Gods : Of Man and Monster.

[King_Cagn]

So every fictional world has a deity or deities which all the races pray too, but every fictional world is full of creativity that sets apart itself from others, who are the well known deities of your world and who worship them? Here are some of mine :

The Sculptor : The Sculptor is known as the one who'd created/carved out the entire universe from the great stone, they say that he is responsible for the creation of the Children of Soil and Sea (Humans). He is also responsible for the Animals, The Nacakl (Elves, now extinct) and all that man can see through sculptor.

Shael Fara : Her ancient name cannot be uttered as she has none yet in the Tongue of Man, she is the Gardener or Mother of Seed, Shael Fara. Her name is deprived from the first words uttered by the Tongue of Man to show their appreciation for the plants around them.

To Man, she is Shael Fara. To the savage tribes of the Mura she is the fertility goddess Veena, she is who commands pleasure amongst the people and demands the birth of the Great Eagle, who's great wings will embrace the world and from it Veena herself will be reborn.

The Beheader : A vicious and bloodthirsty war-god of the Mura, their tribes strongest opponents are captured for him. His name implies what he is known for, decaptition of men and beast alike.

Bubezi : Not much is known of this deity but it is known that the Druids of Kala worship this sieman-like deity often carved in trees. He is depicted upon the world, the sun and moon in hand, the druids believe that he is the Great Seer whose knowledge traversed the earth and manifested as trees.

Nyami : As the great river serpent moves through the world, the village of Lochart is known to sacrifice a virgin to it by drowning her in the river the night before it arrives. Nobody contends with the cult of a village as it is responsible for the largest meat export amongst the kingdoms, the meat is often said to come from the body of the serpent but nobody truly knows. Their worship of the Nyami is frowned upon by the neighboring villages but they silently keep these opinions to themselves as they know they can only get meat from Lochart.

- Well there's some of them that I can remember from the top of my head, . Hope you enjoyed and can share your own.

 

[WooHooMan]

In my current WIP mythology, there are no deities. I made a thing about it on this forum.

In my shelved novel, the main religions were animistic. The largest religion worshiped the Sun, Moon and stars directly. There was also a smaller religion that worshiped the spirits of their ancestors.

I had a short story that had a monotheistic god named Oire who was inactive/asleep. However, his incarnations, the creator spirit Vara and the destroyed demon Rainbow, were very active and worshiped by different people.
There was also a pantheon of 15 lesser gods but they were meant to be a parody of mythological pantheons.

 

[Guy]

The chief gods are Tamura the All Father and Donya the All Mother. As their titles imply, they are gods of life. Each has their dark aspect, gods of death. For Tamura it is Crewahk the Huntsman and for Donya it is Nevawn the Death Breeder. Tahlsen and Letran are god and goddess of bards, poets, and storytellers. Bathoseth and Pelora are godd and goddess of the sea. Bakahl is god of blacksmiths and Talisandra goddess of weaving. Gwynor and Cassandra are god and goddess of history.

 

[eliec]

Being an agnostic myself, I'm never really comfortable writing about gods in the anthropomorphic sense. The closest I can come to them are forces of nature or spirits that are simply another class of being like old style Fae.
The only one that can somehow qualify is the Enemy, but that thing, for lack of a better word, is simply destruction and hatred outside of our world. Think like Lovecraftian horror that cannot physically exist in our universe unless given form by conscious belief.

 

[Mythopoet]

My world is home to "8 Million Kami" as they say in Japanese mythology. They are not gods set apart, but a race of "divine" beings who live among all the other creatures that inhabit the world but are intricately involved in the functions of the natural world. Almost all of the world's mortal civilizations are ruled by Kami or descendants of Kami. The more powerful ones are worshiped and some have very elaborate cults developed around them depending on how important their role in the nature of the world is.

 

[Terry Greer]

In my Jangada series the religion is based on half forgotten truths about the real people that were involved int he world's creation - suitably embellished and distorted by time and retelling. (So they're not really gods at all - following Arthur c Clarke's law that 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic).

Even then the religion of the world is largely in decline - as secularism and 'enlightenment' take over - until the myths and reality start meeting and conflicting.
While those in the lower levels of the worlds religion are devout and honest - those that have risen to the very top know more about the truth (sometimes a lot more) and have corrupted by the power that knowledge brings.

 

[The Construct]

Gods-
Balat (The Highfather, the Weaver, Creation): The chief deity of my conworld, weaves out the universe with his loom and wove all the other gods (occasionally with terrifying results). Extremely powerful, but highly unimaginative. Not the best father either. :I

- (The Stillborn, the Sightless, Oblivion): Balat's first attempt at creating another like himself. He made the mistake of trying to weave something out of threads of oblivion and the results were not as he had hoped. He wove a tapestry of darkness to seal away his failed creation in the void of oblivion, alone with its madness. The majority of people are completely unaware of its existence.

Ebsidus (The Firstborn, the Thinker, Darkness): Balat's second attempt and first success at creating a companion, this time using threads of darkness. Ebsidus is the most intelligent of the gods, and he created the night-sky. With his vast intellect, he bound together the 7 filaments of colour into threads of light and wove it into the tapestry as stars. Eventually he was abandoned by Balat in favour of his siblings, and in his sorrow created demons, dragons and ripped a hole into oblivion. Seen as a devil by most, he's a complicated individual and humanity was created in his image.

Emyr (The Secondborn, the Artist, Light): When Ebsidus created light in the form of stars, Balat copied him and used the threads to weave a daughter, in the form of Emyr. Together with her father she wove the sun (the light of which drove Ebsidus away into the furthest corners of Totality) and the world, creating the elements from the different colours contained within the light. Beautiful, creative and compassionate, she's often the principle figure of worship, Balat being viewed as a more distant figure.

Phage (The Thirdborn, the Fleshweaver, Life): With the world created the next step was to populate it. Of course Balat would never think of such a thing, so Ebsidus stepped up and sent a race of bird-people (the name of which I have yet to think up) to live there. Balat, as usual, jumped right on the bandwagon and used the biological threads to create a new child, Phage. Phage created the trees and animals and the giants to watch over the world. Too bad he later turned rebellious and vaguely evil, creating a legion of undead for manual labour.

Giants: The 22 Giant Lords watched over the world, molded the mountains, tended the forests and protected the inhabitants. Until Ebsidus tempted half of them into turning against Balat and as a result all of them were punished, each sealed away within a great tree. They're still worshiped by some however -the 11 that remained good at least (though the bad 11 can still hold influence).

Dragons-
Teymat, Dragon of Chaos: Created by Ebsidus as a powerful weapon in the war with Balat, Teymat is a gigantic and mighty dragon and the embodiment of chaos. Fire and energy erupt from beneath its dark scales.

Sha-Ku, Dragon of Order: Par the course Balat stole Ebsidus' idea of a powerful dragon and created Ska-Ku to be Teymat's opposition. Sha-Ku chased Teymat away and they now pursue each other around the sun.

Ammitat, Dragon of Death: The offspring of Teymat and Sha-Ku, Ammitat is neither good nor evil but merely a fact of life. Created as part of the truce between Ebsidus and Balat, Ammitat's existence is assurance that eventually everything will pass away and Ebsidus will rule.

 

[Gryphos]

Occultists in my world worship a selection of 'Occult Lords'. Technically they aren't gods at all, but just very powerful beings. These are the ones I've come up with and likely the only ones that will feature in the stories I write in my world.

The King of Tails
A huge rat-like creature that dwells in the fabled 'Crypts of Kings'. Patron Lord of rats that has the ability to possess any rat in the world. He uses this to watch the world above while he remains in the Crypts.

The Bozu
Huge shadowy giant that lives in the sea and sometimes preys upon ships, rising from the depths to drive the crew insane with his yellow-eyed stare.

Mavetta
Patron Lord of nightmares and illusions. Takes the form of a woman and torments people at night, both in their dreams and reality.

Gillderaire
Patron Lord of vampirism. A real vampire who was responsible for a series of murders. He was discovered and killed, but when they were about to cremate his body, they found it missing. This led occultists to believing him to be a Lord, as the wounds he suffered should have killed even a vampire.

The Red Countess
Patron Lord of fire. A red-haired woman in a red dress and cloak. She's said to dwell in forests and is always accompanied by a fox and red squirrel. She also has immense power over fire.

The Fellfeather Keeper
A shape-shifting creature locked away in the Fellfeather Vaults, which are said to be the point through which magic enters the world.

The Swordsman of the Aerie
An armoured, sword-wielding knight that lives in an aerie of giant eagles on an unknown mountain. He travels around by hanging onto one of his eagles' talons with his free hand.

The Blind Huntsman
A bow-wielding hunter with no eyes. He rides a black horse and has a pack of spectral hounds with tongues of fire at his command. He cannot see through his own eyes, but can still see through the eyes of his horse.

The Forgotten King
This one technically isn't worshipped by occultists and is actually shunned. He was once the king of the Occult Lords, but, in their eyes, betrayed them by wanting to close the Fellfeather Gate and stop magic entering the world. He managed to close it, locking the Fellfeather Keeper inside, but was defeated and locked away in the Crypts of Kings. Eventually all his power drained away and now he is nothing but an old man, no more powerful than a human.

 

[Jabrosky]

My world is home to "8 Million Kami" as they say in Japanese mythology. They are not gods set apart, but a race of "divine" beings who live among all the other creatures that inhabit the world but are intricately involved in the functions of the natural world. Almost all of the world's mortal civilizations are ruled by Kami or descendants of Kami. The more powerful ones are worshiped and some have very elaborate cults developed around them depending on how important their role in the nature of the world is.

I have just thought up a race of magical, vaguely elf-like people with a Japanese inspiration. Due to this Japanese influence and their nature-based magic system, I have considered calling them Kami, but they're supposed to be an antagonistic race, so Shinto practitioners might not appreciate my villains being named after their spirits.

 

[nightbug08]

Honestly the only two Gods of mine that are really defined are odd ducks in their worlds. And I have a few odd hierarchies to begin with, at the top are the Goa, your traditional Old Ones; but there's only 5 of those and 4 of them each head up a pantheon for a different race/culture. The fifth is Kor, more on him in a sec. Then each pantheon is made up of what I call Concept Gods; Gods that are in charge of and empowered by a single part of life in the natural world, death, birth, weather; that sort of thing. The Great Ender is the Death for the Tager pantheon, he's the second one with an actual personality. Below them are less powerful gods that regulate artifacts of society; money and trade, stories and art. They are more like the Greek muses than anything else

Kor was present during the War of the Shell and at the Great Burying after which the world and it's cultures really began, but he has no Pantheon and instead ceaselessly patrols the Dassa Mountains, waiting for the day when the horror-terrors break through them to ravage the world once again. He accepts all races and creeds into his service to help him protect the world.

The Great Ender has recently gone through a complete personality overhaul and is trying to decide on a new name for himself. He was previously a very unpleasant fellow who demanded elaborate and expensive ceremonies from the families of anyone wanting to stay in any kind of comfort in their afterlives, thankfully his personality is turning out to much more amiable and sympathetic this time around. One of his graveminders is named Tuon, his utter confusion with his lords newfound distaste for his previously beloved ceremonies is just hilarious to write.

 

[ThinkerX]

I spent way, way too much time dinking around with this in the old world building days.

The main nation of my main world are militant monotheists - but the 'True God' has hundreds of saints, many revered to the point where they count as demi-gods. A number of the more popular are 'rehabilitated' pagan deities.

St Mithras - War, order, and truth, former pagan deity, still has a pagan following elsewhere.

St Michael - War, obedience to divine will

St Fabia - Magic, curiosities

St Orestes - Counselor, speaker

St Sophia - wisdom, agriculture, former pagan deity

St Niles - vengeance, disguised Lovecraftian monstrosity

The list is nowhere near all inclusive.

By and large, these saints are not real beings. Neither are the majority of the pagan deities. A few though, are jumped up spirits or monsters (like 'St Niles').

The 'True God' is 'real' in a sense, but by its very nature (collective spirit being) has only a limited ability to interact with the material world (though the priests of the True God are reluctant to admit this). New Saints appear when the True God wishes to interact with the world - though the Church is often slow or reluctant to admit the existence of the new Saints. Despite their status, the Saints are mere mortals, they live, they die, they come, they go.


Likewise some of the Lovecraftian entities are so powerful they may as well be gods, but again are...mostly constrained (their main interest is both alien and elsewhere).

 

[evanator66]

My current project has no deities.

 

[Jabrosky]

I have just sketched out a little pantheon for one of my countries, the kingdom of Akhiptu. Although this setting is based off ancient Egypt, I haven't invented any cool exotic names for these gods yet. Most of them are simply named after their symbolic animals at the moment.

Sun: The only non-animal god in the pantheon, but nonetheless the most important. Associated with the Supreme Creator responsible for the whole universe's existence, and considered the ultimate ancestor of the Akhiptan ruling dynasty.
Falcon: Associated with the institutions of kingship and government as well as the sky and air.
Lion: Associated with hunting, war, and the martial arts.
Wildcat: Associated with music, arts, and entertainment.
Buffalo: Associated with agriculture and gardening.
Elephant: Associated with architecture, stone masonry, and mining.
Crocodile: Associated with the rainy season and the annual floods of Akhiptu's central river which supply the farms with fertile silt.
Baboon: Associated with science, wisdom, and knowledge. His priests are the main intellectual and academic force in Akhiptu.
Cobra: Associated with guardianship, protection, and vigilance.
Cow: Associated with love, sex, and human fertility.
Hyena: Associated with justice and the judgement of departed souls before the afterlife.
Jackal: Associated with mummification, burial, and the dead.
Spider: Associated with magic and technology. In mythology he is portrayed as a crafty and mischievous trickster.
Python: The only god in the pantheon who could be called strictly malevolent, he is less of a god than the incarnation of chaos and evil. He and the Falcon have a fierce and longstanding rivalry in Akhiptan mythology.

 

[KingoftheAndals]

My current wip has three different religions, in the heart of the kingdom they pray to one god named Udros. In Sunaris, the southern half of the kingdom they worship Wakina the sun, Alorr the earth, Valous the sea and Katu the moon and night. In the north the worship two battling gods,Agmir and Tyses.