The Reign of the Gods!!! An Alternate Mythology

Hi, so it occurred to me that while we have shit tons of TLs and narratives that examine Alternate Histories, we scarcely examine perhaps more detailed things. So I had an idea, wouldn't it be cool to create an alternate mythology?

Well, I'm going to give it a shot, comments welcome, and hey, this is an new idea (from what I know), so if you want to contribute, PM me your ideas, and if they go along with the mythology, post it.

So, let the mythological journey begin....

Book One: The Age of Origins
Chapter One: From Chaos

"It only ends once. Everything that happens before is just progress."

Before time was made into order, there was chaos. There was no reason, no sense, no consciousness. Material was in a jumble, a mesh of unformed being. But some of the material amidst this chaos eventually attached to each other, forming the first conscious and formed being.

It named itself Ei Xiun, which means The First.

And Ei Xiun saw all of the material about, and saw it was not formed or conscious, but that it was chaos, painful and without order. Ei Xiun could hear the materials' cries of agony in chaos, and saved the material from its horror by making the materials into things.

But Ei Xiun was inexperienced in the art of creation then, so Ei Xiun made simple things, like the ground, and the sea, rocks and air.

And so Ei Xiun created the world.

Ages passed and Ei Xiun grew lonely as Ei Xiun continued to create the world, making more and more water, more and more dirt, more and more rock, more and more air.

So Ei Xiun left the realm of order and returned to chaos to save more material. He took the materials into the realm of order, and made companions to help Ei Xiun in the creation of the world.

And so the Gods were born.
 
DCliche tried this already in the Sandbox, it failed. Kairos I believe tried to copy it, that failed too.
 
debby downer.
I'd be willing to help this along, I was just saying.

We had a lot of stuff (but at the same time a lot of room to add things) in the first one and maybe it'd be better to try and revive that than start a brand new one.
 
Book One: The Age of Origins
Chapter Two: Birth of the Gods

When Ei Xiun created the Gods, Ei Xiun made them from the materials found in the realm of chaos. Ei Xiun separated them into two sexes, so that they could not create alone like Ei Xiun could. They were pairs, quite different yet the same. Male and female Ei Xiun made them.

From the materials of chaos Ei Xiun made the Gods.

Satra and Zakuna, the God and Goddess of the sky (Day and Night, the Sun and the Moon). The separated their realm between the two, where they still guard each respectively in the sky.

Saibrem and Kaeseta, God and Goddess of the oceans. The reign in the oceans together, controlling the tides and the tempests.

Sclace and Faruni, God and Goddess of the earth. They disliked the flatness of the ground when Ei Xiun made them, and created mountains, cliffs, valleys, hills, canyons, and controlled the movements of the earth when they so pleased for another change by earthquakes.

Hvoltu and Xulo, God and Goddess of fire. Hvoltu, more solid than Xulo, created magma and lava, liquid fire, which he contolled, and would shoot up from the mountains. Xulo, more airy than Hvoltu, created flames, and would let them race across the surface of the earth whenever she so pleased.

Fraig and Drayna, God and Goddess of the air. Fraig has a more wild disposition, and has a love of movement, so he made the winds which were his expression of movement. Drayna, however, was calm, and prefered to let her air simply sit.

But Ei Xiun had some materiel left over, but not enough to make a couple. So Ei Xiun made one last God. Udysi, who would be Ei Xiun's servant and would mediate order throughout the realm. But it was Udysi, the closest to Ei Xiun, who would betray The First.
 
Book One: The Age of Origins
Chapter Three: The Betrayal of Udysi, and the Vengeance of Liaxias

Eons passed, and the world was formed into its marvelous beauty as so pleased the Gods under the reign of Ei Xiun.

In those days, Ei Xiun would often visit chaos, and would bring with him Udysi to help Ei Xiun bring back more material for the Gods to create with. But Ei Xiun was not aware of Udysi's jealousy. He saw Ei Xiun unfit to rule the realm of order, and wanted to rule it himself. So on one of their many visits into chaos, Udysi brought with him a knife, concealed beneath his robes.

Once in chaos, Udysi drove the knife into Ei Xiun's back, and tore Ei Xiun apart, and left the remains in the realm of chaos.

When Udysi returned to the realm of order, he proclaimed himself ruler of the world and of the Gods, for he had slain the mighty Ei Xiun. The Gods wished to deny Udysi, but were powerless to stop him, for the blade which he had used to slay Ei Xiun now held much power. With this blade he enslaved all of the Gods and ruled the realm of order with tyranny.

Meanwhile, in the realm of chaos, the some of remains of Ei Xiun reformed along with other material found in chaos. They created Liaxias, a new God formed from the very essence of Ei Xiun.

But Liaxias had forgotten the way back to order, and spent many eons searching through chaos to find his way back.

These were dark times for the realm of order, and Udysi enslaved everything to his will.

But one day, Liaxias discovered the way into order. Once there, he manifested in his hands lightning and thunder. He charged Udysi with the unholy crime of murder, and they battled.

Liaxias prevailed, striking Udysi's blade with lightning, and sending the lighting through it up Udysi's body. Udysi dropped the blade, and was left defenseless to the true heir to Ei Xiun's throne of power in the realm of order.

So, for his punishment, Liaxias did not kill Udysi, but instead cast him into the realm of chaos where he would forever reign, and would never return to the realm of order.
 
ps. points if you caught the Lost reference:D


Darn, slipped right past me and I completely missed it. Then you pointed it out and I said to myself, "I'm going to have to see that again."

So... are you saying that you're going to show an alternate history through the mythology of one of its cultures?
 
Darn, slipped right past me and I completely missed it. Then you pointed it out and I said to myself, "I'm going to have to see that again."

So... are you saying that you're going to show an alternate history through the mythology of one of its cultures?

essentially. i want to examine an alternate mythology using common themes of others to examine how a new, alternate culture might look. and i don't want this to be completely up to me, i would like to have input from others, so if you get ideas, or even want to contribute to the mythology itself, just let me know :)
 
As 9 Fanged said, the language is important. Do the names you have here come from a con lang you've developed? If not, I suggest working on one, or if you don't feel like that, giving the gods real words as names, perhaps based on the 'realm' they are in charge of, such as "Sky", "Chaos", etc. (Their names would be so closely associated with these concepts in their cultures, that those very well could be their names translated from their language). They could be made grander as nicknames, like "Sky Father", "Chaos Spreader".

Other than that, I've just got some commentary on it. None of what I say is either good or bad, it is simply my understanding of the culture.

This mythology looks like it's describing a culture with a very organized philosophy about the structure of the world. It has a hierarchical society, with social groups led by single male rulers, as you refer to the chief god and his successor as 'He'. Although they are perfectly clear that both men and women must work together to keep society going (everyone in pairs). They also appear to see that there are certain places for certain things (the various gods are very specific to their realms, unlike some other mythologies where a gods realm is more of a sphere of influence).

It obviously sees a very precise difference between the concept of order and chaos, and has an interesting philosophical concept that order can arise spontaneously from chaos. But it also seems to equate chaos with bad things ("painful", "cries of agony", "saved the material from its horror"), and creation and order as good things. Chaos also appears to be the cause of this people's 'original sin': contact with it leads Udyisi to jealousy and ambition, and eventually the first murder.

But, chaos is also the source of creation, and when the chief god is 'reborn', re-creation. That could be an interesting dichotomy to play with in future myths.

Things that are important to them, based on the important gods that appear to be seen as equal beneath the 'chief':
- The Sky: Therefore, this is probably an agricultural society, who are very much at the mercy of the weather coming from the sky, and must look to it to organize their lives so that they can plant at the right time.
- The Ocean, complete with tides and tempests: Therefore, they probably have the technology to build ships and boats.
- The Earth: This is interesting, because they aren't shown as ruling over crops, plants and animals... so maybe they aren't agricultural after all...but rather for designing and controlling the geography and what makes it (earthquakes, which were seen by the Greeks as the realm of Poseidon).
- Fire, and more interestingly, Volcanoes: So, these people live in a volcanically active country, with plenty of shield volcanoes showing magma in action (as opposed to just ash). There's also the mention of wildfires, so these people live in areas prone to those (forests or grasslands).
- Air, interestingly distinct from and equal to the sky (in other mythologies they're subordinate to the sky): Obviously, this would generally refer to wind, but you actually have a goddess of 'still' air. I imagine that this pair is possibly also in charge of more spiritual things, since many ancient cultures equate the spirit with breath.

Also, of course, note that the chief is not associated with any of these realms -- although he seems to have some power with lightning and thunder, so maybe once he was a storm god.

Only Chaos is seen as, not necessarily equal to the chief, but on par with it. Very dualistic.
 
As 9 Fanged said, the language is important. Do the names you have here come from a con lang you've developed? If not, I suggest working on one, or if you don't feel like that, giving the gods real words as names, perhaps based on the 'realm' they are in charge of, such as "Sky", "Chaos", etc. (Their names would be so closely associated with these concepts in their cultures, that those very well could be their names translated from their language). They could be made grander as nicknames, like "Sky Father", "Chaos Spreader".

Other than that, I've just got some commentary on it. None of what I say is either good or bad, it is simply my understanding of the culture.

This mythology looks like it's describing a culture with a very organized philosophy about the structure of the world. It has a hierarchical society, with social groups led by single male rulers, as you refer to the chief god and his successor as 'He'. Although they are perfectly clear that both men and women must work together to keep society going (everyone in pairs). They also appear to see that there are certain places for certain things (the various gods are very specific to their realms, unlike some other mythologies where a gods realm is more of a sphere of influence).

It obviously sees a very precise difference between the concept of order and chaos, and has an interesting philosophical concept that order can arise spontaneously from chaos. But it also seems to equate chaos with bad things ("painful", "cries of agony", "saved the material from its horror"), and creation and order as good things. Chaos also appears to be the cause of this people's 'original sin': contact with it leads Udyisi to jealousy and ambition, and eventually the first murder.

But, chaos is also the source of creation, and when the chief god is 'reborn', re-creation. That could be an interesting dichotomy to play with in future myths.

Things that are important to them, based on the important gods that appear to be seen as equal beneath the 'chief':
- The Sky: Therefore, this is probably an agricultural society, who are very much at the mercy of the weather coming from the sky, and must look to it to organize their lives so that they can plant at the right time.
- The Ocean, complete with tides and tempests: Therefore, they probably have the technology to build ships and boats.
- The Earth: This is interesting, because they aren't shown as ruling over crops, plants and animals... so maybe they aren't agricultural after all...but rather for designing and controlling the geography and what makes it (earthquakes, which were seen by the Greeks as the realm of Poseidon).
- Fire, and more interestingly, Volcanoes: So, these people live in a volcanically active country, with plenty of shield volcanoes showing magma in action (as opposed to just ash). There's also the mention of wildfires, so these people live in areas prone to those (forests or grasslands).
- Air, interestingly distinct from and equal to the sky (in other mythologies they're subordinate to the sky): Obviously, this would generally refer to wind, but you actually have a goddess of 'still' air. I imagine that this pair is possibly also in charge of more spiritual things, since many ancient cultures equate the spirit with breath.

Also, of course, note that the chief is not associated with any of these realms -- although he seems to have some power with lightning and thunder, so maybe once he was a storm god.

Only Chaos is seen as, not necessarily equal to the chief, but on par with it. Very dualistic.

you're awesome!!! this is exactly the sort of conversation i was hoping for!

well, i was definitely going for the hierarchical nature, along with duality. i was trying to base certain aspects from greek mythology (in the beginning there was chaos...)

i was thinking that life and the origins of man would happen in the next post, which might give more insight or open more interpretation.
 
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