/lit/ - Literature

>>14944128
Specifically, it would be a setting where the gods are all associated with various crystals, mainly kinds of quartz. The nature/fertility/love goddess getting Rose Quartz is obvious, but what about the other major deities, what kinds of quartz would mesh well with the other major divine archetypes, like a god of war or a god of the underworld, a sun and/or moon god, etc.? I can't think of any good types of quartz/crystal to associate with them. I was thinking that there'd be a total of five major gods, along with perhaps a few minor deities and a trickster/devil figure outside the main pantheon, any thoughts on what the other roles in the main five should be?

I was thinking of having the trickster be associated with obsidian, to reference his nature as an outsider, or maybe smokey quartz, what do you think? What would some good domains for him be besides "evil" or the underworld/death?

Also, I was thinking that maybe the nature goddess could have another domain, what would be a good match, war, stewardship over the dead not being punished for sinful lives, or something else?

>>14944132
Citrine for the main god ala Zeus/Odin, to symbolize his solar/olympian qualities. Amethyst for his wife, symbolizing her lunar/priestly qualities.

>>14944173
What if I want to do something besides a Zeus expy?

Take some Jungian Archetypes and create unique and interesting avatars for them.
Or, if you're really feeling creative, come up with some of your own archetypes based on the cultures and worldviews of people in your world.

This is really going to depend on your universe. If you are going by purely modern aesthetics just head to the wiki page for Quartz and Garnets and pick whatever colour you want for your gods. (I personally think Smoky Quartz looks very underworldy). Something like the sunstone/iceland spar would be good for the sun god.
You should really go a bit deeper though and look at your gods relationship with whatever people inhibit your books.

If you want an actual realistic pantheon then look into actual religions, specifically Indo-European myths if you want to give it a more familiar feel. If you want something more out there, would reccomend scoping out Buddhist and Native American myths. It's also a good idea to look into archetypes but if the deities are *purely* archetypes then the pantheon is flat and boring. Make the deities of the pantheon distinct personalities (along with major myths tied to them) rather then just being characterized by their 'domain', which would end up boring. If you want actual crystals assosiated with gods of various archetypes, Crowley's Liber 777 has a table of correspondences between precious stones and various deities/archetypes.

>>14944128
Maybe read some of the Gnostic texts, especially from the Sethian sect. They made a lot of cosmological and pantheonic fan fics based on the Old Testament and Hellenistic religions.

>>14945952
Any good places to find those?

>>14944128
Read just the first part of the Silmarillion, it’s a great example of an imaginary pantheon well done and set in a fantasy land.

The evil god, initially the most talented of the original gods who in his arrogance believes to be better than the supreme creator god and challenges him, only to be humiliated and in his humiliation, out of jealousy and bitterness, becomes the anti-god. Choosing to destroy everything the supreme one created. Just great storytelling really.

>>14944132
This sounds like absolute cringe, what are you some new age mom?

What kind of point are you trying to make with a story about gods? Do you have a specific view of religion or hierarchical structures? If so, have your pantheon reflect that.

>>14947482
It was just an idea.

>>14944128
I never liked the idea of an "evil" god, who is evil just for the sake of evil, and has evil as an actual divine domain. How have you approached the concept or seen it approached, and is it better to have a more Satan-like figure or a more Loki or Coyote-like trickster figure? What are some good domains besides war and/or the underworld (which I feel are a bit overused, at least as primary domains)?

First of all what reason in the story does this pantheon serve? Like why are you trying to write them? That is the principle foundation to build upon, and without it it's hard to give advice beyond "look into real world religions".

>>14949694
Can you give an example from your own work?

What type of role pantheon serves? Try to imagine creation myth, what or why everything started, how other gods came to find their roles. And obviously read real world myths.

>>14944128
Consider primal “gods“ (forces before the Titans) like in Assyrian mythology.

>>14950607
Any good places to read about that?

>>14947482
>This sounds like absolute cringe, what are you some new age mom?
Well, I don't see you coming up with any ideas.

>>14948372
>>14944132
>>14944128
Associating gods with crystals is incredibly juvenile cliche Zelda tier faggotry, especially in a fantasy setting.

Here's a thought: Create a society run by a radically monotheistic, saturn-worshipping priesthood. This "saturn" banished the gods into the form of immortal animals representing the god, and it's the hero's job to return artifacts to these cursed gods in order to restore their power.

Actually, what I described literally is Zelda crossed with African fetishism. Nevermind.

>>14953146
>continuing the post to spice things up a little.

The gods never talk to the protagonist, nor any human character, but there is a subplot of the gods and their drama on "mount olympus," where they are truly imprisoned by this Saturn/Moloch usurper. The main character's dog is one of the gods, who helps him in his journey. The chief antagonist is the priesthood, but their only indication that the protagonist is succeeding is that certain end-time prophecies are being fulfilled as each god is released. This precipitates in a subplot about the suppressed worshipers of the old gods, becoming further emboldened by the fulfillment of these prophecies until things go full Exodus. At his final trial, the jews, I mean "priesthood," try to tempt/deceive the protagonist, and actually kill him, but his dog, who turns out to be Zeus, steals the crown from atop the statue of moloch, which kills him instantly. At this point, the priesthood think they have won, but the final prophecy is fulfilled (the destruction of the temple of Saturn), by the hungry masses, destroying the priests out of their own accord.

>>14953146
>>14953201
tl;dr- avoid the explicitly supernatural and make the disasters brought upon by these seals being broken seem (on the surface) like an organic development of nature and society, so that there's plausible deniability so things don't become too farsical.

Use basic creativity. Take two pantheons and find ways to do put them together. I would always apply your own experience in living (assuming you aren’t fucking 20) to the myths of your characters.

The Greek gods didn’t appear out of thin air. I believe some of these myths may even predate the earliest Nile civilization in Egypt such as the theft of fire. I think a lot of these stories originate with real people who become deified in the obscurity of time and word of mouth. Their stories contain morals that contribute to shared knowledge of the people, I’d assume these pop up right as Homo sapiens frontal lobe expands and we can put imagination or fear into these stories. In a sense, the pantheons are just the oldest stories of the people, twisted and rearranged to suit the new people. You go from Ra to Zeus to Jupiter and so on.

I also wonder if any of the fantastical creatures from myths were based on extinct animals or the cousins of Homo sapiens we killed or bred out all the way back to the upper Paleolithic. That date also coincides with the latest time (50,000 yrs) it’s believed humans began to speak to one another.

What’s that all mean? Take it to its core. What’s the moral? What use was the story to these people? How could a new people adopt that and twist it for their own use? Most important, what is the story you’re trying to tell.

Ez mode could just be take the 7 sins and 7 virtues then put them onto characters. Your Zeus is diligent, but envious. Your Athena has humility, but is wrathful.

Keep in mind most morals are about the becoming of one for us because it birthed civilization. Putting down the personal for the collective. Morals of these deities should lead toward that, assuming you aren’t writing a fantasy race separate from humans. You better not be.

>>14953146
>Associating gods with crystals is incredibly juvenile
t. Ignoramus who doesn't know the first thing about the subject

>>14953772
I get the historical association of gods to crystals, but giving them supernatural powers tied directly to the gods is pretty dumb

>>14953939
Matters how schlocky you want it. Wanting to give it the authentic feel of religion it’s kinda not good, but if it’s just junk food fantasy, fine.

Are you writing your pantheon from the perspective of the gods looking to earth or mortals looking up?

Someone already recommended the silmarillion, and that is the perfect example of someone writing from an god's eye view "this is how it is and this is what happened" objectivity. On the other hand I would recommend The Elder Scrolls as the counterpoint, an example of the mortals looking upward. And by this I mean how the same creation myth seems to play out across all the races and cultures, except that the gods and their actions have minor cultural variations and naming conventions. Sometimes an event will be interpreted a different way because a culture favours one god over the other, and the telling of the myth differs when someone who favours a different god involved tells it. Sometimes members of the pantheon are overlap or split. The effect is that a primordial metaphysical event is implied, but the exact truth or nature of this has been filtered through history and culture.

Anyway, the setting I am working doesn't have a strong analogue to the classical pantheons of the ancient world it is set in a culture just emerging out of animism. Gods are perceived as impersonal forces, and something similar to Greek hero cults and mystery religions are laying their foundation. Divine intervention isn't something I intend to occur in my setting, no mighty gods warping down on to battlefields or any of that. I want spiritual practice to reflect the theme and contextualise the motivation of certain characters.

>>14953998
>junk food fantasy
Never heard that one before.

>>14955548
Me neither.

>>14944128
I had to create the gods of dwarves for my fantasy novel, mainly for worldbuilding. My intention was to create some short insert stories that made little sense for teaching any kind of morals, because these dwarves tend to be chaotic by nature. The gods were two siblings, and in the myths my character narrated, that character was one of the gods on disguise, the dwarves had a tendency to side with his brother because it was the one that allowed them to have fun, and be dicks to each other.
My point is that gods have to be somewhat alien to regular motivations, and myths need to have a layer of separations from the characters and plot, unless the story falls very close to the gods, like a prophecy or something.

>>14950461
What? I don't write. Like any character or detail in your world, the gods have to serve a purpose, otherwise you don't include them. So why do you want to include them? Then we go from there.

You only need one god.

Jesus Christ.

>>14959218
haha.

>>14959218
Trinity.

>>14944128
You don't have to have explicitly defined and named gods. In my stories, I show what kind of religion is dominant in my world through my characters' actions, interactions, morals, etc.

>>14944128
Do it George R R Martin style, you paint the tip not, the whole iceberg just to paint over the rest with ocean. Throw around some names mention an old cult. Read lovecraft for inspiration. On the language to use. Don't stress it's easy, the fans will fill in the rest in their minds if your overall work is compelling enough.

>>14944128
Read Popul Vuh and then just copy their mythology. As nobody is familiar with Mesoamerican myths you will seem very cool

>>14962380
I want to do more than just copy-paste.

>>14963627
Same.

>>14944927
A Zeus is present in every human religion.
Even Jesus is a zeus expy

>>14953201
>At his final trial, the jews, I mean "priesthood,"
Top kek

>>14944128
Bump

>>14964785
>A Zeus is present in every human religion.
>Even Jesus is a zeus expy
Elaborate on that, please.

>>14966794
No.

>>14944128
>another shit-pantheon for plebs
please don't. Don't write more fantasy. Fuck you.

>>14944128
write something worth, for a change. You're too stupid to write fantasy

>>14955548
>>14957270
Basically mean something like grab and go dnd. You are doing it for the adventure and crunch, so the god of fire might have a firestone that lets you shot fire. You are not going to get an Emmy for it, and it won’t feel particularly visceral and transcendental, but sometimes you just want to sit down and watch something easy, like the Office, instead of breaking open War and Peace again.