In search of a pantheon

[ThoughtBubble]

For my next D&D game I want to attach all the PCs to a set of closely connected deities. I'm hoping to use a lot of the divine politics to filter into the attitudes of the PC's and pre set up some more enmity between them and the antagonists in the game.

So, I'm hoping to get pointed to a good pantheon. Particularly I'm looking for a lot of interplay between the different members of the pantheon. And it doesn't all have to be good. I want things where the summer wind is the child of the local nature god and the god of the elves, but has a vendetta against the elven god of magic for killing her half brother in a duel.

The other thing I want to avoid is some of the generic feeling “Here's your LG deity of general smitey holyness and paladinhood. Here's the TN nature god. Here's the NG god of healing. Here's a token god of each race. Here's your evil guy.” I really want to avoid the feeling that it's a 'generic selection to get some powers'.

Especially the opposition. I want him rotten. I want him evil and driven. Not just in a 'because he's evil' sort of way. I want him to have a history of messing things up and causing bloodshed. I want him feared.

Any and all suggestions are welcome. And if there isn't something out there that directly fits, good ideas for reference (campaign, fiction and historical) are also highly appreciated.

Thanks a ton!

 

[Job]

You might want to give the "Book of the Righteous" a try. It has an interrelated mythology, tremendous amounts of detail about Holy Warriors (i.e. unique Paladins) and servitors for each god, about also guidlines for each god's unique church, holy days, and leaders. It's generic enough to drop into homebrew worlds or even to add detail to established campaign environments such as Greyhawk.

Many EnWorlders recommend it and it's received uniformly high reviews.

You can find used copies for $11 or so here: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Righteou...7407931?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1178707118&sr=8-1

Job.

 

[Yair]

Although it is fairly standard, I remember the pantheon of Birthright fondly. The schisms within churches ostentiously serving the same god were interesting, and the gods were archetypal and standard while having enough of a personality to be interesting and meaningful. Best of all, the major evil deity, the Cold Rider, is an enigmatic figure of the dream world vaguely connected to a god so dark it compares to Tolkein's Morgoth. And it all connects to the wonderful deicide story that stands at the heart of Birthright.

I otherwise ain't really familiar with a great pantheon, although I was taken with what little I read of Faiths of Eberron.

 

[Merkuri]

If what you're looking for is divine politics and backstabbing, research some greco-roman myths. The Greek/Roman gods are always trying to get back at each other for something, treating humans as little more than playthings. There's no god that really sticks out as pure good or as pure evil, IIRC. They're all pretty gray in that sense.

If you don't want your campaign to be obviously based on greco-roman mythology then change the names around and just use their pantheon as a basis for your own.

 

[Shadeydm]

Job is correct The Book of the Righteous is excellent.

 

[Wraith101]

And another one for Book of the Righteous!

It was the highest rating book in EnWorld's Review system for a very, very long time.

Very well done mythology and the deities mix so well.

 

[Bardsandsages]

If what you're looking for is divine politics and backstabbing, research some greco-roman myths. The Greek/Roman gods are always trying to get back at each other for something, treating humans as little more than playthings. There's no god that really sticks out as pure good or as pure evil, IIRC. They're all pretty gray in that sense.

If you don't want your campaign to be obviously based on greco-roman mythology then change the names around and just use their pantheon as a basis for your own.

Yes, the classical dieties are wonderful. And don't forget the Egyptians. You don't get any better dysfunctonal families than the whole Set-Osiris-Horus fiasco. Most D&D mythos books portray Set as the bad guy in the whole thing, but if you really read into the original mythology, Set got a raw deal from his brother.

The Norse are a good choice too, particularly if your campaign setting is a bit harsher of an environment.

If I may shamelessly suggest our own disfunctional godly family. Our Gods of the Dead has four different dieties involved in death and undeath, each with a conflicting agenda.

 

[Henry]

In truth, almost ALL real-world religions had or have this kind of interplay, if you dig into their stories. In the Egyptian Pantheon, the interplays between Re, Set, Osiris, Isis, Nut, etc. were very complex, given the lengthy history and oral traditions as well. Same thing with the Aztecs, various Native American spirit/god folk stories, etc. There were some pretty complicated interactions, because they mirrored the communities they sprung from. if I were you, I'd just pick one (most people are most familiar with Greek, Norse, or Egyptian) and study it in detail. There's no end of resources on the net, from
http://www.gods-heros-myth.com/ to
http://www.godchecker.com/
to http://www.mythome.org/mythhome.htm

to name a few.

 

[moritheil]

Especially the opposition. I want him rotten. I want him evil and driven. Not just in a 'because he's evil' sort of way. I want him to have a history of messing things up and causing bloodshed. I want him feared.

Technically speaking, FR fits that, but I get the impression that that isn't really what you want. Could you possibly be more specific?

Also, let me put in a suggestion that you check up on Celtic mythology (the original Balor, etc.) for stories of warring powers and feuds.

 

[Mallus]

Here's the pantheon for my homebrewed setting, CITY, as originally posted in our Story Hour (see sig.) If nothing else, it's not generic. Click the link, I dare you.

The Gods of CITY