Help with gods

[The Blue Lotus]

Oh I don't know... in cultures the world over there are myths about Gods for just about everything.


True they don't have the same "Titles" as he has used but they are pretty much the same thing.

There is a God of Creation, a God of Destruction, Anger, Love, Beauty, Air, Water, Fire, name it one could find it someplace.

Then you find the Demi-Gods and Spirits whom are responsible for the more human issues such as Greed, Poverty, Misfortune etc.


Maybe if we seen a sample of the work it would help but I don't think giving a new name and a familiar
attribute to a “God” is necessarily a bad thing. It is just not what we are used to seeing. This is just my .02 cents however.

I try not to look past the question at hand because I was not asked to. However one could argue that a God of free will is more simply defined as a God or Godess of Wisdom.

 

[Melissa G. McPhail]

Hi, I like the idea of your gods a lot, especially if different races will worship them separately and/or if certain peoples are drawn to one more than another.

In my series, there are 17 desert gods (particular to a certain culture) as well as five other religions. I just thought I'd mention that while it's certainly helpful and valuable to have some of these figured out as you're heading into the story, I've had a lot of success creating gods as the story unfolded also, when your characters naturally reach for a certain oath or concept to explain or associate with what's happening in the dialogue. Then this religion or god comes quite organically into the story (and you can always add it back into an earlier part if you need to).

Best of luck!

 

[Morgoth]

In response to Anders and Ouroboros,

Well the thing is, these gods aren't natural. They came about roughly halfway through my worlds history when civilization was at its peak. The races of my world chose to worship these tangible, intervening gods rather then their old ones who never visibly intervened in mortal affairs (I haven't made any yet but they most likely won't even exist).

Of course in a real religion people wouldn't pray to a god of order for good harvest or a god of peace for help in battle. However my gods are all of the same power. What I mean for example is, Altalar is the god of order but he isn't order personified - he could just as well be a god of war if he wanted. My idea so far is that they will become overly obsessed with their attributes which is why they will take them to the extreme. But basically, the gods followers will pray to them for any of their needs and the gods will answer. If of course their people follow their doctrines.

I hope that's been an adequate, if short, answer as I'm a bit busy at the moment.

 

[Ghost]

Well the thing is, these gods aren't natural. They came about roughly halfway through my worlds history when civilization was at its peak. The races of my world chose to worship these tangible, intervening gods rather then their old ones who never visibly intervened in mortal affairs (I haven't made any yet but they most likely won't even exist).

I hoped it would be something along those lines rather than picking things because they sounded cool. Knowing this is the reason for their domains, I think your idea is really interesting. I'm still curious why the gods identify with many things (like free will, individualism, anarchy, and chaos) but the demi-god has to change his preference from revolution to regicide/deicide. Is it because of his demi-god status or possibly his personality? Wouldn't regicide be a part of revolution anyway?

Just something I wondered.

 

[Rullenzar]

Your idea is interesting but as some people have said most of it has been done before. If you'd ask me I'd take your idea one step further and instead of saying the gods can go from one extreme to another I'd say they can turn from one god into another depending on the extremity of their attitude at the time.

For example : God of love turns into God of Hate in extreme anger or vice versa --- God of War turns into god of peace when an extreme calm falls over him/her or vice versa.

This idea would be interesting to see in play and is one I myself have tried to fiddle with. Taking split personalities to a new level where they actually turn into someone else entirely in physical form and mental form. Just a thought. This idea might even make it easier for you to think of new gods not to mention simplistic isn't always a bad thing.

 

[Morgoth]

I hoped it would be something along those lines rather than picking things because they sounded cool. Knowing this is the reason for their domains, I think your idea is really interesting. I'm still curious why the gods identify with many things (like free will, individualism, anarchy, and chaos) but the demi-god has to change his preference from revolution to regicide/deicide. Is it because of his demi-god status or possibly his personality? Wouldn't regicide be a part of revolution anyway?

Oh, maybe I worded it wrong. He would claim to his fellow conspirators that he would be the god of revolution but once he succeeds in killing his god and robbing him of his power he becomes a god of regicide instead. He wouldn't switch between attributes because the reason the main gods do is tied to how they came into being. He isn't becoming a god the way they did though, he is just stealing their divine power.

That particular demi-god is just an idea though, I may or may not implement him depending on how the story goes.

Your idea is interesting but as some people have said most of it has been done before. If you'd ask me I'd take your idea one step further and instead of saying the gods can go from one extreme to another I'd say they can turn from one god into another depending on the extremity of their attitude at the time.

For example : God of love turns into God of Hate in extreme anger or vice versa --- God of War turns into god of peace when an extreme calm falls over him/her or vice versa.

Well I'm not sure how that would work out. Would they still have many followers if they could turn into a completely different god? Would the type of people to follow a god of love be very eager to follow him/her if he/she can at any time turn into a god of hate?

With Altalar for example, he could say that totalitarianism is what is best to achieve order. Of course this would make people doubt, but they would still follow him. If he were to go from being a god of order to a god of chaos, I don't think they would be so keen on staying loyal to him.

 

[Rullenzar]

That's the beauty of it. People would have to be crazy to follow gods like that or be ever loyal to them as to not sway their moods. You could set up conflicts between loyalists who try to turn their god back into the god they believe in. The beauty of the idea is it's controversial and different. In fact lol if you don't like the idea I might use it myself for another story.

 

[Rullenzar]

Also by the way I forgot to add this in. Gods don't normally show themselves in their true forms to lower beings. Hence the population may not even know their gods are two seperate gods. Meaning either god can be worshiped equally since they do not come into contact with the lower beings. If they do for some reason come into contact then people will pray to their god hoping for them to come and realistically how many gods do you know of that answer? lol It's these small things you can play with and manipulate to be different or to give the reader a totally different side to something they thought they knew.

I could be alone in my crazy spins and if so disregard what I've said.

 

[Morgoth]

Hmm, at this point I'd have to change large parts of my story if I were to make my gods that much different. Interesting idea though.