Step one: Realize that you are alone. Understand that you are a spiraling speck of blood and dreams. Lives burn cold and bright, bright as the stars and just as lonely. So yes, you are alone. But your heart is not. It is your core, your center, and it is what sets you apart from the other flotsam of the world. Never forget that. Remember it, even as your core rots in the dark and when you are just so, so lonely when the winter comes. You have a heart. Build something with it.

Step Two: Create your empire. Stack the granite and sandstone. Be sure to add enough glue. A dash of glitter if you’re feeling generous. Collect your jewels, your seashells, your treasures and bury them beneath your shiny new dungeon. Your kingdom is built, and now you must fill it. Gather those like you: those lonely souls with hopeful hearts. They’ll need you. Them and their paper hearts like tulip shells. Invite them into your castle, your acropolis, your temple. Now comes the hard part: make them believe what you already know.

Step Three: Teamwork and design. It takes more than one to build a pantheon. You’ll need their help, as much as they needed yours. A sketch is always a good start. For example: the winter is long and hard and their crops have withered. What better an outline? You’ll need a benevolent god, then, one that can make the summers sweeter. Your proposal must be careful, for they mustn’t know the truth of the matter. Perhaps a traveler has come, bearing sacred words. Or perhaps, you must explain that the world is controlled by divinities so very different from ourselves. Either way, you’ve held up your side of the bargain. It’s time for them to hold up theirs.

Step Four: Watch. Watch as their eyes widen and tremble. Watch as they rush to their scrolls and papyrus as soon as the campfire dwindles. Admire their lavish altars and encourage mortals as they pour their own acrylic blood into skeletal molds. Gaze and smile down upon the clay, solidifying and hardening alongside their faith. Their gods have risen.

Step Five: Sit back. Your kingdom has grown and spread, as have your gods. Petty little things with lightning in their palms and whole seasons at their command. But you, you brought them their mortals. You guided the followers to their doorstep and without the faith of such children, deities are nothing.

So, honestly… Who’s the real god here?