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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nyeshet" data-source="post: 3104309" data-attributes="member: 18363">If you are starting with a new world, a single pantheon is easier to work with and work around. That doesn't mean that they can't still have religious strife. Just look at how many wars have been fought over the 'correct' way to worship YHWH/God/Allah in this world - despite most of those religions openly accepting that they follow the same deity. In a world where they are not necessarily aware of that you could make the situation even worse - especially if the deities are distant and communicate mostly through portents, signs, and other less readily legible / understandable forms of communication. Perhaps the Orcs worship deity A and look upon deity B as a dangerous trickster figure that tries to draw them away from the worship of deity A and towards a weaker lifestyle that breeds only those unable to survive the harshness of their environment. Perhaps the Elves look upon deity B as a benevolent / protective deity and deity A as a savage deity of ill repute - rarely worshipped except for appeasement. Both sides can be right, after all, making the situation even more complex. Perhaps the Elves ever 'recognize' that the deity B worshipped by some uncommon orcs is 'allied' with their own deity B, not fully realizing that they are the same deity. (Well, the higher ranking clergy might realize it, but it was common in ancient times for religions to have Mysteries that were only known to the clergy - esp the highest ranking clergy.) Kalamar uses such a system incidentally - of a single pantheon with different names in different cultures / races. As for me, personally, I would use a single pantheon to begin with, but I would start in or near a kingdom that is just recently emerged enough from the Dark Ages to begin explorations (for spices, gold, gems, new trade partners / trade routes, re-discovery of hidden artifacts / knowledge / ruins, etc). Once the party was high enough in level to be approached by some wealthy merchant guild or noble house for exploration abroad, they would soon after begin encountering signs of other deities unknown and eventually other religions and pantheons as they expanded the map of the known world.</blockquote>

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