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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haltherrion" data-source="post: 5131085" data-attributes="member: 18253">The nature of gods is one of the defining characteristics of any setting I work up. It varies for me but I like to experiment with these things. Here's some I've used over the last 15 years (before that, they were usually home grown but essentially like the ones you find in the core D&D material).<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There were two gods, both banished ("interdicted") from the world for a while for undue meddling by a creator being who rarely interceded in mortal affairs. The campaign centered on the end of this interdiction period when the gods were returning to the world. I considered not having any clerical powers in the game but that is hard to pull out of D&D so I just had clerical powers come from the ether (like wizard powers). The gods sent messages in dreams; were physical creatures (the "good" one had actually turned to stone and was a floating island the players visited).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In another game, the world was young (about 2500 years old) and did not have gods at first. Certain firstborn beings grew very powerful and godlike, even raising huge chunks of the earth into the sky (wrecking the rest of the earth in the process). At some point, the prime-creator as before, banished these god-like beings from the mortal realm. In the last 300 years, they found ways to interact with mortals from their place of exile and provide powers (clerical in nature) to select followers and so have become essentially gods.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In the current campaign, the gods are very much norse in spirit. They are beings who live in the high mountains of the world. They were once mortal but achieved immortality when they drank the blood of a felled creator (the Titan). They actually meddled little in mortal affairs (except to adventure among them) until the unclaimed souls of the dead were used to raise terrible armies that nearly destroyed the world. Since then, they see to the disposal of souls (claiming some for their own a la Valhalla). They also meddle in mortal affairs to prevent mortals from ever again creating empires that might threaten them. Actual cleric powers (channeled powers in 4E speak) come from spirits that are much like the conception of local spirits worshipped in the ancient world- tied to a grove or river or other place with limited geographical domain but able to manifest and even have offspring. Characters with channeled powers need to attune to particular spirits to gain particular channeled powers.</li> </ul>Lots of different ways to cut it but for me, the nature of gods helps define the entire setting and usually the PC's role in it.</blockquote>

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