Gods

Gods

Gods, in my books, are all equal in power. There is not an overseer god or goddess, like Oden, or Zeus, just gods or goddesses. There are both good and evil gods, but simply believing in a god or goddess does not make a believer good or evil. Like magic, believing in a god’s or goddess’s alignment and choosing to act accordingly with that alignment, ig: If one believes in a good that is good or lawful aligned, they believe that they must act that way is not always correct. The same goes for evil.

Now, you may ask, what is good and what is evil? Great question, and I have no answer to it. Evil and good are personal choices. If you live in an environment where murder and lawlessness are the norms, then helping someone out may be viewed as a crime or evil even though that person did a “good” act.

In my books, I view all magic as neither good nor evil, much like the gods that grant magic. A magic practitioner will dictate how the magic is used. If a Necromancer, a class of magic users that many people view as evil, follows a deity of death yet does good moral actions and lives his/her life in a good manner, are they evil?

Actions and words, do they match?

Now back to the whole god and goddess thing. I have a few base gods in my book that I mention by name, but the main goddess is Gourm, the Goddess of War. Yes, I did borrow this goddess, I saw borrowed because steal is such a four-letter word, from the Greeks and the Romans. I actually borrowed most of these gods from Greek and Roman mythology. I mean, hell, no one has a trademark on Greek and Roman gods..right?

I also borrowed some of the stuff from several RPG games that I love. Now, yes, I said borrowed, and I did change the name of one god to protect the innocent but used some of the ways to become a Harald of this god from an RPG game. Hey, the information is out there. Why not use it? As long as I cite my source and give them props, I hope all will be good.

Why did I choose to have gods and goddesses in my books? I’m lazy. That’s the short answer. The long answer is that gods and goddesses make it easy to have an out, a way to explain why something is happening. Think about it, if something bad happens and the people’s knowledge of science is next to zero, all you have to say is, “It’s gods will.” and everything is wrapped up in a nice neat little package.

Some wizard wants to do dark evil magic, and all he has to do is channel some dark god, and bam, instant evil magic. It’s not because the god is evil. It’s the magic user who will blame the god for his actions.

Without further ado, here are the few gods and goddesses that I have come up with.

Gourm: Goddess of war.

She is the main god that I focus on because the books are fantasy adventures. Gourm has her hands in a lot of the actions taken by my main character, Zenith, including creating Tazeric, the big, overpowered sword that she got in the first book. The sword has part of the soul of Gourm and one of her Heralds, Nevis, in it. The sword also feeds off the life force found in blood.

Gourm can also pull a soul from her realm and place it into a body to make a Valkyrie. I know this is not Greek or Roman, but Norse mythology. When a warrior dies in battle while fighting or doing something heroic, his/her soul will travel to the Upperworld, Gourm’s realm, where they will sit in the Great Hall of Heroes and drink with those warriors who died the same way. They will drink until Gourm sends their soul back down to the world, where she can place them into another body to either become a Valkyrie or someone that Gourm needs to fill in as a general or a hero. (It’s lazy writing on my part, and I’m fine with it.)

I also call the Valkyries and even Zenith, my main character, Gourm’s daughters. There is one Gourm son, Cannon the Black, but all the rest are daughters.

“How does one become a daughter of Gourm?” Asked by no one

“Great question,” Answered me, the lazy writer.

Gourm places part of her soul mixed in with the soul of her warrior of choice, and there you have it, Gourm’s Daughter. What is so special about being a daughter of Gourm? Well, for one, being a Valkyrie kind of kicks ass. Next, having a small sliver of a powerful goddess’s soul helps with everything. For example, let’s take one of my new characters from book two, Usinlyn.

Usinlyn was a powerful witch, like level 22 powerful in Pathfinder, and she did Gourm a favor; she killed a powerful demi-god incubus. Not only did Gourm grant her the incubus’s power, but as a door prize, Gourm granted her some of her own power too! Now Usinlyn is planet-hopping across the universe, fighting demons and devils on other worlds. Kind of OP if you ask me. Now I need to make up incredibly powerful devils that can fight these OP characters that I created.

Azgorn- Goddess of the Sun. Yep, another Greek rip-off.

This goddess creates the fire that helps forge the weapons that the gods make. In my books, there are 14 weapons made by the gods. They are split evenly so that there is no favoritism shown to the good guys or the bad guys. What does Azgorn bring to the weapons, fire. Fire is an incredibly powerful force throughout the universe.  The fire imbued in their weapons burns hotter than dragon fire. Fire is awesome but also can be explosive. When the Goddess of the Sun plants some of her power in weapons, things get real!

Now only one of four minor runes is placed on these weapons, Fire, but a major rune usually has something to do with Super Novas, exploding stars, or something along that line. I haven’t got that far on all the weapons yet.  

            Sigg- God Iron,

            It’s hard to make god-forged weapons without metal that is incredibly magical and useful. Sigg is the god that can find the best metal that can be forged into whatever shape the gods want it to be. Sigg is one god that I have yet to really dive deep into. His rune on all the weapons is the Earth Rune. What the Earth Rune does is that it increases the weight of the strike. A 5-pound (2.5 kg) sword will strike at 5 tons. That’s a huge advantage in a fight.

Zephizer- God of the Moons.

            He is one of my favorite gods. Zephizer is a god that I can do so much yet I have not done much with. I will be diving into Zephier’s powers and purpose in my next few books and spin-off books. He is the god of darkness. I am not just talking about a dark room. I’m talking about absolute darkness, nothingness. Zephizer is also the god of cold. I’m not talking about a cold day that a jacket is called for. I’m talking about in Kelvin degrees cold. Not quite an absolute zero in Kelvin, but you get the idea.

            Zenith has a Major Rune that Zephizer place on Tazeric; that is a rune that unleashes a cone of frozen air around Zenith, instantly freezing everything and everyone around her. Seriously overpowered powers here, but when it comes to gods, what do you expect?

            Ofunis- Dark god and the only thing I can say about him is that Gourm wears his skull on her head like a helmet. Gourm, the goddess, killed this dark god, with Tazeric, in a battle and now wears his skull like a ball cap. That’s hardcore!

            In conclusion,

When writing a book and having gods involved, go nuts. There is no cap, boundaries, or messiness that gods will not be involved in. Read about the Norse gods and all the crap that they pulled. The Greeks and Roman gods were not saints. The Christian god is not innocent either. Don’t even get me started with the Mayan gods or the Chinese gods. Yes, the gods of Earth are great blueprints of warped and deranged behavior.

            Use what is available to you to build the best gods and goddesses you can, and have fun doing it.

Than you and Happy Writing.

J.W. Berwyn

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