D&D General World Building (needs opinions/suggestions only)

Trying to work on my own setting again, but I would like the opinions of folks here. Things that are particularly useful are positive feedback/constructive criticism.

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In the beginning there was magic, for magic is both possibility and impossibility; what is and what could be. It is eternal and ever-flowing. And from this came the first deity: Thaumathea1, the Goddess of Magic.

She is magic made manifest, magic that is aware of itself and what it can do. And she looked at the vastness about her and thought. For while magic was everywhere, nothing else was, though she saw that it could be.

Magic comes in different forms, and she gave each of these forms an avatar that was separate from her: Creara, Goddess of Creation, Mutatio, Deity of Transformation, Perdera, Goddess of Destruction, Scia, Goddess of Knowledge, Sustento, God of Protection, Medeoro, God of Restoration, and Modero God of Control.

1Her name is alternately pronounced ThOW MA thee AH, ThOW MA thAY AH, and ThOW MA THEE. Scia has, in fact, written it as pronounced in all three ways.
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Creara
Pronunciation: Kree AR ah
Pronouns: She/Her
Portfolio: Goddess of Conjuration and Illusion (Magic that Creates).
More About: Creara is naturally artistic and inventive and encourages all arts and sciences. She is the counterpart and lover of Perdera and the two are rarely apart. She does not like the reputation Perdera gets and spends quite a lot of time trying to comfort Perdera and also correct people.

Medeoro
Pronunciation: Mee DEE or OH
Pronouns: He/Him
Portfolio: Deity of Restoration (Magic that Heals)
More About: Medeoro is naturally interested in healing and restoring things and, thus, has a somewhat strained relationship with Perdera. He is the mate of Sustento and the two are rarely apart. Though Medeoro is often seen as good, he’d be the first to say none of the deities are either good or evil since none of the parts of magic are innately good or evil. Despite his strained relationship with Perdera, he is generally the first after Creara to defend her against accusations of being evil.

Modero
Pronunciation: Mah DAIR oh
Pronouns: He/Him
Portfolio: Deity of Enchantment (Magic that Controls)
More About: Modero is naturally interested in controlling things and, thus, has a somewhat strained relationship with Mutati. He is the mate of Scia and the two are rarely apart. Modero, much like Perdera, has an unfortunate reputation for being evil and manipulative. He is more interested in order than strict control, though he’s aware of how easy it would be to slip. Thus he is usually found in Scia’s library keeping her books in order.

Mutati
Pronunciation: Moo TA tee
Pronouns: Ze/Zet
Portfolio: Deity of Transformation (Magic that Changes)
More About: Mutatio is a natural trickster and encourages those who seek to bring change to the world. Mutati laughs at the idea of permanence. While ze is not actively malicious towards either Modero or Sustento, ze does recognize the potential issues and will usually leave the two alone unless either starts to go a bit too far. Ze is particularly concerned with helping Modero to regulate his desire to control things.

Perdera
Pronunciation: Per DAIR ah
Pronouns: She/Her
Portfolio: Deity of Evocation and Necromancy (Magic that Destroys)
More About: Perdera is naturally destructive but she is not evil (though many believe her to be). She is the counterpart and lover of Creara and the two are rarely apart. This baffles many, but it must be remembered that Evocation brings forth energy (effectively creating it even if the end result is destructive) while Necromancy brings a necessary ending so new things may come forth.

Scia
Pronunciation: Sk EE ah
Pronouns: She/Her
Portfolio: Deity of Divination (Magic that Reveals)
More About: Scia is naturally interested in knowing things and she has a book that records things as they occur. She is the mate of Modero and the two are rarely apart. She has an extensive library that has every document ever written. Modero is in charge of keeping it in order. She has a specific alert for if he starts going overboard.

Sustento
Pronunciation: Suh STEN toh
Pronouns: He/Him
Portfolio: Deity of Abjuration (Magic that Protects)
More About: Sustento is naturally interested in defending and preserving things and, thus, has a somewhat strained relationship with both Mutati and Perdera. He is the mate of Medeoro and the two are rarely apart.
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Main issues thus far:

1) Both Creara and Perdera have two schools of magic. These could be separated into two other deities, but if folks like them as is I'll keep them.
2) The names are basically Ars Magica. I'm not quite sure what else to name them.
3) I do not want evil (or, realistically, good) deities. Deities represent the fundamental undertrappings of reality. It'd be like saying gravity or electromagnetism are good or evil. Unfortunately, both Enchantment and Necromancy have a lot of "Evilness" associated with them due to the one having a lot of mind control stuff and the other having undead.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

This is pretty neat. I'd say that Enchantment has other aspects besides control. It can be used to calm people (Calm emotions), or to inspire them (a la Bless or Heroism). And Necromancy is about life, not just death (Revivify, Resurrection, etc.).

On a quick read through just one immediate item that jumped out at me.

Your phoenetic reading for Modero's name seems off. Modero only has three syllables as a word, but the phoenetic pronunciation has four syllables. That does not compute.

I would parse the name as either "Moh der oh" or "Mah der oh" with emphasis on whichever syllable you prefer. My natural reading would be emphasis on the second syllable (the "der" or "dair"), but your call as the author.

The only other immediate comment is on your pairings. This is more flavour than anything else to my mind, so make of it what you will. If you conception is that deities are above good and evil, then should they also be above gender? Worshippers might ascribe gender, but do the deities really have it?

I can see what you are going for with one male-female pair, one male-male pair, and one female-female pair with two stand-alone deities in the mother who is self-generating, and the child who is all genders and none (or fluid gender?). But this kind of seemed artificial to me. Like if the deities are not about good and evil, why is balance involved in any way as well?

Cheers

The general complication with worldbuilding around the magic schools, or magical concepts embedded within D&D more generally, is that there isn't a one-to-one correlation between magical tropes and concepts (like Protection, Creation, Destruction) and the eight schools that define D&D magic. Some schools have multiple concepts embedded within them, and some concepts are split among multiple schools.

So the question becomes, as your priority, do you want to define your concepts first, and adjust the schools to fit, or do you maintain the schools and make your concepts more fluid?

I think you have pretty good alignment between tropes and the schools within your system, but I think there are still some tensions, particularly the idea of Death. For example, depending on how the cosmology handles questions of death, the afterlife, ghosts and spirits, and resurrection/reincarnation, whether necromancy is "destruction" or "transformation" (or both!) is a conceptual tension that doesn't seem quite addressed.

Also, since magic is intended to be unaligned and more of a "forces of reality" focus, there's a question of whether or not you define spells by their "process" or by their "intent". As you mention, this is a strong question for Evocation, where the spells primarily focus on a creative "process" (bringing energy into existence) for an often destructive "intent" (like a fireball or magic missile).

My gut feeling is that for a "forces of reality" focus, the overall intent of the spell should be a lower priority than its process. When you summon energy, or summon an extraplanar object, it really shouldn't matter (to magic) if you're intending to use it to kill or to build.

Davy Greenwind said:

This is pretty neat. I'd say that Enchantment has other aspects besides control. It can be used to calm people (Calm emotions), or to inspire them (a la Bless or Heroism). And Necromancy is about life, not just death (Revivify, Resurrection, etc.).

Click to expand...

Thanks! I was trying to figure out other ways of doing them. Particularly, for Necromancy, I really wanted a more Morticia Addams/Elvira Mistress of the Dark vibe.

Omand said:

On a quick read through just one immediate item that jumped out at me.

Your phoenetic reading for Modero's name seems off. Modero only has three syllables as a word, but the phoenetic pronunciation has four syllables. That does not compute.

I would parse the name as either "Moh der oh" or "Mah der oh" with emphasis on whichever syllable you prefer. My natural reading would be emphasis on the second syllable (the "der" or "dair"), but your call as the author.

Click to expand...

That has been fixed, thanks!

Omand said:

The only other immediate comment is on your pairings. This is more flavour than anything else to my mind, so make of it what you will. If you conception is that deities are above good and evil, then should they also be above gender? Worshippers might ascribe gender, but do the deities really have it?

I can see what you are going for with one male-female pair, one male-male pair, and one female-female pair with two stand-alone deities in the mother who is self-generating, and the child who is all genders and none (or fluid gender?). But this kind of seemed artificial to me. Like if the deities are not about good and evil, why is balance involved in any way as well?

Cheers

Click to expand...

I had debated that. Ultimately I felt that this was important to be here.

They self-identify, basically, though the conveyance of this to worshipers is not perfect: worshipers of Creara, for instance, might make a statue of her that looks like a female member of their species, but this isn't what Creara actually looks like--only what they can comprehend of her, if that makes sense.

It is somewhat akin to Tolkien's Valar who "wear" a particular form like clothing. I felt that Mutati, particularly, goes through eras of "feeling more strongly" towards something else, but never stays there permanently.

TwoSix said:

The general complication with worldbuilding around the magic schools, or magical concepts embedded within D&D more generally, is that there isn't a one-to-one correlation between magical tropes and concepts (like Protection, Creation, Destruction) and the eight schools that define D&D magic. Some schools have multiple concepts embedded within them, and some concepts are split among multiple schools.

So the question becomes, as your priority, do you want to define your concepts first, and adjust the schools to fit, or do you maintain the schools and make your concepts more fluid?

Click to expand...

I more intended the latter. To take Medeoro, for instance, the school of magic most associated with healing is Conjuration (I've always found this questionable at best), but he is the concept of Magic Used For Healing Purposes, so any spell (regardless of school) that Heals/Restores/Mends is under his domain.

TwoSix said:

I think you have pretty good alignment between tropes and the schools within your system, but I think there are still some tensions, particularly the idea of Death. For example, depending on how the cosmology handles questions of death, the afterlife, ghosts and spirits, and resurrection/reincarnation, whether necromancy is "destruction" or "transformation" (or both!) is a conceptual tension that doesn't seem quite addressed.

Click to expand...

Both Creation and Destruction have an aspect of Transformation in them. Creation taking something from nothing or altering something into something else via creative processes: Destruction taking something and returning it to nothing or altering something via enthropic processes so it basically falls apart.

The thing that's most important to me is that Death is not Evil. Perdera, in my mind, is supposed to be akin to both Kali and Death of the Endless. I'm just not sure how to quite put that.

TwoSix said:

Also, since magic is intended to be unaligned and more of a "forces of reality" focus, there's a question of whether or not you define spells by their "process" or by their "intent". As you mention, this is a strong question for Evocation, where the spells primarily focus on a creative "process" (bringing energy into existence) for an often destructive "intent" (like a fireball or magic missile).

My gut feeling is that for a "forces of reality" focus, the overall intent of the spell should be a lower priority than its process. When you summon energy, or summon an extraplanar object, it really shouldn't matter (to magic) if you're intending to use it to kill or to build.

Click to expand...

nods That makes sense. I think I will move Evocation and Illusion to two different deities, with Evocation being more Elemental in nature and Illusion being more akin to Mutati.

Thanks!