Goddess Clan

The is one of the five major races in the world of Nanatsu no Taizai.

Overview
According to the Lady of the Lake, the Goddess Clan and their realm were created by the Supreme Deity thousands of year ago, shortly after she was created by Chaos, alongside the Demon King and the Sacred Tree.

3,000 years ago, the Goddess Clan constantly clashed with the Demon Clan due to the bitter rivarly between the Supreme Deity and the Demon King due to their innate "purpose" of maintaining a balance between light and darkness. Similar to the latter's Ten Commandments, this clan has their own elite unit, the Four Archangels, who even the Ten Commandments must be wary of, according to Monspeet. Despite often battling, most goddesses acted gentle towards humans and considered killing demons as a way to save them. However, the two legendary clans were largely evenly matched and thus a tentative balance was created. At some point in time, they broke a treaty with the Demon Clan, and even slaughtered many women and children they were holding as prisoners of war.

However, when Meliodas had betrayed his own people for his alliance and relationship with the Supreme Deity's daughter Elizabeth and severely crippled their strength by killing Aranak and Zeno, the rest of goddesses seized the opportunity to finally defeat the Demon Clan and instigated the Giant Clan, Fairy Clan and Humans against them, starting the Holy War.

As a result, the Demon Clan was ultimately defeated by the Goddess Clan and their allied clans and sealed away in the Coffin of Eternal Darkness for 3,000 years, realizing it was the only way to win after losing their strongest fighter Mael. Despite their victory, they lost much of their power and the ability to maintain their physical forms in order to seal the Demon Clan for 3,000 years. The souls of the Goddess Clan came to inhabit within objects, only being able to manifest themselves by taking the body of another being as a vessel.

According to Jelamet, a majority of the goddesses apparently inhabit places called "Sky Palaces", where they lay dormant, as she made use of the gate in the altar to bring the remainder of the Goddess Clan to invade and control Britannia.

An unknown Goddess had taken possession of the Horn of Cernunnos to manipulate Humans and force them to attack Meliodas, but what happened to her after the destruction of the Horn is unknown. Jenna and Zaneri were two Divine Soldiers who simply chose to desert the Divine Militia, because they no longer agreed with their peers on the merits of the Holy War, and took possession of two human twins to hide from other Goddesses. Ironically, they took the opportunity to become the Leaders of the first Druids, who worship the Goddess Clan.

In the present day with Hendrickson unleashing the Ten Commandments by incompletely breaking the seal, the Four Archangels "revived" to join the reincarnation of Elizabeth, the Seven Deadly Sins and the other races against the Demon Clan, now facing a new Holy War. However, two of them lost their physical bodies again while it was revealed that the Archangel Mael is still alive and turned into one of the Ten Commandments. After the return of Mael, the leader of the Archangels also loses his physical form at the end of the new Holy War, making Mael possibly the last of the Four Archangels.

Following the defeat of Cath Palug, Orlondi is seen breaking out of the underground bunker in the ruins of Camelot and is seen helping Nanashi bring out the people where most were saved by Nanashi, as it is revealed he is actually a Goddess but for some reason there are four scars on his back where his wings used to be and claims it to be an old story as he was now nothing more than a wandering swordsman with no master.

Months after the end of the second Holy War, Mael returned to the Celestial Realm, where several Goddesses appear having recovered their physical forms and vow to follow Mael in his new mission of protecting the Celestial Realm.

Appearance and Physiology
Members of the Goddess Clan appear entirely human other than one pair, or more, of angel-like wings. Some Goddesses has been shown to have more divergent features, like Tarmiel, who possess multiple heads.

Higher ranking Goddesses are generally distinguished by their multiple pairs of wings. The number of wings and its size are generally indicators of a Goddess' power.

Whenever some Goddesses inhabits a physical vessel or whenever they use their magical powers, their eyes become orange and manifest a triskelion symbol.

It is suggested that the Goddesses have the longest lifespan among the five races, as each of the Four Archangels have lived for several thousands of years, even before the loss of their physical forms, longer than any Demon, Fairy, Giant or Human can live. Even so, the aging process can vary between individuals, like Sariel who maintains a childlike appearance despite being one of the oldest Goddesses.

Powers and Abilities
The Goddess Clan is an extremely powerful race able to stand on equal ground with the Demon Clan, although it required the cooperation of the fairies, giants and humans to seal them away after losing their strongest fighter. Despite their immense magic power, they need physical form to actually affect the world by their actions and according to Ludociel, the leader of the Four Archangels and one of the most powerful of his race, they aren't actual gods like the Demon King, Supreme Deity or the Sacred Tree. Members of the Goddess Clan share several common abilities:


 * An archetypal magic technique of the Goddess Clan that creates light particles, often envolving the target in a dazzling sphere of light that breaks apart their body. It mostly counteracts darkness by disintegrating, though it also can cause physical damage.
 * A technique that erases "abominable" souls, such as vampires and demons. This technique was passed down to the Druids.
 * Resurrection: Ban sought out the Goddesses to resurrect Elaine, believing that something like that should be easy for them. One of them claimed that the resurrection of a single fairy is an easy task, though the veracity of the statement is questionable and could be that the Goddess simply wanted to trick Ban into slaying Meliodas.
 * Despite being one of the strongest among the Goddess Clan, even Mael cannot resurrect the dead, but he can use a technique that allows deceased souls to reincarnate in a new life with their memories of their past life intact, rather than resurrect them.
 * Healing: This is the natural ability that all Godesses have allowing them to heal any living creature, even Demons, if controlled enough. They can heal any injuries, diseases and even curses.
 * By chanelling their healing power trough Ark, Goddesses can counteract negative effects, such as severe injuries either caused physical damage or miasma, to even strong poisonous acid. It can also recover health and stamina or clear a mind full of intense negative emotions such as hatred and madness. This power has the opposite effect on Demons when not controlled enough, hurting them and repelling their power.
 * By raising both their arms, a Goddess can create a purifying mist strong enough to expel centuries-worth of demonic miasma out of the target.
 * A spell that only a high-ranking Goddess could use. The user gathers light in their palm to create some kind of symbol and blowing it over their desired target, with those affected get a magic power boost. The Demon Clan refers to this technique as because it is also a brainwashing spell that turns the targets into fanatical zealots loyal to the Goddesses with no regard of their injuries and keep on fighting until they are broken and dead.
 * Possession: With the consent or forming a pact with another being, Goddesses are able to take their bodies as vessels and use them as their own, being able to use all his/her abilities through their vessel, despite not being so strong that with their original bodies. However, the vessel (especially humans) may have difficulty hosting high-ranking Goddesses, leading their bodies to undergo transformations. The compatibility between the vessel and the Goddess can affect its overall strength.
 * Flight: Given the nature of their wings, this allows the Goddesses to fly. The stronger ones even have the strength enough to carry a giant.

Heaven's Return
Used by Jelamet to open the gate leading to the Celestial Realm.

Tensei no Izanai
Used to allow deceased souls to reincarnate in a new life with their memories of their past life intact.

Time Regression
A spell that allows one to send the soul of another being towards the past. This spell can be taught to members of other races, mainly the Druids.

Nerobasta's Summoning
Used by Denzel Liones to summon the Goddess Nerobasta and manifest her within his body.

Four Archangels
The are the strongest and highest-ranking members of their race, outclassed only by the Supreme Deity herself or her daughter, Elizabeth.
 * Ludociel (Leader)
 * Mael
 * Sariel
 * Tarmiel

Divine Lance Corporal
are Goddesses who serve the Four Archangels within the Divine Militia and are of higher rank than Divine Soldiers.
 * Nerobasta †
 * Jelamet

Divine Soldier
are Goddesses who serve the Four Archangels within the Divine Militia and are ranked below a Divine Lance Corporal.
 * Jenna (Formerly)
 * Zaneri (Formerly)

Trivia

 * Despite being named Goddesses which referes to female deities, there are in fact males among them and they are confirmed to not be actual gods, like their creator and ruler, the Supreme Deity, the Demon King or the Sacred Tree.
 * If the first Goddesses to appear in the series seem inspired by the of, the Four Archangels seem to be inspired by the  of the , but as a whole, the Goddess Clan are mainly inspired by the deities of  or.
 * Ironically, Valkyries would end up being introduced in the franchise as a seperate race in Ragnarok: Fate of Gods.
 * The in their eyes can be a reference to the  or to the.
 * As shown with Nanashi, a Goddess' wings can be removed as his back left four scars where his wings used to be but was still able to use Healing.
 * Some other beings can become Goddesses like Freyja, who is able to become part Goddess through the use of a Holy Relic.