Are the powers of a Divine Soul sorcerer at the mercy of their deity's will?

Question

The Divine Soul sorcerous origin in Xanathar's Guide to Everything description states:

Sometimes the spark of magic that fuels a sorcerer comes from a divine source that glimmers within the soul. Having such a blessed soul is a sign that your innate magic might come from a distant but powerful familial connection to a divine being. Perhaps your ancestor was an angel, transformed into a mortal and sent to fight in a god’s name. Or your birth might align with an ancient prophecy, marking you as a servant of the gods or a chosen vessel of divine magic.

If this power is innate and stems from the sorcerer's connection to a deity, does that mean that such powers would not necessarily come by the will of that deity?

Would such a deity have the ability to simply remove the sorcerer's powers?

I am a DM, and at my table, a player made a Divine Soul sorcerer with an incompatible alignment with the chosen deity. We are still at the character creation process, so we are revising rules and character backstory. When I learned about how his character shares blood with a deity but is quite the opposite in alignment, I've said, "Be warned, the deity will try to change your ways or threaten you with removing your powers." For which his main argument is "I share blood with such deity. My powers do not come from his will, but by the power in the blood itself."

I would like to know if there is some written evidence about the source of such power to make a fair decision that will impact in the character roleplay.

Answer 1

The powers of a sorcerer are their own

The power of a sorcerer is not bestowed upon them by will, it is inherited or manifested. This is explained in the main entry for the sorcerer class on page 99, PHB:

Sorcerers carry a magical birthright conferred upon them by an exotic bloodline, some otherworldly influence, or exposure to unknown cosmic forces. (...) Magic is a part of every sorcerer, suffusing body, mind, and spirit with a latent power that waits to be tapped.

The magic is a birthright; it is innate, part of the sorcerer. No matter what kind of sorcerer. It is not something external. A deity could possibly strip anyone of their abilities with DM fiat, but there is nothing in the sorcerer class that says the class's powers depend on an external source, a source that could withdraw it.

Answer 2

Divine Soul sorcerers gain their powers not through worship, but through their "connection" to divinity

That connection can be through blood, a prophesy, a pact made by your ancestors or any other number of reasons. In fact, characters don't need to even need to know who gave them their power, so working against the deity may be incidental. A character may have received their powers by a god of disease, but want to dedicate their life to healing people. Life happens.

Let's look at a classic mythological example; Hercules.

Hercules was not a god, but was born a mortal, although like many mythic heroes, he had a complicated family tree. According to legend, his father was Zeus, ruler of all the Greek gods on Mount Olympus...

This would track with a possible Divine Soul sorcerer's backstory.

Then, after Hercules was born, Hera sent two snakes to kill him in his crib. The infant Hercules was unusually strong and fearless, however, and he strangled the snakes before they could strangle him.

As an infant, Hercules didn't pray to Zeus, nor did Zeus intervene. Instead, Hercules was extra strong at birth "naturally".

Similarly, Kratos was the son of Zeus, but prayed to Ares and Athena. Could Zeus take away his powers, yes, but because it served the storyline. Zeus is a god and could take powers away from any mortal. But in the end while fighting Zeus, Kratos did not lose any powers.

In the end, deities are just story telling tools

If you want to have a deity, or patron, or DNA donor, or whatever else revoke the powers they granted, then use it as a story telling device. But the same device could be used for a LG character that likes kicking puppies and burning down orphanages.

If a character acts contrary to the moral/theological pillars of the being that gave the sorcerer their Divine Soul, then the DM is free to invoke repercussions. But there aren't any specific rules about revoking power because a character and their "source" aren't aligned.

Answer 3

There’s a lot of “sometimes” and “might” in that paragraph

“Sometimes the spark of magic that fuels a sorcerer comes from a divine source that glimmers within the soul.” And sometimes it doesn’t.

“Having such a blessed soul is a sign that your innate magic might come from a distant but powerful familial connection to a divine being.” Or it might not.

“Perhaps your ancestor was an angel, transformed into a mortal and sent to fight in a god’s name.” Or perhaps not.

“Or your birth might align with an ancient prophecy, marking you as a servant of the gods or a chosen vessel of divine magic.” Or it might not.

These are role play seeds that a character might (again) want to incorporate into their play. Or they could decide that the source of their magic is something else entirely. Or is just plain mysterious.

Whatever they decide, it has no interaction with their alignment or any restriction on their play because there are no secret rules. If it doesn’t say it, it doesn’t do it.

Answer 4

the deity probably can't and more importantly you don't want to.

First sorcerers are not warlock or cleric, their powers are innate not normally granted.

From the description of sorcerer in the PHB

"Sorcerers carry a magical birthright conferred upon them by an exotic bloodline, some otherworldly influence, or exposure to unknown cosmic forces. One can’t study sorcery as one learns a language, any more than one can learn to live a legendary life. No one chooses sorcery; the power chooses the sorcerer."

and

The most important question to consider when creating your sorcerer is the origin of your power. As a starting character, you’ll choose an origin that ties to a draconic bloodline or the influence of wild magic, but the exact source of your power is up to you to decide. Is it a family curse, passed down to you from distant ancestors? Or did some extraordinary event leave you blessed with inherent magic but perhaps scarred as well?

The player decides what the origin of their power is when they create the sorcerer. Unless the characters background specifies the power is granted at the deities will, then suddenly deciding it is is taking a lot away from a player in what will seem like a whim. It will feel like a gross violation of the social contract.

Could a god do it, sure, a god could change you into a fish or erase you from existence. But if anything I would argue a deity would have a harder time taking the power away from a divine sorcerer, than taking away a barbarian's ability to rage or a wizard's access to magic. If deities could take away power from divine bloodlines there would not be fallen angels or fallen aasimar.

More importantly if roleplay is your goal then you don't want to take away their power.

If you want a comparison in a different but similar system, pathfinder, I player a dwarf with a divine spark who turned out to the be the youngest of the dwarven gods children. A black sheep because he was chaotic good instead of lawful. It was a lot of fun playing against type. A nascent dwarven god of redemption, repair, and recycling angry at the rest of the dwarven pantheon for how much they discard and waste. The other gods took all kinds of opportunity to argue and debate with me, even throwing the occasional "test" to prove my character wrong. There is a huge amount of roleplay opportunity you are wasting if you try to just brute force the issue.