r/worldbuilding's Official Prompts #1!

[u/Pyrsin7]

I used to do these a while ago. and unfortunately life got me pretty busy and I wasn't able to keep it up. But they were a lot of fun, and I've really been wanting to come back to them!

With these we hope to get you to consider elements and avenues of thought that you've never pursued before. We also hope to highlight some users, as we'll be selecting two responses-- One of our choice, and the comment that receives the most upvotes, to showcase next time!

This post will be put into "contest mode", meaning comment order will be randomized for all visitors, and scores will only be visible to mods.

If you've got any other questions or comments, feel free to ask in the comments!

But with that, on to the prompt! This one is a suggestion left over from last time, submitted by u/Homicidal_Harry:

• What is the nature of Gods in your setting?

• Are they creators of the universe that predate time itself, or just very powerful beings perceived as gods?

• Are your deities a pantheon of immortals in the image of man like Greek gods, or vast, indescribable, otherworldly entities too great for mortal minds to comprehend?

• How often do they interact with the mortal world? If they do, what stakes do they have in the events of your setting?

• Can your gods die? If so, explain how the consequences that would follow.

• Do your gods even exist in your setting? Even if they don't, how would the people of your setting answer these questions?

If you have any suggestions for prompts of your own, feel free to submit them here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf9ulojVGbsHswXEiQbt9zwMLdWY4tg6FpK0r4qMXePFpfTdA/viewform?usp=sf_link

[u/gramaticalError]

I have different sorts of gods in pretty much all of my settings, so I'll answer each question for each of the three in my flair. It seems like this post is too large to be posted, so I'll post it in multiple parts.

What is the nature of Gods in your setting?

Electronic Heaven: The world is a simulation, and the gods (which are called "heretics" by the Island of Control) are the administrators of it.

Mauyalla: Gods don't actually exist, and are just believed in in the same way they are in the real world. Within these beliefs, though, there's different answers depending on which religion you look at. In Supetism (The national religion of Mauyalla itself) there are no "gods," but rather "angels," that operate the world and keep everything running behind the scenes. The first three of these angels could be considered similar to gods, though, and these first three angels are fundamental aspects of the universe, representing birth, life, and death. Every angel (and human being!) after these are the reincarnations of the Angel of Birth. In Hiengxânism, (The primary religion of Wengsha, a nation with which Mauyalla shares a border) the goddesses Xianjyiu and Puengxen are personifications of the duality of the universe, created when the goddess Hiengxâ (Goddess of everything & nothing) tore herself in two to allow the universe to exist. (If you merge up and down, you have neither.) In Xenyiuism, (An offshoot of Hiengxânism that is more common) Xenkân and Yiufir are personifications of the duality of the universe in a similar way, but they have existed since the beginning of time and were not created. There is no Xenyiuist equivalent to Hiengxâ.

Chiropractra: The titular Chiropractra is the absolute goddess and creator of the world. She originally a human, though, and was bestowed this power by a group of scientists that existed in the world before her own.

Are they creators of the universe that predate time itself, or just very powerful beings perceived as gods?

Electronic Heaven: The first three numbered administrators created the simulation. The rest where just random survivors of the world outside the simulation, (Which was destroyed in a large barrage of meteor strikes.) and they were given slightly limited administrator rights to the simulation to help guide the people.

Mauyalla: In Supetism, the world is something that just inherently exists. It did not need to be created. Human life, though, was created by the Birth Angel, the Earth by the Life Angel, and the afterlife by the Death Angel. In Hiengxânism, before the world existed, there was only Hiengxâ. Eventually, she grew bored of the nothingness and began to thread pieces of herself out to create light & darkness, ground & sky, life & death, &c. She soon realize that just threading individual pieces out would not be enough, so she tore herself apart, creating the goddesses Xianjyiu and Puengxen along with every other piece of the universe. In Xenyiuism, the universe was originally several strings of unrelated concepts that could not express themselves. These concepts eventually came together to form higher orders of beings (Much like the process of cells to living beings) until they formed the goddesses Xenkân and Yiufir.

Chiropractra: Chiropractra created 99% of the current universe. The rest was created by the previous god (currently know only as "The Defiled") and was kept intact because Chiropractra could not bare to destroy the world she had grown up in.

[u/gramaticalError → u/gramaticalError]

Are your deities a pantheon of immortals in the image of man like Greek gods, or vast, indescribable, otherworldly entities too great for mortal minds to comprehend?

Electronic Heaven: The gods all have human forms and are nearly immortal thanks to a now-lost technology from the world they came from. The world they come from might as well be indescribable to the people of the simulation, though. The few people that have accidentally fallen out of the simulation have basically just gone insane, despite the fact that the simulation is roughly modeled after the real world.

Mauyalla: The Supetist angels are typically depicted as hovering rings of light with solar-flare-like "eyes," indicating the length of their life. Occasionally, they will take human form, but these traditionally do not look any different from average humans, with the sole exception of the eyes being impossible to recognize or comprehend. (Modern depictions often place the light-ring around their eyes in the same way modern depictions of Christian angels have wings.) In Hiengxânism, only Hiengxâ herself is incomprehensible, as she is literally nothing and everything at the same time. Xianjyiu and Puengxen are aspects of the world itself, so they fall in line with that world. Typically, they are depicted as human, but they can appear in really any form. In Xenyiuism, Xenkân and Yiufir are both definitively human-shaped. Humans are said to have shaped themselves in the goddesses' image.

Chiropractra: Chiropractra was human before she ascended to godhood, and this too directly tied to her sense of self for her to change it. Her world's natives don't look exactly like her (especially the "angels," which are just blobs of goo) but she has transplanted several humans from her old world into her current one, framing it as an afterlife.

How often do they interact with the mortal world? If they do, what stakes do they have in the events of your setting?

Electronic Heaven: The second and third administrators rarely interact with the world; they'd prefer to let it run its course. The fourth to eleventh administrators interact with the world fairly often, some running businesses and others being performers or others building superstructures in the middle of the desert. It's basically just a power fantasy for them. The first administrator is obsessed with an extremist utilitarian morality, which makes her fairly unpopular with the rest. (especially the second and third) So while she'd like to interfere more, she holds back to save face. This eventually lead to her totally disappearing from the world.

Mauyalla: They're fictional, so they can't really interact with the world at all. Within the myths, though: The Supetist angels maintain the world, as mentioned earlier, but they very rarely show themselves and directly interact with mortals. Despite this, they have interactions with the world are extremely important to them, as they are naturally soul-less and must develop a soul over the course of their existence. Once this soul has been developed, they reincarnate as a human. (Two humans, actually, but only one of them is really "them." The other is the human whose soul they were created from.)

Chiropractra: When she first created the world, Chiropractra was extremely involved with everything. She micromanaged everything to be exactly how she thought it should be. At this point, though, she didn't realize that she was a god. She just thought she was a hero chosen by (the Christian) god. When the Defiled revealed this to her, she got in a large fight with him and then ran away to (what was now) her throne in the center of the sun. She's been there pretty much ever since, and the entire world is thus falling apart, because most of what she made did not fit the laws of physics at all and was only functioning due to her interference. (Eg. The ten habitable rings around the sun have been reduced to only three. The rest fell from the sky and landed on the surface.)

[u/gramaticalError → u/gramaticalError]

Can your gods die? If so, explain how the consequences that would follow.

Electronic Heaven: Killing them all is the primary goal of the Island of Control, and they can indeed die if their connection to the simulation is forcibly severed. (Due to the many failsafes that have been implemented, the only way to do this is to crush their heart at point blank range.) There probably wouldn't be any major issues if they were to all be killed, as the world is largely able to function alone, there would be no one left to bring the people back into the real world once it became habitable again.

Mauyalla: Supetist angels cannot die. Eventually, they'll incarnate as human beings, and in this state they can die, but all this will mean is that they'll enter the afterlife and eventually become the source of a new angel. When this angel incarnates, they'll both be reborn as humans. The deaths of the Hiengxânist goddesses, however, is a major part of the religion's eschatology. When one of the two dies, everything they represented will slowly wither away into nothing. With nothing to counter the surviving goddesses domains, they too will fade away, until everything has returned to the state of nothingness that it was born from. At this point, Hiengxâ will revive and probably just created the world again. On the other hand, either of the Xenyiuist goddesses' deaths would just result in their domains reforming and expressing themselves in a different manner, potentially introducing new concepts that remain single-cellular and abandoning concepts that were no longer "good enough."

Chiropractra: Chiropractra is absolute. She will not die unless she wills it, and as depressed as she is at the moment, she's not suicidal. She'll probably be around until a new god or goddess emerges, as that's how this world's cycle of creation works. It's pretty unlikely this new god will be like her and leave parts of her world behind, so she'll almost certainly be entirely dethroned when this god creates their own world and enter a state of total nonexistence along with everything else.

Do your gods even exist in your setting? Even if they don't, how would the people of your setting answer these questions?

I basically answered this one at the beginning, but just for clarification: The Electronic Heaven "Gods" do exist and often interact with the world. None of the Mauyallan gods or angels actually exist, but some stories are written as though they do. (All of the stories I write in this setting are presented as stories written in the setting.) Chiropractra does exist, but she hasn't shown herself for a very long time, which is causing people to doubt that she has existed. Most demons / humans that are alive in the present were born / arrived thousands of years after her disappearance.