of magic in Runeterra."
- As seen in his bio, he's a nature spirit of the blessed isles who possessed a tree and absorbed the magical waters of the isles. He clearly stated as a spirit in his bio, so he belongs here.
- As for our other Tree-Boy, he's more like an 'associate' of a spirit, much like how Illaoi is a priestess of her God. Ivern has the essence of the God-Willow, (theoretically) one of the most powerful nature spirits in the world, so it's just a really strange way of taking physical form.
Demons
- Much like Kindred or Janna, it seems like he takes physical form by making deals with others, while also spreading his influence in other cultures, as seen in Bilgewater.
- Though his lore is kinda old right now, he was confirmed by the Shuriman lore update to be the powerful fire spirit that Xerath freed, since Brand was the only thing capable of fighting two ascended beings. My guess is that they'll keep the whole 'possessing a random viking' aspect, as it fits the idea of a demon possessing someone to take physical form.
- Ah, our spooky trinity. We have very little lore for all three of them right now, but these three are the only ones that have relations with one another, as seen by their "Related Champions" in the Universe Page. Nocturne however, was confirmed to be the Nightmare Demon that killed Garen and Lux's grandpa, as well as the one who appeared in the "For Demacia" story. Fiddlesticks on the other hand had a short story as well, where his actions matched that of a super-natural spirit of crows and fear, perhaps he possessed a scare-crow to take physical form?
Other
- These two are celestial beings, literal Aliens to Runeterra. Because the Spirit-World is solely the source of RUNETERRAN magic, they don't exactly count as Spirits since they don't come from Runeterra, despite being super powerful.
- Bard is Bard. Bard is a Multiversal Entity who only arrives to keep the fabric of reality in tact. Bard in-game is not the actual Bard, Bard takes physical form by possessing a strange puppet. Bard is one of the most powerful things in League Lore, though Bard doesn't show it since Bard only acts to keep Multiverse-Breaking-Things from happening. Bard is Bard.
TL;DR: Gods and Goddesses are just really strong Spirits/Demons and they all consider each other siblings.
I think they'd go under demons or demi-gods unless they're all just witches or something?
rework this month, we'll have a demon update and more details about her kind
she found pix in the glade or something like that so maybe