Favorite custom gods

[Reverend47]

I'm setting up a pantheon for a custom game world that is fantasy with a touch of steampunk. I'm trying to build a custom pantheon, already have the basics covered, but I'm looking for specific ones, the more unique ones. What are your favorite strange or custom gods and goddesses in your games? Can be published, just has to be interesting.

 

[steeldragons]

I'm not sure what constitutes/you mean by "strange", "specific" or "more unique."

I mean, I have a custom pantheon in my homebrew world...so all of them are "custom." And they're GODS so they're all specific and unique. So, I don't really get what it is you're looking for.

Maybe if you tell us what "the basics" are that you already have, we might be able to see where someone/thing/"area that might warrant a god" might be appropriate.

--SD

 

[the Jester]

A few weird, specific ones from my campaign:

Froth, the god of rape, necrophilia, perversion and cowardice.
Garnet, the Triple Goddess, goddess of multiple births.
Teshwat, the god of pits, traps and hunting.

 

[Razjah]

In this thread Communal Worldbuilding page 5 has a pantheon consolidation for what we've done so far. Some of them are pretty interesting, an Orc goddess who favors hippos and is a goddess of fertility- but others use her as a goddess of evil.

 

[am181d]

One of my old campaigns featured a single human god named Mithras. The elves in this campaign world spent much of their history as a slave race, leading one character to sing the song "I Hate Mithras" during one of our holiday themed sessions.

A campaign I ran recently featured a Healer whose powers came from "The Ministers of the Emergence," which spoke through him in tongues, spit dark smoke out of his mouth, and generally made him a creepy person to be healed by.

In the game I'm running now, set in the northern mountains, the villagers worship a cruel, unforgiving god called "The Winter God." Legend says that he fought a war with the Lightbringer thousands of years ago, and was forced far north. Not surprisingly, most of the villagers look to our PC Cleric of the Lightbringer with some suspicion.

 

[Reverend47]

I should probably expand a bit on what I'm looking for. My game world is a world where about 700 years ago there was a huge war between the gods. Dozens of pantheons, hundreds of gods, more than a century of fighting, mostly on the material plane, resulted in most of the civilized world being destroyed. Between regions of complete wilderness, some warped by magical disasters, the corpses of dead gods, etc, there are bastions of civilization, most of which are unaware that other civilizations exist at all, and almost none of them willing to brave the wilderness and thousands of miles to seek another such society. It's basically a dozen different mini campaign worlds, each one an exploration of "how does this society deal with the loss of most of the world's gods" So the surviving gods are rather important. I'm going for about 20-40 primary deities of various sorts. Obviously I have the basics, the god of light who hates undead, the militant lawful good deity because paladins need a lawful good deity, the lawful/chaotic evil warrior deities (because the lawful good knights need somebody to fight), a neutral thief deity, an evil thief deity, nature deity, etc.

What I'm looking for is more flavorful and strange deities. Less the classics every campaign pantheon has.

So far I have:

A god of order, more specifically rules, paperwork, efficient bureaucracy, associated with law, order, civilization, etc

A chaotic evil god of illusion who prioritizes the "fun" of chaos over all else

A good god of undeath, beauty, passion, and love who believes in pursuing one's passions even into death "The Undying Lover"

The Eternal Dreamer - A god who slumbers and dreams, patron of dreams, understanding, creativity and insanity

 

[Razjah]

Are you looking to purposefully leave whole or overlap on domains/portfolios for the gods?

I think you may want some patron gods to help fill out the ranks, 20-40 gods is a lot without crossing religions. Egyptian, Greek, and Norse have a lot of interesting gods. Mine them, then add patrons for certain cities and locations. A god of waves, a god of city X, a god of a haunted grove. If you play Magic, or even if you don't check out the Kami each are gods (or spirits considered god-like) in their own right, and there are a lot of them. A god of the hearth? Moss, lanterns, pain, etc. Each has a god. That could help give you ideas to fill out your god quota.

This is a better listing of the kami, including those who don't have kami in the name.

 

[Reverend47]

Are you looking to purposefully leave whole or overlap on domains/portfolios for the gods?

I think you may want some patron gods to help fill out the ranks, 20-40 gods is a lot without crossing religions. Egyptian, Greek, and Norse have a lot of interesting gods. Mine them, then add patrons for certain cities and locations. A god of waves, a god of city X, a god of a haunted grove. If you play Magic, or even if you don't check out the Kami each are gods (or spirits considered god-like) in their own right, and there are a lot of them. A god of the hearth? Moss, lanterns, pain, etc. Each has a god. That could help give you ideas to fill out your god quota.

This is a better listing of the kami, including those who don't have kami in the name.

Crossing gods is fine. Overlapping portfolios is dandy. I'm a fan of the forgotten realms approach of deities that are flawed, detailed and distinctly mortal in many ways, though in my games they are usually focused more on each other than on the mortals. I've already looked over other religions, found inspiration where appropriate-unfortunately many polytheistic deities were intentionally abstract or contradictory in a manner I'm not fond of. I think I might be able to pick some inspiration from the kami. Right now my list is sitting about 25, I'm mostly looking to pad it a bit more.

 

[Razjah]

What about weakened gods? They are severely injured and cannot aid their followers as strongly, many of their followers would then be seeking ways to help the god recover. You could have a weakened god of strategy and magic. The god could have been overwhelmed by numbers or defeated by allies changing sides.


Gods:
The god of written language. The slaying/removing divine essence of this god would make the world illiterate.
Mother Nature: goddess of the seasons and their changing. 4 major holidays- each equinox. Her fickle attitude and strange delight in allowing a groundhog to determine seasons creates some concerns for mortals.

 

[Reverend47]

What about weakened gods? They are severely injured and cannot aid their followers as strongly, many of their followers would then be seeking ways to help the god recover. You could have a weakened god of strategy and magic. The god could have been overwhelmed by numbers or defeated by allies changing sides.


Gods:
The god of written language. The slaying/removing divine essence of this god would make the world illiterate.
Mother Nature: goddess of the seasons and their changing. 4 major holidays- each equinox. Her fickle attitude and strange delight in allowing a groundhog to determine seasons creates some concerns for mortals.

I have a few gods who have been weakened, mostly due to the lack of followers however. Causing genocide without thought for your followers generally gets your follower's disdain, even if the other god started it. Some regions are an exception, one in particular has absolutely redoubled their faith, attributing lack of faith to the cataclysmic event of 700 years previous. But I have a god of written language, partially inspired by Ohgma and Deneir of the Forgotten Realms. I've got two nature deities, one more associated with balance and the other that is the chaotic nature deity.

As a rule of thumb, I have two deities for each standard class or character archtype.