Mto

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Mto

Post by Axiem » Fri 30 Sep 2016, 04:59

In the beginning, there were Ki and Pe, who had twelve children. These children were as all children are, engaged in temporary rivalries and friendly competition while also bound in love and concern.

In time, their rivalries grew, and Ki and Pe decided to give their children something to occupy their time. A world was created and denizens populated, and then turned over to the children. It was meant to be a game: a friendly rivalry, to see who could champion a civilization to take over the remainder. It was set up fairly: each of the children woud become the patron deity to a tribe, and all tribes would start on the same footing. A sacred effigy of the deity would be given to the tribe, to keep safe—for when an effigy was captured by a rival, then that deity had lost, and had to depart the world, never to return to help their followers again. The stage was set, and the game begun.

But then, one of them cheated.
Last edited by Axiem on Thu 13 Apr 2017, 21:15, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The world currently known as Mto

Post by Axiem » Fri 30 Sep 2016, 04:59

Mto, pronounced /m̩.to/, is a world not entirely unlike Earth. It's at just about the same size and same composition. Its sun is a lot like our sun, and its axial tilt is close enough to ours not to matter for my purposes right now.

Currently I am writing a novel that takes place in Mto, with vagueish plans to write more, especially as I come up with ideas for around the world. Ultimately, everything takes a back seat to the story, though I would like to flesh out some degree of history, culture, and so on, to make the world come alive—and for the three people who like reading appendices.

There are a handful of countries I know about in the world, that I have mentioned elsewhere on here, along with bits and pieces of their languages. But before I delve into that (especially with how much that stuff is changing right now), I wanted to first go into geography.

So first, a world map. I put this together to get a rough sense of where the various continents are, so that I can do some climate plotting, because that does have an impact on the story. I went with an equirectangular projection so that I could use G. Projector to give myself a better idea of what this would look like on an actual globe.

The other thing to note is that the continent coasts are really super super rough. I just want to get a general sense of position and arrangement for climate purposes. I don't imagine filling in anything will impact the broad strokes that much, though I have room for fiddling if necessary.

Here is the super rough continent map in its current draft.

Blue is ocean, green is land. Reddish brown indicates major mountain ranges that are high enough to really impact climate, and also to give myself some idea of plate tectonics. There are mountains/hills/rivers not particularly marked on this map, and plenty more small islands that aren't around. The letters roughly indicate continents/nations, and just convenient ways of discussing the map without 1dealing with nation names that keep changing.

I know that to really get climates down, I need to figure out wind patterns and ocean patterns, but I still wanted to get a broad-brush understanding.

Here is what I think so far:

N is icy polar desert in the middle, but the edges (where all the people are) are basically all tundra or continental subarctic.

The "mountain range" between P and N is where oceanic parts of the crusts have been colliding, so there's probably some volcanism there, and the islands between them are actually the upper parts of the mountains.

I'm not really sure what sort of climate P has. Generally temperate in the north, desert in the middle, something hot in the south?

I mark off E because I know for a fact there's a nation amidst those islands. My thought in general is that they should be reasonably temperate, kind of Japan-like, in fact. Just in Mto, the islands aren't subject to lots of earthquakes anymore.

I think K is probably Mediterranean in the south, moving to cold in the north. K is thoroughly colliding with N, making the area north of that mountain range a high plateau, similar to how on Earth India has interacted with Asia.

My original thought with H was that it would be a desert, but then I remembered how Ferrell cells work, and now I kind of think H in general would be a nicely temperate and moist continent. Except for the thin strip east of the mountains, which are probably pretty much desert.

I think S is tropical rainforest almost entirely. I want it to be; it's mostly a question of whether its shape and the location of the mountain range is enough to make that reasonably plausible.

I would say V is a long desert, but it's also got enough coast that I think it's probably more of a veldt throughout, with more desert-like parts in the northwest, against the mountains with which it abuts S. The southern tip might start being more temperate.

I think X actually has a east-west ridge in its middle, but otherwise I think is probably pretty temperate.

The Y/D/F continent is interesting to me. Y is probably pretty desert-like, and the south-west portion of D is almost absolutely brutal desert, trapped between two mountains like that. The north-east portion of D is possibly rain forest, and F is possibly temperate, with the eastern peninsula more marshy (kind of like Florida?).

The southern pole is of course covered in an ice sheet, but it's also a major volcanic hotspot. There might actually be a nation in A that no one knows about yet; it's pretty well ignored by the other nations.

This is a lot of guesswork and broad-brush painting, like I said, given that I haven't put together wind currents or ocean currents yet.

Once I get my geography and climates a bit more hammered out, then I'll start posting about the individual nations.

I would like some concrete feedback, if you would be so kind.

First: is there anything glaringly problematic or unrealistic with the configuration of the continents?

Second: are my rough evaluations of climates on point, or am I way off base? Is there some interesting climate thing that I missed in my evaluation, like where monsoons are going to happen?
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Re: The world currently known as Mto

Post by Axiem » Sun 02 Oct 2016, 05:40

Turning away from geography, I'd like to go back to cosmology a bit.

Much like parents who have put their children over to video games while they are off doing something with themselves, Ki and Pe are essentially absent from the world. The people of Mto are aware of them vaguely, inasmuch as the gods of Mto have mentioned their existence; but hardly anyways prays to them (and those prayers are, in fact, unheard). They're mostly background radiation of the cosmology.

As for the twelve, I don't actually have names for all of them yet; that will come as I poke at the languages and cultures more. It is the case that a couple of them have already lost, so not all twelve are still hanging around. (I'm thinking it's more like 9 still in Mto, but don't quote me).

When I say that one of them cheated, well...actually, all of them cheated.

See, the twelve deities did in fact set some ground rules for the game. The citizens of Mto don't really know what they are (or know about them), but they define the ways the deities can interact with each other, with their followers, and with people not their followers. One of the key points is about knowledge- and information-sharing. The deities shouldn't be able to suddenly give their followers the proof to Fermat's Last Theorem or something like that.

That last rule is what, ultimately, all of them broke a little. It's not entirely sure who started it (everyone except Anadiel's followers think it was Anadiel, but the deities haven't actually said), but it quickly became a trend. From the citizens of Mto, each deity gave to their people a special gift, that gave them an advantage in that arena (at least, at first). This caused some power imbalance (some secrets are more powerful than others), but things have stabilized as of late, simply because information wants to be free.

Anadiel (/ɑnɑdiɛl/) is the first one I'll talk about, because meta-world, she's the one I've known about the longest. Her chosen people are those of Entleis (/ɛnt͡ɬes/), which is an Empire that started at E on the map, above (this is why I marked them special). In secret, she revealed herself to one woman, and revealed to that woman the secret of manipulating the ether. That knowledge spread within the tribe, and it took very little time (on historic timescales) for her followers to ascend to advanced civilization while much of the rest of the world was still learning to smelt metal, giving them a distinct advantage for quite some time—until that knowledge spread. However, the words other languages use to describe all of this are almost unilaterally borrowed from the Entleis language.

The other one I know a decent amount about is Kaltet (/kɑltɛt/). His chosen people are those of Kuvia (/kuviə/), an Empire that is all of K on the map (it's almost like I kept the first letters the same on purpose...). His gift to his people was that of Law. Notably, 8 laws for his people that form the basis of the entire legal system, but also the entire concept of Law as a formal process and field of study. Kuvia was the first (by far) to codify their law system and create a formal government with courts etc. for managing it; that internal emphasis has rippled through the ages, and Kuvia is well-known for its highly codified and regimented society, where following rules and laws is paramount.

In addition to feedback, either to my concrete requests or in general, I'm also open to questions. It's always good to have impetus to think about things I wouldn't have before :)
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Re: The world currently known as Mto

Post by elemtilas » Sun 02 Oct 2016, 14:52

Axiem wrote:Turning away from geography, I'd like to go back to cosmology a bit.
Interesting as geology can be, cosmology is much more fun!

First, I really like the premise of Mto -- a sort of live-action Grepolis meets Civilisation. Now with cheat codes! But seriously, the gaming aspect of a world is nothing new: the gods have been playing go up on Mt. Spandexion for eons, pushing their mortal pawns around a game board that looks very much like the world actual mortal people would recognise as home. But it's the pushing that up a level that is the cool factor here. The divine Game is no longer mere mythological motif, but a fundamental design feature of the entire universe.
In addition to feedback, either to my concrete requests or in general, I'm also open to questions. It's always good to have impetus to think about things I wouldn't have before :)
Well, tell us everything of course!

Specifically and for now, tell us what the Eight Laws are. Why eight and not seven or ten?

Tell us about the back-story of the twelve gods. How did it come about that one of them would cheat? Was the cheater already a trickster-god; or was one of the others to blame, whispering in the shadows, urging the weak sibling to take that first step down the slippery slope...?
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Re: The world currently known as Mto

Post by Axiem » Sun 02 Oct 2016, 20:38

elemtilas wrote: Specifically and for now, tell us what the Eight Laws are. Why eight and not seven or ten?
Why are there ten commandments? :shrug:

I don't actually know what the eight laws are at the moment; I'm kind of leaving that open to what comes up in the novel (which is set in Kuvia). Kind of like how there are 285 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition, but they only got invented and enumerated as DS9 went on.
Tell us about the back-story of the twelve gods. How did it come about that one of them would cheat? Was the cheater already a trickster-god; or was one of the others to blame, whispering in the shadows, urging the weak sibling to take that first step down the slippery slope...?
At a certain point, I'm constraining what I'm concerned with creating against what the people of Mto actually know and think about. As far as the cheating goes, no one on Mto actually knows that it was cheating—as far as people are concerned, each deity just gave a special gift to their people. The only "cheating" is that people accuse Anadiel of having given her gift too early relative to the rest of the deities, though it's unsure if that's actually based on chronological fact or just people being jealous of Entleis having done so well.

I'd very much hesitate to classify any of the deities as a "trickster", or even any real archetypes like that. They're individuals that certainly have different personalities, but don't easily classify into archetypes. Beyond that, the people of Mto are monolatristic, and the idea of buffet-style worship (this god for love, this god for war, this god for sneaking about...) would utterly baffle them. Whose palace do you enter on death?

Beyond that, while certainly Kuvians (for example) as a whole value Law, Tradition and Duty, they are still a diverse people in their outlooks on life and those same three pillars of Kuvian society. It would seem odd to over-generalize a deity against their chosen people.

The other background on the deities is, frankly, not of that much interest to me other than how it catalyzes the nations and peoples of the world to act as they do. At a certain point, their agendas and motives are alien to human experience.

Taking a meta-thought tact, it provides me with a world in which the gods 1) are provably real and 2) have a tangible, measurable effect on the world.

Certainly as I write novel, I might end up uncovering some more mythology or interactions between the deities, but it's not really something I've particularly developed.

Though, part of my writer's block is because I need to develop Kaltet and his influence on Kuvian society a little more, so I may have more in that direction soon :)
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Re: The world currently known as Mto

Post by Keenir » Mon 03 Oct 2016, 09:26

Axiem wrote:
elemtilas wrote: Specifically and for now, tell us what the Eight Laws are. Why eight and not seven or ten?
Why are there ten commandments? :shrug:
there aren't.
(even aside from how Protestants and Catholics and Samarians divide up the initial eleven, there are 613 commandments)


but in terms of the Eight Laws, there are eight because there are eight, right?
Though, part of my writer's block is because I need to develop Kaltet and his influence on Kuvian society a little more, so I may have more in that direction soon :)
looking forwards to it.
At work on Apaan: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4799
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Re: The world currently known as Mto

Post by Axiem » Sat 08 Oct 2016, 04:23

Here
Axiem wrote:
Firebird766 wrote:How do your conpeople enforce promises and obligations? Are they enforced at all?
In Kuvia, you simply do not renege on a promise or obligation (so long as it's something you have control over; promising "to win the tournament" is different, and come to think of it, they probably differentiate the two kinds of promise). Depending on the scale of the promise, failing to come through can result in light social disappointment to total social ostricization. People who don't fulfill their promises are not welcome in polite society. (People therefore don't often make lots of promises that are difficult to fulfill)

That said, the legal system is heavily involved in contracts (to the point where some basics of Law and Contracts are taught in school), and contracts are generally written to explain the punishments for breach of contract and that sort of thing.

For example, in the first day of class in schools, the teacher passes out a syllabus contract that spells out quite plainly the responsibilities of the teacher (in terms of office hours and material to cover) and the student (such as studying) along with the schedule, and the grading system. Not necessarily a contract inasmuch as there is something obvious to "break", but it's more indicative of how ingrained into Kuvian society the idea of formal legal agreement is.

The government enforces contracts through the usual methods, with the lightest being fines, moving up to jail time in egregious circumstances.
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Re: The world currently known as Mto

Post by Axiem » Sat 08 Oct 2016, 04:24

Here
Axiem wrote:
Ebon wrote:Which professions do your conpeople look down on? Are any professions downright taboo? Which consequences do people working in these professions suffer?
In Kuvia, generally mindless physical labor is looked down upon; generally people would say such things are for slaves to do. While certainly one cannot fully avoid it (packing one's backpack, for instance), actually doing it repeatedly or especially for an occupation would be laughable to them. "Day laborer" is not really a thing that exists.

They're not entirely against physical labor, mind. More artistic craftsmanship such as carpentry or sculpture are perfectly fine—even if there might actually be a fair amount of rote physical labor, it's in how it's perceived by people in general.

I haven't particularly written on Kuvia's slavery system yet—part of that is because well, slavery is icky, and people might get the wrong idea about what I actually think based on what exists in my conworld; and part of that is because I haven't fully fleshed out what I think it really looks like, because it depresses me when I read about American slavery, which tends to dominate the research I've done—but it plays into this. Someone who is doing a lot of physical labor—such as in a field harvesting or planting or whatever—is simply assumed to be a slave. While there's no real consequence for someone who might be doing this work that is not a slave, they would be looked at strangely. This might lead to social estrangement, but not fines or anything like that.

Though, there is likely interplay between the lower classes of non-slaves and slaves, which I have to ruminate over.
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Re: The world currently known as Mto

Post by Axiem » Tue 11 Oct 2016, 03:47

In regards to linguistic purism
Axiem wrote: The people of Entleis were certainly the first to figure out etherial manipulation, and so their language dominates as loan words amongst some of the more laid-back languages, such as Nairun and Situnyan—the latter being the lingua franca and therefore more prone to liberal borrowing.

Kuvian, however—Kuvia is a fairly insular nation, and inherently hostile to foreigners and foreign cultures/words. The Kuvian language also has a central authority that declares what is and is not acceptable, and that authority can and has forced that upon publishers etc. Loanwords are pretty rare, but if there's one place they would actually exist, it's in etherial manipulation because it has such an academic history. My suspicion is that they use corrupted (into Kuvian phonotactics) variants, but otherwise haven't changed them much. Other loanwords are pretty rare, unless it's of particular foods or other cultural artifacts that would be difficult to otherwise translate.

At least, that's what I think right now.
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Re: The world currently known as Mto

Post by Axiem » Tue 11 Oct 2016, 03:48

I hope my linking to answers I give to cultural questions elsewhere isn't annoying. I just think it to be useful sometime later down the line as a centralized reference point.
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Re: The world currently known as Mto

Post by elemtilas » Tue 11 Oct 2016, 11:28

Axiem wrote:I hope my linking to answers I give to cultural questions elsewhere isn't annoying. I just think it to be useful sometime later down the line as a centralized reference point.
For my part, having done exactly the same thing myself from time to time, I don't find it annoying. It's a good start towards editing the original answer and expanding it into a more complete understanding of some concept as it's understood in Mto.
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Re: The world currently known as Mto

Post by Axiem » Fri 04 Nov 2016, 03:06

Here
Axiem wrote:
Ebon wrote:Which professions do your conpeople look down on? Are any professions downright taboo? Which consequences do people working in these professions suffer?
In Kuvia, generally mindless physical labor is looked down upon; generally people would say such things are for slaves to do. While certainly one cannot fully avoid it (packing one's backpack, for instance), actually doing it repeatedly or especially for an occupation would be laughable to them. "Day laborer" is not really a thing that exists.

They're not entirely against physical labor, mind. More artistic craftsmanship such as carpentry or sculpture are perfectly fine—even if there might actually be a fair amount of rote physical labor, it's in how it's perceived by people in general.

I haven't particularly written on Kuvia's slavery system yet—part of that is because well, slavery is icky, and people might get the wrong idea about what I actually think based on what exists in my conworld; and part of that is because I haven't fully fleshed out what I think it really looks like, because it depresses me when I read about American slavery, which tends to dominate the research I've done—but it plays into this. Someone who is doing a lot of physical labor—such as in a field harvesting or planting or whatever—is simply assumed to be a slave. While there's no real consequence for someone who might be doing this work that is not a slave, they would be looked at strangely. This might lead to social estrangement, but not fines or anything like that.

Though, there is likely interplay between the lower classes of non-slaves and slaves, which I have to ruminate over.
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Re: The world currently known as Mto

Post by Axiem » Fri 04 Nov 2016, 03:07

Here
Axiem wrote:
elemtilas wrote:Next: If anyone, who is taught to read, write and do sums in your culture?
In Kuvia, all free citizens have compulsory schooling up to sometime in their mid-to-late teens. Topics of that schooling are reading/writing, Kuvian literature, legal theory, arithmetic, science, religion, and probably some options for trades, music, arts, and so on. The public schools are actually pretty good, at least for churning out citizens who can engage in basic contracts and/or make a place in society. Children of wealthy families go to private academies, which gives them better networking connections (and name on a piece of paper), but otherwise is pretty similar education to public schools.

By the time students reach Upper Form (roughly corresponding to ages 16, 17, and 18), the curriculum focuses a little in the private schools, and people focus on their area of expertise: science, art, trade, etc. After that comes University, which is much more focused.

Slaves in Kuvia (that is, those born into it, as opposed to those acquired as prisoners of war/piracy) are also given some rudimentary education, as what use is a slave who can't read or write? Even day-laborer slaves need to be able to read their work contracts, and be able to do some basic math on the work site. They are therefore also inculcated into Kuvian culture and language. (The exception is robots, but that's a different topic altogether...)

So Kuvia on the whole has a pretty literate culture in terms of basic literacy and math.
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Re: The world currently known as Mto

Post by Axiem » Fri 04 Nov 2016, 03:13

There's a fair amount about slavery in Kuvia I still need to figure out. I know that they're pretty unique in Mto for having slaves; all the other major nations I know about either never had it, or made it illegal a while back. I'm pretty sure it's kind of split. In cities, slaves are more like what I understand of the Roman model, where they are given a fair amount of independence, but a portion of their proceeds go to support their master/mistress; or they do manual labor. In the more rural areas, the "literate slave" idea might not hold up as much, as they tend to be the backbone of the agricultural labor, kind of like the Southern United States once upon a time.

There's a part of me that's really wondering if I want slavery. It's icky, and I have a fear that if I put slavery in a novel (in particular, in the nation that's the primary setting of the novel) that people will think I actually condone or like slavery. And as I've noted, whenever I do research on real-life slavery, I get a little sick inside.

On the other hand, I think it helps reinforce how different Kuvian culture is, and I kind of want a modern reader to be just a little revolted at what they see. Part of what I want to happen in the novel is for the main character to slowly come to realize just how terrible her nation really is, and the conflict starts to move to "how do I get out of this nightmare?" as a backdrop for the other things that happen.
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Re: The world currently known as Mto

Post by elemtilas » Fri 04 Nov 2016, 03:47

Axiem wrote:There's a fair amount about slavery in Kuvia I still need to figure out. I know that they're pretty unique in Mto for having slaves; all the other major nations I know about either never had it, or made it illegal a while back. I'm pretty sure it's kind of split. In cities, slaves are more like what I understand of the Roman model, where they are given a fair amount of independence, but a portion of their proceeds go to support their master/mistress; or they do manual labor. In the more rural areas, the "literate slave" idea might not hold up as much, as they tend to be the backbone of the agricultural labor, kind of like the Southern United States once upon a time.
Or even the backbone of ancient Roman agriculture, the latifundium.
There's a part of me that's really wondering if I want slavery. It's icky, and I have a fear that if I put slavery in a novel (in particular, in the nation that's the primary setting of the novel) that people will think I actually condone or like slavery. And as I've noted, whenever I do research on real-life slavery, I get a little sick inside.
Well, who wouldn't? But this is a good thing: it stirs an emotion in people. This can get them engaged with your story. I like to think most people who read fantastic fiction will be able to understand that it is not necessarily the author's own beliefs being showcased. Of course, some people will --- but what can you do? I hope you won't seriously consider writing out the slavery! It is always a powerful institution to read (and write!) about.
On the other hand, I think it helps reinforce how different Kuvian culture is,
I'd be interested in hearing about slavery (as an institution, as well as a condition) in Kuvian culture.
and I kind of want a modern reader to be just a little revolted at what they see. Part of what I want to happen in the novel is for the main character to slowly come to realize just how terrible her nation really is, and the conflict starts to move to "how do I get out of this nightmare?" as a backdrop for the other things that happen.
You've already done some research on slavery (I guess in the US) --- have you read any good slave memoirs? Particularly by women writers? Especially since your hero in the story is a girl!

I read Incidents this last summer. Terribly heart wrenching story, which I think might offer some good perspective for your own story. Escaping slavery was no simple matter! It took much planning, and given the nature of the cunning bastard who owned this particular slave, not a little cunning subterfuge of her own!
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Re: The world currently known as Mto

Post by Axiem » Fri 04 Nov 2016, 03:55

elemtilas wrote:Or even the backbone of ancient Roman agriculture, the latifundium.
I learned a word! And a thing to research in, more.
You've already done some research on slavery (I guess in the US) --- have you read any good slave memoirs? Particularly by women writers? Especially since your hero in the story is a girl!
I've tried before, and at a certain point, I can't stomach it.

It's worth noting that my protagonist is most certainly not a slave, and slavery is really incidental to the whole story; it's mostly a backdrop detail. She's a child of a wealthy family, totally inculcated into "Kuvia is great!" propaganda, and over time realizes that Kuvia isn't what she thought it was.
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Re: The world currently known as Mto

Post by Axiem » Sat 19 Nov 2016, 03:37

Here
Axiem wrote:
Squall wrote:How does your conculture handle politics and diplomacy with neighboring cultures?
On the whole, modern Mto is pretty diplomatic; there hasn't (to my best knowledge) been a major war in a couple of decades, though things are a little tense between Kuvia and Hîgara at the moment. No official war, but their ships have been known to get into skirmishes. There's practically no trading going on (making Hîgaran silk an expensive luxury in Kuvia). There might be more I'm not aware of in the world because I'm focusing on Kuvia for novel reasons, but I'm pretty sure things are in relative "peace".

The embassy/ambassador system is pretty similar to Earth, where each nation establishes an Embassy in foreign nations' capitals, with a team of diplomats lead by an ambassador to be a point of contact with the local government, and to be a touchpoint for citizens to their native governments. For instance, the Kuvian embassy in Kyamto is where one would go to manage official government paperwork such as census or tax forms, if you were living in Situnya.

While clearly the competing nations would have strong opinions about each other's politics, to date there's been no obvious meddling. Unless you count Kuvia's attempted colonization of Hîgara, but the details of that I'm still working out.

Modern Mto is pretty steady state when it comes to international politics; however, some things are brewing (cf. novel) that will drastically change that.
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Re: Mto

Post by Axiem » Fri 26 May 2017, 04:37

I am spending some time rethinking how the polytheism/cosmology of Mto works. While on one hand I kind of like the "gods playing Civilization" idea, I also kind of want to play with polytheism a bit more, with provable, real gods.

I need to dig a bit into ancient theology, such as how Athena is the patroness of Athens, but is still one of a pantheon of deities that people—Athenian or not—prayed to for help.

This is grossly delaying my launching a website for Mto :(


...in other news, I am coming a lot closer to figuring out the astronomy of the solar system and Mto and its moons. That's been occupying my creative time while I puzzle out polytheism in the back of my head.



Sorry for not adding anything new, but just a news update.
Conworld: Mto
:con: : Kuvian
Keenir
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Re: Mto

Post by Keenir » Fri 26 May 2017, 04:55

Axiem wrote:I am spending some time rethinking how the polytheism/cosmology of Mto works. While on one hand I kind of like the "gods playing Civilization" idea, I also kind of want to play with polytheism a bit more, with provable, real gods.

I need to dig a bit into ancient theology, such as how Athena is the patroness of Athens, but is still one of a pantheon of deities that people—Athenian or not—prayed to for help.
(I imagine the people of Mto see their gods as being just as real to them as the Greek gods were to the Classical Greeks)

well, to be fair, if I understand correctly, the Athenian Athena wasn't always the same as the Athena in, say, Gaza or Thessalonika - the broad strokes would probably be the same, but the details, the tales (of who she is friends with, who she wishes destroyed, etc) will probably be different.


its a nice update.
At work on Apaan: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4799
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Axiem
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Re: Mto

Post by Axiem » Fri 26 May 2017, 05:16

Keenir wrote: (I imagine the people of Mto see their gods as being just as real to them as the Greek gods were to the Classical Greeks)
Moreso—the deities of Mto actively interact and interfere with people. As noted:
Axiem wrote:Taking a meta-thought tact, it provides me with a world in which the gods 1) are provably real and 2) have a tangible, measurable effect on the world.
I'm mostly debating my assertion of the people of Mto being monolatristic, and making them (with some exceptions) polylatristic instead. However, that has impacts on say, the afterlife, not to mention everything else.
Keenir wrote: well, to be fair, if I understand correctly, the Athenian Athena wasn't always the same as the Athena in, say, Gaza or Thessalonika - the broad strokes would probably be the same, but the details, the tales (of who she is friends with, who she wishes destroyed, etc) will probably be different.
To a certain extent, I still don't get the epithet/cult system of Greek/Roman deities—but I don't think Mto would have that because its deities are not personifications or anthropomorphizations of natural forces (as it is argued the Greek/Roman deities are and/or grew out of), but are quite real, distinct "people"—just "people" with alien personalities/agendas/motives.

I am drawing some inspiration from the way D&D treats its deities, though something about D&D polytheism has always bugged me, even if I've never been able to articulate why.
Conworld: Mto
:con: : Kuvian
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