D&D General The Greyhawk Pantheon: How Greyhawk Approaches Deities (& Demigods)

[Micah Sweet]

There is also the fact that in the Nentir Vale, the gods that make up the current pantheon are the survivors of the Dawn War, and so they all have combat abilities and such. The "weak" gods (as in, combat weak) didn't survived the Dawn War.

We have explicit mentions of such instances, like the God of the Word being among the first casualties of the war. The gods of harvest and the hearth, and that stuff, may have shared the same fate.

On topic, I'm wondering, isn't Rao the god of Krypton in the Superman comics?

I believe so. Rao is certainly the name of Krypton's sun.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

There is also the fact that in the Nentir Vale, the gods that make up the current pantheon are the survivors of the Dawn War, and so they all have combat abilities and such. The "weak" gods (as in, combat weak) didn't survived the Dawn War.

We have explicit mentions of such instances, like the God of the Word being among the first casualties of the war. The gods of harvest and the hearth, and that stuff, may have shared the same fate.

On topic, I'm wondering, isn't Rao the god of Krypton in the Superman comics?

I ... doubt it. Gygax wasn't a Superman guy.

Unfortunately, we have almost no information from Gygax about Rao*. If I were to hazard a guess, given Rao's areas (Peace, Reason, Serenity), I might think that it was a quick version of Tao, because that's the best guess I can make.

(Rao was never written up by Gygax that I know of- not in Dragon, and not in Greyhawk, other than the table. Rao didn't get a more expansive bit.)

 

[JEB]

I ... doubt it. Gygax wasn't a Superman guy.

Unfortunately, we have almost no information from Gygax about Rao*. If I were to hazard a guess, given Rao's areas (Peace, Reason, Serenity), I might think that it was a quick version of Tao, because that's the best guess I can make.

(Rao was never written up by Gygax that I know of- not in Dragon, and not in Greyhawk, other than the table. Rao didn't get a more expansive bit.)

Maybe one of Gygax's players came up with Rao? And/or someone at TSR.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Maybe one of Gygax's players came up with Rao? And/or someone at TSR.

Nope, not at least afaik. While some deities were incorporated by Gygax that were written by others, Rao wasn't one of them. And he created the new deities for the setting.

It's a little known fact, but he actually created most of Greyhawk for the setting. He liked the Darlene map so much that he ended up using it to expand the area of his own campaign.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Nope, not at least afaik. While some deities were incorporated by Gygax that were written by others, Rao wasn't one of them. And he created the new deities for the setting.

It's a little known fact, but he actually created most of Greyhawk for the setting. He liked the Darlene map so much that he ended up using it to expand the area of his own campaign.

Darlene's map being so good that not only did Gygax not find fault in it, but used it to spark his imagination just goes to show you just how amazingly good that map was...

 

[haakon1]

If I were to hazard a guess, given Rao's areas (Peace, Reason, Serenity), I might think that it was a quick version of Tao, because that's the best guess I can make.

I like Rao’s pasta sauce, but since it’s named for a restaurant in NYC, I admit it seems unlikely that’s the sauce … err, source.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Unfortunately, we have almost no information from Gygax about Rao*. If I were to hazard a guess, given Rao's areas (Peace, Reason, Serenity), I might think that it was a quick version of Tao, because that's the best guess I can make.

The Rao which can be spoken is not the constant Rao.

 

[grodog]

I ... doubt it. Gygax wasn't a Superman guy.

FWIW, the Bottle City level of Castle Greyhawk (designed by Gygax’s co-DM, Rob Kuntz) was inspired by the Bottle City of Kandor from the comics, and Marvel comics influenced the artwork of the early OD&D brown box sets, so comics were definitely in the air at early TSR.

Unfortunately, we have almost no information from Gygax about Rao*. If I were to hazard a guess, given Rao's areas (Peace, Reason, Serenity), I might think that it was a quick version of Tao, because that's the best guess I can make.

(Rao was never written up by Gygax that I know of- not in Dragon, and not in Greyhawk, other than the table. Rao didn't get a more expansive bit.)

Lenard Lakofka detailed—with Gygax’s oversight and approval—the Suloise gods of Greyhawk in Dragon Magazine #86-92. He also wrote two unpublished articles that detailed the Unknown and Common Gods of Greyhawk—including Rao, Tharizdun, Cyndor, etc., in the same formats as the Suel gods.

The manuscript for these will be published by the Lakofka Archive team for free, on their site at Lakofka Archive - Anna B. Meyer (where four of Len’s Greyhawk tournaments from GenCons past have already been published).

Allan.

 

[Aldarc]

There is also the fact that in the Nentir Vale, the gods that make up the current pantheon are the survivors of the Dawn War, and so they all have combat abilities and such. The "weak" gods (as in, combat weak) didn't survived the Dawn War.

We have explicit mentions of such instances, like the God of the Word being among the first casualties of the war. The gods of harvest and the hearth, and that stuff, may have shared the same fate.

Some of those gods are likely just Exarchs.

 

[Zeromaru X]

Some of those gods are likely just Exarchs.

In the Dawn War pantheon? All Exarchs are ascended mortals that attained "exarchhood" after the war (the exception being the Dwarven Pantheon, as they attained exarchhood during the Dawn War") .

There are no proper gods (as in, the original gods that coalesced out of the Astral Sea) of something non-combat related in the Dawn War pantheon, because none of them survived the war.