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<blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 373951" data-attributes="member: 2205">I don't have anything to say that's really innovative or new, but here's what I've done in the past.First, I take the Dragon Magazine on clerics (about a year and a half ago?) and look through what it's got there.&nbsp; There's a good article on common mythological archetypes - gods and goddesses that appear in almost every world mythology.&nbsp; That's what I start with, adding or subtracting as makes sense for my world until I have a full, well-rounded pantheon.&nbsp; I don't worry too much about potential overlap of domains or portfolios, as many real world pantheistic societies (or at least the representation of them that we see now, many centuries after the fact in most cases) featured this same overlap.Then, for each god, I write a couple of &quot;myths&quot; -- stories, origins, something they did or something they are.&nbsp; Many of these will support each other indirectly, some of them will contradict each other, but that's the core &quot;mythology&quot; of the land, and of course, depending on where you live and whom you honor, you may accept some stories and discount others as heresy or at least uninformed misinformation.Then, I do away entirely with the concept of patron deities.&nbsp; Everyone worships the entire pantheon (with few exceptions) when it is appropriate to do so.&nbsp; You don't pray to the god of war for your harvest, for healing, at the death of your grandmother, etc. -- you pray to the deity who has influence over that aspect of the mortal existence.Then, to spice it up, some gods have mystery cults that you can join.&nbsp; This usually involves more esoteric mythological information (and possibly an arbitrary skill bump to Knowledge (religion).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Desdichado, post: 373951, member: 2205"] I don't have anything to say that's really innovative or new, but here's what I've done in the past. First, I take the Dragon Magazine on clerics (about a year and a half ago?) and look through what it's got there. There's a good article on common mythological archetypes - gods and goddesses that appear in almost every world mythology. That's what I start with, adding or subtracting as makes sense for my world until I have a full, well-rounded pantheon. I don't worry too much about potential overlap of domains or portfolios, as many real world pantheistic societies (or at least the representation of them that we see now, many centuries after the fact in most cases) featured this same overlap. Then, for each god, I write a couple of "myths" -- stories, origins, something they did or something they are. Many of these will support each other indirectly, some of them will contradict each other, but that's the core "mythology" of the land, and of course, depending on where you live and whom you honor, you may accept some stories and discount others as heresy or at least uninformed misinformation. Then, I do away entirely with the concept of patron deities. Everyone worships the entire pantheon (with few exceptions) when it is appropriate to do so. You don't pray to the god of war for your harvest, for healing, at the death of your grandmother, etc. -- you pray to the deity who has influence over that aspect of the mortal existence. Then, to spice it up, some gods have mystery cults that you can join. This usually involves more esoteric mythological information (and possibly an arbitrary skill bump to Knowledge (religion). [/QUOTE]

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