Welcome to our Worldbuilding Wednesday! On Wednesdays, we will discuss the creative process behind different facets of the Twinverse, from as lofty a concept as the entire cosmology, to specific characters and their role in the setting. Worldbuilding Wednesday is meant as a behind-the-scenes column to give insight into how the setting itself changes and evolves, beyond just the events of the books.
Once you have developed a world hook and decided whether to go top down or bottom up in terms of your creative process, there is no single way to develop your setting. A lot of it comes down to your hook, of course. Based on it, you may want to focus on building the creatures that populate your world first, or perhaps lay down some geography, or define a realm within it as the basis for your development.
If your world has actual deities, however - and not simply impersonal forces or false gods - it is important to create these deities as early as possible. Such creatures may or may not have created the world (depending on your hook and planned history), but they most likely have had a significant impact on it. Are they physical or not? Are they in your world, or do they exist on another Plane? How involved are they in the affairs of the world? Do they act like the old Greek gods, raining lightning, chasing amorous partners, transforming people, creating monsters...?
Even more fundamentally, you need to define what godhood looks like in your world. Various settings (and even real-world religions) take different approaches to it, and while gods are almost invariably described as beings of great power, the specifics of that power, their immortality, and their role in the cosmos are all left for you to describe. Similarly, you must decide whether they have specific portfolios or not.
Furthermore, while many settings assume one single pantheon across the entire world, this doesn't have to be the case. Different cultures may worship different gods, and the same god may be worshipped under different names and guises across the world. Some cultures may only worship a subset of the gods (for instance, a desert tribe might ignore the existence of a god of winter), while other cultures may intersperse their pantheons with fake gods as well (perhaps entirely false constructs, or imposters, or local spirits pretending to be gods).
The history of the Twin Worlds is closely intertwined with that of its gods. There are three major categories of deities in the cosmology: the Earthbound are the gods that have arisen naturally from the world, have physical forms and their power, though vast, is constrained. The Empyreals are a small group of deities who either come from Outside the cosmos, or who were elevated to this level by an unrepeatable fluke of chance. They don't need a corporeal form, and their powers are greater than the Earthbound, but because they are not fully of the world, they have to be more careful in their actions. Finally, we have the Exalted. Only the Trienorn were ever Exalted gods (although one could argue that Lilaire was briefly one, as well): creatures who took divinity for themselves, in a most unnatural way, upsetting the balance of the cosmos.
Many of these gods are worshipped, under different guises, throughout the world. In some cases, some gods have taken over the guises worn by deities who have either been ousted, or who are no longer active. Most pantheons, however, include a sprinkling of other entities - spirits, ghosts, long-lived creatures pretending to be gods, or entirely fake constructs. This is my own stylistic choice, and changes little in regards to the day-to-day activities of people who worship that particular pantheon. But to me, it feels more realistic, as does the fact that a specific deity may be known under multiple names, perhaps even with slight differences in their cults, across the world. This is particularly true for Earthbound, since they have a corporeal form and can't teleport at will across the world, so cults dedicated to them in places where they haven't been for millennia will certainly drift away from the more accurate teachings, incorporating changes in society and culture as well.
In the end, when you create your world, the number of gods and their nature is up to you. If possible, this should always further stories. For instance, Leaves specificically refers to the Eylkin (the pantheon worshipped in Abreldin), and to two of them in particular, Kolvir and Zyllanor. These two have a special significance, and may be associated with other upcoming books.
As always, use your best judgment. It's a fantasy world, and there is no one way to build it, but as long as it is consistent with itself, and the story is well written, readers will be happy to suspend their disbelief. Nevertheless, knowing who the gods are and what they can do will inform you as you develop the history of your setting and the current situation, as well as potentially giving you ideas for characters, places and objects associated with the gods.
Thank you for joining us on another Worldbuilding Wednesday, and until next time!
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