Gods of Earth

Animal Gods (appearing in God Tale)

Nature is fighting a perpetual war between animal species for dominance or survival. If you imagine each species to be a warring nation, the animal gods are the Generals and diplomats that lead and represent them against the other nations. The animal gods steer the course of evolution of their species, and protect them from overpredation, or other possibilities of extinction. They are also a sort of group mind, with access to the thoughts of every animal in their species. Most are worshipped by some humans, usually in a rather informal and primitive way, which is why the term gods is especially fitting.

The animal god's abilities and personalities vary immensely from individual to individual. Almost all are intelligent, having evolved intellect over millions of years or got it from contact with humans. Most are sociable and they interact with each other, with mundane animals, and with humans. Their society is arranged in a hierarchy that reflects their species' place in the food chain. The god of frogs must be submissive towards the godess of snakes, may be submissive or neutral to the god of cats (not needing to because frogs are not usually the natural prey of cats, but couldn't seriously declare dominance over him) and be dominant over the god of insects. It is unwise for an animal god to abuse this dominance, say, by forcing an animal god to do their bidding unwillingly, as this is just cause for retribution. As just one example, the prey animal god could evolve his species to be the carrier of a particular disease or poison which could strike the predator species as a whole or just the animal god next time he dines out. Luckily, most gods are friendly with each other.

Animal gods are indestructible, as long as their species are still in existance. They can be killed, but their soul will just migrate to the womb of an animal of their species, and they will be reborn. Extinction of the species will cause permanent demise of the god. Somehow a god can extend their influence over similar species to their own (eg. wolves to dingoes) by some bizarre process.

The animal gods seem to be integrating themselves more and more into human societies. They be working towards some sort of unified plan, which the goddess of humans either knows or urgently wants to find out.

Animal gods include:

Walu the Crocodile God

Also the god of alligators. His form is half crocodile, half human, though is considerably larger than both. Apparently lazy, his idle time lounging in a bayou allows him time for deep and crafty thought, particularly towards wooing a human tourist that visited his lake who has since returned to her own country thousands of miles away.

The Snake Goddess

Snakes are not only present in the world in great numbers, but they are also feared and venerated by humans. As a result, the Snake Goddess is very powerful. However, her position is about to be challenged by that of an even greater snake being from space. She has a large fascination towards the human race and is believed to own several schools, especially on the island of Jacobson.

Tuyip the God / Goddess of Frogs and Toads

Tuyip's usual form is a human sized frog with dextrous, hand-like flippers and upright stance for convenience. He/she has the ability to transform between male and female, or combinations of the same, and can transform others as well. He/she has little contact with humans but his/her ability to alter gender is often used by the other gods in their machinations and love matches. Enamoured with his own predators, Tuyip tends to get eaten often.

The Human Goddess

Is merely a theory, as no-one has seen her. If she does exist, she would no doubt be enormously powerful and intelligent, and might even be greater than the god of insects and god of dinosaurs. Some believe she is secretly living as the leader of a small country or wife of the same, or she is all humans, having sacrificed her body and distributed her mind to all the humans to gift them with sentience.

The Insect God

A powerful and alien god, but quite sociable. A hermaphrodite creature who prefers to be known as a he. He was the god of an individual class of insects, but rose to dominance over the whole species group by eating all the other insect gods. He has mixed very well with humanity for thousands of years, taking on a variety of lifestyles. He's currently satisfying an urge to be a famous actor, playing in a sitcom, and fast becoming a film star as well. But his powerful intellect goes in very strange directions, and his emotions and drives are perverse and twisted. All the same, and mercifully due to his great power (due to the huge number of insects in existence), he has not recently committed any evil or insane acts.

The Dinosaur / Dragon Gods

Humans and gods with access to modern technology, particularly the Internet, may receive messages from someone who says he is a representative of the Gods of dinosaurs and dragons. Then again you can get a lot of this sort of thing on the Internet. However, messages from this 'representative' have been known to transmit supernatural power. Humans who received similar Emails have sometimes been transformed into other entities, or just disappeared. No-one has traced these messages to their sender, using any supernatural or technological facility, even though they can reply to the messages (upon which the outgoing mail server returns an error saying that Email address doesn't exist. Nevertheless there is a reply sooner or later). The irony of receiving high-technology communications from someone who may or may not be one the most ancient creatures in the world is not lost on the other gods, who are generally worried about this secretive entity. The talker is content to natter aimlessly about palaeontology or television, but won't reveal any personal details.

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