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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Brimshack" data-source="post: 3166516" data-attributes="member: 34694">One thing you might keep in mind is that good creation narratives always have a sort of ambivalent sense of who is responsibile for evil. The flaw in the universe isn't going to be totally alien. Perhaps the local gods did something in their own battles to give the aliens an opening. Perhaps the hero gods inherited a kingdom, but only because some other being was denied that kingdom for spurious reasons ...and that being festers hatred for all the world, the world he should have inherited were it not for the noble hero gods who enjoy a kingdom that is not really theirs. Perhaps they transgressed sacred boundaries while fighting (made too much noise and attracted a malevolent force), or perhaps they ignored a sacred duty (leaving an important safeguard unprotected). Perhaps, they created the alien gods themselves by accident (in Navajo emergence narratives, the monsters are literally the offspring of masturbation during a period when men and women were apart.) I think the idea of totally alien gods is somewhat of a let down. The hero gods ought to have a trace of responsibility themselves; this makes the plot more intense than just a satanis ex machina.Another thing to keep in mind is that the narrative should explain some things about the present order. The social structure of society could be embedded in your pantheon, perhaps even the nature of evil (and of evil orcs). Something about the nature of production is likely to be in the narrative as well. Do people in your world fish or farm? Perhaps that is at least partly the fruit of the sacrifice.Lastly, don't worry about what came before. Creation ex nihilo is actually the exception in cosmogony. Most origin narratives do begin with an existing world, and that world is left largely without comment. If someone asks where the gods come from, they are asking a question unlikely to be of concern to people in a polytheistic universe. If a player does that, have the NPC look at them funny, get a little impatient, and provide them with no answer whatsoever.</blockquote>

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