Best Fictional Deities

[assasin]

What, no appreciation for Azathoth? Cthulhu? Nyarlathotep?

the lovecraft stories i've read give more info on the cults than the gods, any suggestions?

Yeah, he's great and one of my favorites amongst the many gods and ascendants in the Malazan world, Erikson's very good with how he handles all the mythology of his universe.

tehol is one of my favourite characters and bugg does tend to get coloured by association; but my top pick would probably be hood.

[Riothamus]

Disgraceful comments! His Sacred Majesty's most holy Inquisition have traced your IP address and will be with you as soon as possible. If there is anything you still wish to achieve or experience in this life, I advise you to do so soon.

For me the most interesting religious fiction (manfully avoiding temptation here) is the clash of the Inrithi and the Fanim in the Prince of Nothing. It has a sadly real smack of realism to it, from the theologies to the practices and even down to the viciousness of the sectarian hatred. And on the other side, so to speak, the No-God is genuinely horrific.

I do love the idea of the Nameless Gods in ASoIaF, there is something magnificently bleak about a theology in which the Gods are so distant, so merciless, so unknown and unknowable that their adherents don't even have their names. That is a superb bit of writing - it tells us so much about the North and its people. I could say the same for the Drowned God, come to think of it.

I think that's a bit too much of a stretch about the nameless Gods. I think it's more like their Gods are numerous and everywhere in nature so it is nigh impossible to know every single one of their names and that everything in nature and life is guided by them, and since they are an all wise divine authority, those who believe in them follow the path set before them because they trust in their strange some times unknowable wisdom.I know it certainly sounds like a huge leap of faith, but I honestly think that in some ways, it's the logic that works best for their worshipers who largely live out in nature. Their Gods are everywhere and in everything so they believe them to be numerous and close to them at all times. it's also quite possible that they believe their names cannot be spoken by human tongues.

[Randy M.]

the lovecraft stories i've read give more info on the cults than the gods, any suggestions?

Not really. HPL's stories were more into suggestion than description and expansion, and some of the suggestion was indirect, using the behavior of the cults formed around the gods to indicate what the gods were about.


Randy M.

[Mark Lawrence]

Rob, god of threads, weaving loose topics back into the fabric of the forumverse.

[Rob B]

I don't think I've got many worshippers, though.

[NickeeCoco]

Rob, god of threads, weaving loose topics back into the fabric of the forumverse.

I really wish there was a 'like' option here. That made me laugh.

[peepingyoda]

Zifnab/fizban from chronicles

[kshRox]

"His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god, but then he never claimed not to be a god."
Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light.

. . . as he could see no advantage in either admission.

(one of my absolute favorites also - loved the scene where he baited and guessed Brahma's gender and identity)