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/cat_five_brainstorm → u/gramaticalError]

Island of Control

Are they part of the mortal world or part of the world outside the simulation?

[u/gramaticalError → u/cat_five_brainstorm]

They're part of the simulation. It was founded by three people who discovered that the reality they were in was a simulation, and they made it they're mission to kill the gods as punishment for "trapping" them and and not telling them about the outside world.