Everyone knows that the Pantheon is an alliance of explicitly Ultra supremacist states, holding the subjects of the Process alone to be worthy of leadership.  Less well understood is how they determine which Ultrahuman gets to stand above all the others.

The Pantheon is, of course, a heterodox collection of city states and warring bands.  Any description of a unified process, to be followed regularly by all components, is a delusion.  The exception is the rule.

That said, certain similarities can be observed.

The lowest rank, the bottom rung, is populated by those who have just been Processed.  Most notoriously, this is the rank inhabited by the products of the Ultra camps, born and bred only for the Process.  These Ultrahumans tend to be young, poorly trained, and new to their power.

Ultras of this level make up the rank and file of the Pantheon’s armies.  They have authority over human citizens, and that’s about it.  They are deployed in waves, used as cannon fodder.

In order to escape from this ‘nameless’ rank, the new Ultrahumans have a few options.

The most widely known is the Pilgrimage.  Pantheon soldiers who survive a battle with the Union forces are elevated to a slightly higher rank.  They do not yet have Divine Names, but they are no longer considered nameless.  They have the right to follow the warlord of their choosing, to challenge other Ultras, etc.  They are full participants in the brutal dog-eat-dog competition which is the Pantheon’s day to day operation.

Even those nameless who do not undergo a Pilgrimage may ascend in rank.  Those who compete certain particularly grueling training courses may cease to be nameless.  Those sponsored by a Pantheon member with a Divine Name are likewise graduated to full membership.  There are probably a few other possibilities.

In order to rise above the regular rank the Ultrahumans of the Pantheon must earn their Divine Name.  There is no Pilgrimage for this, no regularly recognized means of ascension.  Every Named Ultra of the Pantheon has performed a recognized feat of heroism.  They may have scored singular battlefield success against the Union, survived a battle with a Fist, or wracked up a massive Tally in the Pantheon’s incessant warring.

Those Ultrahumans gifted with a Divine Name, plucked seemingly at random from the world’s religious traditions, ARE the Pantheon.  The very name refers to their alliance.  In the Pantheon’s armies these are the commanders of its Hosts.  In its cities these are the rulers.  They are the Warlords.  They are the Valkries.  Throughout the vast majority of the Pantheon’s territory, and thus the majority of the Earth, they reign supreme.  Only the Leadership Council stands above them, and they only to the degree that their personal power can enforce their writ.

Zeus and his compatriots do not occupy any official extra class.  The Leadership Council, as a whole, has the authority to give orders to the Divine Names, but any individual member of that Council is only a God like all the others, able to bully their kin only to the degree that their might allows.