Pagan gods walk the Earth.

[Tasoth]

I don't actually see the gods getting involved unless it's a long term war. With all the boons they could bestow on favored followers and the amount of followers that would spring up when prayers started getting answered would probably lead to armies of various religions duking it out for a bigger prayer base.

[Solauren]

What are the powers and abilities of the gods? That would have a huge effect on how there precieved

Do they want worship, or are they like 'we just help out, worship was a side effect'

[Invictus ChiKen]

Suppose they set about to using there powers to clean up the enviroment? Punsh bush? Cure sicknesses? You get the idea basicly a case of Pagan Wank with them only asking for worship in return for there favors, no worship chances are no favors.

The powers varied from culture to culture.

Here's a SMALL sampling.

Able to make people fall in love.
Turn people into animals an vice versa.
Shapeshift.
Cause storms.
Cause dreams.
Teleport.
Drain the large chunks of the ocean.
Lift mountains.
Shoot lighting bolts.
Raise the dead.
Heal the sick.

Powers very from god to god but that should give you an idea.

[wolveraptor]

Huge fucking red herring.

Just what is this a red-herring to? I wasn't contesting any specific point by posting this information.

It doesn't matter if you call the immortal giant ancestors of the gods Jotuns (Norse) or Titans (Greek). The Norse gods are still gods. The still control the weather, fertility, fight monsters, etcetera. It will be signifigantly easier to get rid of the Greek ones, since we know where Mount Olympus is, but as far as I know we don't have rainbow bridge crossing tech.

The difference would be that we know the Norse gods can be killed. It's scripturally supported. The Greek gods are consistantly described as truly immortal (as in, unable to be killed by weapons).

I know the Norse gods are still deities; my point was that they're not able to regenerate from what would be mortal wounds, unlike the Greek gods.

[Broomstick]

To further clarify - the Norse God/dess(es) are not immortal. What maintains their youth are the golden apples of Idunn. They're tough to kill, but not impossible.

What appear to be immortals are the heros of Valhalla - but they, in reality, are already dead.

Odin is sort of a conundrum, in that he survived treatment that should have been fatal while going through a whole bunch o' crap to gain greater power. However, he's supposed to buy the farm at Ragnarok (or did die in Ragnarok, depending on how you look at it)

Then there is Hel, Loki's daughter, who is a bizarre sort of undead, being half alive and half dead - literally. One half of her body is alive and the other half is rotting corpse and she rules over the world of the dead. Very creepy.

[Trekdestroyer]

What are we talking about here? Greek or Roman Gods? Japanese kami with all the kami of nature and of the dead souls and much more stuff I can't pull out my ass? The bodhistsvas and Buddhas of Buddhism and all the Hindu deities? Shiva and Kali would be doing major damage to any military sent against them. Do you want to be eaten by the Starving Ghosts of the Lower Realm or end up in the Buddhist hell and Reincarnation and crap? The fundies? They would say that the gods are demons finally directly decieving humans. Someone level with me as to what "gods" we are discussing here.

[wolveraptor]

That should be obvious. Look up the word "pagan" in the dictionary, and choose every god that occurs into religions described by the word. Yes, there's a helluva lot. Essentially, every non-Abrahamic god is a pagan god.

[speaker-to-trolls]

When you say they want worship what does that entail? Because a lot of pagan worship for many gods involved the sacrifice of various animals and, in some cases, humans (the Aztecs, for example).

[Broomstick]

And in other cases all you needed was words or some incense to burn.

Really, there's no definitive answer to that - each diety and each pantheon is different. Even when talking about just one God/dess, what is required depends on what you want/need from that Being.

That was, to be honest, one of the strong appeals of Christianity and Islam - just one God to worry about, and all you needed to do was pray a lot and tithe to the cult centers. No need to slaughter animals or purchase expensive stuff to burn, or death of your firstborn.

[Darth Wong]

A lot of the pagan god powers are dramatically reduced if you realize that the myths were created by people who thought the world was very small, relative to its actual size. When they talk about powers that make the world shake, for example, that doesn't actually mean the entire Earth has to move. And when they talk about making the sky fall, that doesn't make any sense at all.

[DesertFly]

So much chaos! I think I would definitely either go for a god who's very powerful, perhaps try to gain his attention through acts of heroics and gain some special powers, or a god who's liked by a powerful god.

[Imperial Overlord]

Just what is this a red-herring to? I wasn't contesting any specific point by posting this information.

You were saying the giant ancestory of the Norse Gods didn't make them truly gods, when Norse giants are themselves beings of god-like power. Surtur's sword will set all the worlds of men and elves aflame at Ragnarok and he is "just" a giant.

The difference would be that we know the Norse gods can be killed. It's scripturally supported. The Greek gods are consistantly described as truly immortal (as in, unable to be killed by weapons).

I know the Norse gods are still deities; my point was that they're not able to regenerate from what would be mortal wounds, unlike the Greek gods.

Except the Greek gods and titans can be harmed by monsters like Typhon and each other. That weapons of bronze won't hurt them and they have good regenerative abilities are nice, but doesn't mean they'll survive a bath in napalm let alone ten megatons being dropped on the top of Mount Olympus.

[Crown]

The difference would be that we know the Norse gods can be killed. It's scripturally supported. The Greek gods are consistantly described as truly immortal (as in, unable to be killed by weapons).

I know the Norse gods are still deities; my point was that they're not able to regenerate from what would be mortal wounds, unlike the Greek gods.

Except the Greek gods and titans can be harmed by monsters like Typhon and each other. That weapons of bronze won't hurt them and they have good regenerative abilities are nice, but doesn't mean they'll survive a bath in napalm let alone ten megatons being dropped on the top of Mount Olympus.

Hera, Posiedon (to name just two) were swallowed at birth by their Titan father (Cronos), many years later when Zeus was all grown up and thought he should be the shit, made his father regurgiatate everything he ate (in reverse order) and out popped his siblings fully formed.

Athena, popped out of Zeus' head fully grown and armoured after Zeus complained about having a head ache and Hephestius split open his cranium.

Neither Zeus nor Cronos suffered any kind of damage from these (ridiculous - yet 'canon') occurances. So really, don't try and analyse mythology, it's just stupid.

[Imperial Overlord]

Neither Zeus nor Cronos suffered any kind of damage from these (ridiculous - yet 'canon') occurances. So really, don't try and analyse mythology, it's just stupid.

Yeah, Greek gods survive all sorts of weird shit and then are threatened by seemingly less terrible monsters. Well, if it was rational, then we wouldn't be calling it religion . . . .

[Crossroads Inc.]

Only here could a thread about the existance of Ancient gods and their role in modern life turn into a discussion of quantifying the properties of supposed Gods and caculating out their various forms of existance.

Me,

I see if I can locate Pan and worship the good of casual Sex!

[LordShaithis]

Of course, this is stardestroyer.

"The gods have returned!"
"Quick, how do we kill them?"

And yeah, some shit is just too fucked up to analyze. Like mythology. And comic books. Possibly Dragonball Z.

[Imperial Overlord]

Of course, this is stardestroyer.

"The gods have returned!"
"Quick, how do we kill them?"

And yeah, some shit is just too fucked up to analyze. Like mythology. And comic books. Possibly Dragonball Z.

It is too fucked up to analyze, but some of those gods are seriously nasty customers. I don't want Chernobog or the Aztec gods messing with my life.

[wolveraptor]

You were saying the giant ancestory of the Norse Gods didn't make them truly gods, when Norse giants are themselves beings of god-like power. Surtur's sword will set all the worlds of men and elves aflame at Ragnarok and he is "just" a giant.

Well what I meant was that it didn't make them truly immortal. That was the only thing I was emphasizing, since I felt it was the key difference between them and the Greek gods.

Except the Greek gods and titans can be harmed by monsters like Typhon and each other. That weapons of bronze won't hurt them and they have good regenerative abilities are nice, but doesn't mean they'll survive a bath in napalm let alone ten megatons being dropped on the top of Mount Olympus.

The point is not that they're invulnerable, but that they're immortal through regeneration. But you're right that the evidence doesn't support them surviving anything worse than a split skull. I think Darth Wong's post on this page comes into play here: ancients couldn't think of anything more destructive than what the tales of the gods described, so they never made a specific reference to greek gods surviving that which could cause regular flesh and bone to vaporize.

[Crown]

The point is not that they're invulnerable, but that they're immortal through regeneration. But you're right that the evidence doesn't support them surviving anything worse than a split skull. I think Darth Wong's post on this page comes into play here: ancients couldn't think of anything more destructive than what the tales of the gods described, so they never made a specific reference to greek gods surviving that which could cause regular flesh and bone to vaporize.

Well if you want to get literal though, Hercules (a demi-God) did hold the entire fucking world on his shoulders for a time so ...

[Siege]

Do these gods start out with dominion of their own little piece of land and have to fight for their territory against neighboring deities? Or can every god just muck about anywhere on the world if he or she so pleases?

In any case, I find me an oak and pray to Woden, and I'll join the Wild Hunt when it happens to pass by. Free gold!

[Darth Wong]

Well if you want to get literal though, Hercules (a demi-God) did hold the entire fucking world on his shoulders for a time so ...

That's easy; do a handstand. There, now you're holding the entire world with your two hands. Relative to your feet, of course.

[Crown]

Well if you want to get literal though, Hercules (a demi-God) did hold the entire fucking world on his shoulders for a time so ...

That's easy; do a handstand. There, now you're holding the entire world with your two hands. Relative to your feet, of course.

Touche.

[18-Till-I-Die]

Actually if i recall he didnt hold the world on his shoulders he held the 'vault of the sky'. Which means, near as i can figure, he held the entire mass of the sky itself on his shoulders. So thats either extremely powerful or extremely not powerful.

[Darth Wong]

Actually if i recall he didnt hold the world on his shoulders he held the 'vault of the sky'. Which means, near as i can figure, he held the entire mass of the sky itself on his shoulders. So thats either extremely powerful or extremely not powerful.

That's a good example of mighty feats of strength from the Greek gods that you can't really use as a basis of conclusion because they don't mean anything. After all, if you stop holding up the sky, it doesn't fall down, which means he was doing nothing.

That's the problem with a lot of those greek myths; they're almost as retarded as some idiotic story about a farmer obtaining two of every species on earth and putting them in a boat for six months.

[18-Till-I-Die]

Well if i gather...this wasnt just 'the sky' per se.

Atlas was being punished by having to hold this thing, and from the description and the drawing in a myth book i saw it appears to be a physical object upon his back.

If i were to speculate...it seems to be a torture device wherein a huge amount of pressure (perhaps the mass of a planet or the sky or something) is set upon the person who stands on this little stool type thing and holds it up.

Which is to say, i have no idea what it would mean. I guess, since they called it the 'vault of the sky' like this thing has the mass of like the sky, or the atmosphere i guess, and it weighs as much as it would if all that was a solid thing. If you go with the planet version i would think maybe i's supposed to be the weight of a planet.

It definitely seems to be some kind of manmade object in the descriptions and pictures, most of them, i've seen. Frankly it sounds like a Godly version of the ancient punishment wherein they lay increasingly larger and heavier stones on a person to torture them.

It's wonky as hell. I dont know if that helps or not but maybe the picture...counts as visuals or something...may be useful.


Personally i dont want to piss of anyone whose supposed to be tall enough to use a mountain as a throne (like the Titans) or who can hurl lightning bolts at me from space or wherever Olympus is, so weather Herc was lifting the sky or not my strategy is to avoid them at all costs and quietly make whatever animal sacrifices i have to for them not to kill me.