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Message: <blockquote data-quote="paradox42" data-source="post: 3241977" data-attributes="member: 29746">Well, if we're answering as individuals, and you're not specifically looking for U_K's reccomendations- my primary homebrew's been under some sort of development, on and off, for over 20 years now. So obviously I've put a lot of thought into the world and the various cultures, though there's still a lot left to do before it even approaches something I'd consider 'complete.' I suppose I'm a lot like Krusty that way, though I've been running campaigns in a 3.X version of the world since 2001 so most top-level things are fairly well ironed out.The deities of this world are very structured, in the pantheon sense, though there are also a lot of them. The postulate I've followed in world design is that these deities, that is, those of the pantheon, are the only beings with divine power in this world- other worlds can and do have their own gods, but none of those gods has any followers on my world, nor would any followers of those gods who reached my world be able to use the powers of their gods. Among other things, this means that the Drow of my world aren't spider-obsessed, since Lolth is not one of the deities of my pantheon (though she does exist, out in the wide reaches of the multiverse).The pantheon's main structural characteristic is the dividing line between Good, Neutral, and Evil alignments. There are thirty deities above demigod level, and precisely 10 of each of the three alignment factions. Each faction is ruled by one Greater God (though in the Neutral case, the deity sometimes switches genders, so 'God' isn't always the correct term to use), and the Greater Gods are all gods of Magic. Beneath them are several Intermediates and Lessers, with the defining difference being that Intermediate deities have three spheres of influence while Lessers have only two; each Greater God has four but one of the four is Magic so it can be sort of discounted. Underneath the 'Thirty' are numerous Demideities, which aren't particularly structured at all- there are nearly a hundred at last count, and although I went to some effort to balance out how many are in each faction I didn't make it a priority. Each Demideity has only one sphere of influence, and the world background says they're mainly worshipped on a local level (that is, not everybody on the world has heard of any particular demigod- not the case with the Thirty, which are all known worldwide).The structure is no accident- the world is postulated to be very old, with over 200,000 years of known history, though not necessarily 'known' in the sense that PCs will learn of it before becoming deities themselves. The current pantheon is not, therefore, made up of beings which created the world; it's actually a group that was specifically brought together 5000 or so years ago to help the world recover from a catastrophe of epic proportions. A few of the current deities actually are former members of older pantheons which once watched this world, but most of the original pantheons and deities have long since moved on to other worlds and realms and are no longer known in this one.Not as such, no. The racial gods who are part of the core game, like Corellon, are postulated to exist 'somewhere out there' in the multiverse at large, and some of them might in fact be the creators of their associated races on my world- but none are worshipped on it in the modern age. Instead, what happens is more like Kalamar's deity setup- the Thirty take on racial aspects among each different race or culture, and are known by different names in different lands though the religions are recognizably the same if one known what to look for (i.e. has ranks in Knowledge (Religion)).Due to the history I put behind the world and pantheon, many of the existing deities are actually ascended mortals- including all three Greater Gods, though of those three only one is really known as an ascended mortal (the Good one). The other two have discarded the trappings of their long-lost mortal lives, and the details of those lives are really known only to them. Out-Of-Character, my players are aware that I've always considered the Evil one to be a version of ascended Raistlin, of Dragonlance fame, but since my world is not Krynn and doesn't even vaguely resemble Krynn there's no reason for any characters of the world to become aware of that idea. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> What percentage are ascended mortals? That I would have to take a long time counting and figuring to tell you, but I'm fairly sure the ratio is at least 50%. One interesting feature of this world is that, since its history includes a time of high-technology and science, several of the deities are actually ascended robots or computer AIs rather than standard 'mortals' such as humans. None of these ascended machines has gone beyond demideity stage as yet, but one never knows what the future might bring...Well, as previously stated, each of the three factions has a single Greater God to lead it, with the rest being Intermediate and Lesser. I just counted again, and found that each faction has exactly 6 Intermediates and 3 Lessers, which matches my notion that behind-the-scenes the Triad (the three Greaters) control the ascension of lower deities through the ranks and make sure that the three factions stay in balance. The demideities aren't as well structured, though every demideity has an associated 'sponsor' among the Thirty whose church ostentibly provides the new demideity with a structure to build on and gain initial faith from.The presumed methods involved here are that each new deity brought into the pantheon is sponsored by an existing member, and enters as a demideity of that sponsor; after some unspecified time or condition a deity becomes powerful enough to 'go independent' and rise to Lesser rank. I have 10 or so demideities who are postulated to be nearing that power mark in the current day, with three (one of each faction, naturally) who are close enough that they're actually starting to distance themselves from their sponsors- presumably in preparation for ascension to Lesser status. It is assumed that the Triad never allow ascensions to Lesser Deity status except in threes, one deity per faction, so if a hypothetical demigod were to get close to such ascension, he'd have to wait for similar individuals to arise from each of the other two factions before being allowed to actually reach the next level.Yes, clearly the Magic deities (and thus, Magic itself) are the most powerful force on this world. Also, though the structure of the pantheon is very carefully balanced along the lines of Good, Neutral, and Evil, the other alignment axis has no such balance- Chaos has a very clear advantage over Law. Two of the three Greater Gods are Chaotic- Good and Neutral (the Evil one is Neutral Evil specifically). And among the rest of the pantheon, Chaotic and Neutral members outnumber the Lawfuls by a margin of around 3 to 1 (instead of the 2 to 1 which would indicate balance among those three alignment types). Each faction of the Thirty has 2 Lawful members weighed against the other 7 non-Greater deities, with varying numbers of Chaotics and Neutrals in each of the three factions.EDIT: Oh, and one other interesting facet of power-balance I should mention is that my campaign multiverse features two Sidereal beings that are known to be 'awake' in the Krustian sense, and roaming the cosmos; though mortals almost never hear of them, they are known to deities quite well. One of the two Sidereals secretly has an 'avatar' Intermediate Goddess, who is a member of the Good faction of my pantheon. The PCs in my Epic campaign are actually aware of this entity's true identity and have had contact with her 'Goddess form' in person, though they have wisely steered clear of much interaction with her aside from donating lots and lots of gold and items to her church. The other Sidereal has no avatars among the pantheon of my world specifically, though some of its avatars are known in the rest of the cosmos (one of them is Io the Ninefold Dragon).Genders, I'd estimate, are split about even, though obviously the three rulers are male (except, sometimes, the Chaotic Neutral one, who as a deity of Change occasionally switches genders just for the heck of it). Alignments, obviously, are carefully balanced among teh THirty with respect to the Good-Evil axis, though as discussed above the Law-Chaos axis is far, far out of balance. Among the demideities, no great effort was put forth to balance the alignments, though I did follow the rule that each demidiety's alignment has to be within one step of its sponsor's alignment. Favored weapons, I didn't go to any effort to balance out, though I believe pretty much every weapon of the core rules is favored by some deity, somewhere in the list. Crossbows may be an exception. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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