Help with Mythology

[Umbran]

Oh, there's a fella called Tammuz. A Phrygian god?

Babylonian, I thought.

I don't know the details but he's always listed with Osiris, Adonis, Dionysius as one of the dead and risen types. They're usually associated with the turning of the seasons, the death of one year and the birth of the new with renewed life.

Yes. Interesting thing with Tammuz, though - unlike in most similar Western myths, Tammuz dies in midsummer to mark the days "dying" by getting shorter, and the late summer heat in the Middle East is a killer.

 

[Cyronax]

Its also built into the old school D&D cosmology: Tharizdun. Its strongly implied that at least several gods of good to evil alignments teamed up to counter the Big T.

I could easily see all the gods sacrifice themselves to imprison Tharizdun.

I've used this conceit for my homebrew world for years. In place of the dead gods, a few angels or other 'exarch' types step in and try to fill the void. These lesser beings aren't powerful enough to act as gods in their own right, so they often rely on revelatory church institutions as well as heroes.

Of course, Tharizdun remains imprisoned, but not impotent. I ran campaigns set up like this to include adventures like Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil to great effect back in 2001-2004.

 

[arscott]

Orphic cults existed based on Orpheus going down to Hades and gaining knowledge when he sought the return of his wife. He died from the maenads I believe (Dionysus' wild women) so he's gone but the lore he brought back from the underwold continues in the cult.

Orhpeus's bride was killed by a snake, I believe. It was Orpheus himself that eventually fell victim to the Maenads.

 

[Yair]

Thanks all. I'll keep muilling this over.

 

[Ktulu]

Another resource could be the latest Dragon Age: Origins. The Maker isn't "dead" per-se, but it's made plainly clear that the god doesn't get involved, help, or hinder anyone. The faithful still follow with devout belief, and hold strong power due to the "paladins" who govern the mages, but other than that, there isn't much of a divine entity in the game world.

I actually thought it was pretty interesting.