Problems With Symbolic Characters

I'm running into a writing roadblock that's making me pound my head into a brick wall.

I'm essentially trying to write a story which involves several types of "gods" from several different real-world pantheons, and I'm having trouble figuring out how to write characters which embody a metaphysical concept. I mean, what is a "God of Wisdom" supposed to act like? (Yes, "wise", I know...but how do you embody that single concept into a personified figure?)

Even gods of earthly materials and elements, like fire, wood, air, or darkness, aren't making any sense to me at the moment. If you're "THE god of fire", does that mean you control ALL fire? What about heat and oxidation? Can you can suck the body heat out of a person? If you're the god of wind, can you create an airless vacuum or increase/decrease air pressure to fatal levels?

Sorry, it's just 2:30 AM here, and I've been wracking my brain over this since the entire weekend. I want to tell a fantastic story, but I just can't figure out how to write this.

edited 21st Dec '10 12:31:57 AM by KingZeal

Being creative with superpowers is a fun pastime of mine. I like implimenting the existing elements in a unique way.

The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.

Really, I'm having a hard time balancing Shown Their Work with Magic A Is Magic A.

I think the key to solving this problem is to ask yourself, "What is X?"  ^*

Let's take "Fire" for an example. When I think of "Fire" the first thing I think of is a campfire, which to me is beneficial because it is keeping me warm. Also I tend to see someone forging a sword, so I tend to note that "Fire" can be used to make things. However I've seen "Fire" destroying buildings, so I also consider it a destructive force.

Now my Dvargar have a pantheon of their own with two fire gods  ^*

Dverik and Tvallon. Dverik is a war god, so whenever you see him using fire it is usually is used to destroy things or to celebrate the such destruction. Tvallon is a creator god,  ^*

^{As in he creates objects, not the creation of the world.}

and thus he makes various crafts that require the use of fire. On occasion he gives his works to mortals, when they need it most. Some stories have a person helping out someone who is seriously injured, often times lighting a campfire. Some Dvargar also consider this person to be Tvallon, but others think that it is just a benevolent bystander.

Seriously just ask yourself, "What is X?" and have fun with what you come up with.  ^*

Has ADD, plays World of Tanks, thinks up crazy ideas like children making spaceships for Hitler. Occasionally writes them down.

You can look at the way they're portrayed in existing pantheons - although to be honest, they don't work very well as symbols. They all seem to be just normal characters who happen to have superpowers. For a purely symbolic god, the suggestion above is a good idea, and it's nice if you pick a concept that's pretty broad and has a lot of emotion attached to it.

Take for example, Water. Some random characteristics that are often associated with water:

• Feminity: So this will be a goddess, not a god
• Life: So maybe she'll be the patron goddess of motherhood and birth
• Healing: She might be the patron goddess of doctors, too. Maybe all hospitals will have an altar to her for luck.
• Clarity/Transparency: This can go two ways: either she's remarkably honest and straightforward, or she's clairvoyant - maybe both
• Unpredictability/Emotionality: So she'll be a Tsundere
• Coolness/Coldness: So her personality will (usually) be a bit of an ice queen
• Fluidity/Adaptibility: She'll be clever and quick to adapt to new strategies in a fight
• Association with the moon: Perhaps she'll be the lover of the moon god/goddess

Physically, I'm picturing a tall, slim woman with translucent skin revealing veins flowing with pure water rather than blood. She moves with inhuman grace as if she's flowing from place to place rather than walking. Every inch of her shines like she is covered in a permanent coat of water. Her dress is made from an impossibly intricate weaving of snowflakes and ice crystals. To those who listen hard, her voice is usually heard in the trickle of a brook, or raindrops splashing on puddles. When she is angry, however, she prefers to communicate to mortals through waves crashing on the shore. From her breath, she forms mists and clouds. She has hair down to the floor, which usually takes the form of a gentle, clear waterfall down her back, ending in a pool at her feet. When she's angry, however, it can be a violent torrent that floods everything except her pissed-off face, or a steaming geyser that shrouds her in vapor. On those rare occasions that she is personally in a fight, her chosen weapon is a rapier of ice that burns with its coldness.

It's so much easier to do personifications of a force of nature, though, than one-word concepts like Wisdom. What would "wisdom" look like?

Edit: Wow, I didn't realize this would end up so detailed. I wanna do the other three elements, too!

edited 21st Dec '10 9:56:59 PM by OnTheOtherHandle

"War doesn't prove who's right, only who's left." "Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future."

Or you can go the Moe Anthropomorphism route and make Fire-tan and Love-tan all the rage. Also, WTF-tan is a good one.

♥♥II'GSJQGDvhhMKOmXunSrogZliLHGKVMhGVmNhBzGUPiXLYki'GRQhBITqQrrOIJKNWiXKO♥♥

I think Wisdom would be a middle aged woman, with threads of grey in her hair and a tendency to be annoying right all the time, and also to annoyingly refrain from gloating about it.

Be not afraid...

@Loni: I could see that! I like how you avoided the old bearded man stereotype.

Although come to think of it, a lot of ancient cultures had goddesses of widom...

"War doesn't prove who's right, only who's left." "Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future."

I remember in art class, we did analogs once. My teacher had a book on what were essentially -tans of every emotion or concept imaginable. It was awesome. I'll have to bug her for the name.

Anyway, I always thought that Water should be a Beware the Nice Ones kind of girl. No more of this "pretty peaceful all the time" BS. She's a calm pond AND a roaring tsunami, mmkay?

Would you kindly click my dragons?

Yeah, I always though water should be a Tsundere. Unpredictable and fiercely emotional - it suits her.

"War doesn't prove who's right, only who's left." "Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future."

I think Eldritch Blue Rose's suggestion is marvelous and a great way to do it.

At least, if your theme is how everyone has to deal with temptation (the light and dark side thing).

Basically, each deity could have a good way of using their powers and a bad way. I'll list what I think of for the deities I plan on using plus Wisdom:

Fire: Eldritch Blue Rose already covered this, but the help is warmth or tempering metal while the hurt is burning life.

Ice: The help is cooling and dousing out-of-control fires while the hurt is freezing life.

Lightning: The help is a (fictional?) source for electricity and the hurt is zapping life.

Royalty: The help is using one's finances to help and the hurt is using those same finances to fund killings.

(the next two are controversial) Divinity: The help is bringing someone to Heaven and the hurt is making them suffer in life.

Darkness: The help is making someone prosper in life and the hurt is bringing someone to The Underworld.

Wind: The help is moving molecular particles in such a way to heal someone's wounds and the hurt is moving molecular particles in such a way to cause illness or lifting and throwing huge objects at people.

Deity among deities: The help is ordering the other deities to help life and the hurt is the opposite.

Wisdom: The help is giving stellar advice and the hurt is intentionally giving terrible advice.

I suppose that didn't help much after-all.

I think in the end you'll just have to give them more than one trait (for example: wisdom, patience, charity, and ill-temperance), despite people only recognizing one trait in them (wisdom). I guess I'd just say think of what traits people who usually exhibit wisdom also exhibit then maybe add one unassociated one for surprise/interest.

Hope this helps.

I would recommend looking at the real-life archeypes. If it's a deity of wisdom, take a look at Athena/Minerva from the Classical Mythology and Odin/Wotan from the Norse Mythology. What do they have in common? Why are they different? Which fits better into your setting? If it's the god of fire, look at Haephestos/Vulcan and Loki or, better yet, the Fire Giants of the Norse, e.g. Logi and Surtr. Create a compound image and remove parts that don't sit well with your concept. Even if you don't like the result, you at least have a starting point based on archetypal traits most readers will recognize.