How to destroy the gods

[Jabrosky]

So I'm about 850 words into a story about gods who come crash-landing into a prehistoric world. These gods gain control of the local human tribes and vie with each other for dominance. They are all "evil" in the sense that they're innately power-hungry and despotic, manipulating humanity without showing genuine concern for their subjects' well-being.

Each of these gods begins fairly weak when they first crash into the world. They start out with just enough power to impress the first humans who discover them, but afterwards they need humanity to supply them with energy. At the moment I am leaning towards having the humans provide them with souls from sacrificial victims, with the souls in question functioning as the gods' energy source.

At the end of the story, I would like to have the humans unify and destroy the gods who have wreaked so much destruction upon them and their world. By this point the gods would have swelled in power from generations of sacrifice. How could mere mortals slay such overgrown entities?

 

[Trick]

You could go the way of Mistborn. For those who haven't read it, I'll post no spoilers. The other thing that came to mind was the humans coming to understand that their worship/energy is what made the gods powerful. They could then rally around one person and grant him/her that power, literally creating a new god willing to bring down the others. Whether that character goes on to be a merciful god or a tyrannical one is up to you.

 

[Jabrosky]

As I write the story, I notice there is a special link between the gods and the human tribal leaderships. For example, my opening has one of the arriving gods summon a chief's heiress, whom he plans to use as his high priestess. Later on, each god will lord over a kingdom with the human monarchs acting as their most important priests. I wonder what would happen if those priest-monarchs were to go away or turn against their divine masters...

 

[ThinkerX]

Each of these gods begins fairly weak when they first crash into the world. They start out with just enough power to impress the first humans who discover them, but afterwards they need humanity to supply them with energy. At the moment I am leaning towards having the humans provide them with souls from sacrificial victims, with the souls in question functioning as the gods' energy source.

At the end of the story, I would like to have the humans unify and destroy the gods who have wreaked so much destruction upon them and their world. By this point the gods would have swelled in power from generations of sacrifice. How could mere mortals slay such overgrown entities?

Sounds like something out of Lovecraft...or TSR's old 'Dark Sun' AD&D setting.

It also sounds like certain of the 'Gods' in my worlds (who are Lovecraftian things).

I'd suggest giving some thought to the background and goals of your gods.

First, you mentioned they 'crashed'. That implies something went catastrophically wrong for them in the past. Were they fleeing something? Did their power 'misfire'? Did they run into somebody or something far tougher than anticipated?

Second, what do they intend to do with the power they are acquiring? How well do they get along with each other?

Third...if souls equal energy, then more souls might not automatically equal more personal power. To be useful, energy must be contained and controlled. Overload an electrical circuit without a circuit breaker, for example, or ignore basic upkeep, and you are looking at a disaster in the making.

I'd also suggest introducing some bizarre weakness. One I make occasional use of in my world is the 'Mark of Zu', a glyph placed directly on a person which makes them partly invisible to such eldritch horrors. Other electrical related weaknesses which a clever sort might exploit would be 'grounding' - forcing the entity to expend a huge amount of power to achieve nothing, or a sort of 'faraday cage' (prison). Maybe introduce some substance that acts as a insulator (think rubber wrapped around wiring).

 

[Jabrosky]

Sounds like something out of Lovecraft...or TSR's old 'Dark Sun' AD&D setting.

It also sounds like certain of the 'Gods' in my worlds (who are Lovecraftian things).

I didn't get the idea of evil gods from Lovecraft (Nyarlathotep is probably the only story of his I've even read). I developed it because I wanted to get across the theme that humanity is (or can be) better than the gods and doesn't really need their domination.

First, you mentioned they 'crashed'. That implies something went catastrophically wrong for them in the past. Were they fleeing something? Did their power 'misfire'? Did they run into somebody or something far tougher than anticipated?

What I meant to convey was that they came into our world from another dimension, and they arrive in the form or meteor- or comet-like entities. I didn't really develop their back-story far beyond that.

Second, what do they intend to do with the power they are acquiring? How well do they get along with each other?

They're all at war with each other. Each god wants to destroy the rest and become the sole ruling god.

Third...if souls equal energy, then more souls might not automatically equal more personal power. To be useful, energy must be contained and controlled. Overload an electrical circuit without a circuit breaker, for example, or ignore basic upkeep, and you are looking at a disaster in the making.

I'd also suggest introducing some bizarre weakness. One I make occasional use of in my world is the 'Mark of Zu', a glyph placed directly on a person which makes them partly invisible to such eldritch horrors. Other electrical related weaknesses which a clever sort might exploit would be 'grounding' - forcing the entity to expend a huge amount of power to achieve nothing, or a sort of 'faraday cage' (prison). Maybe introduce some substance that acts as a insulator (think rubber wrapped around wiring).

I like your electric metaphor, but sadly I am not familiar with the workings of electricity.

BTW I have the opening scene to that story posted in the Showcase, just in case anyone is curious.

 

[Inglorion]

They're all at war with each other. Each god wants to destroy the rest and become the sole ruling god.

In this case, maybe the Gods could severely weaken each other by fighting, and the humans take advantage of the disunity and temporary weakness to revolt and overthrow them?

 

[Mythopoet]

Reminds me of Stargate, actually. In the backstory of Stargate the ancient gods of earth were actually powerful aliens who enslaved humanity and it was the ancient Egyptians rising up against the god Ra who rid our planet of them. They were able to do so because the gods weren't really "gods". They were physical beings with greater than normal strength and long life and access to powerful technology, but as physical beings they could still be killed by physical means.

So it seems what you need to do is establish the nature of your "gods". You describe them as beings from another dimension arriving as comets. Does that mean they are physical beings? If so, no matter how much power they have they can still be killed by physical means. Or do you imagine them more as energy type beings, hence the need for energy from humans? That would obviously require more though and perhaps some research into energy or whatever it is you decide their nature comes from. However they are destroyed it seems to me the method would have to stem from their nature.

 

[Jabrosky]

Reminds me of Stargate, actually. In the backstory of Stargate the ancient gods of earth were actually powerful aliens who enslaved humanity and it was the ancient Egyptians rising up against the god Ra who rid our planet of them. They were able to do so because the gods weren't really "gods". They were physical beings with greater than normal strength and long life and access to powerful technology, but as physical beings they could still be killed by physical means.

So it seems what you need to do is establish the nature of your "gods". You describe them as beings from another dimension arriving as comets. Does that mean they are physical beings? If so, no matter how much power they have they can still be killed by physical means. Or do you imagine them more as energy type beings, hence the need for energy from humans? That would obviously require more though and perhaps some research into energy or whatever it is you decide their nature comes from. However they are destroyed it seems to me the method would have to stem from their nature.

At the moment they are closer to energy-type beings. However, they do start out encased in little stones as described in my Showcase excerpt. Said stones would probably be very difficult to destroy using conventional materials---wait a minute, that plants a new seed of an idea in me...