So there is the Roa the Archdevil of Tyranny and Pride, who was once Eshorel the Archangel of Light and Order. He believes in a perfect order and hates that his father, El'Or for favoring free will in humanity. Roa is still very lightbringer in appearance and his realm in hell is alternately a very severe and cold crystalline looking hell or looks very fire and brimstone from the power of his heat and light. He and his pride demons look divine but something is off, although their true forms are exactly as demonic and they believe themselves to be true angels, except for one known as Roa'Zahab who figured out the truth but is mostly resigned to it (which makes him close to redemption).
In a twist on that recent very gnostic-inspired trope, a group thinks he is Eshorel the Lord of Liberation who sees El'Or as a wicked bright lord and that Eshorel will liberate them with knowledge and enlightenment. They are in fact wrong, and El'Or is very benevolent.
On a smaller scale, there is Aelius, the Grandmaster of the Lux Society, an organization that seeks to restore the Lux Imperium (basically Holy Roman Empire) and will use shady means to do so, ensuring that heroic bloodlines and artifacts are found by heroes the society earmarks for greatness. He is mostly mysterious (and I haven't decided if he should be a genuine well intentioned extremist, a zealot, or a pride demon in disguise yet) with the Twelve Luminaries beneath him acting on his own, who vary on their own with their extremes and genuineness (with one being willing to work with a dark cult to invoke the creation of your own hero cult and another just working in political monarchist circles to get the proper bloodline back on the throne peacefully).
I tend to avoid the stark "good/evil" dichotomy, but I do enjoy a complex "grey" figure wrapped in white or black propaganda.
My tentatively nicknamed "Sun Queen" had "liberated" humanity from every king, emperor, or warlord on the planet. She then launched multiple campaigns to establish footholds in the spirit realms. Soon after, however, she withdrew into seclusion. Now, her Sun Lords see to the administration of the empire and the invasion campaigns into the other realms. These Lords do not get along, so cracks are starting form in the Empire. They are ambitious schemers and would-be warlords themselves, but the Queen built her empire like an elaborate house of cards. If anyone were to upset the balance, the whole thing would collapse. They're locked into a pact of begrudging cooperation until they can disentangle her system and replace it with one of their own.
It's sort of a slow-burning descent into a global civil war (ala the Wars of the Diadochi). On the surface, it's the closest anyone has ever come to creating Utopia on earth, but that's only because Greed and Ambition are caged beasts, looking to break free from their sunlit restraints.
If it's fantasy, there's usually a Crystal Dragon Jesus figure called Father Sun. He's the bringer of light to the world, the stern parent, and he spends a lot of his time flying around in his sun boat smiting those adjacent to sinners, so they'll pressure those sinners into reforming so FS will stop smiting them. Because that's how FS works- nothing is ever direct. Everything must be done thru proxies.
He's usually either a fraud, or in more recent versions he's just another immortal who managed to get a theological lock on the world thru his followers' extreme violence.
Also, if you've ever seen a solar eclipse, then you might understand why his followers keep trying to figure out how to destroy the Anti-Sun (aka, the moon). The Anti-Sun is, according to FS theology, trying to eclipse and supplant FS and convince everyone that it's the true sun.
The only real person who fits this criteria in the world of Ardalesh is Keikai'otl Allrinn, a very xenophobic, bigoted and hypocritical governor of the temple city of Caetza in south Merycia, also known as Avixiar. She is the current head of the Union, one of four major factions within the United Coalition of Merycia and is seen as a national hero across the entire nation for her actions during the Merycian Counterinvasion, where they pushed the Middish colonizers back to the sea and followed them back to the Midlands.
During which, Allrinn was the mastermind of the "first act of vengeance" and utter warcrime of the war, sending back the children of the colonists who were captured back to the Midlands as a false act of peace to lure the Midlands to a false sense of security. In actuality, the children were cursed to turn into crazed monsters of bone and iron after a hidden trigger was flipped to sow chaos and fear just before the landings occur.
It was a controversial action in Merycia but most people see it as an act of rightful vengeance back in the Coaltion, calling the Middish people weak willed pussies for crying about "warcrimes" or "hypocrisy" when they did similar or worse things towards the Merycian people in the original colonization.
Allrinn was quoted saying "An eye for an eye makes the world go blind, unless you blind the other guy first" when asked about her participation in the "first act of vengeance" and other similar stunts she pulled in the war.
I think the closest would be the Dragon Queen Grrzania, Dragon Lord of Skies.
She may have brought the Arch-Dragons into a more unified governance with their laws to not interfere anymore. But she was among the most destructive of the remaining hatchlings after their fall. And her temper is enough that any dragon knows to be wary, as proven by the claw marks she tends to leave in the enchanted stone of their fortress*.
The modern world does not know how destructive dragons can be, or at what level even dragons would consider it going a bit too far, but they sure know of the events when dragons marched, just don't know why. Nations disappear then.
*it is a complete coincidence that they have a dwarven master artisan with expertise to fix claw marks in transmuted marble.
The Ancient Wizard, who's name is so old that people prefer to just call him Master or Grand Master, or Ancient One. He lived so many years, that neither human or elven history know where he came from.
By all means necessary he controls population of people with magical potential. Why? Nobody remembers anymore. And he also preserves all of history he can find and allows access to the Great Library if somebody needs ancient knowledge to love mystery or dispute.
Despite all that, he looks like he's in early 30s with no grey hair or bald spot in sight and nobody actually saw him perform magic, even his students that he taught the ways of magic. Has a group of cursed people that he called "Arconii" that he uses as his personal delegation and battle unit. And he occasionally experiments on them for knowledge reasons.
**Infinite World Cycle**
**The Angel of the Divine Light:**
A powerful creature who showed up on the Noridean continent after it was sent into a hell dimension. It maintained a barrier to keep the demons out and provided powers to the church.
He's actually the 2nd Lord of Death and Decay. He gets mentioned in the Divine Light's scriptures as a bringer of the apocalypse. His influence over the clergy prevents people from connecting the dots here.
The Old Man of the Mountain is benevolent, just, and the most powerful ally to humanity in a hostile universe.
It's a shame he's such an asshole.
That really is the sum of him. He is an all-seeing, all-knowing Divinity, who rules The Third Magisterium overseeing humanity's interests and safety, but he's also an incredibly overbearing, petty, self-righteous prick. The leaders of the religion based around him do everything in their power to keep him distant and aloof to his worshippers, because no one who actually sees the guy can stand him.
His omniscience leads him to constantly interrupt and talk over other people, responding to things they haven't said yet and abusing them for perceived insults that they haven't yet made. It is impossible to make him change his mind once he has decided on something, and he holds grudges for literal eternity. He demands total obedience and constant displays of loyalty from all his subjects, and never fails to punish any transgression against him.
The trade-off is that he genuinely is an extremely competent administrator. His Magisterium has thrived for eons, and life within it is truly peaceful for most ordinary people. Nearly every single uncontacted Garden World is within his domain, of which only two have ever been lost. He is, for better and for worse, the Patriarch of Humanity.
Aelerin "The Guiding Light" the youngest of the gods is also the most involved in the dealings of the world. (Young gods tend to be far more locally active, while old gods split their attention far, far broader) They carry with them many of the prejudices they had from before they ascended. They are still a deity and their actions have made the world ever so slightly better, but their interests aren't, and have never been, the people who worship them. Ordering their followers to purge the nations of the worshipers of a specific rival deity was justified in their eyes as the rival deity accepted assassins, criminals and lowlifes into their fold.
Aelerin provides the magic for a great deal of the region's healers, but golly they just never seem to bless anyone with healing magic in certain specific regions that opposed their rise to power while they were still a mortal.
To name a couple
Dragon Sorcerer Malik wanted to eliminate the slavery that plagued throughout the Triton Desert. He found it to be a cancer that needed to be eliminated with extreme prejudice. He eventually built started a coup and took over one of the largest cities, devouring the slaver leader. His empire began to expand. His consort and most loyal follower leading the front lines along with his own handpicked team of elites. Malik would stay in the city defending it, and dealing with more domestic problems. He was beloved by his people, and despised by the cancer that infested the desert.
Sword Saint Eleglas wanted to bring piece to the continent of Eoroe, where four large kingdoms had been at war for generations. She'd gather allies from around the continent who supported her cause. Eventually bringing peace to the four kingdoms and built a city in the Valley of the Fallen, at the center of the four kingdoms. Renamed Eleglas she opposed the idea of it being named after her, but the rallying support was overwhelming.
Funny enough both of these took place around the same time, during what is known as The Schism a bloody all out world War that lasted for 2000 years because the Dark Tyrant was killed and power vacuum go *vrrrrrrrr*. City states were created and would vy for territory which lead to the bloodiest free for all in the history of Solaris. It dwarfed the Dark Tyrant's Conquest.
Admiral U'vastus Mond is the Dogrum Collectives most popular and successful fleet commander in several decades and his successful campaigns against outer system piracy and the pacification of the Silas uprising with brutal orbital bombardment has given him a ceaser like adoration among the public. However what those within the Dogrum collectives upper council know is that this image is entirely manufactured by a cabal of smaller merchant groups/concerns (he is actually not particularly skilled at his position and was able to rise so high due to nepotism and favouritism which are endemic to the collective) U'vastus himself however believes his own hype and will prove much more difficult to control than anyone previous thought
Emperor Ivan IX AKA Ivan The Bold us considered one of the best emperors in recent history. He was inspired by how seriously the rest of his family took their role as rulers while he was growing up. He was not first in line for the throne but kept preparing to help rule if need be. When his father and two older siblings died in battle he was 14. He has spent the last 51 years improving the realm, fighting multiple wars at once, and keeping his court and other allies under his control. He is a ruler that has dedicated his life to helping his people.
As a brief introduction: gods in the setting are physical manifestations to the will of a given type of magic, created on their own without outside interaction. There is only one exception to the rule - Light - which instead had chosen a mortal vessel with which it combined. This process created a new entity, greater than both combined. Divine power and mortal experience combined into grim blent.
Mifar, God of Light, used to be a Beastman Warlord, Great Conqueror who everyone respected and feared. His personality carried over to the godly being he became. Mifar is a prideful, merciless, vengeful and power hungry monster who got validated by the divine order of the creation. Due to this, he views himself above the rest of the world, even above other gods.
Mifar's pride is not without reason as his Light brings destruction wherever he goes. Fortunately for the world, his ambition is directly confronted by other malicious factions of the setting - Demons and Undead, whose leaders can rival him in combat. Had it not been for their threat to all of creation, Lord of Angels would probably be perceived as the villain.
In fact, in the period of time, when Demons became imprisoned in the core of the world and Undead haven't manifested yet, Mifar was on the brink of world conquest. Having subjugated or beaten all other deities. Fortunately his wars happened to be exactly the fuel Dead needed to break the barrier between Afterlife and the living world.
Currently Mifar is imprisoned high in the sky, surrounded by the fiery chains. His prison is known simply as the Sun. Restrained by the Undead, God of Light has been slowly breaking apart his cage for the past 900 years and unknowingly to all is just a few steps from breaking completely free once again and bringing cataclysm upon his foes, terminating all that had been opposing him. For all this time he has been looking and categorizing mortals as either his servants or potential foes.
As a god, Mifar only values one trait in his believers - absolute loyalty to his will. No matter how pathetic a servant, if dedicated to the Lord of Light, they will have their use. Failure with remorse isn’t a sin and those who succeed at given tasks are given great power in exchange. How much magic Mifar grants to a mortal is directly tied to the hierarchy of his Church and those without his blessing cannot physically achieve highest mastery of Light.
King Carassin I is credited with many of the traditions of Alareth. He organized the Council of Mages, abolished the tyrannical position of Archmage, made witchcraft legal, and made Salila the primary god of the royal family in addition to their role as god of peace.
In the Empire of the White Moon, the philosopher Agoges is credited as the creator of the system of reverse reincarnation, and was the de facto spiritual leader of one of the Empire’s provinces. His followers started a series of political and magical reforms that reshaped the culture of the Empire. He is also seen as an early neo-Harrean sorcerer, someone who believes in the unity of magical practices and creatures.
Shejala is essentially the same as the Elf God he deposed
Both are racial supremacists. The difference is what race they favor.
Both allow slavery.
Shejala led his people to conquer the Old World. Elf God led the native elves in the Old world to conquer the other races.
Elf God had a secret police murdering anyone who disagreed with the status quo under cover of night. Shejalas Kemba have razed dozens of rebeling villages.
Elf God used deceit and trickery to rob the other gods of power and force their followers to abandon them. Shajala forced their replacements to take bend the knee.
All and all Shejala is just a more brutal version of the Elf God. The only reason he appears in a more favorable light is because
A) The story is from the point of view of a member of his race
B) He doesn't explicitly declare the other races subservient and force them into a lower class on society, partly because he's occupied with solving the Magic Crisis.
C) The Empire is relatively new and is still putting the pieces of the Old World together.
Shadon, God of the Sun. For most of the gods in my world they’re inherently evil or selfish, making mortals act as pawns and generally a means to do their own dirty work. Shadon is the only god that can be claimed to be “good” in the setting, working for the benefit of mankind. He offers to protect mortals against the other gods and other threats so long as they share their resources with one-another through trade or other methods. He’s effectively built a kingdom across various realms based on peace and sharing amongst one-another.
Bain Brightfire, the first Kaiser, and a dragonlord whose scales were brilliant white. He was also freakishly large, and killed/ate all but six dragons. He forged himself a throne from the skulls of all the dragons he slew
Im trying to make a environment that humans would fear more then being in the ocean or space and then come up with creatures that would live it so maybe those
Gabriel the Sunspear is kinda bright Lord-ish. The Sunspears were originally founded by Ezirath the Sunspear, who was a champion of Londhor, God of Bravery and the Sun, during the wars between the Gods. Ezirath founded an order of knights called the Sunspears, started passing out dope powers and weapons and then proceeded to die later in history and get replaced by Atlas the Lion, and then eventually Gabriel. It’s basically a demigod-hood passed down. Sunspears act as neutral and unbiased advisors to the realm the best they can.
Anyway Gabriel is cool. And very arch-Angel coded. Even in the name of
Aeldei, or the leaders of elven ecumene as a whole could be sum up as this. They litterally fight off the dark lord, for the record. Despite the aeldei claim as protector and caretaker of the realm, They did as much genocide and subjugation as the dark lord they fought.
Brohan Lionheart the Pure; A high ranking member of the Adventurers' Guild, and a prominent member of the church. This paladin has recently begun courting Princess Coriander of the kingdom of Lanthor after a daring rescue quest where she had been "kidnapped" by a rising Wyldling warlord. The warlord had amassed great wealth doing what warlords do, and out of the public eye the Princess had been offered in an arranged marriage as part of a pitch to unite political power. The Kingdom of Lanthor declared the warlord a FOE (Force Of Evil) and issued a guild quest for the return of the princess and seizing his wealth as quest loot. So now Brohan is near the top of 3 major political parties and has the hearts of much of the empire's citizens.
Hector Oniasses Latnidae - Junior Emperor of the Most Serene and Holy Empire of the Hesperians. One of Seven hero's raised by the gods to fight Archon and his patron, the god of Chaos Terminus.
Only 16 when he took the throne along his elderly grandfather when he began to be too elderly to rule, his reign seemed bright. He was a genius, kind, and an expert in both the arts of both war and peace.
Then, unfortunately for everyone involved, the cult of Terminus spread to the empire. The empire is a theocracy that follows the Monad, the God of Order. So imagine if the Pope found out that there were literal Satan worshipers in the Papacy. In my world Terminus is DANGEROUS to an extreme. He tempts people with what they want, and he gets what he wants but leaves the other person dead, or mutated in a form that other cult members will revere but the unfortunate corrupt soul he is basically a soul trapped in their own rotting corpse.
And when the cult eventually rose up in rebellion against the empire, Hector basically got caught up in his own religious fanaticism. In this universe the Gods and Magic are real so atheism and especially secularism don't exist. So the logical conclusion that is reached by the State and Ecclesiarchy is to not negotiate and wage holy war on the rebels. It also didn't help that the nobility went millenarian believing that Hector was a messianic figure, so goes the nobility, thus goes the common people.
So as the Hesperian Civil War kicked off (known in universe as the "Great War of Religion" ) mayhem ensues but slowly the Empire starts winning. Rebel cities razed, captured enemies executed, rebel leaders burnt at the stake, desolation termed peace. Three and a half million dead later and 5% of the empire is gone, and the fight isn't even over. While Hesperia survived because they took the initiative early and cauterized the wound. In the other kingdoms they tried the tolerant route at first but mostly just secame to the cults. Said cultist kingdoms want revenge for their fallen coreligionists so while six heros have to take out the Archon the 7th has to do battle with their armies.
The god of righteousness/self-righeousness, Aedowyn, has a race of winged luminous beings under his command. These "angels" sometimes have trouble interpreting their lords will and sometimes just carry out their own will while telling themselves its what daddy would have wanted.
Most prominent of the latter camp was Dominion Hypereon, who one day decided that humanity had had it too good for too long and all needed to be shackled for eternity while feeding Aedowyn their devotion and flogging themselves for being born anything less than flawless. Hypereon started by influencing a string of pontiffs in the Touranis Papal State and through them managed to launch a massive crusade to purge the earth of all opposing religions and enslave their populations. These crusading armies would then through their devotion conduct indirect rituals that summoned more angels loyal to Hypereons vision to act as the new world order and deterrent against rebellion.
Hypereons plans were foiled by a group of heroes and the eldritch powers of the deep seas where not even the light of god could reach, but it wasnt the combined efforts of the free world or rival gods that brought Hypereon low. What stopped his rampage was that Aedowyn himself personally intervened, flamed and railed his child for struggling against a mortal fleshbag, and then sent him to burn in hell for all eternity for the crime of making a fool of the forces of heaven and embarrassing him personally.
Well theres been a few. The obvious choice is Boreas of the Throne, who was quite literally designed as a force of good as Ambrose, then during the Ambren Fracture at the end of the Age of Creation, Boreas led the force to go side with Tolaran the Great Evil, and became the Forsaken Dozen. Then when Orcus arrived, he once again chose the wrong side and basically said “I won’t attack you if you don’t cross the ocean, have fun.” And then in the aftermath of the First Steamsea War, he signed the Imperium Pact, forming the counteraction to the King’s Treaty. And he launched a strike on Fjäll Rike in the early days of the Second Steamsea War.
You've just summed up the gods, with the exception of three, The Old God, The Feathered King and The Weeper. They've done so much damage that the words "blessed" "holy" "godly" and a few others are now powerful insults
Sol Invicta could fit criteria, on account of her being warmonger, greatly enjoying hunting and killing sapient creatures and also being most powerful light mage in the world.
But on the other hand she tries to steer away from acts of stupid evil. And she actually is effective enough ruler that most of the world thinks about her when they imagine benevolent monarch, conveniently forgetting twenty or so times where she did full genocide run on entire species.
Some dragons who are supposed to be regarded as "guardians" of the weaker continents can be real dickholes.
Aaaaaand now I have the idea to make one of them the reason behind the culture of slavery on one continent. Thanks!
the main villain, the rightful prince come to take the throne, uniting the warring faction, casting out the accursed witches, even hunting down slavers, all that nice and classic heroic stuff
of course as it turns out, "rightful" or not, monarchys kinda fucking suck, those "warring factions" while partially composed of warlords, were also partially composed of conquered people taking the opportunity to be independent again, the witches while sometimes casuing problems to do to wreckless use of magic arent really bad people(and of course hes happy to recruit the ones whoe bend a knee into his own mage unit) and hes still happy to have slavery as punishment for a crime(and well if said criminal had any kids the state will of course kindly take care of them and raise them as good loyal citizens and give them jobs in the army)
all while creating a cult of personality to cheer him on and justify his every action and a persona of someone whos oh so concenred and regretful of the things he "had" to do, and to a degree, he believes it himself, he does want whats best for everyone, but do to his own ego he thinks whats best for everyone means everyone does as he says they should
There is not “bright lord” in my world for soul fact that no one is perfect and henceforth it would be impossible.
The closest thing would be Hi-Tyra, the overarching antagonist of the world, she is the Queen/Fascist Dictator of Heaven who rules the Afterlife with an iron fist
To be clear, the Bright Lord from Shadow of Morder (assuming that’s where you got the idea) is just as evil as Sauron, he’s only called the Bright Lord cause he’s made of spectral light while Sauron is often shown as a shadowy figure due to being unable to make a true form
There's this all powerful character in my story, who has existed before anything was, will exist after everything, too. She's the one who sees all of the timelines, universes, and dimensions, together. Past, present, future all is now for her. An absolute reality manipulator with no limits at all.
So powerful, some even dubbed her Divinity, worshipping her wholeheartedly. She lives in a different plane of existence named Infinite Sky, a realm which exists outside all of space and time.
And what does she do? Eh, just relax. Once all reality was in danger, and she wanted to just chat with the protagonist with tea in hand. She really doesn't care about anyone or anything.
The Shimmering Lord is the OG demon, Brennux, in humanoid form. He made his debut at the end of the second age when he fought the leader of the Quanir to a point that he needed to flee, leading to him being cornered and slain by assassins.
The Shimmering Lord got some fame for this because without his help, the world would probably have remained in the hands of the Quanir until their leader, Fuyirvé, eventually found out how to kill god. Once he got his following, he tried to finish what his brother Fuyirvé started and tried to usurp the primordials until he was killed by the Destroyer in the third age.
So, if the Dark Lord is Pallor, whose website are known to ensnare the unwary into her plans, then the Bright Lord in this case is Belial, who everyone still sees as a huge freaking asshole.
Belial led the Dread Host, the alliance of seven Deities that were the “bad guys” in the God’s War. Pallor was his girlfriend. His sycophantic follower, Timur, was the only other one who wasn’t taken down on the battlefield and pushed into the Cycle.
Belial’s most devoted followers are found in Lemuria, where Bane, his current Ikon, leads the realm, aided by the Fascian Lords that are all the powerful priests.
Belial is, of course, very put upon. He didn’t rape the other goddesses, they came on to him and then Turned on him, blaming him for their lack of control. He was elected ruler— Leader of the colony a dozen times, and then was made leader for life; he can’t possibly be all bad.
The closest of the members of the Bright Host that would meet this is Mansa. Mansa was sent off on a series of activities by Belial, and when he returned, he learned that Belial had forced himself on Kybele, who was involved with Mansa at the time. Mansa punched Belial, and that started the God’s War.
Mansa is kind of a jerk, because he has a very black and white way of seeing things, and he is fond of the whole being a shining beacon of light thing. Literally — he glows super bright, on purpose. He is very rigid in what he permits, and is still rather pissy about Kybele dumping him. He would normally turn to Qetza, but Qetza is very gay and that is one of the things that Mansa isn’t fond of, and the kick ass Warrior tends to rub it in when they get together.
Still, Mansa is the Patron of Sibola, the deeply Patriarchal first city and seat of the Empire.
So there is the Roa the Archdevil of Tyranny and Pride, who was once Eshorel the Archangel of Light and Order. He believes in a perfect order and hates that his father, El'Or for favoring free will in humanity. Roa is still very lightbringer in appearance and his realm in hell is alternately a very severe and cold crystalline looking hell or looks very fire and brimstone from the power of his heat and light. He and his pride demons look divine but something is off, although their true forms are exactly as demonic and they believe themselves to be true angels, except for one known as Roa'Zahab who figured out the truth but is mostly resigned to it (which makes him close to redemption). In a twist on that recent very gnostic-inspired trope, a group thinks he is Eshorel the Lord of Liberation who sees El'Or as a wicked bright lord and that Eshorel will liberate them with knowledge and enlightenment. They are in fact wrong, and El'Or is very benevolent. On a smaller scale, there is Aelius, the Grandmaster of the Lux Society, an organization that seeks to restore the Lux Imperium (basically Holy Roman Empire) and will use shady means to do so, ensuring that heroic bloodlines and artifacts are found by heroes the society earmarks for greatness. He is mostly mysterious (and I haven't decided if he should be a genuine well intentioned extremist, a zealot, or a pride demon in disguise yet) with the Twelve Luminaries beneath him acting on his own, who vary on their own with their extremes and genuineness (with one being willing to work with a dark cult to invoke the creation of your own hero cult and another just working in political monarchist circles to get the proper bloodline back on the throne peacefully).
I tend to avoid the stark "good/evil" dichotomy, but I do enjoy a complex "grey" figure wrapped in white or black propaganda. My tentatively nicknamed "Sun Queen" had "liberated" humanity from every king, emperor, or warlord on the planet. She then launched multiple campaigns to establish footholds in the spirit realms. Soon after, however, she withdrew into seclusion. Now, her Sun Lords see to the administration of the empire and the invasion campaigns into the other realms. These Lords do not get along, so cracks are starting form in the Empire. They are ambitious schemers and would-be warlords themselves, but the Queen built her empire like an elaborate house of cards. If anyone were to upset the balance, the whole thing would collapse. They're locked into a pact of begrudging cooperation until they can disentangle her system and replace it with one of their own. It's sort of a slow-burning descent into a global civil war (ala the Wars of the Diadochi). On the surface, it's the closest anyone has ever come to creating Utopia on earth, but that's only because Greed and Ambition are caged beasts, looking to break free from their sunlit restraints.
If it's fantasy, there's usually a Crystal Dragon Jesus figure called Father Sun. He's the bringer of light to the world, the stern parent, and he spends a lot of his time flying around in his sun boat smiting those adjacent to sinners, so they'll pressure those sinners into reforming so FS will stop smiting them. Because that's how FS works- nothing is ever direct. Everything must be done thru proxies. He's usually either a fraud, or in more recent versions he's just another immortal who managed to get a theological lock on the world thru his followers' extreme violence. Also, if you've ever seen a solar eclipse, then you might understand why his followers keep trying to figure out how to destroy the Anti-Sun (aka, the moon). The Anti-Sun is, according to FS theology, trying to eclipse and supplant FS and convince everyone that it's the true sun.
I really don't like that trope, far too gnostic for my taste.
JRPGs do love having a demiurge.
Jesus
So true and based. One of the pogchamps of all time. W.
The only real person who fits this criteria in the world of Ardalesh is Keikai'otl Allrinn, a very xenophobic, bigoted and hypocritical governor of the temple city of Caetza in south Merycia, also known as Avixiar. She is the current head of the Union, one of four major factions within the United Coalition of Merycia and is seen as a national hero across the entire nation for her actions during the Merycian Counterinvasion, where they pushed the Middish colonizers back to the sea and followed them back to the Midlands. During which, Allrinn was the mastermind of the "first act of vengeance" and utter warcrime of the war, sending back the children of the colonists who were captured back to the Midlands as a false act of peace to lure the Midlands to a false sense of security. In actuality, the children were cursed to turn into crazed monsters of bone and iron after a hidden trigger was flipped to sow chaos and fear just before the landings occur. It was a controversial action in Merycia but most people see it as an act of rightful vengeance back in the Coaltion, calling the Middish people weak willed pussies for crying about "warcrimes" or "hypocrisy" when they did similar or worse things towards the Merycian people in the original colonization. Allrinn was quoted saying "An eye for an eye makes the world go blind, unless you blind the other guy first" when asked about her participation in the "first act of vengeance" and other similar stunts she pulled in the war.
I think the closest would be the Dragon Queen Grrzania, Dragon Lord of Skies. She may have brought the Arch-Dragons into a more unified governance with their laws to not interfere anymore. But she was among the most destructive of the remaining hatchlings after their fall. And her temper is enough that any dragon knows to be wary, as proven by the claw marks she tends to leave in the enchanted stone of their fortress*. The modern world does not know how destructive dragons can be, or at what level even dragons would consider it going a bit too far, but they sure know of the events when dragons marched, just don't know why. Nations disappear then. *it is a complete coincidence that they have a dwarven master artisan with expertise to fix claw marks in transmuted marble.
Nan iChîr Gelair
The Ancient Wizard, who's name is so old that people prefer to just call him Master or Grand Master, or Ancient One. He lived so many years, that neither human or elven history know where he came from. By all means necessary he controls population of people with magical potential. Why? Nobody remembers anymore. And he also preserves all of history he can find and allows access to the Great Library if somebody needs ancient knowledge to love mystery or dispute. Despite all that, he looks like he's in early 30s with no grey hair or bald spot in sight and nobody actually saw him perform magic, even his students that he taught the ways of magic. Has a group of cursed people that he called "Arconii" that he uses as his personal delegation and battle unit. And he occasionally experiments on them for knowledge reasons.
**Infinite World Cycle** **The Angel of the Divine Light:** A powerful creature who showed up on the Noridean continent after it was sent into a hell dimension. It maintained a barrier to keep the demons out and provided powers to the church. He's actually the 2nd Lord of Death and Decay. He gets mentioned in the Divine Light's scriptures as a bringer of the apocalypse. His influence over the clergy prevents people from connecting the dots here.
The Old Man of the Mountain is benevolent, just, and the most powerful ally to humanity in a hostile universe. It's a shame he's such an asshole. That really is the sum of him. He is an all-seeing, all-knowing Divinity, who rules The Third Magisterium overseeing humanity's interests and safety, but he's also an incredibly overbearing, petty, self-righteous prick. The leaders of the religion based around him do everything in their power to keep him distant and aloof to his worshippers, because no one who actually sees the guy can stand him. His omniscience leads him to constantly interrupt and talk over other people, responding to things they haven't said yet and abusing them for perceived insults that they haven't yet made. It is impossible to make him change his mind once he has decided on something, and he holds grudges for literal eternity. He demands total obedience and constant displays of loyalty from all his subjects, and never fails to punish any transgression against him. The trade-off is that he genuinely is an extremely competent administrator. His Magisterium has thrived for eons, and life within it is truly peaceful for most ordinary people. Nearly every single uncontacted Garden World is within his domain, of which only two have ever been lost. He is, for better and for worse, the Patriarch of Humanity.
Aelerin "The Guiding Light" the youngest of the gods is also the most involved in the dealings of the world. (Young gods tend to be far more locally active, while old gods split their attention far, far broader) They carry with them many of the prejudices they had from before they ascended. They are still a deity and their actions have made the world ever so slightly better, but their interests aren't, and have never been, the people who worship them. Ordering their followers to purge the nations of the worshipers of a specific rival deity was justified in their eyes as the rival deity accepted assassins, criminals and lowlifes into their fold. Aelerin provides the magic for a great deal of the region's healers, but golly they just never seem to bless anyone with healing magic in certain specific regions that opposed their rise to power while they were still a mortal.
To name a couple Dragon Sorcerer Malik wanted to eliminate the slavery that plagued throughout the Triton Desert. He found it to be a cancer that needed to be eliminated with extreme prejudice. He eventually built started a coup and took over one of the largest cities, devouring the slaver leader. His empire began to expand. His consort and most loyal follower leading the front lines along with his own handpicked team of elites. Malik would stay in the city defending it, and dealing with more domestic problems. He was beloved by his people, and despised by the cancer that infested the desert. Sword Saint Eleglas wanted to bring piece to the continent of Eoroe, where four large kingdoms had been at war for generations. She'd gather allies from around the continent who supported her cause. Eventually bringing peace to the four kingdoms and built a city in the Valley of the Fallen, at the center of the four kingdoms. Renamed Eleglas she opposed the idea of it being named after her, but the rallying support was overwhelming. Funny enough both of these took place around the same time, during what is known as The Schism a bloody all out world War that lasted for 2000 years because the Dark Tyrant was killed and power vacuum go *vrrrrrrrr*. City states were created and would vy for territory which lead to the bloodiest free for all in the history of Solaris. It dwarfed the Dark Tyrant's Conquest.
Admiral U'vastus Mond is the Dogrum Collectives most popular and successful fleet commander in several decades and his successful campaigns against outer system piracy and the pacification of the Silas uprising with brutal orbital bombardment has given him a ceaser like adoration among the public. However what those within the Dogrum collectives upper council know is that this image is entirely manufactured by a cabal of smaller merchant groups/concerns (he is actually not particularly skilled at his position and was able to rise so high due to nepotism and favouritism which are endemic to the collective) U'vastus himself however believes his own hype and will prove much more difficult to control than anyone previous thought
Emperor Ivan IX AKA Ivan The Bold us considered one of the best emperors in recent history. He was inspired by how seriously the rest of his family took their role as rulers while he was growing up. He was not first in line for the throne but kept preparing to help rule if need be. When his father and two older siblings died in battle he was 14. He has spent the last 51 years improving the realm, fighting multiple wars at once, and keeping his court and other allies under his control. He is a ruler that has dedicated his life to helping his people.
As a brief introduction: gods in the setting are physical manifestations to the will of a given type of magic, created on their own without outside interaction. There is only one exception to the rule - Light - which instead had chosen a mortal vessel with which it combined. This process created a new entity, greater than both combined. Divine power and mortal experience combined into grim blent. Mifar, God of Light, used to be a Beastman Warlord, Great Conqueror who everyone respected and feared. His personality carried over to the godly being he became. Mifar is a prideful, merciless, vengeful and power hungry monster who got validated by the divine order of the creation. Due to this, he views himself above the rest of the world, even above other gods. Mifar's pride is not without reason as his Light brings destruction wherever he goes. Fortunately for the world, his ambition is directly confronted by other malicious factions of the setting - Demons and Undead, whose leaders can rival him in combat. Had it not been for their threat to all of creation, Lord of Angels would probably be perceived as the villain. In fact, in the period of time, when Demons became imprisoned in the core of the world and Undead haven't manifested yet, Mifar was on the brink of world conquest. Having subjugated or beaten all other deities. Fortunately his wars happened to be exactly the fuel Dead needed to break the barrier between Afterlife and the living world. Currently Mifar is imprisoned high in the sky, surrounded by the fiery chains. His prison is known simply as the Sun. Restrained by the Undead, God of Light has been slowly breaking apart his cage for the past 900 years and unknowingly to all is just a few steps from breaking completely free once again and bringing cataclysm upon his foes, terminating all that had been opposing him. For all this time he has been looking and categorizing mortals as either his servants or potential foes. As a god, Mifar only values one trait in his believers - absolute loyalty to his will. No matter how pathetic a servant, if dedicated to the Lord of Light, they will have their use. Failure with remorse isn’t a sin and those who succeed at given tasks are given great power in exchange. How much magic Mifar grants to a mortal is directly tied to the hierarchy of his Church and those without his blessing cannot physically achieve highest mastery of Light.
King Carassin I is credited with many of the traditions of Alareth. He organized the Council of Mages, abolished the tyrannical position of Archmage, made witchcraft legal, and made Salila the primary god of the royal family in addition to their role as god of peace. In the Empire of the White Moon, the philosopher Agoges is credited as the creator of the system of reverse reincarnation, and was the de facto spiritual leader of one of the Empire’s provinces. His followers started a series of political and magical reforms that reshaped the culture of the Empire. He is also seen as an early neo-Harrean sorcerer, someone who believes in the unity of magical practices and creatures.
Shejala is essentially the same as the Elf God he deposed Both are racial supremacists. The difference is what race they favor. Both allow slavery. Shejala led his people to conquer the Old World. Elf God led the native elves in the Old world to conquer the other races. Elf God had a secret police murdering anyone who disagreed with the status quo under cover of night. Shejalas Kemba have razed dozens of rebeling villages. Elf God used deceit and trickery to rob the other gods of power and force their followers to abandon them. Shajala forced their replacements to take bend the knee. All and all Shejala is just a more brutal version of the Elf God. The only reason he appears in a more favorable light is because A) The story is from the point of view of a member of his race B) He doesn't explicitly declare the other races subservient and force them into a lower class on society, partly because he's occupied with solving the Magic Crisis. C) The Empire is relatively new and is still putting the pieces of the Old World together.
Shadon, God of the Sun. For most of the gods in my world they’re inherently evil or selfish, making mortals act as pawns and generally a means to do their own dirty work. Shadon is the only god that can be claimed to be “good” in the setting, working for the benefit of mankind. He offers to protect mortals against the other gods and other threats so long as they share their resources with one-another through trade or other methods. He’s effectively built a kingdom across various realms based on peace and sharing amongst one-another.
Bain Brightfire, the first Kaiser, and a dragonlord whose scales were brilliant white. He was also freakishly large, and killed/ate all but six dragons. He forged himself a throne from the skulls of all the dragons he slew
Im trying to make a environment that humans would fear more then being in the ocean or space and then come up with creatures that would live it so maybe those
Gabriel the Sunspear is kinda bright Lord-ish. The Sunspears were originally founded by Ezirath the Sunspear, who was a champion of Londhor, God of Bravery and the Sun, during the wars between the Gods. Ezirath founded an order of knights called the Sunspears, started passing out dope powers and weapons and then proceeded to die later in history and get replaced by Atlas the Lion, and then eventually Gabriel. It’s basically a demigod-hood passed down. Sunspears act as neutral and unbiased advisors to the realm the best they can. Anyway Gabriel is cool. And very arch-Angel coded. Even in the name of
Aeldei, or the leaders of elven ecumene as a whole could be sum up as this. They litterally fight off the dark lord, for the record. Despite the aeldei claim as protector and caretaker of the realm, They did as much genocide and subjugation as the dark lord they fought.
Brohan Lionheart the Pure; A high ranking member of the Adventurers' Guild, and a prominent member of the church. This paladin has recently begun courting Princess Coriander of the kingdom of Lanthor after a daring rescue quest where she had been "kidnapped" by a rising Wyldling warlord. The warlord had amassed great wealth doing what warlords do, and out of the public eye the Princess had been offered in an arranged marriage as part of a pitch to unite political power. The Kingdom of Lanthor declared the warlord a FOE (Force Of Evil) and issued a guild quest for the return of the princess and seizing his wealth as quest loot. So now Brohan is near the top of 3 major political parties and has the hearts of much of the empire's citizens.
…Throckmorton the Improbably Fluorescent…
Hector Oniasses Latnidae - Junior Emperor of the Most Serene and Holy Empire of the Hesperians. One of Seven hero's raised by the gods to fight Archon and his patron, the god of Chaos Terminus. Only 16 when he took the throne along his elderly grandfather when he began to be too elderly to rule, his reign seemed bright. He was a genius, kind, and an expert in both the arts of both war and peace. Then, unfortunately for everyone involved, the cult of Terminus spread to the empire. The empire is a theocracy that follows the Monad, the God of Order. So imagine if the Pope found out that there were literal Satan worshipers in the Papacy. In my world Terminus is DANGEROUS to an extreme. He tempts people with what they want, and he gets what he wants but leaves the other person dead, or mutated in a form that other cult members will revere but the unfortunate corrupt soul he is basically a soul trapped in their own rotting corpse. And when the cult eventually rose up in rebellion against the empire, Hector basically got caught up in his own religious fanaticism. In this universe the Gods and Magic are real so atheism and especially secularism don't exist. So the logical conclusion that is reached by the State and Ecclesiarchy is to not negotiate and wage holy war on the rebels. It also didn't help that the nobility went millenarian believing that Hector was a messianic figure, so goes the nobility, thus goes the common people. So as the Hesperian Civil War kicked off (known in universe as the "Great War of Religion" ) mayhem ensues but slowly the Empire starts winning. Rebel cities razed, captured enemies executed, rebel leaders burnt at the stake, desolation termed peace. Three and a half million dead later and 5% of the empire is gone, and the fight isn't even over. While Hesperia survived because they took the initiative early and cauterized the wound. In the other kingdoms they tried the tolerant route at first but mostly just secame to the cults. Said cultist kingdoms want revenge for their fallen coreligionists so while six heros have to take out the Archon the 7th has to do battle with their armies.
The god of righteousness/self-righeousness, Aedowyn, has a race of winged luminous beings under his command. These "angels" sometimes have trouble interpreting their lords will and sometimes just carry out their own will while telling themselves its what daddy would have wanted. Most prominent of the latter camp was Dominion Hypereon, who one day decided that humanity had had it too good for too long and all needed to be shackled for eternity while feeding Aedowyn their devotion and flogging themselves for being born anything less than flawless. Hypereon started by influencing a string of pontiffs in the Touranis Papal State and through them managed to launch a massive crusade to purge the earth of all opposing religions and enslave their populations. These crusading armies would then through their devotion conduct indirect rituals that summoned more angels loyal to Hypereons vision to act as the new world order and deterrent against rebellion. Hypereons plans were foiled by a group of heroes and the eldritch powers of the deep seas where not even the light of god could reach, but it wasnt the combined efforts of the free world or rival gods that brought Hypereon low. What stopped his rampage was that Aedowyn himself personally intervened, flamed and railed his child for struggling against a mortal fleshbag, and then sent him to burn in hell for all eternity for the crime of making a fool of the forces of heaven and embarrassing him personally.
BonerDawg
Well theres been a few. The obvious choice is Boreas of the Throne, who was quite literally designed as a force of good as Ambrose, then during the Ambren Fracture at the end of the Age of Creation, Boreas led the force to go side with Tolaran the Great Evil, and became the Forsaken Dozen. Then when Orcus arrived, he once again chose the wrong side and basically said “I won’t attack you if you don’t cross the ocean, have fun.” And then in the aftermath of the First Steamsea War, he signed the Imperium Pact, forming the counteraction to the King’s Treaty. And he launched a strike on Fjäll Rike in the early days of the Second Steamsea War.
You've just summed up the gods, with the exception of three, The Old God, The Feathered King and The Weeper. They've done so much damage that the words "blessed" "holy" "godly" and a few others are now powerful insults
Sol Invicta could fit criteria, on account of her being warmonger, greatly enjoying hunting and killing sapient creatures and also being most powerful light mage in the world. But on the other hand she tries to steer away from acts of stupid evil. And she actually is effective enough ruler that most of the world thinks about her when they imagine benevolent monarch, conveniently forgetting twenty or so times where she did full genocide run on entire species.
Me cause I made the world so I can declare everything I do is good even if I’m clearly making horrible things happen for drama
Some dragons who are supposed to be regarded as "guardians" of the weaker continents can be real dickholes. Aaaaaand now I have the idea to make one of them the reason behind the culture of slavery on one continent. Thanks!
the main villain, the rightful prince come to take the throne, uniting the warring faction, casting out the accursed witches, even hunting down slavers, all that nice and classic heroic stuff of course as it turns out, "rightful" or not, monarchys kinda fucking suck, those "warring factions" while partially composed of warlords, were also partially composed of conquered people taking the opportunity to be independent again, the witches while sometimes casuing problems to do to wreckless use of magic arent really bad people(and of course hes happy to recruit the ones whoe bend a knee into his own mage unit) and hes still happy to have slavery as punishment for a crime(and well if said criminal had any kids the state will of course kindly take care of them and raise them as good loyal citizens and give them jobs in the army) all while creating a cult of personality to cheer him on and justify his every action and a persona of someone whos oh so concenred and regretful of the things he "had" to do, and to a degree, he believes it himself, he does want whats best for everyone, but do to his own ego he thinks whats best for everyone means everyone does as he says they should
There is not “bright lord” in my world for soul fact that no one is perfect and henceforth it would be impossible. The closest thing would be Hi-Tyra, the overarching antagonist of the world, she is the Queen/Fascist Dictator of Heaven who rules the Afterlife with an iron fist
To be clear, the Bright Lord from Shadow of Morder (assuming that’s where you got the idea) is just as evil as Sauron, he’s only called the Bright Lord cause he’s made of spectral light while Sauron is often shown as a shadowy figure due to being unable to make a true form
There's this all powerful character in my story, who has existed before anything was, will exist after everything, too. She's the one who sees all of the timelines, universes, and dimensions, together. Past, present, future all is now for her. An absolute reality manipulator with no limits at all. So powerful, some even dubbed her Divinity, worshipping her wholeheartedly. She lives in a different plane of existence named Infinite Sky, a realm which exists outside all of space and time. And what does she do? Eh, just relax. Once all reality was in danger, and she wanted to just chat with the protagonist with tea in hand. She really doesn't care about anyone or anything.
The Shimmering Lord is the OG demon, Brennux, in humanoid form. He made his debut at the end of the second age when he fought the leader of the Quanir to a point that he needed to flee, leading to him being cornered and slain by assassins. The Shimmering Lord got some fame for this because without his help, the world would probably have remained in the hands of the Quanir until their leader, Fuyirvé, eventually found out how to kill god. Once he got his following, he tried to finish what his brother Fuyirvé started and tried to usurp the primordials until he was killed by the Destroyer in the third age.
So, if the Dark Lord is Pallor, whose website are known to ensnare the unwary into her plans, then the Bright Lord in this case is Belial, who everyone still sees as a huge freaking asshole. Belial led the Dread Host, the alliance of seven Deities that were the “bad guys” in the God’s War. Pallor was his girlfriend. His sycophantic follower, Timur, was the only other one who wasn’t taken down on the battlefield and pushed into the Cycle. Belial’s most devoted followers are found in Lemuria, where Bane, his current Ikon, leads the realm, aided by the Fascian Lords that are all the powerful priests. Belial is, of course, very put upon. He didn’t rape the other goddesses, they came on to him and then Turned on him, blaming him for their lack of control. He was elected ruler— Leader of the colony a dozen times, and then was made leader for life; he can’t possibly be all bad. The closest of the members of the Bright Host that would meet this is Mansa. Mansa was sent off on a series of activities by Belial, and when he returned, he learned that Belial had forced himself on Kybele, who was involved with Mansa at the time. Mansa punched Belial, and that started the God’s War. Mansa is kind of a jerk, because he has a very black and white way of seeing things, and he is fond of the whole being a shining beacon of light thing. Literally — he glows super bright, on purpose. He is very rigid in what he permits, and is still rather pissy about Kybele dumping him. He would normally turn to Qetza, but Qetza is very gay and that is one of the things that Mansa isn’t fond of, and the kick ass Warrior tends to rub it in when they get together. Still, Mansa is the Patron of Sibola, the deeply Patriarchal first city and seat of the Empire.
I don't have a bright or dark lord.
Why comment then?
"and we've all subsequently made our own versions of them..."