Best RL Pantheon?

[Zardnaar]

The PHB includes several Pantheons from real life. Celt, Egyptian, Greek, Viking.

Older D&D books included some others.

So what ones do you like the best?

For purposes of this thread please only consider ones from extinct/ancient cultures.

From the PHB I rate them in this order.

1. Egypt
2. Greek
3. Viking
4 Celtic.

One can also use the Roman names for the Greek pantheon as well.

Other Pantheons off the top of my head.

Aztec/Inca/Maya
Assyrian/Sumerian
Late Roman (Sol Invictus, Mithras etc)

And remember only extinct/ancient pantheons please just to avoid arguements.

 

[aco175]

Egyptian, Norse, and Greek are the ones I know most about. I like most of the stories and heroes. There has been more movies on these than, say Sumerian. Not sure what one I would want to campaign in, maybe Norse and go all 13th Warrior.

 

[Ryujin]

I'd tend to put the Celtic and Hindu pantheons at the top of my list. Then I'd go to Norse and Greek, pretty much tied. Sumerian and/or Babylonian follows up, but only because I studied them in high school.

 

[Mad_Jack]

I'm of Irish descent, so I'm a bit biased toward the Celtic gods, but I've always been a fan of Norse mythology as well.
Honestly, I really like most of them except for the Greek/Roman pantheon - I've gotten a bit bored with them.

 

[MarkB]

The Greek pantheon has a very soap-opera feel, with the petty jealousies, sexual misconduct and casual mistreatment of mortals.

The Norse pantheon has a lot of that, but combines it with a sense of the gods not being on a whole other power-level than mortals. Many tales have them facing relatively mundane obstacles, and they often come across as more like mid-to-high-level adventurers than anything else.

 

[Zardnaar]

The Greek pantheon has a very soap-opera feel, with the petty jealousies, sexual misconduct and casual mistreatment of mortals.

The Norse pantheon has a lot of that, but combines it with a sense of the gods not being on a whole other power-level than mortals. Many tales have them facing relatively mundane obstacles, and they often come across as more like mid-to-high-level adventurers than anything else.

Greek Pantheon is human folly's and emotion cranked up to 10.

 

[MarkB]

Greek Pantheon is human folly's and emotion cranked up to 10.

Yeah, that's a pretty good definition of "soap opera".

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

My experience with RL pantheons is that none of them ever granted me divine spells. 0/5, would not buy again.


Besides that, I'd rate Mesopotamian gods because I get a more exotic feeling out of their stories than the more widely known other pantheons, especially the greek/roman stories which I know since childhood. I'd really like a Mesopotamian-inspired setting.

In a campaign, I am not sure the RL gods would fit very well the D&D assumptions for its clerics, though.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

There's only one way to find out....

 

[Hriston]

I grew up reading Greek and Norse mythology, so they're the ones I'm most partial to.