Momma Goddesses

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

hey all,
I'm looking to create one or two Momma Goddesses. The term Momma is important because these are not to feel like big 'ol Gaea figures who birthed and actively sustain everyone and everything. They're more on the level of sub-Zeus Olympian deities if not smaller.

They are however to be very active, interested in sponsoring heroes without having far reaching Dragonlance style agendas and there are no more powerful gods to order them around though there are several other local gods.

The only things in their portfolio thus far are Mothers, Neutral Good, and Female. Everything else is negotiable. They don't even have to be human or humanoid in aspect. Though they do live in a city so anything on the giant monstrous multi-breasted level is going to present problems.

The two stated sources of inspiration are Isis and Freya and I do want to use those, but I have no real ideas myself, so I am very open to inspiration.

The context is that they are part of pantheon of eighteen deities, though some of these deities are actually several entities who function as one, who have sponsored migrations from other worlds into a small, but locally hospitable section, of world that they claim is empty and they want people to settle. Actually the rest of the world does have fair population of cultures and powers, just none that are nearby and no other gods, per se. The newcomer cultures have primarily stayed in this one insane city where the gods live and muck around with them. There are two gods per alignment, each with a theme, and each alignment has a male aspected deity and a female aspected deity.

The gods live in the city and need people to honor them through rituals, heroes to inspire or oppose and thus add to their legends, crazy temples/dungeons/portals to live in, and they have no real higher agendas then that.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

My unreal ideas

Here are my unreal ideas:

I like the ferocious, clever, and grim aspect of mother hood:

I like that Isis invents burial rights and resurrection and orchestrates a rather complicated revenge plot.

I like that Freya comes up with an incredibly clever if oblique plan to save her son. And makes all creation mourn him when she dies.

I mean, I love the Pieta and I love the whole Spartan, come home with your shield or on it, and the Homeric emphasis on how people who die are beloved by their mothers.

I love the stories about Mothers getting together and leading revolutions to find their missing sons or chastise those in power. I love that mythical mommas find ways around monsters as often as slaughter them. And I think that fits with the Neutral Good tone.

Among the other things I am supposed to do with this part of the pantheon, I and some friends are putting together a colloborative homebrew, is find a home for the helpful trickster archetype in mythology among the various portfolios I'm working on, and I'm thinking of making the Mommas the tricksters.

The problems are:

A.) I'm not totally convinced by this myself

B.) I really don't know that this does justice to what people mean/expect when they say Momma or Mother goddess. Plus I know this is a narrow view and I need more inspiration.

C.) A lot of these dieties I get really good concrete visions and ideas of, but here I need your help. The best I can do is come up with a leonine association, for those of you who haven't seen lions are impressive mommas, with sphinxes and intelligent griffins as servants, but that's it. Along with some association with dogs, so that they have an underlying *ahem* female dog aspect, but there again I don't know.

So there you are, play, enjoy, help me out.

 

[mythusmage]

I like the ferocious, clever, and grim aspect of mother hood:

In an old setting (later subsumed into Dragon Earth, only a few thousand years later) I had the local orcs worshipping two mother goddesses. One being Cougar, the mother as protector and Wolf, the mother as nurturer.

From real life you have the Sumerian Inanna. Goddess of passionate love and child birth. Renamed Ishtar by the Babylonians she apparently lost the child birth aspect, but kept other matronly 'duties'. By most accounts she could be a royal bitch at times.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

From real life you have the Sumerian Inanna. Goddess of passionate love and child birth. Renamed Ishtar by the Babylonians she apparently lost the child birth aspect, but kept other matronly 'duties'. By most accounts she could be a royal bitch at times.

Inanna is actually working as the inspiration, along with bastet, for the goddess of pleasure and immortality, a different part of the pantheon, though it would be cool to have her as childbirth and the momma as funeral preparation.

Would make a nice complement.

Didn't Inanna end up as queen of the realm of the dead as well?

 

[Knightfall]

Inanna is actually working as the inspiration, along with bastet, for the goddess of pleasure and immortality, a different part of the pantheon, though it would be cool to have her as childbirth and the momma as funeral preparation.

Would make a nice complement.

Didn't Inanna end up as queen of the realm of the dead as well?

Ah Inanna, one of my favorites from the old On Hallowed Ground 2E supplement. So much so, see became one of my key gods for World of Kulan. Of course, I went with the war and love theme from that book.

Here's my version of her: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1512114#post1512114

Also, you might want to read my Gods of Harqual story hour, where Inanna plays a major part in the story line. (Pimping is so hard on the soul.)

 

[mythusmage]

Didn't Inanna end up as queen of the realm of the dead as well?

I think she was originally. But she and dad (Enlil) had a tiff and daddy turned the job over to her sister, Ereshkigal. Which in turn led to a long term spat between the two. Aint family dynamics wonderful?

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Ah Inanna, one of my favorites from the old On Hallowed Ground 2E supplement. So much so, see became one of my key gods for World of Kulan. Of course, I went with the war and love theme from that book.

Here's my version of her: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1512114#post1512114

Also, you might want to read my Gods of Harqual story hour, where Inanna plays a major part in the story line. (Pimping is so hard on the soul.)

Interesting, I have another deity doing the bloody war bit, but I like it.

Your take on Issek of the Jug was awesome, I had forgotten what a cool god that guy was.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I think she was originally. But she and dad (Enlil) had a tiff and daddy turned the job over to her sister, Ereshkigal. Which in turn led to a long term spat between the two. Aint family dynamics wonderful?

They are indeed awesome. I'm a little torn as to how they will come together in the pantheon we're working on, but they are always inspirational.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

bumpety bump

 

[Tonguez]

Baba Yaga was apparently derived from the Mother of the god Thunder god Perun - so you could use the Hag aspect of destructive fury (Scotland has the Ghiilie Bhuer (sp) or Blue Hag of Winter who both caused blizzards and guided lost children home, so there's another possibility)

For non-human momma goddesses how about the 'Dog Mother' (portfolio's Nuturing, Protection, Animal, War (and Hunting) maybe Travel - this would fit your campaign idea 'She' protects the migrations) her priest get Track for free and often multiclass as rangers. She also gives birth to a litter of celestial pups each year which are given free reign in the city (like Bulls in India) and are valued members of the city guard