Space/Science Fantasy

Not all elements of fantasy need be present in SF for it to become Science Fantasy, but Clarke's Second Law ("Sufficiently advanced technology...") can, if applied properly, solve most of the delivery issues with gods and miracles.

Zelazny's "Lord of Light" has already been cited.
Babylon 5 contains a number of examples.
Star Trek has approached Space Gods several times from different angles. Not that I recommend watching ST:V again...
Then there is The Winslow.

As a slapdash mix of connections to transcendental states
>Usual
>Philosophical networks so dynamic they have a consciousness of their own
>Techno-Mystical Buddhas who act as a link between this level and the next
>Psychic nuclear jesus is a little girl who travels from place to place dishing out comfort or annihilation. Her followers seek oblivion and will help her on her way.
>The ubermensch, hyper dimensional lord by his own hand, rules his subjects from beyond perceivable reality
>Chaos calculating god machine
>Big ass space monster that demands sacrifice in exchange for a suckle at it's tit of divinity
>Mystical Che Guevara has stockpiled transcendent wisdom which he will pass on to his followers, they will overthrow the gods and build a people's heaven
>Mr. Majestic will sell you god's flesh for cash money
>In the hyper dimensions there may be one god or many. Which ever the case it's aspects and intents are often revealed in the seemingly random processes of life and technology. Many chase such randomness in hopes of finding messages
>This
>A sentient, omniscient drug that commands it's followers to tear down this limiting reality
>A ship's AI with the gift of prophecy can speak to the natural process of the universe. It heads a cosmic-druidic cult
>A hyper dimensional cloud travels from place to place talking to folks and trying local cuisine. Jihad ensues.

Like these. Weird chimes or something that communicate telepathically.

cosmic entities

while the gods of classical fantasy are very human and earth-centric, existing on a scale comprehensible to humanity - forces and concepts, like justice and fertility, that humans can understand and grapple with - cosmic gods represent the indifferent, impossibly vast expanse of space beyond earth, in which humans are unwelcome guests. cosmic gods, unlike their classical counterparts, are generally unconcerned with mortal affairs, have little care for human concepts like morality, are inscrutible and ineffable in their motives and desires.

>Star Trek has approached Space Gods several times from different angles

DS9 handles it reasonably well.

And Q episodes are always fun.
What the fuck are they going to when that guy kicks the bucket? :-/

Okay I like these ideas but...

Now just hear me out on this okay...

Okay?

Okay.

So what if...

And be sure to follow me on this...

Every single one of these techo gods took the form of cute girls with awesome racks.

yeah, I'm okay with that

They choose to represent themselves as typical for powerful humans of the early Space Age (let's say 1950s, '60s and '70s): white men in suits, some of them smoking.

Do you need gods?

in my setting gods have long lost all self-awareness and became suns. There are still people who worship them, and if person's ideals correspond to gods' domain, he can channel that god's energy.

Have them as paragons and the pinacle of sciences and mathmatical diciplines.

Is there a name for the kind of autism where you can't grapple with any concept that isn't rendered as a girl?

Sounds awesome...

Ever heard of Xenogears? Had a very interresting aproach towards gods...

Why not cats?

What they do with straight females?

Sexually frustrated

>implying
>the gods of /a/ aren't shota

Unfathomable cosmic entities

Anthropomorphic Personifications

Or pic related

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Depends in the deity really. At their level of power they've 'usually' the capacity to represent themselves however they like. However, their origin/history will be the modifiers of this.

If extradimensional they may lack the capacity to manifest themselves (or their anatomy/aesthetics are likely be completely alien to the point of interaction being difficult.) Even great intellect may remain incapable of noticing or even caring about beings unfamiliar to it (and such an alien god has no guarantee of being a great, or even comprehensible intellect.)

If of a posthuman origin (alternatively if modern humans are their creations/children) then they are more likely to subscribe to a human aesthetic but exaggerated by magnitudes of possible social isolation, egotism, and solidified personality.

Of particular interest are those deities who are 'wounded' cursed or hobbled in some way (examples include; Oden's missing eye, the crippled legs of Vulcan, or the missing penis of Osirus) which may either be literally unhealable wounds of those entities or be the representation/explanation of their character and limits to those beneath them.

Ex: Oden trading great internal knowledge for being less aware of his surroundings, Vulcan not traveling rapidly or much due to his abilities coming from heavy, specialize equipment, Osirus is resurrected as an immortal but is now infertile due to an incorporeal nature (represented as being 'king of the other side)

Shut up about moon-men!

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>Big guys in space chairs.
Nailed it in one.

maybe play it off as normal. There are beings, they represent ideas, and normally they're stronger than any number of mortal entities. That is, to say, normal entities of medieval technology. Once people start developing tech, magical or not, that starts to reach the abilities of what gods are capable of, these incredible spiritual beings will begin to look less like rulers and more like equals. Play them out like that, former rulers that maintain their power but are losing their celebrity status as everyone else approaches them.

How does one represent or explain Gods in Science Fiction instead of Science Fantasy?

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youtube.com/watch?v=SIxGfs8TTQg

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Go postmodernist on it. Faith is quantifiable. Divinity is a banal resource. Gods have a monopoly of using it. The afterlife is just another dimension, you can go there and come back. People drive through it to cut on travel times. Gods make speeches on TV. Losers and freelance $padres$ on social networks obsess over them and wage internet wars over the meaning of every little inscrutability. There is an 'insert faith, receive bacon' machine in the first floor hallway of your shitty council block. It works. You're late for your shift. You pray for the traffic lights to be kind but it doesn't work because you bought too much bacon. There is a holy symbol suspended over the entrance to your cubicle farm. A terrorist walks in. The holy symbol shoots lightning at him. Police arrive, close down half the office. You're on unpaid overtime tonight. Stephen Fry arrives. Turns out he'd been stockpiling faith for decades. Now he burns all of it to make you become hard gay for him. You are now hot for Stephen Fry. Your phone rings. Your old pastor just received a vision about your troubles. He tells you he has good news, but you can hear the disapproval in his voice. You haven't set foot in a church for fifteen years and he knows, because good men don't go spiritually bankrupt after buying a bacon sandwich. He won't say a word about it, he'll be polite, not because he's grinding points but because he's a good man, he'll be polite and toil to help you, even though you couldn't be bothered to get up early on Sunday. That's all it took. That and not eating fucking bacon sandwiches. God of war is on the radio. He's angry about something. Your cat meows. It is hungry but there is no food.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLZW8Deq8vE

There are regions of space full of strange phenomena. Entire planets carved with elaborate swirling patterns, as if someone used an enormous particle beam for art. Odd colored stars that seem to move around of their own accord, with no regard for gravity. Systems where the celestial bodies seem to orbit a massive gravity well that simply isn't there.

It is unwise to visit these fringe regions. If you must pass through them, do so quickly and do not linger. The gods walk these fields and do not care for interlopers. Avoid them, least you learn the lesson of Bellerophon the hard way.

No mortal man can ascend Olympus.

Now you're talking with OK legs!

Beat me to it.

What's the name of the comic where robot "gods" have been in hibernation on earth and are manchurian canidates living out lives until mortals became suspicious and they started living under a different alias .

You got me.

I'm pretty sure they were designed to fight the celestials in order to protect mankind.

comics cannot into coherent character design

that's a cool gif but that is just an ophanim. also I wish the eldritch angels meme would die. there is I high probability of me seeing wheel fetus angel in this thread.

Entities of pure energy who's interactions with humanity has given them sentience.

Those who have the intellgence and awareness to do so fashion themselves after our own mythologies and claim to be the beings we've worshipped and idolized.

not yet. I'm proud of you, Veeky Forums, there is no wheel fetuses

Use Bionicle/Prometheus rules, gods are just a normal race of utterly uninteresting beings beyond being posthuman that had the tech level to make things that the mortals of the setting would consider the realm of the divine.

Eternals?

>yfw LSD was a thing with artists back then

Leto II

>god slave wat do

The Culture
Wait...that's science fiction yeah?