In many fantasy worlds, the gods are real beings that walk the earth.
From Dungeons & Dragons, clerics being granted magic by their deity, to <insert your own example, to avoid me giving spoilers>, Gods have had a hand in the world, and have "existed" in a more tangible way than gods in the real world.
I have created a four-god pantheon for my world, my notes on them are at home, so I don't have all their names. Anyway...
Anyone that has read my previous posts will know my world is tide-locked to the sun. This was caused by a cataclysmic impact in its early life, leaving the moon shattered, with a view from the ground much like in the terrible film depicting a Time Machine, and strange creatures of the future. The impact knocked the planet enough to push it into a tide-locked orbit. That shattered moon is the most noticeable deity.
The two main gods are that of Light and Dark. They're among the most obvious things in the world, for those that have travelled enough. On one side of the world it is perpetually light, and on the other, perpetually dark. People realised that too much of either is enough to kill.
They also noticed that where the light and dark meet, they cancel each other out, and that is where life can occur. This is where the third deity is found; life.
So, that gives us the four gods. Light, Dark, Life and the Moon. The moon handily orbits the planet once every 24 hours, giving people a show of the passage of time, so the goddess of the moon covers time.
My current musings though, revolve around whether these four gods should exist in a standard Fantasy sense. Should they be able to speak with the people, alter events, or show up in a human form on the surface? Should they work purely as belief, as a concept to aid people in overcoming the thought that they are a tiny, insignificant spec on the universe?
Oh, and coincidentally, to these people, the fact that it's a tide-locked world is a good thing. Since they believe that too much of one is certain death, if the planet was spinning faster, they would eventually be directly underneath the light or dark, and that would kill them. The shattered form of the moon is proof of this, as they can see her path through the sky that disappears towards the dark side, and re-emerges from the same point as the light. Eventually, time catches up with everyone.
From Dungeons & Dragons, clerics being granted magic by their deity, to <insert your own example, to avoid me giving spoilers>, Gods have had a hand in the world, and have "existed" in a more tangible way than gods in the real world.
I have created a four-god pantheon for my world, my notes on them are at home, so I don't have all their names. Anyway...
Anyone that has read my previous posts will know my world is tide-locked to the sun. This was caused by a cataclysmic impact in its early life, leaving the moon shattered, with a view from the ground much like in the terrible film depicting a Time Machine, and strange creatures of the future. The impact knocked the planet enough to push it into a tide-locked orbit. That shattered moon is the most noticeable deity.
The two main gods are that of Light and Dark. They're among the most obvious things in the world, for those that have travelled enough. On one side of the world it is perpetually light, and on the other, perpetually dark. People realised that too much of either is enough to kill.
They also noticed that where the light and dark meet, they cancel each other out, and that is where life can occur. This is where the third deity is found; life.
So, that gives us the four gods. Light, Dark, Life and the Moon. The moon handily orbits the planet once every 24 hours, giving people a show of the passage of time, so the goddess of the moon covers time.
My current musings though, revolve around whether these four gods should exist in a standard Fantasy sense. Should they be able to speak with the people, alter events, or show up in a human form on the surface? Should they work purely as belief, as a concept to aid people in overcoming the thought that they are a tiny, insignificant spec on the universe?
Oh, and coincidentally, to these people, the fact that it's a tide-locked world is a good thing. Since they believe that too much of one is certain death, if the planet was spinning faster, they would eventually be directly underneath the light or dark, and that would kill them. The shattered form of the moon is proof of this, as they can see her path through the sky that disappears towards the dark side, and re-emerges from the same point as the light. Eventually, time catches up with everyone.