Half Gods….

I love Greek Myths and Legends.  I love how the legends and myths talk about Gods walking among men and the offspring that do heroic deeds.  So when I was creating Saivryth, I was inspired to create a similar epic grandness, and thus I incorporated Half Gods into the history of my world.  Like in the Greek Myths, the Saivryth Half Gods do run the gambit between their heritage and their service to the various Gods.

With the concept of Half Gods, I had to decide what made a Half God and how were they different from Demi Gods or even Gods.  I decided that their deeds, or in some cases misdeeds, and power were going to be a factor in how a Half God lived on Saivryth.  To the best of my knowledge, there is still only one Half God, truly trained and educated on how to use her power and abilities.  And that is due to the fact that her parents doted on her and saw to it that she was fully taught how to use her powers as a Half God.  This would be Kiasa Kislaran, the adoptive daughter of Saidryn Ornalithan, Gate Keeper of Saivryth and his Outlander Goddess wife, Elanya.

While Kiasa is well known as a Half Goddess, there have been other Half Gods, that are just as notable in the History of Saivryth.  Another such pair are the two eldest Half Gods, Daric Askeric and his twin brother, Phedrin Askeric.  They were born to a young Drow Queen and their father, Ninrath Dorain, God of Chaos and Lord of the Evil Gods.  While their mother did have their best interests at heart, she also saw Daric, as the elder of the two twins, as a means to keep her throne, and did manage his life and his brother Phedrin’s life, to her liking as they grew up.  When they came of age and into their inheritance, they both decided to stand against their mother, and Ninrath, their father, as he too tried to order their lives to his benefit.  Even though he was a King in his own right, Daric offered himself up in service to Solarin Dolshalla, Goddess of Justice as her champion.  Phedrin, also took service with a God, Adamus, God of War.  The two eventually passed their respective kingdoms to their heirs and continued in service to their chosen Gods.  It was many years before both either Daric or Phedrin, accepted or acknowledged their heritage from their father, Ninrath.  But they are still a force to be reckoned with almost 500,000 years after their birth.  Now, Daric is in service to Serin, Goddess of Despair, and Phedrin continues his service to Adamus, God of War.

Another notable Half God, is Nairyck Shalnar, son of Merdressa Maltrees, Queen of Cerdrinal, Leader of the Arch Mages, and Shallan Shalnar, Demi God of the Shadow Moon.  Nairyck has managed to establish his own kingdom, called Safe Haven, which is a refuge for other Half Gods, and Slaves, as well as being home base for the Mercenary Guild and their Merc Companies.  He has taken a stand against all those that would use or abuse those with Gods Blood in them.  His kingdom of Safe Haven is known far and wide as a shining example of law and service to the Gods of Light and Neutrality.

Not all Half Gods serve the Gods of Good or Neutrality, there are also those that stand out in their service to the Gods of Evil.  One such Half God is Jennis Prynni.  He is one of the many sons of Ghrannys Lithar, Demi God of Greed and Trisella Prynni, one of his many mortal concubines.  Ghrannys offered Jennis to Serin Dorrara, Goddess of Despair to serve her as she saw fit.  Jennis started out as a member of her personal guard, but eventually because her Champion and is often referred to as Serin’s Archer.  It is his job to chastise those that fail or offend her.  It is rumored that as an Archer, he has never missed his target.  He has been known to brag that what he aims at, he hits.  There are few willing to risk his wrath as he is very ruthless in his service to his Goddess.  He is married to one of the daughters of Ninrath Dorain, Veia Chaleen, High Priestess of Serin Dorrara.

RGM

 

Advertisement

Hordelings

Crysda Prynni

Perys Venator, Champion of Stahren Toskari, Demi Omega Balance

One of the more fun things about a Fantasy world setting is making believable races for that world.  Saivryth has the standard fantasy races, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Human, Dragon,  Gnome, each with their own heritage and social norms.  But Saivryth has other races too, I have Skinchangers, which are variations of Werebeasts, Satyrs, Snow Leopards, yes snow leopards are actually a race on Saivryth, Half Gods, and my absolute favorite, Hordelings.

I had a lot of fun creating Hordelings, or as they are sometimes called The Horde.  When I was first toying with the idea in a game I was running, I had no idea at the time just what fun this group of individuals was going to be, or that they would actually expand into a Race on the World of Saivryth.  They literally started out as a running joke about the numerous Half God offspring of Ninrath Dorain, God of Chaos and Lord of the Evil Gods and his various wives or lovers over the years.  But eventually I was getting into generations of characters that could trace their lineage back to Ninrath Dorain in some fashion or another, thus The Horde as a Race was born.

Your typical Hordeling could be described as a blend of Human and Elven or Human and Drow features, with large fluffy wings on their back, colored either dove grey or black.  They usually have some sort of minor Healing talent, with a major Magic ability attached as well.  They have a natural porting or gating ability.  The wings on a Hordeling are mostly ornamental.  They are not functional flying wings.  They do have to be groomed fairly regularly or they molt all over the place.  The wings also can be camouflaged with an invisibility shield to hide them.  And as an added bonus they are very sensitive to the touch in an erogenous manner.  Thankfully,  a typical Hordeling also tends to bond with their significant other, so that the erogenous manner of the wings is tied to the touch of their chosen partner.  Of course a Hordeling has to bond with said chosen partner first for that ability to kick in.  Another typical aspect of a Hordeling is the reproduction of twins as offspring, which is why the Race was called The Horde in the first place, they are truly prolific.

RGM

Saivryth and the Two God System

The first thing any one says when they look at the list of Gods for Saivryth, is “Good Lord, that’s a lot of Gods….”  Yes, it is.   When you think about it we have religions that have a huge variety of gods in their pantheons.  The ancient Egyptian, the Norse, and the Greek pantheons are just a few examples of some of those religions.   When I created the pantheon for Saivryth, I wanted to emulate some of the aspects of what life would be like in a world with so many gods in them.   The fact that there is practically a god for everything on Saivryth, well that was just fun trying to create them and have them make sense in a daily life.

The next step was to break them down so that they could be separated into Good, Evil and Neutral aspects.  It was actually fun trying to create a list that basically not only gave a comprehensive set of gods, but that would span all three spheres.  I mean where do you put a god or goddess of healing?  Is it a God of Good or a God of Neutrality?  Or even better a God of War?  I mean, War is not pleasant, or even acceptable sometimes to solve a situation.  But it is needed, so I created six of them.  That’s right six, because in most societies, Battle is glorified and considered to be an honorable death.  Where as War is a solution to a problem, or a means to an end.  But Slaughter, well that is just wrong and should be avoided at all cost, because that is just wanton killing of innocents.  So I created six different Gods of War, I have two gods of Battle for the Gods of Good, two Gods of War for the Gods of Neutrality, and two Gods of Slaughter for the Gods of Evil.  It worked.  I then tried to do similar break downs across the board.

Then came the next thought, why two of each?  Mostly because I wanted to have fun with it.  But over the years, I have expressed the thought that what one god or goddess may miss another can catch, in the way of prayers or worship.  And of course the original system for Saivryth was broken down where the ‘Lesser’ God or in this case the Demi God, would represent or be the intermediary between the Mortals and the Greater God.   Of course this wasn’t always perfect, which was why the Gods of Saivryth have a slight Greek feel to them, in that some times they like to play on the Mortal Plain and go adventuring.  So sometimes the Greater God would go wandering the Mortal Plain and declare themselves the Demi God, mostly because they can.  Which then created a whole new set of dynamics, as now you have a world populace that thinks the Demi God is the Greater God.  And the Greater God is the Demi God.  Which from a gaming stand point is just brilliant.  Especially, when some of the Gods get killed off due to Celestial Wars or the random high powered God Slayer. Because now you have new God like beings who are born to replace the Gods that have perished.  So now you have a whole populace on a world that has to learn how to integrate the new aspects of their God and still channel the prayers correctly, without busting the spheres of influence that are Good, Evil, and Neutrality.

Then there is the other fun part, which is your independent hard headed Celestial Being, that stands out as a character in the world, who loves to create havoc, by representing herself or himself as a God and refuses to let another God or Goddess stand in for them.  Or even better, the world is so ancient, that the Celestial Beings after all this time are very uniquely distinctive on their own and stand out as representatives of their chosen aspect or sphere.

Now, that you have all of these Celestial Beings created and listed out, the next step is to decide are any of them Racial Gods for your various races or are you going to wing it and create Racial Gods too?  And what about Elemental Beings?  Do you create those too?  I decided to go for broke.  I created all of the above.  And then to make things even more entertaining, there are Gods from the Spheres of Influence that are also Racial Gods.  Went to all that trouble why not have some of them do double duty?

Trying to keep up with it all and make it into sense for some one to follow is always fun.  To get a good look at all the various Celestial Beings on Saivryth, take a wander over to the website and see them listed here,  http://saivryth.org/deities.htm

RGM

World Building

Source: World Building