▲ 15 r/polytheism+1 crossposts

What is your personal theological position?

(chose flair for lack of a better one)

The question is fairly self explanatory. However I'll expand on it a bit. I'm particularly curious about these things:

  1. Do you believe in a higher God or "One" (if so elaborate on that)
  2. What is the nature of deity in your belief (are they persons, what's their moral nature, are they aspects of reality itself, etc)
  3. What is the ontology of your gods
  4. Do you distinguish between gods and spirits? If so, how? Does this question even apply to you?
  5. Stance on the "supernatural"
  6. Opinion on the place and function of religion

And really anything else you have to say. Thanks in advance!

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u/Beginning-Cup-4953 — 5 days ago
▲ 6 r/ancientgreece+1 crossposts

What is the distinction between Daimones and Theoi

Ok so to clarify this question: in the myths nymphs sometimes die. Nymphs are daimones and sometimes gods. For the platonists daimones were immortal yet experienced the pathoi, gods were immortal and did not, humans were mortal and experienced the pathoi.

So my question comes down to this, are there any meaningful distinctions between these categories (at least in the myths), how did ancient Greeks think about them, and lastly how does the philosophical conception differ from religious and/or popular conceptions

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u/Beginning-Cup-4953 — 12 days ago
▲ 3 r/FantasyWorldbuilding+1 crossposts

Ask me anything about my world (sorry for the repost, forgot to add context)

So yes, the title says it all. I'm curious to see if I'm lacking something so I figured an ama would be useful. Now to provide a little context. (Just to note, some of these names are placeholders)

Dis: the "homeland" of demons and the species which they spawned. They are ruled by a god-like demon king who seems to want to control the world. So far he has amassed a territory around twice the size of Whealtin.

The Northern Tribes: these are tribes of demons and giants to the north who have so far remained out of the hands of the demon king, primarily thanks to their guerilla tactics and strong geographical advantage

Tiberion: this is the homeland of the "beast folk" it is named after the first emperor who united the tribes under one banner (ala Chin Xi Huang). They are known for martial arts

Whealtin Empire: the empire has a long and storied connection to Tiberion. They have a deep and proud warrior culture with a government structured primarily around knights who have earned lands and power through merit. The emperor is legitimized primarily through obtaining the title "war god"

The City State of the University (col.): the primary place of large scale education in this world, it is well known for taking in stray demons from the north, it has a very bad relationship with the Church as a result

Elion Kingdom: a parliamentary monarchy on the verge of civil war. The system of government is an excellent example of corruption

Duchy of Tolotor: a vassal state of the Elion Kingdom, it is a mercantile hub and one of the last places on the continent where slavery remains legal

Paulo Ranto & Miltan Island: old colonial territories now vassal republics of the Empire, have developed them much

Earldom of Valen: an old colonial territory of the Elion Kingdom, it is now a vassal state

Jarldom of Yaldr: another old colonial territory, it is now ruled by a tribe long defunct on the continent. It maintains its wealth primarily through piracy and protecting transports from Tolotor. The constant raid on Konoshima has only increased tensions

The Clans of Konoshima: they are all Vassals of the ruling dynasty, central government is very weak due to infighting

Toshi Clan: a dissenting clan which rejects the current emperor who belongs to the Kitokan Dynasty

North and South Kramia: it's long been debated whether they are a part of Konoshima, supposedly they were once ruled by a single clan but they are now divided into two extremely oligarchical republics

Celian Theocracy: the nation state representing the largest religion in the world (debatably) it's king is also the head of the religion (think Vatican City) it is at odds with most non humans for a number of reasons

Elves: the race known as elves is now virtually extinct, very little is known of their history apart from they had a nation which once occupied the land of Northern Elion and the theocracy. They also seemed to have worshipped some sort of mother goddess along side the spirits and natural world

Demons: it is unknown from where they came, all that is really known is that they did not originate from the Celian continent of Konoshima nor any of the surrounding islands, they are well known for their lack of a distinct phenotype with appearances varying drastically

Humans: nothing special here. Humans mostly follow the religion known as Celianisn (at least in the modern day) the primary belief is that they were nurtured by the Goddess Celia after the Demon gods left the world in ruin, they believe the faithful shall return to her bosom and the unfaithful souls shall return to the world to try again

Beastfolk: they also very in phenotype quite a bit, appearing as a mix of humanoid and animal. They worship a divine court of many beast gods and a number of saints said to be their reincarnations

Dwarves: a race which resembles both humans and elves although are generally shorter usually around 5'4 in biological males. They generally possess a superior intellect and constitution and live about as long as the longest lived humans

Monsters: they very so much it's hard to talk about, however I can confirm many spawned from demons

Fae: a type of spirit which primarily inhabit the other world only occasionally coming to the material world, unlike other spirits they can take on physical bodies

Think that's about it, ask away

u/Beginning-Cup-4953 — 3 months ago

Ask me anything about this world.

Consider this an exercise to help fill in any gaps and fix contradictions. I figure getting an outside (relatively unbiased) perspective would be useful to see what needs fixing or what is missing.

Also the map isn't particularly pretty so forgive me, and some of the names are just neat place holders but I'd still like to get your opinion on them anyway.

(Edit: the tool I used to make the map made it hard to add rivers, but I have another map which shows their general locations on request)

u/Beginning-Cup-4953 — 3 months ago

I have an interest in witchcraft, and I'd like to know about your practice and techniques

It's very difficult to find trustworthy sources on the subject, so I'd like to hear it from the horse's mouth. What do you do in your practice what kinds of magick do you use, and how do you personally believe it functions. I'd love to hear about it, thanks in advance.

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u/Beginning-Cup-4953 — 4 months ago

Light (before you mention Dabura, I know but here's my vision for what it could look like)

Lapse:

• Light manipulation: Controlling light to create blinding rays

Extension:

• Divine spear: Concentrating light to create lasers

• Interference: Interfering with non visible light

• Darkening: Darkening a space by weakening the light in the area

• Light creation: I convert cursed energy into light

Maximum:

• Solid Light: by increasing the amount of momentum light possesses I can increase its radiation pressure allowing me to create barriers or weapons

Domain:

• Kugelblitz (incomplete): ???

• Kugelblitz (complete): by compressing massive amounts of light into a point I can create a black hole, normally this would be impossible but my domain prevents the carrying off of energy by particle anti particle pairs

Reversal:

• Annihilation: I create an imaginary anti particle to force the annihilation of matter

Convergence:

• Matter Generation: by converging the creation and manipulation of light with the annihilation of particles I can create mass using cursed energy

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u/Beginning-Cup-4953 — 5 months ago