Thank you, I guess XD And I think there's a bit of perspective involved too, if you want to use gods directly as main characters or if they'll be mixed with your mortal characters from start is a thing, other thing is if your story will be about mortals in a world of gods or a world that believes in them. A fantasy comic walking in these lines amazingly (and brutally lol) is Monstress, by Marjorie Liu.
One good aspect of thinking when dealing with gods is that you have to think of what they do and what they have done to your world. Take the gods we have now: for the Norse, they believe thunder storms in harsh winters were Thor battling with ice giants. The ancient Greeks believed the gods favored them in battles and bless them with powers (when in fact they mistook this for really being adrenaline kicking in)
Events or landscapes that mark the world can very well be the work of gods, if nothing can be explained scientifically, it is in the realm of the gods to influence the backstory of it all.
Really, just take a look at how history portrayed a lot of events back then. It's only through the reasoning of the culture in the area to determine who or what is going on. (Or in this case you) It's only a matter of filling in the blanks of why a god would do such a thing in the first place.
On a side note now:
If you're up for a good challenge, try reading into J.R.R Tolkiens The Silmarillion (Or at least tidbits of it) There you can find diverse selections of gods and how they came to be and what functions they made for themselves.
I would also highly recommend looking into the gods of H.P Lovecraft as well; in which creatures like Cthulu aren't truly gods, but inter-dimensional beings that the human brain can't comprehend.
Try looking up summaries of these gods on youtube, they can be rather enlightening 
I'm pagan so when I reference deities it's usually the ones I am most comfortable with. I make a lot of my stories as almost devotionals to my Gods/Goddesses I worship. Most of the time i write them as my characters religious figures sometimes the deities interact if it's very important.
in There was a War, a few gods have been introduced and more mentioned. theyre a very important part of the story, as Balor's people are at war with Cath's gods. As the story goes on they take an increasing active, antagonistic role and ultimately control everything that's happening.
i really like deities in fiction. it gives you a lot to play with in terms of plot and characterisation, and philosophy. it forced you to consider your characters religious beliefs, which i think is a really important part of their characterisation, because religion influences so much more of our understanding of the world than we even realise. gods are also a great get out of jail free card, to be honest.
There are a few religions/gods in my story but they aren't elaborated upon or involved in the plot, just acknowledged here and there.
I feel Gods are a bit like magic systems in that they need to have boundaries in order to be believable. The source of their power, the limits of those powers, the god's own personal histories and origins, the religions themselves, the followers and tenets-- all those things needs to be considered when devising a god who is actively involved in the story, but by considering those things at all you begin adding layers upon layers of exposition to an already complicated world you might not be able to explain in the first place. What self-contained story really has the breadth and depth to explore those areas to the fullest degree? Unless you story is literally about humans and gods and the gods are characters in themselves do yourself a favour and settle for hints and suggestions rather than spending hours devising world histories that will never see the light of day. Or do construct them for your own personal enjoyment, but don't burden yourself with trying to explain them to readers who are be quite happy with the basics.
I think deities tend to symbolize certain ideas or things. For that reason I like using them when I'm looking for a character who can fully represent a certain subject i want to explore in my project.
I have implemented gods and godesses in my comic1, however they are said to be dead, killed by their own creations who now rule in their place...
My deities represented the elements of the currently existing magic system of my world and are said to have gifted some chosen humans with their elemental power.
I'd have more difficulties implementing "real" gods in a story, though. Before I offend someone who is a strong believer I prefer to invent something completely different =P (Besides, I personally can't read stories anymore, where the Christian Church is evil or lookie, angels again - not because I have a conflict of belief but because there are SO. MANY. STORIES. already x_X)
Creating fantasy deities leaves you much more freedom and creaticity, imho =)
There are some good stories who prove otherwise though 
I guess it all depends on HOW you make it =)
The fun thing about using deities is that there are many varieties! Everyone before my has covered them all well enough, but I'd also like to mention the various levels of "god-dom" per say.
It annoys me when the gods are clearly western gods (omnipotent creators), but only in name only. With japanese/asian lore it's alright, as they have some shit like oooh the stove spirit etc, so having 'gods' that only have small powers makes sort of sense. But when you add a deity with close to unlimited powers, it's important you establish what is it that this deity can and cannot do. If you want to make it into a god just because it sounds cool, but end up not doing anything tangible with said godhood, then don't. Also it's important than if it's an interfering god (as oppposed to some thoughtless/genderless energy) to treat it as a character first. If the god is meant to interact with beings in it's realm, be they spacealiens or whatever, it's important to establish the tone. If the god has feelings etc, just writing it as -a god- rather than -a character- usually ends up with inconsistencies and 2-dimensional plotbunnies. For example, in the Old Testament the god is a spiteful asshole (sorry for getting biblical, but that was the best example I could come up with), and the tone is very clear.
All in all, to me it's very important that any sort of religions / omnipotent beings are written properly, even if half of their backstory/whatever never ends up in the story. Flimsy gods that can do whatever are very annoying to read about.
They're going to be in a future comic faaaaaar down the line, but I do have a story with God's and my own strict rules for how they operate. I've worked on them for years now so I have a good grasp on how they function. Some of my gods are loosely based on God's from various real world mythologies while most are my own creation. It's important to let up limits and rules or else the story might become stale. for instance, in my future comic, I have three demigod characters inspired by the fates. they can grant wishes but each comes with their own rules and caveats. One can grant strictly positive wishes (ie not doing harm onto others) and without much of a price, but she's hard to find. One has to be summoned and will charge you greatly, but her wishes have more flexibility. The third can do harm to others but her wishes tend to come with a double edged effect so most stay away from her sadistic nature.
My biggest thing is to make sure you have your mythology for whatever deities you're using written out and defined enough that you can reference it. I've created a mythology for Heart Hex, mostly surrounding demons, and it was one of the first things I did before writing out scripts. It bothers the hell out of me when writers don't stick to their rules for cosmic deities within their own fiction!
I personally like deities and spirits that are relatively passive unless called upon, especially if it's set in a more post-religious world. They exist and they watch, but intervene in mortals' lives rarely.
My comic Ray Thunder is based on the actions of Gods & Goddess, that have spawned demi-gods. For the main part of my story I'll make mention to some of the Gods/Goddesses, but I wont create a visual- except when I get to the scene where Ray finally meets his father(who is Thor). There is also a visual for an Irish War Goddess, The Morrigan, who Ray will come up against in a later chapter. That's my stance right now- that they exist, but stay to themselves unless the machinations of other gods and/or cosmic forces puts the universe in jeopardy.
While I disagree with the example of using the Old Testament, I do get what you are saying and agree. If you want to write gods/goddesses that would interfere with the world that you have had established, you can't really be two dimensional. In fact, I would even say that you would have to probably go even deeper into fleshing them out compared to normal everyday characters. Even then, you would probably want to keep an air of mystery about them. Though I personally find the use of gods that have created that particular universe and all to be an intriguing read and all, the problem is that I often see is that they do not keep the mystery about them at all and are just "there" because "why not?" or at least that is the impression I get from them. I like to often think that those like Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia are the kind of deities that we should strive for if we plan on creating a deity that has created the universe and all. Just like as you said have the tone set with them whenever they appear, the extent of their powers they have (or they will use), and so on.
@TheHerald The whole story of Moses is very spiteful, is it not? Old testament is full of stories where the God appears spiteful, if not vengeful. I'm an atheist, and part of the reason I was never interested in religion is because of the stories from the old testament were so angry! I grew up in an era where my country had 'morning openings' (literal translation) where a priest would come and tell stories, and the priest who did ours was for some reason so into the old testament, even though ev-lut protestants view that more as historical context than actual religious text. Long story short, they were really scary & made me feel like god was a bully as a child 
Anyhow, I disagree that the deities in Narnia are very good. They're all very 2D for me, and the biblical correlations are a bit too heavy.
In BioHazard there is a god hierarchy that I haven't gotten into yet. There are gods... but they're more like entities too great for human understanding, like manifestations of death and life, for example. They work within their own parameters and are subject to their own limits and rules, like let's say the god of life cannot give someone immortality unless that life is constantly being taken away from other life forms, therefore keeping the balance between life and death. Just like the gods of fate can only see what was and what is and can only guess what will be, they are not all knowing.
I spent a good chunk of time getting this system down and I think I came up with something that is godly but humane at the same time, something that makes sense. That is, in my opinion, what makes a god system believable, these gods are powerful but they also have limits and can be vulnerable.
I like the idea of deities being active rather than background lore. The concept of gods are so fascinating and cool, you can pretty much do whatever you want with them. They don't even have to be from any real mythologies. In the webcomic I'm working on, the deities are actively involved, although that's due to them being the lead characters.
I enjoy humanizing gods for my own stories, the idea that an all mighty powerful deity is not much different from the types of people you would normally run into, and that they can run into the same types of very human problems as you is both appealing to me and fun to see/work with.
I am working to become a military chaplain. Personally, I would love to have this discussion (I really would), but this would be an inappropriate place to talk about it. Since this is meant to be about writing and not about religious beliefs in the real world.
I think that is one of those things that comes down to the individual reader, because each person comes from a different background and experiences in life. Like for me, I can't really get into too many stories that involve Shinto gods and Japanese spirits.
@mrjonzap When you mention that hierarchy and limitations, that almost reminded me of how I sort of established my deities in the world. For mine there are those that claim to be actual gods/goddesses, but in reality they are so limited in what they can do that they are really nothing more than impostors. For they basically stole (keeping that sorta under wraps) from the actual god and are actively working towards trying to undermine their former master. I should probably try setting up a system kinda like what you have.
It's tricky to write characters who are literal Gods in stories, because you risk ruining the curve of power-scaling in your universe. If they are as powerful as the title "God" would imply, then they could so simply and easily rectify any conflict with barely any effort. And if they can't, then why even bother making them Gods if they are so limited in their power?
My best advice in this matter is to use Gods as active participants in the plot only if the conflict is not one that can be solves by "defeat the bad guy." There has to be a reason why they can't fix everything, break everything, or just end the story with a snap of their celestial fingers.
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