Favorite Fantasy Gods

[Baron Opal]

What are your favorite deities from games or fiction?

For some reason I really like Issek of the Jug. While he was only featured in one story and mentioned in another, Issek's faith really captured my imagination. The imagery and self-sacrifice of the cult really grabbed me.

I also thought the Sword gods of Chaos were great. Mabelrode the King of Swords, Xiombarg the Queen of Swords and Arioch the Prince of Swords. Arioch really got around; he was probably a favored antagonist of the author. Xiombarg was seen a number of times, but I don't believe we ever saw Mabelrode.

 

[Treebore]

Ohgma has always held my interest the most. Plus I have always liked his pantheon the best, not in D&D terms, but in the real stories the pantheon has.

 

[Byronic]

I will second Arioch, Duke of Chaos. The most memorable fantasy deity that comes to mind (obviously if they didn't come to mind they wouldn't be memorable).

 

[Erekose]

I will second Arioch, Duke of Chaos . . .

"Blood and souls for my Lord Arioch!" - always comes to mind

 

[WayneLigon]

Tomanak Orfro, God of War and Justice, in Oath of Swords and The War God's Own by David Weber.

Coyote and Raven in their various guises in Charles deLint's Newford books.

 

[roguerouge]

Uh... can people provide more information on their favorites? I know something about just one or two of the deities mentioned here.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I really like Moorcock's gods too. Everything in RuneQuest to do with the gods is amazing. I particularly like the Red Goddess, Nysalor/Gbaji, Storm Bull, Thanatar and the Crimson Bat.

 

[Particle_Man]

I kind of like the penthion featured in Lois McMaster Bujold's The Curse of Chalion. The Father (winter), The Daughter (spring), The Mother (autumn) The Son (autumn), and The Bastard (half-demon, in charge of things that are out of sequence). One neat thing is that everyone, at their death, was given a ritual that would determine to which of the five gods their soul would go (well, barring unusual circumstances). There was another country that didn't recognize the 5th god. Needless to say, religious/military hilarity ensued.

Not sure how this would work in play as there seemed to be a deterministic element for religious types (if you gave yourself up to the service of the gods, you could be used, and used *hard*).

 

[WayneLigon]

Man, I'd almost forgotten about all the cool gods from RuneQuest.

Humakt was one of my favorites. He had the Death rune and so Death was a huge part of their rituals. Because you worshipped Death, you couldn't be Ressurected.

The Troll mother-goddess was good, and so was Zorak Zoran, their war god. Part of the rituals of Zorak Zoran was that you had to consume a quantity of vegetables every season. Elves counted. (Of course, in the RQ world, Elves were vegetables; their bones were made of wood, etc).

The Law/Chaos thing was amazing. In the beginning of the game literature, it was assumed that the Lightbearers, the bringers of Law, were the Good gods, which made the Chaos gods the Evil ones. Then you started seeing the cracks in that, which was eventually seen as propaganda from the barbarian tribes of Dragon Pass. The Red Goddess was no more evil or good than many other deities, but she was remaking the world into a very different place and the old gods had no place in it.

 

[S. Baldrick]

Crom!