So last time we looked at the nature of Gods and some of the different forms they can take in your world. I planned this article to give a bit of an overview on Gods within lore but after doing a bit of research I realised that creation stories alone would require its own dedicated piece to do it any justice.

Creation Stories

I want to start from the beginning before we go anywhere else; creation. Creation stories are fascinating. There is such a vast variety of them throughout real world beliefs that can be used as inspiration. These stories define a culture and could be viewed as something like a root which all stories and beliefs stem from. I want to start by exploring some of the forms these stories take in our own world’s religions and playing around with some fantasy interpretations and brainstorming ideas.

Earth Diver

Earth Diver creation is where a powerful deity sends a creature down to the bed of a primordial ocean or river and the dislodged mud floats to the surface to form the earth. This narrative of creation is probably best known from the Cherokee beliefs, depicting a water beetle being joined by the other animals from the sky realm once the earth has been formed. This belief system immediately views animals as sacred beings, existing before the forming of the earth and living alongside a deity on another plane. This is indicative of a culture at one with, or at least very respectful of the natural world. Even basic survival – hunting or shelter building – becomes a holy ritual when beasts and trees are considered akin with God.

In a gaming context, I imagine a society with this belief to hold druids in high esteem and perhaps as religious leaders. Someone who can take the form of a beast would be viewed as a messenger from on high or heralded as a prophet.

Furthermore, consider which creature is chosen by God and what importance they may hold within their culture – maybe they are deemed holy and harming one is a blasphemous act. Due to the aquatic nature of the earth diver story, the creature chosen is usually amphibious or dwells underwater – but this should not restrict what creature you choose. Perhaps the earth diver was the terrible Tarrasque, dropped into the primordial ocean as it was cast from the heavens. It sank deep into the earth and the mud went on to form the world, and the Tarrasque remains trapped down at the bottom of the ocean awaiting its awakening; heralding both the beginning and the end of the world. If you were to choose an aquatic creature, perhaps they were unaware of their deeds and remained in the depths to form great underwater cities – both the land and water dwellers completely unaware of each other for thousands of years.

Ex Nihilo

Translating as ‘Out of Nothing’, Ex Nihilo is the belief that first there was a void and then a God made the world out of their own thoughts, dreams, words, bodily functions etc. As a Westerner it is probably the type of creation story I am most familiar with, but at the same time it is very adaptable to fit a number of different contexts. I immediately jump to conclusions that it is the story of a monotheistic religion however, taking a look at Tolkien’s Silmarillion we see one of my favourite passages of all time discussing the ex nihilo creation within a pantheon. Where the Gods create an epic piece of music depicting all of time together and out of the melody the world is formed – into which the Gods descend. The timeline of Arda and Middle-Earth then goes on to roughly follow this piece of music in three movements – perhaps depicting the three ages before the age of man when the elves sail westward.

The idea of the world extending from the lucid dream of a divine being is also an interesting concept, perhaps best suited to a high fantasy setting where the landscape mimics that of an Roger Dean painting. The mortal races awake in a world which is ever-changing and entirely at the mercy of their deity, to the point of ending the world if they were ever to wake. This would pose some interesting questions about reality within the world. The dream may be so strong that it has given true life to the mortals and part of their quest may be the realisation that they are trapped within a dream and must break free without waking the God. Combining dream narrative and worldbuilding would be an incredibly difficult task but I think would lead to some unique writing and role-play scenarios.

World Parent

There are also a number of creation stories surrounding primordials; that is the dismemberment of a primordial being or the breaking of a primordial unity. A primordial unity is often depicted by a tight bond between two Gods (in mythology often the Gods of Sky and the God of Earth) who separate so that they may birth life. This union is usually depicted as a sexual relationship between the two Gods and I can imagine a culture which follows this belief putting great emphasis on the importance of family and of love. Sex may also be deemed a sacred act and only permitted in a bond similar to marriage, or perhaps becoming something of a holy rite in itself – only allowed to be performed in temple or by its clerics.

In my previous world, the Gods of the Land and the Sea were lovers and as they grew intimate, the world became an egg – birthing the other Gods into existence and splitting the earth. Although easily possible for other groupings, I think primordial unity beliefs lend themselves best to dualism, as the world becomes a child of the two extremes. The world becomes a neutral plane, torn in both directions by the traits of its parents and constantly filled with conflict and change. Take a basic God of good and a God of evil scenario. It provides an explanation for the constant struggle and why one half is never truly eradicated, because the world itself is inherently both and exists as its own thing.

The other interpretation of the world parent belief is that it can be the dismemberment of a primordial being, where their body and essence goes on to form the world. It could be their blood which pools to form the seas and the lakes, their hair which forms the roots of the plants and the trees, their spine which forms the mountains. Perhaps their essence goes on to form other Gods once this greater being has passed on into the ether. This is a similar approach to which I am thinking of taking for my own world as the possibilities are so vast. It also poses the question of why and how was this entity dismembered in the first place. Did it simply collapse under its own colossal mass? Did it willingly sacrifice itself so that the world and the universe may come into existence? Was it slain by some other primordial God, who is now worshipped in the world?

Something which both interpretations of the world parent belief imply is that the universe is ancient and existed before time. The people of earth would be acutely aware of their fleeting time on earth and would likely do all they could to serve these eternal beings with all of their life to try win favour. If it so happened that the world was formed from a slain God, would the people now live in fear of the victorious one? This world – even more so than any other – would be one defined by its history.

Emergence

Finally, I want to look at emergence, where mortals are believed to exist in a realm before entering to this one – much like the birthing process; from a womb into the world. In mythology, mortals undergo a metamorphosis to ready themselves before being delivered by a female deity – acting as the midwife into the world. The realm itself is usually within the womb of another more powerful deity, referred to in mythology as the Earth Mother. Again I imagine a culture with this vein of belief to place a lot of importance upon the role of parents – particularly mothers – and birth. Viewing their deity as a literal mother implies that they themselves are children, and thus I imagine they would have a stronger connection to God than a lot of religions – akin to that of a parent and child.

Combining fantasy with the emergence theory allows us to separate it from the concept of an Earth Mother, opening possibilities that mortals could exist within a pocket dimension before being ‘birthed’ or that their souls exist somewhere awaiting a vessel. This opens the way for some darker storylines; liches going to great lengths to discover this Well of Souls to fill their phylactery or to bring forth an undead army.

This is not to say that the Earth Mother concept is not an amazing and creative path to go down, as there are just as many twists and possibilities available. What is the Earth Mother’s motivation for continually giving life to the world? Does she take joy in the lives and worship from her many children or, again within a darker train of thought, does she need to give life to keep her own – if she does not birth she swells with pregnancy and bursts.

I hope that this selection of creation theories has given you a variety of ideas that you hadn’t considered before, or at least has encouraged you to experiment with some of the common myths and stories from around our world. Although I hadn’t expected to do a whole piece on creation, I think this has been worthwhile and will help inform the next piece: Gods within the lore and interactions with mortals.