I'll admit. I have gone, a bit overboard with the pantheons. God-making is a guilty pleasure and I may have too many. I'm looking for feedback on how I may tweak/improve/change this pantheon to be easier to understand.
So far I have:
GODS OF THE PANTHEON (Main gods, think like the Olympians)
-Kemera, goddess of earth -Kiora, Kemera's daughter, goddess of life -Meliora, Kemera's other daughter, goddess of the wild and revelry -Galadon, god of valor -Midis, god of fire, chaos, and crafting -Ciris, goddess of ice and order -Mira, sister of Midis and Ciris, goddess of water and the sea -Pylora, goddess of light and the sun -Vuul, god of death, trade, and travel -Leyrim, god of luck, trickery, and thieves -Noriad, god of knowledge and arcana
THE RUINOUS (Incarnations of evil found in the world, kind of like the Dark Six)
-Karrok, god of calamity -Golgula, god of poison and disease -Karundor, god of dishonor and slaughter -Aliduma, god of secrets and greed
THE LIMBO GODS (the gods' creator and its first drafts)
-Void, overgod of nothing and nowhere -Nyx, god of balance, only Limbo god to live in the Material Plane
CHANGELOG
6/15/22 12:01PM: changed Karrok to god of calamity and Void to overgod 6/15/22 2:02PM: removed "and all" from Void portfolio
I was thinking of doing the same thing you did, but I was lazy and ended up using the greyhawk pantheon in my world.
I love the names and everything, but I have a few insights:
You gave most of them a few atributes, for example ice and order, but some of them doesn't seem to be related with each other, for example ice and order, death and travel, chaos and crafting. Not meaning they must be fully related, but in my opinion it would look better
Karrok, god of natural disasters - "Natural disasters" doesn't seem to be a "Incarnations of evil". Perhaps unnatural disasters?
Void, god of nothing, nowhere, and all - Perhaps remove "all"? Create one for the "nothingness" and another one for everything "that is", like antagonists?
I was thinking of doing the same thing you did, but I was lazy and ended up using the greyhawk pantheon in my world.
I love the names and everything, but I have two insights:
Vuul, god of death, trade, and travel - I don't see any relation between trade and travel to death. Not meaning there must be, but the others seems to be related.
Karrok, god of natural disasters - "Natural disasters" doesn't seem to be a "Incarnations of evil". Perhaps unnatural disasters?
Fair! My reasoning for Vuul's domains might be a bit better explained in his lore blurb:
"For a god of death, Vuul is pretty low-key. Where other death gods are seen as spiteful or deplorable entities, or perhaps malicious or just plain uncaring, Vuul instead acts as a kind-hearted and gentle guide to help those that have reached the end of their life find the rest they deserve. Vuul’s boat carries souls from the Material Plane through the Rivers Oceanus and Styx, to reach the Outer Plane their afterlife has called for. Whether his passenger is a paragon of sainthood or a deplorably corrupted sinner, Vuul treats them all the same- with respect, courtesy, and simple politeness. Vuul is seen as an idol for enchanters, who strive to emulate Vuul’s soul-soothing words in their own magic, whether it be for good or otherwise. Vuul doesn’t care. Vuul simply does his job."
"Vuul, in addition to being a ferryman of the dead, also has a sort of hobby. As he trawls the rivers that ring the Planes in his boat, he occasionally plucks small trinkets set adrift in the flotsam. This collection of his consists of various trinkets and items, from powerful artifacts to simple sentimental trinkets. Those who seek Vuul out sometimes bring items to trade that they hope the ferryman god might be interested in."
I don't see any relation between trade and travel to death
Travel and death are a pretty natural pairing in a culture that views death as just another step on life's journey. Depending on how the afterlife actually works, trade wouldn't be hard to fit in there either
My only suggestion to anyone for homebrew pantheons is to consider working in non-binary deities too. Some domains are good fits for entities that are neither god nor goddess -- or both!
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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)
I don't see any relation between trade and travel to death
Travel and death are a pretty natural pairing in a culture that views death as just another step on life's journey. Depending on how the afterlife actually works, trade wouldn't be hard to fit in there either
My only suggestion to anyone for homebrew pantheons is to consider working in non-binary deities too. Some domains are good fits for entities that are neither god nor goddess -- or both!
First off, based individual. And second, yeah, I do leave plenty of room for other genders. :> Void is an it/its, being both a plane and a deity, and none of the Limbo Gods have any sort of gender, being inhabitants of the opposite of existence.
IYou gave most of them a few atributes, for example ice and order, but some of them doesn't seem to be related with each other, for example ice and order, death and travel, chaos and crafting. Not meaning they must be fully related, but in my opinion it would look better
If one looks at real-world pantheons (Greek is a good example), gods often have thematically incoherent and overlapping portfolios, because they weren't carefully constructed, but accumulated over time.
Even if there are actual supernatural entities involved, it usually makes sense for them to be similarly arbitrary. Somebody's going to end up being the god of every significant mortal activity, and there won't always be a clean fit. For instance, in the above pantheon, who's the god of music? It also creates interesting cultural implications. (For instance, since ice and order are linked, far-northern cultures probably tend to the chaotic.)
So my writerly instinct immediately wants to ask if these gods are literally gods, or are they merely figures of worship? If literal gods, then the question I have is how did they come to be? What actions did they take for mortals to become aware of them?
You've got some tropes like you see for Crit Role's pantheon. The group of gods pre-exist and some get jealous and war, death, isolation etc. It's pretty standard old hat fare.
You've then got the super being approach. The gods are just beings we don't understand (this of course isn't mutually exclusive with the previous type) and are a bit like the magratheans from Hitch-hikers guide to the universe. They're simply in the business of creating worlds.
You've got the single true god that gets lonely and creates company in the form of demi-gods, mortals, celestials etc.
You can even take the final fantasy approach...unexplained McGuffins that somehow are responsible for keeping world in balance through channelling energy which can be tapped into (a la crystals in FF1-6). They're not gods in the strict sense, but with some sideways thinking you can extrapolate out the thought to create a deity that mortals are responsible for giving a more celestial form to through their literature and writings.
In each of these examples (and there are many more tropes), the question becomes what is the motivation of the gods? Those motivations are informed by the origins, and form. Those motivations in turn help to decide what impact your pantheon has on your world.
So, for example what impact does Vuul have? Is Vuul literally responsible for killing off mortals? Is Vuul simply like Pratchett's death? Guiding the departed to their next existence? Is Vuul a natural force that exists to maintain and balance out the forces of life?
Answering these questions allows you to answer subsequent ones like: could a supplicant of Vuul entreat that deity to grant protection from death? Can a servant of Vuul somehow encourage the early demise of another mortal? Can a Vuul cleric command higher prices when trading?
Or, are the aspects attributed to Vuul merely natural effects that mortals don't understand and so pin onto a parental figure that is convenient to blame?
If you can answer questions like those, that's how you take your pantheon to the next level. My instinct is always to have fewer deities in a pantheon with a more detailed background, than loads of deities that give the illusion of choice but have to be constantly developed and polished off during play. That's a personal view though, not everyone will agree.
So my writerly instinct immediately wants to ask if these gods are literally gods, or are they merely figures of worship? If literal gods, then the question I have is how did they come to be? What actions did they take for mortals to become aware of them?
You've got some tropes like you see for Crit Role's pantheon. The group of gods pre-exist and some get jealous and war, death, isolation etc. It's pretty standard old hat fare.
You've then got the super being approach. The gods are just beings we don't understand (this of course isn't mutually exclusive with the previous type) and are a bit like the magratheans from Hitch-hikers guide to the universe. They're simply in the business of creating worlds.
You've got the single true god that gets lonely and creates company in the form of demi-gods, mortals, celestials etc.
You can even take the final fantasy approach...unexplained McGuffins that somehow are responsible for keeping world in balance through channelling energy which can be tapped into (a la crystals in FF1-6). They're not gods in the strict sense, but with some sideways thinking you can extrapolate out the thought to create a deity that mortals are responsible for giving a more celestial form to through their literature and writings.
In each of these examples (and there are many more tropes), the question becomes what is the motivation of the gods? Those motivations are informed by the origins, and form. Those motivations in turn help to decide what impact your pantheon has on your world.
So, for example what impact does Vuul have? Is Vuul literally responsible for killing off mortals? Is Vuul simply like Pratchett's death? Guiding the departed to their next existence? Is Vuul a natural force that exists to maintain and balance out the forces of life?
Answering these questions allows you to answer subsequent ones like: could a supplicant of Vuul entreat that deity to grant protection from death? Can a servant of Vuul somehow encourage the early demise of another mortal? Can a Vuul cleric command higher prices when trading?
Or, are the aspects attributed to Vuul merely natural effects that mortals don't understand and so pin onto a parental figure that is convenient to blame?
If you can answer questions like those, that's how you take your pantheon to the next level. My instinct is always to have fewer deities in a pantheon with a more detailed background, than loads of deities that give the illusion of choice but have to be constantly developed and polished off during play. That's a personal view though, not everyone will agree.
This thought process right here, pure gold, 11/10 love it. :>
And true, I ought to try to make more stories instead of more gods. Expanding on what they are and what they do will help phenomenally, as they play an important role in the setting. As for what they are and how they interact with the Material Plane, I'd say it's something akin to the gods of Theros- entities of extreme divine power that are sustained by a positive feedback loop of mortal adoration and devotion. They have their residences on their own plane, but they also have been known to frequently visit the Material Plane. Some more than others- you'd have a better chance of running into Mira or Kiora than you would meeting someone like Midis or Noriad.
The gods each carry within them something called a Spark. While the actual knowledge of what a Spark is is only known by Void, a Spark grants the one who bears it incredible power, and, if used correctly, divinity. The only things stopping mortals from mugging a god on the street and killing them for their Spark are the facts that a Spark is incredibly volatile, and that it cannot fuse to a mortal's soul. The gods were designed to hold Sparks. The mortals, not so much. Bids for divinity are severely hampered by this obstacle, causing many an ambitious mage to die from attempts to mutilate their soul into something akin to a god's soul- something Void itself regards as an extreme offense to its handiwork.
The gods' Sparks grant them power over their domains, and depending on the strength of the god, a close tie to said domain as well. Such abilities are usually a mix of passive powers, such as flowers blooming as Kiora passes, or Galadon radiating light that burns away illusions, and active ones, like Midis's ability to manipulate fire and metal, or Mira appearing in any body of water. However, the greater the power, the greater the cost. If a powerful god is harmed or even killed, its domain behaves in strange and unpredictable ways. Kemera being dealt a grave wound may cause the life force of the planet to dwindle, and the destruction of Vuul would leave the spirits of the dead unguided, and free to wander anywhere they wished- even back into the mortal world. It is a god's responsibility to look after their domain and make sure everything is in order, using their powers as needed to keep the mortal races in line as needed. The domains can exist without the gods, but only barely.
So following on from that idea then, how has the pantheon changed over time? Do artificers exist in your world? Is there the nacent technology you find in other worlds? What would happen if mortals decided to clear an entire forest to make way for something else? Is this reflected in the deity or the spark's power? Could a group of mortals decide to start destroying wild areas to reduce the power of Meliora's spark enough to carry one? To kill that deity?
Is there a deity that lost their power because mortals turned their backs on them so the positive feedback loop ended?
What would happen if a deity tried to brainwash or mind control mortals in order to try and increase their powers?
Sorry, tangent's I know, my brain just works in diagonals sometimes.
I'll admit. I have gone, a bit overboard with the pantheons. God-making is a guilty pleasure and I may have too many. I'm looking for feedback on how I may tweak/improve/change this pantheon to be easier to understand.
So far I have:
GODS OF THE PANTHEON (Main gods, think like the Olympians)
-Kemera, goddess of earth
-Kiora, Kemera's daughter, goddess of life
-Meliora, Kemera's other daughter, goddess of the wild and revelry
-Galadon, god of valor
-Midis, god of fire, chaos, and crafting
-Ciris, goddess of ice and order
-Mira, sister of Midis and Ciris, goddess of water and the sea
-Pylora, goddess of light and the sun
-Vuul, god of death, trade, and travel
-Leyrim, god of luck, trickery, and thieves
-Noriad, god of knowledge and arcana
THE RUINOUS (Incarnations of evil found in the world, kind of like the Dark Six)
-Karrok, god of calamity
-Golgula, god of poison and disease
-Karundor, god of dishonor and slaughter
-Aliduma, god of secrets and greed
THE LIMBO GODS (the gods' creator and its first drafts)
-Void, overgod of nothing and nowhere
-Nyx, god of balance, only Limbo god to live in the Material Plane
CHANGELOG
6/15/22 12:01PM: changed Karrok to god of calamity and Void to overgod
6/15/22 2:02PM: removed "and all" from Void portfolio
I was thinking of doing the same thing you did, but I was lazy and ended up using the greyhawk pantheon in my world.
I love the names and everything, but I have a few insights:
You gave most of them a few atributes, for example ice and order, but some of them doesn't seem to be related with each other, for example ice and order, death and travel, chaos and crafting. Not meaning they must be fully related, but in my opinion it would look better
Karrok, god of natural disasters - "Natural disasters" doesn't seem to be a "Incarnations of evil". Perhaps unnatural disasters?
Void, god of nothing, nowhere, and all - Perhaps remove "all"? Create one for the "nothingness" and another one for everything "that is", like antagonists?
Fair! My reasoning for Vuul's domains might be a bit better explained in his lore blurb:
"For a god of death, Vuul is pretty low-key. Where other death gods are seen as spiteful or deplorable entities, or perhaps malicious or just plain uncaring, Vuul instead acts as a kind-hearted and gentle guide to help those that have reached the end of their life find the rest they deserve. Vuul’s boat carries souls from the Material Plane through the Rivers Oceanus and Styx, to reach the Outer Plane their afterlife has called for. Whether his passenger is a paragon of sainthood or a deplorably corrupted sinner, Vuul treats them all the same- with respect, courtesy, and simple politeness. Vuul is seen as an idol for enchanters, who strive to emulate Vuul’s soul-soothing words in their own magic, whether it be for good or otherwise. Vuul doesn’t care. Vuul simply does his job."
"Vuul, in addition to being a ferryman of the dead, also has a sort of hobby. As he trawls the rivers that ring the Planes in his boat, he occasionally plucks small trinkets set adrift in the flotsam. This collection of his consists of various trinkets and items, from powerful artifacts to simple sentimental trinkets. Those who seek Vuul out sometimes bring items to trade that they hope the ferryman god might be interested in."
As for Karrok, perhaps being a god of calamity would be more fitting then-
Travel and death are a pretty natural pairing in a culture that views death as just another step on life's journey. Depending on how the afterlife actually works, trade wouldn't be hard to fit in there either
My only suggestion to anyone for homebrew pantheons is to consider working in non-binary deities too. Some domains are good fits for entities that are neither god nor goddess -- or both!
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)
First off, based individual. And second, yeah, I do leave plenty of room for other genders. :> Void is an it/its, being both a plane and a deity, and none of the Limbo Gods have any sort of gender, being inhabitants of the opposite of existence.
If one looks at real-world pantheons (Greek is a good example), gods often have thematically incoherent and overlapping portfolios, because they weren't carefully constructed, but accumulated over time.
Even if there are actual supernatural entities involved, it usually makes sense for them to be similarly arbitrary. Somebody's going to end up being the god of every significant mortal activity, and there won't always be a clean fit. For instance, in the above pantheon, who's the god of music? It also creates interesting cultural implications. (For instance, since ice and order are linked, far-northern cultures probably tend to the chaotic.)
So my writerly instinct immediately wants to ask if these gods are literally gods, or are they merely figures of worship? If literal gods, then the question I have is how did they come to be? What actions did they take for mortals to become aware of them?
You've got some tropes like you see for Crit Role's pantheon. The group of gods pre-exist and some get jealous and war, death, isolation etc. It's pretty standard old hat fare.
You've then got the super being approach. The gods are just beings we don't understand (this of course isn't mutually exclusive with the previous type) and are a bit like the magratheans from Hitch-hikers guide to the universe. They're simply in the business of creating worlds.
You've got the single true god that gets lonely and creates company in the form of demi-gods, mortals, celestials etc.
You can even take the final fantasy approach...unexplained McGuffins that somehow are responsible for keeping world in balance through channelling energy which can be tapped into (a la crystals in FF1-6). They're not gods in the strict sense, but with some sideways thinking you can extrapolate out the thought to create a deity that mortals are responsible for giving a more celestial form to through their literature and writings.
In each of these examples (and there are many more tropes), the question becomes what is the motivation of the gods? Those motivations are informed by the origins, and form. Those motivations in turn help to decide what impact your pantheon has on your world.
So, for example what impact does Vuul have? Is Vuul literally responsible for killing off mortals? Is Vuul simply like Pratchett's death? Guiding the departed to their next existence? Is Vuul a natural force that exists to maintain and balance out the forces of life?
Answering these questions allows you to answer subsequent ones like: could a supplicant of Vuul entreat that deity to grant protection from death? Can a servant of Vuul somehow encourage the early demise of another mortal? Can a Vuul cleric command higher prices when trading?
Or, are the aspects attributed to Vuul merely natural effects that mortals don't understand and so pin onto a parental figure that is convenient to blame?
If you can answer questions like those, that's how you take your pantheon to the next level. My instinct is always to have fewer deities in a pantheon with a more detailed background, than loads of deities that give the illusion of choice but have to be constantly developed and polished off during play. That's a personal view though, not everyone will agree.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
This thought process right here, pure gold, 11/10 love it. :>
And true, I ought to try to make more stories instead of more gods. Expanding on what they are and what they do will help phenomenally, as they play an important role in the setting. As for what they are and how they interact with the Material Plane, I'd say it's something akin to the gods of Theros- entities of extreme divine power that are sustained by a positive feedback loop of mortal adoration and devotion. They have their residences on their own plane, but they also have been known to frequently visit the Material Plane. Some more than others- you'd have a better chance of running into Mira or Kiora than you would meeting someone like Midis or Noriad.
The gods each carry within them something called a Spark. While the actual knowledge of what a Spark is is only known by Void, a Spark grants the one who bears it incredible power, and, if used correctly, divinity. The only things stopping mortals from mugging a god on the street and killing them for their Spark are the facts that a Spark is incredibly volatile, and that it cannot fuse to a mortal's soul. The gods were designed to hold Sparks. The mortals, not so much. Bids for divinity are severely hampered by this obstacle, causing many an ambitious mage to die from attempts to mutilate their soul into something akin to a god's soul- something Void itself regards as an extreme offense to its handiwork.
The gods' Sparks grant them power over their domains, and depending on the strength of the god, a close tie to said domain as well. Such abilities are usually a mix of passive powers, such as flowers blooming as Kiora passes, or Galadon radiating light that burns away illusions, and active ones, like Midis's ability to manipulate fire and metal, or Mira appearing in any body of water. However, the greater the power, the greater the cost. If a powerful god is harmed or even killed, its domain behaves in strange and unpredictable ways. Kemera being dealt a grave wound may cause the life force of the planet to dwindle, and the destruction of Vuul would leave the spirits of the dead unguided, and free to wander anywhere they wished- even back into the mortal world. It is a god's responsibility to look after their domain and make sure everything is in order, using their powers as needed to keep the mortal races in line as needed. The domains can exist without the gods, but only barely.
So following on from that idea then, how has the pantheon changed over time? Do artificers exist in your world? Is there the nacent technology you find in other worlds? What would happen if mortals decided to clear an entire forest to make way for something else? Is this reflected in the deity or the spark's power? Could a group of mortals decide to start destroying wild areas to reduce the power of Meliora's spark enough to carry one? To kill that deity?
Is there a deity that lost their power because mortals turned their backs on them so the positive feedback loop ended?
What would happen if a deity tried to brainwash or mind control mortals in order to try and increase their powers?
Sorry, tangent's I know, my brain just works in diagonals sometimes.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
Making a pantheon is one thing. Making your players care about your pantheon... that's the hard part!