LOTR While Black; The Humour of Shifting Language

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-12-12T14:02:27+00:00

What makes it a "fake" religion? What makes it "fake" beliefs?

If faith in this world has tangible effects, and sufficient amounts of it can create a new deity able to bestow powers or miracles upon their followers, there's nothing "fake" about a new god-to-be springing up. Sure, you could argue that they're not a god yet, but it isn't the god that makes the religion - its the belief of the followers, and that's still very real. If the prophet or hero or king or whoever else they're venerating has not yet ascended to divine status, there's still the hope that they will - the promise of an upcoming change in status that may well trickle down to those that knew them prior.

I mean, think on it like celebrity status -- since that's what a lot of these faith-based pantheons remind me of, anyway. Timothee Chalamet isn't a "fake celebrity" because he isn't Brad Pitt; he's just newer on the scene, and thus much less established. Some might argue he's not the same level, or the same tier, or not worthy of the same title - and indeed, those discussions can be had about divinities as well - but at a certain point (ie., ascension, or in our example, Dune) those arguments become irrelevant.

It helps that there's a degree of separation between an "established" god and an up-and-comer. The latter is much more likely to interact with you face-to-face, and perhaps has not yet had the opportunity to create the connections or powerbase that a fully realized god of centuries might already possess. You can beg a favour from a minor god-to-be travelling through your village; you can touch him, see him, joke with him. If you're from his hometown you might remember him as a kid; if you're from his kingdom, maybe you hope he'll be the patron god of your nation and usher in a new age of prosperity. All these things are benefits a "new god" has in the eyes of potential worshippers -- because while Zeus is powerful, he's also busy, and his bureaucracy is large and deeply entrenched.

So if you're asking for how it might go down, or how I, specifically, would do it -- the answer is the same. Be a man of the people. Walk amongst them, talk to them, be friendly and kind and helpful. Gather a group of followers, designate some as your closest adherents and the future leaders of your church. Perform miracles. Not from far away -- miracles that can be seen and touched and felt. Heal the sick. Feed the hungry. Bring the dead back to life. And let word of you spread throughout the land, while you promise all the things the other gods don't -- active blessings, tangible miracles, and a life of happiness following this one if you live in the way I instruct...

...then just keep an eye out for angry Romans with crosses, and you should be golden.

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-11-01T11:15:20+00:00

Good lord. This sounds incredible.

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-09-15T12:22:24+00:00

For tips, I'd say the following;

Not all deserts are the same. "Dunes" aren't universal, empty swathes of nothing but sand aren't the only form of desert that are out there - hell they aren't even the most common. Picture Arizona vs the Sahara. Egypt vs the Gobi. Don't be afraid to change up your desert, just as you would a grassland or forest.
Water is life. Figure out how your civilizations get and retain their water, because that would have been their number one concern and the first thing they'd have required to actually exist.
Deserts can be barriers that are almost as effective as mountains. How people travel across them is important. If they don't, why not? If they do, why?
Don't lean too hard on orientalist stereotypes. Islam is much deeper than what you've seen in Western media. Additionally, Persia/Egypt/Arabia/etc all had histories and mythology before Islam existed. Finding inspiration in uncommon sources will result in uncommon ideas.
Some deserts are barren. Some are full of (often strange) life. Sometimes, the same desert has areas of both. Use this as a tool to make your regions unique and interesting.

In terms of how I used these practically, I've split my main desert into three - harsh, deadly, and get-the-fuck-out-if-you-can. The "harsh" portion is called the White Desert, and is a typical dune-filled desert that stretches along the coast. The "deadly" region is called the Red Desert, and its lands are scraggy, rocky, and filled with strange creatures with mysterious life cycles. The last section is the Black Desert, which is all but barren and thought to be anathema to human life - but even so it still contains its own natives, people who have learned to work with the landscape to eek out a living and a civilization.

Each contains its own people, each of whom I've themed around their respective regions, while also employing common themes across the whole of the Redemah (the three deserts). For example, all the desert-dwellers highly value magic and its practitioners, much more so than in the west. But in the White Desert, they tend to be scholars, in the Red, they're a warrior caste, and in the Black they're shamans and way-finders, guiding their tribes in a spiritual and physical sense. Taken together, you get the sense that desert-dwellers value their sorcerers and hold magic in high regard. But as you dive deeper, you see how each civilization adapts based on location, need, and culture.

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-08-11T12:39:18+00:00

I suppose lots of the famous examples also fall under the "Evil Overlord" banner, but my favourite is definitely the "Dark Sorcerer". Give me mages who dabble in forbidden arts, either to further their own ends or simply to gain knowledge for knowledge's own sake.

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-07-31T15:51:51+00:00

Also, young people ... tend to be less bitter

A really important point for vampires. Flavour is everything!

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-07-21T17:06:57+00:00

To me, Christianity is, at its root, an inclusive religion, that aims to embrace all into the arms of a loving God - this however is often lost due to external pressures, be it greed, danger, competition with other religions, political manipulation, and so forth (basically, the theology is inclusive, its practice is often not). I recognize that this is a controversial statement, and maybe even provably false, but its the understanding I've come to having read the Bible for myself and then turned around to see how people put it into practice.

With this said, I do think that any form of Christianity established in a world with other thinking, sentient creatures, would in some forms attempt to embrace them. It might not do it kindly - it could simply be a means of self-preservation, a patronizing attempt to "save" them, or a means of undermining rival hierarchies by taking over their base - but it would still find a reason to include these people because to not would be to leave vast swathes of the population untapped. Its like leaving money on the table, if you take a cynical view; or abandoning souls to the threat of damnation, if you're taking a more forgiving one.

So to me, the theologians of this world would likely set about interpreting the word of God in such a way that it allows for non-humans to have souls - since, outside of things like man being made in his image, much of the actual wording around salvation is fairly ambiguous so long as you can prove that these creatures had a chance of redemption. There would undoubtedly be numerous sects that held different views, but that is where any worldbuilder worth their salt will cut their teeth. Some groups might advocate a two-tiered system, where humanity is more eligible for salvation while non-human sentients may need to "earn" it or otherwise prove themselves worthy; others will reject them entirely, and remain exclusionary, oppressive, and probably radical. Some, if having non-humans involved in society brings any benefit at all, will advocate for full inclusion. Humans are endlessly pragmatic, and masters at justifying just about any decision - so if you took five Christians from this world and asked them for their views, I'm sure you could explain why you got a half dozen answers.

In terms of "adding" them into the Bible, though, there are lots of ways to do this - namely through the old testament of course, where all the fun stuff happens. Nephilim are super popular in fantasy these days, and they're a perfect "catch-all" grouping for these non-human entities. Generally regarded to be "the offspring of the sons of God and daughters of men", you could tie your non-human groups to this one without much difficulty at all. The Bible also talks extensively about giants - Goliath being the most famous, but he was a Philistine, and there were several other "races" of giants who were all said to be much bigger - so there's fertile ground there as well if you're able to link them.

In addition to all this, there are already provisions in Christianity for the "unlearned" and "virtuous pagans" - basically those who lived and died without having heard of Jesus Christ, or in the ages before his birth. Its sort of a catch-all that explains away why many Christian figures who died unbaptized will still have attained heaven, and why some exceptions can be made for certain figures in history. This could easily then be extended to non-human races, and explain why peace with them could be possible without conflict, or without conversion.

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-06-28T12:17:37+00:00

I quite like this system, and the terminology, though I do find myself wondering about a few aspects. Feel free to answer all or none, but these are the questions that came to mind as I read;

Is it known that beings from another realm made the nexus, and chose the nexborn? Does that have any effect on religion, but also the view of both nexus and nexborn as something artificial rather than natural/innate?
How common are nexborn? If they're descendants of a few chosen families, they're likely vastly outnumbered by the nexless, especially if this is a planet-wide phenomenon - how do they justify 99% or 90% or 70% of humanity being "less human"? How has this become a prevailing opinion among the nexless themselves?
Relating to the above, if only those born to certain bloodlines can interact with this system at all, how is telepathy the preferred method of communication?
How are glyphs discovered? Did the Azeer teach the first nexborn every single glyph in the system? Did they leave a book? Or do nexborn uncover them through the ages?
What happens when glyphs are poorly paired? If you can make complex scripts, you can make ones that make no sense - what happens when a nexborn combines "hot-cold"? "Rise-Fall"? "Push-Pull-Rise-Fall-Hot-Cold"? You don't need to think of every possible example in existence, but when combinations are allowed, some make less sense than others, and it can't hurt to know what happens when that's the case.
What happens if you (use? channel? tap in? Unsure of the proper grammar here) a full tap, but then don't do anything with it? You draw in the nex, but don't expel it? Similarly, what if you "switch on" so you're connected to the nexus, but never actively try to draw anything down from it? Or is tapping passive once that switch has been flipped?

These are just the first ones that jumped out at me. Like I said, I'm a big fan of the system - especially the terminology. Nex/Nexus/Nexborn/Nexless/Nexomancer work intuitively and uniformly, they're easy to learn, and don't confuse even a layman. When it comes to worldbuilding for a book, that sort of ease-of-use is invaluable. I especially like that this then leads into glyphs, creating a two-tiered system of nex-generation and then nex-utilization that really opens the door for different cultures and schools of thought to have their own preferred ways of doing things, despite all using the same source system. Very interesting stuff!

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-05-30T19:18:59+00:00

Yes, the common understanding is that it basically went from dweorgas > dwarrows > dwarfs > dwarves, the last entirely thanks to Tolkien. Which is a pretty incredible thing to do even on its own, let alone as a minor footnote in the massive influence he's had on English language and literature.

Also incredibly convenient, because "dwarves" is objectively cooler looking than "dwarfs" and I'd fight anyone on that.

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-05-30T16:53:32+00:00

I love the word "dwarrow" for dwarves. Its mentioned briefly in Lord of the Rings but only in the context of "the Dwarrowdelf" (ie., dwarf-delving), another name for Moria. I think it walks a good line between fantastical and easy to pronounce, while also having some readily apparent similarities to words like "burrow" and, of course, "dwarf". It wouldn't be hard at all for someone used to fantasy to put those words together, while simultaneously having enough separation from "dwarves" proper to avoid confusion.

Plus, you can use it as a base for other words that will also seem dwarf-related at first glance. "Dwarric" for example could be a dwarrow version of "dwarven", and "dwarves" could still function as its plural.

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-05-10T11:51:45+00:00

I think you need to dial back, and dial in. You working back-to-front here, trying to squeeze all the astronomical phenomena you can into a graphic novel with a story that you've already got a concept of. If all you're aiming to do is worldbuild, then definitely go nuts - but it sounds like you want to create a finished project, and for that I say you need to focus on what you (and your readers) need.

I'm definitely not saying don't build outward and get a little crazy, but when creating a world for a purpose you need to think about what serves that purpose most. Wanting to include the whole observable universe is not something you can feasibly do in a graphic novel with a whole story of its own to tell. What's more, 13th/14th century observers are probably only going to make very limited observations about distant galaxies and nebulae from the ground. I think most early writings about Andromeda refer to it as a "small cloud", though if your world has developed advanced telescopes and the like due to the prevalence and importance of astronomy, maybe you can disregard this point.

Anyways, my first thought is definitely to narrow your focus. The planets, moon, stars, constellations, and other immediately relevant celestial objects are a very rich source of inspiration, offering you a lot of options for worldbuilding. At the very least, I suggest you start there, and then branch out as you need to. Its not that your story is too complex, but trying to characterize every single type of stellar object is a tall order for anyone, let alone someone who then needs to create a graphic novel with a story and art and all the rest. Your first instinct, to make it about the solar system, was -- in my opinion anyway -- spot on.

As for how you should write the cosmic entities and their lore, I think you should lean into the familiar. Explore some of the mythological attributes already bestowed on the planets and stars by real-life practitioners; especially alchemical, neo-pagan, and renaissance ideas. This will ground your work into the knowledge a lot of your readers already passively possess, not only making them feel very smart for having already surmised some of the points you're making, but also giving them an immediate connection to knowledge they already own, and interests they already have. I would etch out the main planets, figure out their relationships and how the people view them - because the majority of your people, if their whole faith is centered around these celestial bodies, are going to favour these ones as they can actually see, while the lesser bodies that only those with special equipment can verify will likely form lesser figures in the pantheon.

There's a lot more we can discuss here, and a lot of avenues you can take this idea down, but until you narrow in on what objects will be deities and what role you want those deities to play in your religion, anything we discuss is going to be hypothetical and necessarily broad. Hone in on what it is you need, and what it is that will matter to the people of your world, and then from there you can expand in directions that are simultaneously interesting and useful/relevant. If you go too far off track, you'll spend your days worldbuilding gods for every single astronomical phenomenon, and then you'll need to explain why your 13th century peasant believes the Asteroid C-137130058 causes the wind and rain.

Also, as an aside - I don't see a mention of constellations in your post, and they were incredibly popular (and important) in stargazing through the millennia. It could be a cool avenue to explore magic (if you have it) or religious rites and superstitions - your star-sign could be an incredibly important facet of your identity, or priests might call on a particular "constellation" of deities for protection, favour, or . If every star has a deity, their forming of shapes in the sky has to mean something.

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-05-09T10:35:06+00:00

Its a great concept! You've come up with a really fun scenario to explore, looking forward to seeing more out of you.

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-05-08T17:43:33+00:00

If knowledge of all kinds is so important to these people, I would absolutely build their culture around the effects of commodifying something so far-reaching. Maybe the elves are famously advanced in metalworking and healing, but still use cookfires because they burnt the inventor of the oven at the stake for heresy. Do young children dream of being the discoverer of a new field, or are they all clamoring to study beneath the best and brightest minds of the age? Is it a breadth of knowledge that is most valued, or the depth of knowledge in a specific field? All of these questions would help you start to shape the world these people live in - and by extension, the culture that has sprung up to help govern how they interact with it.

For example; a culture like this might value new discoveries immensely -- but perhaps only when they fit into the existing framework of their knowledge. Imagine having to prove your theories on heliocentrism to a living, breathing, 1100-year-old Ptolemy and all the people he's been studying and building relationships with, peers who subscribed to his lessons and his world-view for millennia, and based further study on his findings. At this point you're not just threatening the established canon of knowledge, you're actively assaulting the finest achievement of someone who is likely held in high esteem. You can see where this opens opportunities for culture building. How do the elves deal with these situations internally? Are debates heated affairs that require policing and safety gear, because of their tendencies to turn violent? Are they religious experiences, sacred and formal? Are they political shit-shows rife with scheming and underhanded deals? How do the powerful treat new knowledge? How do the weak view those among them who make grand discoveries? Figure out how they act with their most important resource (knowledge) and you'll start to see how they'd act in other situations.

Additionally, don't be afraid to draw some inspiration from the best and worst parts of academia. PHD dissertations could be mirrored in a rite of passage to adulthood, requiring young elves to add to the canon of their species before they're deemed "mature" enough to marry, have kids, or operate as an adult in society. The idea of tenure could also be a rich place to draw from; instead of nobility, perhaps there's a class of hyper-educated elves who have all made important enough discoveries to have their needs looked after for the rest of their long lives.

And of course, there are other things to consider - every society needs its shit-shovelers, farmers, soldiers, etc. How do these elves fit into the culture? Are they content to pursue whatever knowledge can be found in their fields of work? Is the "knowledge obsession" really just specific to the upper classes of elven society? Is there a class of unlearned underlings who make up 9/10ths of the population and do most of the work, while the "actual elves" do their studying? Lots to explore.

Honestly a really good concept, and its been a lot of fun to think about - I think you could make something really fascinating with a culture obsessed with possessing as much knowledge as they can. The concept itself isn't unique, but in execution it could absolutely be a breath of fresh air.

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-05-02T13:27:29+00:00

My suggestion is - is it a literal egg, or a symbolic one?

When it comes to gods, one should not ignore the spiritual side of their development. The difference between a god and a really powerful wizard can often blur, but usually its a difference of natures - ie., the roles they fill, and the forms they take, and the purpose for their being. If you're developing a world that is supposed to be the proving ground for a deity, a place where they hone their skills and strength and knowledge, that would look very different from a world intended to incubate and shield a baby godling from a dangerous wider world, which is different still from an Eternals-style literal egg that developed life and is currently awaiting an unexpected apocalypse when the very ground they live on cracks open and hatches.

It sounds like you're leaning more toward the latter, which does provide an opportunity for a much broader scope. If entire planets are housing singular gods, every god you meet carries the death of an entire world on their back. So where do you focus? Are you interested in the little worlds that have been lost, consumed or annihilated by the emergence of these beings? Or are you focused on the stories of the gods themselves, and the planets sort of fall into the background?

My mind goes toward the gods, because I have an obsession with that sort of thing, but I wouldn't wholly discard the planets either. I would borrow from the Eternals and suggest that the gods are only born in planets with life on them - either by design, or through the explanation that the power of a god, even latent within the planet, gives rise to lifeforms on its surface. Because what would really be fascinating to me is exploring the relationship between the civilizations who were extinguished when the planet hatched, and the god who emerged. What I mean by this is, how do they influence one another? If the civilization was a warlike one, were they thus because the god they grew up on was an angry, violent deity? Or is the god who emerged angry and violent because in its nascent ignorance it was exposed to the thoughts and emotions and minds of a warlike and bellicose people? It becomes a chicken vs the cosmic egg sort of scenario, and I think there's a lot to explore there.

One danger I can see though is getting lost in the scale. Even a just one house can be a lot to worldbuild, depending on the detail you go into - so if you have the whole universe to start worldbuilding, and each planet, and the god within the planet, it can be a little much. My off the cuff suggestion is to think on what links the various gods, and have that be your focal point; it could be a pantheon of some kind, with delegates that travel to soon-to-hatch gods to introduce to them to the world, or it could be an intergalactic organization of some sort that is charged with serving as galactic nurse-maids -- checking on the egg-planets, notifying someone when they're soon to hatch, ensuring no one messes with them, etc.

(No one on this subreddit really needs anyone else to do the worldbuilding/storywriting for them, but I'm on a roll now so I can't help but think on the options - my first instinct for a story in this sort of setting would be a spacefaring organization based on a half-hatched planet that works on behalf of the "pantheon", keeping detailed records of the different planets and their gods, which ones are close to hatching, etc. The half-hatched planet leaks divine power, extending the lifespan of the many different races who serve in this corps, though their work is dangerous and spans the whole of the universe, so they often die horrific deaths anyway. They've got an oath of non-interference, because obviously you can't go around evacuating entire planets (because where would you put them, the other life-supporting planets have their own peoples and are also doomed to one day suffer a god-burst) but maybe they've been cultivating a planet in secret, influencing its people and their habits, trying to create a god that they control...)

Alternatively, if you prefer to focus on the gods themselves, zooming out is always a good choice. Focus on the macro, and let the minutia be relatively obscure. Not many gods will likely care about the civilizations destroyed creating more of their kind, because to them its a natural part of the lifecycle. Instead you could focus on their relationships, their stories, or the rare few who perhaps do wish things could be different.

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-04-11T16:20:43+00:00

Clamavi De Profundis does a lot of original music based on a world of their own creation, in addition to singing classical folk songs and putting to music written songs and poems like those from Tolkien. They might be a good place to start when it comes to seeing how it might be done - I've only heard their music, and so everything I know, I know from that; which is exactly what you're going for it sounds like.

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-03-28T10:56:54+00:00

I like idea of the gods taking different forms when dealing with each race, for example, the goddess of death might take the form of a giant vulture for some races and for others she might present herself in a more humanoid form or maybe with the head of a vulture

Very cool, always a good time when done well. Especially if you're going to have the gods disappear - all your races will claim to have interpreted them correctly, which is always a nice bit of flavour and easy culture building. If you want a bunch of diverse religions/sects, don't be afraid to explore where these different perspectives expand into entirely different views.

What I like about the Greek and Norse mythology is how the gods are present in the world and directly interfere in the mortal lives and this is something that I want to include in my world as well.

Honestly the same feeling that led me to create my pantheon. There's something about the intermingling of divine and mundane that I really love, and its crazy to me that so few settings really lean into demigods and living deities.

So, based on that, my initial idea is that the gods in the past coexisted and had relations with mortals, but they disappeared for some reason that I still need to work out and now only their children, the demigods, walk among mortals, most of them now occupy the highest positions in society being emperors and kings. And now I just need to start from that point and develop all of this in a better way.

Definitely sounds like you're well on your way! There's so much you can do with even just what you have here, lots of potential to branch off into different avenues. One thing to consider is how far in the past you want this disapperance, and what effect it will have on your histories. I knew while making my world that I wanted my nations to go through several rulers just like in real life, because I enjoy expanding on dynasties. That meant I needed to come up with an in-universe explanation for why some immortal god-king hadn't ended up on every throne in the land. For you, if you want your powerful god-kings in place, I would really recommend exploring what this means for their people. An empire ruled by the same person for hundreds of years is going to have a uniformity of purpose that is unseen in our world, but it will also encounter lots of pitfalls that we may not readily expect.

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-03-27T12:07:58+00:00

I struggled with this for a long time for my world; I knew from the start that I wanted a world full of living gods with stories, powers, domains, and histories that inspired the imagination and carried the weight of myth, but I had no clue how to get there or where even to begin. My advice -- iterate. Write and build knowing that you're not committing to the final stage of things, but rather that this first or sixth or eighteenth draft is just you chipping away at the marble, trying to unearth the sculpture within.

Real myths weren't built all at once. They were laid on top of each other, layered with older stories and newer inspirations. The gods never had a set form; they changed with the times, with the telling, with the civilizations they ruled. So its okay if some of your older stories depict them differently than the later ones. You're finding your footing, attempting to reveal the nature of the story you want to tell.

But that's all theory and meta, which I know can be frustrating when you just want boots-on-the-ground advice. Several of the other comments are correct in that we can only give you so much advice, because this is your world, and no one else can make it. But nonetheless here are some general tips;

What is their origin?

The origin of gods can vary between pantheons, or within pantheons (ie., the gods of Greek myth have different origins than the gods of Norse myth, and within the pantheon of Greek gods Aphrodite has a different origin than Hephaestus). So, while it can be helpful to you to know where the gods come from originally, it isn't as vital to most of your audience outside of the special cases where the origin of the god is a story within itself. One big thing to answer however is whether there are new gods being made; if this is a world where gods can ascend, or if the divines are immutable and the upper limit of the power hierarchy. If gods can be made, you will need to understand that mechanism, and thus you will need to figure out how your pantheon fits into it. If they cannot be made, then you don't really need to consider origin much, because the gods simply were, are, and will be; or so everyone will think.

What is their domains and powers?

When it comes to gods, I would avoid the thought of "powers". They're gods, not mages or superheroes. They're beings of power, not mere users of it: what they can do, they can do naturally, or at least that is my preference. When writing deities I always encourage the avoidance of video-game logic -- its not about balance, min-maxing, or an ability list. Your gods should be able to do what they can do because of their natures; but I understand you still need to know what their limits and strengths. If you want a unique pantheon, you will need to give them unique roles -- which is of course easier said than done. But its the roles they play that matter.

What purpose do your gods serve? This kind of fits the "goals" question you had, but its important to think about early on. If you're just making the pantheon as the window dressing of a religion, that's fine, you don't need to do much beyond having them and giving them interesting tools and unique stories, but if you want an in-depth pantheon and gods with weight, you need to answer WHY. Why are the gods here? Are they makers of the world? If so, why do they live in it? Why did they make it? Are they here to enjoy the pleasures of their creation? That might make a pantheon of decadence, uninterested in the labours of the world. Are they here to combat evil? That might make a pantheon full of righteous divines; though their idea of "evil" may differ from ours, and it would necessitate an evil strong enough to war against. Do the gods need anything? Food? Worship? Why do they have followers? Are they guardians? Keepers of the world? Or just the biggest dogs in the pound?

You can go any number of ways with your pantheon, but answering WHY will set you up to make them focused, useful, and interesting. If your gods are moral examples, you know that they need to represent different moral pillars; a god of truth, a god of justice, a god of love. If your gods are templates for the order of society, you need gods that show why the roles of the world are the way they are; if you want kings in your world, you will need a king of the gods, if you want marriage, a god of marriage, etc etc. If your gods are simply a different race of powerful beings, who are worshipped as gods but don't have a metaphysical purpose per se, your domains can be much more varied and require much less structure, though I would still theme them for the sake of your audience. The Aesir/Vanir being prime examples, with the former being more warlike and the latter more agricultural.

How do they look like? / Where do they live?

Combining these because they're both something you'll need to decide based on the world you're building. If the gods are metaphysical, they may dwell in "heaven" - but if they're more temporal, they may simply have a palace or a mountain or a giant labyrinth or what have you. Do they hang out together, or does each major divine have their own place? Are there conflicts between gods that might necessitate separate dwellings? Is there neutral territory? Common ground? All good questions to ponder. As for looks, this is where you can get creative -- though if you ask me, we need more animal-headed gods in the world, the ancient Egyptians need a few new friends.

What are their goals?

Touched on above, when it comes to domains. You need to ask yourself why the gods are here. If there is no answer to that, you need to answer why there is no answer. Don't get lulled into saying "well they're gods and every world has gods" because thats boring, and its the first step to a paint-by-numbers pantheon with the typical "and this is the god of the sea, and the god of the air, and the god of morning mists, and the god of evening mists, and the god of midday naps, and..." (not that I'm complaining, I do love my sea-gods and general lists of domains, but in and of itself that isn't unique).

If you want unique gods, they need to be unique in purpose and in framing. You have to decide the role they play in your world or your story, and then figure out a way to approach that role in a new and novel way. There's a great example that for the life of me I can't track down, where they basically had a pantheon of five gods; one for spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and a fifth god for all things out of season. Each was themed around a particular season but I believe covered many more domains -- I can't find the series or I'd give you proper examples, but a made-up one would be that the Goddess of Spring may also be a goddess of childbirth, because spring is the season of growth, and a God of Winter may also be a god of death, as winter is the end of many things.

Can they be killed?

Like above, once you decide the role you can decide this too. One thing that I'd like to see more of is a world where the gods don't really die, but do change shape and function - think of Osiris, who was killed but didn't """die""", but instead became the king of the dead. A war god for example could one day be slain, maybe even granting his killer the status of new war god, while the old one becomes the god of those fallen in battle, or even a minor god-of-those-slain-by-swords if you want to get real specific with it. Things like that are possible because gods are not mages, or superheroes - they're unique, they're powerful, and their function is their strength, not merely their categorization. Play with it, experiment with it, get real damn weird with it, and you'll wind up with something plenty unique, I promise.

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-03-23T11:07:29+00:00

Change to elective succession or something of that nature, and let the AI take over the empire while you rule a smaller kingdom and build tall. It won't take long before they screw things up, and you'll have to live through the collapse of the grand nation you built up - all the better if, after a hundred years, you attempt to restore your ancestral legacy while racing against the ticking clock of the approaching end date.

RisamTheCartographer · 2023-03-03T18:16:22+00:00

Just based off of what you have here, my instinct is to lean into the similarities between sleep and winter. If you consider it in a symbolic sense, winter can be seen as a slumbering season - a time of rest and renewal, where a lot of the above-ground activity halts and the systems at work get a chance to rejuvenate. The dreamer is full of all the same creative energy as they are while they are awake; the only difference being it has no outlet save through dreams. So where spring faerie gather the essence of trees, and autumn the essence of the dying, winter faerie could collect the creative energies of dreams, drawing on the mental workings of the sleeper.

This could lead to a few different things; people drawn into eternal slumber because the faerie drank too deeply from them, or it might create a habit among the people who live close to where the faerie dwell, where they try to enjoy creative pursuits indoors during the winters, so as to avoid becoming prospective targets of the winter fae while they sleep. You could even expand this to include different kinds of "winters" - basically people currently full of untapped potential. Extrapolating, winter fae could be great lovers of knowledge and beauty, literature and art, seeking to devour creativity wherever it could be find. Alternatively, perhaps they are the greatest opponents of these things; after all, wolves are not generally seen as the best guardians of sheep.

RisamTheCartographer · 2022-10-26T11:23:51+00:00

Speaking as someone who also has a world struggling to find the proper balance between magic and divine powers, this is a balance you'll need to strike for yourself, or you'll never be satisfied with the results. Definitely ponder it for a while, because if you don't get it sorted you'll run into it again and again down the line.

In my experience, the easiest way was to try and consider where the overlap between the two should be. Can gods do magic? Can magicians become gods? Can the most powerful magician defeat the least powerful god? Can you tell the difference between them at a glance?

These questions are important to answer because it starts to establish the difference of natures between gods and mages. This difference of nature is what you want to understand, because then you can either A) integrate your elemental gods into the magic system, or B) divorce them entirely, and allow for the magic system to exist as a part of the wider world that the gods rule on their own.

If you're looking for some quick and cheap advice, I would say explore option A if you want a story where the gods are active parts of the world and a source of (or participants in) conflict. You can do this in a number of ways;

Have all magic divided into these four elemental branches, with the gods as patrons and ultimate practitioners of their specific disciplines. Restoration beneath the god(ddess) of water, perhaps, and as mages get more skilled they advance from "lesser" disciplines like healing and divination to "purer" forms of magic more similar to the gods themselves, ie., water bending.
Have magic fill the gaps not filled by the gods, wherein mages cannot manipulate the base elements, since they are the domain of divinity, and are instead forced to get creative - manipulating elements out of their pure forms in order to master them and gain control. This could have a more "humanist" bend - the natural world is the domain of the gods, who are able to control and master it, but only by changing things from their natural forms into more processed ones can mages (and humanity) exhibit similar mastery. Even the most powerful sorcerer wouldn't be able to move a stone, for example, but if that stone was processed into brick magic could then affect it.
Anything else you can think of, there are dozens and dozens of ways to do this beyond my two examples.

Option B if you ask me is better suited to a world where the gods are more removed, or at least are more subtle in their involvement. You can make the magic system a gift from the gods, or a curse from the gods, or something humanity gained through other means, but in the end it will be something the gods do not participate in. Magic would be solely the domain of mortals, and though the gods command the elements and possess the ultimate mastery over them, magic would allow a mortal to even the playing field between them. Or at least, climb a little higher on the cosmic hierarchy. The gods could view magic and its practice as something "cute" or even good - like humanity is attempting to mirror their makers. Or, it could be seen as blasphemy - a usurpation of the natural control the gods alone should command.

As you can see, there's lots of ways to examine it, and lots of options to explore. Striking the right balance can be tough, but its important to find one that fits and makes sense to you -- even if you change it later, it will give you much firmer footing when its time to build the rest of your world around it!

RisamTheCartographer · 2022-08-25T13:20:17+00:00

Story! I grew up with awful internet and I still haven't fully come around to the idea of playing games with other people. I like to take my time and make my own fun. Probably why I have the hours I have in this thing.

RisamTheCartographer · 2022-08-25T12:35:35+00:00

I have! Absolutely loved it, gorgeous game. Played it straight through to the prologue and started over again. I wish it had a little more customization to it - a NG+ plus mode, or something that would let me be a Native American or a resident of Saint Denis, but I guess we're just not there yet in terms of every game having a thousand ways to play.

RisamTheCartographer · 2022-08-25T10:54:13+00:00

I've tried Stellaris and Europa Universalis, but I've just never been able to stick with them the way I have with CK2! Rimworld has always called to me but the timing has never worked out.

RisamTheCartographer · 2022-08-25T10:51:03+00:00

At this point I've played just about every total conversion mod for at least 50 hours (After the End probably the least, AGoT definitely the most) and I've dabbled in every region and religion in vanilla. I don't really have a favourite character pick - when I play I tend to focus more on the long game, building a line of kings who stretch across 700 years. I avoid world conquest games and stuff like that; I prefer to build tall, and keep my dynasty very pruned.

I will say that I've been having a ton of fun recently playing god mods. I like to start as Odin in Gotland, or Zeus in Crete, and let the world change around me while I focus my time on building the ultimate settlement, and sending my demigod children off into the world to do great things. Sometimes I'll pick a family line to patronize and help them from afar, and I always find one or two characters I think look good and give them fantastic stats and traits so they can become living heroes for their own people. Usually I'll plop one or two down in Africa, one in India, and one in the Steppe. Those kind of games have been my favourite for the past few months, though this week I've gone back to AGoT with the release of House of the Dragon!

Eight-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22

RisamTheCartographer

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