The latest Oglaf [pic related] has some interesting theological

Save for the last panel, that comic is basically the backstory of Kill Six Billion Demons.

>>43866350
So god became a ghost rider?

Isn't that the worst possibl event?

>>43866445
Nope.

>>43866464
He got more or less cast out of heaven by a mortal, and had a serious amount of bitterness and anger until he chilled out. Still stuck in some vague other place though.

Also he got stakes driven through his eyes and the skin of his head burned off. Man.

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>>43866350
New Topic: Curse Spectre is the best BBEG why?

>>43866350
Well after reading this comic I have a human nation deity called The Ascendant Emperor and a fallen deity who is basically D&D's Torog (who is basically Sithrak).

>>43866445
Never seen that webcomic before, reminds me of paranatural.

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>>43866529
You're in for a treat.

>>43866499
Shit, that would be a hell of a marketing strategy for the guild of dark sorcerers, if they existed

>>43866572
The dude at the end runs a Curse Emporium

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>>43866610
:)

That is Curse Spectre.

Best BBEG of all time.

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There is a central reality which at its origin was perfect, immortal and unchanging. There are innumerable mirror realities which derive their existence and sustenance from the central one. These realms have long since broken through to the first one.

The descriptive image for this is: picture reality as a corpse between two mirrors, rotting into infinity.

The gods that exist are the denizens of the original reality that have managed to protect or otherwise remove themselves from the corruption. They are highly limited in their ability to intercede, in case they become corrupted. Devils are those denizens of the original reality that *have* become corrupted. There are also an uncountable number of spirits that have invaded the base reality, including thousands upon thousands of deaths (death being the first invader) - not all these spirits are malevolent by any means.

In terms of what people worship it is a huge mix of all of the above, plus powerful entities which merely pretend to be gods, or even don't pretend to be gods - witch cults which are dominant across half of a continent rarely venerate their patrons as gods - and religions whose gods don't actually exist at all, some of which are pretty powerful. Religions may have multiple churches and forms, and the worshipers of any god may or may not be aware of that god's true nature.

Gods can be destroyed or diminished, and mortals can ascend to godhood, but both acts are so transgressive that what goes in will not in any true sense be what comes out the other side. Funeral rites are wildly different across the world.

>>43866529
>reminds me of paranatural.
How?

BLOOD AND THUNDER!!!!

>>43866350
>no hover text

Oglaf is dead.

>>43866675
Just the quality of the art style mostly, and a little bit of It Hurts...not sure why I feel about that one however.

>>43866689
I sat there for about 5 minutes trying to figure out why I couldn't see the hover text before it hit me.

Where were you when Oglaf was kill?

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>>43866619
Curse Specter is the specter of the people.

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>>43866734
Its even worse than you know. It used to have TWO hidden jokes, one in the hover text, and one visible only if you inspect the HTML.
Now there are none. Its over, the big corporations won. The wordsmith is dead, his craft lost.

>>43866789
That crop is bad and you should feel bad.

>>43866350
The gods wove the planes together way back when, and for a while all the heavens existed side by side with the world, with the various gods bringing gifts to the confluence between them until Life came into existence. She became the wife of the Sun and they were very much in love, and mortals emerged.

Then the goddess of nature was slain (I actually haven't determined how) and her world, the world of life where the mortals were born, was twisted into a foul and predatory jungle which became the Underworld. The rest of the gods patched together a refuge for the mortals out of what was left and sent some robots in to try and rescue her, but didn't hear anything back. The rest of the gods held a council and decided to seal the Underworld away by wrapping it within the world they had created for the mortals, so that the refuge-plane became the outside of the globe, while the inside of the globe is a Hollow Earth-esque murderjungle. When the Sun found out that the other gods had sealed his wife within the earth, he was distraught, and descended from the heavens in an attempt to scorch his way through. The plane was mostly scorched to desert, and the dwarven mountainhome was literally blasted apart into an enormous (though gem-rich) desert where the dwarves still live. They're... a little scarred by the experience.

Eventually the other gods established the firmament in order to keep the Sun away from the mortals before he could do any more damage, so the universe is a series of spheres made up of different gods. So there's the earth, then the sky, then the stars, then the void, and then above that is the sun in his own sphere which he's constantly trying to escape, and his frantic circling of the globe seeking a hole in the firmament is the origin of his orbit.

>>43866820
I feel worse about my bookmarks, so cropping was necessary.

>>43866753
That plotline was seriously the best in the history of that webcomic.

>>43866350
>Havy any gods ever fallen? How? What happened to them?

According to Kiserran legends, in the age of High Adventure, when the gods invaded the earth from heaven and carved out a kingdom for men, they scattered demons to the wind. But the demons grew vengeful, banded together, and attacked the gods while they were carrying the spirits of the dead to heaven, killing the gods and binding those spirits to the earth.

The people of Kiserre believe that they are charged with taking over for the gods, the dual duties of fighting demons and ensuring access to burial rites for all. Since it's been a good nine hundred years since the last verified demon sighting, it's less important these days.

>>43866823
The Sky represents those gods who were closest to Nature and to mortals, and represent concepts which mortals have need of often - gods of home and hearth, gods of storm and rain, and other such natural forces. They tend to be more emotional, with some exceptions, and more elemental in their expression. They're creature comfort gods, commonly called on, and their djinn are generally the most common servitors for priests and mages, although some of them can be frightful (djinns of lightning and wind are perfectly capable of knocking a house over or striking a foe down if properly commanded). They tend to be friendly to humanity, although just as capricious and emotional as their masters and thus not terribly reliable without some direction.

The Stars make up the lattice of heaven. They're most instrumental to the firmament and fiercely oppose the Sun, but their duties leave them little time to interact with the mortal world since they're mostly always looking out. They tend to be more mythological, archetypical figures, befitting their patterned nature, and they have more of a distinct hierarchy compared to the Sky gods. They cover concepts that are more ephemeral than the direct, physical concepts of the Sky sphere. Good and Evil, athleticism and scholarship, fortune (good and ill), that sort of thing. Their djinn are guardians and advisors, and their abilities bolster and guide the sorcerers who bind them. Divination is also the purview of the Stars.

>>43866505
Please forgive my shitty attempt at writing, it's not my first language and it's 3am.

>Land of the Rising Flame Emperor

Mythology: A long time ago, the land was ruled by Kings and locked in unending wars. Every man strived to attain power and wealth, to the detriment of his brothers. The ties of friendship and kinship served only as comfort for the weak, and were cast away at the first chance of status and influence. In the Heavens above, the mighty God who had every power in existence at his command watched the mortals beg, plead and praise with indifference.

Then one day, a mighty lord rose up from humble beginnings to cleanse the world. Shrouded in flames, he taught his children discipline and kept his followers in awe. He swept through the land and kings fell one by one to his wrath. The rulers that submitted were spared until every other threat was removed, then executed. He named himself Emperor and appointed disposable governors to rule the realm. He then reformed the beliefs of the people through harsh edicts. Greed, selfishness and thirst for power were to be replaced with charity and dedication to one’s community and a desire to be praised for these virtues.

The people, ecstatic at their newfound peace and goodness, prayed to their mortal Emperor instead of the all-powerful God that had ignored them. In his wisdom, the Emperor knew that, having angered the Heavens, he would be smitten by them. His realm kept at peace by his mere existence, he dedicated his life to preparing for what came after. He acquired a powerful alchemic army, which stood watch in his future tomb. He found the secrets of alloys that could forge weapons of incredible power, and armed every single one of his burial guards with them. Finally, he gathered the clothings and jewels of fallen deities to craft garments worthy of a God.

(cont)

>>43867049

Knowing that the frustrated God could smite him down at his leisure, he took matters into his own hands and entombed himself alive. He covered every one of his soldiers, his entire tomb and himself in holy oils and set fire to his place of rest. The fires rose to the very gates of Heavens, where he and his armies marched upon the Throne of God. After a bloody battle that lit the skies on fire for a hundred days, the God was burnt, had his eyes sealed with red hot nails of holy alloy and was cast down onto the mortal world on a meteor.

The world fell into an Ice Age thanks to the fall of the God. The struggles caused by the cold, combined with the death of their emperors and hundred days of fiery skies that followed threw the Emperor’s realm into disarray. All looked to the skies for his mercy, but weakened, the Emperor could do nothing to heed their prayers. Thinking themselves abandoned by their ascended savior, the Empire fell into chaos once more.

Then, in the year we now refer to as 18 Before Coronation, loyal servants of the Ascended Emperor began their mighty crusade. They wielded his holy flames against the warlords that ruled his majesty’s divided realm. He guided them into doing as he had done long ago and had them unite the realm. From the faithful, a young orphan, like the Ascended Emperor had been, was chosen and raised into rulership by his Ascended Majesty’s clergy. Once the realm had been pacified, on the boy’s 22nd birthday, he was crowned Emperor and all under Heavens swore allegiance to him as the worthy avatar of the Ascended Emperor. This day is now known as the beginning of year 1 After Coronation.

Thank you for your time.

>>43867049
>>43867054
Just personally I wouldn't make the Emperor so sympathetic or the fallen god so unsympathetic as that. Also would definitely include a burial rite where people are buried inside giant terracotta soldiers.

>>43867082
That's the story as the Ascended Emperor's priest tell it. They're an extremely powerful faction of the new Imperial government, so they've got a lot of control on what is taught.

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>>43866464
i don't get how being a Ghost Rider (a revenant by another name) is much of a curse in the first place

"oh, no, i have to punish sinners" :(

and why would the Devil want you to punish sinners on earth in the first place?

you'd think he'd curse you with the desire to fuck beehives and eat shit or something

>>43867025
The Void is a single, immense spirit, who myth claims was the vastest of all long ago. A devouring serpent, the Void consumed all the things that were, and then, constrained by his own bulk and with no room to grow or shed his skin, devoured himself in madness. When the new world was born from his remains, his vast avarice and jealousy could not be fulfilled, since his physical form was no more. He alone played no part in life, and it is because of this that he plays the most important roles in the heavens - jailer of the Sun, and creator of the Djinn. The Djinn are mockery of mortals, described as solid shadow or smokeless flame or other contradictory terms. The Void was the first to craft these beings, though he taught the other gods the craft, taking pleasure in the adoration his djinn received. Djinn are much stronger than mortals, but they lack souls and are easily bound by their word, so negotiation with them is a cornerstone of magical lore. The most well known djinn are those the Void crafted to claim the fallen goddess from the Underworld, for as the only God to stand apart from Life, only he could create beings who would not be tainted by the land of death.

These same djinn threaten to doom the plane, for they have found the corpse goddess and now aim to return to their master, shattering the firmament in the process.

>>43867125
The curse is having a demon inside your body and it taking control whenever it wants

>>43866499
Is that Tim on the bottom left? I can't believe I missed that.

>>43866753
>Reflection in mirror yells at him
>Reflection in water pool asks who the other reflection was

Excellent?

>>43866680
VICTORY AT SEA!

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>>43867151
black out drunk metaphor aside, it's still not much of a curse
1. it's almost by divine mandate
2. you're only hurting bad people / escaped demons
it's the jury duty of curses imho senpai

>>43867198

Obviously the mirror is his anger, the pool is his jealousy.

>>43866484
Yes, more of less literaly.

>>43867218
>gotta do work without compensation
>work involves being beaten up a lot
>work involves someone else inside your body
>work involves others taking control of body

Curses don't have to be "your dick will be eaten by a vulture and regrow every hour."

>>43867254
>gotta do work without compensation
punishing the wicked is it's own reward and you're compensated by not being dead and in hell
>work involves being beaten up a lot
you're supernatural body is getting beat up
>work involves someone else inside your body
the spirit of vengeance. that's up there with the holy ghost and should be a great honor unless you're a fedora
>work involves others taking control of body
so, you're not rally working at all. it's sleep walking

>Curses don't have to be "your dick will be eaten by a vulture and regrow every hour."
they should be when they come from the devil

>>43867245
It's really not and if you're being genuine I suggest you go re-read K6BD.

In K6BD the gods' self-destruction was consensual and happened long before any human came into power. Each suicide was essentially an act of birth and I feel there are strong hints the existence of the god(s) continues in their creations.

If you're referring solely to Zoss and the Prime Angels, that is not the same. The angels were not gods nor did they interact with mortals at that point, and Zoss didn't sneak an army in he just destroyed them all.

If you mean Zoss and the demiurges it's still not the same, as they were not an army under command but a group of insane, powerful individuals all out for themselves and none of them were dead upon entering heaven.

>>43867356
>you can't compare two things unless they are literally the same exact thing, verbatim

>>43867354
>punishing the wicked is it's own reward

Nah. You do work, you get compensation. Your time being taken up and your life being put into disarray is enough of a curse.

>you're supernatural body is getting beat up

So you have to do work that involves suffering pain for free. Strictly a curse so far.

>and should be a great honor unless you're a fedora

Wow, fedora's been so devalued that it means "anyone who disagrees with me?" Great non-argument.

>they should be when they come from the devil

the devil curses you to do devillish stuff, not sure why that should be a surprise

>>43867374
The terms used included "basically the background" and "literally". I never said you couldn't compare them, I just disagreed with such an exact parallel.

I get you might be pissed someone is arguing with you over the internet, but if you recognised it isn't literally the same surely we can leave it at that instead of shitposting at each other?

>>43866835
Couldn't you just, ya know, save the image and crop/censor it, rather than making a screen shot?

>>43867374
No, you just compared it to something you presumed no one in this thread read in order to look smart- and revealed you had no clue, now you're trying to rationalise it

>>43867446
You have entirely missed the point of his image and post.

>>43867426
>The terms used included "basically the background" and "literally". I never said you couldn't compare them, I just disagreed with such an exact parallel.
Fair enought

>>43866549
IIRC he then save the man with permanent boner

>>43867492
Not the permanent boner, but the best orgasm of your life boner. And that was after becoming king by embracing the power of Fellatio Man

>>43867218
>elephant on the top left corner
>probably Hannibal
I'm super scared right now guys

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>>43867419
a curse in the traditional sense is a punishment for a course of action. in this one you made some Faustian deal and instead of being dead and in hell you get to remain alive and be the Ghost Rider. that is your job. you want the cake and able to eat it too? no. you're payment is life

Ghost Riders can't die. well maybe. it takes major magic to stop one. for all intents and purposes while in Ghost Rider mode you're invincible and any physical pain you get from this is less than the torment of being in hell

a "fedora" is usually an edgy atheist. the Spirit of Vengeance (the possessing "demon" that makes you a Ghost Rider) is up there with "the father, the son, and the holy ghost". implication was that unless you strongly oppose religion being in close proximity to the supreme is an honor

'devilish' stuff is the real crux of the issue. as the great jailer, it makes sense for Satan to employ a Ghost Rider to punish mortals on earth and round up wayward demons
Satan as the great tempter and corrupter of souls employing a Flame Headed Paladin makes no sense

either way, it's a curse that's not much of actually being a curse

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>>43866350
>Tell me, what are the origins of the various gods in your campaigns?
In vast majority, they are the same as the origins of gods in real world: they are "made up" by the inhabitants of the settings as ways to understand and deal with the world they inhabit. Mostly they represent important forces of nature, embodiments of important moral principles, abstractions of principles governing the world.
There are some exception - like the "Celestials", who are actual, physical creatures, remnants of a by-gone era where biological engineering was a big thing, safeguards of an old ecological experiment that went astray. They have "powers" that are difficult to comprehend for the current people, and thus are deemed "divine" and worshiped as gods. Few other similar cases exist.

>Have any gods ever fallen?
There are stories of gods falling in some of the religions. Hell, the history of human origin in one of the most popular folk religions is a story of downfall of the first human population, who were originally on-par with other gods. The people don't know it, but the myth of divine origins of mankind and their descent to earth is actually partially based on history, a mythical re-telling of a more profane story of collapse of an older, more technologically advanced civilization.

>Have any mortals ever risen to challenge the gods?
Even such stories could be found among the many, varied mythologies of the steppes. But for obvious reasons, it never really physically happened. There were isolated cases of hostility towards the Celestials, but they ended poorly: the Celestials are very, very hard to kill, and vicious when enraged.

>What are the funereal rites of the primary cultures in your settings?
That would be for a series of posts, I think. One of the more interesting rites has the villagers propping their dead on mountain slopes above their villages, letting the dry wind mummify them, so they could eternally look over the village and protect it.

>>43867538
Yeah, my memories are messed up.

>>43866350
I'm currently writing a setting. A warrior-king became a God in order to defeat a greater evil. After the deed, he returned to his kingdom to rule. He is immortal, he cannot die, he is immensely powerful. The first 200 years he spent having lots of sex, fighting and conquering slowly, unmatched. After a while, he started to become more distant, jaded and interested in otherworldy things. Basically, it's 500 years later after the King became a God and he has turned into Dr. Manhattan

>>43867579
Neat page

>>43866350
Well, in one of my settings all of the gods are descendants of men or the 4 original elementals. In the beginning, a great dragon named life held all the domains of power. He was tricked by his human children and killed becoming the god of death. The humans and the bystanding elementals took all the domains and became gods. Later, a peaceful godess was displaced by her cruel brother and swore vengence and later devoured him absorbing his power. However, some of bits of the other gods displeased her and she cast them aside. These eventually combined into the god of suffering. She went on to eat a bunch of other gods and create a mighty empire until a group of heroes (my PCs) broke her apart and restored Suffering.

So the only one who fell was Life and he became Death in doing so. He was the first to fall down into the land of the dead. Naturally, he was pretty pissed and cursed all of his children "Everything that lives must die."

The setting has a number of different cultures so it really depends where you die as to what the funeral rights will be.

>>43869038
As a side note the Land of the Dead is a very shitty place. It is an endless colorless plain. When you die, you feel the sensation of a long fall until you crash upon a huge pile of soiled treasures and bones in front of a gargantuan dragon. The dragon quickly devours your flesh and spits out the skeleton to wander aimlessly. The rest of the land is a massive pile of bones, charcoal and dirty treasure. Those with strong wills may find some of the macabre bone cities. There's really almost nothing to do in these places as there is no true wealth here. If you try and take the treasure, a skeletal dragon will attack you. In the end most of the dead simply wander until they reach the edge of the bone pile losing their will they collapse and becoming one with the landscape.

Only the greatest of champions are deemed worthy of the Land of the Gods and are pulled against the Death's will upwards instead of down. The gods could do this for everyone, but everytime they do they risk themselves to succumbing to Death as well.

>>43866350

If enough people believe in a certain aspect it gains an anthropomorphic personification. The stronger the belief(or love, or respect, or fear) the stronger the power it has.

>Have any gods ever fallen? How? What happened to them?
Sometimes a minor aspect gets in over their head about something or another and has to be put in their place by a stronger aspect to keep the balance.

>Have any mortals ever risen to challenge the gods?
Plenty of times death has been challenged over and over again. It refuses them all and just claim that which is rightfully it's. Desire, decadence and debauchery constantly allow mortals to try and best them just because. Luck has only lost once, something she never likes being reminded about.

>What are the funereal rites of the primary cultures in your settings?

Some bury, some burn and some eat. Death respects them all equally.

>>43866350
That was last week's.

>>43769984
https://warosu.org/tg/thread/43769984

>>43866350
In my campaign gods are just celestial spirits that lived in the Cosmos, kind like a spirit world. Thanatos, the first spirit, gave his body to create the Universe and his heart became the Earth. Without a body, however, he became mad and ashamed and hid inside of the Nether, the shadow of the Cosmos.
Then all the other spirits took over, becoming the gods of the humans.

>>43867218
I am especially digging that matador and the big rig

>>43866789
https://twitter.com/Oglaf
>As mentioned last week, alt and rollover text will go up at the end of the month. Doug is currently away on work.

>>43866350
>Tell me, what are the origins of the various gods in your campaigns?
I've only run one campaign with gods in it. In that setting the gods are mortals that have ascended to godhood through various means. Though that isn't revealed to the current generation. It's been a long time since their ascension.
>Have any gods ever fallen? How? What happened to them?
Gods die "all the time". If a god lose all followers, it will fade away with time as it is unable to sustain it's existence alone - it needs the prayers from it's followers to survive. But they are powerful beings and can last a long time. So far gods have only been slain by other gods.
>Have any mortals ever risen to challenge the gods?
There are many who try. So far none have succeeded. The magic in the current world is too weak to usurp the gods - just as they intended.
>What are the funereal rites of the primary cultures in your settings?
Human cultures either bury their dead or cremate them, with things being quite balanced between the two ways. When elves die young they get cremated most of the time (or according to their faith if they have left the traditional elven ways). When dwarves die they crumble back into stone and dirt. A common way to deal with dwarven remains in their own fortress cities is to enshrine a part of it and then toss the rest back into the bowels of the earth.

>>43867604
>One of the more interesting rites has the villagers propping their dead on mountain slopes above their villages, letting the dry wind mummify them, so they could eternally look over the village and protect it.
That sounds like a real quick way to get carrion-eaters on the scene.

>>43867125
I thought the reason he punishes the wicked on Earth is to send their souls to Hell faster. Could you imagine being the Devil's hand on Earth to drag impure souls back to his dread realm?

>Tell me, what are the origins of the various gods in your campaigns?
They just sort have always been.
They basically formed out of the residual spiritual energy of the sapient races, and basically fed off of it like parasites
>Have any gods ever fallen? How? What happened to them?
All but one of them have, Mother Nature is one vicious cunt with absolutely no shame and there is no low she won't stoop to. When a being made of spiritual energy "dies", it just fades away and what's left over dissipates over time.
>Have any mortals ever risen to challenge the gods?
Yes. That basically sums up the last 50 or so years. A group of mortals killed most of the gods, and the world is now trying to find where the Nature Goddess is hiding so they can finish them off once and for all.
>What are the funereal rites of the primary cultures in your settings?
>Sea faring !African samurai people
Burial at sea or your ashes get forged into a weapon and passed to your next of kin.
>!NotSpain/Coastal Merchant People
Standard cemeteries, the rich will commission personalized masuleams or orchards to be buried in.
>Evil !Romans/only practitioners of Arcane magic
There is no peace in death, the dead are raised as zombies and worked until the corpses are rendered unusable.

>>43867125
Actually, the Ghost Rider is an Angel of Vengeance. God's heavy-hitter. All the first born of Egypt? That's his warm-up. The devil trapped him in hell, though, so he can't do his job. He then tricked a young and stupid motorcycle stuntman into signing over his soul, and opened a conduit to the ghost rider inside him. Now the young man (Johnny Blaze) who is wholly owned by the devil wields the power of God's right-hand killing machine. He tries to do good, and the Ghost Rider tries to help, but the angel has been twisted from his time imprisonned in hell and has no moral compass, Johnny is a former satanist with a skewed moral compass to begin with, and the devil takes a lot of joy in screwing with their heads. He mostly lets them do as they please (which is fight each other and hunt down escapees from hell), unless a powerful force is threatening the devil or the cosmic order, then Mephistopheles steps in and forces Johnny to be his hit-man.

>>43867354
>by not being dead and in hell
Not so much, no.
http://imgur.com/gallery/SpeN9

>>43869876
>That sounds like a real quick way to get carrion-eaters on the scene.
Yeah, which is why members of the dead guys family have to keep watch for up to several weeks near the dead body, scaring them away. That, and the fact that the body is actually prepared before being taken up into the mountains, including cycles of embalming, some of which are mixtures made to keep the carrion eaters (in this case mostly vultures, as there aren't that many other carrion-eating animals around - all together makes each funeral a rather exhausting and time consuming business. Which is why this "Pillar funeral", as the society calls it is really practiced in death of particularly important members of the society - usually the "Patriarchs" that is the oldest man of the household. Women, children, young insiginificant men are burried in a much less extravagant fashion, usually in "mass grave sites" in crevices or caves near the village.

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I fucking love that oglaf used the chick tract God

>>43866445
It's not

>>43870693
Do you want ghouls? Because that's how you get ghouls.

>>43870792
No ghouls in my settings, I'm afraid. Well... actually, the term "ghoul" exists, but is used in reference to half-mythical, allegedly cannibalistic tribes are rumored to live in a vast desert that covers portion of the world. In fact it's used in reference to a general vision of a mythical carrion eater, but it's just that - a myth. No ghouls in the sense "carrion-eating monsters" actually exist within the world. The settings are not fantasy, strictly speaking. Not classical fantasy, at least.

>>43866664
>The descriptive image for this is: picture reality as a corpse between two mirrors, rotting into infinity.

"I first learned the facts from a lunatic
In a dark and quiet room that smelled of stale time and space
There are no people
Nothing at all like that
The human phenomenon is but the sum of densely coiled layers of illusion
Each of which winds itself upon the supreme insanity
But there are persons of any kind
When all that can be is mindless mirrors
Laughing and screaming as they parade about
In an endless dream
But when I asked the lunatic what it was
It swore itself within these mirrors
As they marched endlessly in stale time and space
He only looked and smiled
Then he laughed and screamed
And in his black and empty eyes
I saw for a moment as in a mirror
A form the shade of divinity
In flight from it's stale infinity
Of time and space and the worst of all
Of this world dreams
My special plan for the laughter
And the screams"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxZpEFJhO6k

>>43867579
Someone has a poor education in tradition.

>>43866350
It's a lovecraftian setting. Let's see if I can articulate it:

>Origins
Complicated. Azathoth is the origin of the universe and has always existed. The Great Old Ones are the random spawn of Azathoth's primordial dreaming. The Outer Gods are the nightmares of the Great Old Ones reflected upon the universe. The Dragons are physical constructs of flesh (The first creatures made of flesh in the entire universe) created by the Outer Gods to help them wage war on the Great Old Ones. The Greater Demons are the nightmares of the Outer Gods who grew a cancerous shadow-dimension connected to the material world and seek to corrupt Azathoth's dreams and invade its subconscious before waking it and erasing the universe. The Mortal Gods are the condensed desires and anthropomorphic projections of sentient mortals onto the world, each is a physical embodiment of an abstract concept that only matters to mortals like Love or War or Community. Every group of mortals has their own pantheon of these.

>Fallen Gods
Most of the Great Old Ones are incapable of 'dying', per se, but have been rendered relatively weak and their consciousness reduced greatly during their imprisonment at the hands of the Outer Gods. Several Outer Gods were slain during that war but, like all dreams that end, they faded and were forgotten as if they never existed. No dragon has ever died because they refuse to fight and hide themselves away, though it is theoretically possible. No Greater Demon has ever fallen, since they corrupt all they touch, nobody is eager to pick a fight with them, and they are incapable of leaving the Shadow World they created. Mortal gods die all the time. To each other when communities argue with themselves or go to war with others. New ones spring up just as easily (put any group of mortals together isolated from other groups, they'll dream up a new pantheon in a week).

(1/2)

>>43871381
>Mortals challenging the gods
Mortal gods: Yes, there are some mythic heroes who have challenged and defeated various mortal gods.

Dragons: Twice mortals have tried, and twice the Dragons, who retain mastery over all forms of flesh, have simply unmade them and repurposed the flesh for other uses.

Great Demons: Haha, no. No mortal life can survive the Shadow World for long, and the Great Demons could simply rip the life from a mortal body with a thought, or turn a mortal into their own worst nightmare with a touch.

Outer Gods: HAHAHAHAHAHA no.

Great Old Ones: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA [continues on spiraling into infinity]

Azathoth: [hysterical laughter reaching a crescendo as my eyeballs burst in their sockets and my body disintegrates into formless primordial energy before being smeared across half the cosmos]

>Funereal Rights
Many and varied. Most human tribes tend towards cremations. Elves are cannibals and eat their dead before grinding the bones up into powder and using it as mortar to build their buildings. Dwarves construct above-ground tombs (like those common in New Orleans) and enshrine the dead there. Orcs favor deeply dug graves, no coffins, out in the steppes but no gravestones. Nagas and the human tribes which adopt Naga culture tend to favor burial at sea. Kobolds tend to just throw the dead bodies into their apiaries (bug farms) and let the insects feast on the corpses so they can feed on the bugs later. Ogres are straight-up cannibals and sometimes don't bother waiting for their meals to die before starting dinner.
(2/2)

>>43870867
>Thomas Ligotti
Freund von mir

>>43870869
lol ikr? what were they fucking thinking?

bomp