D&D General what would a standard human pantheon look like?

[MNblockhead]

Would some of what humans worship depend on the type of land/terrain they live? If there is a viking cold climate people, then the sun would be something different than the sun god in a dessert climate where the god might be viewed as uncaring and not nurturing. An island kingdom needs a sea god while the people that live on the vast plains do not. So, is that god a major power or minor?

Might be harder to come up with a dozen gods then we think.

Doesn't seem to have worked out that way IRL, though I would be very interested in reading research showing this to be the case.

 

[MNblockhead]

Ruen, Breaker of Chains
Myth, the Faceless Beggar
Hestia, Queen of the Hunt
Obsidikis, Crown of Fire
Enzo, the Laughing Boar

Like it. Except "Enzo" makes me think of the golden retriever in The Art of Racing in the Rain. This is also what my sons decided to name our golden retriever (sigh). So I'm might keep Enzo in the pantheon but it would be "Enzo, the Very Good Boy."

 

[Sepulchrave II]

you know how everyone but humans have a basic generic pantheon, what if humans had one?
what would it look like?

I think that this is an interesting question, but not one which is necessarily very easy to answer as I think there are lots of equally plausible solutions.

I would begin by examining the phenomena which humans encounter which can be said to be truly universal. These would include

1. Birth
2. Death
3. Sex
4. The sky (it’s up there)
5. The earth (it’s under your feet)
6. The Sun, Moon, planets and stars
7. The weather
8. Hunting animals to eat
9. Fire
10. Darkness/the night

To this, you might add other environmental phenomena (the sea, mountains, desert, forest etc.) but these won’t be universal, and will be particular to a given geographical situation.

You’ve already run into problems because there is a certain desire to syncretize some of these phenomena, and the way in which they should be syncretized will be dependent on the particular stressors which apply in any given culture and environment. E.g. is it more reasonable to combine moon with birth, or with hunting animals?

Regardless, we would expect deities which embody or represent these phenomena to be the most universal or primal.

Assuming that humans adopt nomadic pastoralism and agriculture, and finally urban civilization, you wouldn’t be surprised to later encounter:

1. Deities which embody farming, wine, guarding herds or flocks, the hearth, fertility, war, social institutions such as marriage etc.
2. Deities which represent the arts, literature, commerce, other things associated with civilizational advances. Civilization itself.

The problem is that by the time you’ve reached this point, any number of plausible syncretisms between the layers of various phenomena are available.

So I guess the answer to your question is: I can’t.