Terra Deorum History Lesson

I'm working on my own deities because I came up with some cool ideas regarding a pantheon, but if you want to worship a deity and tell me what it is, I can make sure it has an equivalent.
[6:29:23 AM] Ry: Basically, I wanted a system in which humanoids can come up with their own gods and will them into existence through common belief, and humanoids can also rise into godhood through extraordinary means
[6:29:34 AM] Ry: But I also wanted there to be the capacity for creation myths
[6:30:24 AM] Ry: So the idea is that a number of primal gods -- "The God of the Firmament" "The God of Eons" "The God of Mortality" and stuff like that, very basic concepts, shaped the world from a cold void without form
[6:32:50 AM] Ry: hmm, i wonder how much i should give you interms of backstory, this stuff sounds like it'd do better in a knowledge check or talking to a scholar. :P
[6:33:36 AM] Ry: Okay, I say no more except about modern Terra Deorum, no more history lessons unless it makes sense in-character.
[6:34:05 AM] Ry: That's the name of the continent, by the way. It means something like "Land of the Gods"
[7:20:35 AM] Ry: After that series of 'primal' gods -- basically, space, time, et cetera, they created gods for the individual races. A "God of Elves", a "God of Dwarves", a "God of Men"
[7:21:03 AM] Ry: (i really like when humans are called 'men' or whatever as a racial definer rather than 'human' for some reason. @_@)
[7:21:14 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: yeah, it sounds HIGH FANTASY
[7:21:21 AM] Ry: it does, i think that's what i like about it.
[7:23:10 AM] Ry: I'm thinking that additionally, there are a couple of gods that were created here that created the other life on the continent -- a God of Beasts, a God of Creatures, perhaps even a God of Unlife
[7:24:59 AM] Ry: At this point, the gods of the various humanoid races made a legendary hero to that race. This would serve as that race's first leader, and they each had their own specialty and personality. Of course, they all represent different classes as well -- though they're all divine in origin, that doesn't mean they were all created in the images of paladins and clerics.
[7:27:06 AM] Ry: At first, there was a great alliance between all of the humanoid races, and the ties between them largely held fast as the original leaders of each race lived and governed their people -- they all seemed to be especially capable of reaching compromise with each other, perhaps because they shared the same origin and had divine blood running through their veins.
[7:43:55 AM] Ry: because it's such a useful construction in the modern day, where we don't really use "him or her" to refer to a gender unspecified person
[7:44:29 AM] Ry: anyway, that kind of brings me back to the history lesson.
[7:44:40 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: yay, history lesson with ry.
[7:44:42 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: i pay attention.
[7:44:58 AM] Ry: I'm trying to think of what to call the second tier of gods, they'd be the Gods of Creation or something like that, because they're... creating the major races, and the life of the land
[7:46:11 AM] Ry: anyway, they make their races, and they make their heroes, butr, as always, people will rise who have evil motivations and wish to take power for their own purposes. An evil order seemed to rise up, and the concept of this evil group is known far and wide, though mostly to scholars, as this kind of stuff is pretty intricate historical knowledge. Compare it to knowing about a specific side in an ooold conflict that only people who pay attention in history class remember
[7:47:48 AM] Ry: Even though the concept is known far and wide, the name varies, and not even just in a 'language to language' sense of variation, more like some call it the "Order of [x]" and some call it "The Consortium", but when you get down to brass tacks, a good number of people know /about/ it even if they don't agree on the name.
[7:48:04 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: i see...
[7:50:23 AM] Ry: It's widely agreed upon that This Group's founding members -- and as such, its greatest higher-ups, were a group much like the divinely created humanoids -- they represented each race by having one member of its kind among them, and they represented individuals with a variety of individual talents, personalities, and styles of dealing with their foes -- who, in this case, were primarily the divinely created ones themselves.
[7:53:09 AM] Ry: In a way, many people back when this knowledge were more common referred to them as a sort of a mirror image of the divine ones -- and it'd be no surprise if these individuals were divinely inspired from more infernal side of the divine spectrum, since they were powerful enough in their own right as individuals, and gained loyal followers. They became large enough to be a recognized -- and feared -- group of criminals, and not your standard mafia family, either. We're talking slavers, crimes-against-nature wizarding, wiping out populations of towns
[7:55:34 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: (i am reading, but also playing werfrem.)
[7:55:42 AM] Ry: The divinely-inspired ones and This Group clashed many times in direct combat, as they were recognized not just as great political leaders, but heroes of their race. There were repeatedly casualties on both sides -- though it was also the case that at least one of the Divinely Inspired group died to an assassin working for The Group, and another lost their position (and possibly their head) to an uprising/coup.
[7:57:13 AM] Ry: As the nations each lost their beloved leader, they were often replaced by individuals who were less... amiable to the other races than the original Divine One.
[7:58:53 AM] Ry: In this way, it seemed like the original alliance between the humanoid races fell apart. They were no longer all on the same side, but instead were divided -- dwarves hated elves, elves hated dwarves, and a similar rivalry soon erupted between orcs and humans. Those races are now -- even in the modern day -- warring with each other.
[8:00:19 AM] Ry: Eventually, each of the major figures was dead -- evil and good alike.
[8:02:20 AM] Ry: Each of The Group and the Divinely Inspired were either killed in battle, picked off by the opposition through some other means, or died of old age after losing their allies.And this was all ages ago, so there's not going to be a risk of you guys finding an old elven king who used to be their hero or something.
[8:03:12 AM] Ry: Many of them are worshipped as martyrs or saints if their culture allows for that -- perhaps the evil ones are even worshipped in some shadowy cults as 'dark saints,' or whatever term you'd use to define those...
[8:03:54 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: mhmm.
[8:05:03 AM] Ry: As each culture went its ways and began to philosophize, they began to realize that they could not pray to the God of Men, or the God of Elves, for everything. They began to imagine their own deities, for concepts that they invented through philosophy. I'm thinking this tier is called "The Gods of Concept," because they are mostly gods that apply to specific, well, concepts.
[8:07:25 AM] Ry: Few people worship the The Primal Gods directly -- though there are some that do. It's more likely, however, that they worship their culture's 'God of Death' or 'God of Death' rather than the primal God of Mortality, who is the grand poobah in that domain. Similarly, they represent concepts that are more important to specific cultures or that the primal gods would trifle in -- such as a 'God of Knowledge,' whereas the Primal Gods came far before there were things to know or beings to know them.
[8:08:19 AM] Ry: These would largely be culture-specific but since travel between the various lands is still very common, it's possible to have many religious combinations.
[8:09:06 AM] Ry: These gods are created through... various means. Some are saints and martyrs who ascended to being gods of particular concepts. It's possible that the original heroes have taken the form of gods now.
[8:10:07 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: So - VERY heavily god and religion based world, and it's not the kind of world where Gods are completely out of humanity's reach, i'm guessing
[8:10:40 AM] Ry: well, it's likely that everyone knows about and worships gods, though there are still likely people and families that "don't think about it"
[8:10:49 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: yeah
[8:11:02 AM] Ry: and probably some people -- especially tribes -- that don't worship gods but concepts, like nature gods
[8:11:20 AM] Ry: so yeah, it's about as religion-heavy as a standard setting is, i think? at least, that's my perspective on it
[8:11:21 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: so gods can be willed into being, if enough people believe
[8:11:33 AM] Ry: yeah, i was just going to say this but i cut it out because you said that:
[8:11:34 AM] Ry: Some are just willed into existence -- they never had a human form, but the concept of them became so popular and so powerful that they seemed to emerge from the murky void that the Primal gods
[8:11:40 AM] Ry: crafted the world itself from.
[8:11:44 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: hehe. yeah.
[8:12:04 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: reminds me a bit of planescape - it was quite heavily focused around the idea of things being willed into or out of existence if one's belief is strong enough
[8:12:11 AM] Ry: Ah, I see
[8:12:23 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: anyway, that's all really interesting. i appreciate the amount of thought you've put into this
[8:12:24 AM] Ry: I'm still wondering what to do with, uh... how to /access/ the gods, and what planes they're on and stuff
[8:12:40 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: if the final boss isn't a god i'm gonna be sad xDDI'm working on my own deities because I came up with some cool ideas regarding a pantheon, but if you want to worship a deity and tell me what it is, I can make sure it has an equivalent.
[6:29:23 AM] Ry: Basically, I wanted a system in which humanoids can come up with their own gods and will them into existence through common belief, and humanoids can also rise into godhood through extraordinary means
[6:29:34 AM] Ry: But I also wanted there to be the capacity for creation myths
[6:30:24 AM] Ry: So the idea is that a number of primal gods -- "The God of the Firmament" "The God of Eons" "The God of Mortality" and stuff like that, very basic concepts, shaped the world from a cold void without form
[6:32:50 AM] Ry: hmm, i wonder how much i should give you interms of backstory, this stuff sounds like it'd do better in a knowledge check or talking to a scholar. :P
[6:33:36 AM] Ry: Okay, I say no more except about modern Terra Deorum, no more history lessons unless it makes sense in-character.
[6:34:05 AM] Ry: That's the name of the continent, by the way. It means something like "Land of the Gods"
[7:20:35 AM] Ry: After that series of 'primal' gods -- basically, space, time, et cetera, they created gods for the individual races. A "God of Elves", a "God of Dwarves", a "God of Men"
[7:21:03 AM] Ry: (i really like when humans are called 'men' or whatever as a racial definer rather than 'human' for some reason. @_@)
[7:21:14 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: yeah, it sounds HIGH FANTASY
[7:21:21 AM] Ry: it does, i think that's what i like about it.
[7:23:10 AM] Ry: I'm thinking that additionally, there are a couple of gods that were created here that created the other life on the continent -- a God of Beasts, a God of Creatures, perhaps even a God of Unlife
[7:24:59 AM] Ry: At this point, the gods of the various humanoid races made a legendary hero to that race. This would serve as that race's first leader, and they each had their own specialty and personality. Of course, they all represent different classes as well -- though they're all divine in origin, that doesn't mean they were all created in the images of paladins and clerics.
[7:27:06 AM] Ry: At first, there was a great alliance between all of the humanoid races, and the ties between them largely held fast as the original leaders of each race lived and governed their people -- they all seemed to be especially capable of reaching compromise with each other, perhaps because they shared the same origin and had divine blood running through their veins.
[7:43:55 AM] Ry: because it's such a useful construction in the modern day, where we don't really use "him or her" to refer to a gender unspecified person
[7:44:29 AM] Ry: anyway, that kind of brings me back to the history lesson.
[7:44:40 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: yay, history lesson with ry.
[7:44:42 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: i pay attention.
[7:44:58 AM] Ry: I'm trying to think of what to call the second tier of gods, they'd be the Gods of Creation or something like that, because they're... creating the major races, and the life of the land
[7:46:11 AM] Ry: anyway, they make their races, and they make their heroes, butr, as always, people will rise who have evil motivations and wish to take power for their own purposes. An evil order seemed to rise up, and the concept of this evil group is known far and wide, though mostly to scholars, as this kind of stuff is pretty intricate historical knowledge. Compare it to knowing about a specific side in an ooold conflict that only people who pay attention in history class remember
[7:47:48 AM] Ry: Even though the concept is known far and wide, the name varies, and not even just in a 'language to language' sense of variation, more like some call it the "Order of [x]" and some call it "The Consortium", but when you get down to brass tacks, a good number of people know /about/ it even if they don't agree on the name.
[7:48:04 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: i see...
[7:50:23 AM] Ry: It's widely agreed upon that This Group's founding members -- and as such, its greatest higher-ups, were a group much like the divinely created humanoids -- they represented each race by having one member of its kind among them, and they represented individuals with a variety of individual talents, personalities, and styles of dealing with their foes -- who, in this case, were primarily the divinely created ones themselves.
[7:53:09 AM] Ry: In a way, many people back when this knowledge were more common referred to them as a sort of a mirror image of the divine ones -- and it'd be no surprise if these individuals were divinely inspired from more infernal side of the divine spectrum, since they were powerful enough in their own right as individuals, and gained loyal followers. They became large enough to be a recognized -- and feared -- group of criminals, and not your standard mafia family, either. We're talking slavers, crimes-against-nature wizarding, wiping out populations of towns
[7:55:34 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: (i am reading, but also playing werfrem.)
[7:55:42 AM] Ry: The divinely-inspired ones and This Group clashed many times in direct combat, as they were recognized not just as great political leaders, but heroes of their race. There were repeatedly casualties on both sides -- though it was also the case that at least one of the Divinely Inspired group died to an assassin working for The Group, and another lost their position (and possibly their head) to an uprising/coup.
[7:57:13 AM] Ry: As the nations each lost their beloved leader, they were often replaced by individuals who were less... amiable to the other races than the original Divine One.
[7:58:53 AM] Ry: In this way, it seemed like the original alliance between the humanoid races fell apart. They were no longer all on the same side, but instead were divided -- dwarves hated elves, elves hated dwarves, and a similar rivalry soon erupted between orcs and humans. Those races are now -- even in the modern day -- warring with each other.
[8:00:19 AM] Ry: Eventually, each of the major figures was dead -- evil and good alike.
[8:02:20 AM] Ry: Each of The Group and the Divinely Inspired were either killed in battle, picked off by the opposition through some other means, or died of old age after losing their allies.And this was all ages ago, so there's not going to be a risk of you guys finding an old elven king who used to be their hero or something.
[8:03:12 AM] Ry: Many of them are worshipped as martyrs or saints if their culture allows for that -- perhaps the evil ones are even worshipped in some shadowy cults as 'dark saints,' or whatever term you'd use to define those...
[8:03:54 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: mhmm.
[8:05:03 AM] Ry: As each culture went its ways and began to philosophize, they began to realize that they could not pray to the God of Men, or the God of Elves, for everything. They began to imagine their own deities, for concepts that they invented through philosophy. I'm thinking this tier is called "The Gods of Concept," because they are mostly gods that apply to specific, well, concepts.
[8:07:25 AM] Ry: Few people worship the The Primal Gods directly -- though there are some that do. It's more likely, however, that they worship their culture's 'God of Death' or 'God of Death' rather than the primal God of Mortality, who is the grand poobah in that domain. Similarly, they represent concepts that are more important to specific cultures or that the primal gods would trifle in -- such as a 'God of Knowledge,' whereas the Primal Gods came far before there were things to know or beings to know them.
[8:08:19 AM] Ry: These would largely be culture-specific but since travel between the various lands is still very common, it's possible to have many religious combinations.
[8:09:06 AM] Ry: These gods are created through... various means. Some are saints and martyrs who ascended to being gods of particular concepts. It's possible that the original heroes have taken the form of gods now.
[8:10:07 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: So - VERY heavily god and religion based world, and it's not the kind of world where Gods are completely out of humanity's reach, i'm guessing
[8:10:40 AM] Ry: well, it's likely that everyone knows about and worships gods, though there are still likely people and families that "don't think about it"
[8:10:49 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: yeah
[8:11:02 AM] Ry: and probably some people -- especially tribes -- that don't worship gods but concepts, like nature gods
[8:11:20 AM] Ry: so yeah, it's about as religion-heavy as a standard setting is, i think? at least, that's my perspective on it
[8:11:21 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: so gods can be willed into being, if enough people believe
[8:11:33 AM] Ry: yeah, i was just going to say this but i cut it out because you said that:
[8:11:34 AM] Ry: Some are just willed into existence -- they never had a human form, but the concept of them became so popular and so powerful that they seemed to emerge from the murky void that the Primal gods
[8:11:40 AM] Ry: crafted the world itself from.
[8:11:44 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: hehe. yeah.
[8:12:04 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: reminds me a bit of planescape - it was quite heavily focused around the idea of things being willed into or out of existence if one's belief is strong enough
[8:12:11 AM] Ry: Ah, I see
[8:12:23 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: anyway, that's all really interesting. i appreciate the amount of thought you've put into this
[8:12:24 AM] Ry: I'm still wondering what to do with, uh... how to /access/ the gods, and what planes they're on and stuff
[8:12:40 AM] Alice "Mitsuru" Mars: if the final boss isn't a god i'm gonna be sad xDD