Okay, i need some help with this i think. I'm basing a religion on the worship of letters and I would like to drain you all dry of ideas if at all possible. I want to use every possible relationship between letters and have them reflected somehow in the myths. Letters that can't be used together would probably be enemies with the opposite going for letters that are often put together, letters that are reflections of each other have opposed domains (or are actual living reflections or twins), and I still have to come up with the difference between letters with symmetries and those without. Ideas are wanted no matter shape or size! Random letter combinations might even help! ^^
the Alphabet Gods
Language has forever been the cornerstone of civilization. With words we recorded information across generations, allowing our knowledge to develop and blossom over countless centuries. Language likewise could not exist without sounds and letters; each of the letters representing a different sound. In the faith of the Alphabetists each letter is not only a sound, though, but a manifestation of one of 26 gods. The letters, and together the language, were their gift to humanity and what allowed it to excel.
Numerous cults exist; The Capital Church is the most common, but the Lower Case Cult declare that the 26 gods each have two manifestations, the Accentants call upon the importance of accents, and the Numeralists are an entirely different kind altogether as they believe there are only 10 gods.
Consonants are male, while vowels are female.
A - the Antecedent
B - the Benevolent
C - the Crippled
D - the Devout
E - the Enarmored
F - the Feared
G - the Gleeful
H - the Hateful
I - the Individual
J - the Juvenile
K - the King
L - the Liar
M - the Mad
N - the Nomad
O - the Outermost
P - the Peaceful
Q - the Questioner
R - the Recorder
S - the Skillful
T - the Temporal
U - the Usurper
V - the Victor
W - the Wonder
X
Y - the Youthful
Z - the Zero
EDIT: Updated to include the new names
Instead of letters, you may want to consider phonetics. Either way, still cool.
As far as combinations, E and I (constantly reversed, perhaps trickster twins?), CH, ING, ER, EST, SH, and TH are a couple of common ones.
I - The Goddess "I" is of self, vanity, confidence, and regret. She represents our perspective and how others few us. In the journey of life, yourself is the starting point the other gods represent the path she represents the traveler.
Usable?
Definitely :) I can call her the Introspective. And thanks Stargate, I will think on how to use some of those.
E is the most common letter in english right? And a female one... The god of lust?
I could have gone with phonetics, but not as easily accessible for readers (or me). Letters also have some added symbolic weight. But you can always join the Accentants :p
EDIT: I'm not sure i get the last line of your idea for I?
R, the Recorder writes all that occurs;
U, the Usurper, who claims what's not hers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_frequency
-J, the juvenile, the child in all of us...
So all your con-people speak English? How convenient for them. Maybe you should have them worship gods based on the letters in their own language.
-Rob
Yeah, because trying to get people/readers involved in a fictional alphabet is so much worth it...
Wait, why don't I just write it all in a fictional language?
Sorry, thanks for the input, but the work/usefulness ratio in doing this for a con-lang is simply not worth it.
So, I just found my old notes in my OneNote program, and I decided to at least make a quick attempt at completion of the list of gods. Although not a detailed description of the gods and their relationships, this small myth gives their names and their gifts to mankind.
I'm not sure if the Juvenile and the Youthful overlap to some degree. The Juvenile could become the Just instead, but that leaves me at a loss as to what the Peaceful should become or stand for.
[ic=A small myth]The Antecedent came first and his gift was existence.
Then came the Benevolent and he supplied mankind with life.
The Crippled was the third to arrive and he gave mankind death.
To give them hope, the Devout came into the world and gave them faith.
To rival the attention humanity would give the gods, the Enarmored gave the gifts of love and lust.
The Feared saw that they had until now made a world bereft of consequence and his gift became fear and terror.
The Gleeful gave them hope and joy so they had something to live for, while the Hateful gave them hate and vengeance so they had something to drive them on when all else failed.
The Individual gave them a sense of self, and the Juvenile gave them innocence and a childhood to understand their gifts in.
The King gave them guidance, while the Liar gave them freedom.
The gift of the Mad was the gift of dreaming and chaos.
The Nomad gave them a world to wander while the Outermost gave them the stars to gaze at.
The Peaceful gave them justice and society so that they could live together in this world.
The Questioner gave them curiosity and doubt, and the Recorder gave them knowledge and the ability to learn from their mistakes.
The Skillful gave them the gift of work and the ability to use the knowledge they had gained.
The Temporal gave them time to live and to die and to exist.
The Usurper gave them envy and the potential for evil, and the power to steal and kill.
The Victor gave them the potential for good and the power to battle evil and anything else out to destroy them.
The Wonder was one of the last to give his gift, and he chose to grant them mystery and secrecy so that the world would never be fully understood.
The X was not the last and that is all that is known; his gift is unknown and so is his purpose.
The Youthful was the last and the youngest and it granted the World a beginning.
And Finally came the Zero whose gift was Nothing.
[/ic]
that's totally rad. Except i would have D be the Devout, as aren't all the letters divine?
Ah yes, good call :)
Quote from: Cataclysmic CrowI'm not sure if the Juvenile and the Youthful overlap to some degree. The Juvenile could become the Just instead, but that leaves me at a loss as to what the Peaceful should become or stand for.
How about restraint and empathy?
But still call him the peaceful? hmm, I'm not so happy with Peaceful actually, so perhaps we could come up with a different name for him?
Maybe this is just me, but while it's an interesting concept, I find the concept of gods of the alphabet a bit hard to take seriously.
Quote from: Cataclysmic CrowBut still call him the peaceful? hmm, I'm not so happy with Peaceful actually, so perhaps we could come up with a different name for him?
The Painter?
The Pariah?
The Passionate?
The Pedagogue?
The Perverted?
The Pestiferous?
The Pompous?
The Prudent?
The Pure?
Quote from: GhostmanThe Painter?
The Pariah?
The Passionate?
The Pedagogue?
The Perverted?
The Pestiferous?
The Pompous?
The Prudent?
The Pure?
I really like The Pariah.
The Petulant?
The Plagued?
The Pariah is neat too.
@S_H: In its current incarnation, yes, it is difficult to take seriously. It might even be an unchangeable fact that this will be silly no matter what. But as you said, it is an interesting concept, and I'd like to see where I can take it.
Worshipping language after all hardly seems silly, as it is seen by many as one of the defining and most important features of humanity; a mutable, unpredictable and all-encompassing god and the root of empathy, society and knowledge. Letters, being the natural symbols of language, would seem something divine as well by this logic. The problem is when you start applying antropomorphic ideas to them...
And Pariah is definitely a good word, but what would his gift be?