Discussion of the LEW Panthon (and potential changes)

[Bront]

Well, there is the God of Bloodshed, though he is imprisioned at the moment, otherwise he's an intermeidate.

A god of undeath might not be unreasonable to add, perhaps a rival to Zephos. Keep in mind though, that the Shepherd of the Dead is actualy a fairly common mythological figure, though not in that exact form. A somewhat even watcher of the dead (Even Hades was considered Lawful Evil in D&D terms), as death was not always viewed as inherantly evil.

I was going to do the aberation deity, but if it ends up being a sister, that limits it to demi-god status.

There is room for some kind of evil god. Perhaps a deity of disease, plague, and pestulance? Feel free to come up with something.

 

[Bront]

Wrong thread

 

[Rystil Arden]

(Even Hades was considered Lawful Evil in D&D terms)

Hades was never considered Evil by anyone. Even the people who wrote him up as evil mentioned that they did it only because they needed to fill in some Evil gods to catch a hole in the pantheon.

 

[El Jefe]

Hades was never considered Evil by anyone. Even the people who wrote him up as evil mentioned that they did it only because they needed to fill in some Evil gods to catch a hole in the pantheon.

Boy, do I ever agree with all that. And "needing to fill in some Evil gods to catch a hole in the pantheon" is pretty much where we are now in LEW. I don't want to push someone else's creation in that direction or come up with an equally contrived solution. Hmm. I'm starting to get some ideas.

As an aside, weren't the Elder Titans the real heavies in classical mythology?

 

[Rystil Arden]

As an aside, weren't the Elder Titans the real heavies in classical mythology?

Do you mean evil? Most of them weren't really evil either. It is hard to define the Classical gods by D&D alignments because most of them were usually nice and good-humoured, but since many people developed myths, in some of them they are incredibly wrathful or vindictive, plus the males abduct women. Possibly the worst thing an Elder Titan did was when Kronos ate his kids to stop them from taking over. Of course, Zeus ate Metis to stop Athena from taking over though Now, some of the protogonoi were pretty dark and alien. Nyx, goddess of night, was so dangerous that even Zeus feared her.

Boy, do I ever agree with all that. And "needing to fill in some Evil gods to catch a hole in the pantheon" is pretty much where we are now in LEW. I don't want to push someone else's creation in that direction or come up with an equally contrived solution. Hmm. I'm starting to get some ideas.

I agree. Let's think of some fun evil deities though. Perhaps the best evil deity is the one that can infiltrate society acceptably and not be forced into a hidden cult of "We want to destroy the whole world, Bwahahahaha!" The goddess of revenge against those who wrong you, the goddess of bad luck, the goddess of information and messengers (but also of spies, rumours, and treachery), the goddess of pleasure (but also of seduction, lust, and poisoning body and mind), etc

 

[El Jefe]

Perhaps the best evil deity is the one that can infiltrate society acceptably and not be forced into a hidden cult of "We want to destroy the whole world, Bwahahahaha!" The goddess of revenge against those who wrong you, the goddess of bad luck, the goddess of information and messengers (but also of spies, rumours, and treachery), the goddess of pleasure (but also of seduction, lust, and poisoning body and mind), etc

I'm leaning toward a god or goddess of corruption.

There are many, many different varieties of corruption!

 

[Rystil Arden]

I'm leaning toward a god or goddess of corruption.

There are many, many different varieties of corruption!

Yes, yes there are . Corruption is always good, and makes for interesting deities. It could be a NE dual-aspect goddess with CE (lust, blind aspirations to power) and LE (political and societal corruption) aspects. Perhaps her LE aspect has a hand in leading to the decadence that allows her CE aspect to bring about the fall of a civilisation. In that sense, she could have had a hand in the destruction of some of the previous empires and the decline of Medibaria, at least.

 

[Erekose13]

Kyuss! /jk Corruption sounds like a great basis for an evil diety. Especially one that leads to political power and financial wealth (easier to get believers that way).

 

[Bront]

I'm leaning toward a god or goddess of corruption.

There are many, many different varieties of corruption!

Quit talking and start writing

And yes, I was fairly aware of Hades not realy being evil. Anubis was NG and revered as well. I like Zephos, and think he'll be a good addition to the pantheon. Perhaps a rival for the souls might be in order though.

Personaly, I've never had a problem with needing an evil god for an idea. It's possable many of the evil gods were banished, or have been held at bay.

 

[El Jefe]

Quit talking and start writing

I'm about to do that. Did a little research yesterday and found out that there is a Corruption Domain published, but not OGC. That leaves me with a quandry.

1. Design a goddess of corruption that can't grant Corruption Domain spells, even though Wizards has published a non-OGC Corruption Domain.

2. Propose a LEW-specific Corruption Domain, using OGC spells, that is quite different from the published non-OGC Corruption Domain.

3. As 2 above, but first designing LEW-specific spells that fit the domain better than SRD spells.

I'm trying to minimize 1), the time it takes to get all this approved, 2), confusion on the part of DMs and players who may already be familiar with the published non-OGC material, and 3), infringement on anyone else's IP. Note that part of minimizing the time for approval relates to the overall quality of the submissions, so it's not a slam-dunk that option 1 above is the best solution.