D&D 5E Dragons as Gods (+)

[overgeeked]

I’ve been giving this a go, but it’s proving to be a lot harder than I thought it would!

The chromatics are definitely the easiest. The metallic dragons are a bit harder, especially brass dragons - it seems their whole schtick is conversation.

They don’t need to be gods of great big things. They can be small gods, too. You can bet a socially awkward person would be praying to the dragon-god of conversation.

The gem dragons are even trickier!

Amethyst could be a generic knowledge god, with maybe magic and science thrown in?

Why not? Wasn’t that Thoth’s deal?

Crystal is pretty random: stars, divination/fate but also fun times, hospitality, healing. They’re like a typical Greek god!

So roll with it. The lines don’t need to be neat and tidy. See Athena’s portfolio below.

Sapphire seems to be strategic warfare. Not much else besides underground + anti-Far Realm. Vigilance maybe?

Athena is Goddess of wisdom, handicraft, heroism, courage, war, strategy, industry, and cities.

Emerald is all about illusion and misdirection in order to observe unseen. So like a wildlife scientist and/or spy.

The Emerald God of Secrets.

Topaz is the weirdest dragon, with its backwards wings and all. A god of decay in terms of renewal (whereas a black dragon just likes to watch things decay and isn’t interested in rejuvenating the soil afterwards or whatever).

Renewal and rebirth isn’t a bad portfolio.

Tricky stuff!

And fun. What you posted looks good to me. I’d use it.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Tricky stuff!

As you have seen from my post, I instead decided to go the other way: inventing my own, new dragons with their own new materials. Bahamut and his brood cover metals; Tiamat and her brood originally covered crystals, now merely colors. The two of them are the most powerful of the draconic gods, and part of that is that only the two of them have actual "broods" of "children." (The relationship is more complicated, but that's a loose gloss of how they see it.) The other dragon-gods are made of things that aren't metals nor crystals, things like opal, pearl, glass, amber, or jet--clearly-identifiable materials, but ones that are neither "pure crystals" nor metals.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

I don’t have so much a Draconic Pantheon as much as I have Draconic Deities within different pantheons.

• Zarkator the Chromatic Scale, arch-devil draconic deity of commerce, wealth, and merchants.
• Volumdremaak the Gentle Darkness, arch-shade Draconic deity of darkness, night, shadow magic, and good/neutral necromancy.
• Jaariliik the World Serpent, primal spirit draconic deity of the land, wisdom, cunning, and protection.
• Mephilia the Shining Zealot, celestial paragon Draconic deity of purity, zealotry, and dominance
• Uldras the Resplendent Gem, celestial paragon draconic deity of enlightenment, psionic, and self-discipline.
• Visk the Grand Revelry, arch-fey draconic deity of hedonism, celebration, and humor.
• Cisriel the Mother Wyrm, greater draconic deity of potential, stability, creation (parenthood), and balance.

 

[pukunui]

Pick two of the three categories.

Or mix them all up so metallic/chromatic/gem is irrelevant.

This would let you build the Pantheon as you see fit.

I might have to do that, but I want to see if I can keep them separate, as gods of good/neutrality/evil first. But as I said upthread, I'm also wrestling with whether or not I even want to have evil gods. I might just want evil to be represented by fiends and such.

That said, I think I want to keep the chromatic dragons as evil, rather than go the "any alignment" route that Eberron took, simply because I struggle to visualize skull-faced swamp dwellers and poison-breathing mind controllers as being anything other than evil.

They don’t need to be gods of great big things. They can be small gods, too. You can bet a socially awkward person would be praying to the dragon-god of conversation.

Yeah, I guess. I feel like a brass dragon god would be the god of the exchange of ideas (and maybe also the products of those ideas) - whether that be through conversation or other types of learning. This would naturally lead to them being the god of things like invention and maybe also the god of traders/merchants/travelers/sailors and others who facilitate the exchange of goods and ideas.

Why not? Wasn’t that Thoth’s deal?

Sure.

So roll with it. The lines don’t need to be neat and tidy. See Athena’s portfolio below.

Athena is Goddess of wisdom, handicraft, heroism, courage, war, strategy, industry, and cities.

Exactly. The Greek gods are all over the show. Poseidon is god of the sea and storms but also horses for some random reason. Apollo is probably the worst in terms of being the god of random things.

The Emerald God of Secrets.

That's a possibility. I had the thought that the gem dragons could be the gods of "truth" (since they're all supposed to be neutral and, being psionic-focused, are more interested in various esoteric bits of knowledge and such). The emerald is the odd one out there, so I'm having to rethink my idea for the gem dragons' theme.

Renewal and rebirth isn’t a bad portfolio.

Except that's not their focus. The topaz dragon is more interested in the decay and destruction that comes before the renewal and rebirth. It's a very specific focus. They'd be the god of wildfires and decomposition. That sort of thing. The god of "sweeping the slate clean so you can start over".

And fun. What you posted looks good to me. I’d use it.

Cool.

 

[pukunui]

Here's what I've got so far:

For starters, I'm mixing a few of the different creation myths together.

I'm starting with Io the Concordant Dragon as the creator of the uni/multiverse. Very much like FR's Ao, he's the overgod that no one really pays any attention to. He either dies, and from his corpse spring the three Progenitor Dragons, or he just creates them as his offspring and then sits back to watch in classic deist "wind up the clock and let it go" style.

The Progenitor Dragons are Siberys, Erathis, and Khyber. (I changed Eberron to Erathis, which I co-opted as the name of my 5e homebrew world.) Their story follows the First World/Eberron creation myth pretty closely. Khyber kills Siberys, who shatters into the planet's ring of gem shards. Erathis imprisons Khyber "within" herself.

Erathis is basically Mother Earth, while Khyber is the Underdark/Underworld. Siberys could be the Sky Father, except he's kinda dead.

Then I've got Tiamat the Chromatic Dragon as the Daughter of Khyber and Queen of the Evil Dragons/Gods or Fiendish Overlords, while Bahamut the Platinum Dragon is the Son of Erathis and the King of the Good Dragons/Gods. Sardior the Ruby Dragon is the non-binary child of Siberys and leader of the Neutral Dragons/Gods.


The Lords of Light are the metallic greatwyrm gods of good:

• Bahamut is the king of these gods and, as such, he's the source of divine laws, spiritual justice, etc. He is considered to be a stern god, but also compassionate. He protects the weak and downtrodden and gives mercy to those who deserve it.
• [Gold Dragon God] is the "Hand of the King", the Golden Magistrate who enforces Bahamut's laws. He seeks out, exposes, and punishes evil doers. He is the patron of law enforcers, judges, lawmakers, rulers, and so on. I'll probably model this god on Heliod from Theros.
• [Silver Dragon God] is a bit of a mix of Athena and the whole triune "Maiden/Mother/Crone" moon/fertility goddess thing. She's the god of community/civilization and the defense of everything they entail. In her Maiden aspect, she represents innocence, love, beauty, and that sort of thing. In her Mother aspect, she represents fertility, childbirth, sensualism, etc. In her Crone aspect, she represents wisdom, guile, camaraderie, and leadership.
• [Brass Dragon God] is the god of the "exchange of ideas and their by-products". S/he is the god of communication, discovery, invention, craft, and trade. S/he is sometimes depicted as the Messenger of Bahamut as well. S/he is the patron of artisans, craftsmen, traders/merchants, scholars, and simple travelers.
• [Bronze Dragon God] is the Defender/Guardian god. S/he is a god of action, athleticism, discipline, courage, honor, and fighting for what's right. Patron of athletes, soldiers, guards/watchmen and the like.
• [Copper Dragon God] is the Muse, the god of art, music, poetry, humor, and the like. (I don't want to focus on the trickster/prankster aspect of copper dragons because I'm making that the purview of the faerie dragon god [see below]. Also, since the sidebar in Fizban's talks about how bards seek out brass dragons as their muses, and copper dragons have creativity as one of their ideals, I might end up swapping brass and copper around.)

The Lords of ?? are the gem greatwyrm gods of neutrality:

• Sardior is the leader of these gods. They are ... ?
• [Amethyst Dragon God] is the Scholar, god of knowledge, including magic, the cosmos, and the sciences.
• The [Crystal Dragon Gods] are the Twins - one is more serious and focuses on divination/fate and the stars, while the other is more fun-loving and is focused on hospitality, healing and the like.
• [Sapphire Dragon God] is the Glittering General, god of strategy and vigilance, patron of tacticians and those who guard against intrusions from the Far Realm.
• [Emerald Dragon God] is the Spy, god of illusions and secrets, patron of spies, observers, and illusionists.
• [Topaz Dragon God] is the god of decay, decomposition, and "wiping the slate clean". (I might completely revise topaz dragons, as they're just weird and don't really fit in and kind of feel a bit redundant when included with black dragons. I suppose I could make the topaz dragon the non-evil god of the dead and [non-evil] undead and such, while the black dragon is more like Orcus.)

The Lords of Darkness are the chromatic greatwyrm gods/overlords/fiendish princes of evil:

• Tiamat is the queen of these gods. She's a bit like Hades in that she is in charge of the Underworld and is also all about the acquisition and hoarding of material wealth.
• [Red Dragon] represents anger/rage/aggression. Similar to Ares. Makes presence known through volcanic eruptions, heat waves, and the like.
• [Green Dragon] is the prince of lies and deception, the schemer who poisons people's minds as well as their food.
• [Blue Dragon] is the ultimate tyrant - all about loyalty, "family" (in a mafia sense), and order taken to the extreme.
• [Black Dragon] is all about death and decay. Maybe also undeath a la Orcus.
• [White Dragon] is all about survival of the fittest with a preference for arctic/wintry climes because those are the harshest ones to try and survive in.

Then there are the other dragon gods who aren't affiliated with the above three groupings:

• [Moonstone Dragon God] is basically Lliira from the Forgotten Realms, a pacifist goddess of joy and revelry. Maybe also nature. Embodies the "abundant nature" aspect of the Feywild.
• [Faerie Dragon God] is the god of mischief and revelry. Embodies the mischievous aspects of the fey.
• [Dragon Turtle God] is the temperamental god of the sea and storms and also the endurance of said elements.
• [Deep Dragon God] is a god of arcane secrets and Things Man Was Not Meant to Know (TM). Maybe like Vecna?

Erathis can fill the role of god of agriculture, bounty, fertility, animals and nature (Chauntea, Karametra, Demeter, Gaia, etc). As in Eberron, Siberys can be the source of all magic. Khyber is the source of all evil things.

One thing that's still bothering me is why the gods/fiends of "darkness" are represented by various colors. Ideally, it would probably be best to replace them with the catastrophic dragons and have them represent the perils of the natural world or something, but the chromatic dragons are just so darn iconic! Ugh.

 

[pukunui]

oh, I just had another idea! Since the divination/fate aspect of crystal dragons seems at odds with their friendly, fun personalities, I initially thought to have twin gods focused on the two different themes but I might go with a shadow dragon for one of them instead!

I’ve been trying to figure out how to work in the shadow dragon. So maybe the crystal dragon god is all about hospitality, healing, enjoying life, etc, but then its shadow became sentient (like Aureon and the Shadow from Eberron) and is the god of divination/fate with a bit of “What does it matter? Our fates are sealed” hedonistic attitude.

 

[pukunui]

Might have to add the incoming Spelljammer lunar and solar dragons to my pantheon.

 

[cbwjm]

Might have to add the incoming Spelljammer lunar and solar dragons to my pantheon.

At least those two would be nice and easy, sun and moon gods are everywhere in myths. Might even be interesting to have them as the primary dieties of the pantheon, ever circling the world they created.