D&D 5E Which Gods or Pantheons would you use in this campaign concept?

[Not a Decepticon]

I had this concept of a campaign chase me for some time.It's inspired by discussions about incorporating Magic: the Gathering multiverse into D&D Multiverse/Spelljammer and Planescape. It would happen i9n aftermath of a big event in Magic storyline, March of the Machines, and be set on Theros, ancient Greece-inspried setting that was published for D&D. I've marked this thread D&D 5e because Theros was published as setting for that system, but this is more lore-related/general question, I'm not really married to a speciffic system for this.

Long story short, during March of the Machines, several gods of Theros have been slain. It is left ambigious how many, the only fully confirmed ones are Heliod, God of the Sun, and Erebos, God of the Dead. However, there is enough material to suggest either death of whole Pantheon except Ephara, Goddess of Polis (who canonically survived) and potentially Klothys, God of Fate, and Kruphix, God of Horizons and Time (who work differently from other Gods of Theros so could be unaffected by threat that lead to Gods getting kileld off). We won't go that route. Instead I want to limit the number of dead gods to those who were confirmed or implied to have bitten the dust. Which includes:

• Heliod, God of the Sun
• Erebos, God of the Dead and the Afterlife
• Nylea, Goddess of the Hunt, the wild and the seasons
• Purphoros, God of the Forge, Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Fire
• Thassa, Goddess of the Sea
• Keranos, God of the Storm
• While he died earlier, we can add Xenagos, God of Revels, to have Seven Dead Gods

The concept of the campaign is that with so many Gods dead, Gods from other worlds have taken notice and begun sending missionaries to convert Theros' population and fill the vacant spots. In this campaign it would be to PCs to decide if they're fighting with Theros natives to defend their culture and faiths, or side with the, let's be honest, colonizers. The latter would make this a villainous campaign - I certainly want to potray these missionaires negatively in this concept, nobody wants repeat of Conquistador Roleplay that was 2e Maztica, but that doesn't mean the gods brought by colonizers are themselves evil. I mean, some of them are, but some are well-meaning but still have naughty word followers. the way Spelljammer and Theros work would mean the contact with gods would be limtied and they would need to amass enough followers to be able to manifest on Theros, so even worshippers of usually kind-hearted diety could be playing role of evil colonizers to be pushed back against, being let off from the leash, so to speak.

So far I was thinking of including missionaries of following Pantheons:

• Gods of Fury and Death Three from Faerun. Gods of Fury consist of Talos, God of Storms, Umbrelee, Goddess of the Sea, Malar, God of the Wild Beasts, which means they could fill three spots (and Auril was there but apparently got fired). We could add At'Ar, lesser-known cruel goddes of the Sun worshipped in Anauroch Desert, who is said to be wife of local incarnation of Talos, as a member of this group (yes, I know by the lore she is just mispresentation of another god, but I've choosen to ignore this part). And since she is beleived to cheat on her husband with God of Death, and that role is assumed by different dieties, we could slot there any or all of the Death Three. This effectively gives us a strong villain faction, the worst of the options for five out of seven vacant spots and few hanger-ons trying to fill in for things that didn't yet have gods.
• Prismatic Ray from Golarion, through only Serenrae can qualify to replace one of the dead gods, being a Sun and Fire diety, but I could see Desna and Shelyn tag along, since they mostly work with domains unoccupied by Theros' pantheon. They would be a supposed good faction, through I suspect with limited oversight it could turn out their followers get a little too overzealous in their efforts to convert the population. It may be an interesting angle if the three dieties do manifest in Theros and player characters have to make case to prove transgression of their own priests to them.
• Finally I was thinking of bringing Astral Giants from 4th Edition, lawful entities that worship more classic d&d dieties, including Erathis, Goddess of civilization and Law, Moradrin, God of the Forge, Pelor, God of the Sun and Asmodeus, who can slide in as God of Death and afterlife if needed. Astral Giants are known to be lawful and seeking to spread order and civilization, but they're also known bullies, so they work perfectly in role of colonizers. Interesting they would be trying to give vacant spots to their secondary dieties - Pelor, Moradrin, Asmodeus - while Erathis' domain is kinda fileld by Ephara, meaning they would probably clash with her worshippers.
• Not a pantheon yet but I was thinking of having cultists of Cthulhu trying to get old squid position of new God of the Sea, dunno which lovecraftian gods could aim for other spots.

Now, here is my question - which gods or pantheons would you add to this list, as dieties whose worshippers try to subvert Theros' culture and faith for their own? Can be from any edition or even a different or unrelated game

 

[Voadam]

Mythos interlopers.

Shub Niggurath the Goat of the woods filling the wild with her fertility cult.

Hastur as a star god taking over the Sun position, filling the Apollo patron of arts role with his plays.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Mythos interlopers.

Shub Niggurath the Goat of the woods filling the wild with her fertility cult.

Hastur as a star god taking over the Sun position, filling the Apollo patron of arts role with his plays.

Those are great additions. I like how this gives Hastur a room to clash with Golarion dieties. We could potentially add Cthugha for Fire, giving Great Old Ones decent starting position as an antagonistic pantheon.

 

[Voadam]

Mythos gods sending out corrupting dreams that madden people into being cultists is an on theme way for them to invade a world and establish an increasing presence.

 

[Tonguez]

Do they have to be foreign dieties? My first thought on reading it was a take on Mystara’s Immortals - powerful mortal beings (humanoids, dragons, dinosaurs) who have risen to attain immortality and divinity. If you take that route you can avoid the colonial taint as the immortals are native born creatures driven to fill the gap left by the death of their own gods.

On reflection though that does take you into Birthright territory of Scions battling for ascendency, you’ll have to decide if you want the option of PCs seeking to be gods themselves

If you do want an existing pantheon - then Mystaran Immortals

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Mythos gods sending out corrupting dreams that madden people into being cultists is an on theme way for them to invade a world and establish an increasing presence.

Very good point

Do they have to be foreign dieties? My first thought on reading it was a take on Mystara’s Immortals - powerful mortal beings (humanoids, dragons, dinosaurs) who have risen to attain immortality and divinity. If you take that route you can avoid the colonial taint as the immortals are native born creatures driven to fill the gap left by the death of their own gods.

On reflection though that does take you into Birthright territory of Scions battling for ascendency, you’ll have to decide if you want the option of PCs seeking to be gods themselves

If you do want an existing pantheon - then Mystaran Immortals

I have been considering Immortals, I could potentially see some whose faith in their own world may be threatened (Rafiel of Shadow Elves, Norse pantheon and Atruaghin pantheon) of showing on Theros to set a safe-guard for their own existence and seek someone to guide to Immortality in exchange of setting some worship on the side. They may probably come as more reasonable and less colonizing alternative, especially for PCs seeking godhood themselves (also I really wouldn't want to use Atruaghin pantheon in particular in the same role as other pantheons here, for obvious reasons)

Been considering looking into my Southlands Worldbook to see if any gods there could potentially hop into the plot, both major and lesser dieties of Nuria Natal look particularly tempting for this campaign

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I HATED MARCH OF THE MACHINE for RUINING Theros with crap. They could have picked one of the less important to D&D. Plus they didn't given give the Theros a good send off, they did most of it off camera. Like most of MOM it made no sense. The whole things was awful, made War of the Spark look flawless in comparsion.

So I'd bring the Gods of Theros back, I mean except for Xenos they all died on Theros or the Underworld, so their souls still exist, they just have to pop their heads back out, abit weaked.

But that does not preclude other Gods are wannabe Gods and Cults of Dead Gods that want that God resurrected from invading Theros. Or other Religions.

I picture Theros is a multi faceted Holy War for Control of the Nyx.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

I HATED MARCH OF THE MACHINE for RUINING Theros with crap. They could have picked one of the less important to D&D. Plus they didn't given give the Theros a good send off, they did most of it off camera. Like most of MOM it made no sense. The whole things was awful, made War of the Spark look flawless in comparsion.

So I'd bring the Gods of Theros back, I mean except for Xenos they all died on Theros or the Underworld, so their souls still exist, they just have to pop their heads back out, abit weaked.

But that does not preclude other Gods are wannabe Gods and Cults of Dead Gods that want that God resurrected from invading Theros. Or other Religions.

I picture Theros is a multi faceted Holy War for Control of the Nyx.

I think the option of bringing the dead gods back is on the table, but I would leave it as a possibility for players to explore, and decide if they want to bring old gods back, throw in with some interlopers, strengthen remaining native gods or even ascend themselves. A multi-faceted holy war to control the Nyx is pretty much what I have in mind for this campaign