D&D General Help me name the fantasy-historical pantheons

[gyor]

Yup, I know since I live in Wendake (Québec).

Its just a simple name for a fictional pantheon in a game. Having a specific name for every pantheon that could be loosely representative of a real world first nation belief would be exhaustive, to say the least.

A lot of First Nations are related to each other so there is a fair amount of over lap between groups of related tribes. Most of the FNs tribes of Southern Ontario are related to each other for example. They often share a lot of myths with variations within these groupings.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Well, I'm a little reticient to give the ones I have come up with so far, because I don't want to the guy who comes up with something stupidly wrong (or worse--offensive), but here's what I've currently got:

American Indian: Wakonda Pantheon
Aztec: Tamoanchan Pantheon
Babylonian: Ilyas
Celtic: Tuatha De Dannan
Indian: Brahmanic Pantheon
Japanese: Ama-Tsu-Kami
Sumerian: Annunaki
Egyptian: Ennead

I stick with 3e's Asgardians and Olympians for the Norse and Greek (when possible, I use terms that don't require sticking "Pantheon" on the end of it).


With the Olympians, Egyptians, and Sumerians (and there might have been others) where the name technically refers to a subset of their deities, I figured that the name is associated strongly enough with their pantheons' identities, that the fact that it only refers to a sub set of big names amongst them probably shouldn't disqualify it as a general term. Adherents of a religion probably care about these subtleties. Someone rattling off a list of names of pantheons in the multiverse probably doesn't.

I also have always like the Celestial Bureaucracy, so that's an easy pick for me. It's both interesting and annoying that the Celestial Bureaucracy they made for Kara-Tur isn't the same as the one they made for Legends & Lore (which is what Planescape uses). I think I went through both versions and compared the deities and decided that most of them could be different names for the same person, and the few that didn't fit well were just gods that weren't as universally known.

Looks like I forgot to come up with anything for Finnish as of yet.

I'm happier with some than with others. In particular, I don't like "Brahmanic Pantheon" because it's not very accurate for the particular pantheon presented.

I really want the Sumerian pantheon to be the Annunaki, so I'm tentatively going with that, even though the way they did the Sumerians and Babylonians means they actually gave Anu to the Babylonians and not the Sumerians, so I really should give the name to the Babylonians. But I didn't. There's probably some way I can spin it so makes sense (at least to the Annunaki themselves).

One thing I tried when I couldn't come up with anything satisfying was to just find the equivalent of "the gods" in their language, hence the Babylonian "Ilyas".

 

[not-so-newguy]

I don't want to the guy who comes up with something stupidly wrong (or worse--offensive)

I’ll be that guy

Celtic Pantheon: Pogue Mahone

 

[gyor]

Wakonda Pantheon makes me think of that African nation in Marvel comics.

There is a Thelema Pantheon based on the spiritual teaching of Alestier Crowley.

A Gnostic Pantheon made up of Demiurge, Archons, Aeons.

The Lovecraftian Pantheon (it counts because its a legally reconized religion in the US believe it or not).

 

[Beleriphon]

While there are probably others, the D&D fantasy-historical pantheons that still need names from the 2e Legends and Lore and On Hallowed Ground are the following (listed by the names they gave them):

American Indian
Aztec
Babylonian
Celtic
Finnish
Indian
Japanese
Sumerian

Thoughts? Suggestions?


Sumerian and Babylonian are functionally identical other than spelling for the most part so the same name can apply to both. Annunaki is the name the Babylonian/Sumerian people called their deities. The relationship between Sumer and Babylon is similar to Rome's relationship to Greece.

Indigenous people of North America aren't a single group, so that might be an issue. Most of their beliefs don't fall into the idea of deities like we see in Europe or Asia. If you wanted something that kind of encompasses the broad ideas associated with North American spiritual life Great Spirits is probably the way to go.

Teotl Pantheon is a good name of the Aztec group of deities, the word Teotl is roughly analogous with the English word deity/god in Nauhtl.

Celts are Tuatha Dé Danann, or Tuath Dé Danann. Its literally the name the Irish Celts gave to their gods as a group. I'm not sure why one has an A and the other does not. I think they're gendered but I can't confirm that. Edit: the A makes it plural. Tuath de is one deity, Tuatha de is plural.

Japanese are pretty straight forward O Kami. Literally Great Spirits. Shinto holds that all things have spirits, or kami. Some kami are so great they have power of many aspects of life, rather than being a spirit of that rock over there.

Vedic Pantheon might work for the Indian sub-continent and surrounding areas.

Finnish I'd go with the Kalevala Pantheon, or something similar. Kalevala is a work of Finnish epic poetry that serves roughly the same purpose to Finns as the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda do to Icelanders and other Nordic countries.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I’ll just point out that some of the names suggested thus far are just a problematic as the names being avoided. Don’t like “Geek Pantheon” because Greece doesn’t exist in your game world? “Olympian” has the same issue- Olympus, the home of the Greek gods, was on Mount Olympus, a particular mountain in Greece.

My advice is to ditch the RW names as completely as you can, and substitute references to the game world. You might even use a language translator like Word Hippo or Bing Translate to make things sound a bit better. So “Olympus” might become “Theopolis”, and the the inhabitants, “Theopolitans”.

Or perhaps the gods’ city is on a mountain in your campaign world- let’s call it Mount Eskan. The deities who live there might be called “Eskanian”; their city, “Eskanopolis”.

 

[Mercurius]

I’ll just point out that some of the names suggested thus far are just a problematic as the names being avoided. Don’t like “Geek Pantheon” because Greece doesn’t exist in your game world? “Olympian” has the same issue- Olympus, the home of the Greek gods, was on Mount Olympus, a particular mountain in Greece.

Would Garius Gygaxius be the Father God?

 

[jgsugden]

I might suggest you're going at this backwards.

Star with the people that worship the pantheon. Where are they located in your game world. Name the Pantheon after that game region, not after a region on Earth.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Would Garius Gygaxius be the Father God?

Damn, I’ve been struck down by Typonius, the god of clerical errors!

 

[Satyrn]

Would Garius Gygaxius be the Father God?

Danggit. I passed on that golden setup.

Nice work!