mythology

[juelz4sure]

I'm really struggling with making a mythological orgins which expalin all the "gods" I have a good basis on one "god" but I need it to flow well with the origins I'm working on now. The basis is each planet that affect earth has it's own "god". These are the planets and their relative "gods" in an outline form

Earth: Ilumist the "God" of life and existance. Realm of the staircase and beyond

Forelth: "God" bringer of fire and destruction (This is the planet that crased into earth a long long time ago. For normal people this is the existance of God and Lucifer) Realm is the Underworld

Moon: "God" of persuasion and

False Prophet Moon (Lost Planet): "God" bringer of war and doom (This is the one that is completed)

2nd Moon (I need a name): "God" of I don't know yet

Sorry it's so long but what do you think, Like i said it's putting everthing together now

 

[Warren_Paul]

I'm not sure we can answer this question for you Juelz. It has to come from you, not us, otherwise your just writing in a world based on somebody else's ideas, not your own.

But all that aside, what I'd recommend is doing a google search on "virtues". might give you ideas of what to associate the gods with.

If it's based in the real word then you could possibly use latin names of the virtues for the gods, since latin would exist in your world

 

[Venusian Broon]

Hey juelz4sure,

It would be helpful for the rest of us (as you seem to have load of ideas and concepts already in place) as to what it is, in a bit more coherent detail, you are struggling with.

You've outlined gods and planets, but how does this fit in with the origin myth in your head - it's all a bit unclear. Does, for example 'basis' = god origin myth? Is there an overarching myth that connects all these planets and gods up?

I sort of read it as, each planet has a seperate god, and the physical interaction of the planets with each other determines the type of religious experience on each world - so some worlds are made with collisions of two (Earth & Forelth in this case ) so have Earth has a "dual god system" (heavenly father and devil) and the nearby moon influences also (but hey isn't that made up of the mashed up bits of the collision - kinda a child of the union of two worlds so to speak...)

But, I'm really making a stab in the dark, so feel free to shoot me down...

 

[juelz4sure]

Sorry about the vagueness, I'm just cautious about writting anything in my WIP. I just don't want someone to take my ideas but i digress, here is a bit more information about my world and whats going on...

There are two Realms our realm and the Fey realm which is essentially a lost world. It is the world that existed before man when angels, demons and Fae creatures live by their own rules. In that realm there is a prophetsy that when the moon's love arrives there will be a war between the realms (2nd Moon) which is the "God" that brings doom. The Redwings (a thought to be exstinct creature) will gain power given by the god to fight our realm.

The underworld is run by Forelith's "God" which is not evil but was awaken by the crash between earth and Forelith and being of fire and destruction the underworld is the most comfortable place for him. Demons normally follow this "God" not because of beliefs just because of the "Gods" nature.

Ilumist has always been here and is what created life from a dry planet.

The moon's God is not a huge player in the world's Beliefs. Dependent on the Moon's stage determain the Stregnth of the moon's Persuasian. ( Most Creatures don't Think of this "God" as a well "God" lol)

The false Prophet's "God" I don't know what it does yet but I'm working on it.

That is essentially what is happening and it's the main myth that engulfs everything. I wanted to take the myth to it's roots, before life and how every "God" gained it's stregnth in each group of followers.

I will definately look into the latin words for the names. That's the skeleton form I know what I want to do I just have to find a way for it to come together.

 

[Venusian Broon]

No probs regarding vagueness, I understand! So I will apologise in advance if I've missed the point...

So you have all those entities in worlds and what not, and you need a creation myth for the whole lot?

You seem to have followed some of the elements of what we think really physically happened in the solar system, so why not just take it a stage further back and use the beginnings as a scaffolding for your mythology.

So at some point we were just a disc of gas and dust, that at some point got to such a dense state that our sun started up its nuclear reactions and lit up (a singular moment of 'creation') Perhaps at this moment the god's sprang into existence also. And for each individual speck of dust around this star one was created. This accretion disc of matter all around started to clump together - from dust to grit to stones to boulders to 'mountains' to planetoids, so all the while the individual gods on these bits are fighting for right to sole ownership of the bigger and bigger bits - hence you end up with a few 'gods' of planets and loads and loads of demons/angels/other celestial beings with no particular place to go...

Anyway just my 2 cents worth. It's late in UK land and the above ideas may be a load of cack

 

[juelz4sure]

I was thinking something along those lines, it's just a huge undertaking, I mean creation itself... It's gonna take some time and then finding a way to introduce the story. Like I said before one of the stories have already been introduced, and two of the charaters are in the underworld on their way to the staircase. It'll be interesting to say the least.

 

[Dozmonic]

The Enuma Elish is the Babylonian tale of creation, talking about the formation of the gods. Zecharia Sitchin postulated that it was actually an accurate tale about the formation of the early solar system with the gods representing the planets. That may well be worth finding online to see how it played out.

 

[Venusian Broon]

That's an interesting approach Dozmonic to a solution for a creation myth, Sitchin's explanation is a bit more 'nut-and-bolts' and based in 'reality' with extraterrestial outsiders and rogue planets.

Barking mad as a real theory or history, but the sort of books I love to read to see how imaginative people are in joining up the dots of the universe around us in most random and entertaining ways.

I have amongst many others a Sitchin on my shelf along with The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, another that 'proves' that Jesus Christ's head is actually buried in a secret compartment in Rossyln chapel, the eloquent Peter Lemesurier's tome 'decoding' the great pyramid (first class pyramidiocy!) and my personal favourite 'Who built the Moon?' that concludes that the moon is artificial but will be built by our descendants far in the future and sent back in time by them to ensure that we actually spring into existence (No I still can't quite get my head around that one, but it's a joy to read, Lunatics yes, but inspired!)

 

[Brian G Turner]

To be honest, I think most fiction completely fails to understand why and what people mean and believe in by "gods".

Therefore I would suggest you focus first on whether the mythology appears to work in your world, or not.

And instead of reading modern "grail" pulp novels parading as non-fiction, I would suggest you research more actual mythologies where possible, ie ancient Greeks or Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis, according to the context of your work, and how real you want this whole process to work.

 

[Venusian Broon]

And instead of reading modern "grail" pulp novels parading as non-fiction

Oh I should make it clear I was definitely wandering far off topic last post, just the name Sitchin diverted my thoughts to the madness of those books...

I'm interested though IB, why you have Lovelocks Gaia hypthesis as a myth though, as I see it as a scientific principle or theory (albeit one that does struggle a bit to justify itself.) Or have I picked up the wrong end of the stick?

 

[juelz4sure]

What's nice is the full mythology doesn't need to be fully explained yet, which will give me time to put all the pieces together. Some "Gods" will be more important than others I think exposing the readers to small parts of the full mythology then later bringing everything together may be the best way. Thanks to everyone who's posted ideas and if anyone has any other sources of inspiration please let me know. The greek mythology has a very strong grip on my thought process as it is now.

juelz

 

[Brian G Turner]

I'm interested though IB, why you have Lovelocks Gaia hypthesis as a myth though, as I see it as a scientific principle or theory (albeit one that does struggle a bit to justify itself.) Or have I picked up the wrong end of the stick?

Myth because so far as I'm aware, it's still regarded as a curiosity rather rather than scientific fact.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Myth because so far as I'm aware, it's still regarded as a curiosity rather rather than scientific fact.

It's a very neat and compelling idea, although <searching through my New Scientist clippings*...> I see that evidence for Gaia's evil 'twin' the Medea hypothesis could also be argued reasonably strongly - that Life on Earth has repeatedly endured drastic drops in biodiversity and abundance driven by the action of life itself.

I guess until we can get a bigger sample of planets in the category of: had or with life present, it's always going to be really difficult to put these theories to test.


* I know, I know, I'm a sad "analogue" SF writer. But I find that you tend to lose stuff that you've read on the internet, one way or another. Hard copy and bits of paper seem to be hang around indefinitely.

 

[Dante]

What's compelling about mythologies is that they attempt to rationalize the unknown and the unknowable by imparting on it human characteristics. Beyond just names and domains, you need stories to tie these gods together. It's the tales of the gods that make a mythology.

 

[juelz4sure]

What's compelling about mythologies is that they attempt to rationalize the unknown and the unknowable by imparting on it human characteristics. Beyond just names and domains, you need stories to tie these gods together. It's the tales of the gods that make a mythology.

That's what I'm struggling the most I have the outline but fleshing everything out is just... I don't know hard lol (for a lack of a better word)

 

[Dante]

I would start to think of writing a novel about the gods instead and think out a whole story for them.