Creating Gods and Divine Beings for your World - Worldbuilding 101

for thousands of years for way way longer than the written history exists people honored and worshiped the Divine there are many theological debates about Gods what constitutes a God and what makes a god there's these dark contrast between the God and totemist or animist religions in polytheist religions or The God in monotheistic religions furthermore there are countless atheistic approaches like the Anthropologist Emile durkheim's approach who stated that gods are just extensions of social groups people imagined to easier and post social norms at ethics within such social groups if we add the fantasy element on top

of it where Gods may have an intervening physical impact on the world there is just another layer of complexity on how to create a God for your fantasy religion hello I'm the World building sage and in this video I'll show you how to create gods goddesses and other Divine beings for your fantasy religions Edwards Divine beings and fantasy have a relationship that goes hand in hand since even way before the days of Tolkien taking the Iliad as an example the gods had their direct hand and stakes in the whole outcome of the war but it's

hard to quickly constitute what exactly is a God or a Divine being as the many different types of religions have many different types of viewpoints ranging from the omnipotent Creator God of monotheistic religions over supernatural beings there are Concepts ideas or state of things natural phenomena and whatever more that may all be worshiped as Divine deities usually have a supernatural or Divine concept an idea something they represent in which they represent the prime or a way of Excellence while other gods and deities are just the idea of a concept itself this all means in the

end that everything that is deemed as Divine for whatever reasons is a God and is divine if it's worshiped supernaturally feared and appeased as a God if there are rituals in other cases of worship it's a God no matter if it's just a rock or even the creator of the universe if it's spiritual for people it's a God so considering that we just established that everything can be a God or a Divine being how do we tie in this information with fantasy world building this means that what constitutes a God in your setting playing your

hands alone you can Define Divinity with everything a powerful spellcaster could be a God in your setting even if he is nothing more than a level 20 wizard if we take ttrpg terms but since everything is basically a non-answer I'll give you a few examples of how fantasy usually defines gods and Divinity for the settings a very common way of gothod in Fantasy is the gods needs sustenance through worship so they exist because people pray to them kind of God both Warhammer no matter if for decay of fantasy and the Dungeons and Dragons Cosmos are

constituted of Gods like these in the former gods exist out of the reason of their worship like Sigma the god of the Imperial humans and wore him a fantasy he became a God because he created the Empire and people started worshiping him because of that fact and then his spiritual energy manifested TNT law has it similar usually Gods themselves Ascend on their own terms or with the help of other gods but they still have to gather a full worship to both further Ascend in the court of the gods or whatever and to be sustained and

further exist at all which is the explanations by God's Grand the clerics and DND spells and thus Magic from the gods it's basically a thank you treat for being such a Stern believer and follower while simultaneously being The Advertiser of your godhood of course and then there's the type of divinity where Gods exists and gathered a followership either through benevolence of force they don't tend to take followership because they need it or because they want to maybe worship empowers them in a way but followership is necessary on a conceptual level they can be both protectors

and destructors creators tyrants or benevolent beings depending on their role and the reason they are or became Divine these types of gods either were divine beings from the beginning perhaps they have been the world's Demi urge even or are just simply there as a concept or they may be born from Humanity or created in any other way it's basically the way most western fantasy settings see the gods as it's the closest to the monotheistic religions westerners understand the best in concept both the creek and the Nordic pantheons would fall into this as well and then

there are the minor gods in quotation marks you can understand it closer to spiritualism the worship of divine beings that are Divine because of their spiritual power or general strength the Kami and Japanese mythology are the best example or the Divine beings in both animist autonomous religions in fantasy druidism seems to be the closest to such Divinity the Divinity of nature not as a single whole but as countless Parts worship of supernatural beings monsters and whatever for example if there's a Temple dedicated to a dragon who demands worship and sacrifice in exchange for notice applying

the towns and villagers and that dragon is essentially a Divine being or God same the other way around with beings that protect the village of less crops and Fields and these types of gods usually are more local and more tangible even if they can be super local as well but all these ways are mix and match anyway even within the examples I mentioned you'll find more than just one aspect of what makes the gods Divine so there are obviously more examples too like Divine Kings for example before we get to this set of questions to

inspire Your World building process consider leaving a comment about the way you include your Divine beings in your world and maybe even leave a like And subscribe if you like my videos so far I'd appreciate it and before we really really start with the questions we have to establish the ways you can World build divinities there's my preferred method of having a culture people and their religious beliefs and ethics and ways of worship set in stone before I create Divine beings that accommodate that as the rule of creating people first and everything else second is

my Divine mandate for all World Builders so first of all does your God exist and if yes what way does he exist and how did they come to be this of course depends on the overall law and how Gods and divinities work in your world you don't have to write out an entire set of rules but this can be an easy first president for further Gods no matter which religion in your setting so if your gods exist how much do they interact with the world how does your God interact with the worshipers maybe your God

is just a concept without sentience where people worship a personification of that concept which in turn doesn't exist if that's the case think about the ways they people interact with that concept if for example there's a Divine tsunami that destroys the shorelines every so and so years the worship and rituals of appeasement might be a way of erecting actually magical barriers or other ways of protection in a actual sense just hidden and disguised and ritualistic worship a proposed Divine tsunami what is the concept the idea and spiritual and Divinity incorporates classic polytheistic concepts are of

course the easiest way to visualize Zeus the god of Disguise said the family of hospitality of around and of what not think of the way your Divine being incorporates that concept no matter the scale or if the concept is just attributed to the divine mind being through its worshipers a spirit that blesses Village crops might be worshiped by a village as a fertility God while the spirit itself is just a normal spirit that likes helping and happens to know a way to improve the well-being of the crops the people need to survive of course the

concept can be as esoteric as you want oh and this question might also be the question you can think of when thinking of powers your God possesses so what's the way the Divinity receives worship and rewards worship this is already partially answered with the first question of interaction but get into further detail here thus Your Divine being have temples or other places of worship are they part of a bigger Pantheon and maybe sure Divine places with other gods in what way do they reward their followership a direct exchange of magic or divine intervention in exchange

of worship is the simplest way of course but I already told you about the Tsunami example earlier where worship is more a set of rituals that build protection against Natural Disasters or a crater being like a dragon this question of course also ties in perfectly with my video about religions so if you want to know how the world build a religion as an organization including the forms of worship watch the video on my channel lastly think of the way the god presents themselves or is represented in the thought of the people the God as a

human as a character even personifications of otherwise unintelligent beings can be created here think of the way your people would think of the tsunami as a person maybe how it would look and act like or in most sentient divinities think about them so basically create a character bring these Zeus into the god of the sky in the span of my videos we created a few Divine beings already including the two sister Spirits Babette and chisel who technically act as protector and fertility gods for the people of the Chrome's fog this time around we created something

a bit more Super local iskia The Fairly King of the court of the night skia has been around way longer than she has been worshiped she is the direct offspring of the fairy king of winter whose at odds with the fairy king of this summer skia saw the warp of Courts fought as fruitless and worthless considering it started out of petty reasons so she left the Winter Court and went to the nether Realm of the shadowlands or underworld or other lands that's determine the people of tragos would call it demos they are one of the

Gods of the dead of another religion I want really specify here fell in love with skia and offered her powers as a minor goddess of the Dead skier accepted and used parts of the other lands to form a realm on her own as the court of the night however this actor ripped open the gates from the other lands goblins nightmares and the countless other spirits and monsters of the dark even Monsters of a grander scale they all flocked into the realm of the living the material plane or the hill lands how the people of tragus

would call it her desire to protect the people and not obstruct their well-being and life and made her regret her decision so skia decided to create the wild Hunt whose objective is to hunt after the most powerful and evil of beings and creatures of the other lands to protect people of the Bane she brought upon the world but her power to bring the wild Hunt together has limitations every year she is forced to gather a multitude of powerful creatures to ride with her as not all of her own Court are suited for the job and

then there's the issue that she can't enter the heel lands outside of winter as she is the daughter of the winter King which is why they only write during cold winter nights hunting the most evil of spirits to keep them in check so when you hear a loud howling noise in a stormy winter night you know that the wild Hunt is flying over your house ever hunting evil skia herself isn't really a goddess of the night even though people worship her as such she may have brought many evils upon the world but she is yet

the frontier protector against the very same evil in the eyes of the many as the wildest of evil spirits and creatures all hunt in the night the protector turns into the Knight Squad of course she is still a goddess of the dead too it's sad that she recruits The Souls of criminals evildoers and others who did wrong in their life into the wild Hunt so they can do good in death while those who are truly irredeemable get sent into the dungeons of the night where they have to suffer as much as the evil creatures skia

hunts worshiping skia isn't a requirement for her duties to put it easily think of worship as a donation a signature of thanks especially since people may actively get rescued or protected by members of the wild Hunt if they are at the right time and the right place besides that a bunch of wizards and nightly orders formed in her name whose sole purpose is The Hunt of evil and wild creatures and persons these orders or rather their members are the only ones who get directly blessed and empowered by just magic but yet again she asks for

nothing in return there are temples but not too many but they can be found all over the realm compared to the rituals and feasts of other gods on the continent rituals to skia a pretty scarce too the most common ritual is actually showing simple Hospitality to the knights and clerics she placed skia herself represents herself as female in the most cases despite being sexless and generally antagonus as a fairy there are three common depictions of her as a wizard as a Huntress as a knight in armor all those three little fictions are relatively dark and

all three she has long wavy hair and pointy ears including the romanticized reality of the fairy and of course all our representations of her living followers more than of herself as only a few have ever set Eyes Upon her as she is a rather reclusive being so that's it for today's video World Builders I hoped you liked my video if so leave a like And subscribe and tell me about your gods in your setting no matter if you tell me about one specific God about multiple I'll make sure to read those comments see ya