deities form the Pantheon of Discord, a terrifying collection of beings attempting to rewrite the universe to their own goal.

The Pantheon is formed of both new and existing enemies, as the first member to debut in the new era was the Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris), a returning foe from the First Doctor's (William Hartnell) era who was marked as the God of Games. The Toymaker was followed by Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon), the God of Music, and the return of the Fourth Doctor's (Tom Baker) foe, Sutekh (Gabriel Woolf), who was named as the God of Death.

Much like season 14, Doctor Who season 15's second episode saw the debut of the God of Light, Lux Imperator (Alan Cumming), and will conclude with another God's arrival with Desiderium.

Where Desiderium Came From In Doctor Who

The Doctor Unwittingly Brought About His Greatest Foe's Arrival

While many of the of the Pantheon were already present in the Whoniverse before the events of Doctor Who's 60th anniversary, one risky gambit allowed the existing entities to gain new power, or for new entities to manifest. In the second milestone special, "Wild Blue Yonder", the Fourteenth Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) stumble onto a drifting vessel at the edge of the universe. Onboard, they find that the captain sacrificed herself to prevent the Not-Things, unknowable shapeshifting terrors, from reaching civilization, but instead, the creatures attempted to mimic the Time Lord and his companion.

Alone onboard with no TARDIS to rely on, the Doctor and Donna are cornered, as the Not-Things' connection to them allows them to further their duplication and become perfect copies. With no other way out, the Time Lord invokes superstition to confuse them, using the myth that certain creatures cannot cross a line of salt without counting to put distance between him and Donna, and the Not-Things. However, while it helped them escape, the Doctor regretted it, stating that invoking it on the edge of the universe, where reality is more malleable, may have rewritten the natural order of things.

A Seventh Son of a Seventh Son doesn't always have good connotations, as Latin American and Romanian folklore ties a Seventh Son of a Seventh Son to Werewolves and Vampires.

One such myth that found itself manifesting was the European belief that the seventh son of a seventh son held some sort of great power. In English and Irish folklore specifically, the seventh son in a unbroken line of seven sons was believed to have been born blessed with great abilities as healers. Meanwhile, seven is believed in many cultures to be a lucky number, meaning that there was great joy in the home of Otto and Violett Zufall (Atilla Akinci and Leni Adams) in 1865 Bavaria upon the birth of their seventh child.

What Desiderium's Name Means & Why It's Important

Desiderium Often Is Associated With A Specific Kind Of Wish

While they hoped to name their new son Joonas, their naming plans, and their lives as a whole, were interrupted by the arrival of The Rani (Archie Panjabi). After terrorizing and transforming the entire Zufall family, she abducted the child and used its innate powers as part of her plot to return the exiled Time Lord founder Omega to the proper universe. As she found herself reunited with the Doctor in the rewritten 2025, she revealed that the child was a physical manifestation of Desiderium, the God of Wishes.

Much like how Maestro, Lux Imperator, and Sutekh's names have deeper meanings behind them, the word Desiderium has a specific meaning. Rather than simply meaning a wish, Desiderium has its origins in the Latin word for desire, specifically a strong desire or yearning for something that has long ed. As such, this name aligns perfectly with the Rani's larger schemes.

Why The Rani Needed Desiderium & What The Baby Is Actually Doing

The Rani Wishes To Bring Gallifrey Back For A New Golden Age

Upon taking the baby, the Rani rewrites reality, turning the Earth into an incredibly totalitarian conservative world, where heteronormative couples are expected to marry and uphold dated gender roles, any form of queerness or other-abledness is shunned and cast out, and doubt at this order is penalized, with those who express doubt or deviation being taken away. However, this is only one phase of the Rani's plan.

As more and more people come to doubt this unsustainable reality, the Rani hopes that the fragile reality that she has rewritten the universe into will be stretched thin as it is unable to accommodate humanity's collective desires. Further, small manifestations like cups phasing through tables will expand to the point where the universe itself will begin to phase into the Underverse, a reality beneath the known universe. It is in the Underverse where Omega, the insane and exiled Time Lord founder, can be found, whom the Rani hopes can resurrect Gallifrey once more.

How Powerful Desiderium Is Compared To Doctor Who's Other Pantheon Gods

In The Wrong Hands, Desiderium Can Give Foes Terrifying Powers

While only being in the form of an 18th-century Bavarian baby, Desidereum has already been shown to possess not only its own power, but the ability to gift its powers to others. Upon kissing the baby on the forehead, the Rani can transmutate the Zufalls into violet flowers, ducks, and an owl with her words alone, and it is implied that she did the same to rewrite the rest of the world. As the baby grew, the range of these powers expanded, meaning that Conrad Clarke (Jonah Hauer-King) can use his gifts just by thinking while being in close vicinity to the baby.

Within the Rani's scheme, Conrad's charisma and warped dreams of an ideal world allow her to build the unsustainable reality that she knows will eventually be undone. Through his thoughts and television broadcasts, Conrad can not only use Desidereum's gifts to manifest whatever weather he desires, but also keeps the populace in check by reading a book that espouses the twisted order of things alongside how she hopes the timeline will progress.

Desiderium stands as truly the most powerful god of Doctor Who's Pantheon of Discord.

While all the past Gods have been able to reshape reality in some way, they have also been bound by limitations. The Toymaker and Maestro are limited by the rules of their game, Sutekh required several millennias of evolution to reach his peak powers and lost his ability to understand mortal desires, and Lux was limited by his avatar of Mr. Ring-a-ding without a powerful light source to take power from. With the ability to not only change the universe itself, but also allow others to do the same, Desiderium stands as truly the most powerful god of Doctor Who's Pantheon of Discord.