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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zipster" data-source="post: 6197508" data-attributes="member: 6687861">I've been working on a homebrew world, and with it a pantheon of sorts. In my gameworld, multiple cultures/nations are coming together into one region which will boil with conflict. I feel that it would be easy to simply create a list of names of dieties and then associate an element, emotion, or idea with them, i.e. Eldred, the God of Law and Justice. But, I feel that to do that is, in a way, too easy. Please, be mature enough to not let this divulge into a debate about religion/God/atheism/whatever.What I've noticed in my limited experience is that game worlds tend to have a rather straight-forward pantheon that tends to be universal. Different cultures have different gods, yes, but they often also acknowledge the other cultures gods. In our real world, it's not that simple: arguments, debates and wars are fought over theological ideologies. Christians, for instance, deny that Kali, Ra, Osiris, Zeus and the existence of any God aside from Yahweh; Muslims are in the same boat, though they and Orthodox Jews have arguments with the both. Even still are the 'pagans,' believing in oft un-named deities simply referred to (at times, by some) as "the Father" and "the Mother." And, then there are the atheists which don't believe in any god.  My point in all of this is that many of our world beliefs are exclusive to themselves, in that they deny the opposing schools beliefs. Even those belief systems which are called 'inclusive' end up diminishing those other beliefs. Whether any religious system or god that may or may not be true in our world is largely a matter of personal opinion and/or belief. In my gam eworld, I am trying to replicate this sense of religious tension that exists in our world, while also maintaining a sense of continuity. Each belief system in our world has a creation story/myth, and with them they all have heroes, or figures of great importance that vary greatly. On the other side of the coin, in our world a story about a great flood is found within many cultures and thoughts of a coming apocalypse/great disaster is shared, though explicit details may not be.It would seem that to make one pantheon, and have it split and divided up between these cultures which then begin to argue/give favoritism to things would be a logical way to emulate this, however that seems like a cop-out because every culture/system still has whatever religious truth, no matter how much they skewed it may have become, which is something that I'd like to avoid. So, does anyone have any ideas or suggestions to do this? I feel like it's difficult to create a false pantheon in a fantasy world in which deities are expected to act. In such a world where magic and monsters exist and power if often on display would it even be feasible that a false-pantheon could arise? If so, what do you imagine such a pantheon would look like? Would it's heroes be those of history, myth, or a mixture of the two? Is it rewarding to the gameplay/roleplaying experience to have religious lore - of heroes, prophecies, creation and other myths - of various cultures turn out to be completely false? (As in: the paladin-player finds out that the God he has sworn allegience to does not exist). Would it be more rewarding if the real religious truth of the game world was something to be discovered as part of the over-all narrative?I look forward to hearing input and ideas from you all, as I suspect you've much more than I!</blockquote>

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