Is it odd that I want to have a pantheon of gods but...

[Naruzeldamaster]

Have it be more like asia rather than like Rome or such?
I mean, in my story the gods are very much real and part of the story.
I just kind of want them to be like, chill, like they're just as much a part of the world as the mortals are.
Of course the cultures and whatnot respect the gods, and have ceremonies and stuff, but there isn't any form of 'central' religion, like Christian or Roman church type stuff.
In the story the gods themselves come and visit the mortals frequently enough where they're sort of treated like extra strong nobles but that's the closest thing to 'religion' it gets.

 

[Jackarandajam]

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
I would pose the question though: if everything with the gods is pretty chill and comfortable, how do they effect the plot?

 

[pmmg]

Well… if you were asian would it have seemed weird? Till they met the rest of the world, that was what they accepted.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
I would pose the question though: if everything with the gods is pretty chill and comfortable, how do they effect the plot?

Their main job is monitoring divine instruments (you know, stuff that controls the weather and stuff) and the antagonist has messed with them.
The gods aren't suspicious of this malfunction for a good while, and it isn't until the story starts that the gods do investigate it.
They are important to the story/lore and they have been moving things along to draw an evil 'entity' out of hiding. But they don't want to do anything super drastic that would alter the course of mortal history/nature etc. Even Quantum, the most chaotic of the group, wants to be on his continents good side. On the surface the things he does might be seen as evil, but a lot of it is to prevent much worse things from happening. (Like one time he let some giant rats free from the deeper parts of a dwarven mine, they were burrowing too close to the core of the planet and if they had been exposed to that energy for much longer they'd have evolved into threats the adventurers couldn't handle)

 

[skip.knox]

Sounds fine in principle. How does it work out in an actual story?

 

[Queshire]

Asia's a big place with a lot of different cultures so I'm still a bit confused by what you mean?

 

[Finchbearer]

…I think you really would benefit from doing some research instead of presuming things. Look at pre-Christian Asian belief systems for one example, and go from there. You don’t realise it, but there’s so many assumptions in your questions that you would probably debunk by just doing some good old fashioned research.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Sounds fine in principle. How does it work out in an actual story?

They're basically the guardians of their land and god like beings besides. (basically the land lords) They don't like to interfere with mortal business, unless whatever conflict would drastically alter history from it's intended path. Most of them are fairly social/open about being the god/goddess of whatever element. The people are so used to the more social gods (Poseidon is the only one who's somewhat shy but that's more of a her thing) just deciding to visit without warning, that the more social gods of the group can just walk around with not a lot of showmanship. (the gods actually like this though, as they only wish to be respected, rather than revered) The only ceremonial thing that was deigned by the gods is that there's a lot of food-related holidays in the fire god's nation, due to her (mostly unwittingly) suggesting ideas for feast-type holidays because she's a huge foodie, doesn't help that the nation of fire is also mostly foodies of varying types. Other ceremonies and such are much smaller in scale and tend to occur more out of respect for the god and what they do. Kind of closer to like how Japan culture builds those little houses for forest spirits.

Asia's a big place with a lot of different cultures so I'm still a bit confused by what you mean?

I was thinking closer to Japan (dunno why I spesifically said asia but that's what I get for making a post like that at 2:AM) where there's like a handful of 'big wig' gods and then tons and tons of 'smaller' gods for almost everything.

My idea is that there's no like 'church of x' type religion surrounding the gods/goddesses. They are of course respected/worshiped but it's not a requirement to do so. The kind of praising/worship I'm thinking of is more like there's dedicated shrines that were built a long time ago and people leave little offerings to them in respect. Cause a long time ago the gods requested no 'grand standing' in their praise/respect.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

…I think you really would benefit from doing some research instead of presuming things. Look at pre-Christian Asian belief systems for one example, and go from there. You don’t realise it, but there’s so many assumptions in your questions that you would probably debunk by just doing some good old fashioned research.

Yeah, I'm only basing my story on what little I know from fiction, which isn't always super accurate.
I do know SOME stuff but I don't think some hobbiest research presented to me in the form of a knowledgeable goomba from mario on youtube about Japanese culture is going to get me anywhere. I did learn some cool stuff from him though. I always thought Ninjas wearing black was silly and more of a pop culture thing but I didn't know they usually wore blue.

 

[Finchbearer]

I’d suggest you research into religion and the different types and how people worship them, then make your informed creative decisions based on that.

 

[skip.knox]

First, yes to doing actual research. I do hope that is still being taught in schools (that is, how to tell if the research you are doing is any good or is merely looking at stuff).

Second, I asked how your pantheon works in a story. That is, never mind all the background, when you are telling a story, how have you woven the gods into it?

 

[Prince of Spires]

In adition to what the other have said, I personally think that if you're going for an Asian feel to your pantheon, then having a god named Poseidon just feels very silly and will undo all the hard work you've done in setting up your pantheon. Any reader who knows even a little bit about mythology (as in, the bare minimum), will immediately think Greek! when seeing that name.

There are hundreds of gods in Asia. If you need to have a sea god, please at least just pick a name that sounds vaguely asian. Even just translating Poseidon or sea directly into Hindi or Japanese or whatever is better than just saying Poseidon.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

In adition to what the other have said, I personally think that if you're going for an Asian feel to your pantheon, then having a god named Poseidon just feels very silly and will undo all the hard work you've done in setting up your pantheon. Any reader who knows even a little bit about mythology (as in, the bare minimum), will immediately think Greek! when seeing that name.

There are hundreds of gods in Asia. If you need to have a sea god, please at least just pick a name that sounds vaguely asian. Even just translating Poseidon or sea directly into Hindi or Japanese or whatever is better than just saying Poseidon.

I will Likely do some surface level research on Japanese mythology, but only in so far as the 'basics' because the actual intricacies of the mythology itself aren't super relevant. I am going for a similar pantheon and similar ceremonies (like leaving offerings of food at shrines and other small things) but otherwise for the exact details I want to be as original as I can with this.

The biggest difference I want to establish in my story: The gods are absolutely 'higher' beings, but they are a lot more social with mortals than your average deity tends to be. Even the least social of the group, Poseidon visits her people in person from time to time. At first their frequent visits to mortal cultures were confusing, even more so that they all requested no 'grand standing' on ceremonies dedicated to them. But once the mortals understood the reasoning behind it their cultures adapted to it over time. Both the gods and the mortals poke fun at de-mystyfying being a 'godly' being too.

Regarding Poseidon, I hadn't thought of that though the reason she called herself Poseidon in the lore (The lesser gods all named themselves upon their creation from the major god) is fairly simple. She had glimpsed into the sea of data and seen names of gods from our world while choosing her name, and wanted a strong/powerful but also noble name. She didn't know that Poseidon is a man, nor did she know he is the god of the sea. She picked the name purely because it evoked nobility/power when spoken. Though the other gods don't have similar names in terms of Mythology, the names they chose were chosen for similar reasons. That being said it probably would make sense to translate it to a Japanese language.