All contestants in Dominions are Pretender Gods, claimants to the title of "capital G" God. While their religion has impact upon their Dominion, Pretenders are not yet at the level of transcending physical existence, and their bodies are in-game to play with (and against).

All Pretender Gods are "lowercase g" gods designed before the game starts. Each player has a budget of "Pretender Points", with which they buy a body (also known as a "chassis" in most guides), additional magic skill, and facets for their religion. The facets of religion are the effects of its Blessing (purchased with "Bless Points"), its starting Dominion Strength ceiling without Preaching, and its impact on the Scales. That starting Dominion Strength ceiling (or "Dominion Strength") is also the number of Holy Points the nation's Temple-bearing provinces start with.

You must pick a body. This is non-negotiable. Bodies are split into four broad categories with a little overlap. You may not "sell" the features a body comes with for extra points. If the price worries you, you may elect to start out Dormant for 150 extra points, at the cost of your body emerging at least 10 turns late. If that isn't enough, you can start out Imprisoned for another 200 points on top of starting out Dormant (350 total), at the cost of your body emerging at least 33 turns late.

Dominion 4 forms are largely Idols; graven images, important relics, or merely neat spots people revere, possessed with powerful spirits. As the category name implies, they have a starting Dominion Strength of 4. They are decently priced and start with three magic levels, though these levels are typically split between two or three paths. The mix of cheapness and high magic is offset by the immobility of Idols, which limits movement to various transport or teleporting spells found in Enchantment or Thaumaturgy. There are benefits to being "things", however; Idols are incredibly resilient (or at least hard to hit), and all are Innate Spellcasters.

Dominion 3 forms are largely Titans, human (or human-like) beings of Size 8, 9, or occasionally 10. There is an immense amount of these giants and giantesses, though all stick to their own cultural regions; Shinuyama can't worship the Titan of Heaven (not-Zeus), for example. As the category name implies, they have a starting Dominion Strength of 3. Titans are typically very expensive and start with three magic levels. The expensiveness compared to Idols owes to how Titans have full item slots, not to mention their ability to move and punch. It is generally not recommended to take a Titan, at least for new players, due to the complexity of making a Titan into a reliable one-man army worth their price.

Dominion 2 forms are largely Monsters, beasts of Size 9 or 10. Any player can be a dragon if they so choose, or some other large thing with four legs or wings. As the category name implies, they have a starting Dominion Strength of 2. Monsters are typically expensive and start with two magic levels. Most can barely even Research, however. Their time to shine is well before the late game, before nations might muster similar beings with Conjuration or Construction.

Dominion 1 forms are all Mages, dumb bastards of either human Size (3) or their national race's Size. Very cheap, but with a starting Dominion Strength of 1 and only one (or sometimes two) magic levels, they are the closest thing possible to a blank slate. Their biggest perk is their low entry cost for other paths, letting them build ridiculous un-"Incarnate" Blessings.

• It costs most Idols 40 Pretender Points, instead of 8, to purchase their first level in a new path. Most Idols are Inept Smiths, forging items as though they were one level lower in all paths, due to needing someone else to do all the work.
• It costs most Titans 60 Pretender Points to purchase their first level in a new path.
• It costs most Monsters 80 Pretender Points to purchase their first level in a new path. Most Monsters are Inept Researchers, reducing their Research Ability by 8, and most are also Inept Smiths; the former is due to their beastly nature, while the latter is due to needing someone else to do all the work. The Monsters who don't suffer these issues have humanoid forms within them.
• It costs most Mages 10 Pretender Points to purchase their first level in a new path.

Once a Pretender God's body is in the game, they start spreading their Dominion as though they were three Temples, and the "Incarnate" effects of their Blessing begin to work.

A Pretender God's Strength, Magic Resistance, and Hit Points are tied to the Dominion of the province they're in. There is a special case with Hit Points, where Hit Points don't adjust to their maximum until the start of each turn; thus, one may attack from a high-Dominion province into a lower-Dominion province, and benefit from a "temporary health" cushion above their maximum. The following table shows how Dominion affects their stats:

Dominion Strength	Strength	Magic Resistance	Hit Points
10	+10	+5	+100%
9	+9	+4.5	+90%
8	+8	+4	+80%
7	+7	+3.5	+70%
6	+6	+3	+60%
5	+5	+2.5	+50%
4	+4	+2	+40%
3	+3	+1.5	+30%
2	+2	+1	+20%
1	+1	+0.5	+10%
–	+0	+0	+0%
1	-1	-0.5	-10%
2	-2	-1	-20%
3	-3	-1.5	-30%
4	-4	-2	-40%
5	-5	-2.5	-50%
6	-6	-3	-60%
7	-7	-3.5	-70%
8	-8	-4	-80%
9	-9	-4.5	-90%
10	-10	-5	-90%

A Pretender's body is automatically Blessed within their own Dominion (and nowhere else), and a Priest cannot change that. All Sacred troops fighting alongside a Pretender's body are Blessed from the start of battle, within "friendly" Dominion.

The Pretender Gods can be killed, yes. When that happens, they no longer spread Dominion, and the "Incarnate" effects of their Blessing shut off. However, Pretender Gods can be re-summoned.

Re-summoning is done by the "Call God" function, performed by Priests. Each turn a Priest calls their Pretender, they add their Priest level plus-or-minus-1 to a pool; and once that pool reaches 50, the Pretender returns to their capital. If the capital belongs to another nation, a fight ensues.

The return to the world is less than glamorous. It fixes much of your body (about the same as an Immortal's Recuperation pulse), but it may "disenchant" others' perception of you, including those of the forces of magic. You have a 50% chance to lose a level of magic skill in a random path, and each level of Nature magic you have increases the odds by a flat 10%. If this doesn't happen, you lose a point of Dominion Strength instead; and if that can't happen (due to having the minimum Dominion Strength of 1, or due to being a Disciple), you lose a magic level anyway.

You are most likely to lose a level of Nature (due to resurrection being unnatural), and you are least likely to lose Death. As a walkthrough example, let's say a 3335 Pretender dies and comes back:

1. There's a 50% chance to lose 1. It's not because he has 5, though that level does prevent "Candle" loss; it's just because he has any Nature magic at all. Coming back from the dead is unnatural, so Nature has a heads-or-tails chance to look at him weirdly after this.
2. Otherwise, the path lost is random. That means there should be a 25% chance to lose 1, a 25% chance to lose 1, a 25% chance to lose 1, and a 25% chance to lose 1… right? Well, actually, Death doesn't leave him easily. He has to roll Death twice for it to actually be threatened; thus, there's actually a 31.25% (5/16) chance to lose 1, a 31.25% chance to lose 1, a 6.25% (1/16) chance to lose 1, and a 31.25% chance to lose 1.
3. Let's say he loses 1: there's a sizeable chance that he doesn't lose 1, due to manipulating the Underworld enough for a relaxing stay. A 1d12 is rolled; if that is less than or equal to his Death level before the path loss (or 10, whichever's lower), he effectively doesn't lose that level. In his case, since he has 3, there's a 25% chance that he doesn't lose the 1 he was slated to lose.
4. Finally, there's one more element: he could have learned something from the afterlife.
   1. If he didn't lose 1, there would normally be a 15% chance that he gains +1 from the Underworld, but this can't bring him over 3 so he gains nothing.
   2. Since he didn't gain from the Underworld, there would normally be a 1% chance that he gains +1 from Heaven (or the Void, or that weird near-death experience) if he didn't lose 1; but again, this can't bring him over 3, so that's out of the window.
   3. Lastly, since the above two don't apply, there's a 1% chance that he gains +1 from Hell. This also can't bring someone above 3, and it also doesn't kick in if 1 is lost. This is the only avenue of path growth available to him from dying and coming back, due to his path spread.

In summary, the probability of each of the possible outcomes for this specific guy is:

• 65.625% chance of losing 1 (21/32)
• 15.625% chance of losing 1 (5/32)
• 15.625% chance of losing 1 (5/32)
• 2.34375% chance of losing 1 (3/128)
• 0.78125% chance of losing nothing (1/128)
• 1% chance of gaining 1 (independent of the above)

The maximum chance you can get for losing absolutely nothing upon recall is 5-in-6, by having 1 and 10 with no other paths. 2 or higher makes the chance 5-in-12 instead. Alternatively, you could play as Ur or Uruk, to neither lose nor gain from your experience.