D&D General Help me name the fantasy-historical pantheons

The 5e PHB has some basic info on a few fantasy-historical pantheons, and previous editions of D&D have done a lot more with them. But there hasn't been a whole lot in the way of giving them names that are appropriate for usage in the D&D multiverse (whether in Planescape/Spelljammer context, or just for your own world) where we don't generally assume the pantheon was born from the the myths of earthlings and somehow expanded into D&D land*.

It makes little sense to use terms like "Greek Pantheon" or "Egyptian Pantheon" if you choose to use that pantheon for your own D&D world, or if you choose to have that pantheon hold sway on a bunch of different worlds as 2e presented.

So what we need is just a good in-character name for each of the pantheons that have been presented for people in Sigil to call them while they're having religious debates over lunch.

For a few of them, I'm aware of names that were actually given to them in D&D sources:

Chinese: Traditionally, they've gone with "the Celestial Bureaucracy", which I rather like
Egyptian: 3e Deities & Demigods calls it the "Pharaonic Pantheon" which I'm not really a big fan of
Greek: 3e Deities & Demigods calls it the "Olympian Pantheon" which works well
Norse: 3e Deities and Demigods calls it the "Asgardian Pantheon" which works well

While there are probably others, the D&D fantasy-historical pantheons that still need names from the 2e Legends and Lore and On Hallowed Ground are the following (listed by the names they gave them):

American Indian
Aztec
Babylonian
Celtic
Finnish
Indian
Japanese
Sumerian

Thoughts? Suggestions?

I've done some research on this myself and come up with a few names that are workable, but I'd rather get other ideas before I go with some choices that may not always be the best options.


* Yes, there were occasional isolated flirtations with connecting real earth to the D&D multiverse at times, but that's never really been the norm, and I doubt most people want it to be.

Ok, I'll try to find some:

Indian American: Great Plain Pantheon or Turtle-World Pantheon
Aztec: First Builder Pantheon
Babylonian/Sumerian: Age of Myth Pantheon
Celtic: Feyborn Pantheon
Finnish: The Swan and Aurora Pantheon
Indian: the Myriad Family
Japanese: Imperial Court of the Loyal Ones

EDIT: Also, give us your take, I'm sure you had some good ideas.

Egyptian: Ennead is the name used for the Egyptian Pantheon (the 9 primaary gods of Ra, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Set, Osiris, Isis, and Nepthys).

I like the names that are used for the pantheons in Marvel comics:

Babylonian/Sumerian: Annunaki
Native American: Manidoog or Anasazi
Persian: Yazatas
Japanese: Amatsu-Kami
Chinese: Xian
Aztec: Teteoh
Mayan: Ahau
Incan: Apu
Indian: Daevas
Celtic: Tuatha de Danaan
Finnish: Jumala or Kalevalans
Slavic: Dievas (Sounds a bit similar to the Indian gods so that could cause some confusion)

vincegetorix said:

Ok, I'll try to find some:

Indian American: Great Plain Pantheon

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You do realize that:
A) America (and Canada) comprise of a lot more terrain types/regions than the plains.
B) Assorted tribes lived in all of them. And still do.

I'd suggest you borrow some ideas from Scion 2e and the Forgotten Realms.

In FR the Mesopotamian & Canaanite Pantheons are collectively called the Untherite Pantheon, the Hellenistic Grecoegyptian Pantheon is called the Mulhorand Pantheon, and Vedic Pantheon is Called the Lords of Creation. The Celestial Buracracy is usedKara Tur's main Pantheon, but for the Chinese Pantheon I prefer The Shen from Scion 2e.

Scion 2e calls the Greco-Roman Pantheon the Theoi.

The Aesir and Vanir, the combined Pantheons of the Norse.

The Devas of the Indian Gods (worshipped in Hinduisms and some forms Buddhaism and Jainism).

Kami Pantheon of Japan.

Netjer Pantheon of Egypt.

Orisha Pantheon of Yoruboland.

The Shen Pantheon of China

Teolt Pantheon of the Aztecs

Tuatha De Danna Pantheon of the Celts

The Manitou Pantheon of the Anishinaabek.

The Yazata Pantheon of Zorosterianism/Persia.

Not mentioned yet, the Canaanite Pantheon is usually called the Elohim.

Cetlic couldn't be anything other than the Tuatha de Danaan

Of course Neoplatonic Hellenism has it's own kind of Pantheon, which is basically a mix of all the Pantheon, plus some unique stuff like The One, ect...

Pathfinder uses Osirion for Egypt I use Nithian. Asgardian for Norse and Olympian for Greek works well.

ccs said:

You do realize that:
A) America (and Canada) comprise of a lot more terrain types/regions than the plains.
B) Assorted tribes lived in all of them. And still do.

Click to expand...

Yup, I know since I live in Wendake (Québec).

Its just a simple name for a fictional pantheon in a game. Having a specific name for every pantheon that could be loosely representative of a real world first nation belief would be exhaustive, to say the least.

Zardnaar said:

Pathfinder uses Osirion for Egypt I use Nithian. Asgardian for Norse and Olympian for Greek works well.

Click to expand...

Olympian is flawed for the Greeks, because only the main ruling Council are Olympians, most Greco-Roman Gods aren't Olympians. Hestia, Janus, Silvanus, Pan, Roma, Pax, Nike, Leta, Promeathus,
Hades, Persphone, the Titans, the Charities, Hourai, Muses, Hecate, Proteus, The Fates, Eros, Flora, the Primordial Gods like Chaos, Nyx, Lucifer (not to be confused with the Christian Devil), Hemera, Eberus, Tartarus, Typhon, Gaia, Uranus, Morpheaus, Thantos, ect...

This is why, Scion 2e went with Theoi instead.