Making my own gods

[SkidAce]

I use "real" words for names. Sometimes it draws groans from the players but overall I get a kick out of picking the just right name i.e. Flagrant Lorefinder was a bard/sage NPC.

Soulitare was a lonely necromancer.

Drolkrad was the big bad wizard of darkness, etc.

Doesn't suit everyone, but I like it.


So for gods, look at their portfolio...the evil god of necromancy could be Cairne ( a play on cairn or tomb), the valiant honor knight god could be Shi'eldar...etc.

Like I said...some folks would hate it, but my players think its neat...after a while when they met NPCs they would try figuring out the NPC's motivation from the name. They got it right once.

"Or" use Latin. Can't get enough Latin.

 

[Ryujin]

I use "real" words for names. Sometimes it draws groans from the players but overall I get a kick out of picking the just right name i.e. Flagrant Lorefinder was a bard/sage NPC.

Soulitare was a lonely necromancer.

Drolkrad was the big bad wizard of darkness, etc.

Doesn't suit everyone, but I like it.


So for gods, look at their portfolio...the evil god of necromancy could be Cairne ( a play on cairn or tomb), the valiant honor knight god could be Shi'eldar...etc.

Like I said...some folks would hate it, but my players think its neat...after a while when they met NPCs they would try figuring out the NPC's motivation from the name. They got it right once.

"Or" use Latin. Can't get enough Latin.

Reminds me of when a DM threw a vampire named Alucard at us

Foreign languages are definitely a good source. A literal translation of the god's sphere into a dead language is a good idea. Mining fantasy novels for character names isn't bad either. Obscure technical terms also work, especially if they aren't computer related. Medical or psychological terms, for example.

Or just pick one of the top of your head. Bob is a good god name. Very powerful.

 

[Trit One-Ear]

Reminds me of when a DM threw a vampire named Alucard at us

Foreign languages are definitely a good source. A literal translation of the god's sphere into a dead language is a good idea. Mining fantasy novels for character names isn't bad either. Obscure technical terms also work, especially if they aren't computer related. Medical or psychological terms, for example.

I've used Google Translate and less-recognizable languages several times to name places/people in my campaign with what I felt was great success. Estonian seems to be my language of choice, though you with any language you have to play around a little. A good use of a thesaurus and Google Translate can give you an infinite source of names.

Trit

 

[Trit One-Ear]

There's a pretty good list of portfolios in the 2E Complete Priest's Handbook with some ideas as to what their respective priesthoods would be like. Do you have access to that book?

Anyway, here are your basics:

Agriculture
Civilisation
Darkness
Death
Fate
Justice
Magic
Moon
Mountains
Nature
Sea
Sun
War
Weather

Using my little Croatian Translate trick, here's what I came up with for these domains.

Agriculture - Talundus
Civilization - Ordu
Darkness - Tummust
Death - Surm
Fate - Maramma
Justice - Kal
Magic - Voludus
Moon - Katarn
Mountains - Magimaa
Nature - Olemus
Sea - Vesimer
Sun - Tulipake
War - Jagelus
Weather - Ilma

Some of them are direct translations, others mash ups of synonyms or related words. Use them if they help!

Trit

 

[aco175]

That works great, I seem to have heard some of these names or partial names before, which makes it better since it allows for more realism. I used to take names from a discount book of anciant gods from most all the anciant pantheons, it listed gods, and heroes which was cool. Today we mostly have several of the core ones and several of the FR ones that have been carried over into the hombrew world. It's easier since we do not have the time and they each have so much written on them already- which helps and hurts.