D&D 5E Celtic Pantheon and Twilight Domain?

[DarkMoon250]

The Celtic gods have been on my mind recently and I thought about playing a Twilight Cleric who served one of them, but looking over the list presented in the PHB, I see that it's kind of hard to attach ANY of the newer domains to their portfolio. There's just so little info given about them [yes, I know it's because we don't have much surviving mythology in the first place, but that hasn't stopped DnD writers from winging it and making something cool before].

Are there any deities of this tree-hugging pantheon that have enough association with the moon, night or sleep to earn a sip from the Twilight chalice, or is what we get in the PHB just all we get?

 

[Horwath]

Arianrhod The Celtic Goddess

Discover more about the mystical Arianrhod, Goddess of fertility, rebirth and fate.

www.goddess-guide.com

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Just as a minor point, Celtic pantheons in RPGs (or really anything) are generally pretty dodgy from a historical perspective, so don't feel bad about adding to them or mixing up stuff in them.

Arianrhod, as Horwath points out is a possibility. His link doesn't make it entirely clear but she's associated with the moon and stars (ignore the "fertility" aspect, like 50% of Celtic goddesses, if not more, include fertility in their purview).

Liminal periods like periods like twilight, and liminal places like shorelines, and the edges of woods, burial sites and so on tended to be important in Celtic religions (like some other religions) so it wouldn't be unreasonable to just assign it to some powerful goddess. The whole strict theme-ing of gods is kind of a modern imposition and/or the result of Roman syncretism more than anything that reflected actual practices/beliefs. Celtic gods can broadly be fit into certain categories as wikipedia shows, but often had wildly overlapping areas of concern/purviews (as noted with fertility above).

Celtic deities - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

But I'd say just pick a cool name, describe them a bit, and go from there.

List of Celtic deities - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Also it is just astonishing that Chrome doesn't know the words liminal or syncretism and thinks they are misspellings. Get a grip, Chrome.

 

[SkidAce]

Also it is just astonishing that Chrome doesn't know the words liminal or syncretism and thinks they are misspellings. Get a grip, Chrome.

I know, right?

 

[maceochaid]

Just as a minor point, Celtic pantheons in RPGs (or really anything) are generally pretty dodgy from a historical perspective, so don't feel bad about adding to them or mixing up stuff in them.

Arianrhod, as Horwath points out is a possibility. His link doesn't make it entirely clear but she's associated with the moon and stars (ignore the "fertility" aspect, like 50% of Celtic goddesses, if not more, include fertility in their purview).

Liminal periods like periods like twilight, and liminal places like shorelines, and the edges of woods, burial sites and so on tended to be important in Celtic religions (like some other religions) so it wouldn't be unreasonable to just assign it to some powerful goddess. The whole strict theme-ing of gods is kind of a modern imposition and/or the result of Roman syncretism more than anything that reflected actual practices/beliefs. Celtic gods can broadly be fit into certain categories as wikipedia shows, but often had wildly overlapping areas of concern/purviews (as noted with fertility above).

Celtic deities - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

But I'd say just pick a cool name, describe them a bit, and go from there.

List of Celtic deities - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Also it is just astonishing that Chrome doesn't know the words liminal or syncretism and thinks they are misspellings. Get a grip, Chrome.

Agreed, we have a huge log of Celtic God names, and only like 1% appear more than once. I feel that saying the twilight domain could easily be a priest of whatever local Twilight minor divinities inhabit wherever they are. Another good idea would be Midir from the wooing of Etain, but that is a pretty broad extrapolation from his visiting Etain at night.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The Morrigan is a good fit, IMO. Death, war, foresight, all feel like things that a Twilight deity would be involved with.

 

[Mannahnin]

As a side note, it always bugs me a bit for folks to refer to deities as "Celtic" as if that were a unified pantheon. The Welsh are quite different from the Irish, for example, with no or minimal overlap. Darn you Gygax and Ward! (shakes fist)

Ruin Explorer is dead-on that liminal spaces and times are extremely significant and important in the Irish (and other Celtic) stories and cosmology. Boundaries, borders, shorelines, fords, times like Samhain at the end of the light half of the year and beginning of the dark half, and Beltaine at the opposite. Twilight is a pretty natural fit for the Irish from that perspective.

 

[maceochaid]

As a side note, it always bugs me a bit for folks to refer to deities as "Celtic" as if that were a unified pantheon. The Welsh are quite different from the Irish, for example, with no or minimal overlap. Darn you Gygax and Ward! (shakes fist)

Ruin Explorer is dead-on that liminal spaces and times are extremely significant and important in the Irish (and other Celtic) stories and cosmology. Boundaries, borders, shorelines, fords, times like Samhain at the end of the light half of the year and beginning of the dark half, and Beltaine at the opposite. Twilight is a pretty natural fit for the Irish from that perspective.

I also think it is interesting that D & D uses the legacy of Gygax and Wards' imperfect list of deities as the canonical list. But the PHB 5e list is almost identically weird to the Deitities and Demigods list with the inexplicable list of holy symbols. Even omitting Cernunnos who has become incredibly popular in modern fantasy's understanding of of Celtic myth, and many of the other important Gods of Celtic myth like Aranrhod, Rhiannon, Oenghus, and using Brigantia rather than Brigid.

 

[Mannahnin]

Newer editions often don't get credited for how closely they hew to a lot of the old materials.

 

[Tonguez]

Rhiannon - sovereignty, the moon, night, death, healing. She is usually depicted riding a white horse (the Moon) that only ambles slowly, she also has three birds who “wake the dead and lull the living to sleep”. She was accused of killing her son and punished by being yoked as a horse outside her husbands castle for 7 years - fortunately the child returns 4 years later and she forgives those who tormented her.

Aine/Grianne - a dual goddess associated with light and warmth (thus the sun and moon, grain, fertility and sovereignty) and celebrated at Midsummer Night. Aine was the Summer Solstice and Grianne the Winter Solstice.
In her legend King Aillil of Munster who aspired to become the King of Ireland was advised to travel to KnockAiney (Aine’s Hill) on Samhain. He did so and fell into a deep sleep and entered the Otherworld. He came across the beautiful Aine and then raped her. Aine responded by biting off his ear - ever after he was named Ailill Aulom (One-Ear) and because of it was barred from becoming the King of Ireland.
Ironically Gentle Annie (the Annis hag) is derived from this goddess