steeldragons
Steeliest of the dragons
My homebrew World of Orea uses a homebrew set of entities (and several others in the wings. Loooove making up pantheons/mythologies/religious systems).
There are 4 "Elder" gods who were part of the world's original keepers who still exist. Dozens others have died/been slain or imprisoned outside of the planes for going insane and/or attempting to usurp creation for "The Chaosbringer" (one of the 4 remaining Elders).
The bulk of humanity reveres a "goodly king's court," a la the Olympians, of primarily good and neutral deities, numbering 13 for the "greater" gods.
Lesser deities number almost twice that, and a handful (only 3, I believe) of demigods.
There are, of course, then, ancient dragons, titans, elemental and fae nobles, demons and devils, all revered as "local gods" or worshiped by cults of varying power and influence around the edges of the formalized "real gods' temples" religions.
The bulk of other species, if they possess cultures that organize religion, worship "facets" of the entities of that pantheon, "reflections" or "refractions" of that entity as most befits the species.
The Sky-god Shining King of the Gods of Men, for example, has a different name as the "All-Father" ruler of the dwarven pantheon -which is structured more as the dwarves structure their society-, master of all dwarven craft, defender of all dwarvenkind. He is also "the Sky" entity that rules over/forms the desert nation's elemental-based religious structure that contains only 5 "god-beings"...very different from the expansive "court" of the western kingdoms and southern realms. This same entity is revered, but not formally worshipped, by elves, under yet a different name, and acknowledged as the unmoving "North/Pole Star." And so on. But all a single deity, which mortals view as entirely separate beings.
Not all deities are celebrated by all species or within all cultures of a species. But, generally, for the "greater gods," they have at least one to several, alter-ego facets from their humano-centric appearance and organization. Some get along in one mythology, but at odds in another. Some don't exist for certain species or cultures at all.
But, for the most part, the theologians and sages of Orea are in agreement of the 42 (or so) "real/current gods." and any/everything else being some -immortal or near-omnipotent- "something else."
There are 4 "Elder" gods who were part of the world's original keepers who still exist. Dozens others have died/been slain or imprisoned outside of the planes for going insane and/or attempting to usurp creation for "The Chaosbringer" (one of the 4 remaining Elders).
The bulk of humanity reveres a "goodly king's court," a la the Olympians, of primarily good and neutral deities, numbering 13 for the "greater" gods.
Lesser deities number almost twice that, and a handful (only 3, I believe) of demigods.
There are, of course, then, ancient dragons, titans, elemental and fae nobles, demons and devils, all revered as "local gods" or worshiped by cults of varying power and influence around the edges of the formalized "real gods' temples" religions.
The bulk of other species, if they possess cultures that organize religion, worship "facets" of the entities of that pantheon, "reflections" or "refractions" of that entity as most befits the species.
The Sky-god Shining King of the Gods of Men, for example, has a different name as the "All-Father" ruler of the dwarven pantheon -which is structured more as the dwarves structure their society-, master of all dwarven craft, defender of all dwarvenkind. He is also "the Sky" entity that rules over/forms the desert nation's elemental-based religious structure that contains only 5 "god-beings"...very different from the expansive "court" of the western kingdoms and southern realms. This same entity is revered, but not formally worshipped, by elves, under yet a different name, and acknowledged as the unmoving "North/Pole Star." And so on. But all a single deity, which mortals view as entirely separate beings.
Not all deities are celebrated by all species or within all cultures of a species. But, generally, for the "greater gods," they have at least one to several, alter-ego facets from their humano-centric appearance and organization. Some get along in one mythology, but at odds in another. Some don't exist for certain species or cultures at all.
But, for the most part, the theologians and sages of Orea are in agreement of the 42 (or so) "real/current gods." and any/everything else being some -immortal or near-omnipotent- "something else."