This thread is still a valid thread to post in — better here then creating another about deities/monsters.
I loved this recent post about creating pantheons from Emily Short - lots of food for thought in there!
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Your bringing her posts to my attention are always timed just right – I was doing some research on this earlier and this will help me in one of my projects. Thank you.
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That’s cool, it’s just my reply was to a few year old post earlier in the thread and probably no longer relevant.
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My second attempt to revive this thread, hopefully I do a better job with my post than last time.
Background
I like the idea of this thread, but since the OP made it to help them with their project (which is fine), and since the forum has a policy against posting any new topics similar to old ones, this meant that you couldn’t really do anything like it again. So, I decided I’d try and make this topic more general. Something that anyone can use.
What to do
Post any ideas related to mythology, whether it be deities, monsters, legends or demigods that you don’t mind other people using. Then, if they want, writers can take these ideas and adapt them to fit their story world.
This is meant to be for the fun of it. I personally know how to write mythology for my story world. I just think it’d be fun to do.
Examples
Many of the above responses to the OP are pretty good examples. Don’t worry about including a creation story if you don’t want to though.
Well, in response to Samson’s thread revival, here’s what I do for writing a family tree of deities (I consider myself rather skilled in lore-based subjects such as this):
1, I set up a hierarchy tree of names. If you are good at names just scribble down whatever fantastical-sounding nonsense you can dream of, or a random name generator is just as good. Another idea is using google translate to take a word and turn it into another language (I particularly like using German or Latin for this purpose) and slightly alter the given word into a name. Just start filling in names and connecting them downward to create a cascade of gods and supreme beings in order of creation and who created them.
2. Begin tasking each of these names a role in creation. The sky god Zilphadius, the serpent goddess Caydu, etc. When creating the children of gods on the hierarchy tree, it makes sense to have gods produce subclass gods. I.e. Zilphadius the sky god might have a storm god child, or wind god, etc.
3. Then you can begin trying to figure out how all these deities tie into one another, with whatever fantastical story you can think of for how this god came into being and what this god’s relation is to this one.
I find mythology and religion creating one of the most fun parts of writing stories. Sometimes I just do that part without any story at all, just to create an idea to use sometime down the line. Hopefully these steps help someone struggling in this area.
EDIT:
Alternatively, I do also just have a random idea anyone can feel free to take (literally making up this one as I go): Arvadum, the God of Wishes. Arvadum is a being usually depicted wearing a robe of starlight, with a third eye on his forehead and a gray beard. Arvadum is not a ‘god’ in the typical sense of deities who watch over the plights of man. Rather, he is a living embodiment of something, an incarnation of people’s hopes and dreams. He’s immortal and possesses power like a god, but he exists to serve mankind more than anything. When one awakens in his dream temple, they are offered to have their wishes come true. However, every wish comes with a cost. But not in the sense of a genie’s wishes playing tricks, an actual cost. The soul is a contrary example, but there are other smaller prices depending on the power needed for the wish: Eyesight, an emotional state such as love or courage, material wealth, a loved one, even simply an arm and a leg. But the greater the price, the greater the wish can be made. Arvadum is sometimes worshiped in churches, other times he is considered a dark art, a demon. He merely lives to serve. But the service does not come cheap.
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Some wonderful, creative ideas here. I don’t have anything detailed to add but a few archetypes that might be useful occurred to me as I was reading:
The Dreamer - All the world is simply the dream of its creator. What will happen if it’s awoken?
The Simulator - The world is an experiment and its god is not greater or cleverer than its subjects, merely all-powerful by dint of ownership.
The Wanderer - The world was created only so its creator could live in it. They still wander among us, possibly even unaware of their true nature.
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I’m at work right now but reading through this really reminded me of this story I short (>1k) story I somehow found.
STORY.
I have no idea who originally posted it but when I looked it up again this was the first source I could find.
Anything can be a god. Starting from nothing and worshipped, the worship giving it powers.
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omg i love the concept of toska
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A variation of the Dreamer idea that Wiwyum brought up. I don’t think I’d write a story where everything’s just a dream, so I figured I’d post it here instead.
The world is a dream, and the dreamer is having an internal debate with themselves. The gods of this world are manifestations of ideologies, stances, ideas, and beliefs that the dreamer is considering. When two gods war with each other, it’s really the dreamer subconsciously weighing the two against each other, trying to decide which idea is better. And the dreamer won’t awake until they decide on an idea.
Oh wow, that’s beautifully written and so sad 