Tuesday, August 8, 2017

The Different Kinds of Gods That There Are

So right now I'm listening to Small Favor, and I'm between Dresden's initial meeting with Mab and his first ever Parking Lot Argument With Fix While Thomas Hangs Out in an SUV (seriously almost this exact interaction reoccurs in Cold Days, but I digress). At one point in that conversation with Mab, Dresden refers to her as a "demigod", and now irritable fantasy writer is irritated.
About half the definitions below are ones I made up to particularize things that are fuzzy, and none of them only mean one thing. Really each term is a spectrum, and what part of that spectrum is most useful is going to depend on what you need the *other* words to mean.

God
The Abrahamic God, any comparably comprehensive and powerful deity, or anything that is straightforwardly a god, such as a member of the Greek or Norse panthrons.

god
Scope and power range starts at "Anything that is straightforwardly a deity", as above. Can be used to differentiate such beings, most of whom have limitations, from an omnipotent and omniscient God, if both are in play, or if they're showing up enough, and persony enough, that getting all reverent and capital G about it doesn't seem appropriate (both of these apply to Hades and Odin in The Dresden Files). Could also distinguish beings that are of a scope or power level with Gods, but for some reason aren't Gods, from those that are, or could describe beings of godlike power that are not actually operating on that level, or lack the attendant responsibilities. (Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 is somewhere in that space).

Quasigod
If "They're sort of a god." is an accurate description, this is an applicable term. This literally just means "sort of a god". Overlaps with small g gods above, and with pseudogod and semigod below.

Psuedogod
Refers to beings that seem like gods but are not. They could be a god in a world where there are also Gods or a God, beings that are not actually on a power/scope level with gods but seem like they are to mortals, or beings that are not gods but are presenting themselves like they are.

Demigod
A being with one parent who is a god or God and one parent who is not. Usually the other one is human, but they don't have to be. I suppose this could also refer to a being both of whose parents are themselves demigods. Depending on what kind of world you're writing, they're power level, and some other things, they may also be a god, quasigod, or pseudogod. Probably they are not a God, but they might be if they have an established place in a pantheon or something.

Semigod
Rather than being half-god, they are halfway to being a god. A semigod could reasonably be a being who's about half as powerful as whatever gods are around, or one who is somehow halfway through a process of becoming a god or God.

Hemigod
Literally half of a god or God. This term will not apply in that many situations, but could apply to a god that has been physically or spiritually bisected but is still doing stuff, or to half of a deity that is a pair of beings or has a dual nature, especially if half of the pair, or the other aspect, is absent or has been destroyed.

God has stopped looking like a real word. 

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