Scarred Lands: Ask the Sage [Version 3.65729 with Upgrades!]

[Nightfall]

Werner is right.

Divine and Defeated, page 22, Hedrada is Golthain and Denev (Denev and Mormo were the most productive titans thus far with three each.)

Sethris was the union of Belsameth and some demon lord/prince. (page 138 Div&Def).

Nemorga...well he's the odd duck. He might have been around since the world began...or might be the unfortunate union between Belsameth and Hedrada. I personally favor the former. He's just been a death god and always will be around. (Entropy)

Nalthalos...no idea but part of me suspects Mormo as his mommy. This is just so that Jandaveos/That Which Abides and him can be brothers.

 

[Parlan]

I only refer to the GH and FR pantheons because I assume people are generally familiar with them. Most D&D pantheons I've seen have a LG god of paladins, a LE god of tyrants, a CN god of trickery, a LN "judge", a NG healer, and so on... and the SL gods are exactly that.

I don't like these archetypes anywhere, certainly not in GH and FR. But... GH and FR have other gods too, more interesting and 'developed' gods.

I’m not following you here. Paladins following a LG deity, LN “judge”, CN god of trickery, these are all functions of the D&D alignment system as I see it.

C’mon, who ELSE would paladins worship? Being neutral on the Good/Evil axis means in effect that you are solely defined by the Chaos/Law Axis. I.e., Lawful Neutral stands only for Law, and doesn t have to reconcile this with a desire to also stand for Good or Evil the way LG or LE do. In that sense, it is the “purest” form or Law. In my mind, the judge archetype best represents this. No other alignment can be judge, since with the D&D mechanics a LG deity would also have a strong desire to use rules/law to be altruistic and LE would be the opposite.

So I don t understand why you don’t like a pantheon that meets the archetypes. As D&D, it pretty much has to.

And if D&D rules require a LN god to be “the judge” archetype, I’d much rather there be fewer gods. The reason being, the same LN god will also have to be the god of many other things as well.

Hedrada (LN) is first and foremost about justice, but he also is the god of commerce, and also the god of building.

If there were a separate deity for commerce, he would be defined only by being God of Commerce. In contrast, Hedrada is quintessentially the God of Law, but he is simultaneously the God of Commerce.

I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on the racial deities issue. If there’s an Elven god of death, shouldn’t there be Dwarven, Hafling, and Gnomish equivalents? And if that’s the case, then there is no GOD of DEATH, there’s just a bunch of mini-gods of death. I find that weak.

If Elves have different feelings about death (as well they should) then couldn’t this be reflected Elves worshipping the same god in a different way?

 

[Parlan]

I like both of these aspects. I might prefer a few more gods, but that's not a big issue -- it's much better than the flock of pantheons in FR.

I just want more depth to the gods: more personlity and less boilerplate.

You say the SL deities lack personality, but I think they have quite a bit. Tanil (CG) is the Huntress archetype. None too original I admit, but a great personality is layered on top.

Raped by her Titan father, she is much darker than the usual cheerful-trickster CG archetype. And she s also the patron god of abused women and orphans. A nice twist on The Huntress Archetype, don’t you think?

BTW, her sworn enemy is not LE as one might expect, but rather NE, because Tanil views Belameth’s lycanthropes as an affront to nature.

 

[Nightfall]

Parlan,


Not entirely true. She despises Belsameth's aspect for lycanthropy yes, but she also hates Chardun for his animosity towards the weak and helpless along with freedom.
Btw Parlan I also agree about your comment on racial deities. As I stated eariler, there should be a paragon of the race but that's about it. Humans are too diverse to have a human paragon, which is why the 8 work so well.

 

[Nightfall]

Well it's now a leap day. Tomorrow Echoes of the Past: Slacerian Legacy is available in stores. If someone gets it before me, post contents HERE! Thanks.

 

[Taelorn76]

just bumping this along

 

[Nightfall]

Well it's the 1st. Anyone pick up Echoes yet?

 

[Will]

So I finally got my copy of Asaatthi.

One slight (and COMPLETELY UNOFFICIAL) correction I'd suggest: Asaatthi breeds with natural druid spellcasting instead of wizard are one lower LA. Sefutiiss should probably be +4 LA. Lihueltess should probably be +3 LA.

Still reading... loving this stuff. I like the maps and artwork, particularly the Nate Price stuff.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I’m not following you here. Paladins following a LG deity, LN “judge”, CN god of trickery, these are all functions of the D&D alignment system as I see it.

It doesn't have to be that way. In the pantheon I'm using for my homebrew world, the featured CN god is the god of darkness; he's nonconfrontational and quite the diplomat. There's no aspect of trickery there. The closest I have to a 'judge' deity is my LE god of truth and vengeance; I have paladins of LN and NG deities almost as often as LG.

C’mon, who ELSE would paladins worship? Being neutral on the Good/Evil axis means in effect that you are solely defined by the Chaos/Law Axis. I.e., Lawful Neutral stands only for Law, and doesn t have to reconcile this with a desire to also stand for Good or Evil the way LG or LE do. In that sense, it is the “purest” form or Law. In my mind, the judge archetype best represents this. No other alignment can be judge, since with the D&D mechanics a LG deity would also have a strong desire to use rules/law to be altruistic and LE would be the opposite.

This sort of thinking is what I have a problem with. Another CN deity in my world is Ethi, goddess of beauty, the sky, birds, and air. She's not defined by chaos in any way; she's defined by a love of beauty both natural and artificial. She just 'happens' to be chaotic.

It doesn't have to be that way for all the gods, but why should *all* of the gods be defined by their alignment? I prefer to have most defined by other charactaristics... having 'incidental' alignments, if you will.

If there were a separate deity for commerce, he would be defined only by being God of Commerce. In contrast, Hedrada is quintessentially the God of Law, but he is simultaneously the God of Commerce.

Why is this a good thing?

I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on the racial deities issue. If there’s an Elven god of death, shouldn’t there be Dwarven, Hafling, and Gnomish equivalents? And if that’s the case, then there is no GOD of DEATH, there’s just a bunch of mini-gods of death. I find that weak.

If Elves have different feelings about death (as well they should) then couldn’t this be reflected Elves worshipping the same god in a different way?

It's not a god of elven death, it's an elven god of death -- in my campaign, an ascended elf who looks over the dead. He's different from a typical god of the dead in many ways... but you have the link, I won't bore you.

 

[eryndel]

So I finally got my copy of Asaatthi.

One slight (and COMPLETELY UNOFFICIAL) correction I'd suggest: Asaatthi breeds with natural druid spellcasting instead of wizard are one lower LA. Sefutiiss should probably be +4 LA. Lihueltess should probably be +3 LA.

Still reading... loving this stuff. I like the maps and artwork, particularly the Nate Price stuff.

Did you see that picture on p. 8 of Asaaran Ithiir that Nate did? It's got to be one of my favorites in the book. I also love Melissa's work on the prestige classes.

I ended up caving and buying a copy in November; I still haven't seen my comp yet