D&D 5E 2ThreadsMeet - What Norse-ish deities would you add to 5e... if copyright wasn't a thing?

[Cadence]

So, we have the list of deities in the back of the 5e PHB getting voted on over at: D&D 5E - 5E Survivor - Deities (Part 9: Norse Deities)

And a discussion of copyright over at: New Bill to Limit Copyright to 56 Years, Would be Retroactive

So, whether copyright has expired and your favorite character is freed up or there is just someone in IRL Norse mythology or religion who was left out, who do you add to the pantheon in the PhB if you control the game?

* No, Hercules doesn't count! But are there things in Riordan's Magnus Chase series? Things you hadn't read for awhile in Gaiman's recent book?

 

[Morrus]

What Norse deities are copyrighted?

 

[Cadence]

What Norse deities are copyrighted?

Are the Warriors Three, Skurge and Amora all Marvel originals?
Beta Ray Bill and Throgg certainly are.
Is Karnilla?
Magnus Chase and his demi-god friends and some of their helpers?

So, maybe faux-Norse? But as Gaiman notes, "Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."

 

[Morrus]

The Warriors Three, Skurge and Amora all marvel originals?
Beta Ray Bill and Throgg?
Magnus Chase and his demi-god friends and some of their helpers?

Are they Marvel characters? I think there’s a big difference between a Marvel character and a Norse deity.

 

[Greg Benage]

Mikke, Norse God of Cheese

 

[Cadence]

Are they Marvel characters? I think there’s a big difference between a Marvel character and a Norse deity.

Sure, but D&D does have a history of mixing things together. (Which other pantheons are shoved in with them on Gladsheim?)

Anyway, was imagining that a Paladin of Skurge who stood alone, a ranger of Beta-Ray Bill who was changed so he could lead his people safely through the wilderness, and a trio each worshipping a different member of the warrior three.

Might be more popular choices in game than, say, Forseti, Hermod, Odur, Skadi, or Uller.

And why should the Grung and Bullywug be denied Throgg?

 

[jayoungr]

Sure, but D&D does have a history of mixing things together.

But in that case, the thread should be titled "What Marvel characters would you add to 5e if copyright wasn't a thing?"

I mean, Beta Ray Bill isn't even Norse-adjacent as far as I can see.

 

[Cadence]

But in that case, the thread should be titled "What Marvel characters would you add to 5e if copyright wasn't a thing?"

I mean, Beta Ray Bill isn't even Norse-adjacent as far as I can see.

He's worthy to pick up Thor's hammer and is currently the war leader for 616 Asgard.

And I'm guessing there have to be some others out in something...

Norse mythology in popular culture - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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The first post also opened it to any real myth Norse gods that aren't currently in the PhB too.

 

[MarkB]

Well, in the spirit of "there but for copyright", I'll nominate the entire Discworld pantheon. A lot of them are rather Norse-ish, right down to the name of their abode, Dunmanifestin, which is simultaneously highly evocative of a Norse-style Hall of the Gods, and also an absolutely beautiful bit of wordplay.

 

[Yaarel]

These are animistic nature beings, not "gods" in the English sense of term. That said.


My favorite nature personas are:

• Baldr (daylight − and by extension knowledge, truth, and beauty)
• Freyr (sex − and by extension peace, agriculture, and wealth − also magic)
• Þórr (storm − and by extension, defense, oaths, honor)
• Loki (entanglement − I still cant decide if he is good or evil, but I feel he isnt neutral, as his antics have a longterm cosmic agenda)


I am kinda getting into:

• Njǫrðr (coastlands)
• Ullr (wilderness)


Among the less wellknown nature beings, I love the primordial elementals:

• Logi (fire)
• Hlér (water)
• Kári (air)


I suppose Jǫrð (earth) qualifies as an earth elemental but she is conceptually unrelated to these three.


I love the jǫtnar, especially the cliff risar that are the personas of specific mountains. Known for beauty, strength, and magic. The modern Norwegian concept of troll ultimately derives from these, but it also mixes in the grotesque þursar. So, trolls who are enchantingly beautiful and who are scary ugly are both members of the same nuclear family. Note, even tho jǫtnar can manifest as big as a mountain, or even a continent, most jǫtnar are normal human size. There are stories where one sibling is human size and an other sibling is many meters tall.

I especially love the story of Barðr Snæfellsáss, the mind of a specific mountain in Norway who decided to project into the form of a mortal human, but then got homesick, and became the mind of a different mountain in Iceland.



When trying to translate the Norse concept into D&D, the personas are psionic minds of natural features in the material plane. The features of nature are a specific mountain, stream, weather pattern, etcetera. These normal aspects of nature have the elemental creature type but are native to the material plane. In D&D terms, they are psionically awake. Only some aspects of nature have a strong mind, and these material elementals mainly interact with humans psionically. A river flows because the elemental likes to flow and wants to flow. The elementals rarely do what they dont want to do, and are mostly just normal features of nature.