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In a World of Gods

Rithaniel

Acolyte
Alright, so, I am constructing a world where the primary driving forces in the world are deities. I have specific rules set up for how the deities work. First, they don't know their own origin, and simply begin to exist already in the world they are gods of. They can have children and those children are also gods. A god has a physical form and if they are somehow killed, they leave a corpse. Killing a god is a tremendous undertaking, however. Meanwhile, a god is immortal and their body is almost impervious to harm while they are alive.

Each god has a domain or multiple domains which primarily shape their personality. For example, a god might have a domain of justice. This technically doesn't affect what they can use their powers towards, but they will instinctively bend their powers towards the concept of justice and correcting wrongs.

On the subject of powers, a god can create and destroy things on a whim. With a swipe of their hand they can level a forest or raise a mountain. However, when it comes to absolutes, things become more difficult. Destroying all forests is an undertaking. Raising the highest mountain is something that strains their limits. On the subject of life: once a lifeform exists, it is easy to create copies, but the first one is a unique thing that takes time and effort. As a rule of thumb, a god will usually wait a century or longer between strenuous acts. After all, they have limits, and if they push themselves too far, they could waste away into nothing. So they need to recharge.

The main character in this story is going to be one of these gods. He will be the youngest god, having come into existence some time after the others. To give you a sense of who he is, one of his main domains will be of the destitute. While he is the youngest god, he will actually take the form of an incredibly old and wrinkled man. The story will follow him primarily.

Now, for my main problem: I have all these rules for gods, what they can do and what they can't do. Yet, I lack any ideas for gods with which to populate this world. What could some ideas be?

I suddenly realize that I left out one of the most important details: Since the main character in the story is going to be a god, his contemporaries are also going to be gods. When I ask for ideas for the gods that I could populate the world with, I'm mostly asking for ideas on major characters to populate the story with. Ideally, I would like ideas for gods which are based around their motivations and personalities. What kind of mixture would make for good dynamics?
 
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skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Gods are usually associated with something, at least in polytheistic religions. God of the harvest, the hearth, war, that sort of thing. You could put some thought along those lines. For instance, maybe a god for each of the main magical elements. Or a god for each major realm of the world--at simplest, a god of the sea, sky, earth, underworld.

You could go to the other extreme and have a god for everything and its second cousin. A god of carts. God of beetles. God of indigestion.

One I've not seen, but which might be interesting, would be gods for abstract concepts. Courage, love, fidelity, dreams, anger. But not for anything physical.

The main thing is just to put some thought and some research into it. Then follow whatever tickles your fancy. Your fancy is ticklish, right?
 

Rithaniel

Acolyte
I suddenly realize that I left out one of the most important details: Since the main character in the story is going to be a god, his contemporaries are also going to be gods. When I ask for ideas for the gods that I could populate the world with, I'm mostly asking for ideas on major characters to populate the story with. Ideally, I would like ideas for gods which are based around their motivations and personalities. What kind of mixture would make for good dynamics?

(Also, I will edit this into the first post to make sure that it's not missed.)

(Edit: How do you edit the first post in a thread? There is no edit button . . . )
 

Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
Hello Rithaniel!

First of all, Welcome to Mythic Scribes. Now, a quick answer to your question: In this site, regular members do not have the power to edit their own posts whenever that they want. Editing a post can be done, but only for a short time after the creation of said post. This is a harsh security measure that spammers have forced us to take.

I can edit the first post of this thread for you, if you want.

Well, a Fantasy story focused on a variety of characters that are powerful deities of some kind is most unusual. Some people will tell you that it's a bad idea because readers would find it hard to connect or identify with such characters, but if you really like this idea just do not listen to them.

I think that a forest-loving and plant related goddess would be great, with a peaceful personality. Her motivation could be to provide good harvests every year and to protect wildlife of the forests. Another could be all about fire, volcanoes and disasters, like earthquakes, with hostile motivations. What about a sky deity that wants to inspire and help astronomers?
 

Rithaniel

Acolyte
That would actually be great, Sheilawisz, thank you. Just copy the non-parenthetical part of my last post and paste it to the bottom of the first post. I just want to make sure that a person only needs to read one post to know what the goal is.

Also, I've thought about the idea that people might find it difficult to connect with a character with godlike powers, but they do it all the time. Characters like Thor and Loki have godlike powers yet people understand and love them (referring to the original nordic myths, but the same is true about the Marvel incarnation). The detail that needs to be captured is the fact that they are flawed individuals. For example, I was toying around with the idea that the first lifeform that our main character creates would go on to become a horrible monster. A conflict right there: does the guy try and protect his creation or condemn it for the evil acts it has committed.

I've also played around with a few loose character concepts. Such as a god of war, who wants bloodshed and might act as a main antagonist, but I'm not fond of that idea because it's too simple. Another idea was the idea of a god of justice, who wants to right every wrong with an 'eye for an eye' mentality, but who descends into a dictator-esque figure who refuses to compromise.

I like the idea of the plant goddess, actually, perhaps as a neutral character who the main character can view as a friend and confidant.

Thinking about it a little, might it be best to aim for characters who have reasons to get involved with other gods?
 

Vvashjr

Minstrel
In my world, the first generation of the gods are physical manifestations of the world. Sun, moon, sky, night, earth, and also abstract forces like creativity, desire, torment.

After a huge war between them, they depart the earthly realm, but not before giving rise to a pantheon of deities who preside over Concepts of mortal life(since the physical ones are already taken), and kinda divided into Light, Neutral and Dark.

Leading the Light gods, is the God of Law and Order. The neutral leader is the Goddess of Luck and Fortune. And leading the forces of Dark is the Goddess of Chaos and Anarchy.
 

WooHooMan

Auror
Jungian psychology and comparative mythology.

The gods are a representation of the people they preside over as much as the world is a representation of their will.
So, when trying to determine the domains of the gods, you need to think about the needs of the people who worship them. For example, a sea-faring culture would place mostly equal importance on ocean and weather gods but not so much on Earth deities (look at the Greeks with Zeus, Poseidon, Uranus and so forth).
Think about what is important to the world and design the pantheon according. If it is a world where fate and destiny are important, maybe the head of the pantheon can be a time god. If it is a world where man's relationship to the natural world is most important, a harvest or weather god would be at the top.

From there, you have some options to how you would determine the gods roles within their pantheon. Gods tend to be divided into clans with a ruling clan acting as the monarchy of the cosmos (examples: Aesir, Vanir, Olympians, Titans, Devas, Asuras). So the core pantheon would be the ruling clan. You can design them based around familial roles. I did a pantheon with a dad, a mom, a favorite son, a prodigal son and a youngest child (plus their spouses) as the core pantheon.

If you want me to just throw-out a full plan for you: I'd use the aspects of the Jungian psyche. Which means you would need a scholar god (Logos), a death/danger/risk god (Thanatos), a love/passion god (Eros), a villain or trickster (Shadow), opposite gendered dual gods (Anima and Animus). You would also need to have a Ego (counterpart to the Shadow, perhaps a hero god). That would likely be your main character.

You could also draw on the 12 character archetypes: the innocent, the orphan, the hero, the caregiver, the explorer, the rebel, the lover, the artist, the jester, the sage, the magician and the ruler.

So, there's me throwing some thoughts out there. Is this helping any?

See, I got really crazy with just building a whole pantheon from scratch and I was able to develop something really interesting and unique so I'd say this method tends to work.
 

Rithaniel

Acolyte
Well, our main character isn't so much the heroic type. He's more the type to earn the title "the gray god" or "the drifter." I have ideas for him, but everything is still up in the air. I don't think he automatically fits in with the Jungian psychology, but he would probably be the orphan when it comes to the character archetypes. Or the explorer.

Also, I don't want to say that they are all part of the same pantheon, because I think it will be common for them to want other gods to stay out of their business. I had a thought earlier today that there might be a trio of "brothers." Those three gods would be their own pantheon, but the other gods aren't necessarily affiliated with them.

I think that the gods will exist outside of people. These gods will exist prior to any race and they will shape the races that they create to their desires. Also, I think gods won't necessarily even have worshipers. For example, I had the idea that our main character might settle down as a hermit at the edge of a town for a while and simply not mention to anyone that he is a deity.

I like the idea of working with classical archetypes, but I probably won't try to follow them too exactly. If anything I'll use them as templates and mix and match concepts from different archetypes. After all, a fully fleshed out character has all sorts of emotional states and motivations. So yeah, the ideas you've shared are helping.

As for what's important in the world, I would say that the world is intended as a blank slate, and that the actions of the gods are what affect what matters. To use an analogy, it's like the world is an empty stage, and the gods are acting out a play on it.
 
There are certain beings in my books that could be considered 'deity-like', but since everyone in that universe is divine, it's hard to distinguish them. Though the most powerful and disciplined ones can warp reality just by wishing.

You've given me some great ideas for future books. Thanks!
 
No, yours!
(This is an immature joke.)
More on topic, it's a novel idea that could definitely make a cool story. I like that you place some limits on their power, (that they can't level every forest in the whole world, etc).
I think something to consider is the psychology of the gods. If a god is the god of war, for example, wouldn't everything they do likely be related to war? Or at least, they would want to further the cause whenever they get the chance, and occasionally make stupid decisions to do so. The god of war would likely not want to destroy everything, unlike how many fictional stories portray war gods, because then there wouldn't be anymore war. War isn't just chaos, it's strategy and order. A war god would be motivated to maintain that order.
 
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