Not-all-powerful Gods

Baldr in Norse mythology died from an arrow made of mistletoe, because it was the one substance in the world that hadn't sworn not to harm him. You could use one substance as a weakness, or you could simply make the gods ageless, but not invulnerable to violent death.

 

I'll just spit out some ideas that come to mind, hope it will be of assistance.

It depends. What kind of power does mortals have? If they have magic then maybe enough working together could injure a god?

Gods can often be injured by each other too, they could have internal power struggles.

If they are pure spirital beings then their physical form could be unstable, if one got close enough to attack it with a physical weapon then that could disperse them.

Some examples that I have read is that gods need to have followers or they die, though this might not fit in well with you world.

Might your gods need to feed somehow to maintain their power, if Eien is the sum of humanities spirits then maybe a spiritual being from there would need to consume human spirits to control their powers (this was done in Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson).

If they are created by the energy of the human spirit then should not the human spirit be able to hurt them in some way?

 

Hi,

Yeah I like the whole idea that gods depend on worship of their existence / power. That way they grow old when their believers start to thin or run out of faith. I have several novels in progress that operate on that idea in one way or another. And it comes with some interesting corollaries.

For example if two gods are battling, the one with the most followers is strongest. And if one of them wants to win, his real target should be the temples and believers of the other. Kill enough of them and his enemy is greatly weakened.

Equally, if a god is getting old and weak and feels the need to recharge, he should perform some public miracles. Do something that people will love / remember. Drum up belief.

Cheers, Greg.

 

If you go with the belief idea as the source of the gods' power you could have them shrink as their believers lose faith. This correlates to the historical precedent of the Celtic gods, among others, shrinking and being driven underground as their cultural relevancy fades.

 

Egyptian mythology deals with the "dying god" motif a lot. Maybe do a little research into that for some ideas.

 

One thing to consider: in many world mythologies, the "dead god" is actually a much more powerful being than your average deity. To use the example I suggested above, think Ra or Osiris in Egyptian myth. The idea is (much simplified here) that once the god has died (Ra) or been killed (Osiris), he or she transcends worldly limitations and becomes virtually untouchable. One could think of Jesus Christ in the same way.

This concept is of course rather different than what you seem to be going for here, and in many cultures, a god is indeed considered "dead" when he or she falls out of favor and worship (Indra in the Hindu tradition, though he becomes subordinate rather than "dead", is probably one of my favorite real-world examples of this process). Neil Gaiman's American Gods is a phenomenal novel that explores this notion.

The main difference between these two ways of deity-death, of course, is that in the former, the death is written as part of the mythic canon, while in the latter, the death is more symbolic of a real-world cultural change, and is rarely written down.

I'm not sure if this is of any help, but I do hope it gives you something to think about.

 

The Craft Sequence books by Max Gladstone involve a world where powerful wizards rose up and slew many gods because they were tired of the gods running their lives. It's almost a century later and each book (there are 3 so far) takes a different look at how the world has changed. The first one revolves around the death of a city's patron deity. The second around a terrorist group trying to resurrect a god and the third about a tiny island that will set up a deity for you to believe in.

Worth checking out by anyone attempting stories about gods, and or modern fantasy settings.

 

They helped me look at the gods in my world differently, and along with American Gods and Anansi Boys(Especially Anansi Boys) are what I would consider required reading for any writer.

 

Just because they're worshiped as gods and have immense power doesn't mean they're not fallible and mortal.
As Bill Murrey quipped in GroundHog day -

"Well maybe the *real* God uses tricks, you know? Maybe he's not omnipotent. He's just been around so long he knows everything."

OR maybee they're just ordinary people who have stumbled onto phenomenal power and have ended up being revered and worshiped for something they're not.

A bit Like Jayne in the 'Jaynes town' episode of Firefly.

 

Terry Pratchett has an interesting use of gods in Discworld. In the book Small Gods, he explores how "gods" are really just beings that basically "feed" off of human belief to grow stronger. If people stop believing in them they grow weaker and eventually revert back to basically nothing more than whining voices in the desert. Thematically, it explores how humans may need gods, because they need something to believe in, but gods need humans even more.

You might be able to take a similar approach since your gods also have the source of their strength in humanity.

 

It could be that your gods are Immortal and have great amounts of power but that doesnt mean they cant be destroyed.
3 things on Immortality.
1.never age.
2.never die.
3.never age and never die.

I read a book a manga and in it there was a 500 year old wolf goddess, she is immortal she can never age but she could die hence she feared being hanged as a witch by the church. also she had power over wheat since she was the goddess of harvest but because she made a deal with a village and dwells in their wheat fields to leave she has to have wheat from that feild in a small pouch around her neck.
and to turn in her wolf form she has to either eat wheat or drink human blood.

so your gods may be really powerful and never age and be hard to kill but that doesnt mean they cant die.

 

that whole they need beleivers stuff. is crap.
never see anyone craft an Immortal characters that way though.
pretty cool.
just read a bit on how gods should not have domains in Toms pantheon post.
dont know much on pantheons myself, i know of Immortals,thier domains, and powers but thats it.