Help designing and naming greater spirits/gods

[Shinizak]

Hey guys, I'm looking to run a world hopping adventure set in a magical solar system, and I want to include meta spirits/gods. Essentially, each world will have its own gods and divine powers, but there are about 13 meta gods that preside over the stellar system. These gods represent fundamental forces at their core, and are basically building blocks for everything else. That being said I DO want a physical form for these gods.

I know each one's domain. But I need help with their name, and physical description. The domains are:

Space
Time
Matter
Energy
Life
Death
Order
Chaos
Light (not good, more like importance or wisdom)
Darkness (not evil, more like insignificance or obfuscation)
Truth (or more like reality
Lies (or, more like options, or parallel realities)
And finally magic

I want there to be an ongoing feeling of alien design.

Any ideas?

[Mastikator]

Should they be anthropomorphic, symbolic or weird?
Like should the spirit/deity of time look humanoid with clocks for eyeballs,
or be a flying hourglass
or a swirling whirlpool where events happen in reverse?

Chaos could definitely be a swirling whirlpool where anything caught in it is sent off flying. Or maybe it looks like something different every time.

Darkness should be a sourceless pitch black shadow. Light might be a blinding source so bright you can't see what it is.

[Shinizak]

Should they be anthropomorphic, symbolic or weird?
Like should the spirit/deity of time look humanoid with clocks for eyeballs,
or be a flying hourglass
or a swirling whirlpool where events happen in reverse?

Chaos could definitely be a swirling whirlpool where anything caught in it is sent off flying. Or maybe it looks like something different every time.

Darkness should be a sourceless pitch black shadow. Light might be a blinding source so bright you can't see what it is.

Vaguely animalistic wouldn't be bad actually. I had the idea for time being ouroboros.

[farothel]

Here you can find a lot of pantheons that can serve as inspiration. You can even take one whole if you're sure your players won't know it.

[Nifft]

Hey guys, I'm looking to run a world hopping adventure set in a magical solar system, and I want to include meta spirits/gods. Essentially, each world will have its own gods and divine powers, but there are about 13 meta gods that preside over the stellar system. These gods represent fundamental forces at their core, and are basically building blocks for everything else. That being said I DO want a physical form for these gods.

I know each one's domain. But I need help with their name, and physical description. The domains are:

Space
Time
Matter
Energy
Life
Death
Order
Chaos
Light (not good, more like importance or wisdom)
Darkness (not evil, more like insignificance or obfuscation)
Truth (or more like reality
Lies (or, more like options, or parallel realities)
And finally magic

I want there to be an ongoing feeling of alien design.

Any ideas?

If you really want to make them feel alien, I'd suggest conjoining some of these together -- either as a single being, or as unlikely bedmates.

For example:

Death + Light -> "Revelation ends the story. Only while we seek wisdom can we live; the only complete wisdom is for the dead." (early Apologia may be useful here)

Darkness + Truth -> "Light dazzles, and those who stare at the sun are easily deceived. The truth is simple, unformed, and unspoken." (crib from Chuang Tzu)

Energy + Order -> "It is only in the fires of the furnace that we can separate slag. It is only in the warmth of summer that a tree can pull clean water from filthy soil. Energy inspires matter into order." (vaguely accurate modern physics and thus may feel alien in a pre-scientific setting)


As for names, it's hard to give you something that feels different from the rest of your setting when I don't know what the rest of your setting names look like.

The link above ("godchecker") seems like a good starting point.

[Ravens_cry]

I could totally see different cultures within the setting having different names for the metagods, showing differing reverence to each depending on the culture's values and ideals.