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Domains of the Gods
So here’s a map illustrating another story concept I’ve brewed up recently. It’s about a bunch of gods crashing into a world populated by tribal humans. They use their powers to help the humans and uplift their cultures to larger, more advanced civilizations, but after a thousand years pass, they “expire” or fade away into oblivion. The first part of the story will involve the prehistoric humans meeting their gods for the first time while the second part has their civilized descendents dealing with the consequences of the gods’ expiration.
I am not sure how that second part of the story will end yet. I do know that I want to communicate the theme that humanity doesn’t really need gods in order to thrive after all, but how my civilized people would thrive without the gods that uplifted them in the first place, I don’t know.
Anyway, some possible gods for the setting:
Bruni, the Fire Goddess - Lords over a cold, snowy country in the distant north. Blesses her followers with warmth against the wintry cold and attacks with fireballs. Name derived from a Norse word for fire.
Akheti, the Water Goddess - Lords over a hot and dry savanna country. Blesses her followers with rain for their fields and attacks with thunderstorms and tidal waves. Name derived from the ancient Egyptian word for the flooding season.
Ntangu, the Sun God - Lords over a dark and misty jungle country. Blesses his followers with light and dryness and attacks with blindness, dehydration, and (in the case of lighter-skinned enemies) sunburns. Name derived from a Kikongo word for the Sun.
Oneone, the Earth God - Lords over an archipelago of small islands. Blesses his followers with ground and stone to build upon and attacks with rocky avalanches. Name derived from a Maori word for earth.
Himu, the Animal Goddess - Lords over a rugged desert which has a lot of cacti and other dry-weather plants but not a lot of large native animals. Blesses her followers with game and curses her enemies by turning them into game. Name derived from a Hopi word for animal.
Xylos, the Tree God - Lords over an open, grassy prairie. Blesses his followers with timber and shade and attacks with carnivorous plants. Name derived from a Greek word for wood.
The Water Queen of Akheti
The Water Queen is the highest-ranking of a hierarchy of priestesses serving and carrying out the will of the Water Goddess Akheti. Among other responsibilities, she must bring about the rainy season every year, protect her domain from the godless barbarians who prowl beyond its borders, and supply the Goddess with sacrifices to keep Her going. The position of Water Queen is a matrilineal one inherited from mother to daughter, but she traditionally has a male consort who assists her in military affairs.
This character’s costume design is suppose to give off a vaguely ancient Egyptian vibe, with the crown based off the Queen Nefertiti’s headdress. However, her people are supposed to have a very dark, almost bluish black skin color similar to that of certain Nilotic peoples in our world’s South Sudan.