I need another way instead of this...

Wait, I'm confused. Is this a world you came up with? or someone else's. If so, why not just make up your own world?
BUt I'm a Christian too and I read and write stories that have gods and monsters and wizards and whatever. Even greek mythology. If it truly bothers you, have the monsters created by a demon or something and have your characters fighting in the name of the one true god and then you are set. IMO. The way I look at it, if God created everything, then he can be the God of my made up fantasy world too. even if he's called another name. The gods who made your monsters could just call themselves gods, you know?
YMMV
Good luck.

What if they're NOT actually gods, but created beings with more power than the ordinary folk who live in your world? The great Roberta Gellis did that in her re-imaginings of the stories of the Greek gods, who it turned out were merely extremely long-lived, extremely powerful mages (see "Shimmering Splendor", "Dazzling Brightness" and her other titles in this continuity).

Also--do you have the rights to write in someone else's constructed world? If that space is public domain, fine. But if the copyrights belong to someone else...I'd have problems with that.

aguywhotypes said:

I'm attempting to write a fantasy story but as a Christian (Jesus follower) I struggle with some concepts.

First I'm using the world of Harn as my setting. It is a world setting for a table top RPG generally used with the ruleset HarnMaster.

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Throw the word "Harn" away, and the ruleset, don't use them. Most of what you're describing is fairly generic for most fantasy RP games, so you could cherry-pick some of the more interesting concepts.

Now you will be free to do whatever you want with your monsters and story tropes.

aguywhotypes said:

Harnworld (the setting) describes a 'god' who is angry... (snip) As a Christian, I have a problem with this and I wouldn't want to use this in my story.

Is there another means/way/reason I could have these monsters appear other than a 'god' made them and put them there?

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They could be a natural part of the landscape, like super-large versions of water-bears (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade) The monster may only be active for a very narrow environmental niche - some might only like very wet weather, some very hot, etc. When the environmental conditions don't suit them, they go into suspended animation and look like a regular rock, for instance.

A similar concept was used in the first and third Riddick (Pitch Black) movies.

+1 Calla's advice.

There's lots of things Christians don't want to write, or often, read about.

As far as saying, "Well, it just came from the god," that's really a bit tired. I'm writing a story set in ancient Greece, with the Greek gods, and they all have reasons for what they do.

I'd suggest taking your main story idea and adapting it to a different world. And make sure your characters (including gods, if you use them) have reasons for what they do.

Just throwing it out there. Feel free to discard if it's not helpful.

Well, don't you believe that God made everything? Even creatures we've already exterminated, unaware of their part in the Grand Design?
Maybe God made them in your world like he made a lot of other fairly rare creatures, like polar bears and sharks, here. Or, a bunch of less deadly things that became extinct, like moas, and Tasmanian 'tigers'. I'll bet the first guy to see a Komodo dragon yelled the equivalent of "Monster!". So, no conflict there.

A lot will depend on what you mean by monsters. Do you mean displaced megafauna lost or denning in a dungeon or do you mean some creature with great power and evil designs upon unwary?

If you are writing from a Christian perspective, then it follows your worldview is likely to regard the world as fallen in some, if not all regards. If so, that is the gist of your monster mechanism...they are a particular expression of the bad things that can happen in a fallen world. If you want to boost the fantasy aspect of it, then, might I suggest going all snow queen on your beasties. In that fairy tale, a magic mirror belonging to the snow queen was lost, shattered, and it's sprinters scattered throughout the earth. People who get one lodged in their eyes or elsewhere, slowly turn evil and go to the snow queen. They are only healed if the splinter is removed.

This is all basically a variation on Tolkien's one ring and it's literary predecessors. The corrupting artifact. So, have some ancient evil thing/being scattered...all across creation. Instead of Satan or a Satan figure being "restrained" for an age...maybe in some sense he was shattered....and all his tiny dusty splintery bits are trying to reforge themselves, ever seeking one another. They do this by "infecting" and changing creatures man or beast who have the misfortune of encountering them. These make little monsters...that are looking for others like themselves...a constant self devouring nasty, angry monster warfare. From the outside it looks like mad brutishness. From the inside, the bits are trying to come together to forge new and bigger and more dangerous creatures that are strong enough to repeat the cycle, again and again until at the end of the age, the lord of evil is one again, and he will not be on a mission from God when that day comes.

The job of heroes in the age of shattered evil is to keep it shattered and small...but their success is ultimately doomed to failure that is the prelude the the last big knockdown drag out. If the bad guy wins, you've a kind of anti-millenium that the next age of heroes will have to set right...some champion true of heart and skill to shatter evil once again until the next age is aborning.

Just an idea.

From what I can glean about the HârnMaster RPG online, it seems like a really detailed, intricate world with a huge amount of worldbuilding detail for each kingdom and creature. Be careful exactly how much inspiration you take from it, OP -- it wouldn't be fair to rely heavily on the detailed, unique aspects of each race and each setting, only to chop out the bits that don't suit you.

You said "I was planning on just using this world as inspiration than to copy it 100%", but even copying a world 20% is a hefty, obvious chunk of copying. The way you talk about "using the world of Harn as my setting" makes it sound as if you're relying a lot on the HârnWorld base.

Honestly, OP, I think you'd be better off building your own world. Using an RPG setting can be fun, especially as a practise exercise, but it can also be a crutch that will limit your own imagination as a writer.