Creating a Celestial World

This is one of the articles based on the free templates from my book, “Writing Fantasy (The Ultimate Guide and Complete Reference Book)” (US link).  You can get the link to download the entire set of twelve templates in the Book Samples section. 

You can use a celestial world in various ways in a fantasy novel.  Perhaps the acts of deities cause trouble for your mortal protagonist.  Maybe your protagonist somehow becomes a deity or is born a demi-god.  Look at some of the different mythologies and religious ideas from around the world for ideas on what this realm might be like.

If you have deities helping your protagonist or your main character is a deity, then think about how to limit or counteract their power, otherwise there will be nothing they cannot overcome and you will not have any tension in your novel.  Perhaps one deity is helping your protagonist, but another is working against them.  Maybe there are weapons/devices capable of destroying, harming or imprisoning deities.

The list below should help you decide what information you need to develop your celestial world.  There is a separate article here to help you create deities.

1. The name of the deity or pantheon(s) of deities and titles associated with them
2. If there is a pantheon of deities, how they are related to each other, in terms of families, friends and enemies
3. Whether they are all equal or have different ranks or levels of power
4. If there is more than one pantheon of deities, how they interact
5. Whether there are other celestial beings or creatures and what function they serve
6. Whether the deities live solely in a celestial realm, live within nature or visit the mortal world
7. Whether they look human or not
8. What their world, if they have a separate one, looks like
9. Common traits (are they warrior or nature deities, do they represent virtues or something else?)
10. Details of how they spend their time
11. What their special abilities or powers and weaknesses are (this may vary from individual to individual)
12. Whether they have enemies
13. How they are viewed in the mortal world and how accurate this impression is
14. Whether their priests and priestesses in the mortal world can communicate with them
15. Whether they can mate with humans and produce demi-gods with special abilities
16. Whether they have other effects on the mortal world, such as taking sides in mortal battles
17. Details of specific myths, such as creation myths or myths about the actions of specific deities

You might also want to read my articles on creating deities and creating an underworld.

If you need more help to write your fantasy novel, find out about my book, “Writing Fantasy (The Ultimate Guide and Complete Reference Book)” (US link).