03-19-2021, 03:18 PM | #31 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: What makes a god?
The Iranian word ahura, god or lord, is a cognate of the Sanskrit asura, demon, and the Sanskrit word deva, god, is a cognate of the Iranian daeva, devil.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
03-19-2021, 05:28 PM | #32 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: What makes a god?
Quote:
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
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03-19-2021, 07:08 PM | #33 |
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: The Hall of Fallen Columns
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Re: What makes a god?
That reminds me of a comment from a religious leader I heard at school:
"Even Satan believes in God..." |
03-20-2021, 02:51 AM | #34 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Udine, Italy
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Re: What makes a god?
Quote:
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03-20-2021, 08:30 AM | #35 | |
Join Date: Jul 2005
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Re: What makes a god?
Quote:
Which makes me wonder if a bunch of enterprising theoclasts could divide a god up into parts and eat the bits so as to create a pantheon. It might have a lamentable tendency to over-write the murderers own personalities though.
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Michael Cule,
Genius for Hire, Gaming Dinosaur Second Class |
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03-20-2021, 08:45 AM | #36 |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: What makes a god?
It varies from world to world.
Right now, I'm working on a setting where gods are created (or perhaps just shaped) by the human subconscious. They can grow more powerful by being worshiped and compete for worshipers. In the wake of the apocalypse that destroyed our civilization, there is an abundance of new gods born from distorted memories of the world that was. Like the loa of Voodoo, the gods often possess sorcerers and speak through them. They are alien enough to seem insane by human standards. Some can be benevolent, many are malevolent, most are amoral, and almost all have a dark aspect. They intervene so often that their machinations drive history, more than the plots of human rulers do. Many gods bear similarities, to a greater or lesser degree, to dead humans. These may be cases where humans have become gods, or they may just be cases where gods have been shaped by thoughts of dead humans. One of the gods of death goes by the name "Walt Disney" and has Disney's face. Is it Walt Disney, now become a god of death? Who knows?
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GURPS Settings Beneath Castle Everglory: A Dungeon, Lineage (Modern Fantasy) Paradise City (Cyberpunk), The World of Kung Fu (Modern Martial Arts Setting) |
03-20-2021, 09:00 AM | #37 | |
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: near London, UK
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Re: What makes a god?
Quote:
The more you eat the more of the personality you get.
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Podcast: Improvised Radio Theatre - With Dice Gaming stuff here: Tekeli-li! Blog; Webcomic Laager and Limehouse Buy things by me on Warehouse 23 |
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03-20-2021, 09:12 AM | #38 | |
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
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Re: What makes a god?
Quote:
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RyanW - Actually one normal sized guy in three tiny trenchcoats. |
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03-20-2021, 10:58 AM | #39 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Earth, mostly
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Re: What makes a god?
On the other hand, Eru Iluvatar doesn't seem to consider the Valar "gods", and I'm not sure they think of themselves that way either, even with their given areas of responsibility. And Manwe called Melkor brother, once upon a time...
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If you break the laws of Man, you go to prison. If you break the laws of God, you go to Hell. If you break the laws of Physics, you go to Sweden and receive a Nobel Prize. |
03-20-2021, 11:07 AM | #40 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Re: What makes a god?
The Valar are more like supreme angels (although they don't look as freaky as in the Bible), and Melkor is clearly Satan. Edit: I realize Tolkien disliked allegory but... this is just too good a fit.
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“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...” Marcus Aurelius Last edited by Anders; 03-20-2021 at 11:24 AM. |
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campaign, gods, religion |
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