Numina (ˈnjuːmɪnə)
"Gods are the creation of our stories, and we can choose which stories we tell. We can craft the gods we wish to exist." - excerpt from The Godcrafter Manifesto
"If it is true that the gods are born from our beliefs, then it is necessary for us to believe in better gods." - Bagus Jayanagara, founder of Tirta Baya
In the world of the Million Islands, one of the most powerful forces is that of collective belief, which we call The Egregoric Force. When enough people believe something for a long enough time, it will manifest from The Dream and become as real as anything else that exists.
Numina are entities created by this process. They are often divided into two general categories, gods and spirits. The only true distinction between the two is whether or not they are worshipped, and even that can be a blurry line. They can also be categorized by their level of power and influence, or by how strong of a personal identity they posess, or by the culture they have arisen from. In the end, all the Numina are fundamentally the same - they are beings of The Dream, whose eidolons are sustained by the thoughts, beliefs, and imaginations of other thinking beings.
Anchors and Stability
As creatures of The Dream, Numina are easily shaped and transformed by the beliefs and thoughts of others. This can make them extremely volatile, with their identities and memories shifting rapidly to conform to the ideas that are held about them. They can even cease to exist for long or short periods when they are not actively being thought about. This state is distressing to those Numina who become self-aware enough to understand their state, and they will seek to protect themselves from the vagaries of other people's thoughts.
One common way to resist the power of The Egregoric Force is to be anchored within the other realms1. Numina in the Great Ring will usually be anchored to a geographical location, such as an island, mountain, or body of water. They consider this location to be their body, and being linked to it in their minds and the minds of others grants them much more resistance to The Egregoric Force. Frequently this happens naturally as the Numina is first manifested, but sometimes they will seek it out themselves. Multiple Numina can share a physical anchor, although one will typically become the dominant entity associated with it.
Another important anchor for Numina is the acquisition of a spiritual body, or Pneuma. This almost always happens during the initial manifestations of the Numina, as spiritual energies that resonate with the ideas forming the Numina coalesce around the developing Eidolon. Having a Pneuma enables the Numina to access True Magic, and also grants them the ability to form connections to other entities that can stablize and support them. Almost all Numina have a Pneuma, and those who do not rarely persist for long.
Pantheons & Eclectic Temples
As creatures born of thought, Numina are deeply linked to the cultures they arise from. A pantheon is a group of Numina that all derive their support from the same cultural foundation. Sometimes a Numina will be able to transition from one pantheon to another, such as in the case of Vǫlva Ormr, but most of the time Numina do not outlive the culture that created them for long.
In addition to the pantheons, Numina (particularly gods) can be grouped by their domains of influence. There are places in the Great Ring known as Eclectic Temples, which host shrines to gods connected by a particular theme, rather than a cultural identity. Normally, the Numina are limited to manifesting in those parts of the Dream that echo their physical anchors, but shrines dedicated to them are also a place where they can appear. Having shrines in one physcial location creates a place within the Dream where all these disparate Numina can manifest and interact, allowing for cooperation across pantheons. You can read more about Eclectic Temples here.
The City of a Thousand Gods
In most of the Great Ring, creating a new god is a pretty lengthy process. Even using the techniques created by the Godcrafter's Guild, it takes years to build up enough belief to cause a new Numina to manifest. But there is one place where this isn't the case.
In the city of Lifworðig on Ynys, Numina are born all the time, from stray and random ideas. This city was the home base of the Clarati sorcerer Illustrata, whose experiments with the Egregoric Force were focused on the manifestation of new Numina. He didn't want to wait for years and years to test his methods, and looked for a way to speed up the process. The answer was in the Egregoric Force itself, and more specifically in the way it could alter the local metaphysical environment, producing local systems of Folk Magic. Illustrata seeded the belief that Lifworðig was a place where Numina could be born all the time, and planted it deep enough in the beliefs of the area that it became true.
This had some unintended consequences. Children's imaginary friends pop into literal existence, as do nightmares, daydreams, and fictional characters. Most last for only a short time, and vanish again when they are forgotten. The people who live in Lifworðig learn to be careful about what entities they imagine, and have developed the knack of dismissing stray thoughts from their mind, causing newborn Numina to pop like soap bubbles.
This ususally works, but not always. Sometimes an idea has just enough purchase to hang on, being in the minds of a few people most of the time, and is able to linger in a kind of half-existence. The Numina Salvation Society has formed to aid these tiny gods, and to prevent them from going to extreme lengths to ensure their longevity. You can read more about the Society here.
Footnotes
1To learn more about the three realms, check out this article.Don't I Know You From Somewhere?
Sometimes people from other worlds will note similarities between the Numina of the Great Ring and gods from other worlds. This is not an accident or an illusion, but a natural consequence of the connections between worlds. Ideas and associations echo across The Dream, and many of the same archetypes and personalities appear in different combinations and configurations.
We Can Make Gods
Gods are made, not born. And while most of them are made accidentally, Godcrafting is an art practiced in some parts of the Great Ring, most often on the island of Ynys. There is an entire pantheon of gods that were created deliberately; you can read more about the Godcrafted here.
We Need Better Gods
The Numina of the Great Ring don't need to be loved to survive. Being feared is just as good; as long the people are thinking about a god, they are being sustained and supported. Dark and evil gods can survive by inflicting terror on the mortals near them, and there are plenty who have chosen that route. But not everyone thinks they should just accept this. There's a young organization called the Tirta Baya who think that evil gods should be eradicated, and that they are the folks to sort out the good from the bad. You can read more about them here.
The Tale of Red Jack
In the city of Lifworðig, new Numina manifest and vanish all the time. Red Jack was one of them; born out of nightmare, this small god knew that his time was limited and decided to do something about it.
Manifested nightmares don't have much power - they can terrify the person who dreamt them up, but even forming a physical manifestation is typically beyond them. They are short-lived, unanchored eidolons who exist purely in The Dream. But something was different about Red Jack. Maybe he was connected to some figure from other worlds, and was able to draw on that connection. Maybe he was an amalgamation of more than one dream in Lifworðig that night. We don't know why, but Red Jack had more power than your typical nightmare, and he used it to cement himself in the minds of the people of Lifworðig.
Red Jack was able to manifest as a shadow with a knife, and began carving his way into the collective unconscious. He ripped through the heart of the city, making sure to perform each murder in front of as many witnesses as he could. With each one he gained substance and power, as all those who saw him had little choice but to contribute to his substance in The Dream. When the sun rose at last, there was a new and terrifying god of bloody slaughter bound tightly to the city. While he hasn't repeated his killing spree yet, the fear of it is certainly keeping him going - and nobody doubts that he will provide reminders if he needs to.
This is so fascinating and has so much potential for interesting stories and worldbuilding. I liked the note about how bad/evil gods survive, and how some people think they are necessary. "If it is true that the gods are born from our beliefs, then it is necessary for us to believe in better gods." You could probably write a whole philosophy book on this quote. Someone in your world probably has. XD
Thanks! I’m glad you liked it. I’ve got more planned for the character whose quote you liked; he has founded an organization based around his philosophy.