Odd Job Gods: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

Well, not quite. You see, as cool as it is to be [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Patron Saint of Soldiers, the god of Thunder or the demonic representation of lust]], not everyone in the [[Celestial Bureaucracy]] [[Divine Ranks|can be bosses]]. Some mythologies decide to tie up the loose ends and lump in minor responsibilities with the major, producing gods with an [[Combo-Platter Powers|oddly erratic remit]].

 

 

Sometimes averted by giving your existing gods [[Combo-Platter Powers|additional domains]], though that way you end up with gods of, say, mountains, earthquakes and [[Flight, Strength, Heart|apples]]. Also, while most of these domains may seem unimpressive when taken at face value, it could be [[Rule of Symbolism|highly symbolic]] or [[Heart Is an Awesome Power|more complex]]. Regardless of the complexities of their powers, it still would not be a good idea to [[Do Not Taunt Cthulhu|tease them about it.]] Not to be confused with, though sometimes goes with, [[God Job]]. See also [[Painting the Frost on Windows]] and [[Magical Underpinnings of Reality]].

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', [[Chef of Iron|Sanji]] brings up this phenomenon in order to encourage [[Lovable Coward|Usopp]], since they're on their way to defy and confront "God Enel" of Skypeia. A rough quote:

 

== Comic Books ==

** And also the Hogfather, the god of Hogswatch. Oh, and the sunrise.

** And that's just in the mainstream pantheon. Don't even mention oddballs like Ptang-Ptang and Quetzovercoatl ... or even ''think'' about Djelibeybi.

** Played with when the Oh God of Hangovers decides to become sort of relief for other gods, temporarily taking over for them when they want a holiday, and sort of inverted when there's mention of a freelance priestess (no mention of how she does business; maybe Anoia pays her in cutlery?)

* Saint Vidicon of Cathode on ''[[Warlock of Gramaraye]]'' series by Christopher Stasheff. The patron saint of technicians and engineers. Saint Vidicon's symbol is a yellow screwdriver worn in the shirt pocket. In a later book, his history was revealed - he was martyred when he used his body to close an electrical circuit, allowing a speech by the Pope to make it to air and save the Catholic Church from obsolescence.

* The Bastard from the ''[[Lois McMaster Bujold|Chalion]]'' series. The only god not associated with a season, his domain is all things out of place: demons, children born out of wedlock (obviously), [[Ho Yay|odd loves]], disasters, and unorthodox justice. He also takes the souls of those not devoted to any of the other gods.

* In the ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' crossover ''Finder's Bane,'' a god residing outside the Realms (which has, or used to have, [[Loads and Loads of Characters|Loads And Loads Of Gods]]) comments that "We wouldn't be surprised to find they have a god there with dominion over the tableware and ale mugs."

* Mentioned in passing to convey Aerin's experience climbing the apparently perpetual tower to the [[Final Boss Battle]] toward the end of [[The Hero and The Crown]]; she concludes she has been climbing forever, and will be climbing forever, and might become a sort of minor god, the God Who Climbs, comparable apparently to the 'God Who Isn't There,' which is the shadow god at noon.

 

* ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'': The Goddess of Fortune mentions that if word gets out about how badly she screwed up she could be made the Goddess of Dirt.

* ''[[Perfect Strangers]]'' mentions the Mypiot god of windows cleaning.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

** Thor appears to Dogbert offering him a job as one of these, promising further career advancement (Thor himself claims to have started out as the God of Static Cling). Dogbert then accepts the position of "God of Velcro". And he signed Dilbert up for the God of Mayonnaise.

 

* [[Eddie Izzard]] did a bit about the influence of the Greek gods on the Romans, saying that originally the Romans had rather crap gods such as Jeff the God of Biscuits, and Simon the God of Hairdos.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Caliban, the Demon of Anorexia

** Tomas, the Angel of Catchy Tunes

** Zuheyr, the Angel of Cleanliness

** Stander, the Demon of Embalming

** Karne, the Demon of Fast Food

** One of the sentient and powerful ones is [[Nice Guy]] Nara-O. His title is officially "God Of Secrets Known To Only One", and has a [[Mummy|cool appearance]] to match that title. Now, ask yourself-what are the kind of secrets you don't want to tell others, for their sake? One imagines the other gods have a betting pool on how much [[Brain Bleach]] in gallons he buys every other day.

*** [[Fridge Logic|Of course]], if he personally knows all the secrets otherwise only known to one other individual, wouldn't that ''actually'' make him the "God Of Secrets Known To Only Two"?

** In ''[[Greyhawk]]'':

*** Wastri, the god of human-supremacist bigotry. And for some reason, also frogs.

*** The beholder god of gases.

** In ''[[Mystara]]'':

*** Buglore, the god of insects.

** Ghlaunder, god of insects and parasites.

** Zarongel, goblin god of [[Serious Business|dog-killing]], fire, and mounted combat.

* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' has the two ork gods Mork (who is cunningly brutal) and Gork (who is brutally cunning). Or was it the other way around?

* This is sort of the whole point of ''[[Nobilis]]'', where your character is essentially one of these. Your character might literally ''be'' the [[Power of Friendship]]. On the other hand, she might also be the Power of Lipton Instant Noodles (an example from the book). The difference in power and prestige between these is less than one might think- or may not necessarily even go in the direction one might think.

* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'': In the Kamigawa block, the short version of the story is that the Gods are pissed, and out of [[Chew Bubblegum|bubblegum.]] The set's flavor was influenced by Shinto, so there are Kami for everything, from Cleansing Fire and Infinite Rage to... Pus and Painted Roads.

 

== Video Games ==

** Well, fleas ''were'' the bringers of the Black Death...

* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' you can find along the many pantheons Stuhn (God of Ransom).

* In the ''[[Disgaea]]'' series, any item can be entered like a dungeon; (this is called an Item World.) If that item has a "legendary" trait; then this Item World is 100 levels deep. It has generals, kings, and at the end of level 100; an item god. You are encouraged to go through these and kill them all; as it powers that item up for you. So you can kill the Item God of a sword, piece of armor, used piece of chewing gum, [[Gag Penis|detached horse penis]]...

* ''[[Okami]]'' features gods of assorted elements, rejuvenation, explosions, cutting, the Sun and Moon, and Kabegami, the god of ''walls''. The game is based on Shinto, which has rather a lot of gods. When one wishes to refer to all of the Shinto gods collectively in Japanese, one speaks of "the eight million gods".<ref>And that's not a strict limit, either. "Eight million" is an archaic Japanese euphemism for "a vast, possibly infinite number", the same way forty is used in the Bible.</ref>

* ''[[Jade Empire]]'' features a [[Celestial Bureaucracy]] that tracks the actions of the heroes. At one point, a god appears to you and chews you out for wreaking so much destruction; his job was to tabulate your karma, and he was so ill-suited for the task he was demoted. So now he sells you trinkets.

* In the [[Roguelike]] ''[[Dungeon Crawl]]'', you can choose to worship one of your standard gods of magic, war, death, growth, healing, good, evil, etc. You can also worship Jiyva, god of slimes <ref>who only is only worshipped by a single super-intelligent jelly, and, since [[Gods Need Prayer Badly]], if you kill that jelly you actually [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|commit deicide]]</ref> and Cheibriados, god of slowness.<ref>who is actually something of a [[Game Breaker]], since [[Heart Is an Awesome Power]]</ref>

* ''[[SUGURI|Acceleration of Suguri]]'' has QP, whom is the goddess of pudding.

* ''[[RuneScape]]'' has Brassica Prime, the cabbage god of cabbages.

* The fal'Cie of ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]''. Sure, you had fal'Cie who did important things like producing food or acting as the sun. But some fal'Cie had less important tasks like... operating automatic doors.

* In ''[[Dungeons of Dredmor]]'', you can get a [[Sidequest]] to earn a random piece of magic equipment by praying to Inconsequentia, Goddess of Pointless Sidequests. You can also leave offerings of lutefisk to shrines of the Lutefisk God, who will offer a magic item if you bring him enough.

 

* [http://www.succubus-justice.com/firstie%20page.htm These] [http://www.krakowstudios.com/archive.php?date=20061017 webcomics] as Sympathetic Ineffective Villains who use the same office technology we do.

* Uncle Time from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' is in charge of governing the timestream in Timeless Space, which, as its name suggests, doesn't ''have'' a timestream. What he does all day besides knocking the occasional mini-lop rabbit through dimensions is unclear.

** Worth noting that despite this Ronson is the head of the traveler pantheon.

*** ''Because'' of this, rather. A light touch and a disinterest in taking sides in their power plays turn out to be pretty good qualities for "governing" the Gods.

* [http://mountaincomics.com/2011/10/27/mountain-time-307/ The God of Good Posture]: good at standing, and proud of it.

 

== Web Original ==

* The [http://shireroth.org/shirewiki/Divine_Census_of_Cedrism Divine Census of Cedrism] includes such oddities as B'Caw, God of Spicy Chicken, and Mog, God of Political Blunders. Even the relatively normal gods have bizarre sides (the god of warriors and soldiers is also the patron god of "guys with long hair")

{{quote|"Mranis actually was a rather careless deity. In front of Divine Agora, summoned to choose her divine attributes, symbols and titles, as it is the custom for the gods, she had chosen, to her peers great consternation, the Small Burin of the Patient Excavations, the Half Extincy Torch of Dark Illuminations, her red and black half skinned cat named "Touminou", and her complete name was written, as the custom wants, on the titanic porphyre steps of the Great Cenotaph: "Mranis, funny little goddess of violence, destruction, sex, scientific research and the [[Buffy-Speak|other funny stuff]] ". Mesculias, god of chance and destiny, bet two major temples and twelve thousand minions against a mouldy baguette that she never would find any believers with such a manifest. Nobody among heavenly assembly raised the bet."}}

* And [http://www.generatorland.com/glgenerator.aspx?id=59 this] allows you to generate such gods.

 

== Western Animation ==

* On ''[[Sam and Max Freelance Police (animation)|Sam and Max Freelance Police]]'', after the titular duo get Zeus and Juno back together in the episode "Dysfunction of the Gods", they are rewarded by becoming the God of Junk Food and the God of Vulgar Novelty Items respectively.

* In the ''[[Earthworm Jim (animation)|Earthworm Jim]]'' episode "Assault and Battery", Jim goes to the Fabled, Long-Sought Home of the Gods to receive a new battery for his supersuit. There, he meets the gods of nasal discharge and puns, and the goddess of disco, who explain that the biggies are at a party in Valhalla.

* A very early episode of ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]'' had the boys meet up with Sterculius, the God of Feces at a monster truck show. [[wikipedia:Sterculius|He was not made up for the show, either.]]

 

== Real Life ==

** Nefertem, the god of the sunrise and the morning sun, but also perfumes and lilies.

** Iabet, the goddess of the east.

** Qadesh, the goddess of ecstasy. (originally a Syrian goddess)

*** Yes, it's [[Stargate SG-1|that Qetesh]]. And yes, ''that'' kind of ecstasy.

** The Catholic Church also has a habit of just squinting and adding to a popular saint's portfolio if they can vaguely justify the connection. Thus, you have St. Joseph (Jesus' adopted dad) being the patron saint of fathers and social justice (among others), St. Matthew (writer of the first book of the New Testament and a former tax collector) being the patron saint of tax collectors and stock brokers, St. Isidore of Seville (he wrote an encyclopedia in the seventh century) now patron saint of computers and the Internet<ref>Not "officially" (the Holy See has not spoken on the issue), but he was voted as such in an Italian poll</ref> and St. Thomas Aquinas (noted Catholic theologian) standing for learning but somehow against lightning.

*** Also St. Anthony, the patron saint of finding lost things.

*** The winner of this unfortunate competition is probably St. Drogo, patron saint of bodily ills, broken bones, hernias, sick people, insane people, ugly people, orphans, shepherds and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|coffee shop owners]]. And no, [[wikipedia:Saint Drogo|we're not making that one up.]]

* Shinto believes that essentially all items have a spirit or god.

** Notable, and very popular Shinto deity Inari - god of fertility, industry, success, agriculture, rice and um, foxes. Was the patron kami of blacksmiths and warriors - currently accepted by the cosmetics company Shiseido as their patron kami. Bit of an all-round god.

* Mike Judge didn't make up the Sterculius character mentioned in Western Animation. There actually was a Roman god called Sterquilinus who was God of Manure.

* Chinese mythology, being a [[Celestial Bureaucracy]], has plenty of these, too, including:

** the god of ovens, who has the secondary job of spying on the household to report good and bad deeds (and would thus have to be bribed often with sweeties to keep his mouth shut).

** the god(s) of doorways, occasionally said to be the spirits of ancient fearsome warriors.

* Pre-islamic Arabia had Wadd, a god of snakes, the Moon and friendship.

* [[Greek Mythology|The Greeks]] liked to append random attributes to Apollo, which eventually made him god of "light and the sun; truth and prophecy; medicine, healing, and plague; music, poetry, and the arts; and more" according to Wikipedia.

** Hermes was nearly as versatile, being god of messengers, travelers, merchants, thieves, sports, commerce, shepherds, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|weights and measures]].

** Bragi, god of poetry

** Skadi, goddess of skis.

* [[Chinese Mythology]] has Guan Yu, the God of War, legendary hero, protector of all of China, champion against demons, and once one of the most popular gods among all the classes. He is also the patron god of bean curd (tofu) since before he became a warrior he was a bean curd merchant. More important than it sounds since bean curd has traditionally been an important food in China.

** China also has Wenchang, Taoist god of literature, writing, and education- and the god you pray to for help passing your exams. Given the importance of the imperial examinations- which determined who got a government job and basically were the only means of social mobility most of the time- it's not that surprising that there was a specific god for it. (In modern times, scallions seem to be a popular offering.)

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Native American Mythology]]

[[Category:Religion Tropes]]

[[Category:God Tropes]]