Dieties in a homebrew world

[Turanil]

god called "The Traveller": if you intend to publish your work to sell it, copyrights may be a problem. Nonetheless, a word like "The Traveller" is so generic, that I cannot see how using that word for describing a totally different deity (different fluff, domain, alignment, etc.) should not infringe on anything (but I am no lawyer). However, if it is for your own use, even despite you intend to put info on a website, nobody will care if the name "The Traveller" has already been used in a WotC product.

 

[Starglim]

It would be fine to have a deity named The Traveler or with that title. WotC can't copyright a common English word.

In game, deities from different worlds can have the same name. There might be an interesting debate among any characters who know about this fact as to whether they are the same being, whether they share strength or knowledge, why this deity is a greater god in world X and a demigod in world Y, why they have different alignments, how many gods called Tyr can dance on the head of a pin and other theological details.

 

[DanielJ]

well basically i'm not saying i am hoping that i might want to publish this setting or anything but i like to keep my options open no matter how things look right here and now i never underestimate my abilities i have been witnessed to do extrordinary things if i put my mind to it.
people tell me about this all the time. but wha ti'm trying to say is that even tho right now i have no intention of anything of that scale i wouldnt however dismiss that option if it presented itself in the future.

 

[DanielJ]

It would be fine to have a deity named The Traveler or with that title. WotC can't copyright a common English word.

In game, deities from different worlds can have the same name. There might be an interesting debate among any characters who know about this fact as to whether they are the same being, whether they share strength or knowledge, why this deity is a greater god in world X and a demigod in world Y, why they have different alignments, how many gods called Tyr can dance on the head of a pin and other theological details.

well thats true but i only know of 2 Tyr's

The forgotten realms Tyr and the Norse god (?) Tyr.

 

[Tonguez]

One of my favourite parts of world creation is development of the Theogony of the setting (Theogony being the theory of the origin of gods). By developing your own theogony you organically develop relevant gods and their portfolios (domains). By adding in cosmogony (origin of the universe) and anthrpogony (origin of 'mortal races') you simultaneously create the 'back story' of your world from which everything else can develop.

My advice then is to pick a general theme for your world, do the one sentence 'setting description' and then go back and develop a theogony/cosmogony which gets you to your setting description. Start with broad brush strokes and then get specific later adding in relevant 'characters' (ie gods) and names as required

As an example here's the Theogony of Hesiod a hymn telling the origin of the Greek gods

 

[DanielJ]

"a generic low magic fantasy setting with heavy focus on old medieval things like knights, kings and with a romantic style of fantasy (do you know what i mean? dragonlance is seen as being romantic fantasy)"

is that the kinda sentance your meaning?

 

[DanielJ]

some advice i got from a friend:

*A Pantheon of 4 Elemental Gods and Goddesses (air, earth, fire, and water)
*A Pantheon of several dragon gods and goddesses like Bahumat and Tiamat.
*A Pantheon of "Egyptian like" gods and goddesses
*A Pantheon of "Norse like" gods and goddesses
*A Pantheon of "Roman like" gods and goddesses
*A Pantheon of several evil undead gods and goddesses
*A Pantheon of several evil demon gods and goddesses

but one thing i dont understand is.

what alignment are elements? nuetral? and if so are they chaotic or lawful?

 

[Starglim]

"a generic low magic fantasy setting with heavy focus on old medieval things like knights, kings and with a romantic style of fantasy (do you know what i mean? dragonlance is seen as being romantic fantasy)"

is that the kinda sentance your meaning?

Mm, not the sentence I would choose, but I think that was the idea.

what alignment are elements? nuetral? and if so are they chaotic or lawful?

They could each be of many alignments and have more than one deity for one or more of the elements.

Some might say that they are morally neutral, Air having a chaotic tendency and Earth a lawful bent. But that's only a human perception. Aarakocra (bird-men) might think that Air was a Lawful Good element, Fire Chaotic Evil, Earth Neutral Evil, and Water Chaotic Neutral.

 

[painandgreed]

What I did was looked up some real religions and made similar gods and goddesses. For two of the three main pantheons of my world, I found a website with short descriptions of various gods and goddesses, pre-Christian polish area and pre-islamic Persian, and modified them for my world. Domains usually come across pretty easy. Bastardize the names or take them straight. Modify for whatever comes to mind as you're writing to flesh them out.

For the main pantheon, I just winged it. Started with the big guys, twins, one good and one evil. Gave them some brothers, sisters, wives and children to fill out various domains. The more important ones have two or three domains while the lesser gods have only one. Take the things like war that can have good and evil aspects and give them a god in each, or maybe one god that handles both aspects. If you have writer's block, just worry about the five or six big guys and flesh out the rest later. The main gods can have influence over most of the land while the lesser ones may be more localized.

In general, the gods are going to fill out the various needs of the people.

 

[DanielJ]

Mm, not the sentence I would choose, but I think that was the idea.

Could you please give me an example of what you mean, i'd really really appreciate it. thanks alot