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How to make a believable pantheon for a homebrew world.
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<blockquote data-quote="Stormonu" data-source="post: 6197776" data-attributes="member: 52734"><p>One thing to note is that in many pantheons, its members tend to be relatives. You can expand this into having multiple pantheons beings various families, perhaps descended from one supreme being who is no longer able (for whatever reason) to prevent the inter-family bickering. In a sense, imagine if Ra and Odin were first cousins, and you have an inkling as to the sort of interfamiliar conflicts that could arise.</p><p></p><p>False pantheons are quite possible. </p><p></p><p>1) They can arise from sinister origins such as an "evil" god creating a way to lure true believers away from worshipping other gods and secretly fostering worship of themselves in another guise. </p><p></p><p>2) They can be the tools of demons, devils or other demagogues who are seeking elevation to godhood through worship (if such power can be acquired that way. Again, stealing worshippers away from the true gods can also be a motive in of itself, if the gods power is based on worship - which many official D&D campaigns work).</p><p></p><p>3) Gullible or superstitious individuals could found a worship on a fake god. Until it becomes a threat to worship of the real gods, it may be ignored. Clerical spells for such a fake religion may come from a misunderstanding of magic; worshippers know the right words, gestures and components - but the power isn't coming from the gods themselves but from a twisted sort of arcane magic. Yagno Petrovana from Ravenloft presents an example of this with the fake god Zhakata.</p><p></p><p>4) Over time, a strong enough belief in a idea, virtue or vice may cause a deity to spontaneously come into being. The regular gods might oppose this, but not be able to stop the eventual zietgeist from forming a true god. An example would be 40K's creation of the daemon Slaanesh.</p><p></p><p>5) The god has no power now, but it did at one time. These worshippers dare to wake gods better left sleeping. They are "harmless" - until their sleeping god stirs and its power can be felt. Clerical spells for such a god may come from ancient bargains or methods now long lost, somehow unearthed and passed through dreams to those "in tune" to the sleeping god. Sleeping Cthulhu, the dead gods of Lhankmar and such a example of a diety.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Stormonu, post: 6197776, member: 52734"] One thing to note is that in many pantheons, its members tend to be relatives. You can expand this into having multiple pantheons beings various families, perhaps descended from one supreme being who is no longer able (for whatever reason) to prevent the inter-family bickering. In a sense, imagine if Ra and Odin were first cousins, and you have an inkling as to the sort of interfamiliar conflicts that could arise. False pantheons are quite possible. 1) They can arise from sinister origins such as an "evil" god creating a way to lure true believers away from worshipping other gods and secretly fostering worship of themselves in another guise. 2) They can be the tools of demons, devils or other demagogues who are seeking elevation to godhood through worship (if such power can be acquired that way. Again, stealing worshippers away from the true gods can also be a motive in of itself, if the gods power is based on worship - which many official D&D campaigns work). 3) Gullible or superstitious individuals could found a worship on a fake god. Until it becomes a threat to worship of the real gods, it may be ignored. Clerical spells for such a fake religion may come from a misunderstanding of magic; worshippers know the right words, gestures and components - but the power isn't coming from the gods themselves but from a twisted sort of arcane magic. Yagno Petrovana from Ravenloft presents an example of this with the fake god Zhakata. 4) Over time, a strong enough belief in a idea, virtue or vice may cause a deity to spontaneously come into being. The regular gods might oppose this, but not be able to stop the eventual zietgeist from forming a true god. An example would be 40K's creation of the daemon Slaanesh. 5) The god has no power now, but it did at one time. These worshippers dare to wake gods better left sleeping. They are "harmless" - until their sleeping god stirs and its power can be felt. Clerical spells for such a god may come from ancient bargains or methods now long lost, somehow unearthed and passed through dreams to those "in tune" to the sleeping god. Sleeping Cthulhu, the dead gods of Lhankmar and such a example of a diety. [/QUOTE]
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