Hello my name is ClarkKent07 and I am a DM/Homebrew junky. I like to create my own homebrew worlds and really flesh them out. I typically start with a creation myth to get the ball rolling and I wondered what other DM/Homebrew addicts did.
Mine is heavily borrowed/piecemail/kidnapped
Before recorded history beings beyond the ken of mortal or even demons and devils came forth and made order out of chaos, reality out of dream. These greater beings then created the gods to watch over/manage thier reality.
The gods did so for millenia untold but eventually became bored and began to challenge one another in petty squabbles over who was superior. They eventually learned that while they could fight, none had the power to destroy another and so the squabbles cooled.
Eventually one of the evil spiteful gods noticed that a god of nature had created several animals and plants upon a small mudball world. Being what he was he created a godspawned nightmare to torment his rivals creations.
Before long all the gods took to creating new and ever more powerful life forms to kill,destroy,protect thier previous generations or thier allies.
Eventually the creatures became so powerful as to rival the gods themselves and risked the very fabric of reality. The elder gods returned, banished/destroyed/drove into hiding the worst of the creations and then deemed that the arrogant younger gods would now depend upon the worship of thier creations to survive.
Over 1500 years many gods ignored/destroyed in rage/lost thier worshippers and faded from existance.
Today only sages and extra planar creatures know of the war but the relics/battlefields/dungeons of it can still be found today.
Thoughts/Share?
When my characters ask where their world came from I just tell them a stork brought it.
Joseph Campbell actually did an overview of creation myths, in addition to codifying the hero's journey. His work can be a lot of help here.
The age when the physical foundations of the planes are created are all very similar, but there is plenty of opportunity to indulge your creativity in the second phase, where the various races and creatures arise.
I haven't done a new setting recently, but I've found I'm leaning away from the religion side of the setting. Instead I focus on the hook of the setting, why is it going to be interest and different to play in.
As for religions, I'm tending to lean towards player driven concepts. A player of a religious character can create their own god to worship. If the story requires me to add additional elements (opposing religions, unknown histories of the player's religion, cults, servants of the gods, etc) I do so as necessary.
I do like picking out or designing interesting geographic features and defining areas of major conflict (borders between warring nations/races, hellmouth's, etc), but usually these are just basic maps and a couple words of notes to remember the concept. I don't flesh it out unless it's within reach of the players and I don't detail it until I think they're actually going there.
We're in the same boat, Clark.
Dotting to follow.
Sort of sounds like Cthulu. The world as you know it isn't real. All the insane people know the truth. That was the fun game. I have only recently started playing a board game called Arkham Horror.
I think one Dieties and Demigods book had the Cthulu Mythos in it. It'd be interesting to play a Pathfinder game and find Cthulu cults and various monsters in that realm that you would have to defeat......or not.
The best thing I can recommend is going back to the source material. The Prose Edda, Hesiod, Genesis, etc.
Because I don't think in terms of "This is exactly what happened and most people don't know about it", but rather this is what the various cultures BELIEVE happened, I tend to focus on "What is it about this culture that I want to convey in their mythology?"
Because that's really what creation myths are about: they're establishing the baselines for what the cultures holds as most important.
In my setting, I have two "main" religions that are upheld by most races in some form: the Elornites and Mierans, the former focusing on the Fire/Earth/Crafter god, and the latter focusing on the Water/Air/Wilderness goddess. Both religion believe both deities exist (they had a sporting rivalry that resulted in the creation of everything), but both hold their main deity is the more powerful of the two and that shapes their philosophies. There are some other religions in different regions, but where I normally set games, these are the only two that matter.
I don't like the approach of deities directly intervening and proving they exist via clerics, that's one step too far from how things work Out Here, and I think misses out on some interesting character-driven conflict if people know without doubt that their gods exist. Naturally, I tend to favor oracles over clerics, though cleric is stil la fine class (your power just comes from your faith, not expressly from the deity, though you may believe it so)
Perhaps the gods lie. Perhaps they invent their own histories to shape the mindsets of their followers. Maybe even they believe it themselves!
Joseph Campbell actually did an overview of creation myths, in addition to codifying the hero's journey. His work can be a lot of help here.
The age when the physical foundations of the planes are created are all very similar, but there is plenty of opportunity to indulge your creativity in the second phase, where the various races and creatures arise.
His book,Power of Myth, was pretty awesome. I would second your endorsement. I know the taped interview is floating around somewhere.