02-06-2006, 05:29 PM | #11 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Behind You!
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Re: Greater Deities
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Patrick Ley "If your hand touches metal, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you." --Mal in "Our Own Mrs. Reynolds" Firefly |
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02-06-2006, 07:03 PM | #12 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: Greater Deities
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02-06-2006, 07:07 PM | #13 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Behind You!
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Re: Greater Deities
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__________________
Patrick Ley "If your hand touches metal, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you." --Mal in "Our Own Mrs. Reynolds" Firefly |
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02-07-2006, 03:12 PM | #14 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Greater Deities
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1) Athena's domain is all areas of technical skill from crafts to warcraft. I suspect that technique/technical skill and intelligence are even more valued in today's society than in ancient Greece. Hephaestus might be a contender for this domain in areas strictly technological, or subsidiary to her. 2) Apollo fits as a Greater God, because of his varied domains - music, healing (it's him the Hippocratic Oath is sworn to), reason (arguably science by extension), prophecy, light - although his portfolio has diminished somewhat since the Enlightenment, when he was probably paramount. 3) Dionysos fits as well, as the deity not only of wine, but essentially of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and revelation through them. You can argue that Kesey, Morrison, and many others were devotees. 4) Hermes is actually a contender - he's not just a messenger, he's the deity of commerce (certainly revered in today's world) and communications on the one hand, and thieves and passage to the land of the dead on the other. His image is before us in forms ranging from the FTD logo to a statue in the fountain at my local shopping center. He's probably taken a keen interest in modern developments ranging from the Internet and wi-fi, to Lacan's deconstruction of language, to the Enron scandal, to the success of TV shows about mediums... |
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02-07-2006, 06:26 PM | #15 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: Greater Deities
Hermes would be a contender, but he's AWOL at the moment.
If for balance reasons I felt that I wanted to include him, but didn't want to make him a Greater Deity, my explanation would be that Zeus sent him as an emissary to negotiate peace with Uriel & got his Forces decimated by the Archangel before escaping. |
02-07-2006, 07:11 PM | #16 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Corporeal Realm
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Re: Greater Deities
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(2) Ethereals get power from mindshare, of which worship is only one aspect. Pop media spawns Ethereals just as readily as congregations in temples do. (2a) Project Athena @ MIT spawned a generation of computer geeks who would refer to going online as "going to worship Athena now." (They also said things like "There's only one woman in my life and her name is Athena...") Just sayin'. (3) Athena's portfolio includes all manner of craft, the work of the mind and hand of man. We live in a very technological age. She's also known as a weaver... ...yes, the internet (including, but not limited to the web) is /very/ much within her scope. I suspect she's cut an under-the-table deal with Jean. |
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02-08-2006, 10:08 AM | #17 | |||
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Finland
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Re: Greater Deities
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Granted, I'm not wild about the Wordstretching Jean has done in canon. IMC Jean is a minor WB and eventually I'll have an Archangel of Science. I forgot all about Hermes. All the commerce gods must be doing well.
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02-08-2006, 10:43 AM | #18 | |
Join Date: Oct 2005
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Re: Greater Deities
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Also, certain extraordinarily strong concepts might make it, in certain periods. I could see making Uncle Sam a Greater God (but don't call him that!), especially if the campaign is set ~50 years back, when patriotism was stronger in the US. |
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03-14-2006, 02:09 AM | #19 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: Greater Deities
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The Totems of the Peoples & the Dreamtimes Spirits certainly had their tethers destroyed by Uriel in his Crusade, but were for the most part comparatively unskathed. They fled into the Marches early and so avoided his direct assaults. Their massive worship & Essence suplies (once again: comparatively) allowed them to hold their ground in the Marches before Uriel was recalled. skip ahead several hundred years: worshipers & slaughtered in mass & forcibly converted to Christianity. Those who are spared are accultrated into Western civilization (as second class citizens for the most part, but acculturated none the less). The power of the Totems & Dreamtime spirits is devestated... and the Tsayadim seize the opportunity for some "ethnic" cleansing of their own... It is only due to the secret mechanations of a Heavenly conspiracy involving Jordi, Novalis, Blandine, & Eli to help smuggle spirits & domains deeper into the Marches that these Pantheons survive at all. |
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03-14-2006, 01:59 PM | #20 |
Join Date: May 2005
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Re: Greater Deities
Something I don't understand, probably covered at length in more than one supplement I don't have, how can etherals be killed?
I mean lets say one morning I've got a million people worshiping Bob the Big Guy in the Sky, and then Urial comes along in the afternoon and kills Bob the Big Guy in the Sky. But tomorrow morning I've still got a million people worshiping, and believing in, Bob the Big Guy in the Sky. If etherals are created by belief how can they be destroyed without either wiping out or converting their believers? - If one is to destroy a thing of belief I would think that the only way would be a mematic conflict, fighting to change peoples mind. I really need to get the Etheral Guide. |
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