Wanted: God Pantheon Experts

[BlckMrktMrchnds]

I hadn't really even considered that I could go my own direction with them. ^ ^' I suppose I was kind of taking this more like trying to write fanfiction than, perhaps, an original story.
I suppose I'll have to shop around with a different mindset, then.

Also:

Another thought: There might be only one god of each "Godly Aspect" who appears as a worshiper thinks he should look; Thor to a Norseman, Zeus to a Greek, Jupiter to a Roman, Yahweh to a Jew or Jesus to a Christian.

Or their might be a pool of junior gods who appear in the Aspect expected by a worshiper while the actual Godly Aspects are off at a convention on Mt Olympus or in Valhalla.

I had already kinda nibbled on this idea, but seeing it suggested makes me wanna put more thought into it, and I definitely will.

I'm getting so many ideas, thank you all! ;u;

 

[Hypoxia]

Mix pantheons. Various deities are hanging out in a bar, telling lies, hitting on hotties, etc. One of Alan Moore's 10th PRECINCT stories had the cops investigating Baldur's murder in a Norse god's bar -- but he was murdered by Loki and then revived EVERY NIGHT, to be murdered again tomorrow. Some Graeco-Roman gods hung around to watch the fun. Or take the approach of Thorne Smith's NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS. All the gods' statues in the Museum of Natural History come alive and start partying, fighting, fucking etc.

 

[BlckMrktMrchnds]

Oh my God, that sounds so great! XD

Definitely worth playing with~

 

[Beadishly]

Interesting ideas with so many fun possibilities!

Made me think of two roundabout references to suggest. I say roundabout because these are not lists of names and attributes, but more like models for ways you might think about and play with the pantheon characters. To get your juices flowing about how you could work creatively with those lists, attributes, histories, etc....more like frameworks than content.

First would be Joseph Campbell's various works on the power of myth and how humans across cultures use their mythologies. He wrote several books and there is an excellent old PBS series, hosted by Bill Moyers, called The Power of Myth which is probably still available. (Or go deeper into Carl Jung's works.)

The second recommendation is a novel, Neil Gaiman's _American Gods_. The basic premise is that the US is a land of immigrants, immigrants from diverse cultures whose old gods had been part of the people's lives for ages; the novel supposes some of the old gods came with their people as they immigrated. The story is about their interactions in the new land, with its peoples, unique culture, and with one another. More to the point of your original post, they have personalities fleshed out, and seeing how Gaiman works the concept might inspire you in how you treat stories about whoever you eventually select.

 

[Tw0Cr0ws]

Loki generally gets a bad rap.

Look into where the Aesir got near enough to all of their magical items of power?
They were given to them by Loki.
No gratitude, no respect.
Yes he gets drunk with Odin and pulls some bad practical jokes (which Odin never gets blamed for).

As to Loki killing Baldur?
Shortly after Baldur was killed Loki was an invited guest at a feast, an obnoxious and not very welcome guest but invited.
A murderer on a guest list?

 

[Hypoxia]

Loki generally gets a bad rap. <snip> A murderer on a guest list?

Happens all the time in politics. And in biblical texts, {JHWH} kills many more people than does Satan. But which gets no respect?

 

[CyranoJ]

I started a little project just today that I'm currently really excited about and want to jump into with both feet. It's weird and rather different, and requires a lot of knowledge on gods—like, all of them—which I really do not have.

A possibly useful way to think about this:

"Gods" and "pantheons" are local interpretations of roughly shared religious and psychological concepts. Gods in the "pantheons" around the Mediterranean and across Europe were often treated as translations or local versions of one another. And former "gods" often find themselves transformed into other, related religious concepts -- spirits, saints, demons, angels and so on -- over the passage of time. This means two things:

1) The combinations of possible stories, concepts, names and god-like beings attached to those names are almost infinite. There are pretty much as many possibilities as there are villages, towns, cities, dialects, story-tellers, priests, singers, etc. So trying to assemble a picture of "all the gods" could eat up oceans of time without necessarily getting you anywhere. (I speak from experience on this.)

2) The root concepts being translated as gods, however, might be a lot less numerous. Might be worth picking a scheme you like -- Jungian archetypes are always a fruitful one -- decide what the core figures of your "pantheon" are and then using on the fly whatever specific "gods" seem to translate that core most suitably for a situation.

Just a possibility.

 

[jezzaz]

This is what you need.

I'm currently working on a mobile video game with all the gods I can find in it, and this it the bible.

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idi...4_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=JKZXV7R2TGNCJYBCM2C0

 

[Handley_Page]

Study of the Discworld might also reveal some useful bits.
There's an interesting Pantheon at the Hub.

 

[ishtat]

Happens all the time in politics. And in biblical texts, {JHWH} kills many more people than does Satan. But which gets no respect?

Ever noticed that in Genesis the serpent was considerably more truthful than Yaweh with regard to the consequences of eating forbidden fruit.

"The Lord is a man of war Yaweh Saboath is his name" Exodus 15. 3

Justa coupla thoughts.

 

[Kantarii]

Jumping in both feet first? Watch for the sharks and avoid the deep end if you can't swim. The best place to start is with a blank sheet of paper to symbolize the infinite boundary of imagination. When you put the first word on paper, remember you a setting your own boundaries and limitations on you imagination. The great thing is, no one has ever written a book or story and left all the pages blank since invisible ink isn't highly sought after like pencils, pens, and electronic note padsKant

 

[Hypoxia]

Ever noticed that in Genesis the serpent was considerably more truthful than Yaweh with regard to the consequences of eating forbidden fruit.

"The Lord is a man of war Yaweh Saboath is his name" Exodus 15. 3

Justa coupla thoughts.

My customary rant:

First, the word for 'serpent', often translated or inferred as 'snake', is better rendered as 'reptile', and could thus refer to a talking lizard. Next, consider that {JHWH}'s aspect was too terrible/awesome for human sensation; all divine commo passed through messengers, 'angels'. Also consider that 'Adam' (man) and 'Eve' (woman), in their Garden of Eden sojourn, could only have encountered {JHWH}'s creations and messengers. As far as A&E knew, the talking lizard was only another messenger bringing an update of the rules. So they follow protocol -- and then they're kicked out! Is this fair? No; it's {JHWH} as the comic jokester.

The gods I carve every morning are more reliable than {JHWH}. Worship'em!