I am currently working on building my own world, and I've already created two sets of pantheons, in which I am trying to include them both into the world. I am unsure if I should have them included into certain races' beliefs, or include them as cultural beliefs.
I am trying to make it realistic, and more believable. Any ideas? Should I have racial and cultural differences in the religions? Should I have certain areas pick and choose with Gods they worship based on location and culture?
I have one pantheon with twenty two deities, and the other pantheon with sixteen deities. But I want to keep all of the divines.
#worldbuilding, #homebrew, #pantheon, #deities
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There are many ways you can go about this – no one "right" way, just what is right for your campaign setting & creative process.
Here's an example of a religion entry from my own homebrew setting (omitting individual deity descriptions):
CELESTINE TEMPLE
We are the inheritors and guardians of the Canticles – the last record of the gods’ teachings.
During the mythic age, angels brought humanity out of darkness, teaching them as children. It was thus that humanity learned the ways of the Aisar, also known as the Celestial Manors, those perfected deities who bid the angels to help humanity create civilization. However, when prideful angels sought to rule over humankind and human rebellion was imminent, those angels who still remembered their original mission codified the teachings of the Aisar. They bequeathed this holy text – the Canticles – to seven astrologer-kings before the Veil fell, banishing the angels and silencing the voices of the aAisar. Thus was the Celestine Temple born.
Theology
Adherents revere celestial bodies as deities deciding mortal fate, see the divine as separate from the world, and rely on priests as intermediaries to commune with distant gods and interpret their messages. While worshipped as a pantheon, the Aisar individually find favor in certain cities more than others. Worshippers are possessed of free will. However, a person’s nature and fate are decided by the Aisar and cannot be changed. Thus a non-believer is beyond repentance by virtue of its ignorant nature, and a faithful creature may repent no matter how grave the crime. Whether a person may control and channel a wicked nature is the matter of debate among religious scholars.
Afterlife
At death, one’s spirit is carried away by angels. The deeds of one’s life are answered with eternity in the sublime embrace of the Aisar or eternity as a one of the tormented manes in the Shadowlands. It is commonly believed that death by hanging curses one’s soul to Limbo, and as such the person becomes a ghost – an ancient punishment reserved for the most extreme cases of apostasy and heresy.
The Canticles
The holy text of the Celestine Temple is the Canticles, written in the sacramental Celestial tongue, recorded by the last of the angels to tread upon earth before they ascended. It is so named for the seven Aisar and the seven virtues which mirror the travels of the seven astrologer-kings of yore; each book of the Canticles corresponds to the teachings of one of the Aisar. However, long ago the Canticle of the Dark Mother was destroyed, though some believe it was only lost and seek it out today.
Followers
Humans are the most numerous of the Celestine Temple’s faithful, with a fair number of dwarves, halflings, and tieflings. Elves rarely subscribe to the teachings of the Celestine Temple unless they have grown up among humans, though they do have great respect for the Aisar.
Worship
Worship, performed in temple courtyards open to the night sky, is presided over by priests who serve as intermediaries to the Aisar. Individual worshippers call on the angels or saints to intervene on their family’s behalf and to strengthen the priest’s invocations. All prayers are done facing Abarra, the site where the last angels ascended to heaven and involve invocation of various angelic names. Chanting the names of the Aisar and reading from the Canticles is performed along with an elaborate series of hand movements mirroring the movement of the celestial bodies. Statues of the six Aisar line the temple walls with an empty alcove set aside for the Dark Mother. Conjunctions, meteor showers, and eclipses are regarded as particularly auspicious and a reason for gathering to praise the Aisar or to repent of wrongdoing. During the High Holy Days, a week corresponding with the winter solstice, worshippers do not work but gather at the nearest temple to pray, repent their sins, and consult divinations for the coming year.
Clergy
Servants of the temple include avengers (inquisitor rogues devoted to the Celestine Temple), clerics, cloistered clerics (a new class), and paladins. Clergy are divided into three moieties: Canonists, who tend the holy texts; Catechists, who serve as lay priests; and Chantrists, who master the sacred hymns. A complex hierarchy, ultimately answering to the Exarch, governs their temple responsibilities and authorities. Owing to the vast resources and political influence of the Celestine Temple, and its ties to the ruling Alsyaian nobility, its clergy are afforded great respect.
The Exarch
The authority of spiritual knowledge within the temple, the Exarch is both inherited (one must belong to the line of one of the seven astrologer-kings) and elected (a council of prominent clergy decides which of these candidates will be made Exarch).
Temple Services
Temples celebrate Saint Days and High Holy Days, bless crops and cattle, determine the auspicious time for marriage or travel, provide counsel to the troubled, ministry to the ignorant, and healing to the sick. Most religious and healing spells are available at the major temples, though village temples rarely having access to such powerful magic. The exception is the Raise Dead spell which raises theological concerns: A being in the Aisar’s embrace would not wish to return nor would a believer wish to disturb them, while one cursed as a manes deserves the fate they were given and would only return to wreck more havoc. The one time when Raise Dead is accepted is in the case of those who have been intentionally cursed to Limbo – even then helping the restless spirit to move on is preferred.
The Inquisition
The Inquisition acts as judges, detectives, and authorities on religious law; their role is to root out heresy and protect the common people from it. Few temples have their own inquisitors, and as such they often must be sent for from the major cities. Targets of the Inquisition include demon worshippers, shadow fey masquerading as angels, tyrants proclaiming themselves gods, and monsters cults. While feared by witches, many common folk are grateful for the inquisitors.
Sects
There are numerous sects and mystery schools within the Celestine Temple with differing interpretations of the Canticles. Three of the most prominent are the Order of the Sun King (which maintains the Sun King as leader of the Aisar), the Order of the Moon Queen (which regards the Dark Mother as a splintered aspect of the Moon Queen), and the Order of Saint Elaesin (which believes enlightened souls become stars in the night sky). Each has their own center of power and variation on worship.
