A somewhat broad category of gods that: covers some of the gods that came into being thru the belief of mortals; and those gods that either represent some malicious act(s) and/or idea or set of ideas. These, like the spectrum of gods in general, range from the lesser tribal gods to gods that are recognized worldwide. This category of gods can be divided into two general groups depending on the type of malice or how malice is used: The Gods of Ill Desire where typically a malicious act is the means to some end; The Gods of Pure Malice where some type of harm is the end goal.
The Gods of Ill Desire arose out mortals” desires for power, money, fame, position, selfishness, greed.
The Gods of Pure Malice arose out of mortals’ desires to cause pain in-and-of itself – murder, destruction, rape, torture both physical and psychological, etc.
As a quick example to help differentiate between these two sets of Gods of Malice let’s look at murder. For the Gods of Ill Desire you kill not for the sake of killing or enjoyment but because it’s business – you kill to get a higher position, money, power. You kill your cousin not because you hate them but because you’re both in your grandfather’s will and you don’t want to share the inheritance. For the Gods of Pure Malice you kill someone because you hate that someone, maybe because you enjoy the killing, maybe because you can kill.
The Gods of Malice say murder, rape, betrayal, greed, lust, etc has always been around and always will. They did not invent these things, mortals did.
The Gods of Ill Desire have more followers than the Gods of Pure Malice as more people want something socio-economically rather than want to do harm simply for the sake of harm.
The Gods of Ill Desire look for those that want something they cannot easily have or are not supposed to have. They look for those that feel powerless, have been kicked around. They keep an eye out for those mortals who perhaps have not had their prayers answered by their god and are maybe willing to look somewhere else for assistance. “Somebody always wants something. We see if we can help ‘em out, and then maybe they can help us out.”
The followers of the Gods of Malice don’t actually have to commit harmful acts themselves, they just have to follow/be devoted to the Gods of Malice.
If mortals commit terrible acts the Gods of Ill Desire don’t actually care that much as long as the act doesn’t screw up their propaganda war. If it does, then the follower is reined-in/punished.
Some of the collective goals of the Gods of Malice:
One goal of most of the Gods of Malice before the War was to have a say in the decision making process amongst the gods/been seen as equals to the Gods of Creation, rather than being relegated to being the wardens of Hell for the combination of reasons that they were Birthed Gods and represented acts of harm. After the War, with a fair number of Original Gods of Creation being destroyed, the remaining Gods of Creation, gods such as Sella (god of the Arid places; god that helped create humans; Chief Governor of Hell), had to concede to giving all gods, even the Gods of Malice, equal say and vote in the affairs of the gods.
Not long after coming into being, the various Gods of Malice would always point out that followers of the other gods, if they had been loyal to said gods and followed their rules, would get to go to paradise. “Why cannot our followers have a paradise, they were loyal to us,” sometimes said with a cheeky grin, knowing full well that most of their followers were damned for actions they had taken during their lives. And yet these gods still wanted then, and still want now, some type of paradise(s) for their followers. The other gods of course cannot allow this to happen. “Without fear of eternal damnation how many mortals would no longer be afraid to commit harm for the sake of harm? How many mortals would turn to some God of Malice as their savior, knowing that they would be rewarded in the afterlife?” As was mentioned as terms of the Treaty of the Divine Plane, mortals are judged based on their actions not on their beliefs so even a follower of some God of Malice can end up in a paradise so long as on balance said mortal lived a decent life. But at least some of the Gods of Malice would like to offer their own paradises:
“If we had the power we would give souls a paradise worthy of forever. You can drink, you can fuck, you can gamble, you can swear, you can fight, you can masturbate, you can eat anything you want, you can smoke anything you want, you can pursue any interest you want. Why? Because you’re dead! Who cares if you wanna throw rocks at windows all day – you’re dead. Who cares if you wanna nap all day – you’re dead. Who cares if you wanna build houses all day – you’re dead. You wanna race horses all day – you’re dead. Anything you want, cause you’re dead. Learn just about anything. You could have a more fulfilled afterlife than real life. Some of those goody-goody heavens are shit – you’re neutered. There’s rules. Rules, when you’re dead? What kinda bullshit is that? You hadda follow rules all your life, now you gotta follow them when your dead too? What a scam. This is why some souls that got into some goody-goody thereafter make their way here. Mortals need something to challenge them. Eternal bliss and peace doesn’t usually do the job.” – Teoheon, chief of the Gods of Ill Desire, to Mathew Serig.
To this end, some of the various gods of Malice have come together, to varying degrees, and are waging something of a propaganda war in the Mortal Plane against their political opponents in the Divine Plane. This propaganda war is subtle and without any bloodshed. The followers of these gods of Malice: spread nasty rumors about the clergy of their gods’ opponents; entrap or blackmail clergy and prominent followers; dig up the actual dirt on said clergy and prominent followers. In general do whatever they can to make the clergy of their gods’ opponents, from the country priest to the city cardinal and the most important lay people and the religious organization at some level look immoral and/or dysfunctional so as to have followers of these religions go elsewhere. These efforts have been going on for centuries now and have been successful in killing off a few minor gods and weakening others. The gods of Malice behind these efforts hope that someday all this will make it easier for them to negotiate amendments to the Treaty – such as allowing for a small portion of the Gray Waste/Hell to be carved out as something of a paradise for at least some of the followers. Or perhaps some of their followers will be able to spend some significant time in the homes of their gods in the Demi Plane. Time will tell.
Up Next: the gods of Ill Desire and their charismatic chief Teoheon.
