forum Need help with some god business, please (powers and stuff)

Started August 07, 2020 by @Reblod flag

tune

To keep things brief, I have four 'original'/ancient dieties that kind of represent the most important elements of reality.

At the moment I have (Moukib and Iseo are fine, they won't change)
Moukib: Knowledge & the mind
Iseo: Time
and Diu and Solum which is where I've run into a crossroad of sorts

I could never decide who should be the god of creation or destruction. Diu is the oldest of the two and is known as the matriarch/queen of the gods and is represented by the night moon.
Solum used to be the king of the gods, husband of Diu, but now they're siblings so that's sort of weird even though, historically, incest is pretty normal in gods. He is represented by the day moon and is also the one who eclipses the sun (the sun is considered to be a malevolent deity and the eclipse suppresses its power)

So I can't decide who creation goes to and who destruction goes to. That's not all though.

I've also considered making one of them, probably Diu, the god of both destruction and creation but then I'm not sure what Solum would be and I feel like that makes Diu a tad too powerful (especially considering their origins which is irrelevant here)

So any suggestions?
Who do I give creation and destruction to respectively?
Or, do I give creation/destruction to one and give the other a different power and if so, what?

Oh my GOD. Whatever this book is, I want to read it like todayyyy

Dude, I just love concepts that fringe on historical myths but still unique by the hands of the Author. So, as a major in Lit and ancient history (could you tell xD), I have a shit tonne of advice.

No.1 it's actually pretty normal for the woman to be more powerful, in fact they're often made that way by people so that they have reason to, uh, control women. Religion is often created because people don't understand how the world works or because they're looking for power. So, as said, it'd be really cool for Diu to be both but if you're going down this path it's a good idea to give her a flaw or cursed backstory as that's normally what goddesses have to go through. Also giving her a conflicting physical appearance (Aka goddess Hel or Janus) will really sell readers on the whole dual power thing.
If you're not down to have her do both (we can multi-task, we're all queens), then it makes more sense (historically) to have the king be the good creation guy, no one wants a god of destruction in power (unless that's the plot or something) and as I said, humans like to make women be the bad guys so it'll fit.

No.2 Your characters really resemble Greek Mythology so I guess beware of that or embrace it. Incest is SO damn normal, it's actually weirder if there isn't any, if that makes sense? I'd argue that backstory's are relevant EVERYWHERE, especially if you're asking for this kind of assistance haha. My curiosity is burning over here lol. But again, this is your Mythology so literally break every rule if you want to hun.

No. 3 Generally curious, how did Solum stop being the king and husband of Diu? And how did they become siblings? I love that he is the day moon, I've never read that anywhere before so kudos to you my friend.

No. 4 Here is what I'd do:

Moukib: Knowledge & the mind
Iseo: Time (and Earth? or Space?)
Diu: Creation and Destruction
Solum: …

Solum is a tricky one because depending on where your people are (assuming this is a practiced religion in your book and not about the Gods) they might want a desert or ocean god. Then again, considering all the different mythologies a god of Death is visible in every SINGLE religion. If that ain't cool, I don't know what is. Which could also lead people to distrust him no matter how good of a guy he is cough Hades cough. I really like torn gods, as in they were created to be one thing but fall for the other, like making him a god of familia hearth (fancy latin words for family) and then have him betray his family (thats the vibes I'm picking up from what you wrote). Honestly, if I knew more about him and the overall story I could throw more out there but here's some basics!

No. 5 I have severe OCD and everything has to be in 5's but I hope these helped?? Let me know if I can clear anything up for you or help more!!

Lots of love,
Lani

That is very helpful actually!

I'm still considering giving her both. I do lean towards her being destructive because of the nature of the world and the original creator who had malevolent intentions in creating the original gods. The original gods possess pieces of the creator's, Lins', power thus creation, destruction, knowledge etc.
But I also really like the idea of the dual power. I think the only reason I hesitate is because I'm not sure what to give Solum. What's interesting is, in one of the societies of the world women don't have any political influence but have a very strong military presence so maybe I could tie that in with women being seen as more capable of destruction? Ach I'm so torn.

The deal with Diu and Solum's relationship was that in the original version Diu and Solum were the first beings (I think. It was a long time ago) and Iseo was their child. This just evolved into what it is now which I'll explain later which led to all four of them (Diu, Solum, Iseo, and Moukib) all being siblings. I suppose I could keep their union the same because, really, all the gods are related so there's no avoiding it.

There is a lot more to the mythology and pantheon of this world so I'll explain it a little bit better.
There's a sort of tier system going on…

Tier 1:
The original creators of reality. Lins (the world (mythology says that he slumbers in the centre of the world), magic which is believed to come from the core of the world, the creator of the first gods) and Duns (the sun (he was trapped in there by Lins), the world ender). These guys are considered to be forbidden or lost deities in a way. They're brothers but enemies and it was a battle between them that prompted Lins to fortify himself within the world, Korrei, after creating Moukib to store his knowledge and the moons who were made to protect him if Duns escaped his prison.

Tier 2:
The first gods, in order of oldest to youngest. Moukib, Diu, Solum, Iseo. The last three are the three moons of the world. They appear at different times. Moukib was banished a very long time ago.

Tier 3:
Reserved this spot for Mortessorem, God of Death (or of the dead I suppose, he's a bit like Hades in that way), Keeper of the Void (the afterlife), because he's cool. He was created by the moons. He's also the most noble and 'good' of pretty much all the gods.

Tier 4:
Other gods created by the moons. They vary depending on power. There's a lot. I think I was a bit inspired by the ancient Mesopotamian beliefs where there were lots of minor gods for little things and the more widely known gods who had a more general purpose. One of them was created by Mortessorem though (haven't settled on a name yet but she's the Goddess of Souls and the Harvest (like harvesting souls heh but also crops. she's a newer concept))

Tier 5:
Spirits. Manifestations of time created by Iseo (the seasons etc).

I have been thinking about things like space and matter and whether that could possibly be a good substitute. What the original gods are, are the foundations of reality. So the mind, conscienceness, time, creation, destruction. I think once I considered things such as light.

So I am really liking Diu's dual powers after what you've said I'm just still not sure where Solum fits in.