Deities and Portfolios

[Roman]

I was thinking more in terms of a massive, endgame war.

The evil god creates hundreds of thousands of fierce, but basically weak, fighters. He sends them against the good guys. The good guys slaughter the fighters, sending their souls to the evil god. The evil god, now charged up, attacks and kills the good god, who hadn't had that many followers die/ was busy answering prayers/didn't expect the evil god's attack. Evil god kills good god, evil god wins. The end.

Man, I AM evil. Must be a GM thing. Or lack of sleep.

It is certainly an interesting idea. I am now very tempted to adopt the idea that souls are valuable to Gods and increase their potency.

On top of that I am thinking that each of the Gods should have one type of outsiders associated with him as his personal servants. Before I assign the outsiders, though, I will have to make a decision on what Gods will be included... which is where these lists of important portfolios and their combinations into 'uberportfolios' for the High Gods come into play.

 

[Roman]

*....DP...*

 

[Roman]

Any other ideas on what the important portfolios are or how to tie in what happens after death and other cosmological issues such as the placement of outsiders?

 

[Li Shenron]

Any other ideas on what the important portfolios are or how to tie in what happens after death and other cosmological issues such as the placement of outsiders?

I don't think this is what you're looking for, however usually I let petitioners (the souls of the deceased) being truly immortal, and the ultimate enigma of the cosmos, since they are on every other account completely non-powerful.

 

[Roman]

I don't think this is what you're looking for, however usually I let petitioners (the souls of the deceased) being truly immortal, and the ultimate enigma of the cosmos, since they are on every other account completely non-powerful.

Hmm, I am thinking more along the lines of souls either being the raw material for creation of outsiders or simply giving the gods generally more influence.

BTW: Your list of the 7 High Gods was very good. If the aim was 12 Gods, however, what other 5 High Gods would you add?

 

[Li Shenron]

BTW: Your list of the 7 High Gods was very good. If the aim was 12 Gods, however, what other 5 High Gods would you add?

Well... you could just add my second list of minor deities to the one of major deities

Having a greater Sea deity I think it was common in historical religions. Maybe not worshipped much by inland communities, but still.

Darkness could become a major portfolio, and the god(dess) would be worshipped by many nocturnal or underground race. Disease and Murder may be lesser aspects.

Magic could be major as usual, I suggested minor just for something different...

The Theft and Storm deities are more unlikely to be major, but you could stretch them... after all Zeus & Thor were gods of thunder! You could move Strength to its portfolio also to make is seem more important.

Otherwise, what about a LN deity of Time & Fate? Possibly shrouded in mystery even from the others?
Or a deity of Creation? This last is kind of tricky because it could be already covered by others (Fertility and Craft for example), and also because it could be both lawful (emphasising the planning and the order of a willful organized creation) or chaotic (emphasising invention and quasi-random search for something new).
Obviously the more the major deities are, the less encompassing, and the more overlap may appear. You could strip Knowledge from the deity of Wisdom & Justice and make a separate N deity of it.

 

[Vlos]

When I created my campaign world, I came up with 6 gods. Having too many gods gets too confusing so I wanted to limit it.

The gods I originally created are below. Though each god has worshipers of almost every alignment, the alignment afterwards represents their general focus of worshipers. Also many cultures/races have different names for them.

#1 Sun/Day/Light (G)
#2 Moon/Night/Darkness (E)
#3 Sky/Evening-Morning/Shadows (N)

#4 Peace/Love (G)
#5 War/Hate (E)
#6 Justice/Retribution (N)

I then created demi-gods/Spirits to cover anything else, i.e.: Nature, etc

 

[Roman]

Ok, so what do you people think about this type of High God selection:

1) Fertility/Agriculture/Prosperity/Earth/Creation - neutral good
2) Wisdom/Justice/Prudence/Duty/Light - lawful good
3) Wealth/Crafts/Commerce - neutral (apathy)
4) Beauty/Love/Happiness/Pleasure/Arts/Charity/Luck - chaotic good
5) Family/Protection/Home/Community/Rest/Healing - neutral good
6) War/Conquest/Nobility/Rulership - lawful neutral
7) Time/Fate/Destiny/Consequence/Prophecy - lawful neutral
8) Stealth/Deception/Illusion/Theft - chaotic neutral
9) Death/Destruction/Murder/Hate/Anger - chaotic evil
10) Disease/Pestilence/Debilitation/Darkness/Injury/Grief/Pain/Suffering - neutral evil
11) Tyranny/Slavery/Oppression/Submission/Fear/Addiction - lafwul evil
12) Wild/Sea/Sky/Travel/Wind/Exploration - neutral (balance)

13) Perversion/Corruption - evil evil evil evil (Did I say evil?)

Do you think it is a good selection that covers all bases and portfolios in an overarching manner?

Although all the alignments are represented, I think the potential for differing interpretations and thys infighting in such broad churches is there and I am also considering taking up Goblyn's Hoard's suggestion and assign each High God one related aspect of a different alignment - for example the God of Family, Protection, Healing, Home, Rest and Community could also have Parochialism as a different aspect. I am not sure whether to do this, though, especially since it may be very difficult to come up with certain unexpected aspects such as a positive aspect of a God of Disease, Suffering, Pain...

 

[Roman]

1) Fertility/Agriculture/Prosperity/Earth/Creation - neutral good
2) Wisdom/Justice/Prudence/Duty/Light - lawful good
3) Wealth/Crafts/Commerce - neutral (apathy)
4) Beauty/Love/Happiness/Pleasure/Arts/Charity/Luck - chaotic good
5) Family/Protection/Home/Community/Rest/Healing - neutral good
6) War/Conquest/Nobility/Rulership - lawful neutral
7) Time/Fate/Destiny/Consequence/Prophecy - lawful neutral
8) Stealth/Deception/Illusion/Theft - chaotic neutral
9) Death/Destruction/Murder/Hate/Anger - chaotic evil
10) Disease/Pestilence/Debilitation/Darkness/Injury/Grief/Pain/Suffering - neutral evil
11) Tyranny/Slavery/Oppression/Submission/Fear/Addiction - lafwul evil
12) Wild/Sea/Sky/Travel/Wind/Exploration - neutral (balance)

13) Perversion/Corruption - evil evil evil evil (Did I say evil?)

Assuming I do go with the above list, which is possible depending on further recommendations and comments whether this list of Gods does seem compehensive in its coverage (except Magic, which is purposefully omitted) and all the Gods seem reasonable, consistent and important, how would you assign outsiders to these Gods?

I am thinking (the numbers correspond to the number of each God on the above list):

1) ?
2) ? perhaps Angels? perhaps Archons?
3) ?
4) probably Eladrins
5) ? perhaps Guardinals?
6) ?
7) ?
8) ?
9) ? perhaps Yugoloths?
10) probably Demons
11) probably Devils
12) ? perhaps Fey? perhaps Elementals?

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

One thing that has ALWAYS bugged me is Death being evil. EVERYTHING has to die. Heck, if things don't die, you get Undead, which are Evil. A N God of Death(and balance, etc etc) works very very well, and throws out a very large amount of interesting ideas that the PCs in my campaigns have enjoyed.