This page is written to reflect the in-setting understanding of the topic. It may or may not be fully accurate.
Hero-gods are a type of divinity primarily but not exclusively worshiped in Hellea. Powerful adventurers, casters, or scholars, hero-gods are mortals who have attained the status of godhood through fulfilling cyclopean prophecies. These minor deities are to a large degree a Hellean phenomenon - while it is possible for someone from another land to bring one of these prophecies to fruition, it is exceedingly rare.
Ascension and descension
The cyclops of Hellea, particularly those living within the Alyma Archipelago, are critical to the ascension of the hero-gods. Through their divination of the future, cyclops far-seers bring into existence prophecies of how future hero-gods will attain divinity. These prophecies are frequently inscrutable and not understood until they have already come to pass, if even then. Many prophecies are not even known to the broader world - if the far-seer does not record them then the details of the prophecy is lost to the ages. True far-seeing is a rare event; while many cyclops can gain brief glimpses of the future, there are few remaining who are capable of far-seeing, and even those that are theoretically capable more than likely never will. Scholarly opinion remains divided as to whether the cyclops merely see and recount the process of achieving divinity, or whether they in fact bring it into existence.
Becoming a hero-god is a process with multiple steps. The most central requirement is that one must have fulfilled a far-seen prophecy. Generally the completion of a prophecy is a significant, dramatic event. Prophecies often have qualifiers that cause them to be specific to Hellea and eastern Thadria in some manner, hence why almost all of the known hero-gods are individuals from this region. It is not required to have known about the prophecy in order to fulfill it; many hero-gods have had no idea precisely what they did to achieve their divinity.
Once a prophecy has been fulfilled, the individual becomes a latent hero-god. They have the potential to manifest the powers of a hero-god, but have no significant divine abilities yet. Most latent hero-gods have enhanced abilities of some sort, dependent on their other skills and abilities, but this is the only hint that one has begun the process to becoming a hero-god. Sometimes this is obvious enough that the individual and those around them can clearly see what has occurred, but not always. Some historians have theorized that a number of great figures of history may have reached this state through their actions, but not moved farther in becoming a hero-god.
To become an active hero-god, a latent hero-god must attract a certain number of willing worshipers. The number of followers required varies based on how powerful the hero-god would be. An active hero-god gains their full divine powers, including the ability to grant divine spells to their faithful. If a hero-god loses their worshipers through some means, they lose their powers as an active hero-god, reverting to the latent state. They can move back to being an active hero-god once again as long as they can attract new followers.
Worship
The veneration of the hero-gods is a practice that dates back millennia. Despite their mythic powers, hero-gods remain mortal and can still die to old age or violence, barring other powers or abilities their mortal self may have. Hero-gods typically take an active role in whatever interests them, whether that takes the form of magical studies, adventuring, or involving themselves in the politics and governance of the city in which they dwell. Temples to hero-gods are commonplace, and sometimes the deity in question even lives inside.
Though generally smaller in scale, shrines and temples also exist to past hero-gods, as they are still held in high esteem even if the god has died. Worship at these shrines is highly uncommon but they are maintained as a sign of respect. It is not unusual for temples to have been dedicated to multiple hero-gods over the course of the building’s history. However, temples to dead hero-gods are often not maintained in cases where the god in question was evil and tyrannical - in this case, they are more likely to be destroyed.
Hero-gods are frequently competitive amongst themselves, sometimes to the point of bringing their home cities into conflicts. Most see this as a terrible idea, and the god' advisors and associates try to reign them in whenever this begins to look possible. Despite their semi-divine status, hero-gods are not followed blindly - it is widely recognized that they are still mortal and very fallible.