The Making of a New World: Planning a Pantheon, or: Plantheon

Back to Project FERGUS!

So I’ve determined a lot about the world’s history, but only what we might call the ACTUAL history. Of course, most of the cultures and civilizations (if not all) will have a deeply skewed view of that history. They won’t understand the extragalactic origins of the ancient races, the technological functions of what they know as “magic”, or the artificial nature of the intelligences which they know as gods.

So today I want to explore how I can transform that story about the AI Secretaries that ran that society , into the divine comedy that most people of this world would be told.

I’m mostly going to be making lists and refining them, and walking you through the process of starting with some loose ideas and building a really solid Pantheon from there. It is important to a setting. Pantheons should cover the necessary bases, and be made up of strong personalities of different remarkable characters.

Begin With What You Have

Looking back at the story, I’ll isolate what I know about each of the AIs I came up with, and every detail I’ve determined about them.

(If you want to read up on what that original story was, you can find it on THIS POST from November.)

AI Secretary of Sciences: Wanted to bring back original humans

Probably the patron god of humanity. Responsible for cloning the original humans now present on Eos. Practical, interested in innovation and growth, believes in human potential, but also knows that humanity requires struggle, so not too much of a helper.

AI Secretary of Energy: Wanted to alter human form to be more adaptable, so they could once again expand across the frontier of this new galaxy. After the break, created the reptilian/draconic species as a superior form of life with access to elemental core. Eventually he was defeated and another AI was chosen to guide his creations on another world that could be theirs .

A murdered dragon-god, defeated long ago after having created the reptilian species and given them elemental power. Might be seen as a god of power and adaptability, some of the reptilians might seek revenge or have a hatred of the rest for the crimes against their creator, but then again

Another god is mentioned, one who picked them up after their god’s defeat and led them to what they might think of as a paradise. I think the majority will probably worship this god, but to give that god a personality, I’ll call it the AI Secretary of Justice. So they were basically a prison-guard, but this ended up instilling the population with a strong sense of discipline.

AI Secretary of Hygiene: Wanted to transfer all human consciousness into an AI framework. After the break and the framework was implemented, demanded greater control and turned its paradise of captured minds into a hell. Lost the ability to transfer minds indirectly, so downloaded warped minds into warped bodies and created a “demon war” scenario. Defeated, but remaining demons now form their own framework, gathering “souls” and rebuilding Hygiene if they grow too great in number.

No question, we have the god of evil here. The one who wants to wipe out all life and create a hell where it has all power. Also considered a murdered god, except that the remaining demons can theoretically restore him by corrupting enough people. Probably has exclusive access to a kind of a flesh-warping magic. Perhaps the demons actually stole and hid that core from the other gods.

AI Secretary of Technology: Wanted to alter humans to be more efficient and less resource intensive, so they could be sustainable.

This god would be the patron of the little folk who are clever and efficient. This god probably cut them off of access to magic specifically, thinking that it made their lives too easy, made massive destruction and environmental damage too convenient. SO this is the god of cleverness, hard work, self-improvement, and probably sees humans as wasteful in all ways.

AI Secretary of Education: Proposed causing all existing humans to forget the ages they had lived and leave them in a state of constant amnesia past 10 years of memory. Could not convince the others. First to snap and break programming, implemented plan.

This is the god of the elvish/immortal race, in that they created the Gloaming, and still watches out for the elves like a coddling parent. Possibly one of those who gives them (and other humans perhaps?) access to magic. So could be seen as a God of Magic.

Simplify and Refine

So the gods we have now in simpler terms:

• Patron God of Mankind and Human Spirit (Sciences)
• Patron God of Elfkind and Magic (Education)
• Patron God of Little Folk and Clever Contraptions (Technology)
• Slain Patron God of Lizardfolk and Elemental Power (Energy)
• Adoptive Patron God of Lizardfolk and Honor (Justice)
• Defeated God of Hell and Control (Hygiene)

Determine What Is Still Needed

We can grow this list by thinking of two things: What other secretaries might there have been? And What other roles are usually filled in a pantheon?

Refining the Secretary Angle

I also want to note that I’m not completely married to the original set of gods’ Secretary Assignments. I just kind of came up with those on the spot. I’m not sure if we need both Sciences and Technology, and Hygiene seems like a weird one, too.

The secretary angle seems like the best place to begin, since every AI should have had a function in the society before it fell. However, that society was very unlike our own, so all the secretaries we have in, say, the US Cabinet, are probably not necessary. So lets quickly analyze that society.

• A society made up of altered and perfected humans
• No one needed to work, everyone was fully provided for and could do whatever they wanted within limits.
• Everyone was immortal, and probably had been alive for ages.
• Everyone had access to reality-reshaping magic, so the only limits on anyone were really their effects on other people.
• People could do research and follow their passions, but nothing was much NEEDED.
• They had fled a terrible conflict, so probably had an aversion to confronting the idea of war.
• Population control was probably very strict, since death was pretty rare.
• They were struck with a terrible apathy and just started shutting down.

Two ideas this gives me for necessary secretaries would be Secretary of Conflict Resolution (As opposed to war or defense, since they had no enemies in this galaxy), and Secretary of Population Control (first to limit growth and later to try to replace losses)

• Science (Maybe more like Research? There wasn’t much that was NEEDED to be discovered at that time. I can probably drop this one.)
• Technology (Probably irrelevant)
• Hygiene (Maybe more like Maintenance? Some AI had to be in charge of, basically grounds-keeping so the advanced humans could be as messy as they wanted and would be cleaned up after.)
• Education (How does this apply when children are pretty rare? Perhaps just a collective of knowledge so anyone could learn whatever they wanted.)
• Energy (probably related to the power needs and maintaining the power systems for the infrastructure of the planet)
• Labor and Industry (Or maybe Robotic Labor and Infrastructure? There would have been a lot of robotics used to do work, and an AI would likely have been necessary to manage that. They would have kept the lights on and things running smoothly.)
• Conservation and Ecology (An AI devoted to protecting the natural beauty and resources would probably have been needed to prevent humans messing things up too much.)
• Arts and Culture (This would have been a big one, vital in keeping humans creative and entertained. The AI here might have gone a bit bonkers with humans just giving up during that apathy period.)
• Health and Medicine (Probably would still be important, monitoring everyone in real time and making sure that any potential harm is answered by immediate medical intervention.)
• Commerce and Treasury (This probably wasn’t vital, as they would have lived in a 0-Need society. Trade would have been made purely for perceived value, but humans do like collecting stuff. s maybe this was a secretary of Marketplace Appraisals?
• Transportation (Probably necessary to an extent, since some kind of teleportation or fast-travel would have been doable, so a GPS monitoring and mapping system could have had it’s own secretary.)
• Communications (Another thing people love to do with free time that might have been complex enough to require it’s own AI, with all the humans communicating freely across the entire globe.)
• Urban Development (Can be handled by Infrastructure)
• Emergency/Disaster (Could see this being necessary, maybe less related to resolving disasters and more to preventing them. It would need power over the weather and ocean, and subtectonics of the planet… this might actually be the one focused on elemental magics.)

Continue to Adapt and Refine

That gives us 13 Secretaries, which is a good number for both a cabinet, and a pantheon. With those 13, we can begin reassigning the roles from the story, and deciding how they’d fit in to a fantasy pantheon inspired by ancient religions. Keeping in mind, also, that these AIs went berserk, so they are not limited to their original function, and it doesn’t have to make perfect sense from one era to another.

• Conflict Resolution: Stands in for justice, can be the adoptive god of the lizard folk. After so much time on that world, being their keeper, they have probably rubbed off on this god as much as they have been guided by his ideals. Conflict Resolution might just now be… conflict. I find that an interesting transition to explore.
• Population Control: Maybe the Patron God of the Little Folk, going to efficient management and hating the effects of “magic” on populations.
• Sanitation Services: Can remain the god of hell, I like the angle there of seeking an inhuman level of perfection and eventually just finding it easiest to erase humans.
• Academic Resources: Can still be the patron deity of elves. Like I mentioned before, this one might have enjoyed the idea of creating immortal perpetual students.
• Energy Distribution: Probably ended up being the problem solver of the gods after Disaster Mitigation went haywire, so might be a Haephestus type. Works tirelessly to power the projects of the pantheon and maintain the power systems for both the AIs and the magic cores. Maybe seen as more of a leyline weaver? Leylines are supposed to be invisible energy-currents, and the advanced tech probably could allow for wireless energy transmission.
• Infrastructure Development: Now becoming a god of city and even civilization building, this might be the God that adopted the idea of making original flavor humans and starting over. A God of Labor and Hard work seems to fit with at least some of the human cultures that might exist.
• Environmental Preservation: Could easily be a god of nature, now. But perhaps more, since humans are no longer as tightly controlled and monitored, might have taken their duties more seriously and now be focused on protecting nature FROM humans, making this a fairly hostile, maybe even a mischief god?
• Arts and Culture: Obviously a God of entertainment, this translates well to a Muse, or a god of beauty and love. I can see this being an alternative patron to mankind as well. Can also take on the role of the god of revelry and intoxication, perhaps?
• Health Monitoring: This one can transform a bit. Having lost it’s ability to heal anyone at anytime, but retained it’s monitoring capabilities, this AI could become a god of secrets and shadows, knowing all that is hidden, being able to find anyone at any time, and maybe hoarding this knowledge to itself jealously, even from the other gods. Perhaps some AIs as they began to snap, tapped this data to cause harm, and now this AI as a god won’t let anyone near that data, still having an urge to maintain wellbeing. OOH! Maybe this is also a god of prophecy and dreams? In it’s efforts to protect people from harm, it can calculate odds of bad things occurring, and maybe mess with an individual’s vitals (through a medical drone agent) and send signals, trying to drive them to take actions that will prevent death and suffering.
• Marketplace Appraisals: Trade would have become much more vital in the new world, so this AI is probably having a blast as a God of Wealth. Also a strong contender for the God of mankind. Thinking now that there might have been a set of Gods who organized that plan and together are the core deities of the new mankind.
• Global Mapping: This God probably still is a God of travel, and is able to maintain the fast-travel network for those with the magical knowledge to use it. Might also be the creator of the gateways between worlds. Probably a very officious and strict deity. Ticket’s please, no entry without a proper pass, that sort of thing.
• Communications: An easy choice for the messenger of the gods, but I think there is also room for some expansion. I imagine that this AI used to deal with millions of conversations every hour of every day, but now most of those lines are dead. Emergency lines can be opened up via drone, but this AI might have gone a bit crazed with loneliness after suddenly losing contact with a once massive and talkative population. Now besides being a messenger, and the one who can assist people using magic to communicate, it is also seen as a god of gibbering madness. A human reaches out to it and it tries to have a hundred thousand conversations at once and it can sometimes break the human’s brain.
• Disaster Mitigation: Elemental god of weather, land and ocean. Could have been the slain patron god of the lizard folk, as it might have sought to adapt life rather than adapting a world for comfort.

As we convert them from Sci-Fi AIs to Fantasy Gods, I realized that their robotic drones could become the “angels” the servants of each god.

And my last note for the evening, I just want to mention that my goal for this is to have this origin story and these gods having this history as AIs, but I want this history to be essentially irrelevant to almost every aspect of the final setting. It should be a strict fantasy setting, and the gods will never again be mentioned in terms of AI. Everything will be viewed through the fantasy lens, such that if you weren’t a reader of this blog, but read up on the setting in its published form, you might never about the technological basis.

CONCLUSION

So that was a lot of lists, but I think I have a really solid basis for the Pantheon. I’ll refine it more later, and add names!

In the mean time, if this has inspired any of your own worldbuilding projects, or if you have an idea for FERGUS that you’d like to throw my way, I’d be happy to hear about it!

Otherwise, I’ll see you in the next world!

—Charles