A balanced pantheon?

[Mathew_Freeman]

Only problem with a god of apathy is what exactly does he promote?

[humour]

GoA: I, the God of Apathy promote sitting around and drinking beer!

worshippers: Yay!

GoA: I promote letting someone else do all the work!

w: Yay!

GoA: I promote promising things but never delivering!

w: Go on then, show us a miracle and we'll be your followers for ever more!

GoA: ........I can't be bothered.

Sorry for the thread hijack, randomling.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

I've been thinking of relaxing the "one step" rule, as I can definitely think of cults of Lawful Good gods whose practises border on Lawful Evil...

i think you could accomplish this without breaking the 'one-step' rule by using Neutral gods or a loosely structured dogma

other examples of one-step changes in sects could be...

a NG god who has LG and CG worshipers. the lawful types would probably be more pro-active, militaristic and structured in their worship, beliefs and actions, whereas the chaotics may be more reactive and individualistic. they would oppose each other by disagreeing on the best methods to serve their god, but they would still work towards the same end

a LG god's LN worshipers would view the god's dogma as LAW (goodness-be-damned) and the NG worshipers would be more concerned with altruism in that god's name

IMHO, i don't think a 'bordering on' LE sect of a LG would work (or would work for very long). once the sect's worshipers started commiting evil acts, a good-aligned god wouldn't (necessarily) continue to grant them spells (some evil god might, but that's a whole plot onto itself )

 

[randomling]

The Cellsori pantheon in brief

Aphelaia: Goddess of Creation (N) vs Duarlan: God of Destruction (CN)
Celadon: God of Valour (LG) vs Jossataro: God of Slaughter (CE)
Manaira: Goddess of Life and Light (LG) vs Rostirno: God of Darkness and Necromancy (LE)
Merika: Goddess of Illusion (CN) vs Ramas: God of Truth (LG)
Tarvin: God of Tyrants (LE) vs Xiane: Goddess of Adventure (CG)
Chenna: Goddess of Love (CG) vs Thintor: God of Passion (NE)
Tiamanti: Goddess of Magic and Prophecy (CN) vs Drissa: Goddess of Nature and Fertility (NG)
Mosstor: God of Knowledge (NG) vs Jehnann: Goddess of Insanity (CE)
Hierpan: God of Judgement (LN) vs ?
Fremnor: God of Revelry (CG) vs ?
Clayah: Goddess of the Hunt (LE) vs Canua: Goddess of the Wild (CN)
Felmie: Goddess of Self-Discovery (LG) vs Camac: God of Wealth (LN)
Almac: God of Wizardry (LN) vs ?
Canui: God of Thieves (NE) vs ?
Fanrith: Goddess of Greed (LE) vs ?
Catma: Goddess of Indulgence (CN) vs ?
Pellsa: Goddess of Healing (NG) vs Brocem: God of Disease (N)

So what do you think, people? Can you think of ways to fill the gaps? Or make pairings of the existing gods that I haven't seen?

Tallarn: I see your point. Apathy on its own might be a no-go but there's something in there... I need to let my mind work on it a bit!

Mr Fidgit: mmm. Yeah. There's certainly loads of scope there. Will think on it. You might be right about the LE sect of an LG god (Manaira, by the way) - the gods are too involved in D&D and my original concept was of a world where the gods paid little attention to their followers as long as enough of them existed. But the Helmesh - the sect - are maybe LN, and just very prejudiced with regard to who they target. Thanks - food for thought.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

posted by randomling
Hierpan: God of Judgement (LN) vs ?
Fremnor: God of Revelry (CG) vs ?

These two could be opposed, if you take revelry in the Dionysian aspect of being a time when all boundaries are broken down, all judgements are suspended and all laws are meaningless.

What I'm saying is that if revelry heads more towards debauchery (not evil, but not good either) then judgement in terms of total law could be considered it's opposite. Think about wild parties and carnivals vs courtrooms and libraries. Not that ordinary people couldn't work with both of course, but the clerics of the two goods would certainly have a rivalry. Might mean shifting Fremnor to CN though.

 

[randomling]

These two could be opposed, if you take revelry in the Dionysian aspect of being a time when all boundaries are broken down, all judgements are suspended and all laws are meaningless.

What I'm saying is that if revelry heads more towards debauchery (not evil, but not good either) then judgement in terms of total law could be considered it's opposite. Think about wild parties and carnivals vs courtrooms and libraries. Not that ordinary people couldn't work with both of course, but the clerics of the two goods would certainly have a rivalry. Might mean shifting Fremnor to CN though.

Now there's an idea. It had crossed my mind but I wasn't sure... though it has some interesting dynamics. I haven't bothered with all the complicated family relationships here because it would take pages but Hierpan is Fremnor's father....

Interestingly, Fremnor was originally CN and Merika CG - I switched them, mainly because I wanted to make Merika more capricious and sometimes slightly unpleasant, and Fremnor more joyful and generally benevolent. But I don't think it worked. I'm switching them back.

Which leaves Truth and Illsusion both as good deities. Hmm.

 

[Theuderic]

The only thing I can think of is to scrap the pantheon all together and start over. It's beyond repair.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Which leaves Truth and Illusion both as good deities. Hmm.

Hmm is right. Why is illusion good, apart from the fact that you've just swopped them around? Illusion is always linked with deceit, which is nearly always bad y'know.

Ah, looking back I see they were opposed until just now. I think your Illusion goddess needs to be CN too!

 

[Mark]

The only thing I can think of is...

Not posting at all never crossed your mind...?

 

[Theuderic]

Actually no it didn't.

 

[Mark]

Actually no it didn't.

Better hope that Col_Hardison doesn't catch wind of this. You know what happened last time. The man is relentless when he gets on the scent...