Ideas for Deities/Monsters

Game Development
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Ooh, ooh. This thread is proving to be a dangerously addictive one, I can go one more at least.

  • Kanno the Waiting

Kanno is a reserved Goddess who is worshipped by artisans, musicians and hermits as the Paragon of Perfect Dedication. She has always been known as a patient, enduring deity who counsels stoicism and perspective in all things.

It is said that while meditating within a silent grove, her soul caught the mildest hint of a song, woven into all things living and dead. She listened and listened, snatching up tiny whispers of exquisite music that over many eons she lovingly put together, learning as best she could to recreate the transcendental beauty of that hidden song.

She now devotes all her energy to this song, either meditating in the silence of her grove or playing her own divine instrument in the hopes of mastering the complexities of music. She is the Patron of obsessive artists and scientists, but she is especially responsive to musicians.

Some say that if you please the Goddess sufficiently (by performing a quest on her behalf or creating a truly exceptional piece of music) she will play you her divine song. Those who are believed to have received this ‘gift’ never say another word, nor pick up a musical instrument. They seem happy though. At peace, even.

  • Utinny-Who-Moves-Not

An older, more primal deity who has no concrete physical form, but who has persisted throughout history in one form or another. When a mighty hero wields an unbreakable sword, or a bow that never misses no matter their level of skill, they are actually ‘wielding’ Utinny.

‘He’ is a God who routinely manifests as ‘Magical’ artefacts of major historical importance. ‘He’ always manifests at exactly the right moment to push history forward.

While it is difficult to gauge the mood of an inanimate object, we can infer a few things about Utinny from his manifestations. We know that he respects the Underdog, often falling into the hands of people who would otherwise sink into obscurity. He also clearly abhors slavery, oppression and large empires, as many of his manifestations are instrumental in the dismantling of empires or slave-nations.

  • Toska Soft-Head

Toska Soft-Head is a deity that nobody of sound mind would ever pray too. That is precisely the point, as Toska is known to be the stupidest of all the Gods. Many cultures have stories about Toska Soft-Head stumbling through the gardens of Heaven, accidentally unleashing horrible plagues or great evils with his bumbling.

However all of these stories emphasize Toska’s good heart and constant willingness to help others, which is usually his saving grace in these stories.

Those strange few who do pray to Toska often receive baffling or non-nonsensical trinkets from Toska’s travels, maybe a rock or twig that holds some special significance to him, maybe some horrible beast that Toska tried to adopt as a ‘pet’. Many of these ‘gifts’ tend to be dangerous in some respect, so Toska is one of the only Gods who has an entire Religious Order dedicated to stopping people from praying to him.

The Sisters of the Soft-Head are a small, mostly ignored or laughed at group of women who see Toska as a lost child, and seek to be a maternal influence for him. They make children’s toys and leave them at altars for Toska to find.

I cannot stop. Please send help.

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@Moreau
Don’t stop! Your ideas are great and although 90% of what you’ve given wont work in my story there are bits from each that are helping so much with my plans.

Also so far Utinny-Who-Moves-Not may get used in some form in the story. I like the idea of a primal deity, indestructible and without a physical form but able to create and be the weapons wielded by heroes.

I don’t want to stop the outpouring of creativity but maybe you could get a creation story for your next one? I’d love to see what you come up with

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You got it, Chief.

Wait…

Creation story for the God or for the World?

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Honestly either will work. At the end of chapter 3 the followers tell the story of the creation of their world and the major deity they believe created it or rules over it now.

It’s based on a few things that have happened over the past 3 chapters but allows for pretty much any story as long as it only has one major deity of no specific sex

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I got you fam, watch this space.

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Well I’m just glad I could help in some way. :grin:

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Haha, that’s fine! :joy: Honestly, most of the times I’ve played thru this I tend to end up in the snowy regions, so ice would be a good substitute!

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Ok, here we go. Three origin stories for the world as blurted out after several seconds of thought. Apologies if they’re a little rough.

  • The Hiding:

The Grand Creator is not the Alpha and Omega, the Grand Creator is scared.

Terrified.

Something beyond the veil of the stars so terrifies the All-Maker that he created our entire universe as a hiding place to escape the detections of the Darkness beyond.

The All-Maker may have been chased, beaten and bruised from the outer reaches, desperately throwing rocks and skies and oceans up over him trying to hide from the darkness. Even today he hides desperately beneath the surface of the Earth, as the darkness comes closer and closer with each passing year.

One day the Creator’s ancient nemesis may find him again, pulling our world apart in his fervour. Then their battle will continue, if our Creator has regained enough of his strength and courage.

  • Lovers Lost:

The World was made as a fine jewel to be presented to a lover, the High Goddess Maarjolaine was given the Earth by the High God Theus as a wedding dowry. She turned the multifaceted jewel over in her fingers and was enraptured by its beauty.

The two of them were so utterly in love, exploring every facet of the emotion together. For a million years they would stare into each other’s eyes, for a trillion years they would recite poetry to each other.

Theus was unsatisfied.

His love was as strong as ever, but he had explored every inch of love and of Maarjolaine. They had felt every feeling that was possible over their long love, and Theus could no longer think of any new way to express his love for that perfect being.

He eventually realized that there was only one facet of love he had been unable to give Maarjolaine, one rapturous and all-consuming love that she had not experienced.

She had not felt the loss of love.

Theus destroyed himself utterly, shattering his body and leaving Maarjolaine alone with the Earth.

She was utterly desolate, weeping for long centuries until she noticed something.

Some tiny fragments of Theus’ body had fallen to the Earth, and were wandering the plains, lost and confused.

Here was some small memory of her beloved, not much but enough.

She devoted herself to the preservation and protection of these little shards of Godhood. She warmed them with the divine heat of the Sun, and tried to teach the children how to look after themselves.

She lets them grow and multiply, hoping that one day her love will be reborn.

  • The Furious Stone:

The creation and design of the Earth was overseen by a great and shining being who saw the lifeless stone of the world and breathed life onto it. As the glow passed over the empty basins, water filled them. As the barren ground was warmed by the glow, grasses bloomed and trees rose up from the soil.

Animals were woven together from this living firmament and given dominion over all the world.

It’s strange work over, the being moved on to new projects and left the Earth in this new state.

The Earth itself was furious at being interfered with, the spirits of the stone were in an uproar over the great invasion of unwanted life all across its surface. They churned and steamed and their rage became an idea, their final revenge against all life.

They would play the same game their mysterious interloper had played. They made their own being, imbued it with the tools and fortitude to take back the surface world.

Their new beings would eat anything they could find and destroy anything they couldn’t eat.

The final revenge of the Stone is Mankind, whose hunger will make the Earth barren once more.

I’ll probably add more as the night continues…

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I think you can do that, the appearance of Larkain is that of a human mixed with a dragon so you their gender can’t be noticed since it is covered in scales and is labeled as they

The mother of nature is a deer
Female deer do not have horns while they do
Because it was created with fusing her babies (twin boy and girl) it now has the appearance of both traits
Maybe changing it to the guardian of nature would suit your game better if you won’t declare the gender of the characters

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Oh! Oh! I just got another one!

The Abyssal Hunters

There was a tribe who worshiped an evil god who claimed to be good

That god only aided them to strengthen their their belief in them to gain more power

And once they got what they wanted from the people

They sent the entire tribe (which is a really big one) into the abyss as a “reward” for their faith in them

After hundreds of years of being tormented in the darkness, and losing their eyesight

And from the hatred, agony and madness inside them

They swore revenge on every god they could find (or just the evil ones, your choice :3)

Now, they managed to crawl out of the abyss and their journey and torment gave them some gifts

They gained strong skin that can’t be harmed by normal methods, fast regeneration from all the pain and all they limbs they lost, they managed to replace them with new ones, they also became really fast and strong, great acrobatic skills, they cannot speak but can hear the thoughts of everything around them, they can also sense the presence of spirits around them

They could easily kill a god n a matter of seconds if the god isn’t careful

They now walk the earth, searching for their old god to make them pay back for what they did

Appearance:
The bodies are that of normal humans, the eyes and mouths are stitched to force them to close but they could easily open their mouths which contain really long, thin set of razor sharp teeth, they are covered in bandages and some have their eyes binded with a bandage and no clothing at all but the major parts that needs to be covered are hidden with the bandages

They hunt down gods because they believe they only exist to torment people and mostly ignore humans except for the ones with strong belief in their god, their priests and whoever dares to try and stop their mission

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@Moreau
The lovers is one of the creation stories that I had planned so I’m probably going to plagiarize the crap out of your story there to improve what I had.

The Furious Stone is an awesome idea, I may change one of my other stories to include that instead.

I love the idea of a terrified creator as well, I don’t know if I can have the MC as a coward though and if the MC wasn’t placed as the creator I don’t know how I can weave them into a story like that.

@WhiteLynx
I like the Abyssal hunters, especially their appearance. I could have used something like that when I was doing the messengers appearance. It’s an interesting story though

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Hope I’m not too late to the party :smirk:

My friend and I came up with this for a novel he was going to write, but he abandoned the project a while back and gave me permission to post the religion we’ve created here.

  • The Beginning

Once upon a time, there existed a God named Groskh (with alveolar trill, no less). Nobody knows how Groskh first came into existence, but it did (Groskh is gender-less, don’t you dare implying otherwise). Groskh enjoyed creating things and seeing them beating the hell out of each other. It amused it. One day, Groskh created exceptionally powerful beings. These beings clashed so fiercely, that the energy they generated created an entire universe (an event humans foolishly call “The Big Bang”).

  • Groskh

Groskh usually don’t pay much attention to Earth (there are much better planets outta there), but it usually comes to see if there’s anyone worth of receiving one of its gifts. It has never been heard or seen, and probably doesn’t even has a physical form. It communicates with its followers through writings in an alphabet and language only true believers can read. It has no pronunciation; one can only read, comprehend the meaning, and translate it to their native languages. The ability to read these writings is in itself a gift by Groskh, and can’t be taught or even comprehended by anybody else. False readers usually die when Groskh discovers they’re messing with its followers.

  • The Gifts

There are two types of gifts Groskh grants to its followers. The are materials, collectively called “Groskhstak”, which means “Materials of Groskh” and there are liquids, collectively called “Groskhrog”, which means “Liquids of Groskh”.

Actually, these names were created by a false reader, who said she could put the writings into words. The suffixes (-stak and -rog) had already caught on when she died as a punishment for misleading the other followers. Groskh liked the suffixes and told its followers to roll with it, so now every gift has one of the suffixes attached to it.

Materials often come in form of objects with divine characteristics. Take Laknastak, for example. It is the blackest of the materials on Earth, and so hard that only Groskh itself can damage it. It reflects images like a turned-off TV screen and is pretty lightweight, too. Weapons, shields, and armor are usually made of Laknastak.

Liquids usually mutates one’s body when drunk or applied to the desired area. Take Beknarog, for example. It is a thin and bright neon-blue liquid with a sweet minty taste that makes the drinker feed of oxygen instead of food and water until they die. There are also have liquids which make people smarter, faster, stronger, able to read Groskh’s writings, give them enhanced senses, everything-proof skin, gives life back to someone who died, and etc.

  • Selection Process

Groskh usually writes a list of tasks to be accomplished, and hands it to readers so they can tell the followers. Once a task is completed, the follower who completed it gains the ability to ask for a gift. Each task can be completed as many times as Groskh sees fit. Usually only once per person, but infinite times overall. Groskh has a weird sense of humor, so some tasks will look like things straight out of a truth-or-dare party with particularly drunk frat boys, while others will involve you beheading a cat and writing your name with their blood.

The harder the task, the more useful the gift. Turning someone into a follower of Groskh may earn you a dose of Riknorog, a liquid that can cure minor deceases, while killing an enemy of Groskh can earn you a dose of Mignorog, a liquid that can make you heal faster for the entirety of your life.

Asking for a gift that’s worth more than the task you’ve completed won’t give you anything, but won’t use your chance to ask, either. Beware of asking too many times for things you can’t get, or Groskh can break your arm or give you the clap, just for giggles. Groskh can give you a self-updating list of gift suggestions, if you ask nicely.

  • The Followers

The followers are just common people. They don’t wear matching outfits, gather in a sacred place, make rituals, or anything. The only thing that sets them apart is the fact that they’re crazy enough to believe one of their acquaintances can read stuff written by a divinity who asks them to behead people with swords and cut their friend’s hair while they sleep.

Oh, that, and the fact that some of them asked for things like wings, extreme beauty, blue skin, and such, so their appearance can vary wildly. Most of them still look like humans, but with huge chests or a muscular physique (these are some of the most popular gifts, because humans are that vain), although you’ll find furries and centaurs if you search for them (because humans have the weirdest fetishes).

  • I guess this is enough description. Anything else you want to know, just ask.
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I love that for every Lady of the Forest and Statesman-like Divine Appointer in the cloisters of Heaven, there is a Groskh giggling madly and sticking lit firecrackers up its own urethra.

Like a transcendental Randy Quaid…

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Played through a few more times, so here’s a couple new ones:

The Great Smith: Preferred deity of the craftsman. Looks like a blacksmith wielding a hammer of shadow. Followers pray to the deity for stronger metal, better quenches, etc etc. Followers believe the deity created the world in a heavenly forge. (Based on Hephaestus, Sindri and Brokkr)

Mother of all: Deity of fertility. A shapeshifter, most commonly appearing as a dryad. Followers frequently hold festivals, asking for fertile crops, abundant game, and healthy newborns. Followers believe the world is made from the flesh of the deity. (Based on Gaia, Ishtar)

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I present you a deity crafted during a (possibly drunken?) game of D&D by a rabid dark souls fanboy:

Rave-lord Doug, God of parties. And death. (Because those two can be linked in the worst of ways.) Imagine a five foot tall skeleton in a black robe that exposes only his hands and… skull, wearing sick 80s shades on his forehead and carrying a scythe that is also an electric guitar.

Doug is the DJ of a rave of infinite size that plays, almost exclusively, Darude Sandstorm. All souls who shed their mortal coil come here, where they must party hard to get into the afterlife proper. Essentially, if purgatory was a rave. The party that is the underworld contains an excessive amount of partying, including drugs so strong they would kill most living mortals.

I doubt you’ll use this, but hopefully someone found the idea of Doug amusing.

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Abstract this a bit from the late twentieth-century trappings, and you’d have something like Dionysius. Think about all the traditions of sacred feasting and merry making: the chosen warriors in Valhalla, the legendary bacchanals of ancient Greek myth, King David “dancing before the Lord with all his might” (2 Samuel 6:14), that weird disembodied wolf head in Adventure Time. There is something timeless and elemental about partying. A nod in this direction might be in order.

It might not work as a god if @Maxmansung is going for a one god, one society sort of thing. (You can’t have a whole society based on partying. Maybe Jamaica.) This WIP does remind me of Black and White (2001) in that sense. But there could still be a Dionysian tradition within an otherwise monotheistic religion, operating in concordant opposition with the religion’s more priestly elements. It’s an idea.

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Oh I’m going to enjoy this!

Aurora
Titles: The Flower Maiden, Protector of children, Singer of the Song of Life
In the very beginning the world was barren lifeless. It was but an endless expanse of rock and dust.
One day the skies opened up and down toward the earth fell Aurora. The child goddess was banished from the heavens for a crime that she could not remeber. Having known nothing but the paradise of the heavens, this new world frightened her. She sang mournfully, she sang of her desire for companionship and a place to call her own.

Before her very eyes plants sprung from the ground. Grass, trees and flowers surrounded her. Delighted with her knew found powers she sang once more for company and she was surrounded by butterflies.

In the years to follow she wandered the world singing new creatures into existence.

One day she came across a creature that she did not create. It was bleeding and would soon die. Aurora had seen her creations die before and it always brought her sorrow. She would not wish such a fate on anyone. She healed the creature not realizing that this being would become her prophet to the world.

Estal
Titles: The Masked Trickster, Kin to Animals, The great Teacher
The origins of Estal are shrouded in mystery. Philosophers say that he was born from the first mans laughter. Others say that in his boredom he dreamed the world into existance. The origins of this enigmatic being whatever they are remain irrelevant. It is his appearance and behavior that is well documented however. The Masked God is a shapeshifter who spent his early days among the animals, assuming a new mask to change his shape. It wasn’t until he stumbled upon humans, that he finally found something worth his time. He resembles a human in his true form but holds many animal characteristics such as fox ears, wild cats tail and a feral grin. On his face a white mask covered his eyes. It should come as no suprise that Estal makes frequent use of his shaprshifting to walk among the mortals. He uses his ability to pull pranks on humans and set them against eachother. However even with his mischievious attitude he is not an evil deity. Indeed he considers himself a teacher. Instructing the mortals on the importance of humility, trust and thinking for oneself.

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I got one for you.

I created him as an evil-ish diety for a D&D game… my character became so bad I’ve since been banned for using him in even when I GM. You can rewrite the origin as required

Vulcanis: The Rebuilder. God of perfection.
What others have built Vulcanis will rebuild better.
Symbol: The Scaffold Tower
Perferd weapon: War Hammer

Little is known about Vulcanis’ early history other then originating on one of the hell’s. What is known is that Vulcanis rabidly searches for magical artifacts, technologies, and rare or unique, and powerful creatures of any kind to add to his collection.

Cults of Vulcanis are very hard to find and even harder to eliminate. This is because Vulcanis attracts those who are willing to pay for perfection. First he approaches them in dreams offering aid and insight for free, solving the worst problems faced. But then he asks for simple offerings while helping the craftsmen ambition along then when they have bitten off more then they can chew he offers more direct help while hinting at the answer. The price a blood pact. Some one valued by the craftsman, a child, a spouse or even a parent. Their soul for the answer. Usually the crafter is in too deep to back out and then he or she belongs to Vulcanis.

Worshipers of Vulcanis are almost universally respected for their arts. A master of sculpture will make the most amazing and detailed sculptures of his time each one out doing the last. Of course this is because that is the cost Vulcanis demands: perfection. Once bound by blood pact the crafters loved ones life depends on producing perfection. He also instructs his worshipper to carve, paint, or otherwise mark their work secretly with his mark so that every act of veneration of these works is an act of worship of Vulcanis.

Vulcanis can does and will take more blood pacts to strengthen the crafter. The souls of these are his at death and are used to power his machines and engine of perfections or lent to power his servants machines.

In societies where his worship is acceptable or even primary the sacrifice of criminals and the poor is common. Police forces are often made of golems or automitons. Rulership is decided by the most perfect of their fields. With artists ruled by artists. Musicians ruled by musicians and so on. Children enjoy a somewhat protected status since being the perfect mother or father or even guardian is mandatory. But even so children are to be appranced to a master by age 12 and expected to serve them for the 8 years at which time they are granted a task by Vulcanis should they fail both they and their master suffers.

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Veroka the dragon Lord Veroka is a dragon that has been around since the begging of the world and over time was worshiped by humans then hibernated and now has woken up