-
The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
D&D General where did the gods come from?
- Thread starter Bernese
- Start date
GMforPowergamers
Legend
I play with this idea a lot... sometimes I do titans/primordials give birth to gods and sometimes I have the gods be more concepts of reality and as such have always exists... I rarely have them born from belief but I often have them empowered by it
Chaosmancer
Legend
Depends on the gods. Some have existed since the dawn of time (Selune and Shar in FR). Others have been created via worship (Ungardt I believe follows this, also from FR). That's the official answer.
I've done some more complex things with them, but I generally concern myself more with their early actions and stories than their precise origins. I do a LOT of "ascended via worship" though.
I've done some more complex things with them, but I generally concern myself more with their early actions and stories than their precise origins. I do a LOT of "ascended via worship" though.
In my current campaign, the gods are patterned after the PCs in a previous campaign, who gathered the four parts (each corresponding to one of the four elements) of a "universe seed" which was then tucked away in a pocket in the Astral Plane by the current neutral gods. When the old universe eventually died off, the new universe was born and the gods were formed by the imprints of the PCs left behind on the universe seed.
Johnathan
Johnathan
Oofta
Legend
Depends on who you ask in my campaign. 
Some believe they are nothing but glorified golems, animated and given form by their worshippers.
The alternative answer is that beings of immense power have always existed as far as anyone knows, some became gods. Others became fiends. Some fiends strive to become gods, and the line is a bit blurry at times.
So according to that theory gods have gained strength from followers, but existed before their followers. Some mortals become celestials, but can never become true gods.
Some believe they are nothing but glorified golems, animated and given form by their worshippers.The alternative answer is that beings of immense power have always existed as far as anyone knows, some became gods. Others became fiends. Some fiends strive to become gods, and the line is a bit blurry at times.
So according to that theory gods have gained strength from followers, but existed before their followers. Some mortals become celestials, but can never become true gods.
Depends on the setting.
In one of my settings, gods are formed form the importance or strength of an aspect of reality emerging. The goddess of the sea formed when the sea became an important aspect of the World. The God of War formed when the first major war was declared.
In another, the gods are born of the family chain of original creator. In my Grand Mount setting,the Creator crafted the Primordials who birthed the Elementals who birthed the Titans who birthed the Divines who birthed the Exalted who birthed the Pillars.
In another, the gods where always there and the current confriguration is just who is still alive and thinking.
In another, there is only one god and he's always been there. The other "gods" are manefestations he creates out of boredom and/or aspects of himself.
In one of my settings, gods are formed form the importance or strength of an aspect of reality emerging. The goddess of the sea formed when the sea became an important aspect of the World. The God of War formed when the first major war was declared.
In another, the gods are born of the family chain of original creator. In my Grand Mount setting,the Creator crafted the Primordials who birthed the Elementals who birthed the Titans who birthed the Divines who birthed the Exalted who birthed the Pillars.
In another, the gods where always there and the current confriguration is just who is still alive and thinking.
In another, there is only one god and he's always been there. The other "gods" are manefestations he creates out of boredom and/or aspects of himself.
EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
I like the 4e idea of gods as living concepts (possibly because of my IRL religion.)
So I like to think of the gods as sort of being BOTH "they came before there were ever creatures" and "they are the product of mortal actions." That is, the first is true in that the gods existed before there was any life to believe in them--they created that life. But once that life comes into being, it develops a symbiotic relationship (whether mutualistic or parasitic depends on a variety of factors) with those deities. Because mortal actions exemplify, instantiate, those concepts into the world.
IOW, when you do the right thing for the right reasons even when you don't have to, you are empowering Bahamut by doing so, though perhaps only in the smallest of ways. And when Bahamut reaches out and gives his blessing to a mortal, that encourages more mortals to be just and merciful and brave. Meanwhile, doing something petty and self-serving empowers Tiamat.
As above, so below; and as below, so above. We are not cosmic playthings, nor are the gods mere figments. We forge the world that will be, and thus the gods that will look upon it, by the actions we take.
So do not pay me in gold. Pay me with the prayer of works: show justice and mercy even to your bitterest enemy, be kind to every traveller who calls upon you for aid, hold fast to hope even in the darkest hour of the blackest night.
So I like to think of the gods as sort of being BOTH "they came before there were ever creatures" and "they are the product of mortal actions." That is, the first is true in that the gods existed before there was any life to believe in them--they created that life. But once that life comes into being, it develops a symbiotic relationship (whether mutualistic or parasitic depends on a variety of factors) with those deities. Because mortal actions exemplify, instantiate, those concepts into the world.
IOW, when you do the right thing for the right reasons even when you don't have to, you are empowering Bahamut by doing so, though perhaps only in the smallest of ways. And when Bahamut reaches out and gives his blessing to a mortal, that encourages more mortals to be just and merciful and brave. Meanwhile, doing something petty and self-serving empowers Tiamat.
As above, so below; and as below, so above. We are not cosmic playthings, nor are the gods mere figments. We forge the world that will be, and thus the gods that will look upon it, by the actions we take.
So do not pay me in gold. Pay me with the prayer of works: show justice and mercy even to your bitterest enemy, be kind to every traveller who calls upon you for aid, hold fast to hope even in the darkest hour of the blackest night.
