Fictional Pantheons and Origin Myths

[Eclipse Sovereign]

Here’s a few of my gods, and the origin myth surrounding them.


In the Beginning, there was the Uncreated Night. From the Void came the Mother, the Earth Goddess, and her husband Invictus the First. They bore Thirteen Old God children, and all was well. However, the eldest, Dominus, grew weary of the restrictions his parents inflicted on their power. Using his Godhood, he made the first weapon: the Warhammer. Luring Invictus I to the distant plains, he slew his father and ate his spine. Afterwards, he split Invictus into thirteen pieces and scattered them across the world. Each birthed a primordial monster.


Dominus then hunted down his mother and slew her. However, she had birthed a son after Invictus’s death, the god Aether. Aether gathered the primordial monsters and slew them, using their cooked flesh to convince many other New Gods to serve him and drive out the Old Gods. Dominus had made a great palace from his Godhood, ruling the Earth from the branching summit. The Old Gods warred with the New Gods for ten thousand years, until Aether finally scaled the Palace and brought it down. He bound the Old Gods under land and sea, but Dominus was sentenced to a different fate. He was dismembered, his spine and flesh devoured, and Aether acquired the Godhood of two of the greatest gods the world has ever seen.


He then married Umbra, and sired many gods, founding the Thirteen Gods, and building the Spire.


The Greatest of the Thirteen Gods

Aether

God of Light, Chief of Deities, He who Lays Waste, Husband of Umbra, the Lightbringer


Aether is the harsh, distant god of kings. Ruling from the heights of the Spire of Gods, he emanates pure light, watching all the world from the Throne of Darkness. Unlike his brethren, Aether does not leave the Spire to sire divine children. He is loyal to his wife, Umbra. When a king is judged guilty by He who Lays Waste, the god will step to the Earth and walk through his kingdom as a destroyer of all, withering plants, inflicting a poison in all life, burning land and melting stone, rendering the kingdom uninhabitable for thirteen generations. As the judge of kings, he wields ultimate power, and is doubtless the most just of all the gods. He led the Rebellion against the Old Gods, and ate the spine of the Old God Dominus, acquiring his Godhood. He is a son of Uncreated Night and the All-Mother, and father of most of the Thirteen. Tyrants and false kings are punished with his fires.


Umbra

Queen of The Gods, Lady of Night, Mother of Heroes, She who Births Frost


The willful, adulterous wife of Aether, Umbra is the Mother of Heroes. Her half-divine sons and daughters are some of the greatest of all men, slaying monsters and founding kingdoms. Despite her affairs, she is loyal to her husband, and schemes against his foes amongst the Thirteen. She wields the power of Night, her father, and has power over storms and winter. Umbra is also the mother of many gods, especially amongst the Thirteen. Her favorite child is Cacalia, the Goddess of Mountains. Her least favorite is Dis. She is also a goddess of family bonds, and punishes adulterers in black ice.


Dis

God/ess of Love, Trickster, Prince of Discordances, Lord/Lady of Ecstasy, Protector of the Innocent


The most beautiful and cunning god, Dis is widely worshipped and widely feared. Whereas the Lightbringer will decimate a kingdom with due cause, Dis brings wreckage and pain to all humanity. He (or she) is responsible for most of the threats to the Thirteen. Dis stirs passions and incurs wrath, inciting feuds and playing with the lives of mortals. The God of Love also brings the greatest joy to humanity, however, and often exults in happy endings. Without Dis, the world would be a less interesting, less joyous place. The Trickster has also saved the Thirteen on many an occasion, not least when the Old God Morghul attempted to execute the gods. Dis punishes those who commit crimes against him with crucifixion.

 

[WooHooMan]

I’m trying to imagine what kind of culture would believe in this. Here’s what I got:
1. A culture that defines justice through retribution and revenge rather than mercy.
2. Where the primordial villain is a rebellious child. Likely a pretty authoritarian culture.
3. Where great good (love) and great evil (discord) are ultimately two ends of the same extreme.
4. Authority through family lines and likely having a “might makes right” attitude. I’m thinking a monarchical or tribal culture. Probably more on the oligarchic side.
5. An expectation that those in powers can have negative traits (harshness, being distant, adulterous) while still being seen as righteous.
6. The ultimate purpose of divinity is to punish mortals through divine justice.
7. Something can come from nothing. As that’s how the universe started.

The thing about myths is that they tend to be loaded with philosophical and symbolic meaning that serves to define how a culture views the world. Particularly how they define right vs. wrong and the nature of authority and order.
So whenever I read other people’s myths, I often try to figure-out what kind of philosophy they are trying to illustrate. That tends to tell you a lot about the tone and personality of their setting and even their stories.

 

[Eclipse Sovereign]

I’m trying to imagine what kind of culture would believe in this. Here’s what I got:
1. A culture that defines justice through retribution and revenge rather than mercy.
2. Where the primordial villain is a rebellious child. Likely a pretty authoritarian culture.
3. Where great good (love) and great evil (discord) are ultimately two ends of the same extreme.
4. Authority through family lines and likely having a “might makes right” attitude. I’m thinking a monarchical or tribal culture. Probably more on the oligarchic side.
5. An expectation that those in powers can have negative traits (harshness, being distant, adulterous) while still being seen as righteous.
6. The ultimate purpose of divinity is to punish mortals through divine justice.
7. Something can come from nothing. As that’s how the universe started.

The thing about myths is that they tend to be loaded with philosophical and symbolic meaning that serves to define how a culture views the world. Particularly how they define right vs. wrong and the nature of authority and order.
So whenever I read other people’s myths, I often try to figure-out what kind of philosophy they are trying to illustrate. That tends to tell you a lot about the tone and personality of their setting and even their stories.

You’ve nailed it.

Plus, the fact that the gods are plainly real doesn’t hurt. They may be cruel and vindictive, but they’re much better than the man-eating, monstrous Old Gods.

 

[WooHooMan]

Plus, the fact that the gods are plainly real doesn’t hurt.

That kind of goes without saying. You do it, I do it - gods being real is so common in fiction that it can just be assumed.
Also, new gods being better than old gods is pretty common. I did that convention as well.