Image transcription: a section of a Wikipedia article titled “Relationship with Reality”. It reads “From a scientific viewpoint, elves are not considered objectively real. [3] However,” End transcription.

  • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Discworld’s Small Gods work like this.

    They only gain power if you believe in them. So they stand around like a used car salesman trying to convert you

    • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Discworld’s elvesfair folk, however, do not work like this and remain wildly powerful even as human belief in them withers and dissipates. The belief in elves at the beginning of Lords and Ladies is much akin to the belief in Om at the beginning of Small Gods. From memory, “like worshipping the shell left behind by a crustacean that has long since died”. But for some reason elves maintain power in the human world whereas Om is reduced to hoping the melons in the church gardens aren’t too thick-skinned.