Gods are an enduring part of many fantasy settings. They are powerful beings that generally have a specific domain or portfolio they’re in charge of. You’ve got your ocean gods, sky gods, gods of good, gods of evil, gods of archery, gods of carpentry, etc. I think the fun thing about adding gods to a story is the different ways that gods can be portrayed and how their relationship with their mortal followers affects the world.
Gods and Belief
How gods are formed changes from setting to setting. Gods can be a natural part of the world, but often belief plays a factor in the formation of gods. If enough people believe in or worship something then a god embodying that focus of worship will come into existence. This new god will either form from nothing but belief or will be created from something that already exists such as a mortal. Belief is what allows a god to both exist and grow.
Gods as People
There is a bit of a scale when it comes to how much a god is a person. On the one end, you have gods which are essentially just humans with a lot of power and a job they must perform. On the other end of the spectrum, are your eldritch gods with minds that defy comprehension whose very existence shatters the sanity of anyone who perceives them. Regardless of origin, I believe power is what defines a god most. Gods have the kind of power that makes even the ruler of an empire seem like a toddler in comparison.
Gods as Magic
It’s common in settings with gods for these gods to be a source of power. This usually takes the form of a pact or exchange of worship. Prayer takes the place of a magic spell with magical effects being the end result. It might require actual faith on the part of the worshipper or it may work more on a transactional basis. The mortal performs a service for the god and gain power in return. This is where the second part of the post title comes into play.
Sacrifice
Sacrifices can range from simple offerings of food, incense, or prayers but can scale up to things like human sacrifice. There can be multiple reasons that the god requires sacrifices. It could be that gods are powered by worship and that sacrifices both sustain their existence and allow them to grow stronger. By this logic, the greater the sacrifice the more powerful a god becomes and the more power granted to their mortal worshippers.
Usually only evil gods need sacrifice, but sometimes this is an aspect of all gods in a setting. There might be something special about humans that causes their deaths to add power to a god. It could also be the case that it’s the perception of the worshippers that causes human sacrifice to be viable. The worshippers view it as significant and this belief adds power to the sacrifice. In theory, as long as a worshipper views what they are sacrificing as important then it adds to the power. In this scenario, if someone views a really nice work of art as having the same intrinsic value as a human life then it would also have the same effect. Of course, there are a lot less works of art than there are humans which is why human sacrifice ends up being the go-to method of powering up a god.
Silt Verses
My absolute favorite depiction of gods would be in the podcast, The Silt Verses. In this setting there are hundreds of gods formed from concepts and human sacrifice is considered a normal part of society. What I love about these gods is that while they are based on concepts humans can understand they’re always taken to horrifying extremes. Like the Trawler Man, a river god whose “miracles” include fusing fishermen to their boats and turning people into human/prawn hybrids. The gods themselves aren’t even really people. The closest they get to talking to someone is by sending weird dreams. They’re formed from human ideas, but there is nothing human about them. Gods, both legal and illegal, are integral to the nations presented in the Silt Verses even as their eldritch power is steadily eroding reality with each sacrifice.
This is likely my own personal bias at play, but I feel like gods should be more than a person with magic powers. They should be something almost otherworldly in both its form and the way it thinks. I think this depiction of gods is an untapped well that more stories could do with.
Conclusion
In general, adding gods to a setting can set up an interesting dynamic where the mortals are directly or indirectly being influenced by beings far more powerful than themselves. This sets up a situation where gaining the favor of gods can shape entire civilizations. Gods in fiction are a fascinating way of exploring the idea of powerful beings and the ways humanity interacts with them.