But yes, I would personally rearrange a lot of these. Some are already interesting (e.g. I like Athena as-is, hence why I like Erathis), but most of the other female deities are far too one-note for my preference. For example, I think it would be very interesting to combine, say, Hera and Hades: this is a culture where you don't say "til death do us part," marriage is eternal because the goddess of marriage is also the goddess of the afterlife. Imagine, the Raven Queen as goddess of marriage--how much different weddings and funerals would be in that kind of culture!
In Book of the Righteous, the Goddess of Nobility and Leadership is married to the God of Law, Justice, the Dead, and the Underworld. It's said that while Maal may judge the dead, it's his wife Naryne who governs them. They may be the only "happily married" couple in the entire pantheon.
You could also do as Pathfinder does. Pharasma is not only the goddess of death but also of childbirth.
I agree that most D&D gods are pretty one-dimensional. For example, we had talked about warrior storm gods earlier in this thread.
Very often many of these warrior storm gods are also gods of agriculture and (male) fertility. Fertility deities are very common in real life, but in D&D style pantheons, they are pretty absent, usually in favor of a more generic deity of love.
On the other hand, my favorite fantasy pantheon is Guild Wars' true gods, which has only five. Balthazar, god of war, fire and smiths; Dwayna, goddess of air, life, and magic (and nobility); Grenth, god of death and justice; Lyssa, goddess of truth, beauty, and illusions, and Melandru, goddess of earth and nature. It's pretty easy to cover most fantasy archetypes with this list. (aside from racial deities and evil powers.)
Technically, GW1 eventually led to the ascension of a (replacement) sixth, Kormir, who had previously been human but, through deed and through the assistance of the other five, replaced the previous (imprisoned) sixth god, Abbadon. In the process, she inverted his core domain; he was the God of Secrets, while she became the Goddess of Truth.
Yeah, Lyssa was never the goddess of truth. This is not to mention that we know of the existence of other gods. For example, Menzies was Balthazar's brother, and Balthazar supposedly came into Tyria carrying his father's head. There is also Dhuum, the unkillable actual god of death. Grenth could only imprison him in the Underworld.
And while we always knew that Grenth's mother was Dwayna, we also learned in Guild Wars 2 that his father was a mortal sculpter, who is
strongly implied to be Malchor the Sculpter. Malchor created their most popular statues of the gods and capturing their appearance; However, he became blinded by the radiance of the gods, finishing Dwayna's sculpture last while blind. He fell in love with Dwayna. Malchor unable to bear the parting of Dwayna ultimately threw himself into the ocean. The fact that Grenth had a mortal father is one of the secrets of Grenth's priesthood.
It's possible that the other deities were also at one point mortals, but the mystery of the gods and their divine essences has not been explored too much in Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 2, sadly, seems keen on erasing the legacy of the gods, depicting a lot of lore that we had in Guild Wars 1 as human propaganda and the gods that came to Tyria as a nuissance who threatened the balance of the world. Most non-humans in Tyria have a pretty cynical view of the human gods.
Also fun fact, the original five gods of Guild Wars 1 were partially based, much like Guild Wars 1 itself, on Magic the Gathering.
- White: Dwayna
- Green: Melandru
- Red: Balthazar
- Black: Grenth
- Blue: Lyssa
All that said, as much as I dislike Angry DM, he had an interesting article about creating your pantheon. He basically said that many players will not be able or often bother to memorize or care about a Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk size collection of pantheons that involve dozens upon dozens or more deities. He argued that five is a manageable amount for most players and their attention spans to your worldbuilding, and then he did much like the above and said that the five colors of Magic the Gathering provide a solid foundation. I think that if you had to go for more, I would probably go either
Ravnica (ten gods for the ten dual-colors) or
Theros (fifteen gods for the five basic colors plus ten dual-colors).
