God of Good

Amaterasu, origin of all that is good and mother to us all.^note Wolf form optional.

"Our vision is one of peace. Our path, of mercy. We see—as you must also—how those who do not follow Us have been deceived or corrupted by the forces of wickedness. Thus, in their weakness, have they been lured into an existence of treachery and debasement. We weep for them, knowing there is no greater sin against oneself than the failure to believe in one's own worth."

— The Book of Persephone, Sacrifice

In many works, there is a God of Evil. An ultimate embodiment of evil that seeks to either spread unhappiness or kill as much as he/she wants.

This is the inverse of that, a deity that seeks to defeat evil and/or seeks to spread goodness. In most works with a God of Good, he/she will often (but not always) be the Big Good, guiding The Hero but not getting directly involved in his/her quest to defeat the Big Bad. In some cases, the god of good's role can be spreading good will or actively repairing that which has been tainted by evil or simply maintaining the world from plain old decay. It might seek to convert all to the setting's standard of goodness, warping hate into love, despair into hope, obsession into indifference where appropriate.

There is a tendency for Gods of Good to be female rather than male. Also, Beauty Equals Goodness (and by proxy Hot God) tends to come into play with this trope. There is common overlap with Gold and White Are Divine and Light Is Good. These deities are also commonly a God of Light.

In many works, there is a conflict between the God of Good and the God of Evil. Often, as a take-off of Satan, the God of Evil is a rebellious underling of the God of Good.

Not in any way to be confused with God Is Good, which is when there is a single god who is good (though in most monotheistic faiths, God is given this title, and many others like it, so He actually still counts).

To avoid Flame Bait and Edit Wars, note that this trope isn't about gods who simply are good, it's about gods of goodness. Gods who are nice but mostly defined by other qualities do not qualify. If the god can, by the setting's definition, do evil without contradicting their very being, they don't count.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Spider Riders has the Spirit Oracle, who is believed to be a goddess by the natives of the Inner World. The Oracle is a very powerful yet kind individual who wishes to protect all life within the Inner World.

Comic Books

• New Gods:
  • Highfather Izaya, the leader of the New Gods on New Genesis, and opposed to the God of Evil Darkseid.
  • The Source is the more literal version of this.
• The Marvel Universe has the Vishanti, a triad whose names are Hoggoth, Oshtur, and Agamotto, traditionally be the highest "good" deities available for regular consultation. A few polytheistic gods are also this. Balder from The Mighty Thor is the god of light more for his goodness and nobility instead of light powers.

Fan Fiction

• The Pony POV Series has Celestia and Luna's parents, Fauna Luster and the unnamed Father of Alicorns, both of whom appear to be Anthropomorphic Personifications of existence. In addition, the Father appears to be the Dimension Lord of, and may very well be, Pony Heaven (at the very least, it's contained in His body).
  • Fillimon, the personification of the collective light of the Shadows Who Make, also qualifies, as she exists to foster light, hope, and goodness in the multiverse and is a firm believer in Rousseau Was Right. She is also the opposing force to her sibling Nyarlathotrot.
• The Bridge (MLP) has Big Good Harmony, who is responsible for the creation of Celestia, Luna, and the Elements of Harmony, brought King Caesar to Equestria long ago to fight Tirek and safeguard the newborn Cadence, and has been working to bring about Heel Face Turns in the less evil kaiju. She's also the only one powerful enough to be capable of fighting the Big Bad Bagan on even terms, though only just barely.
• Arguably the Pyar gods in The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World. as everything they intended to do when they came to C'hou was the epitome of goodness for someone. They gave the G'heddi'onians a new paradisaical home, the skahs endless monsters to fight, and the tirin and Ketafans a place to live without any monsters to bother them. When they accidentally introduced a great evil into C'hou and were badly weakened by it, they strove to fight that evil by importing outworlders to fight it. However, the Actual Pacifist four are not at all convinced the Pyars are good, given that they turned the world into a giant hunting preserve and imported a lot of truly evil outworlders along with the good ones. But it's all moot since they're actually in a giant telepathic MMORPG and everything is fake.
• The protagonist of the Worm quest A Champion in Earth-Bet is the Avatar, the divine avatar of Adeltom, God of Heroism, who became a superhero in the 1920s of his alternate Earth to usher in an age of peace. Mentioned once is one of his evil contemporaries, Astor, God of Hatred.
• Glorious Shotgun Princess: Subverted. Autochthon is extremely helpful to the protagonists, as well as the source of the Exaltations and technically sapient life in general. He takes the time to explain to Jane that he is not good, or moral, and barely even manages "not cruel." He is the God of Creation, and creating is the only thing he cares about; he works to preserve life because life creates things. The distinction might seem academic, but it's important to understand how he and those like him think. The actual God of Good is the Unconquered Sun, but he doesn't have a real presence in the story since he's not even on the local plane of reality. He only appears briefly to speak to new Solars as they Exalt.

Gamebooks

• Lone Wolf has Kai, God of the Sun, and Ishir, Goddess of the Moon, who are also the source of all goodness in the universe. They are at constant war with Naar, God of Darkness.

Literature

• City of Light: Nimrod, god of healing, light, and knowledge, comes off as this, in start contrast with Vraxor. Mirren notes in reading his holy book how much nicer it is, speaking of people having rights and dignity. She's still left unsure that he exists though due to his long absence from Palidia.

Live-Action TV

• The White Guardian on Doctor Who. A God of Evil called the Black Guardian opposes him, but neither can act in the universe directly, so they work through agents and emissaries.
• Legend of the Seeker: The Creator, who has made all life and light. Unlike in the books, this deity is portrayed as female.
• According to Ibis in the American Gods (2017) episode "Treasure of the Sun", Mad Sweeney was originally Lugh, Irish God of the Sun, Luck, Art and "everything valuable to civilization" before Catholicism and cultural osmosis turned him into a cowardly pagan king and eventually into a Leprechaun.

Religion and Mythology

• In Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and others, God is often referred to as God of Mercy, God of Love, God of Justice, etc. And yes, sometimes God of Good or Goodness. Of course, He's the God of pretty much everything, but these are perhaps His most frequently invoked titles.
  • In Islam, the invocation of God (a short phrase used at the start of just about anything—every single prayer, journeys, work, meals), bismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm, means "In the name of God, most Merciful and Kind", and is quite possibly the single most common phrase any Muslim will utter, regardless of language or nationality.
  • In the Bible, the exact nature and origin of evil itself aren't entirely clear, which is a huge source of debate and speculation. Regardless, the Bible tends to describe evil as that which violates God's desires and commands (Judges 2:11, 2 Samuel 12:9, Psalm 5:4-6; 51:4). Although the Bible describes God as a God of good, it does not rule out Him bringing punishment and calamity on the wicked. However, this punishment does often come through people who are wicked, and God is repeatedly shown to be able to "work" various evil actions and events into His plans (being omnipotent and omniscient helps).
  • One of the more common Christian ideas is that "Evil" technically isn't a thing, but rather an absence of a thing: the absence of good. God, then, did not create evil because it's not an actual thing, but more of a state. The Genesis account does call God's creation "very good" before the first human sin. Naturally, explanations for the origin of evil tend to involve ideas of free will.
• The Devas of Hinduism; especially Vishnu, the Protector of humanity, who incarnates as Avatars to fight evil when needed. Of Hinduism's deities, one of the most well-known is Krishna, who was the ninth Avatar of Vishnu.
• The Bodhisattvas of Buddhism (kind of like Christian saints) are enlightened men and women that refuse Nirvana so that they can save suffering beings by guiding them to enlightenment themselves. The best example of this is Guan Yin, or Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and Mercy who is revered by nearly all Buddhists as the epitome of unconditional love. The reason why she's usually shown with 1,000 arms and multiple heads is to show that she's always willing to help anyone in need.
• Ra in Egyptian Mythology. While his role was mostly as the sun god, he was pretty much considered the pinnacle of morality and "goodness", opposed to Apep/Apophis. Ma'at more so even: she was the personification of moral decency.
• As one of the few Titans from Greek Mythology without jerk tendencies (provoked or unprovoked), Prometheus definitely counts. The shit he went through to help us humans is truly amazing.
  • Hestia is the goddess of family and all it entails. There may not have been many myths starring her, but she was definitely the most trusted and beloved of all gods.
  • Arete is another example. She's the goddess of virtue and her only real mythological appearance comes from Xenophon's Memorabilia where she offers Hercules a life of glory in exchange for hard work. He ultimately decides to follow her path.
  • Too add on to that, Herakles was probably the closest to a God of Good of the more prominent gods in Greek Mythology, even though Hestia was undoubtedly the kindest. His cultic titles included custos (The guardian), kallnikos (triumphant), promachos (champion) and alexikakos (The averter of evil). As Herakles Kallnikos, he was envoked as a protector from evil spirits, bandits, tyranny and all sorts of dangers. Also, as a protector from war. When he married Hebe, she produced two sons. Anicetus (unconquerable) and Alexiares (he who wards off war).
• Amaterasu from Japanese Mythology and Shinto is her pantheon's goddess of good, and similar to Ra in Egyptian Mythology she is also a sun goddess. She is described as warm and compassionate, and regularly opposes her Trickster God brother Susano'o. At one point, she was so angry and distraught over Susano'o's destruction that she hid in a sacred cave, and all light left the world. She was tricked into leaving by Ama no Uzume, who danced naked in front of the cave; the raucous joyous laughter of all the other gods piqued her curiosity enough that she walked to the mouth of the cave. Ame no Uzume left a mirror facing inwards, and Amaterasu was stunned by the light and beauty of her own reflection long enough for the other gods to coax and beseech her to return to the celestial palace. In the process, Ame no Uzume became goddess of the dawn as well as dance.
• Bai-Ulgan in Turkic mythology is the god of goodness, welfare, abundance, and plenty.
  • Two of his sons might qualify as well: Karshyt Han and Bakhty Han, the gods of purity and blessing, respectively.
• Zoroastrianism is an ancient religion that holds to a doctrine of an eternal war between the spirits of good and evil. Ahura Mazda is worshipped as the supreme, benevolent spirit, and is forever in conflict with Ahriman, the spirit of evil.
• After the Turks enter into contact with the more monotheistic faiths of the West, their originally polytheist shamanic religion which had plenty of gods become more dualistic like Zoroastrianism with a god of Good Tengri and a God of Evil Erlik (this being of course before most of them became Christians and Muslims).

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons has quite a few of these. Strictly speaking, a God of Good must have Good in his or her domain. (A domain is literal or metaphysical field the god has complete mastery of; a God of Fire would have a domain of Fire, etc.) And in 3rd edition, the norm is that every deity who is good in alignment is enough of a God of Good that he or she will grant access to the Good Domain; similarly with all of the gods who are evil in alignment.
  • 4E's core pantheon has four of them - Bahamut, Pelor, Avandra, and Moradin.
  • 3E's core pantheon had Heironeous, Moradin again, Yondalla, Pelor again, Garl Glittergold, Ehlonna, Corellon Larethian, and Kord.
  • From Dragonlance: Branchala, Habbakuk, Kiri-Jolith, Majere, Mishakal, Paladine, Solinari
  • From the Forgotten Realms (and there's quite a list of them!): Chauntea, Lathander, the late Mystra, Selune, Sune, Torm, the late Tyr, Bahamut again, Mielikki, Tymora, Deneir, Eldath, Lliir, Lurue, Milil, and a host of others in other lands of Toril.
• Pathfinder's Golarion, similarly to D&D, has multiple major deities of the Good domain: Cayden Cailean (god of Lovable Rogues), Desna (goddess of explorers), Erastil (god of farmers and hunters), Iomedae (goddess of just warfare), Sarenrae (goddess of the Sun and healing), Shelyn (goddess of beauty and love), and Torag (god of smiths and craftsmen).
• Starfinder, set in the same world Pathfinder thousands of years in the future, has shuffled the deities around. Desna, Iomedae, and Sarenrae are still major deities, and several new Good Gods have risen to prominence. Hylax (insectoid goddess of friendship and peace), Yaraesa (goddess of knowledge and science), and Weydan (god of exploration and freedom) have joined the pantheon.
• Magic: The Gathering has Avacyn, the goddess who gives hope and protection to the humans of Innistrad against the demons, vampires, and other assorted horrors that inhabit it. She was, in fact, specifically created by the vampire Planeswalker Sorin Markov to serve as the Good in the Balance Between Good and Evil of the plane since the humans were being driven to extinction by everything else, which is a bad thing in the long run since that will lead to the self-destruction of Innistrad.
• Exalted has the Unconquered Sun, who is God of Good because he's defined by four different kinds of Good: being brave, being loving, being determined, and being prudent. His chosen champions are people who possess an abundance of at least one of these Good traits. In fact, the UCS came to be because a titan wanted to be known as Evil Incarnate, and found that no one in Creation was Good enough to contrast him and make that title meaningful.
• Surprisingly, Warhammer has a small number of genuinely good deities. Isha, the Elven mother-goddess of agriculture and life, is constantly described as offering aid to anyone who needs it, which is a lot for being part of a pantheon that is aloof at best. It also helps that one of her avatars is one of the High Elves' co-monarchs, the Everqueen, whose own power can purify daemons, along with being a truly kind and noble individual. For humans, there's Shallya who is the Empire's goddess of healing and mercy that requires pacifism for her priestesses who serve as healers and nurses kind of like the Red Cross, especially when they mostly work in keeping Nurgle's diseases at bay, or even cure them miraculously.
• Warhammer 40,000: Unsurprisingly, there's a distinct lack of them in 40K. While the Eldar goddess Isha still exists, she's been imprisoned by Nurgle (the jolliest and kindest of the Chaos gods) so as to have a regenerating test subject for his horrible plagues. And yet still she continues to fight him off by whispering the cures to her faithful when she can.

Toys

• BIONICLE Mata Nui is the Great Spirit and creator of the Matoran Universe, he created the Matoran, the Rahi, and even the Makuta.

Video Games

• Palutena in Kid Icarus. She is the Goddess of Light who swears to protect the humans of the surface world. She is opposed to Medusa, the Goddess of Darkness.
• In the backstory of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, there's the Goddess Hylia, whom the gods of the Triforce charged with guarding the Triforce from Demon King Demise. Zelda turns out to be her mortal incarnation. Hylia also plays a large role in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, where it's revealed that she's basically become Hyrule's patron goddess.
• Final Fantasy:
  • From Dissidia Final Fantasy, Cosmos, the goddess of harmony and the leader of the heroes. This is even more notable for the fact that the series is well known for its portrayal of evil gods. It does later come to light in the in-game documentation of 012: Duodecim that she and Chaos aren't really gods, but Manikins, empowered by Shinryu; Cosmos herself was a facsimile of the former of the wife of Cid of the Lufaine. In any event, she certainly plays well the role of Big Good for her chosen warriors in the cycles of conflict.
  • Etro of Final Fantasy XIII.
• Ōkami: The player character, as a canine incarnation of Amaterasu.
• In the Mortal Kombat series, Raiden is officially the God of Thunder, but doubles as the official Protector of Earth and shown as the leader of the forces of good, until he makes a Heroic Sacrifice in Deadly Alliance and Came Back Wrong in Deception.
  • Subverted in Mortal Kombat 11. It introduces Cetrion, and Elder goddess of life and virtue who is supposed to balance her evil brother Shinnok. Yet she did nothing to stop his evil or any other evil in the previous games even when they threatened all of the realms. When she finally appears to has degenerated to being from Shinnok.
• Double Subverted in Fable. The first game has Avo, whose temple the player can make donations to for beneficial gifts. The updated rerelease reveals that "Avo", however, is just a huge mass of Will energy set up by a merchant to scam people. That's the subversion. The "double" part kicks in during game two, in which the Temple of the Light in Oakvale seems to be more or less the same... except the being they worship turns out to be more than just Will energy: it's sentient and can even speak to you depending on your choice of quests. This seems to imply the existence of a higher, benevolent power; even if it isn't Avo.
• Subverted in Der Langrisser. Lushiris is the Goddess of Light and more or less presented as this, but ethically-speaking, she's all too human.
• Blizzard in Primal Rage is literally the God of Good and leads the Virtuous Beasts. He is, however, an Anti-Hero who has no problem with devouring his own followers for strength and is only "good" because he's fighting against even worse monsters.
• In the entirety of the Persona franchise, Philemon is the closest being to a positive divine entity Humanity has. He's the creator of the Velvet Room in which the protagonists of all games go to get help from Igor and he grants Personas and spiritual support to several of the protagonists. He himself is born of the positive side of humanity and in the bonus fight against him in Eternal Punishment he's shown to be just as powerful, if not more, than his Evil Counterpart Nyarlathotep.
• Several deities mentioned in the Religion/Mythology above are included to fight in Smite, most notably Amaterasu and Vishnu in two of his mortal forms: Vamana and Rama, and all three were portrayed as virtuous. On the other hand, while Ra is included, he ends up playing a subversion: While still the God Of Good, he was pissed off about that one time Isis poisoned him and make him tell her his real name to gain access of his magic (to defeat Set and free Egypt), so he came off as a Jerkass who seems quite eager to roast his enemies with sun ray.
• The Angels in Nexus Clash are ruled by a trio of Gods of Good: Namm, personification of Justice, Baraas, personification of Cooperation, and Alonai, personification of Love. Since this is a setting where even Gods of Good are flawed, the worlds they shape still fall apart eventually, forcing another cycle of the Eternal Recurrence that drives the series.
• Persephone from Sacrifice, self-proclaimed life-goddess and protector of good, Arch-Enemy and opposite number of Charnel, the setting's God of Evil. While extremely Rightly Self-Righteous, she also is extremely genuine in wanting the best for most even though she is also a case of Good Is Not Soft.

Web Comics

• There was a Goddess of Good in Sluggy Freelance who ruled over the not originally evil Dimension Of Pain. She got beaten and bagged by the resident God of Evil before Torg freed her.

Web Original

• Things Mr. Welch Is No Longer Allowed to Do in an RPG
  64. My paladin's battle cry is not "Good for the Good God!"

Western Animation

• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Gaia, the Big Good, is the spirit of the Earth and the protector of the planet.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Avatar line is the human form of a divine spirit charged with maintaining the peace between the four nations.
• The Legend of Korra: Raava, the spirit of light, is also responsible for peace and balance, though her personality can be abrasive and discriminatory. She fuses with Wan to create the first Avatar, meaning that the Avatar is her incarnation on Earth to maintain said balance and peace.
• Transformers: Cybertron: Primus, Lord of Light and Creator-God of the Transformers, is usually in this role whenever he decides to make an appearance in person. Most of his time is spent in altmode (the planet Cybertron itself).

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