i really like creation myths. so i thought i would put down here. Largely it the entire mythos revolves around the different elements of nature and how they came into being. in my mythos there are 3 levels of gods * the first god - existence/the universe - doesnt really do anything except be reality and allow things to exist. their are other first gods but they cant exist in the same manifestation/dimension so it doesnt matter too much. * the second gods - nature spirits - they can be mortal/immortal creatures with control over nature's properties. they are parts of the first god and were born when the first god came into existence. in this story, the Mother the a second god who is mortal. * the third gods - specific to certain organisms - usually immortal being that can perform insane feats and alter nature sometimes but are less powerful than second gods. they were born much after the second gods. in this story the Brothers are third gods. im not sure about the next story. The Brothers and the Sun Before the sun lived two nameless Brothers, the Third Gods of men. Both born to a Mother of light, who lit the world and let the trees grow strong and the water shine bright. They were taught of this reality; of how nothing could exist without light. As They grew, no light would warm them other than Their Mother's. Such that, on her passing; They felt forever cold. To feel warmth once more, they travelled every existence gathering any light they could find. From the clouds They snatched the lightning, the mountains They hauled the fiery stone and even the insects that glow were harvested. But still They felt cold. And even with all the lights of the universe, nothing could warm them. Realising their curse, that no light could ever warm them like Their Mother's, They wandered away in misery. Looking upon the world They saw how the animals stumbled, now completely blind, and man shivered from the cold, and how the plants withered without the light of Their Mother. They became disgusted with themselves, Their selfishness had blinded them to the suffering of others. Understanding what it was to be cold and not wishing it on others, together the Brothers cast upward the light They had gathered, where it floated in the Ocean above. Accepting finally that the cold was now part of them, They wandered on, sharing the little warmth They could find with man.
I like the structured nature of it, I can see how that kind of mythology would evolve in a culture. It's always fun to do these kind of mind map/brainstorming exercises with any kind of world building. Mythology ties neatly into religion which then goes to politics, country structure, militaries and all the counter ideas and groups for each.
I'd take another Lovecroft or Pullman over Tolkien, his myths always feels like it has strong racist undertones to me.
The last thing we need is another Tolkien...I can respect what he did for literature, but his style of writing is painfully dull. Awful stuff. Carry on Zaad. I'm really interested to see where this goes. 'ow about how us 'umans was made?
Men have to be created by the Third gods I think, no religion is complete without a little bit of egotistical pandering to the masses that the believers have a touch of god in them. Of course, the priests will have had a little more of a touch making them extra special.
Thanks Gary! yeah i love world building! i think this mythos will be more rudyard kipling style just build with no story on it. really its just a project in creating something more unique of a build rather than a build with set cultural tones and influences from a current culture. previous projects were based on a mix of vedic and abrahamic mythos. i imagined the culture for the current myths project from to be from a pacific island type people or possibly something like Inuit peoples. im not sure about this mythos. i think i'll leave this one as separate stories like Just-So Stories. the problem with building a world before a storyline is that the rules of the world limit the story, but if you write a stroy and fill in the mythos on the way, the mythos tends to be inconsistent (see harry potter or tokien, even some stuff with cthulu). Pullman and his use of a religious mythos to build his own larger one was amazing. what inspired me when i was a kid. his stuff was consistent and the story telling was great. i was a quiet kid always in his thoughts because the world's in my head were always really awesome. i want to finally get some down on paper! tolkien has been boring for me too. his world building is incredible though. i used to sit in the library reading the encyclopaedia of tolkien. his stuff was really detailed the human genesis story is a tricky one. it's hard to come up with anything original. for this mythos im thinking either that: 1). the brothers (the third gods of Men) are the first men but they're immortal and the children and the descendants are men now but not immortal like the brother. dont know how they made children. 2). men already existed and the brothers were made to protect them. the first and seconds gods are shared among all the animals, but each animal has a separate third god. the brothers are the third gods for men. for monkey's they have their own third god. same with fish and deer.
That's some sound logic for a genesis theory, although 'created by gods' can split loads of ways. We could be game pieces for the gods amusement as in Greek/Roman mythology, the reason for gods being, the gods themselves being our construct and powered by belief, we could be foot soldiers in the gods battles who rebelled and became sentient and so on. Have you considered dropping your mythos into other settings to see how it plays out? A tundra dwelling primitive people, a Wild West setting, a near future dystopia dictatorship, steampunk or a race of ursine cloud dwellers with the power to project emotions from their bellies.
What are you aiming to do? Just have a bit of fun world building or write something a bit more? Just curious like...
My head I think, though it might be made up from a couple of things or it could be something I've long forgotten. Feel free to borrow, twist or pervert it any way you wish though!
sounds like battle star galactic! @Boris - at the moment i'm world building something unrelated to a previous project to help with a story i was working on. i could tell you my previous project?
From what I have read Lovecraft had just as many racist overtones as people could find in Tolkien. I love Tolkien's books but I can see how people see racism in them. I like your mythos Zaad, I'm curious about how the humans will be worshipping the brothers. Do they see them as the creators or do they know that they are the third gods and what aspects do they subscribe to them?
You're right, though part of it is just the attitudes of the time when they were written. Lovecroft tends to be occasional with his references but Tolkien's races are huge great similes for how other people were viewed at the time. Personally I just find it harder to ignore is all.
