Pathfinder 1E Mythological l Pantheon instead of the usual.

[Madnick]

Greetings my friends,

Since the creation of our personal campaign setting, which is based on the adventures of my dedicated party the last 15 years and many more friends joining from times to times, we came up with an Idea that stayed in our heads for quite some time. But because of its nature I cannot say I can finalize on implementing it or not. Your help will be invaluable.
Let me elaborate so you can have a complete image of this question. We decided that instead of using the Pantheon of each and every campaign setting we had been using the past years, to create a new Pantheon that we will be established for all the adventures to come. This Pantheon will be created on the original Mythological Gods all other pantheons we know so far were created. The Norse Gods, the Greek Gods the Egyptian Gods and so on .

The idea is to create one God for each alignment plus 3 more for the most used alignments, in total 12 Gods. The deities we are thinking of using are amongst others Thor, Artemis, Loci, Anubis, Odin, Zeus, and plenty more in the pool we have to pick from.
The question finally to you is the following.

A pantheon for your D&D, Pathfinder game with known Gods from our mythologies will make the playing experience better by using known and closer to your understanding deities, hence you will always remember the portfolio and make it easier to use gods on your campaigns instead of using unknown new gods every time you change a setting, or will it make it alienated because those gods are way to familiar to you hence they have nothing new to offer and it will make the whole idea uninteresting for your taste.

Some details I must provide to make you make up your mind is that the story of the Gods is easily combined with the story of the setting, so don’t think that using Mythical gods will create a hole in the settings creation because it is already thought and answered. Plus the obvious answer which of course matters the most is whatever my players think. I do have plenty of parties joining this particular setting and I do value their opinion and counted towards my thoughts on the enquiry, but I feel this community is highly grown and the input on the matter will help me very much by pointing out things I might lost on my thoughts.

Thank you in advance fellow gamers
Madnick.

 

[Salamandyr]

I generally prefer to make up gods for my campaign setting, unless I'm running in a published world, in which case I'll use theirs. Lately I've been leaning toward letting the players make up the gods they worship, if they choose to worship a god at all, since I've been moving away from the idea that there should be an "official pantheon" or even absolute knowledge that the gods actually exist.

 

[the Jester]

I always always ALWAYS prefer a pantheon (or pantheons) linked to the setting. Using real-world mythology rarely hits the right notes for me. Also, if you're totally mixing mythologies willy-nilly, what are the actual myths of the world like? Do you have the Nine Worlds of the Norse mythos, the Egyptian cosmology, the Greek view of the planes or something else entirely? Did the Titans predate the gods (like in Greek myth)? Is Zeus or Odin stronger? Yeah, I dislike the approach you describe pretty thoroughly.

Another criticism (and I'm sorry to be so down on your approach) is setting up a pantheon of gods by alignment. I strongly recommend creating the portfolios first, then see what alignment fits that god (unless the religious view is that the deities are archetypes of their alignments- but that is not what Thor, Zeus, et. al. are about).

EDIT: I'm also a huge fan of multiple-religion settings; in other words, it's not just (f'rexample) 40 gods in the world, it's 40 gods split between several different distinct faiths. So while the worshipers of Odin and of Thor and of Loki are all of the same faith (Norse religion- they all share a view of the world, its mythology, etc) but all have different gods, the worshipers of Odin and Anubis are of entirely different religions (and thus have differing views of what the afterlife is, different values, etc).

 

[Alzrius]

I agree with pretty much everything Jester said.

 

[Madnick]

First of all thank you both for the input,second of all please don't apologise for your thoughts this is exactly what i need,a different point of view.So i welcome it.To answer your question jester about gods the myths of the worlds are created by the players.Gods are there with a different back story than their own. To put it simple imagine what those gods represent, not how they got the power or what was before them.Those holes are locked down by the mythology of the setting itself. I do understand what you mean though about alignment, you have to bare in mind that the mythological gods have already portfolios so it is really easy to set them to the relevant alignment based on that.

 

[steeldragons]

I'm with Jester on this one....to the first point, anyway.

I, myself, use and enjoy alignment, throughout my world-setting, for the pcs and for my deities. The breaking up/organizing by alignment I have no issue with. The cherry-picking real world deities to interact as a single pantheon...though the real world was not significantly different in those times...makes immersion difficult for me. Jester's point about "how the mythology works" is particularly valid and a consideration you should take to heart. If you have an Isis but no Osiris [or worse, vice versa] then what happens? Did Isis raise Thor from the dead...so Thor is now also a vegetative/agricultural deity as well as death...who's workin' the thunder and storm circuit then?

All of that said, while it's not my preference, it is certainly doable. "There's some celestial convergence in the ethers/heavens/whatever you want to call'ems of your campaign world and all of these deities are the ones who stuck around to take care of it."

I recall the cartoon series Samurai Jack used something similar, visages of Odin, Ra and Zeus [if I'm remembering correctly] where all responsible for the initial defeat of the dark demon/wizard/villain and later, I think, the forging/power of the mystic sword that Jack used to fight him.

If you continue with this idea...if we're working with Norse, Greek and Egyptian...I think I would have to recommend Set as your go to "big bad god of Evil." Hades gets a bad rap, but he's not really the most "destroy all creation" kinda god, despite recent fictional depictions. Loki, also, doesn't want to destroy the universe, just rule it. He is...wicked and disruptive but not entirely "evil." I'd be inclined to make him Chaotic Neutral with evil tendencies...or Neutral Evil (just lookin' out for #1). I'd probably make Surtur into a god...I'd consider him WAY more Chaotic Evil than Loki.

But for myself, I play in my homebrewed campaign setting with my homebrewed campaign pantheon. The players, if they're around long enough, get to know them and their portfolios are mythologically thematic...that is, there's not really a deity that's unlike anything they wouldn't be able to relate to. The gods are the embodiment/personification of their portfolios. They are stewards or regents of the powers they control.

So, for example, I say "Manat is the goddess of magic [meaning the arcane/sorcery sense of magic] and prophecy." A player says "What's that mean? What's she like?" I can say, "She is like Isis and Hecate, the Forgotten Realms' Mystra and Greyhawk's Boccob and many others all rolled into one. She is the daughter of the elder gods of Knowledge and Death/Fate...thus was the embodiment of Arcane Magic born and she is called Manat. She is pictured thus...and her [holy] symbol is this..." Arcane Magical energies exist in my world. Manat is simply the entity that watches, defends/protects, and has complete control over those energies.

 

[Madnick]

Thank you very much for your thoughts steel, i like your insight on the alignments of the Gods and i do agree with you on this. As i said those questions you and jester raised about the consistency of this pantheon is what i need from this post, and you guys are providing it.(i have to find samurai jack it seems interesting!!!tnx)
Thanks again keep them coming.

 

[steeldragons]

To that end, you are using both Thor and Zeus, then I'd say keep Zeus as a lord of lightning, a sky god, a ruler god, a god of Order. Thor, also, can have storm/weather powers but he is also concerned with things like battle and honor (can't have a Thor without him swingin' around his hammer, after all!) which Zeus really is not concerned with. Though "Truth" might be Zeus' purview...which has a place in "Honor" and so they overlap a bit, again.

But where Zeus' priests might be judges or administrators, trying to spread order and civilization, Thor's priests are more interested in battleskill and exhibiting courage. Honor has a great deal of meaning to them...but "Law" does not matter as much as Honor. Both have lightning powers and a certain amount of sway over weather in general, but Zeus I would place in Lawful or Neutral Good...Thor in Neutral or Chaotic Good, respectively (one step away from whatever you make Zeus)..the storm and battle elements seems to demand Chaotic.

Also, I do not know the gender make up of your player group (or if that matters) or the set up of your campaign world...but since you mention all "god" names (except for Artemis), I would urge you to be aware and not to skimp on the goddesses. Those pantheons in particular (Greece, Egypt, Scandinavia...the Celts also!) have some really impressive, powerful and colorful goddesses. Don't just make everyone the "wife of so-and-so." Let them be goddesses in their own right. And not just "the pretty ones" like Aphrodite (who really has no business being a goddess for a D&D/Pathfinder game if you ask me..."I seduce the goblin to death!" ummmm...no. lol. But ladies like Athena, the aforementioned Isis or Hecate, Sif, the Morrigan (celtic) are very potent figures and mythological archetypes.

 

[Madnick]

I agree totally with the description of the differences of Zeus and Thor but the names i listed are from 30+ more mythological gods we have in our disposal. The list goes on, i just picked some to make my point.Of course the boundaries and differences between gods will be obvious so there will be no misunderstanding of where the portfolio of one ends and another ones begins.As for the gender part i haven't thought of it separately but you are right i don't want my female players to feel off with no female god to follow!Thank god(which one???!!) there are so many to pick from.

 

[steeldragons]

PS: Samurai Jack was a cartoon from the American channel "Cartoon Network." It is highly stylized animation by the eminently talented Genndy Tartokovski. Really REALLY well done, in my humble opinion. You should be able to find links via youtube or any cartoon or tv show viewing site (animeflavor.com is coming to mind, though it is certainly not "anime." But a website devoted to cartoon series). It's well worth watching.