One of the things about worldbuilding that has always baffled me is the concept of God/whatever-you-call-him-in-your-worlds creating separate races from the start. He didn't do it with mankind, he created one couple and from them various races and cultures emerged. So I often have had trouble validating in my own mind why he would create more than one race on a world instead of doing like he did in the familiarworld. I know, I know, I'm over-thinking it. Probably, but it's what I do. Anywho I recently stumbled on a possible answer. At least one that works for me, especially after I realized it reflected some of the things I'd already done in my worldbuilding and race creation in the past without knowing it.

So here's my answer Old news, right? Well here's what hit me. The main reason God created our race was "in his own image". There have been centuries of discussion as to what exactly that means, but none of it really impacts the crux of my realization. If God created one race in his image in our world, then it would stand to reason that if he created multiple races it would be with the intention of each race reflecting his nature uniquely along with the other races. Now obviously they would all share some common qualities (sentience, a spirit/soul, conscience, free will, etc.), and no one race is made more in God's image than the others. They all reflect his highly complex nature in a variety of ways.

I honestly think that this could be a very big help with our worldbuilding and race creating. For instance you're going along and come up with awesome race A and awesome race B. Now ask yourself, how does race A reflect God's nature differently than race B and vice versa? Cool, right? Let me show you an example of what I'm talking about. It just so happens I did something very similar in my creation of Mythica's races, but at the time I wasn't entirely aware of the reflecting God's nature. But it works really well.

In Mythica there are essentially four main races that God created: The Fae were first, then the Valds, then the Wights, then Men. Of course, over the years there was diversifying and inter-marriage which led to new races popping up, but that's tangential to this post. Some years ago, I broke all of these but the Wights into three main categories, Fae = the Caretakers, Valds = the Rulers, and Men = the Inhabitants. The Fae were created to take care of the land and nurture it, and have a much closer rapport with nature than the other races. The Valds were made as rulers of the natural & magical (yeah, yeah, it's technically Cobha, but whatever ) forces of the world. And Men were made to be fruitful and multiply, filling the Earth. I think originally they were called the Wielders/Changers, and it carried the idea that rather than ruling the world or caring for it, they live in it and change it to meet their needs. Using trees to make shelters (i.e.-cutting down wood), building canals, crafting stone and metals, yall get the idea Now as yall can see, this original system doesn't exactly look at how they reflect God's nature in these capacities and it also excludes the Wights. Now let me show you how the Imago Dei perspective has informed my understanding of them.

The Fae/Caretakers, reflect God's role as Provider, Sustainer, Caring father. Many times in the Scripture he is parabolically portrayed as a farmer or as one who plants a vineyard/vine and tenderly cares for it. Most often it's used as a symbol of how he cares for his People, but there are a couple of passages (particularly Jesus' spiel on not worrying and the end of Job) that show how he cares for his creation. The Fae were made to reflect that, they have a close rapport with the created realm and care dearly for it. You could almost call them the gardeners or groundskeepers of nature.

The Valds/Rulers reflect God's authority and power. Now obviously, only God is truly sovereign, but even as in Genesis where he hands over a great deal of authority upon Adam, so he does to the Valds. The Valds are uniquely bonded to the innate power that God filled the world with, and it gives them a great deal of power over the forces both natural and more abstract. The story of that is actually really cool and I look forward to sharing it with yall eventually.

The Wights, which before really had no place in the system, reflect God's spiritual nature. Like him, they exist without physical bodies. Now they can take on physical form, or give the appearance of physical form, but in their natural state, they are pure spirit. They're different from angels however in that they (the Wights) were created with the world and are inhabitants of it unlike angels, which seem to have an existence independent of our world.

Men reflect two main attributes of God one more notably than the other. First, his omnipresence. Scripture tells how God fills the earth/universe with his presence. He is in all places at once. Now men are not omnipresent, but their large population leads to them as a race filling the world in a manner reflective of God's omnipresence. Secondly, Men reflect God's creativity, but particularly in an innovative/inventive sense. I didn't want to give one race more skills as artists above another, I figure God made all the races with the ability to create beauty. So Men are more creative in the ways that they adapt the resources of nature to their needs and will.

Now, of course, those aren't the only traits of God that each race reflects. There are many others, and many of them are mutually shared by all the races. The thing is that for each race I picked out an attribute of God that that race reflects more dominantly than the other races. The Valds care for nature as well, and the Fae can be quite inventive at times, and Man's creative use of natural resources entails a type of dominion over nature. The thing is, that none of those things are as notable as the main trait that the races reflect.

This post is starting to get long, and I've done a lot of talking about my races and my worldbuilding, but there's a reason for it. My hope was that by showing you how the idea helped me with my worldbuilding, you might get a better idea of how this perspective could help you. A couple of house cleaning points as I wrap this up. First, this is an extremely exocosmic perspective, the races themselves do not grasp/obsess about the idea of how they reflect God's image differently as much as I do. Frankly because to them it wouldn't matter. They have the very real physical, cobhical and cultural differences that they use to distinguish themselves from one another. The theology of it really isn't a concern for them. Secondly, I wanted to encourage you to remember that you don't have to assign each race a specific Attribute of God's character/nature that they reflect/embody. This was meant more as an encouragement to look at your races and see how they reflect God's character differently from one another. It might give you some ideas of how to further develop them, I know it did for me. It might give you new insight on some things that needed improvement. It might even give you story ideas (perish the thought!) ! It can also be helpful for creating a new world and new races to think about an Attribute or a handful of Attributes of God and then start building a race that reflects that/those Attribute(s). Well hope this long rambly post has, if nothing else, given you some things to think about

So how do your races reflect the image of God? Be sure to chime in on this thread in the theology room as well.

That's a good thing to think about.

Thanks! I thought so too Wait till you see my upcoming post about the worldbuilding implications of the Tower of Babel. That will be even more fun to write and to think about.

Awesome post, Seer! Thanks for taking the time to write this!
Ok so a way that I applied this to my WereWolves (if you haven't met my WereWolves yet, you can read the thread by clicking the red symbol in my signature) is, that WereWolves are a perfect example of absolute despicable horrible scum being redeemed and turned into something beautiful, amazing, and with a huge capacity for good. As you probably noticed, that is very similar to how "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." It also is an example of God's amazing Grace and willingness to draw even the most despicable creatures to himself for their good and his glory. In their own way, WereWolves glorify God by testifying to his amazing ability to turn evil things to good by living wholesome lives.
Sort of a different take on applying your idea, I suppose, but I want you to know that your post made me think of it (or accentuating it, anyway), so thanks again for that post!

*makes note to watch for Seer's Tower of Babel post*

Yeah, it's fairly different from what I was thinking of, but I'm glad it was helpful to you
*remembers a question about RunningWolf's WereWolves and runs off to post it*

Yeah, it's funny how ideas work together and inspire other ideas. Yeah, bring on the questions! I find that questions from other HWers are one of the main things that help me develop things thoroughly.

One of the things that bugs me when I read fantasy/talk with other fantasy writers is that they completely ignore the origins aspect. Not just how the world came about, but how it is sound (or unsound) theologically. It's like putting stories in the fantasy category excuses us from having to make God fit into it in a way that actually coincides with what's in Scripture.

So it's very, very refreshing to hear your perspective, Seer. I like it when people either make their worlds directly connected to Earth and thus subject to God in that way, or else seperate and unique with a strong emphasis on the symbolism. I have two fantasy worlds: Xystia and The Land. Xystia is directly connected to Earth, with a literal Bible, the same God, Salvation plan, etc. The other is completely symbolic, though it closely mimics reality, which was the intention.

Really, it seems to me poor stewardship of the genre, as Christians, when we opt out of figuring out the theological aspects. That's almost the most important part, since it distinguishes Christian fantasy from secular fantasy. If we do it in a skilled way, it won't make our stories any less interesting than if we'd left it out. In short, I wouldn't call it overthinking at all! I think it's great. Your idea is very unique and fascinating, and I'm pretty picky when it comes to this sort of thing. ^.^

This is great. I've actually had a pretty similar thought about how races with different methods of reproduction (a three gendered race for example) would have to reflect God's nature in their version of marriage because the union between Man and Wife is supposed to represent Christ and the church. I'm glad someone else applied the principle more generally and even worked up an example, which is pretty good by the way. Thank you for starting this thread, Seer!

While I haven't done this exactly in Ska'Lah'Seh as my Mon'An (Elves) are Half-Angels, Dwarves are just a mutant off-split of man, And the Beast men are just beasts raised up by Yah (God) to sapience. The only Sapient mortal race created at the Beginning was Humanity. However there is an interesting Point The Wol'V'An were raised to Sapiancy by God in order to save them from extinction. As they still had a part to play in his plan etc. Does this fall under your concept?

*scratches head and processes*
Um...no...doesn't even remotely fall under the concept in question.
Applying the concept to your races would be asking yourself, "What attribute(s) of God is more evident in this race than in the others?" Make sense?

Another example for you all (and for discussion since it does differ from Seer's way of splitting up the attributes):

In Eartea, there were originally three sapient species.

Created first, men were meant to rule and fill the Earth and subcreate within it. After men fell, they split into three groups, which eventually became distinct species. The humans reflect the Kingship attribute, and subdue and fill the earth. The elves represent the Prophet attribute, and experience revelations about past, present, and future events, as well as special insight into the hearts of themselves and others. The Dwarves represent the Priest attribute, and are the chosen people who are given the First Covenant, and charged to minister to the rest of mankind and to the creatures under their dominion.

These races of men, while representing different attributes of God, all represent a central attribute of dominion.

Created second, the _____ (no name, as of yet) exist to serve man, and live under his dominion. Yet, they possess souls and are created in the image of God. They represent the attribute of omnipotence, because of their incredibly long lives and extremely advanced intelligence, which would allow them to explore and learn, and share their wisdom with man.

Created third, the Wusch (this name shall change, I swear it), were also created to serve man, but in a rather unconventional way. The Wusch were created (prior to the fall) to reprove and correct man after the fall, thus reflect an attribute of God, and reflecting his foreknowledge.

There are, of course, the Dragons, which were created separately from the rest, at the specific request of Man (the first man, ironically), who saw in a vision prior to the fall a time of danger, and requested that God create protectors for his children. Thus, the race of Dragons, created to protect man, reflected Christ's attributes of servant-hood and self-sacrifice.

Oh dear, that was long. (Sorry for boring you all with the arcana of Eartea, but I've got to say this stuff somewhere, and Seer conveniently started a thread on the subject.)

What you describe sounds more like "omniscience".

Very interesting work you've done with your races, Neil.

Indeed.

No more posts after 10. I always use the wrong word.

Thanks Seer and Jonathan!

*is very excited about the Tower of Babel post*
*is also excited about this*

In my admittedly underdeveloped Creation story, the three different races were created with different attributes, at least. The general premise is that men were created from the Earth, Elves from fire, and the 'halfelven' from water. Therefore, they have fundamentally different personalities.
As far as God giving them different purposes... that's harder. I have nothing for the elves or the men, right now. But on the other hand, 'halfelven' are commanded to nurture and protect. They are the race most deeply rooted in the Creator, and He commanded them to watch over humans (the most fragile) and care for the natural world. This is why, wherever you find human settlement, you will find a clan of 'halfelven' nearby. I call it the Halfelven Great Commission.

Oh yeah....I did say I was gonna write a post about that didn't I *adds that to the pile of posts needing to be written*
Neat!

What I showed in my example wasn't "my way" of splitting up the attributes of God, per se. It was just the attributes that I happened to emphasize in that particular case. That's the great thing about having such an immeasurable God, there's an infinite number of attributes to choose from!

Wow what an amazing post...I didn't even try to consider this as I am designing my races. I just started and I already see how I can further develop my races, and how I can differentiate them even more.

I think it is an important thing to consider when designing your races...it sort of keeps you in check in a way, also to remind yourself of theology: am I implementing Christ within this story. Nice job Seer.






I agree with this. Figuring out the theological aspects are very important.

Well, I have Elves, sort of like angels, my Dwarves are sort of like preachers. Then my Nymphs take care of the plants.

That's cool, I like your ideas Lieutenant!

I was thinking about some elves sort of like false prophets.

Ok, those of you who have looked at my Intense Race-Fractalling System might recall that the first phase was inspired by this particular principle. However, I have recently decided that it was proving more of a hindrance to the system than a help so I expunged it from IRFS 2.2. And I decided since the responses to this thread indicate that some would still be interested in tools for developing their races from a more spiritual perspective that I'd post that part of the old fractalling system here so that those who wish can still play around with it.

• God’s Purpose
  Here we look at God’s plan for the races of your world, and specifically for the race currently being fractalled. Now this was one of the bigger flaws of the original IRFS, it presupposes that each race in your world was at creation assigned an individual purpose. This may not be the case. For instance, when God created all the diverse plants, birds, fish, and animals they all had basically the same mission statement, “be fruitful and multiply”. Only the human race was given different instructions. So it’s not wholly inconceivable that God might make various individual sentient races and give them all the same basic purpose. So maybe all your races were created with the same basic purpose, or maybe each had a unique role to fill. This is where you can play with that idea.
  
  • So first off, do all the races share a common purpose given by God?
    • What is that common purpose?
    • Is it a common purpose that all the races were meant to fulfill together with each race playing a specific role?
    • If so, what role was the race in question meant to play?
    • Or was it a purpose that each race was meant to fulfill in its own way?
  • Do any/all of the races have individual purposes to fulfill and if so, what is your race’s purpose?
  • What specific attributes of God does your race uniquely reflect and how?All of creation reflects his nature according to Romans 1, and according to Genesis the human race was actually made in his image. One race made in his image. So if there are various races in your world, a fun option is to imagine that while they all reflect his image equally, each race reflects different attributes of God differently from the other races. So are there any of God’s qualities that your race reflects uniquely from the other races, and if so what are they and how are they reflected?
  • What kind of relationship did God envision for the races (and your race specifically) to have with the other living creatures in this world?
  • What kind of relationship were the races of your world (and your race in particular) meant to have with the environment?
  • What kind of relationships were the races in your world meant to have? We touched briefly on this earlier with the idea of a mutual purpose that all the races work together to fulfill. But even if you choose not to take that route, this is a good point to consider. What relationship was your race meant to share with the other races?
• The Fall’s Impact
  Ok, so we have a working picture of how things should be with your race. Now we’re gonna look at how things actually are with your race. Regardlessly of how theological/”allegorical” you get with your worldbuilding, it’s pretty much a given that your writing about a fallen world. So we’re gonna look at some of the major impacts the Fallen state of your world has on your race(s). This is another place I went a little overboard with in the original IRFS, so I hope to restrain myself this go-around and only delve as far as is useful. For instance, the first few questions in the old system asked about the circumstances of the Fall, but as fun as those can be, you can actually have a functioning world without knowing those details.
  • What physical afflictions does your race deal with as a result of the Fall? I mean, death and decay are the obvious ones for mankind and most races, but were there any unique physical imperfections your race is plagued by?
    • Are there any genetic disorders common/unique to your race?
    • Are there any birth complications/disorders common/unique to your race?
    • Are there any diseases(think viruses & bacteria) that your race is more susceptible to than other races? Are there any that only your race are vulnerable to?
    • Similarly, are there any diseases/injuries that are fatal only to your race, or more so to your race than to other races?
    • Are there any types of injuries your race is especially prone to?
    • Are there any physical disabilities common/unique to your race?
    • Are there any signs of aging common/unique to your race?
  • What role does your race play in the world? This will be further explored by other perspectives, but for now look at the role that your race was made to play and determine the role they actually play. For example, we were told to multiply and to rule over the earth and all its creatures, and look at how we’re doing at that.
  • What are your race’s relationships with the other races in your world like? Again, we’ll dig deep down into this one later on and this step is meant as a comparison. What should relationships among your races be like? And What are they like in actuality?
  • Aside from the obvious separation from God and spiritual deadness and so on, are there any spiritual problems/ailments/defects unique to your race? In a related manner, how did the Fall impact the "likeness of God" that your race was made in?
    • Are there any temptations unique to your race or any that your race is more susceptible than other races?
    • What are emotional problems common/unique to your race? For example, anger, depression, anxiety, hedonism, and apathy are pretty common to the human race.
    • Similarly, are there any psycho-emotional illnesses/disorders common among/unique to your race?
    • Are there any mental/emotional handicaps common among/unique to your race?
    • Are there any Cobhaic problems unique to your race? If your race has any special abilities unique to them apart from the other races (or simply unique from our race), think about how those abilities were meant to work and how they actually work. Or from another angle, are there any effects of the Fall on your race (or your world for that matter) that would be physically/scientifically impossible in our world?
    • What is your race’s relationship with the rest of creation like? In Genesis 3 we see God curse the ground so that Adam (and all mankind) would now have to work for their food. But in Genesis 9 when God gives man permission to eat meat, we see a further rend in mankind's relationship with creation as God places a fear of man in the hearts of the animals. So are there any nature-related problems unique to your race? Are there nature-related problems common to all the races of your world? This step may overlap some with the cobhaic effects. But remember, look at what life in the created world is supposed to be for your race and compare it to what it’s actually like.
    • Similarly, what kinds of relationships does your race have with the other living creatures of the world?
• Redemption’s Work
  So we’ve seen God’s plan for your race and Sin’s corruption of your race, now we’re gonna look at how His redemptive plan set things back on track. I’ll throw in the disclaimer here that this step will mean more to those whose worlds are more allegorical and mimic ours in terms of spiritual history, with a clear-cut Fall and clear-cut Redemption. But with creativity, it should be able to be adapted to less allegorical worlds. I think one of the biggest things to remember on this step is that in our world the largest signs of redemption are spiritual and in a sense behavioral. The best results are yet to come, and I suspect that in your worlds God would probably follow the same principle. That’s part of the reason why this step is so brief in comparison to the others. But hey! It’s fantasy, so feel free to be imaginative!
  • Are there any notable physical differences for redeemed members of your race? Keep in mind, that on a whole, there really aren’t that many for us human Christians (exceptions being miraculous healings and such, but that’s a different discussion altogether). I have a feeling that for many of you any physical signs of redemption will be closely tied to the Cobha of your race and we’ll get to that in a moment.
  • Does redemption impact the unique cobha of your race?Think back to the previous step where we asked about the effects of the Fall on your race’s cobha and think about how redemption undoes that harm. Also, does redemption impact your race in a manner that would be impossible in our world?
  • Does redemption impact your race’s relationship with the creation or its creatures in any unique ways?
  • Are there any physical or cobhaic abilities/traits that will be rendered unnecessary in the Final Redemption?

I know that might seem a little shallow, but you got to remember that originally it was intended to be only one of four stages in developing your races. And admittedly the redemption section leaves a lot to be desired. But either way, here it is and I hope it helps.

I don't know why this made me laugh, but it did. Angels, preachers, and gardeners. That's awesome.



This right here is amazing. I love it; thanks for even coming up with something like this. I sometimes think I could/would write out creation systems like that, but then I distracted writing the story itself.