Old Deus

The Old Deus is the first ranked race of the Exceed. It consists of the old gods, who lost their status after The Great War, where Tet became the One True God. They are created and sustained by sentiments' concepts, desires and beliefs of their existance. In cases, Tet was created by Riku Dola's imagination and represents the concept of Play, while Artosh was fueled by people's desire for War and actively leaded his own creation. Lack of elements above made pre-exist gods' demise possible if followed by almost non-existant moral perils, as Artosh disappeared after his persumed death in the hands of Imanity - Ex-machina alliance and the end of all wars, and Horou, the God of Doubt, who doubts her own existance and commited suicide, was close to wipeout from existance if the Goddess' identity hadn't been accepted by Sora, Shiro and Miko. Despite the fact above, they remain to be beings with greatest longevity and power, and was responsible for creating some of other Exceed for their own gain, such as Flugel and Elf. Jibril noted that it would take at least 200 Flügels to challenge a single god, and even then the chance of losing would be high. According to Izuna, during the wartime, only Flügel and Ex-machina had ever succeeded in killing a god.

The known Old Deus so far are Artosh, the God of War and Creator of Flügels; Okein, the God of Forge and Creator of Dwarfs; Kainasu, the God of Forest and Creator of Elves; Tet, God of Play and later the One True God; and Horou, the God of Doubt and self-declared Old Deus representative.

One of the gods used an arrogant and ornate speech style by stating "Question" before proceeding when conversing with Tet. He was described as an imperfect presence with limited powers. The Old Deus now resides on the moon after the Great War for unknown reasons.

Historically, the gods were the ones who launched The Great War to fight over the title of the One True God, using their creations as weapons, such as the Flügel, to kill other gods. The gods eventually lost their will to continue warring as they died needlessly without enjoying their lives. Tet emerged above the Old Deus as he was the only god who had abstained from the war, and became the One True God.

Etymology
Deus (Latin pronunciation: [ˈdeːʊs]) is Latin for "god" or "deity".