I am looking for a God or Goddess. They can be from any edition, as long as they still live, and from any pantheon. They also need to have the ability to show themselves as one, or both, of these entities.
A sentiment crystal or diamond.
They would portray themselves as an enormous crystal or diamond-like structure floating in a vast empty abyss. Despite their appearance, they are fully conscious and shed a bright, blindingly brilliant light that illuminates the surrounding darkness and makes it almost impossible to look directly upon them. Also, although the surrounding abyss seems to be nothing but space, the light that radiates from their crystalline form can make the emptiness into solid matter, upon which a person, or at least their soul, can stand.
The light that radiates from their crystal structure also forces the space around them into solid forms of fleeting shadow that rise and fall as the surrounding darkness attempt to devour and flee from the light in equal measure.
Those who have seen this form always become paladins of vengeance cursed to be continually reborn so that they may right the wrongs of the world and bring an end to those whose sins are so grievous that no other justice, but their end, will suffice. Good and evil, race or creed, and even morality means nothing to those who serve this deity. Their very being burns with the fires of vengeance and a desire to end all evil courses like life's blood through veins.
They are dogmatic, unbending and unwavering in their task, for nought but its completion can grant them rest, at least for a time, until they are reborn once more into the service of the crystal, and all begins again.
An ancient crystal or dimond wyrm.
In this form, they would appear as an enormous and unfathomably ancient and mighty dragon, clad in the armour light. Rarely do they appear in this form, and when they do, the very earth itself shudders, for this great beast can render both flesh and stone. Even as it breaths, it casts judgment upon the world, for its very breath art holy fire that strikes down the evil and the wicked, the young and the old, the strong and the weak, the proud, the meek and the righteous alike.
They are fire and death for those who deserve it, but they are also patient and just and, in this form, rarely quick to anger. However, they will not hesitate to bring an end to all those who are beyond redemption. Calling upon this deity in their dragon form is a dangerous thing to do, for even if they answer, they might look into your soul and visit their judgement upon you.
There is no evil, no darkness, no misdeed, no stain of blood that can escape the dragon's eye and one doth seek an audience at their peril.
-------
So, one being that has, or at least can present themselves, in two different forms.
If there is no God or Goddess that is like this, who is the closest match?
Thanks,
XD
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Anyone with "Disguise self" can present themselves in at least two forms. Most gods can probably do something smilar. That said, you've just created this being so yes, there is such a god/ess. Not sure why said deity would want everyone who sees it become a bloodthirsty psycopath (I'm assuming this deity is at least neutral evil), including small children, hamsters and fish. I'm just trying to figure out what narratve purpose such a deity would serve in a setting.
Anyone with "Disguise self" can present themselves in at least two forms. Most gods can probably do something smilar. That said, you've just created this being so yes, there is such a god/ess. Not sure why said deity would want everyone who sees it become a bloodthirsty psycopath (I'm assuming this deity is at least neutral evil), including small children, hamsters and fish. I'm just trying to figure out what narratve purpose such a deity would serve in a setting.
I thought that they would be neutral good. That they were a God of justice, only not justice as we understand it. It's more an eye for an eye, preemptive judgement kind of justice.
Their paladins might seems to be psychopaths, but they are paladins of vengeance, enacting the will of their God and responding to the cries and prayers of the aggrieved.
You could consider them holy knights, I suppose.
They are also naturally the good of vengeance as well, and naturally enough are related to, but not the same as, the God of death.
They oppose the gods of murder and so on but have no compunction about recruiting their worshipers to their course if it will fulfil their ends. An evil man makes just as good a paladin of vengeance as a good one as vengeance does not require goodness, only will and desire.
“Show me your will and desire, and I shall show. you my conviction.”
I feel as though I might have to end up homebrewing this, to be honest. I was hoping that there was already a god I could use, as the time I have to spend on worldbuilding these days is far less than it used to be.
I don't know of any deities who are simultaneously Lawful Evil and... squints I can't actually tell the alignment of the second form, because a truly sane deity would never consider a mortal soul truly beyond redemption, so I'm not sure if the second form is crazy (like the Raven Queen) or something else is going on (e.g. this could be fluffed as an LN construct deity programmed by well-meaning but idiotic mortals, like the AI that invented cricket in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). But calling the second form LG for now, LE and LG at the same time in one deity is a bit more complex than the dnd deities I've read about typically cover.
Any deity is capable of appearing in multiple forms and any deity is capable of brainwashing mortals as you describe. Your question has more to do about which deities want to act as you describe. I think you're stuck with a homebrew on this one, but to get you started, what you want sounds an awful lot like a judge of the dead who's gone mad and decided to enact its will upon the living rather than waiting for them to die - i.e. the deity started out Lawful Neutral, and then things went pear-shaped. I'd start with a deity like Jergal and build out from there.
I don't really know how much "homebrewing" this god needs, since gods are largely narrative not mechanical devices in a game. Really from what you got, all you need is to assign an appropriate alignment (which is not NG) and its domains if you want it to have clerics. As implied by others in this thread, this god doesn't really have any apparent "goodness" in it. It seems to have Law and Death domains.
As pointed out, how your god presents itself and what it may "really" look like is up to the god and gods having many forms is the stuff of D&D and real world mythology.
If you think this god is somehow on the good side, your god is basically Batman, a crusader of sorts whose psychology is basically the tension between Justice and Vengeance. Let's not forgot old codes of vengeance (eye for an eye as you invoke it) were arguably supplanted by modern forms of justice, even if those modern forms come with their own problems. Vengeance modes of justice presume injuries are only repaired through inflicting further injuries. More modern thinking on justice argues for a cooler head to prevail (it's why scales and blindfolds are often used in its symbolism over swords).
So honestly, as suggested, this god sounds more crazed than good. Kinda reminded me of Marlon Brando's "The Horror" speech in Apocalypse Now. I'd embed it, but it discusses war atrocities, specifically against children, so just google "like a Diamond Bullet" and that should take you there. But to echo that movie, I'd say this gods methods seem ... unsound.`
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Bahamut is the Platinum Dragon, with the notion of justice and "good" at it's core. You can just add the crystal form part. I don't know much about official deities from all of the D&D material, but that might be your best bet if you want to use an official source.
Anyone with "Disguise self" can present themselves in at least two forms. Most gods can probably do something smilar. That said, you've just created this being so yes, there is such a god/ess. Not sure why said deity would want everyone who sees it become a bloodthirsty psycopath (I'm assuming this deity is at least neutral evil), including small children, hamsters and fish. I'm just trying to figure out what narratve purpose such a deity would serve in a setting.
I thought that they would be neutral good. That they were a God of justice, only not justice as we understand it. It's more an eye for an eye, preemptive judgement kind of justice.
Well, nothing in the description really fits under the category of "good". Forcefully recruting every living being the god manifests for to an everlasting service of violence? How is that good?
Their paladins might seems to be psychopaths, but they are paladins of vengeance, enacting the will of their God and responding to the cries and prayers of the aggrieved.
Paladins of vegeance, especially the way you described it, often are psycopaths. and it's not really "their" god as much as a divine being forcefully converting them into eternal servitude.
You could consider them holy knights, I suppose.
More like religious terrorists.
They are also naturally the good of vengeance as well, and naturally enough are related to, but not the same as, the God of death.
Where is the good in being forced to do the violence of a god? Also, generally there is nothug inherently "good" (at least not in D&D terms) about vengeance. At least not violent vengeance the way you describe.
They oppose the gods of murder and so on but have no compunction about recruiting their worshipers to their course if it will fulfil their ends. An evil man makes just as good a paladin of vengeance as a good one as vengeance does not require goodness, only will and desire.
Another example of this deity not being neither good nor even remotely lawful.
“Show me your will and desire, and I shall show. you my conviction.”
Who is this mad deity that take sthe right to sit in judgement over and steal worshippers from other deities?
I feel as though I might have to end up homebrewing this, to be honest. I was hoping that there was already a god I could use, as the time I have to spend on worldbuilding these days is far less than it used to be.
Well, you coul dlook into some of the more ciolent chaos gods of the Warhammer pantheon on perhaps Azathoth from the Cthulhu mythos. Azathoth is quite fond of the whole mindless violence and forced servitude thingie.
I feel as though I might have to end up homebrewing this, to be honest. I was hoping that there was already a god I could use, as the time I have to spend on worldbuilding these days is far less than it used to be.
I mean, you seem to be 90% done already with the above. It might be nice to look for imagery or a full backstory on an official deity but I don't think that's much of a concern, is it? Add an alignment and some domains, a name and a few extra monikers, maybe a few details about where they stand with regards to the rest of the pantheon and you're set to go.
What's interesting to me is that you all seem to agree that this God is mad, and although I was trying to come up with a God that fits with a form of justice that is utterly alien to us in the modern world, madness perhaps would explain why this God acts the way they do.
Your responses have made me look again at my thoughts on this God, and to also myself why they act the way they do, and if they are mad, what was it that drove away their sanity.
Off the top of my head, if we are saying that this God is indeed mad, perhaps it was the enormity of their task that made them so. That could also explain their multiple forms.
Even Gods have their limits, and perhaps they were once good and lawful, but over time, more and more people of different races cried out for justice. They split themselves, again and again, into myriad forms to judge the guilty of every race and give justice to all, and in so doing, they became less and less of the God they were and more and more of what they have become.
The mad judge, still mighty and still doing their job, sort of, only now totally and utterly insane.
It wasn't my original intent, but it's what reading all your comments has made me think of.
If it's available to you, watch the Batman Brave and the Bold episode "The Chill of the Night." Even in justice systems and philosophies where might or force are necessary or, ahem, justified, there is significant tension between Justice and Vengeance, which is basically elementary moral philosophy.. The distinction between the two seem lost in this concept. At best I can see this being like the god of shoot first and ask questions later SWAT teams, bounty hunters where the preference is dead over alive, 00 License to Kill types, etc. So like the God of Arguably Justifiable Violence? I can't see this god having a particularly high spot in any culture's pantheon, probably living in cult status served by Vengeance Paladins, Hexblades, and likely Death and Law Clerics ministering to the latter two. Maybe some Shadow Monks as well. I can see this faith going bad quick with powerful people purchasing "indulgences" from the church to end vendettas etc.
What's interesting to me is that you all seem to agree that this God is mad, and although I was trying to come up with a God that fits with a form of justice that is utterly alien to us in the modern world, madness perhaps would explain why this God acts the way they do.
Your responses have made me look again at my thoughts on this God, and to also myself why they act the way they do, and if they are mad, what was it that drove away their sanity.
Off the top of my head, if we are saying that this God is indeed mad, perhaps it was the enormity of their task that made them so. That could also explain their multiple forms.
Even Gods have their limits, and perhaps they were once good and lawful, but over time, more and more people of different races cried out for justice. They split themselves, again and again, into myriad forms to judge the guilty of every race and give justice to all, and in so doing, they became less and less of the God they were and more and more of what they have become.
The mad judge, still mighty and still doing their job, sort of, only now totally and utterly insane.
It wasn't my original intent, but it's what reading all your comments has made me think of.
Well, considering the atrocities they commit, it is not necessarily mad, just evil and un-lawful. I just don't see how it has ever had anything even remotely resembling goodness or justice in the way you describe it.
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Hi,
I am looking for a God or Goddess. They can be from any edition, as long as they still live, and from any pantheon. They also need to have the ability to show themselves as one, or both, of these entities.
A sentiment crystal or diamond.
They would portray themselves as an enormous crystal or diamond-like structure floating in a vast empty abyss. Despite their appearance, they are fully conscious and shed a bright, blindingly brilliant light that illuminates the surrounding darkness and makes it almost impossible to look directly upon them. Also, although the surrounding abyss seems to be nothing but space, the light that radiates from their crystalline form can make the emptiness into solid matter, upon which a person, or at least their soul, can stand.
The light that radiates from their crystal structure also forces the space around them into solid forms of fleeting shadow that rise and fall as the surrounding darkness attempt to devour and flee from the light in equal measure.
Those who have seen this form always become paladins of vengeance cursed to be continually reborn so that they may right the wrongs of the world and bring an end to those whose sins are so grievous that no other justice, but their end, will suffice. Good and evil, race or creed, and even morality means nothing to those who serve this deity. Their very being burns with the fires of vengeance and a desire to end all evil courses like life's blood through veins.
They are dogmatic, unbending and unwavering in their task, for nought but its completion can grant them rest, at least for a time, until they are reborn once more into the service of the crystal, and all begins again.
An ancient crystal or dimond wyrm.
In this form, they would appear as an enormous and unfathomably ancient and mighty dragon, clad in the armour light. Rarely do they appear in this form, and when they do, the very earth itself shudders, for this great beast can render both flesh and stone. Even as it breaths, it casts judgment upon the world, for its very breath art holy fire that strikes down the evil and the wicked, the young and the old, the strong and the weak, the proud, the meek and the righteous alike.
They are fire and death for those who deserve it, but they are also patient and just and, in this form, rarely quick to anger. However, they will not hesitate to bring an end to all those who are beyond redemption. Calling upon this deity in their dragon form is a dangerous thing to do, for even if they answer, they might look into your soul and visit their judgement upon you.
There is no evil, no darkness, no misdeed, no stain of blood that can escape the dragon's eye and one doth seek an audience at their peril.
-------
So, one being that has, or at least can present themselves, in two different forms.
If there is no God or Goddess that is like this, who is the closest match?
Thanks,
XD
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Anyone with "Disguise self" can present themselves in at least two forms. Most gods can probably do something smilar. That said, you've just created this being so yes, there is such a god/ess. Not sure why said deity would want everyone who sees it become a bloodthirsty psycopath (I'm assuming this deity is at least neutral evil), including small children, hamsters and fish. I'm just trying to figure out what narratve purpose such a deity would serve in a setting.
I thought that they would be neutral good. That they were a God of justice, only not justice as we understand it. It's more an eye for an eye, preemptive judgement kind of justice.
Their paladins might seems to be psychopaths, but they are paladins of vengeance, enacting the will of their God and responding to the cries and prayers of the aggrieved.
You could consider them holy knights, I suppose.
They are also naturally the good of vengeance as well, and naturally enough are related to, but not the same as, the God of death.
They oppose the gods of murder and so on but have no compunction about recruiting their worshipers to their course if it will fulfil their ends. An evil man makes just as good a paladin of vengeance as a good one as vengeance does not require goodness, only will and desire.
“Show me your will and desire, and I shall show. you my conviction.”
I feel as though I might have to end up homebrewing this, to be honest. I was hoping that there was already a god I could use, as the time I have to spend on worldbuilding these days is far less than it used to be.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I don't know of any deities who are simultaneously Lawful Evil and... squints I can't actually tell the alignment of the second form, because a truly sane deity would never consider a mortal soul truly beyond redemption, so I'm not sure if the second form is crazy (like the Raven Queen) or something else is going on (e.g. this could be fluffed as an LN construct deity programmed by well-meaning but idiotic mortals, like the AI that invented cricket in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). But calling the second form LG for now, LE and LG at the same time in one deity is a bit more complex than the dnd deities I've read about typically cover.
Any deity is capable of appearing in multiple forms and any deity is capable of brainwashing mortals as you describe. Your question has more to do about which deities want to act as you describe. I think you're stuck with a homebrew on this one, but to get you started, what you want sounds an awful lot like a judge of the dead who's gone mad and decided to enact its will upon the living rather than waiting for them to die - i.e. the deity started out Lawful Neutral, and then things went pear-shaped. I'd start with a deity like Jergal and build out from there.
I don't really know how much "homebrewing" this god needs, since gods are largely narrative not mechanical devices in a game. Really from what you got, all you need is to assign an appropriate alignment (which is not NG) and its domains if you want it to have clerics. As implied by others in this thread, this god doesn't really have any apparent "goodness" in it. It seems to have Law and Death domains.
As pointed out, how your god presents itself and what it may "really" look like is up to the god and gods having many forms is the stuff of D&D and real world mythology.
If you think this god is somehow on the good side, your god is basically Batman, a crusader of sorts whose psychology is basically the tension between Justice and Vengeance. Let's not forgot old codes of vengeance (eye for an eye as you invoke it) were arguably supplanted by modern forms of justice, even if those modern forms come with their own problems. Vengeance modes of justice presume injuries are only repaired through inflicting further injuries. More modern thinking on justice argues for a cooler head to prevail (it's why scales and blindfolds are often used in its symbolism over swords).
So honestly, as suggested, this god sounds more crazed than good. Kinda reminded me of Marlon Brando's "The Horror" speech in Apocalypse Now. I'd embed it, but it discusses war atrocities, specifically against children, so just google "like a Diamond Bullet" and that should take you there. But to echo that movie, I'd say this gods methods seem ... unsound.`
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Bahamut is the Platinum Dragon, with the notion of justice and "good" at it's core. You can just add the crystal form part. I don't know much about official deities from all of the D&D material, but that might be your best bet if you want to use an official source.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Well, nothing in the description really fits under the category of "good". Forcefully recruting every living being the god manifests for to an everlasting service of violence? How is that good?
Paladins of vegeance, especially the way you described it, often are psycopaths. and it's not really "their" god as much as a divine being forcefully converting them into eternal servitude.
More like religious terrorists.
Where is the good in being forced to do the violence of a god? Also, generally there is nothug inherently "good" (at least not in D&D terms) about vengeance. At least not violent vengeance the way you describe.
Another example of this deity not being neither good nor even remotely lawful.
Who is this mad deity that take sthe right to sit in judgement over and steal worshippers from other deities?
Well, you coul dlook into some of the more ciolent chaos gods of the Warhammer pantheon on perhaps Azathoth from the Cthulhu mythos. Azathoth is quite fond of the whole mindless violence and forced servitude thingie.
I mean, you seem to be 90% done already with the above. It might be nice to look for imagery or a full backstory on an official deity but I don't think that's much of a concern, is it? Add an alignment and some domains, a name and a few extra monikers, maybe a few details about where they stand with regards to the rest of the pantheon and you're set to go.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
What's interesting to me is that you all seem to agree that this God is mad, and although I was trying to come up with a God that fits with a form of justice that is utterly alien to us in the modern world, madness perhaps would explain why this God acts the way they do.
Your responses have made me look again at my thoughts on this God, and to also myself why they act the way they do, and if they are mad, what was it that drove away their sanity.
Off the top of my head, if we are saying that this God is indeed mad, perhaps it was the enormity of their task that made them so. That could also explain their multiple forms.
Even Gods have their limits, and perhaps they were once good and lawful, but over time, more and more people of different races cried out for justice. They split themselves, again and again, into myriad forms to judge the guilty of every race and give justice to all, and in so doing, they became less and less of the God they were and more and more of what they have become.
The mad judge, still mighty and still doing their job, sort of, only now totally and utterly insane.
It wasn't my original intent, but it's what reading all your comments has made me think of.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
If it's available to you, watch the Batman Brave and the Bold episode "The Chill of the Night." Even in justice systems and philosophies where might or force are necessary or, ahem, justified, there is significant tension between Justice and Vengeance, which is basically elementary moral philosophy.. The distinction between the two seem lost in this concept. At best I can see this being like the god of shoot first and ask questions later SWAT teams, bounty hunters where the preference is dead over alive, 00 License to Kill types, etc. So like the God of Arguably Justifiable Violence? I can't see this god having a particularly high spot in any culture's pantheon, probably living in cult status served by Vengeance Paladins, Hexblades, and likely Death and Law Clerics ministering to the latter two. Maybe some Shadow Monks as well. I can see this faith going bad quick with powerful people purchasing "indulgences" from the church to end vendettas etc.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Well, considering the atrocities they commit, it is not necessarily mad, just evil and un-lawful. I just don't see how it has ever had anything even remotely resembling goodness or justice in the way you describe it.