D&D 4E 4e Core Gods

[ObsidianCrane]

Wartorn posted the following in the "worlds and monsters is in my hands ";

The pantheon mentioned is: Bahamut, Vecna, Avandra, Zehir, Ioun, Pelor, Tiamat, Gruumsh, Lolth, Corellon, Moradin, Kord, Bane, The Raven Queen, Asmodeus, Torog

To these we can add;
Sehanine
Melora
Obad-Hai
Io
Tharzidun ??
Erathis

Which gives an excess of gods according to warton's reports.

However Melora and Obad-hai appear to have conflicting portfolios being "God of the Wilds" and "God of the Wilderness" but from different sources, I'm inclined to use the more recent Melora however.
Io is mentioned as having been the original dragon diety, and Bahumut and Tiamat sprung from his corpse.
Also Tharzidun seems sketchy though he's always been a god so maybe.

In effect that means there is probably 1 god not yet accounted for.

However its also been mentioned that Orcus may have made it to god status at last, which would give a complete pantheon, however there is strong reason to believe this is not the case still leaving 1 god to identify. (Orcus is not in the list below but he is Demon Lord of Undead so it seems likely if he did make the transition he would be related to that.)

Making the Deities and their portfolios:
Asmodeus:??
Avandra: Goddess of Change/Luck
Bahamut: God of Justice, Protection, and Honor
Bane: (God of Tyranny and War)?
Corelleon: God of Magic
Erathis: God of Civilisation (clerics "seek to build and maintain strong communities, to work with others, to uphold laws, and expand the dominion of civilization")
Gruumsh: (God of ??? - not orcs but it seems likely he will be tied to rage etc)
Ioun: Godess of Knowledge ("mist admonish her clerics to seek lost knowledge and perfection of the mind")
Kord: God of Strength and Courage (R&C indicates these are qualities of his clerics so it seems his portfolio is unchanged.)
Lolth: "Demon Queen of Spiders" (Being Goddess of Darkness would seem to put her in conflict with Zehir, so its vague what her role is in the Pantheon.)
Melora: God of the Wilds
Moradin: God of Creation (still called the "Soul Forger" and "All Father")
Pelor: God of the Sun
Sehanine: Goddess of the Moon
Tharzidun: (God of Madness?)
The Raven Queen: Goddess of Death (clerics "rever the natural cycle of life and death, revel in winter, and work as the hand of fate in the world")
Tiamat:Goddes of Vengeance
Torog: ???
Vecna: God of Secrets (clerics "keep secrets, corrupt others, and oppse al other gods")
Zehir: God of Lies and Darkness (modeled on Set, also called "God of Night" in R&C)

Anyone add further clarity or identify more gods (despite the comment of only having 21)?

 

[Steely Dan]

I thought they were going to throw in a few, classic, familiar, real world mythological gods, like maybe Thor or something.

Or did I dream it…?

 

[The Little Raven]

I thought they were going to throw in a few, classic, familiar, real world mythological gods, like maybe Thor or something.

Or did I dream it…?

They mentioned it as a possibility, but later decided to leverage the obviously "D&D" gods, instead of a slightly confusing mish-mash from real-world and D&D.

 

[vagabundo]

They mentioned it as a possibility, but later decided to leverage the obviously "D&D" gods, instead of a slightly confusing mish-mash from real-world and D&D.

Good, mixing in those real world gods can ruin the suspension of disbelief for me.

I like this list, get rid of Obad-hai and no more silly names.

 

[Sonny]

I'm not sure Io counts, since he's dead and never coming back. It could mean just the current pantheon has 21 deities.

 

[Steely Dan]

I'm thinking this Raven Queen might be an evil Fey/Unseelie god (a new Queen of Air and Darkness).

 

[ObsidianCrane]

I'm thinking this Raven Queen might be an evil Fey/Unseelie god (a new Queen of Air and Darkness).

While not unreasonable her followers are clerics are said to "rever the natural cycle of life and death, revel in winter, and work as the hand of fate in the world" in the R&C book.

They may have changed their mind but to me it seems like the Raven Queen = Morrigan "Goddess of Life and Death" who is closely tied to Crows, which ties with the description of the Clerics from Races and Classes.

Thats the important thing, there is a mix of god ideas here - from renamed real world ones to simply DND ones.

Eg Zehir is specifically noted as having been original "Set" in Races and Classes.

 

[ObsidianCrane]

I thought they were going to throw in a few, classic, familiar, real world mythological gods, like maybe Thor or something.

Or did I dream it…?

They did - but they renamed them to avoid the RW connotations of those dieties and make their pantheon cohesive. Its easy enough to do actually

 

[Li Shenron]

However Melora and Obad-hai appear to have conflicting portfolios being "God of the Wilds" and "God of the Wilderness"


Lolth: "Demon Queen of Spiders" (Being Goddess of Darkness would seem to put her in conflict with Zehir, so its vague what her role is in the Pantheon.)

What's the problem with conflicting portfolios?

 

[ObsidianCrane]

What's the problem with conflicting portfolios?

Its a single pantheon not a group of pantheons.

It makes less sense to have a massive conflict between the primary roles of two dieties. Maybe lesser roles (eg the inherent conflict between Corelleon, Sehanine and Lolth over the "Elven" people), but conflict over major roles seems silly.

Further to that is also the date of the publications - R&C was written well before the Shattered Family article, and the position of Melora in the Shattered Family article directly matches the position of Obad-Hai in the earlier Elves article and the Elves section of R&C - adding further weight to the idea that Melora is the "new" Obad-Hai.