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When writing fictional polytheisms, it's tempting to draw inspiration from the existing ones. In ancient religions (I'm mainly thinking of the Greek/Latin, Egyptian and Norse pantheons) there are ...
#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-13T11:56:52Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/45609 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T12:03:15Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/45609 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
When writing fictional polytheisms, it's tempting to draw inspiration from the existing ones. In ancient religions (I'm mainly thinking of the Greek/Latin, Egyptian and Norse pantheons) there are some common tropes and similarities. They all have a "father"-god figure, they have gods of war, fertility gods and gods associated with wisdom. Yet, it can be argued that those similarities are rather superficial. Odin is not Zeus by a far stretch. Týr and Ares, while being both associated with war and masculinity, are not the same. Those mythological figures have arisen in different places and times in history, and are expressions of very different cultures. So, when inventing gods for a fictional pantheon, how do you avoid falling into those cliches? * * * I'd further clarify that having a "God of War" is not a problem, if it makes sense in the context. It is a cliché if the god of war in question is just "filling a seat."
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2019-05-31T15:03:40Z (almost 5 years ago)
Original score: 21