D&D 5E Could Theros and Tasha's Cauldron the way they're going to handle real-world pantheons?

[Kobold Avenger]

Real-world pantheons in D&D have generally been a mess and usually something regulated to an appendix if at all. Never been accurate historically, and often based on certain dubious interpretations, like the D&D Norse pantheon being strongly based on Snorri Sturluson's interpretation of Norse mythology. They've often often included the Greek or Norse pantheons as a reference for those making their own mythologies. But beyond Planescape and Spelljammer (Ptah) back in 2e, certain FR Gods who come from Norse, Greek, Finnish or Celtic mythologies or certain Gods like Tiamat who have nothing to do with their mythological counterparts (D&D Tiamat seems to have no rivalry with the Babylonian God Marduk), they haven't strongly factored much into the official canon of D&D.

Mystic Odyssey of Theros is at first a D&D campaign based on a Magic the Gathering world, but it strongly features a pantheon of Gods that are the original IP of WotC, that's certainly inspired by the Greek/Olympian pantheon. Something makes me suspect, that they might be eventually replacing mentions of Poseidon with Thassa or Apollo with Heliod.

Then we come to Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, where I noticed when referring to Domain and the deities that might be associated with them, they've completely went with those from Campaign-specific pantheons like FR, Greyhawk and Eberron. I suspect going forward they want the mythology to be tied closer to their own IP.

 

[Waller]

Mystic Odyssey of Theros is at first a D&D campaign based on a Magic the Gathering world, but it strongly features a pantheon of Gods that are the original IP of WotC, that's certainly inspired by the Greek/Olympian pantheon. Something makes me suspect, that they might be eventually replacing mentions of Poseidon with Thassa or Apollo with Heliod.

Cultural scavengers.

 

[Scribe]

I'd be super annoyed, and then ignore it, and make my own.

I (used to) like Magic, so it's not just hating for the sake of it, but no. I'll keep the history of the various D&D pantheons, or just make up another before I use the MtG stuff.

I really don't like seeing those races in the game either like Loxodons or Simic stuff...

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I'd be super annoyed, and then ignore it, and make my own.

I (used to) like Magic, so it's not just hating for the sake of it, but no. I'll keep the history of the various D&D pantheons, or just make up another before I use the MtG stuff.

I really don't like seeing those races in the game either like Loxodons or Simic stuff...

It isn't about them not using the D&D pantheons, it's about them not wanting to use the Greek Pantheon anymore. At least it seems like it's going that way.

 

[Scribe]

It isn't about them not using the D&D pantheons, it's about them not wanting to use the Greek Pantheon anymore. At least it seems like it's going that way.

Considering the tropes they already leveraged to make the Theros Gods, that would seem like an easy fit yeah.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

They should just dump mention of the real life pantheons. At best it is unnecessary, at worst, it creates impressions that some might consider problematic. You could easily drop those mentions and the game would not suffer for it. If a DM is gung-ho to do an accurate Norse campaign, they are probably far better suited to do it on their own than leaning into the sparse information offerings in 5e.

 

[jgsugden]

To a large extent, even when the Gods we use are based upon the source materials, we make them our own.

Look at Critical Role. If you have Kord, Melora, Pelor, The Raven Queen, Ioun or Vecna in your game - do they match what Mercer has done with them? No.

To that end, as long as we are respectful of the cultures from which the figures are drawn (when they are drawn from cultures), it doesn't really matter how or what we get because we're going to personalize them.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Someday the lost lesser Trojan epics will all be found and will turn out to be filled with 5e Stat blocks for Greek gods.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Can I finally be a Cleric of the Giant Flying Spaghetti Monster?

 

[dave2008]

(D&D Tiamat seems to have no rivalry with the Babylonian God Marduk),

What! Of course he does! In case you can't read it in the snip below, the last line reads:

"His battles with Tiamat are legendary."