D&D General Can There Be Non-Problematic Fertility Deities?

[Lanefan]

The problem is the impulse so many people have to turn everything into a game ability, rather than just being a setting element. They want to pin down everything as a feat or spell or class feature, even when it really shouldn't be.

Thanks for this - I can think of many many discussions in this forum where this exact quote would have been the perfect (and IMO only) response.

 

[Laurefindel]

In a land where overpopulation or overcrowding is a known problem, a fertility deity could very easily be (or be seen as) Evil.

Shub-Niggurath (of the Cthulhu Mythos) is my favourite evil - or alien-ly amoral - fertility deity.

 

[MGibster]

I blazed through these 14 pages, so I might have missed it, but many folks mentioned substituting with nature/life deities and I didn't see someone mention that in the oldest pantheons these are one and the same. Go back and read Summarian mythology (I think Japanese or Chinese mythology has something similar) and the thoughts of what rain are and where rivers come from are very naughty to modern sensibilities.

Even the Greek ones. Look up how art was invented, what led to Aphrodite's birth, or why some people are so wary of swans.

 

[Dessert Nomad]

Something was bugging me about this, so I looked at just the deities in the published free basic rules. I honestly have no idea what people are looking for when they say that Hasbro shies away from fertility deities. I wonder if people are just keying off of the literal word 'fertility' here, because looking through just the forgotten realms gods published in the basic rules, we have the below which seem to indicate that Hasbro isn't avoiding the topic, they just don't use the word 'fertility'. There's a god who specifically includes birth, and another who includes beauty and passion in all of it's forms. Of course the game focuses on the adventuring related aspects of those, since that's what the game rules are about, but when there's a god of 'birth' and one of 'beauty and passion' in the free published rules I don't think you can say they're scared to include the topic.

Lathander was a Faerûnian greater god with a vast portfolio including birth, renewal, spring and youth, as well as athletics, self-perfection, vitality and creativity.

Sune was the greater goddess of beauty and passion in the Faerûnian pantheon. Lady Firehair, as her symbol depicted, was the goddess of beauty in all its forms; whether it be sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feels, the experience of pleasure was the touch of Sune. The Lady of Love was the goddess of all love, including the more negative aspects like obsessions, murderous passions, and the tragedies that could be born from love, but also of deeper connections, of matches destined and forbidden, as well the transformation of ugliness into beauty.

They also include the Greek real world deities which include:

Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty
Artemis, goddess of hunting and childbirth
Hestia, goddess of home and family

And the Egyptian, which have:
Hathor, goddess of love, music, and motherhood
Isis, goddess of fertility and magic

And the Norse, which have:
Frey, god of fertility and the sun
Freya, goddess of fertility and love
Frigga, goddess of birth and fertility

 

[Alzrius]

In a land where overpopulation or overcrowding is a known problem, a fertility deity could very easily be (or be seen as) Evil.

Alternatively, if their focus on fertility is only with regards to monsters, such as Pathfinder's depiction of Lamashtu.

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

I use, gloss, and house-rule a couple of mother-goddesses from the various published D&D materials. In my notes:

Djaea is the Mother Figure of order and discipline, the one who tells you to eat your vegetables and to do your chores.

Terra Yondalla is the Mother Figure of food and comfort, the one who dispenses hugs and bakes good things to eat.

 

[abazaba]

No Sex Please, We're British.