Anyone whose made their own setting has had to deal with gods. It always easy to take from the books, but making your own gods is always fun. One of my personal favorites for world building is figuring out the roles, whims and relationships of the divine.
Tell me about your Gods? Did each god create a race, or did one God do all the work? What domains do you use/not use/make yourself? Are they forces of universal consequence, or are they petty squabblers like the Greek gods? Have gods been deposed or killed by other beings in your heavenly planes? What is your favorite kind of deity?
I usually prefer if there aren't any gods. At most I have a deistic creator who doesn't interfere at all. Divine casters are either just reskinned as arcane casters, or they draw their spells from the domains/concepts themselves. Similar to how druids gain powers from the "force of nature".
I'm, however, liking the idea of each god creating a race. It offers a neat explanation as to why there are so many different sapient species. And those who can interbreed (like elves and humans), could do so when their creator deities have produced an offspring together. Their child is also a deity and the patron of that half-race, making its creation possible.
I've always been nonplussed with the idea of clerics without gods, but your idea of pulling power from the element of a domain rather than a deity makes sense. Makes me think of the Wheel of Time books and how they draw from the One Source, but not necessarily the Creator himself.
I made each deity create a race in their image, but each race can venerate each other's god depending on occupation or outlook on life. Some of the beast races are godless or are part of a motley group that was all made by one god at different times. You gave me some good ideas about the whole interbreeding due to the relations of the gods, too, or at least a reason to explain why my world doesn't seem to have any half dwarves.
I enjoy creating mythologies and deities for my worlds - comes from a childhood spent reading Greek, Norse, Welsh, and Irish mythologies (not to mention Tolkien!). I *hate* vague forces and non-interfering deities in my fantasy settings- unless there's a good reason the deities keep to themselves like almost accidentally destroying the world.
As for your questions:
Did each god create a race, or did one God do all the work? There are varying degrees. I like the idea from the Silmarillion of having a separate god create the Dwarves, so I incorporated that into my current campaign setting. The creation of the Elves is somewhat murky - so far as the recorded history of my world is concerned, Elves entered the world from the Feywild and have differing explanations for how they were created and why they left. Humans and halflings were created by the same god for sure. Orcs and other monsters were made by the various evil deities - each evil deity creating a race of monster to fit their own law/neutral/chaos alignments.
What domains do you use/not use/make yourself? I think the standard domains from the PHB and DMG covers all the bases. I do tend to reskin Death domain sometimes. My current setting has three different gods over the domain of Death: one good, one neutral, one evil. In settings where I only have one god of Death, I tend to make it neutral.
Are they forces of universal consequence, or are they petty squabblers like the Greek gods? Yes. They are forces of universal consquence AND they can be petty squabblers like the Greek gods. My universes tend to have "interesting times" as a result.
Have gods been deposed or killed by other beings in your heavenly planes? Deposed to a degree. At the moment, the evil-aligned gods have been cut off from any direct interference in my world such as manifesting an avatar, though can still grant divine magics. The chief evil god has managed to semi-escape this imprisonment and embody himself on the prime material plane at the cost of leaving most of his divine essence trapped beneath the 9 Hells. Also, the Great Old Ones have been exiled from reality completely, though thanks to the afore-mentioned petty squabbling of the gods (who are supposed to be ensuring this exile) they manage to sometimes slip small parts of themselves through the cracks and become patrons to warlocks.
What is your favorite kind of deity? I feel like this question requires more clarification. Are we talking power levels (Judeo-Christian omni-everything, Greek really powerful, Norse/Irish/Welsh pretty much a human with a few magic powers that get called on every now and then); god, demi-god, etc; theism/pantheism?
That's tricky, then, as I don't have a favorite. It all depends on the setting. For a more high fantasy/ epic campaign I prefer to create either a more dualistic mythology or Greek style pantheon. Lower fantasy the more Celtic/Norse lower power gods. Semi- historical fantasy set in Arthurian Britain or time of the Crusades and Robin Hood would have the Judeo-Christian monotheistic God. So on and so forth.
Though, regardless of setting, you can't go wrong with having an evil god or eldritch horror in place for when players reach the higher 17-20 levels. That is pretty much the one type of deity that stays consistent in the campaign worlds I homebrew - though even then I like to throw in some twists every once in a while, such as the Lawful or True Neutral deity that has deemed the world has fallen out of balance and requires some apocalypse to either destroy the whole thing or ravage it and start over.
I enjoy creating mythologies and deities for my worlds - comes from a childhood spent reading Greek, Norse, Welsh, and Irish mythologies (not to mention Tolkien!). I *hate* vague forces and non-interfering deities in my fantasy settings- unless there's a good reason the deities keep to themselves like almost accidentally destroying the world.
I don't like meddling gods just as I dislike meddling kids high level NPC's. The focus of the world in general is on the mortals and the focus of the narrative in particular on the PC's. Meddling gods (especially if only the good ones can get involved) raise many questions as to why they don't solve the problems or why they let certain bad things happening. That's less of a problem if there are evil gods, but it's still questionable.
I prefer an existentialist world without imposed values from the gods. Agency is with the mortals. If there are domains (with avatars taking the roles of gods if you want), they are created by the beliefs of mortals. The death domain would be as good or evil, as people believe it to be. The mortals create the gods, not the other way round. The more believers, the stronger the concept/domain.
If you want justice to exist, you have to create it. Both physically and metaphysically. As such, clerics aren't followers of their domain, they're leaders; creating, shaping and strenghtening it. Wizards are scientists, clerics are philosophers.
I enjoy creating mythologies and deities for my worlds - comes from a childhood spent reading Greek, Norse, Welsh, and Irish mythologies (not to mention Tolkien!). I *hate* vague forces and non-interfering deities in my fantasy settings- unless there's a good reason the deities keep to themselves like almost accidentally destroying the world.
I don't like meddling gods just as I dislike meddling kids high level NPC's. The focus of the world in general is on the mortals and the focus of the narrative in particular on the PC's. Meddling gods (especially if only the good ones can get involved) raise many questions as to why they don't solve the problems or why they let certain bad things happening. That's less of a problem if there are evil gods, but it's still questionable.
Simple solution: They're all chaotic neutral. Repeat: All gods are chaotic neutral.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
I enjoy creating mythologies and deities for my worlds - comes from a childhood spent reading Greek, Norse, Welsh, and Irish mythologies (not to mention Tolkien!). I *hate* vague forces and non-interfering deities in my fantasy settings- unless there's a good reason the deities keep to themselves like almost accidentally destroying the world.
I don't like meddling gods just as I dislike meddling kids high level NPC's. The focus of the world in general is on the mortals and the focus of the narrative in particular on the PC's. Meddling gods (especially if only the good ones can get involved) raise many questions as to why they don't solve the problems or why they let certain bad things happening. That's less of a problem if there are evil gods, but it's still questionable.
And saints preserve us from campaign worlds where only the good gods can get involved!
In my current setting, the gods have learned their lesson from the last time they unleashed their full power on the prime material plane. They interact as avatars with the same abilities as a particularly high-level character. The good gods spend most of their time policing the evil gods to ensure that any meddling is subtle.
I also include high-level NPCs, but they usually exist as either quest-givers or arc antagonists. I think any high level NPC worth their salt is too busy dealing with the BS of politics or worrying about high-level threats to interfere with PCs beyond - "Oh, hey, here's something I would do myself, but I'm too busy ensuring Cthulu doesn't finally leak through this widened crack. Can you do something about it?" By the time PCs are ready to deal with threats on that level, then maybe the NPCs might have more involvement in their stories.
I prefer an existentialist world without imposed values from the gods. Agency is with the mortals.
Well, there are philosophical arguments to be had for days as to how far gods might impose values and how much agency anyone has even in a primarily materialist outlook. Done right, gods don't "impose" anything, save maybe that evil god that wants to impose non-existence on everything. Neither do they take away agency.
Hell, in my game not even having differing good and evil gods of death could be considered "imposing values". The evil people actively want that afterlife - "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven" is more than just pretty poetry.
If there are domains (with avatars taking the roles of gods if you want), they are created by the beliefs of mortals... The mortals create the gods, not the other way round. The more believers, the stronger the concept/domain.
Gag me with a quantum spoon. To create is to have power over, not receive power from. That said, there are certain x-punk techno-magic settings where such ideas are appropriate and I enjoy playing and running/creating in. Just not high/epic fantasy.
The death domain would be as good or evil, as people believe it to be.
We agree here. There's nothing I hate more than the Disneyfication of old mythologies where Hades is turned into a villain just because he happens to be the god of death.
I enjoy creating mythologies and deities for my worlds - comes from a childhood spent reading Greek, Norse, Welsh, and Irish mythologies (not to mention Tolkien!). I *hate* vague forces and non-interfering deities in my fantasy settings- unless there's a good reason the deities keep to themselves like almost accidentally destroying the world.
I don't like meddling gods just as I dislike meddling kids high level NPC's. The focus of the world in general is on the mortals and the focus of the narrative in particular on the PC's. Meddling gods (especially if only the good ones can get involved) raise many questions as to why they don't solve the problems or why they let certain bad things happening. That's less of a problem if there are evil gods, but it's still questionable.
Simple solution: They're all chaotic neutral. Repeat: All gods are chaotic neutral.
We agree here. There's nothing I hate more than the Disneyfication of old mythologies where Hades is turned into a villain just because he happens to be the god of death.
There's something I think most of us can agree on. Hel too, of course.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Gag me with a quantum spoon. To create is to have power over, not receive power from. That said, there are certain x-punk techno-magic settings where such ideas are appropriate and I enjoy playing and running/creating in. Just not high/epic fantasy.
Idk, I think it works. If the god is made by the will of so many beings, its power is merely a pool of all his believers power. To bestow that to a cleric despite being created by belief of mortals isn't too great a stretch, it juse makes the god konda the midle man. I see it like Death from Discworld, he exists only due to the world's belief of fear, yet can give a modicum of his powers to others. It's just that you have to build a more complex system of relationships with the material plane.
I follow the idea of a shared belief holding power over individuals. But my pantheon has an additional twist, where the gods are embodied concepts and it doesn't really matter to them how they are worshiped. So some churches of the goddess of beauty emphasize creating beautiful art, while other sects hunt down ugly people. And both feed the goddess and empower her that way.
The result is a world filled with religious strife and very little meddling of gods with the world of the believers. That's not to say the gods have no plans, it's just that their machinations happen on an entirely different level of existence.
Here's another question to add to the OP's: can mortals, whether NPC or PC, ascend to godhood in your setting?
It's certainly possible in one of mine - all the Dwarven pantheon save one were once heroic dwarves who became deities. Also a few of the evil gods were once mortal creatures who became gods through various shenanigans that heroes of the past failed to prevent.
Here's another question to add to the OP's: can mortals, whether NPC or PC, ascend to godhood in your setting?
Of course. Whether I'll let the PCs do so depends on the setting. In one that I haven't gotten a chance to run yet, the end goal will be for the PCs to ascend to godhood.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
I got a lot of good thought fodder, but I haven't heard any names or stories. What gods have you all made for your own campaign? I want bios and lore and stuff, folks.
I borrowed Ionia, goddess of things that get stuck in drawers, from Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
I have Hades and Hel as the LN rulers of the underworld.
Aphrodite, CN goddess of love, beauty, the color pink, romance, featherheaded young girls, and bad songs, and Freya, CG goddess of love, fertility, beauty, and pleasure, are, as Aphrodite says, BFFs. This should tell you everything you need to know about Aphrodite.
I have Ilmater as the LG god of honor, endurance, self-sacrifice, and professional victims. His worshipers tend to be people who would make very good heroes if they weren't too busy playing at being damsels in distress, which they wouldn't be if it wasn't the core of Ilmater's teachings.
There is, of course, the Lady, the goddess with no worshipers, who must depart if her name is said. Guess what that name is. (Also from Discworld).
I have Athena, LN goddess of strategy and military technology, and Ares, CN god of violence and battle, as well as Artemis, CG goddess of female warriors, and Ehlonna, CG goddess of woodlands and archery. Many scholars believe Artemis and Ehlonna to be one and the same.
Poseidon, CN god of the sea, and Umberlee, CE goddess of the sea. Sailors beware. There's also Melora, CN goddess of wild nature, who is secretly Umberlee in disguise.
The god of wine, Bacchus, is chaotic evil. There's also a god of hangovers; more specifically, the oh god of hangovers, another Discworld original.
For nature deities, other than Ehlonna, Poseidon, and Umberlee (and Melora), I have Pan, CN god of satyrs, centaurs, and so forth, Silvanus, N god of nature, forests, and music, and Herme the Hunted, god of prey. I need to get a god of the hunt, and I know more or less where to find one.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
I got a lot of good thought fodder, but I haven't heard any names or stories. What gods have you all made for your own campaign? I want bios and lore and stuff, folks.
I'm on my phone right now, so I'll take the easy way out: Here you go.
I got a lot of good thought fodder, but I haven't heard any names or stories. What gods have you all made for your own campaign? I want bios and lore and stuff, folks.
I'm on my phone right now, so I'll take the easy way out: Here you go.
I got a lot of good thought fodder, but I haven't heard any names or stories. What gods have you all made for your own campaign? I want bios and lore and stuff, folks.
I'm on my phone right now, so I'll take the easy way out: Here you go.
I got a lot of good thought fodder, but I haven't heard any names or stories. What gods have you all made for your own campaign? I want bios and lore and stuff, folks.
I'm on my phone right now, so I'll take the easy way out: Here you go.
Did you make this yourself!? What is this?
That's the link to my homebrew campaign's religion and mythology page.
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Anyone whose made their own setting has had to deal with gods. It always easy to take from the books, but making your own gods is always fun. One of my personal favorites for world building is figuring out the roles, whims and relationships of the divine.
Tell me about your Gods? Did each god create a race, or did one God do all the work? What domains do you use/not use/make yourself? Are they forces of universal consequence, or are they petty squabblers like the Greek gods? Have gods been deposed or killed by other beings in your heavenly planes? What is your favorite kind of deity?
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
I usually prefer if there aren't any gods. At most I have a deistic creator who doesn't interfere at all. Divine casters are either just reskinned as arcane casters, or they draw their spells from the domains/concepts themselves. Similar to how druids gain powers from the "force of nature".
I'm, however, liking the idea of each god creating a race. It offers a neat explanation as to why there are so many different sapient species. And those who can interbreed (like elves and humans), could do so when their creator deities have produced an offspring together. Their child is also a deity and the patron of that half-race, making its creation possible.
I've always been nonplussed with the idea of clerics without gods, but your idea of pulling power from the element of a domain rather than a deity makes sense. Makes me think of the Wheel of Time books and how they draw from the One Source, but not necessarily the Creator himself.
I made each deity create a race in their image, but each race can venerate each other's god depending on occupation or outlook on life. Some of the beast races are godless or are part of a motley group that was all made by one god at different times. You gave me some good ideas about the whole interbreeding due to the relations of the gods, too, or at least a reason to explain why my world doesn't seem to have any half dwarves.
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
I enjoy creating mythologies and deities for my worlds - comes from a childhood spent reading Greek, Norse, Welsh, and Irish mythologies (not to mention Tolkien!). I *hate* vague forces and non-interfering deities in my fantasy settings- unless there's a good reason the deities keep to themselves like almost accidentally destroying the world.
As for your questions:
Did each god create a race, or did one God do all the work? There are varying degrees. I like the idea from the Silmarillion of having a separate god create the Dwarves, so I incorporated that into my current campaign setting. The creation of the Elves is somewhat murky - so far as the recorded history of my world is concerned, Elves entered the world from the Feywild and have differing explanations for how they were created and why they left. Humans and halflings were created by the same god for sure. Orcs and other monsters were made by the various evil deities - each evil deity creating a race of monster to fit their own law/neutral/chaos alignments.
What domains do you use/not use/make yourself? I think the standard domains from the PHB and DMG covers all the bases. I do tend to reskin Death domain sometimes. My current setting has three different gods over the domain of Death: one good, one neutral, one evil. In settings where I only have one god of Death, I tend to make it neutral.
Are they forces of universal consequence, or are they petty squabblers like the Greek gods? Yes. They are forces of universal consquence AND they can be petty squabblers like the Greek gods. My universes tend to have "interesting times" as a result.
Have gods been deposed or killed by other beings in your heavenly planes? Deposed to a degree. At the moment, the evil-aligned gods have been cut off from any direct interference in my world such as manifesting an avatar, though can still grant divine magics. The chief evil god has managed to semi-escape this imprisonment and embody himself on the prime material plane at the cost of leaving most of his divine essence trapped beneath the 9 Hells. Also, the Great Old Ones have been exiled from reality completely, though thanks to the afore-mentioned petty squabbling of the gods (who are supposed to be ensuring this exile) they manage to sometimes slip small parts of themselves through the cracks and become patrons to warlocks.
What is your favorite kind of deity? I feel like this question requires more clarification. Are we talking power levels (Judeo-Christian omni-everything, Greek really powerful, Norse/Irish/Welsh pretty much a human with a few magic powers that get called on every now and then); god, demi-god, etc; theism/pantheism?
Good stuff. No clarification, what's your favorite kind and why? What ever type for reason you deem fit. Just sell me on it.
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
That's tricky, then, as I don't have a favorite. It all depends on the setting. For a more high fantasy/ epic campaign I prefer to create either a more dualistic mythology or Greek style pantheon. Lower fantasy the more Celtic/Norse lower power gods. Semi- historical fantasy set in Arthurian Britain or time of the Crusades and Robin Hood would have the Judeo-Christian monotheistic God. So on and so forth.
Though, regardless of setting, you can't go wrong with having an evil god or eldritch horror in place for when players reach the higher 17-20 levels. That is pretty much the one type of deity that stays consistent in the campaign worlds I homebrew - though even then I like to throw in some twists every once in a while, such as the Lawful or True Neutral deity that has deemed the world has fallen out of balance and requires some apocalypse to either destroy the whole thing or ravage it and start over.
kidshigh level NPC's. The focus of the world in general is on the mortals and the focus of the narrative in particular on the PC's. Meddling gods (especially if only the good ones can get involved) raise many questions as to why they don't solve the problems or why they let certain bad things happening. That's less of a problem if there are evil gods, but it's still questionable."Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
I follow the idea of a shared belief holding power over individuals. But my pantheon has an additional twist, where the gods are embodied concepts and it doesn't really matter to them how they are worshiped. So some churches of the goddess of beauty emphasize creating beautiful art, while other sects hunt down ugly people. And both feed the goddess and empower her that way.
The result is a world filled with religious strife and very little meddling of gods with the world of the believers. That's not to say the gods have no plans, it's just that their machinations happen on an entirely different level of existence.
Here's another question to add to the OP's: can mortals, whether NPC or PC, ascend to godhood in your setting?
It's certainly possible in one of mine - all the Dwarven pantheon save one were once heroic dwarves who became deities. Also a few of the evil gods were once mortal creatures who became gods through various shenanigans that heroes of the past failed to prevent.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
I got a lot of good thought fodder, but I haven't heard any names or stories. What gods have you all made for your own campaign? I want bios and lore and stuff, folks.
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
I borrowed Ionia, goddess of things that get stuck in drawers, from Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
I have Hades and Hel as the LN rulers of the underworld.
Aphrodite, CN goddess of love, beauty, the color pink, romance, featherheaded young girls, and bad songs, and Freya, CG goddess of love, fertility, beauty, and pleasure, are, as Aphrodite says, BFFs. This should tell you everything you need to know about Aphrodite.
I have Ilmater as the LG god of honor, endurance, self-sacrifice, and professional victims. His worshipers tend to be people who would make very good heroes if they weren't too busy playing at being damsels in distress, which they wouldn't be if it wasn't the core of Ilmater's teachings.
There is, of course, the Lady, the goddess with no worshipers, who must depart if her name is said. Guess what that name is. (Also from Discworld).
I have Athena, LN goddess of strategy and military technology, and Ares, CN god of violence and battle, as well as Artemis, CG goddess of female warriors, and Ehlonna, CG goddess of woodlands and archery. Many scholars believe Artemis and Ehlonna to be one and the same.
Poseidon, CN god of the sea, and Umberlee, CE goddess of the sea. Sailors beware. There's also Melora, CN goddess of wild nature, who is secretly Umberlee in disguise.
The god of wine, Bacchus, is chaotic evil. There's also a god of hangovers; more specifically, the oh god of hangovers, another Discworld original.
For nature deities, other than Ehlonna, Poseidon, and Umberlee (and Melora), I have Pan, CN god of satyrs, centaurs, and so forth, Silvanus, N god of nature, forests, and music, and Herme the Hunted, god of prey. I need to get a god of the hunt, and I know more or less where to find one.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone