As a worldbuilder, both in D&D and out, I always find one of the most fun parts of the lore is the mythology. I'm a big fan of Greek/Norse mythology myself, and I like to think about how a homebrew world's higher powers work. What gods do the people worship, what practices do they have, etc. I've created many pantheons before simply for the fun of it, without any project in mind! So I'd like to hear what other people have come up with. Here's some good things to think about including in your post: What kind of beings are your homebrew deities? Divine entities, nature spirits, or something else? How do they interact with the mortals who worship them? WHICH mortals worship them? How do they interact with other gods? Do they ever use mortals to settle arguments? If these gods are additions to already-existing pantheons such as in the Forgotten Realms, how do they factor into those pantheons?
Here's my own submission to this thread:
My latest homebrew mythology involves a group of monsters called the Aknai. The Aknai once ruled the homebrew world of (name_not_invented_yet) as demonic elementals, bending the land and mortals to their whims. Then, the goddess Virgo appeared. Virgo was a benevolent, powerful entity, a true divinity whose heart was touched by the plight of mortalkind. Splitting her conscience into Nine Muses, each bestowed with a mortal virtue, she granted mortals the inspiration they needed to fight back. The Muses and the Aknai warred, eventually sealing them within the ether and freeing this world from their evil.
And so, the Nine Muses are the pantheon of this world. Some cults worship one Aknai or another, and a few people worship Virgo as the supreme deity, but most look to the Muses. They're sort of passive gods, not really involved much directly in the lives of mortals, but each one has a quality which certain people value or try to live up to. They're literal muses. Inspiration for people who need it.
Muse of Law: The inspiration of rulers, judges, and all those who wish to carry out the rule of law.
Muse of Warfare: The inspiration of soldiers, generals, and heroes.
Muse of Prosperity: The inspiration of merchants, farmers, and families; prosperity in regard to both fertility and business.
Muse of Innovation: The inspiration of engineers, craftsmen, artificers and scholars. Anyone who seeks knowledge and advancement.
Muse of the Arcane: The inspiration of wizards and those who study magic.
Muse of the Arts: The inspiration of musicians and artists. Very on-the-nose for bards.
Muse of the Passage: The inspiration of great journeys, both in life and in death. A muse for those on literal journeys, those in mourning, and those who must make a change.
Muse of Perseverance: The inspiration of all who must endure hardships, such as in times of natural disasters or famine, but also the muse of rangers and barbarians.
Muse of Devotion: The inspiration of those who wish to devote their lives to a cause, such as paladins and monks.
In my campaign I had a religion that a group of goblins followed . It was called Ratism which the goblins followed a were rat god and all rats were holy. So any goblins with magic or with extreme power would have the symbol of a rat and leaders would carry rats. (In this world there were talking rats ). My players goblin barbarian in the party had a pet rat that could talk. It was fun to see what happened when they encountered a hobgoblin that had a pet rat the size of a large dog. There was also a religion about the Greek god iris but it wasn’t very useful story wise.
It was important for me to separate religion from the actions of physical gods in the conworld I'm working on for thematic reasons. I was averse from theisms like the one in Forgotten Realms because when physical gods walk the world belief becomes less about character motivation and more about picking a side. It's the character motivation part that interests me. So I have four religions and zero gods. Characters who are theists have to answer the question of what their beliefs mean to them, and so far it's working all right. I have a player whose character can't figure out what her relationship is with death, but because there's no Kelemvor to answer for her, she's doing some cool role playing to figure out the character's answer.
As for a full description of any religion... I'll offer one... A shrine in Uloomu is dedicated to the Binder of Demons who is often worshiped by members of the Knighthood of the Silver Anchor. The Binder is not an immanent deity. He is rarely personified. Instead he is the source of a philosophy which serves as a model for action for those who have seen too much and done wrong while living. The Binder teaches that struggle is inevitable and that the only valuable struggle is with the self. Adherents are often seeking ways to deal with past trauma, and the Binder's asceticism appeals to those who cannot easily forgive and forget. Those who follow the faith are interested in progress marked by overcoming personal failures. However, they also know that the road to recovery involves relapse and that there is no one who is beyond help. I'm still waiting for a PC to help flesh out the rest...
It was important for me to separate religion from the actions of physical gods in the conworld I'm working on for thematic reasons. I was averse from theisms like the one in Forgotten Realms because when physical gods walk the world belief becomes less about character motivation and more about picking a side. It's the character motivation part that interests me. So I have four religions and zero gods. Characters who are theists have to answer the question of what their beliefs mean to them, and so far it's working all right. I have a player whose character can't figure out what her relationship is with death, but because there's no Kelemvor to answer for her, she's doing some cool role playing to figure out the character's answer.
As for a full description of any religion... I'll offer one... A shrine in Uloomu is dedicated to the Binder of Demons who is often worshiped by members of the Knighthood of the Silver Anchor. The Binder is not an immanent deity. He is rarely personified. Instead he is the source of a philosophy which serves as a model for action for those who have seen too much and done wrong while living. The Binder teaches that struggle is inevitable and that the only valuable struggle is with the self. Adherents are often seeking ways to deal with past trauma, and the Binder's asceticism appeals to those who cannot easily forgive and forget. Those who follow the faith are interested in progress marked by overcoming personal failures. However, they also know that the road to recovery involves relapse and that there is no one who is beyond help. I'm still waiting for a PC to help flesh out the rest...
I like your point about character motivation! Having deities directly involved in the world does mess with that. Kinda makes existential questions like "Why am I here?" pointless if a god can show up right in front of you at any moment and say "This is why."
There is a group I watch where a campaignette freed a town from an oppressive order of zealots with a very strange purpose, and during that event (that ended with the best [worst?] trolling a DM has ever done), there was horrific, bloody (though accidental) carnage.
When the adventurers (cautiously) returned a few years later, they found themselves deified and their horrific escapades turned into holiday games for an annual towne faire in honor of those deified heroes (who were the adventurers but nobody knew it, assuming they were revelers wearing costumes).
(Several places they have been don't want them to return.)
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
In my world, there are several religions throughout the world, some connected to races or enthnicities while others trenscend such boundries and seek to spread throughout the world. The gods are enigmatic and reclusive, rarely if ever interacting with mortals. Some even question whether they exist at all, claiming that divine casters just use a different flavour of the flow of the arcane.
One of my religions is Rozalinism, primarily practised in the Rozhim Empire. My world, Imradhon, is periodically invaded by demons (a catch-all term used by the inhabitants to describe anything fiendish in nature, be it a devil or actual demons). According to Rozalisnism, the gods created Imradhon to be the Shining Light in the Universe. They also created the ancient races (dragons, dwarves, elves, goblins and orcs) to fuel that light. However, these ancient races turned away from the light and instead "invented" false gods or idols which saddened the gods so they turned away from their creations. That's when the first ever Great Demon War started. Heroes rose and fell and the fight was thought lost but the gods didn't want to give up on the Shining Light in the Universe so they created their greatest children yet: humans. With their help, the demons were eventually pushed back and peace reigned in Imradhon until the petty conflicts of mortals started a cycle of war and peace forevermore.
Rozalinism claims that since it was the humans that turned the tide against the demons, they are clearly the gods' favoured children and thus should rule over Imradhon as their birthright. You'd think that half-bloods are despised, but you'd be wrong: Half-elves and half-orcs are regarded as "honorary" humans, as they have some of the "sacred blood" flowing in their veins. This does not mean, though, that mixed marriages are encouraged, it only means that half-bloods face no discrimination.
Rozalinism also seeks to "match" their gods with those of other polytheistic religions (think translatio imperii in the ancient roman religion). The gods are divided into primary deities (who are mandated by the state to be worshipped everywhere) and minor deities (who can have their local cults, but they can't have their own temples). All temples are dedicated to the king of the gods, Ojec, who, in his grace, allows the other gods to use his temples as places of worship.
The primary gods of Rozalinism are:
Ojec, the Lightbringer (sometimes referred to as the All-father): Lord of the sun and the cosmos, the king of the gods and father of all races.
Mata, the All-mother: The wife of Ojec and the mother of humanity. Guardian of women and households, and goddess of nature. Curiously, she does not have an altar in the temples, as she is mostly associated with nature, thus her worship is always performed outside.
Wojon, the Warrior: The second son of Ojec and Mata, the lord of war and the champion of the gods. Although the soul of humanity was birthed from the romance of Ojec and Mata, it was Wojon who gave the fledgeling race form.
Mist, the Artisan: The first son of Ojec and Mata, the god of craftsmen and the artisan of the gods.
The minor deities of Rozalinism are:
Pata, the Artist: Younger sister of Ojec; goddess of the arts and artistic beauty.
Pieka, the Passionate: Elder sister of Mata; goddess of love, passion, youth and corporeal beauty.
Burz, the Capricious: Thebest friend of Ojec; god of all waters and storms. The myths say that he was born as a mortal fisherman but during a storm, he begged to the gods to return home safely. Such was his passion and humility that Mata elevated him to her side and gave him domain over the waters.
Zarod, the Weaver: Younger brother of the All-father; the one who weaves reality, god of magic. He was the one who taught both the ancient races and humanity how to use magic.
Podroz, the Traveller: Elder son of Burz; god of merchants and travellers. Some myths claim that his mother was a mortal woman, others say he was born of the romance of Burz and Pieka.
Zevoznik, the Ferryman: The younger son of Burz; god of dreams and death. It is said, that he was born when Burz was sleeping and Pieka tried to prank him but it led to the creation of Zevoznik.
Prada, the Judge: Younger sister of Ojec, the god of justice. She took her own eyes so that she wouldn't be blinded by trivialities when adressing a case, so that she could always pass the fairest judgement. Judges thoughout the Rozhim Empire wear a blindfold during a trail in honour of her sacrifice.
Wybor, the Laughing God: A friend of Ojec's, the god of fortune and cunning. Nobody knows where he comes from apart from the All-father. When asked, Wybor would always just laugh.
Zlo, the Forbidden: Younger brother of Ojec, the traitorous god of the night and darkness. He became jealous of Ojec and tried to destroy the mortals during the First Great Demon War, so, as punishment, Ojec created the Follower (the second moon of Imradhon), where he would be eternally watching as the mortals prospered without him. He bears the name "Forbidden" as it is sacrilege to pray to him for any other reason than to pull the darkness away.
Siez, the Pretender: Elder brother of Ojec, god of intrigue and secrets. He tried to use Zlo's betrayal to his own advantage and nearly managed to usurp Ojec as the king of the gods before the All-father stopped him. As punishment, he is locked in a tower in a distant land, only able to whisper in the shadows.
There are other religions as well, but this post is getting long as is. I can post other myths from Rozalinism as well or tell you about my other religions if you want.
The myths of my homebrew setting centers on a civilization of mice whos way of life was centered on six monolithic trees.
The mice people, called kaser'chee, was once a small family of mice that came into the region with the trees. Before coming to the glade, they were hounded by predators, but in the boughs of the trees they found shelter, and dwelling in the glade it seemed that they eluded those creatures that hunted them. So they stayed in the relative safety of the trees and the trees became a object of worship for them. The trees was relatively far apart, and wanting to pay homage to them all, the kaser'chee developed a way of life that was centered on a long pilgrimage (the name kaser'chee means something along the lines of ''pilgrim of the gods''), which is ever on going, were most of their society travels to the six trees, bringing goods between the trees, and partaking in festivities at each tree. Their calendar is made on the base of this nomadic lifestyle. However, the phase they travel at is not in tandem with the actual passing of the year, so they have record keepers to track how the seasons will fall on the specific pilgrimage that they are on. Other then that, their latitude system is based on the trees, so instead of four, their is six. (Btw, these things rarely come up in play, it would probably bog it down, but man, is it fun to just muse on!)
Naturally, as time went on, different groups emerged with differences in beliefs of how to show their reverence. Some would choose to stay in a specific tree, while others of these groups would follow the pilgrimage, but began to hold rites of their own, which they deemed of import.
Beyond the trees, they also hold the elements in high regard, which according to them are as follows;
Divine (nature and earth, most central is the trees themselves)
Sun (held in high esteem, seen as benevolent)
Wind (the messenger, seen as devoted, sometimes as a trickster)
Storm (represents water, snow (cold) and fire (lightning), seen as temperamental and cruel)
Smell (mostly seen as the kaser'chee themselves, a trusted companion)
And they also have some myths and legends around the predators that hunt them, some which eventually found their way into the glade and the shadows of the trees. They are called Mool, are also revered in a sense, but mostly with a mix of fear, and usually the night is seen as their element, when the sun most rest.
I have been able to run games in this setting two time, but they took place just as an conjunction of planes, fey-pocalypses if you will, was happening, so the kaser'chee was in a turmoil, as the six trees was merged into one, and their mundane world thrown on its head with the arrival of arcane magic. So most of the myths are mostly for my own sake, just thinking about how a society of mice might function and develop.
The main axis of conflict is order vs. chaos. Tiamat represents chaos and resides in a watery abyss at the core of the planet. The planet is a prison for her, and the three Elder Phoenixes - the Sun Phoenix, the Thunder Phoenix, and the Earth Phoenix a.k.a. Stone Mother - are its wardens, along with the fourth forgotten Elder Phoenix and the lesser phoenixes.
An ancient conflict was ended in a truce when Tiamat captured two of the Elder Phoenixes. They and the third agreed as part of the terms of the truce to mate with Tiamat. Their offspring were the three major races of my world: elves, aarakocra, and humans. The theory was that these races would form a buffer between the phoenixes of the sky and the abyssal abberations of the deep.
But some of the races have forgotten the phoenixes and taken to worshipping a false monotheistic god. We'll see whether the phoenixes will sacrifice their unfaithful offspring in order to end Tiamat's threat once and for all.
I have a custom religion about one god named Xedes who created everything and made humanity , The elven , and the orcs . These species had children and they also evolved which formed the other races. Xedes was basically a evil god and you were required to pray 2 days or you were said to be unholy and would be executed on the stake. There were also a race called titans which were basically 10 foot humans that were kinda demigods because they had small powers that could control elements or other things like love and luck and such. Xedes utterly hated gnolls and goblins and would “send” his loyal titans to hunt these species. There was also a floating island in the “middle “ of the world that only priests and royalty were aloud to step foot on. Titans were basically seen as high religious fighters.
The god Tonos is the "god of stories". He represents people's believes that life follows a pattern and he manipulates probabilities to make life more story-like. He is a minor god who only affects very few people, but of course the player characters are among them. He is the in-universe reason that the players are always just in time for interesting event so happen to them. If the party is ever in serious danger of a TPK, he may pull a divine intervention by twisting probabilities so that someone else arrives just in time to save them, but this would place them in his debt and have dire consequences for the party.
The goddess Duna is a kind of parody of a nature goddess. She says that nature is all-encompassing. Therefore, everything that can happen is perfectly natural. Working metal, cutting down entire forests and ruining the ecosphere is perfectly natural, because it is a natural consequence of the drives that evolution has instilled into humanoids. When a mortal claims that something is unnatural, she finds this offensive since it is a diminishment of her domain. Duna does not have any commandments for her followers, since any action that is physically possible to take is equally natural. Instead, her followers earn her favor by mentally aligning themselves with her way of thinking, which is similar to stoicism. Her high-level clerics all have a stoic mindset, but no unified goals. Some of them may be evil, others good. They pretty much do whatever they want, and are noteworthy for the extreme mental resilience their philosophy gives them. Duna tends to grant spells that manipulate life and death, and is rather unique among the gods of nature in that she has no problem with animating the undead.
I've had one pantheon I work with, and in that pantheon of 11 known and 2 unknown Elder Gods, I always tend to give one special treatment. Because he's my favorite.
Azgoroth, Lorekeeper of the Cosmos, Elder God of Time, and Father of Strife. Azgoroth, despite his title of 'Father of Strife', is a Lawful Neutral Elder God, he wants only to see the world continue; without being destroyed. As is such he really does not interfere with anything at all, he doesn't concern himself with the future, thats not his domain; he only takes down the present, and preserves the past. He does so by writing in extensive detail everything that occurs within Illvicta, and storing those occurrings in his infinite library. Although he is called the Elder God of Time, he would be more accurately described as the Elder god of the Present and Past, he can't see into the future, he knows exactly how the threads of time interact with eachother, and can use what has happened and interactions of the past to predict what will happen, usually with perfect accuracy, but he can't see into the future. He leaves that to his brother Jerem, elder god of the Future.
Despite his neutrality, Azgoroth does have cares. He cares deeply for the people that worship him, and his teachings call his followers to remember what has happened, he does often help his followers specifically if they ask, but tends to do it in small ways, re-working the threads of time just so to help them.
The two paladin orders Devoted to Azgoroth, The Order of Azgoroth, and the Order of the Hand of Time; both follow similar tenets. They will remember, they will protect, and they will fight on into eternity.
While my homebrew campaign world (an island about the size of Great Britain completely surrounded by storms that are impassable until the deities will it) has one big Greek-style pantheon, with different Aspects overseeing different areas and people not necessarily worshipping specific Aspects but instead just calling on whoever seems like they'll be most helpful at the time, each race does have its own creation myth
The gnomish myth, for instance, says that there's a spinning gem with uncounted facets at the heart of the world, and everything is just a reflection off that gem created by the light of the sun and moons and stars. The myth of the draconic races, however, says that time is measured in epochs, and at the end of each epoch Great Mother Wyrm awakens and bathes the universe in fire. The purest entities of the old epoch survive the crucible and becomes the Aspects of the next. The dwarven myth says all things were created on the Divine Forge, but the Aspects are made of the sparks that flew off during creation. Etc etc
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Time ago I wrote this bit. I meant to expand it, but I don't really know where I want it to go.
At the end of creation, the gods were left with a little bit of Sky and a little bit of Sun left over.
Nobody knew what to do with them, so everyone came together to decide.
“Let's put the little bit of Sky among the mountains,” said one, “to make a lake as deep as the sky.”
“The night is too dark in this world,” said another, “Let’s hang the little bit of Sun among the moons to brighten it.”
There were two twin goddesses among the gods, Moemrar and Penmulda. They were young, so their family did not ask their opinion. For such neglect, they were deeply hurt.
That night, once the gods were tired from the discussion, the twins entered the room where the little bit of Sky and the little bit of Sun were held and they took them for themselves.
It was the first Theft.
When dawn broke, the gods stirred, ready to resume their discussion. They were dismayed to find that the little leftovers were nowhere to be seen. Later, they were outraged when they found the little twins playing with them.
Scared, Moemrar waved the little bit of Sky and summoned a mighty gale. Just as scared, Penmulda waved the little bit of Sun and produced blinding flashes.
It was the first Tempest.
The twins hid themselves in it and reached the World below. They landed on the largest island of an archipelago in the middle of a cold and windswept sea. Far from the anger of their family, they took the names Moemrar the Thunder and Penmulda the Lightning.
There were mortals living on those islands. Moemrara and Penmulda thought that they could hid among them, to be forever safe and unreachable by the wrath of their relatives and siblings, so they took human shape.
The mortals were poor, though. Hungry and at the mercy of the winds and the cold.
If they were to live among these islands, things were to change.
Moemrar waved her Sky-blue cape, calmed the winds and called flocks of birds and schools of fish to the islands.
Penmulda stroke her Flint with her knife, called down lightning and then gave the fire to the mortals.
An order of zealots that believes all deities seek to remake the world how those deities want it to be and that the order must stop all of the deities from any interference in the Material Plane. The members of the order operate in secret due to the zealotry of many religious orders. Their ultimate goal is to cut off the other Planes from the Material Plane at all costs to preserve the integrity of the Material Plane's natural self-determined progression.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
this was "homebrewed" not by myself, but by one of the players in my group: he decided that his Monk worships Bidoof. yes, the Pokémon. now, Bidoof is an official and the most well-known deity in our world, and our group regularly worships him out-of-game too lmao
I created a pantheon similiar to Ancient Greece mythology. Their are some god I took from real life pantheons . The gods can have kids which can be demigods and can be really cool , like the myth of jaxuis the red who was a dwarf son of the god xanz who is the gos of sleep and this demigod made a whole village sleep as he kidnapped the kids and trained them to be a army. But anyways my favorite gods are Xanz god of sleep , Ghuana Goddess of Eagle and blue jays along with flight , then there was my favorite who is ythor who was gods of sharks and clown fish. Ythor basically had to demigod twin sons to a mortal human who basically both became great myths and were immortalized in two of the main cities . The twins basically one became a public official and the other killed a 2 headed immortal rabbit that was known to be able to make you kill yourself as it could sleep . The rabbit was slaughter as the twin started a fire in its burrow and forced it into a trap where it could kill and then make the pelt into a hat . But yeh I have tons of myths.
In a game I will but have yet to run and another game i have run, one of the gods is not actually a god but a very strong illusionist like mysterio and gus combined who through the power of worship has come close to ascension by tricking people into thinking that they are a god with illusions. Then there is also bill cipher but that is much less important. In that game all of the other gods are false and were made up.
I don't have a full homebrew pantheon, but there are a few portfolios unrepresented in the current base setting. There is no dedicated god of time, for instance, although Pelor sometimes takes that role. I also like the idea of a fighter god, think Tulkas from the Silmarillion, whose role is to wrestle threats to the multiverse out of existence. This god would specifically be made to fight invaders from the Far Realm, and have a domain that covers psionics. There is no current god substituting for Fharlanghn, the god of travel from 3e. I would design a god of death, travel, and transitions to replace him. Same with Erathis, the goddess of civilization from 4e.
An order of zealots that believes all deities seek to remake the world how those deities want it to be and that they must stop all of them from any interference in the Material Plane. The members of the order operate in secret due to the zealotry of many religious orders. Their ultimate goal is to cut off the other Planes from the Material Plane at all costs to preserve the integrity of the Material Plane's natural self-determined progression.
The irony is thick with that religion.
This is a really neat idea, and reminiscent of the Athar from the Planescape setting.
I don't really have a homebrew religion as such in my game; I like to let the players invent gods, in order to give them more attachment. (And because I'm lazy.)
I did make a few setting-required gods for my current game, including one who is the god of, among other things, merchants, travelers, and bards. He is worshipped by all the peoples of the universe, and he is the god responsible for the existence of the common tongue. It's particularly needed in my game (homebrew Spelljammer with enormous scale), but I think "the gods did it" is a useful trick for any large setting where you don't want to have to explain how languages stay consistent.
The flip side of this is building a theology/religion for a character that legitimately becomes a deity in game. I had that happen way back in the 80’s with the character that is me. I killed Lolth in the Demonweb pits with no one else around ( she had just killed the rest of the party and I was the only living thing to absorb her deification energies) the DM told me it would take time to develop but while I had fairly free reign in designing the religion it had to include the Drow. Shortly after I moved away but have worked with building it ever since. I tried building my own worlds but as a working man it was too much so I’ve used a modified FR for over 20 yrs. Today he has replaced Shandukul as the deity of wanderers, rangers, caravan guards and become the deity for mixed bloods, and good and neutral Drow. The character played through the end of 3.5 and the 4e 100 year jump and now 5e basically as a world building NPC developing his faith. He has converted the surface Drow of Cormanthor to his faith, held Eillistraee’s and most of the other killed off Drow deities powers altering them or absorbing them and then revitalizing them as allies. He works to convert the Drow from Lolth converting them back into their original surface dark elven forms. He works to eliminate the prejudices surrounding half breeds of all sorts as well as the strangers and travelers in society that are common in all areas of even Faerun.
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As a worldbuilder, both in D&D and out, I always find one of the most fun parts of the lore is the mythology. I'm a big fan of Greek/Norse mythology myself, and I like to think about how a homebrew world's higher powers work. What gods do the people worship, what practices do they have, etc. I've created many pantheons before simply for the fun of it, without any project in mind! So I'd like to hear what other people have come up with. Here's some good things to think about including in your post: What kind of beings are your homebrew deities? Divine entities, nature spirits, or something else? How do they interact with the mortals who worship them? WHICH mortals worship them? How do they interact with other gods? Do they ever use mortals to settle arguments? If these gods are additions to already-existing pantheons such as in the Forgotten Realms, how do they factor into those pantheons?
Here's my own submission to this thread:
My latest homebrew mythology involves a group of monsters called the Aknai. The Aknai once ruled the homebrew world of (name_not_invented_yet) as demonic elementals, bending the land and mortals to their whims. Then, the goddess Virgo appeared. Virgo was a benevolent, powerful entity, a true divinity whose heart was touched by the plight of mortalkind. Splitting her conscience into Nine Muses, each bestowed with a mortal virtue, she granted mortals the inspiration they needed to fight back. The Muses and the Aknai warred, eventually sealing them within the ether and freeing this world from their evil.
And so, the Nine Muses are the pantheon of this world. Some cults worship one Aknai or another, and a few people worship Virgo as the supreme deity, but most look to the Muses. They're sort of passive gods, not really involved much directly in the lives of mortals, but each one has a quality which certain people value or try to live up to. They're literal muses. Inspiration for people who need it.
Muse of Law: The inspiration of rulers, judges, and all those who wish to carry out the rule of law.
Muse of Warfare: The inspiration of soldiers, generals, and heroes.
Muse of Prosperity: The inspiration of merchants, farmers, and families; prosperity in regard to both fertility and business.
Muse of Innovation: The inspiration of engineers, craftsmen, artificers and scholars. Anyone who seeks knowledge and advancement.
Muse of the Arcane: The inspiration of wizards and those who study magic.
Muse of the Arts: The inspiration of musicians and artists. Very on-the-nose for bards.
Muse of the Passage: The inspiration of great journeys, both in life and in death. A muse for those on literal journeys, those in mourning, and those who must make a change.
Muse of Perseverance: The inspiration of all who must endure hardships, such as in times of natural disasters or famine, but also the muse of rangers and barbarians.
Muse of Devotion: The inspiration of those who wish to devote their lives to a cause, such as paladins and monks.
In my campaign I had a religion that a group of goblins followed . It was called Ratism which the goblins followed a were rat god and all rats were holy. So any goblins with magic or with extreme power would have the symbol of a rat and leaders would carry rats. (In this world there were talking rats ). My players goblin barbarian in the party had a pet rat that could talk. It was fun to see what happened when they encountered a hobgoblin that had a pet rat the size of a large dog. There was also a religion about the Greek god iris but it wasn’t very useful story wise.
It was important for me to separate religion from the actions of physical gods in the conworld I'm working on for thematic reasons. I was averse from theisms like the one in Forgotten Realms because when physical gods walk the world belief becomes less about character motivation and more about picking a side. It's the character motivation part that interests me. So I have four religions and zero gods. Characters who are theists have to answer the question of what their beliefs mean to them, and so far it's working all right. I have a player whose character can't figure out what her relationship is with death, but because there's no Kelemvor to answer for her, she's doing some cool role playing to figure out the character's answer.
As for a full description of any religion... I'll offer one... A shrine in Uloomu is dedicated to the Binder of Demons who is often worshiped by members of the Knighthood of the Silver Anchor. The Binder is not an immanent deity. He is rarely personified. Instead he is the source of a philosophy which serves as a model for action for those who have seen too much and done wrong while living. The Binder teaches that struggle is inevitable and that the only valuable struggle is with the self. Adherents are often seeking ways to deal with past trauma, and the Binder's asceticism appeals to those who cannot easily forgive and forget. Those who follow the faith are interested in progress marked by overcoming personal failures. However, they also know that the road to recovery involves relapse and that there is no one who is beyond help. I'm still waiting for a PC to help flesh out the rest...
I like your point about character motivation! Having deities directly involved in the world does mess with that. Kinda makes existential questions like "Why am I here?" pointless if a god can show up right in front of you at any moment and say "This is why."
There is a group I watch where a campaignette freed a town from an oppressive order of zealots with a very strange purpose, and during that event (that ended with the best [worst?] trolling a DM has ever done), there was horrific, bloody (though accidental) carnage.
When the adventurers (cautiously) returned a few years later, they found themselves deified and their horrific escapades turned into holiday games for an annual towne faire in honor of those deified heroes (who were the adventurers but nobody knew it, assuming they were revelers wearing costumes).
(Several places they have been don't want them to return.)
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
In my world, there are several religions throughout the world, some connected to races or enthnicities while others trenscend such boundries and seek to spread throughout the world. The gods are enigmatic and reclusive, rarely if ever interacting with mortals. Some even question whether they exist at all, claiming that divine casters just use a different flavour of the flow of the arcane.
One of my religions is Rozalinism, primarily practised in the Rozhim Empire. My world, Imradhon, is periodically invaded by demons (a catch-all term used by the inhabitants to describe anything fiendish in nature, be it a devil or actual demons). According to Rozalisnism, the gods created Imradhon to be the Shining Light in the Universe. They also created the ancient races (dragons, dwarves, elves, goblins and orcs) to fuel that light. However, these ancient races turned away from the light and instead "invented" false gods or idols which saddened the gods so they turned away from their creations. That's when the first ever Great Demon War started. Heroes rose and fell and the fight was thought lost but the gods didn't want to give up on the Shining Light in the Universe so they created their greatest children yet: humans. With their help, the demons were eventually pushed back and peace reigned in Imradhon until the petty conflicts of mortals started a cycle of war and peace forevermore.
Rozalinism claims that since it was the humans that turned the tide against the demons, they are clearly the gods' favoured children and thus should rule over Imradhon as their birthright. You'd think that half-bloods are despised, but you'd be wrong: Half-elves and half-orcs are regarded as "honorary" humans, as they have some of the "sacred blood" flowing in their veins. This does not mean, though, that mixed marriages are encouraged, it only means that half-bloods face no discrimination.
Rozalinism also seeks to "match" their gods with those of other polytheistic religions (think translatio imperii in the ancient roman religion). The gods are divided into primary deities (who are mandated by the state to be worshipped everywhere) and minor deities (who can have their local cults, but they can't have their own temples). All temples are dedicated to the king of the gods, Ojec, who, in his grace, allows the other gods to use his temples as places of worship.
The primary gods of Rozalinism are:
The minor deities of Rozalinism are:
There are other religions as well, but this post is getting long as is. I can post other myths from Rozalinism as well or tell you about my other religions if you want.
What's the worst that could happen?
The myths of my homebrew setting centers on a civilization of mice whos way of life was centered on six monolithic trees.
The mice people, called kaser'chee, was once a small family of mice that came into the region with the trees. Before coming to the glade, they were hounded by predators, but in the boughs of the trees they found shelter, and dwelling in the glade it seemed that they eluded those creatures that hunted them. So they stayed in the relative safety of the trees and the trees became a object of worship for them.
The trees was relatively far apart, and wanting to pay homage to them all, the kaser'chee developed a way of life that was centered on a long pilgrimage (the name kaser'chee means something along the lines of ''pilgrim of the gods''), which is ever on going, were most of their society travels to the six trees, bringing goods between the trees, and partaking in festivities at each tree.
Their calendar is made on the base of this nomadic lifestyle. However, the phase they travel at is not in tandem with the actual passing of the year, so they have record keepers to track how the seasons will fall on the specific pilgrimage that they are on. Other then that, their latitude system is based on the trees, so instead of four, their is six. (Btw, these things rarely come up in play, it would probably bog it down, but man, is it fun to just muse on!)
Naturally, as time went on, different groups emerged with differences in beliefs of how to show their reverence. Some would choose to stay in a specific tree, while others of these groups would follow the pilgrimage, but began to hold rites of their own, which they deemed of import.
Beyond the trees, they also hold the elements in high regard, which according to them are as follows;
And they also have some myths and legends around the predators that hunt them, some which eventually found their way into the glade and the shadows of the trees. They are called Mool, are also revered in a sense, but mostly with a mix of fear, and usually the night is seen as their element, when the sun most rest.
I have been able to run games in this setting two time, but they took place just as an conjunction of planes, fey-pocalypses if you will, was happening, so the kaser'chee was in a turmoil, as the six trees was merged into one, and their mundane world thrown on its head with the arrival of arcane magic. So most of the myths are mostly for my own sake, just thinking about how a society of mice might function and develop.
The main axis of conflict is order vs. chaos. Tiamat represents chaos and resides in a watery abyss at the core of the planet. The planet is a prison for her, and the three Elder Phoenixes - the Sun Phoenix, the Thunder Phoenix, and the Earth Phoenix a.k.a. Stone Mother - are its wardens, along with the fourth forgotten Elder Phoenix and the lesser phoenixes.
An ancient conflict was ended in a truce when Tiamat captured two of the Elder Phoenixes. They and the third agreed as part of the terms of the truce to mate with Tiamat. Their offspring were the three major races of my world: elves, aarakocra, and humans. The theory was that these races would form a buffer between the phoenixes of the sky and the abyssal abberations of the deep.
But some of the races have forgotten the phoenixes and taken to worshipping a false monotheistic god. We'll see whether the phoenixes will sacrifice their unfaithful offspring in order to end Tiamat's threat once and for all.
I have a custom religion about one god named Xedes who created everything and made humanity , The elven , and the orcs . These species had children and they also evolved which formed the other races. Xedes was basically a evil god and you were required to pray 2 days or you were said to be unholy and would be executed on the stake. There were also a race called titans which were basically 10 foot humans that were kinda demigods because they had small powers that could control elements or other things like love and luck and such. Xedes utterly hated gnolls and goblins and would “send” his loyal titans to hunt these species. There was also a floating island in the “middle “ of the world that only priests and royalty were aloud to step foot on. Titans were basically seen as high religious fighters.
Two of my favorite gods in my pantheon:
The god Tonos is the "god of stories". He represents people's believes that life follows a pattern and he manipulates probabilities to make life more story-like. He is a minor god who only affects very few people, but of course the player characters are among them. He is the in-universe reason that the players are always just in time for interesting event so happen to them. If the party is ever in serious danger of a TPK, he may pull a divine intervention by twisting probabilities so that someone else arrives just in time to save them, but this would place them in his debt and have dire consequences for the party.
The goddess Duna is a kind of parody of a nature goddess. She says that nature is all-encompassing. Therefore, everything that can happen is perfectly natural. Working metal, cutting down entire forests and ruining the ecosphere is perfectly natural, because it is a natural consequence of the drives that evolution has instilled into humanoids. When a mortal claims that something is unnatural, she finds this offensive since it is a diminishment of her domain. Duna does not have any commandments for her followers, since any action that is physically possible to take is equally natural. Instead, her followers earn her favor by mentally aligning themselves with her way of thinking, which is similar to stoicism. Her high-level clerics all have a stoic mindset, but no unified goals. Some of them may be evil, others good. They pretty much do whatever they want, and are noteworthy for the extreme mental resilience their philosophy gives them. Duna tends to grant spells that manipulate life and death, and is rather unique among the gods of nature in that she has no problem with animating the undead.
I've had one pantheon I work with, and in that pantheon of 11 known and 2 unknown Elder Gods, I always tend to give one special treatment. Because he's my favorite.
Azgoroth, Lorekeeper of the Cosmos, Elder God of Time, and Father of Strife. Azgoroth, despite his title of 'Father of Strife', is a Lawful Neutral Elder God, he wants only to see the world continue; without being destroyed. As is such he really does not interfere with anything at all, he doesn't concern himself with the future, thats not his domain; he only takes down the present, and preserves the past. He does so by writing in extensive detail everything that occurs within Illvicta, and storing those occurrings in his infinite library. Although he is called the Elder God of Time, he would be more accurately described as the Elder god of the Present and Past, he can't see into the future, he knows exactly how the threads of time interact with eachother, and can use what has happened and interactions of the past to predict what will happen, usually with perfect accuracy, but he can't see into the future. He leaves that to his brother Jerem, elder god of the Future.
Despite his neutrality, Azgoroth does have cares. He cares deeply for the people that worship him, and his teachings call his followers to remember what has happened, he does often help his followers specifically if they ask, but tends to do it in small ways, re-working the threads of time just so to help them.
The two paladin orders Devoted to Azgoroth, The Order of Azgoroth, and the Order of the Hand of Time; both follow similar tenets. They will remember, they will protect, and they will fight on into eternity.
While my homebrew campaign world (an island about the size of Great Britain completely surrounded by storms that are impassable until the deities will it) has one big Greek-style pantheon, with different Aspects overseeing different areas and people not necessarily worshipping specific Aspects but instead just calling on whoever seems like they'll be most helpful at the time, each race does have its own creation myth
The gnomish myth, for instance, says that there's a spinning gem with uncounted facets at the heart of the world, and everything is just a reflection off that gem created by the light of the sun and moons and stars. The myth of the draconic races, however, says that time is measured in epochs, and at the end of each epoch Great Mother Wyrm awakens and bathes the universe in fire. The purest entities of the old epoch survive the crucible and becomes the Aspects of the next. The dwarven myth says all things were created on the Divine Forge, but the Aspects are made of the sparks that flew off during creation. Etc etc
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Time ago I wrote this bit. I meant to expand it, but I don't really know where I want it to go.
At the end of creation, the gods were left with a little bit of Sky and a little bit of Sun left over.
Nobody knew what to do with them, so everyone came together to decide.
“Let's put the little bit of Sky among the mountains,” said one, “to make a lake as deep as the sky.”
“The night is too dark in this world,” said another, “Let’s hang the little bit of Sun among the moons to brighten it.”
There were two twin goddesses among the gods, Moemrar and Penmulda. They were young, so their family did not ask their opinion. For such neglect, they were deeply hurt.
That night, once the gods were tired from the discussion, the twins entered the room where the little bit of Sky and the little bit of Sun were held and they took them for themselves.
It was the first Theft.
When dawn broke, the gods stirred, ready to resume their discussion. They were dismayed to find that the little leftovers were nowhere to be seen. Later, they were outraged when they found the little twins playing with them.
Scared, Moemrar waved the little bit of Sky and summoned a mighty gale. Just as scared, Penmulda waved the little bit of Sun and produced blinding flashes.
It was the first Tempest.
The twins hid themselves in it and reached the World below. They landed on the largest island of an archipelago in the middle of a cold and windswept sea. Far from the anger of their family, they took the names Moemrar the Thunder and Penmulda the Lightning.
There were mortals living on those islands. Moemrara and Penmulda thought that they could hid among them, to be forever safe and unreachable by the wrath of their relatives and siblings, so they took human shape.
The mortals were poor, though. Hungry and at the mercy of the winds and the cold.
If they were to live among these islands, things were to change.
Moemrar waved her Sky-blue cape, calmed the winds and called flocks of birds and schools of fish to the islands.
Penmulda stroke her Flint with her knife, called down lightning and then gave the fire to the mortals.
Here's an idea I've been toying with:
An order of zealots that believes all deities seek to remake the world how those deities want it to be and that the order must stop all of the deities from any interference in the Material Plane. The members of the order operate in secret due to the zealotry of many religious orders. Their ultimate goal is to cut off the other Planes from the Material Plane at all costs to preserve the integrity of the Material Plane's natural self-determined progression.
The irony is thick with that religion.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
this was "homebrewed" not by myself, but by one of the players in my group: he decided that his Monk worships Bidoof. yes, the Pokémon. now, Bidoof is an official and the most well-known deity in our world, and our group regularly worships him out-of-game too lmao
Beginner DM & Barbarian
I created a pantheon similiar to Ancient Greece mythology. Their are some god I took from real life pantheons . The gods can have kids which can be demigods and can be really cool , like the myth of jaxuis the red who was a dwarf son of the god xanz who is the gos of sleep and this demigod made a whole village sleep as he kidnapped the kids and trained them to be a army. But anyways my favorite gods are Xanz god of sleep , Ghuana Goddess of Eagle and blue jays along with flight , then there was my favorite who is ythor who was gods of sharks and clown fish. Ythor basically had to demigod twin sons to a mortal human who basically both became great myths and were immortalized in two of the main cities . The twins basically one became a public official and the other killed a 2 headed immortal rabbit that was known to be able to make you kill yourself as it could sleep . The rabbit was slaughter as the twin started a fire in its burrow and forced it into a trap where it could kill and then make the pelt into a hat . But yeh I have tons of myths.
In a game I will but have yet to run and another game i have run, one of the gods is not actually a god but a very strong illusionist like mysterio and gus combined who through the power of worship has come close to ascension by tricking people into thinking that they are a god with illusions. Then there is also bill cipher but that is much less important. In that game all of the other gods are false and were made up.
I am leader of the yep cult:https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/off-topic/adohands-kitchen/82135-yep-cult Pronouns are she/her
I don't have a full homebrew pantheon, but there are a few portfolios unrepresented in the current base setting. There is no dedicated god of time, for instance, although Pelor sometimes takes that role. I also like the idea of a fighter god, think Tulkas from the Silmarillion, whose role is to wrestle threats to the multiverse out of existence. This god would specifically be made to fight invaders from the Far Realm, and have a domain that covers psionics. There is no current god substituting for Fharlanghn, the god of travel from 3e. I would design a god of death, travel, and transitions to replace him. Same with Erathis, the goddess of civilization from 4e.
This is a really neat idea, and reminiscent of the Athar from the Planescape setting.
I don't really have a homebrew religion as such in my game; I like to let the players invent gods, in order to give them more attachment. (And because I'm lazy.)
I did make a few setting-required gods for my current game, including one who is the god of, among other things, merchants, travelers, and bards. He is worshipped by all the peoples of the universe, and he is the god responsible for the existence of the common tongue. It's particularly needed in my game (homebrew Spelljammer with enormous scale), but I think "the gods did it" is a useful trick for any large setting where you don't want to have to explain how languages stay consistent.
The flip side of this is building a theology/religion for a character that legitimately becomes a deity in game. I had that happen way back in the 80’s with the character that is me. I killed Lolth in the Demonweb pits with no one else around ( she had just killed the rest of the party and I was the only living thing to absorb her deification energies) the DM told me it would take time to develop but while I had fairly free reign in designing the religion it had to include the Drow. Shortly after I moved away but have worked with building it ever since. I tried building my own worlds but as a working man it was too much so I’ve used a modified FR for over 20 yrs. Today he has replaced Shandukul as the deity of wanderers, rangers, caravan guards and become the deity for mixed bloods, and good and neutral Drow. The character played through the end of 3.5 and the 4e 100 year jump and now 5e basically as a world building NPC developing his faith. He has converted the surface Drow of Cormanthor to his faith, held Eillistraee’s and most of the other killed off Drow deities powers altering them or absorbing them and then revitalizing them as allies. He works to convert the Drow from Lolth converting them back into their original surface dark elven forms. He works to eliminate the prejudices surrounding half breeds of all sorts as well as the strangers and travelers in society that are common in all areas of even Faerun.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.