D&D General Reducing Faerun pantheon (The Dawn War treatment)

[cbwjm]

I had just looked through this Netherese pantheon as I had incorporated Moander into my Lost Mines game and was doing a little research on him. I thought this very condensed group would be exactly what @vincegetorix would be looking for, and I'm pleased to see you had already come upon the idea yourself.

If the idea was to use this old pantheon but wanted to keep it with a bit more modern flair... most of these deities have new names that they currently use or are exarchs of more powerful deities, so a "new" version of the Netherese pantheon could be:

Lathander (formerly Amaunator)
Chauntea (formerly Jannath)
Kelemvor (Jergal is his exarch)
Talos (formerly Kozah)
Moander (currently dead, no new persona or domain owner that I know of)
Mystra (formerly Mystryl)
Selune
Shar
Tempus (Garagos, formerly known as Targus is his exarch)
Tymora (formerly Tyche before she was split in half, Beshaba being the other half)

I had thought the same thing after posting, I think it would be a good idea if the players are more familiar with the current gods so that they don't have to learn the different names.

 

[cbwjm]

I like this.

My take would be:

Lathander: Summer, youth, sun, healing, purity
Chauntea: Wild nature, forests, the seas, agriculture (and farmers and gardeners), the fundamental elements
Corellon: Fey, talking beast, forest, art, nobility
Kelemvor: Death, funerals and tombs, undeath, old age, dusk, autumn
Talos: Storm, sea, winter, the hunt, wild beast, cataclysm
Cyric: tyranny, strife, murder, the One God, madness, betrayal, lies
Grummsh: Conquest, grudge, fertility, chaos
Ghaunadaur: Destruction, the Underdark, slime, corruption,
Moradin: earth, artifice, forge, honor, protection
Mystra: Magic stuff
Selune: moon, stars, dreams, beauty, love, navigation & tracking, wanderers
Shar: Dark, night, hatred, loss, sleep, nightmares, illusions, trickery, secrets, seduction, thievery, hags
Tempus: War, skill-at-arms, duels, berserkers, plunder
Tymora: Fortune, luck, fate, misfortune, accidents, accountability, adventurers, explorers, trade

Keep the areas of influence exactly as written here so that the following exchange can happen:

Warrior "You're a priest of Mystra? What is she the god of?"
Priest "Oh, you know, magic stuff."

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Keep the areas of influence exactly as written here so that the following exchange can happen:

Warrior "You're a priest of Mystra? What is she the god of?"
Priest "Oh, you know, magic stuff."

Well, you know...she dies like 4 times per year when all goes well, she does not have a lot of time to expand her folio.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I'm still running the 4E Realms (with heavy influences from other editions) and I think this is something that the 4E FR designers got right. I like the larger pantheons but I also like looking at a list of dead powers and wondering how their return or attempts at returning might shape various adventures and campaigns. It certainly provides hooks for the Epic Tier. Also, devas IMC are the cast down celestial servants of dead powers. This gives them a potentially campaign-defining hook from the get-go.

Something you might do is use the concepts of syncretism and aspects. If you have two or more similar gods perhaps they are actually the same god (syncretism), or aspects of each other or a greater god.

Ed has previously mentioned that that is his meta version of the pantheons of FR. He sees that there are seven or so primary divine forces (Castlemourn is an example of this) with various faces (to use the Midgard term) and aspects.

I just wish I could find the relevant post on Candlekeep.