 |
Creating Effective Pantheons for Fantasy Stories
By  Sarah N. Snyder
Welcome! If you're reading this, you're probably writing a fantasy story, and you thought, 'Let's create a pantheon of gods for my characters to follow!' Problem is, you have no idea how to do this. Well, if you don't mind me borrowing heavily from Greek, Egyptian, and Japanese mythology, then let's get started!
First, think of what kind of image you want your gods to project. The Greek gods, for example, were extremely childish, feuding amongst each other, having affairs with humans, wreaking vengeance for the oddest things. You could have a certain image for them to portray, or you could decide on their ethnicity (in a fantasy setting, of course) as a factor for their behavior.
If you really don't want to put a lot of effort into creating a religion for your world, you could always fall back on Christianity (or something similar to your own religion). The problem with this is that, in my opinion, mythical creatures and races don't seem to fit into a Christian setting, especially if you're using stereotypes. Elves are highly magical beings, so they would be considered witches; dwarves are kind of materialistic (why do you think they spend so much time in mines?), so they'd be sinners too; and dragons, minotaurs, and any other creatures would probably be considered demons. So, unless you want those perceptions of such creatures in your story, Christianity would probably work well only for the humans.
That's not to say that you can't get away with a monotheistic religious view. It may be harder to pull off, but it certainly isn't impossible. Say we have a god, Bob. (Pardon the lack of creative names, please.) Bob might be omnipotent, which means all-powerful, and omniscient, which means all-seeing; this is already close to the Christian/Jewish God. But Bob's not just a big eye sitting in the sky, is he? He needs a bit of a personality; he could be an angry, jealous god, or a loving god, or a neutral god; is he evil or good? Does he favor certain races over others? Where is he located? Does he have a heaven/hell system, or is reincarnation how he deals with death?
Personally, I believe a polytheistic god system is easier to pull off. Your gods will all have different personalities (or they should), different powers, different realms... and different preferences regarding race. A pantheon is actually easier to use if you want each race to have one specific god assigned to them, since that deity will have attributes that compliment the ideals of that race or culture.
But how many do you create? And what kinds of attributes do you give them? Well, that's where ancient mythology comes in. Let's look at some of the archetypes to determine what kind of deity is necessary, shall we? Please take note, you can add as many as you like (the Hindu gods number anywhere from 300 to 3,000,000).
The Earth Mother and the Sky Father
This isn't really a single deity, but they do go hand in hand. Some examples of this pair are Uranus and Gaea of Greek mythology, Nut and Geb of Egyptian mythology, or Izanagi and Izanami or Japanese mythology. They are usually what the name implies; Earth and Sky, who mate and give birth to other gods (sometimes, like in the case of Nut and Geb, the roles are reversed; Nut is the sky mother, and vice versa). They do not give birth to all of them, since many gods have a tendency to mate amongst themselves and have kids. (It does seem a bit like incest, doesn't it? But for some reason it isn't, and I have no idea how that works.)
Sometimes the mother/father pair is killed, or one of them is. Tiamut, from Babylonian mythology, was defeated after she tried to kill all her children for making too much noise, and they used her body to create the Earth. And sometimes, the father is jealous of his children; Uranus locked away their first children, the Titans, until Chronus broke free and castrated him, creating land and, inadvertently, Aphrodite; he then pulled the same stunt on his sister/mate Rhea, eating all their children until she tricked him with a rock and had Zeus depose and banish him.
The Head Honcho
Zeus. Osiris. They were in charge of everyone and everything else, and however else their personalities were directed, they did have a sense of responsibility. They generally are credited with creating the earth and such.
You have to be careful with the personality here. Is he jealous, righteous, destructive? Is he interested in the affairs of his creations? (Hint: they all should be, but he should be the most interested.) Is he monogamous, or is he like Zeus -- willing to sleep with any person in sight? Does he help people out, and how often?
The Leading Lady
Hera and Isis are prime examples. This goddess is the life mate of the Head Honcho, and she is sometimes also viewed as a goddess of fertility, or of childbirth. This isn't written in stone, since a lot of goddesses are considered fertility goddesses, but it is a possibility.
There are two main personality types for her. There's the jealous raging type, like Hera, who loves her husband but who gets pissed at him for every single affair he has (I'm not blaming her). Or, there's the loving type, like Isis, who searched for and reassembled her husband's body. In fact, the story of Isis and Osiris is considered one of the greatest love stories of all time. You don't have to try to create something quite so grand, but do try to keep their relationship believable.
The Warmonger
There's always someone in history who's ready for a good old-fashioned brawl; Caesar, Alexander the Great, Longshanks, Hitler, George W. Bush… And of course, there's always a god or two who loves to be in the middle of the melee. Ares, for instance, is the Greek god of war; his Roman counterpart is Mars, who I think was aptly named, as the planet IS a bloody red.
Your Warmonger should be a bit reckless, since he/she is in love with the clash of swords and the spilling of blood. They “live” for the battle; it's their adrenaline rush. Most of them are perceived as young, bold soldiers, and not seasoned warriors.
The Love Muffin
Ah, yes, the goddess of love. Of course, your Love Muffin could be male, and it would be a nice break in the cliché. This deity is definitely the most included entity in any pantheon. Most often, she's also interpreted as something of a whore.
Usually she shares love and fertility as her area of patronage, and is almost always in charge of sexual love. This does make sense, but it doesn't always have to be that way. Sometimes she's also the Leading Lady.
The Undertaker
Now, I'd like to dispel a tall tale that seems to travel everywhere; the Underworld is not always hell, and the Undertaker is not some sort of counterpart to the Judeo/Christian devil. In many cases, it is the only place where the soul goes after the body dies. There are designated places for souls that are deserving of eternal torture, but it's mostly just a waiting place.
That said, the Undertaker doesn't necessarily have to be scary. It all depends on the population's attitude toward death. There can also be another person involved in delivering souls to the Underworld. It's usually only a ferryman, like Anubis.
The Green Thumb
Your god/goddess of agriculture is especially important to rural communities, who depend on farming to survive. This is probably their chief deity; they see them as the main provider of conditions to support their crops.
The Green Thumb is generally a woman, and they are sometimes the god of fertility as well. To grow crops, the land needs to be fertile, doesn't it?
The Hunter
There is a noticeable difference between the Hunter and the Warmonger, though they may share some of the same values. The Hunter usually does not participate in battle, and their use of weapons is generally kept for, well, hunting.
Women can make pretty good Hunters, actually. Take Artemis. Not exactly the kindest goddess around – she once changed a man into a stag after accidentally seeing her naked, and had his own dogs attack and kill him – but she was an effective goddess.
The “Ar-teest”
This one is close the to Muses of Greek mythology. It doesn't matter if it's only one deity assigned to all forms of creativity, or if there are multiple gods focusing on certain aspects of what is considered art. They should all focus solely on that section of life; I've never come across an art-related god who was also worshipped for different reasons.
The Villain
There is usually some sort of protagonist in mythology; Osiris had Set, Amaterasu had Amatsu Mikaboshi. For whatever reason, they usually hate the Head Honcho (or Leading Lady) with a passion, and they fully enjoy throwing down obstacles in their enemies' plans and the lives of their favored mortals. They're usually worshipped by, well, evil creatures, since they themselves are evil. Usually they're associated with some kind of destructive force that exemplifies Chaos; earthquakes, storms, fire, volcanoes, even creatures like dragons, minotaurs, or draconians.
The Sun, the Moon, Weather, and the Elements
Ancient peoples used the gods to explain many natural phenomena; the rising and setting of the sun and moon, storms and natural disasters. I'm not going to expand on this much. Just remember, it doesn't matter if these attributes are coupled with others or left to just one god.
Headquarters
So, now that you have these gods, where are they going to live? You could create your own Mount Olympus, or they could all have their own domain. The Underworld is always apart from any other realm. Er, if they all have their own place, they should probably reflect their attributes and such.
Demigods, Angels, and Demons
Gods aren't the only “celestial” beings. A demigod is someone who is half god, half mortal. Demigods, angels, and demons all (usually) have superhuman powers.
There's also the matter of hierarchy, in regard to angels and demons. Personally, I really don't think it matters if you rank them or not, though it might help to have some higher-ups for them to answer to.
You don't need any of these creatures unless you really want them. Many successful sagas don't have creatures like this, and many do. It all depends on if you are willing to work with them. Don't force yourself to create these characters if you hate using them.
Mythology
Yes, you do have to come up with a back-story. All you really, really need is a creation myth, and perhaps a few tales that tell how the world's history was manipulated by the doings of your deities. It would probably be wise to add in, somehow, the relationships between the gods; who's the mother of whom, who's in love with whom, etc.
It may seem like a lot to create, but a pantheon doesn't have to be a big hassle. All you really need is a Head Honcho, a Leading Lady, a Villain, an Undertaker, a Green Thumb, a Warmonger, a Love Muffin, someplace for them to reside, and a back-story at the very least. This doesn't mean that you should just throw together a few characters, stick them on a map, and say, “So-and-so shaped the earth from a pile of mud and used his earwax to create all the people.” Hard work will benefit you in the end, even if it doesn't seem like it.
That being said, let me help you out a little more.
Your Handy-Dandy Deity Creation Form
Name:
Gender:
Race:
Deity type: (Head Honcho, Undertaker, etc.)
Attribute(s): (elements, childbirth, love, war, etc.)
Personality type:
Mother/Father:
Siblings:
Consort:
Favored Race:
Preferred method of worship: (sacrifices, offerings, prayer, healing, etc.)
Powers:
Worshippers:
I hope this tutorial has been helpful to you. If you're confused by any of this, feel free to email me. Good luck!
FARP Article Guestbook
| Date | Name | Comment | | | 24 Dec 2006 |  Anonymous |  Loading...This is an excellent article, I enjoyed it very much. One thing I would like to point out is that the gods that people worship don't neccesarily have to be real. In a story I am writing, there are pantheons of gods that people worship, but they are not real. However, there is a true God that few know about. Also, one thing you might be able to fit in is conflicting story lines. If you read some of the older epics and such from writers like Homer and Virgil, you will find that some of the ideas in their stories will contradict each other, or have different endings, beginnings, etc. However, it could be hard to incorporate that in a story without confusing your readers. | |
| 2 Jan 2007 |  Katherine Bates | Loading... This is great, it's really helped me; I've been struggling to think up of any gods that were reallty believable. | |
| 7 Aug 2007 | Anonymous | Loading... Nice list of divine characters... I have a few comments though  1) I guess you really know this but it didn't come through in your text so I'll point it out just in case: The war-god Mars wasn't named after the red planet - the red planet was named after Mars. Probably since blood red made the person naming it think of war and such, and it seemed suitable. If Ares's latin name had been Kitten, I guess the red planet would be called Kitten too, today... 2) There's another character that deserves mentioning among all these god types, even though it's not always a god. This is the Trickster who plays pranks on the gods and brings them back down to earth when they get too full of themselves. Tricksters are common in North American Indian myth and in African myths. The Norse deity Loki can also be compared to a Trickster. Often they do things like steal the fire from Gods and hand it over to humans. 3) Another "art & more" deity besides Apollo who was mentioned above, would be the Head Honcho in Norse myth, Odin, who was (if I remember correctly) a god of both poetry and death, among many other things. I guess the bottom line is you can make your gods the deities of just about everything, providing you manage that background story that explains WHY they hold such conflicting positions at times... /Former Elfwoodian | |
| 1 Mar 2008 | Jenny | Loading... Soooo...Greek deities are archetypal beings who must exist in all pantheons? I suggest learning about some other pantheons as well. | |
| 29 Mar 2008 |  Mikeal skäppegård | Loading... oh yeah, and Set isnt really the protagonist of the egyptian pantheon, he’s the saviour of Ra! Apep is the main ’evil’ god, but Set was demonized by the fact that he chopped up osirus and was the god of the desert and storms.  | |
| 15 Apr 2008 | Anonymous | Loading... There may also be another god: the Paladin/Crusader. This is the god who will be good and lawful and just, and yet it will have corrupted followers. This god will strife to destroy those of other religions. Also, gods may have to be good, neutral, evil, lawful, balanced or chaotic. | |
| 26 Oct 2008 | Anon. | Loading... From all the comments on here, you’d think that everyone was an expert on ancient gods. From my perspective as a scholar of ancient civilization, I find your archetypes and descriptions inspirational and well as something I would love to incorporate into my lectures. So, thank you... | |
| 31 Dec 2008 | Anon. | Loading... I think that this tutorial is a really good start. Big thumbs up so far, but there are definitely more archetypes that you could pick out. | |
| 22 Jan 2009 | Alex McG | Loading... Not a bad tutorial by any means, but it seems like most of this is pretty common knowledge. That’s not to say that this isn’t useful; just having this all laid out is helpful--even if you know most of it already.
If someone somehow missed all the Greek mytholgy units from 2nd grade through high school and doesn’t know the basic pantheon set-up, then this would be a great place to start. However, creating a pantheon from this formula alone seems like it would be akin to trying to understand fantasy by reading Eragon (and nothing else); yeah, it may work, but it won’t be terribly interesting or original.
You do mention that a pantheon filled with stock characters won’t stand up agaist one that took some work to create, but it’s more or less an afterthought. Really, I think people should read this first and then put it away before you start writing; otherwise you might end up using this as a checklist, and formulas don’t tend to produce things worth reading.
I would have liked to see more about the function of the gods/religion in the story. What purpose do they serve? Active participation in the main or sideplots, as a distant, yet influential presence, or merely context?
Oops, getting longwinded, I should stop now.
| |
| 14 May 2009 | Anon. | Loading... Athena was the goddess of crafts, but she was also the goddess of war and wisdom. | |
| Page: [1] 2 3 |
|
 Back to the FARP main page.
 The collection of art and writing tutorials in the Elfwood Fantasy Art Resource (F.A.R.P.) is a part of Elfwood.
The FARP logo was created by  Miguel Krippahl (The muscular guy in the FARP-logo) and  Thomas F Abrahamsson (The text and general graphic design). Those sections written by volunteers are copyrighted to Thomas Abrahamsson and the respective writer. Elfwood is a project created by Thomas Abrahamsson. All rights reserved. Unauthorized Reproduction of the graphics, writings, and materials on these pages is absolutely prohibited! You may consider all material on these pages protected and copyrighted, unless otherwise noted. You may NOT use the images found at the FARP or Elfwood pages on your home pages! All of these images are copyright protected! Everything you see here represent the collaborative effort of the Elfwood community and Thomas Abrahamsson. Please read the Legal Disclaimer for more info on warranties/etc for these pages!
|
|
