D&D General My (altered) Dawn War Pantheon

[Aldarc]

The alteration are great, but the thing that gets me confuse is that Sehanine is generally the goddess of dreams. Astara and Sehanine are very similar deities since they are night time deities , I do understand that they are mother and daughter. Is any unique differences between them. Can you explain Sehanine's duty as the goddess of love?

There are actually three night deities: Astara (stars), Sehanine (moon), and Zehir (darkness of night). But they all come from the same family, since Zehir and Sehanine are children of Astara (and Pholtus). So you can think of them as a family of heavenly deities, with Pelor as the other child and Asmodeus kinda connected since he was an archangel of Pholtus. And Bahamut ends up joining these deities as the new Lord of Heaven through marriage with Astara.

I made Astara so that there would be a "mother" in the family tree of sky deities. I gave Astara stars and dreams since Sehanine was more strongly associated with the moon and a lot more (e.g., moon, illusions, autumn, love, etc.), whereas Astara would have mostly just had being a sad mom (e.g., mourning, mercy, widows).

I'm not sure if I can really explain Sehanine's duty as a goddess of love. I assume its similar to other love/fertility/marriage deities, with local customs and beliefs like varying depending on tradition. I could imagine that Astara takes a back step or that Sehanine's cult is rising to greater prominence than Astara's, which could be understood as Sehanine taking over many of the nightly functions (e.g., stars, dreams) of her mother. Though this could also bring her cults into potential conflict with cults of Astara or cults of Bahamut (Sovereign of the Heavens/Astral Sea). It's whatever you wanna do with it.

One of the appeals to me of Nentir Vale and the 4e Pantheon is that it works tremendously well as a toolkit for GMs. My alterations were made for purposes of making it work more cohesively as an organic pantheon of deities. So you can take my alterations and make your own alterations as well if my explanations or alterations are not quite to your liking.

 

[Aldarc]

This reminds me that I should go back to the OP and add in two deities: Garl and Yondalla.

 

[DEFCON 1]

This reminds me that I should go back to the OP and add in two deities: Garl and Yondalla.

Interesting to see you ended up going with Garl after all! You seemed up in the air previously about it back in July, thinking his place was already filled by other deities. What made you decide to include him?

 

[Weiley31]

mustache-twirling Lloth

Well, that was quite the plot twist!

 

[Aldarc]

Interesting to see you ended up going with Garl after all! You seemed up in the air previously about it back in July, thinking his place was already filled by other deities. What made you decide to include him?

Mainly to see if I could. There was room. As you see, I did go with a more Dionysus/Bacchus/Janus/Pan sort of flavor that indirectly ties gnomes into the other Feywild-associated deities. Similar to Yondalla, who I made more of a home and hearth deity, which ties halflings to both domesticity and the more "human deities" (i.e., Pelor and Erathis).

 

[Zeromaru X]

I find this topic interesting, because I was thinking on doing the same for my next campaign set in the Nentir Vale, so, tagged for future stealing (?)

And I was also struggling in how to include Garl into my campaign (there is potential gnome player, lol)

 

[NotAYakk]

Gods should be about stories. And godly families a soap opera.

More Resentments!

Bane feels that as the general, he should be head of the Gods.

Pelor, first-born and heir, had his spot taken by Bahamut.

Grummash/Kord rivalry. Who is stronger?

Some Loki-Thor action. Garl needs a foil. Kord?

More connections with the rival house -- the Titans/Primordeals. And don't forget 4e's best cosmological addition, the primal spirits.

What is the background structure. Celestial beaurocracy of Spirits? Are gods omnipresent, or just really powerful individual mostly?

 

[Aldarc]

Gods should be about stories. And godly families a soap opera.

More Resentments!

Bane feels that as the general, he should be head of the Gods.

Pelor, first-born and heir, had his spot taken by Bahamut.

Grummash/Kord rivalry. Who is stronger?

Some Loki-Thor action. Garl needs a foil. Kord?

More connections with the rival house -- the Titans/Primordeals. And don't forget 4e's best cosmological addition, the primal spirits.

What is the background structure. Celestial beaurocracy of Spirits? Are gods omnipresent, or just really powerful individual mostly?

I already have Avandra and her brother Kord in a sort of Loki-Thor position of adventuring companions. And that Gruumash/Kord rivalry of strength and armed prowess is what I have in mind. But sure, you are of course welcome to spruce this pantheon up as you see fit, and these are good ideas for doing just that, because they show a lot of potential mythical plot hooks.

I would also note that you eisegeting - that is to say, reading something into my text that is not there: namely that Pelor is the first-born and heir. I said nothing of the sort. In fact, if you read the entry for his brother Zehir, I indicated that HE is actually the eldest child of Pholtus and Astara in this setup.

Personally, I don't want to bombard PCs with mythical backstory or drop giant Wikipedia entries of the deities and their stories. I presume that further myths around the gods do exist, but I prefer leaving some things blank so that they can be filled during or discovered through play so that it is more of a GM toolkit than a mythological treatise. So if I have a cleric or religious PC, then I may ask them for their interpretation of the myths or the gods, and I can build around what they are engaging with. I don't necessarily want to fill in too many details at the outset because it gives less room for the myths to breathe in the mouths and minds of mortals.

 

[gabymarief111]

I already have Avandra and her brother Kord in a sort of Loki-Thor position of adventuring companions. And that Gruumash/Kord rivalry of strength and armed prowess is what I have in mind. But sure, you are of course welcome to spruce this pantheon up as you see fit, and these are good ideas for doing just that, because they show a lot of potential mythical plot hooks.

I would also note that you eisegeting - that is to say, reading something into my text that is not there: namely that Pelor is the first-born and heir. I said nothing of the sort. In fact, if you read the entry for his brother Zehir, I indicated that HE is actually the eldest child of Pholtus and Astara in this setup.

Personally, I don't want to bombard PCs with mythical backstory or drop giant Wikipedia entries of the deities and their stories. I presume that further myths around the gods do exist, but I prefer leaving some things blank so that they can be filled during or discovered through play so that it is more of a GM toolkit than a mythological treatise. So if I have a cleric or religious PC, then I may ask them for their interpretation of the myths or the gods, and I can build around what they are engaging with. I don't necessarily want to fill in too many details at the outset because it gives less room for the myths to breathe in the mouths and minds of mortals.

|I agree with not going to crazy with the myths of the pantheons as much I want to so bad. The PCs are the main characters of the campaign. You should crazy with the BBEG.|

 

[gabymarief111]

|I agree with not going to crazy with the myths of the pantheons as much I want to so bad. The PCs are the main characters of the campaign. You should go crazy with the BBEG.|