Sun God...with a twist. Ideas?

[adwyn]

First give him a personality. Have NPC's talk about him the way modern people do about celebrities - in fact have him do something, anything. Most campaign dieites are too static. Can anybody actuall name even one thing Pelor has done?

One thing I did in a past campaign was to have three small moons whose primary purpose was to eclipse only a small part of the sun. These could be used by the sun god to punish an area, or as a blessing to shade an army at the height of the day. Each of the moons was a goddess in her own right and all were wives of the primary sun god, so there was plenty of room for constant gossip. It kept the clergy busy.

 

[maddman75]

In brief: I want my new campaign world to have a monotheistic religion, with the deity being a Sun God. This choice is made for a variety of reasons, mostly flavour - it'll be a hot, dry land, so a Sun God just fits.

But, Sun Gods are a bit hackneyed (in D&D and in RL), so my question is basically this: what are some ideas to give the ole Sun God concept enough of a twist to inflame my players' imaginations? In other words, how can I have a Sun God without having Pelor?

NB: I'm not going to use alignments in this game, so there will be both 'good' and 'evil' priests/clerics/worhshippers etc.

I have something similar IMC - one nation has monotheism, with the Sun God as the only true god. All others are either the Sun God in disguise (usually the attitude taken with Dwarven and Elven dignitaries) or demons. Here's the question for you - if its monotheism why is he a Sun God. Most monotheistic religions don't have portfolios for their deities. Its simply not needed. Why divide up divine responsibility if there's no one to divide with?

The answer of course, is that it wasn't always a monotheistic religion. There was once a whole pantheon, and they had themselves a godswar. The Sun god was the only one left standing in the aftermath, and wanting to never have to repeat this again decides to teach his followers that there *are* no other gods. That way none can ever hope to supplant him.

In play, this comes off a little differently than Pelor. Auros has a harsh streak of intolerance. And while there's sun-related symbolism its mostly leftovers from previous eras. So its a sun symbol, but they don't really go much for dawn festivals or really talk about the sun overmuch.

 

[The_Universe]

If you're going for a desert world, the people therein are extraordinarily unlikely to worship the sun. In the desert, the sun is death. Water, on the other hand, is life. They'll revere the deity of water, and harvest, and consider the sun an enemy. In a place where nothing grows, there's no reason to revere the sun, as it can hardly be seen as lifegiving.

As someone above hinted at, you always want what you don't have, and hate what you do. Desert Hell is a desert, and glacial Hell is a glacier. Vikings dreamed of warm summerlands while the ancient hebrews entreated God to deliver them from the desert for 40 years.

You can turn that on its ear if you want (it's your campaign) but RL history/religion is a good way to give the game some verisimilitude.

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

Have your world in a binary or trinary star system.

 

[Yair]

I once played a cleric of Mithras, a god of (some say) persian origin worshipped by the roman legions. Worship was conducted in underground temples, and the god was perceived as the "transcendantal sun" (also "the unconquered sun") - sort of like he is the elemental plane of fire energizing all the light and fire sources in the universe. His light shines through the stars, and so forth. All other gods are not real gods, they are not trascendant. As you would imagine from his association with the legions, he was not a particularly peaceful deity. I believe many sects were gnostic, identifying matter with darkness and evil and spirit with good and light - the god's light calls out to us from the darkness of our world, drawing our spirits free of the evil dominion of matter. Or something like that.
Anyways, I personally find real-world religions much more satisfying. Hope that helped.

 

[Torm]

A monotheistic god of the night, maybe the moon. Seems to me that a people in a barren, desert like place might be enamored of the dominant aspects of the time of day when it cools down, and the beauty of the night sky in the desert.

Yep - a Moon or Star god that stokes the Sky Fire (not a god, but a natural force) and keeps it burning, while keeping it from burning up the world.

 

[Dr Simon]

Go to http://www.glorantha.com

Look up Yelm under religions. Alternatively look up the Red Moon Goddess and the Seven Mothers.

My take on a monotheistic sun 'n' desert deity can be found at my version of Argon for the Dragonlance setting at http://www.physiol.ox.ac.uk/~sl2/dl/myth/ogregods.html

 

[Ferret]

The Sun god has two aspects the Sun and the Eclipse, due to the placement of planets and moons there are regular eclipses.

The Sun aspect represents the good, joy, strong etc and rules for most of the time. However once a year/month/whatever the evil side takes over showing that even small forces can out do stronger ones with guile, deception and other underhanded ways. And that ever good has an evil side.

Hows that?

 

[Rackhir]

Try reading Sepulchrave II's story hour. His is a very interesting Mono/Poly-theistic world, where there is nominally only 1 god (Orthanon, iirc) a sun god, but multiple gods are worshiped. Leading to some interesting conflicts between the one god worshipers and the multiple god believers. Not to mention a number of real brain twisting concepts in terms of theology.
"Not all Truths are unequal" as one character put it.

 

[curiosity]

Some great ideas here, thanks guys.