Looking for a god for a homebrew game I'm joining. I'm trying to find or create a god of redemption and the grave.
I'm playing a level 4 character that gone down the assassin branch on Rouge and has one lvl in Cleric (grave domain), with the background of a folk hero.
The idea behind him is, he worked for the local thieves guild and became an assassin. as his cover, he worked in the local church/graveyard as a cover from his other activities. The village/town comes under attack from a group of bandits/raiders (due to one of his contracts) and he helps defend the town. After the attack he becomes a local hero, but he knows its his fault and racked with guilt. He's approached by one of the priests from the church as they have been told by the god, he can be redeemed. they convince him to join them as a cleric to go out under their name and redeem those that can be.
This is primarily a question for your DM, unless they said for you to come up with one on your own, which is really weird considering it is their homebrew game.
Pertaining to your actual question though, the back of the player's handbook has many of the most well-known deities throughout various settings, as well as some real-life examples. It doesn't go into any detail about them, 5th edition decided not to go all out on describing much lore for the various deities in the core books this time around. The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide or The Wayfinder's Guide to Ebberon give more lore for their respective settings if your DM is drawing from.
Aside from talking to your DM, which again you should really work with them when it comes to deities since they decide the ultimate role of the gods in their world, you can look at various wikis for lore that goes back 50+ years of D&D for inspiration. I'd have to do some research myself to give you examples cause nothing comes to mind that fits grave and redemption specifically. An easier way would be finding a deity that exemplifies one of those aspects and twist the interpretation to add the other.
For example, the temple could be a splinter sect of the Raven Queen. In that, you have the Grave domain intrinsically tied in with her lore. How you add redemption isn't specified through the Raven Queen but through this particular sect. Long ago they went against the teachings of the Raven Queen, and seek to redeem themselves to her. Work out the finer details with your DM after you you've come up with the broad idea.
Yeah the DM said to come up with something, and then he'll either accept or adapt it. I've had a look in some of the books like SCAG but nothing really grabbed me.
In that case, you have so many possibilities. For starters just remove the ties to the Raven Queen from my previous suggestion and adapt that any way you see fit.
Many of the ideas I'm thinking of are some variation of the deity as a mortal (or even as a god) betrayed someone, that person died and now the deity watches over their burial site asking forgiveness. You can replace the dead person with another deity (cause gods can die, too), an organization, village or entire kingdom. Some of this also gives me vibes of the priests being like Dampe in OoT/MM, and the land was once like the Ikana Kingdom which betrayed the gods and/or Hyrule.
I'm gonna throw some of the wikis at you for more inspiration as they are going to have a lot more deities in more detail, containing lore from across all editions.
Might be able to work of a (modified) version of the Norse Goddes Hel? She has a fleshy healthy half to her body and a more dead one. While she's not the nicest lady in the Nordic Myths, the game Smite depicts her powers as a balance between life and death. Could work off that and give her both the grave and the redemption bit.
If there's a particular god you're drawn to, or a god that is important to your character's past or something, a non-traditional domain under your god of choice could be really interesting story-wise. Do a little research, figure out how you can make it work, and talk to your DM about it. Ultimately, as far as actual game mechanics are concerned, your cleric domain is the thing that influences your spells and channel divinity bonuses. The gods are great for RP flavor, but narrative continuity in the universe is really the only reason to limit what domains each particular god has influence over.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
This is primarily a question for your DM, unless they said for you to come up with one on your own, which is really weird considering it is their homebrew game.
Pertaining to your actual question though, the back of the player's handbook has many of the most well-known deities throughout various settings, as well as some real-life examples. It doesn't go into any detail about them, 5th edition decided not to go all out on describing much lore for the various deities in the core books this time around. The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide or The Wayfinder's Guide to Ebberon give more lore for their respective settings if your DM is drawing from.
Aside from talking to your DM, which again you should really work with them when it comes to deities since they decide the ultimate role of the gods in their world, you can look at various wikis for lore that goes back 50+ years of D&D for inspiration. I'd have to do some research myself to give you examples cause nothing comes to mind that fits grave and redemption specifically. An easier way would be finding a deity that exemplifies one of those aspects and twist the interpretation to add the other.
For example, the temple could be a splinter sect of the Raven Queen. In that, you have the Grave domain intrinsically tied in with her lore. How you add redemption isn't specified through the Raven Queen but through this particular sect. Long ago they went against the teachings of the Raven Queen, and seek to redeem themselves to her. Work out the finer details with your DM after you you've come up with the broad idea.
Yeah the DM said to come up with something, and then he'll either accept or adapt it. I've had a look in some of the books like SCAG but nothing really grabbed me.
In that case, you have so many possibilities. For starters just remove the ties to the Raven Queen from my previous suggestion and adapt that any way you see fit.
Many of the ideas I'm thinking of are some variation of the deity as a mortal (or even as a god) betrayed someone, that person died and now the deity watches over their burial site asking forgiveness. You can replace the dead person with another deity (cause gods can die, too), an organization, village or entire kingdom. Some of this also gives me vibes of the priests being like Dampe in OoT/MM, and the land was once like the Ikana Kingdom which betrayed the gods and/or Hyrule.
I'm gonna throw some of the wikis at you for more inspiration as they are going to have a lot more deities in more detail, containing lore from across all editions.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Portal:Deities
https://eberron.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Religions (chart at the top of the page doesn't have links but scroll down and they are all linked there).
https://greyhawk.fandom.com/wiki/Portal:Deities
https://dragonlance.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Deities
https://pathfinder.fandom.com/wiki/Portal:Religion
Thanks I'll have a read and throw up some ideas
Might be able to work of a (modified) version of the Norse Goddes Hel? She has a fleshy healthy half to her body and a more dead one. While she's not the nicest lady in the Nordic Myths, the game Smite depicts her powers as a balance between life and death. Could work off that and give her both the grave and the redemption bit.
If there's a particular god you're drawn to, or a god that is important to your character's past or something, a non-traditional domain under your god of choice could be really interesting story-wise. Do a little research, figure out how you can make it work, and talk to your DM about it. Ultimately, as far as actual game mechanics are concerned, your cleric domain is the thing that influences your spells and channel divinity bonuses. The gods are great for RP flavor, but narrative continuity in the universe is really the only reason to limit what domains each particular god has influence over.