Beginnings of my own Pantheon
A god of Order seems a must to me...without order, no society, without society no "religion" (as opposed to "belief")
I agree that fewer gods = better opportunities for inter-church relations, including feuds...The Gods from Birthright suits me in this regard...around 10 Gods + a few demon lords for the Goblins and stuff...
I agree that fewer gods = better opportunities for inter-church relations, including feuds...The Gods from Birthright suits me in this regard...around 10 Gods + a few demon lords for the Goblins and stuff...
Dog Moon
Adventurer
Thank you for the link. There definitely is some interesting information in that and perhaps I would use that if I weren't so interested in creating my own Pantheon. I definitely enjoy people helping me, but I've been using a pre-built Pantheon for years and theoretically, I should have plenty of good creative ideas and when backed up with those of the EnWorld community, I should be able to make them great. I think a Pantheon of someone else's design just doesn't satisfy me anymore.
This is an interesting idea. Did you just come up with this now, or is this something you've seen/used before? I'm asking because I was trying to think of who the two main Gods would be and the idea of one being Evil and the other being Good just irks me. Another question is how many "angels"/"demons" would there be? Are you thinking of something like FR which each would have a specific thing, a more general thing or where each takes control of a small portfolio?
Ex: Animals [or forests, etc], nature, or Forests/Forest creatures/Rangers/Dryads/Autumn in order of the options in my question.
Keith Robinson
Explorer
Dog_Moon2003 said:
Hi Dog!
When I wrote The Kyngdoms pantheon, it was one of the hardest aspects of it, but also amongst the most rewarding. Getting the balance right is quite difficult.
A few tips would be:
1) read the relevant sections of Deities and Demigods. You'll find a whole bunch of very helpful information that will advise you and guide you on your way. Fortunately, much of the crunch is available in the SRD, which means I can now count it amongst my most used and valuable resources
2) Remember that you need to cater not only for portfolios, but also for alignments. You need to cover the bases for all 9 alignment types. And, IMO, you should build your deities around the alignment, rather than trying to force the alignment later. For example. I need a chaotic neutral deity. Okay, elves are chaotic. Elves are also into nature. Nature is chaotic and is neither one thing or the other (ie good or bad), so is neutral. Hence a god of nature (of some kind) would make a good chaotic neutral god. So, all those for whom nature plays a significant part of their lives (whether they're elves, gnomes, humans etc) will follow this god.
3) One of the things I considered when writing The Kyngdoms pantheon was having each deity have many different aspects, around which religions would form - so one deity could have many conflicting religious followers, who all interpreted that deity in the way that best suited them. I was then going to have it so that each deity would be known by a different name in different parts of the world. These two things combined mean that you can have a lot of flavor, with only a minimum number of deities. This would also set up the possibility of having followers following a (for instance) particularly evil god, without their really having any knowledge of it. The selection of domains available to a cleric could also be based on that aspect of the god that that particular religion has embraced, etc.
4) As you've already begun to do, cover the main areas of portfolio - nature, birth, death, war, etc. Many deities can have many portfolios (nature, birth and death, for instance, all fit neatly together).
5) Have a look at other pantheons and see what's out there. Take a look ay my website, where it's all online at no cost, plus (as mentioned) WotC Deities and Demigods and also Green Ronin's Book of the Righteous, as well as the Forgotten Realms stuff, which I assume you're familiar with.
Anyway, it's a lot of fun creating your own pantheon, so good luck!
Heathen72
Explorer
A different approach to creating a pantheon, is to create a family tree of Gods, a la the greek or norse pantheons. Conflicts arise like in any family, but Gods tend to be really full on when it comes to retribution and justice (putting people on rocks and having harpies eat their entrails etc...) and hold grudges for a really, really, long time. There doesn't have to be an evil God, but if a member of the 'family' rebelled he or she would easily be perceived as evil by the Gods and their worshippers. Or the 'rebel' God could just be a punk trickster, worshipped by rogues and teenagers the world over.
If you don't want so many Gods, fine. Just have 95% of the Gods killed off by the two that are left, and have those two still struggling to kill each other. Decide what aspects those two represent and that tells you a lot about the world and those that worship them. Neither of them need to be benevolent! Maybe from there you could decide that there is in fact another God, in hiding, who is benevolent -who secretly aids the good but fears showing his or her hand for fear of being crushed by the other two. A good God for adventurers, perhaps. (Hmmm, The more I think about this pantheon, the more I like it!)
Better to decide on the Relationships of the Gods first, I reckon, and then work out what powers they grant their followers.
If you don't want so many Gods, fine. Just have 95% of the Gods killed off by the two that are left, and have those two still struggling to kill each other. Decide what aspects those two represent and that tells you a lot about the world and those that worship them. Neither of them need to be benevolent! Maybe from there you could decide that there is in fact another God, in hiding, who is benevolent -who secretly aids the good but fears showing his or her hand for fear of being crushed by the other two. A good God for adventurers, perhaps. (Hmmm, The more I think about this pantheon, the more I like it!)
Better to decide on the Relationships of the Gods first, I reckon, and then work out what powers they grant their followers.
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krichaiushii
First Post
Another option might be to ensure that each deity has a neutral aspect of alignment. This can lead to at least three potent sects for each deity for more interchurch strife - for example, a LN War god might have LE, LG, and LN sects that go about his teachings in very different ways.
If you don't use alignment, then disregard.
If you don't use alignment, then disregard.
Dog Moon
Adventurer
Okay, I think I got something I sort of like.
My world is going to be sort of based on war, or at least the constant threat of war balancing ever so carefully above everything. Everyone is careful about what they do or say because of the idea that if something goes wrong, a war will start. There are of course those who provoke others, but they are minor provocations and those who are less willing to let wars begin.
The Pantheon started as a great Pantheon with many Gods, but the God of War arranged a great battle between them all. This battle caused the death of all the Gods except for three: the God of Rebirth [new beginnings, who cannot be killed], War, and Death [Death is immortal and cannot be killed]. Death did not participate in the war. He has his own domain and remained there throughout the war. In the end, when it was between War and Rebirth, War tried to kill Rebirth, but failed to do so because she continuously returned. Rebirth finally trapped War in a great Oak with the blood of the other Gods/Goddesses to bind him.
The war was mirrored on the mortal plane, which strengthened War and kept him alive. The War ended when he was trapped, weakening him. However, without all the other Gods to watch over their Portfolios, the mortal world turned into a mass of turmoil. Rebirth, however, could not fix the entire world herself, so she began to work on bringing the other Gods into the world again. Unfortunately, War took this time to strengthen. He partly broke free from his restraints and war once again appeared in the mortal world, strengthening him even further.
The war did not last long because Rebirth realized she needed to hurry. Instead of bringing back the other Gods, she created servants for herself for various important subjects which needed Gods to stop the war and repair the damage done to the mortal world. These servants of hers worked to stop the war. The war did not last long enough to allow War to escape from his bonds. Nor was he powerful enough to create servants of his own. What he did was to touch the servants of Rebirth. Thus, while fire can warm, it can now also burn, for example. [Death has no servants]
The world is now starting to rebuild itself after its mass devastation. The war is not long over and people are touchy at the moment, but most do not have the strength to begin another war. There are no true nations, only small civilizations attempting to grow.
The servants and Gods are not as focused on Good or Evil. One might say that Rebirth is Good and War is Evil, but that is not the way they truly are. Each has different sides to them, much like the servants. There is of course internals strife because [to go with the previous example of fire] though some of the clergy believe in the warmth and good of fire, others might believe in the bad and destruction of fire. The Gods themselves may not be as focused in alignments, but their worshippers are still quite focused on them.
Also, these servants of the Gods go to all the races, though their appearances shift to suit each race. For example, the servant of Fire would appear to be a flaming human when manifesting to humans, but would appear to be a flaming Gnoll if manifesting before the Gnolls. Of course these people don't realize that it is the same servant. So evil Gnoll Fire worshippers could be fighting good human Fire worshippers without the any clue that they are worshippers of the same God.
My world is going to be sort of based on war, or at least the constant threat of war balancing ever so carefully above everything. Everyone is careful about what they do or say because of the idea that if something goes wrong, a war will start. There are of course those who provoke others, but they are minor provocations and those who are less willing to let wars begin.
The Pantheon started as a great Pantheon with many Gods, but the God of War arranged a great battle between them all. This battle caused the death of all the Gods except for three: the God of Rebirth [new beginnings, who cannot be killed], War, and Death [Death is immortal and cannot be killed]. Death did not participate in the war. He has his own domain and remained there throughout the war. In the end, when it was between War and Rebirth, War tried to kill Rebirth, but failed to do so because she continuously returned. Rebirth finally trapped War in a great Oak with the blood of the other Gods/Goddesses to bind him.
The war was mirrored on the mortal plane, which strengthened War and kept him alive. The War ended when he was trapped, weakening him. However, without all the other Gods to watch over their Portfolios, the mortal world turned into a mass of turmoil. Rebirth, however, could not fix the entire world herself, so she began to work on bringing the other Gods into the world again. Unfortunately, War took this time to strengthen. He partly broke free from his restraints and war once again appeared in the mortal world, strengthening him even further.
The war did not last long because Rebirth realized she needed to hurry. Instead of bringing back the other Gods, she created servants for herself for various important subjects which needed Gods to stop the war and repair the damage done to the mortal world. These servants of hers worked to stop the war. The war did not last long enough to allow War to escape from his bonds. Nor was he powerful enough to create servants of his own. What he did was to touch the servants of Rebirth. Thus, while fire can warm, it can now also burn, for example. [Death has no servants]
The world is now starting to rebuild itself after its mass devastation. The war is not long over and people are touchy at the moment, but most do not have the strength to begin another war. There are no true nations, only small civilizations attempting to grow.
The servants and Gods are not as focused on Good or Evil. One might say that Rebirth is Good and War is Evil, but that is not the way they truly are. Each has different sides to them, much like the servants. There is of course internals strife because [to go with the previous example of fire] though some of the clergy believe in the warmth and good of fire, others might believe in the bad and destruction of fire. The Gods themselves may not be as focused in alignments, but their worshippers are still quite focused on them.
Also, these servants of the Gods go to all the races, though their appearances shift to suit each race. For example, the servant of Fire would appear to be a flaming human when manifesting to humans, but would appear to be a flaming Gnoll if manifesting before the Gnolls. Of course these people don't realize that it is the same servant. So evil Gnoll Fire worshippers could be fighting good human Fire worshippers without the any clue that they are worshippers of the same God.
Angel Tarragon
Dawn Dragon
Looks like you have a good/strong starting point.
Dog Moon
Adventurer
I'm not entirely sure how many Servants there should be though. I want a small number, but I don't want too few. Of course I also don't want too many. There should always be opportunities for the Pantheon to grow when Rebirth decides that she should create another servant.
That sort of incorporates several different of the ideas in the thread with my own, though my original idea is pretty much gone. Oh well. Thanks for all the help everyone! I certainly do appreciate it. If anyone has any comments for my revised idea, I would like to hear those too.
That sort of incorporates several different of the ideas in the thread with my own, though my original idea is pretty much gone.
Oh well. Thanks for all the help everyone! I certainly do appreciate it. If anyone has any comments for my revised idea, I would like to hear those too.
