Does anybody else find the sample pantheons given in the player's handbook slightly boring? I mean, when you look through ancient mythology and folklore from around the world, you can find some really crazy stuff that is really fun to use. For example, there is an actual llama god from Incan mythology. I am definitely using him with a cleric some day.
Most of the example gods in the PH seem pretty boring and are just embodiments of their domain. I have come up with a very large pantheon that borrows very heavily off of other mythologies, or is just some weird spawn of my imagination. I would like to see if anybody else uses or have served strange celestials in their games and if they have, who and what are they?
Here are a few of my own and what domains they are in. I may put more up later:
Name Domain Other
Oothret- Knowledge, magic- Oothret takes the form of a giant owl- man with a feathery cloak that can unfold into wings. He carries a golden trident with candles instead of spear points, and hovering ethereal candles follow him everywhere. He is True Neutral and only really cares about the persute of knowledge.
Clang-War, but doesn't really fit in a domain- Clang takes the form of a ginormous starry formed figure with a bucket stuck firmly on his head and his feet are also stuck inside buckets. He spends his time placing buckets in inconvenient places in the hopes that people will get their head or feet stuck in them. When people do get stuck in his buckets, they go crazy and become one of his fanatical soldiers. His entire goal is to raise an army of these bucketheaded soldiers who will then overrun the world and he will be in absolute control. The bucketheads often chase people around in order to wedge their heads in buckets, but this is quite hard because they are practically blind with a bucket stuck on their heads. Others draw faces on their head buckets and go into towns and try to blend in, and persuade folks to willingly stick their head in a bucket in order to be under Clangs service. As you might imagine, they have very lemited success. Is neutral evil
Uruchillay- Nature- the Incan llama god I mentioned earlier. He takes the form of a man with a llama head.
Issitoq- Order- The inuit spirit who either is a giant flying eyeball, or a hairy beast with spiky fur and weird eyes that is cursed with deep sadness. He punishes those who breal forbidden laws and I can see him leading a whole order of paladins. Is lawful good.
Zankallala- Nature, War- Takes the form of a tiny, hairy man that wears a swarm of bees like a hat, carries a snake like a walking stick, rides a jerboa, and has scorpions stapped to his feet to use as spurs. Birds constantly follow him to sing his praise, and he often rescues folks from horrible monsters. He is from African Mythology and probably is chaotic good.
The Morrigan-Death, War, life- Celtic goddess of war, death, fertility, crow, and cattle. She is either extremely chaotic, or follows some higher form of inncoprehensible law.
Gryxdanthar-Unkown- Beholder lord with incredible dream powers, it is unknown whether or not he dwell on the material or lower planes, or if he is in his own sort of nightmare realm.
Axomama-Nature- Goddess of Potatoes
Umarth the Masked One- Trickery- Trickster, wheres a mask that can alter his appearance.
Arachne-Trickery- Ruler of a subsection of drow, weaver
The Porpoise of Life-Life- Basically a joke off of the purpose of life, the Porpoise of life is a magical porpoise with powerful healing abilities and many hospitals in my setting are named in his honor. He can take the form of a giant porpoise-headed man but will never stray to far from water.
The Grim Sweeper- Grave, Death- Death in my world. He is a skeletal figure robed in a tattered cloak who carries a broom instead of a scythe. He is more of a Lawful Neutral and maybe even good force who is just doing his job, sweeping away the souls of the dead to send them on their way to the afterlife.
Xolotl- Death, Tempest, Grave- Xolotl is the dog-headed Aztec god of fire, lightning, death, and axolotls. He ferries the dead across the river of the dead to the underworld and strangely, he is a Lawful good being.
Hephaestus- Forge- Lord of the dwarves, he is the patron of fire, forges, ugly people, and is neutral good. In my world, the dinosaurs were killed by a "meteor" which held the first celestials. Gruumsh threw Hephaestus's sister Jalaena, the goddess of beauty and jewels off the meteor in an attempt to weaken Hephaestus. Hephaestus flew after his sister and caught her before she crashed, shielding her from damage but horribly disfiguring himself in the process. Jalaena called for Xolotl who healed him, but Hephaestus will also be horribly ugly, and that incident is the cause of the rivalry between dwarves and orcs.
Pandemonium- He is the patron GOOlocks- He is the brother of Dionysus, and has become the Lord of madness and chaos. Dionysus was accepted into the celestials presence, but because of his evil actions, Pandemonium was rejected, and he is an aberation instead. He takes the form of a purple suited figure with a top hat, a moon pendant and a walking stick. His head is actually a bunch of floating eyeballs that he blasts lazers out of to destroy his foes. He is allies with Gryxdanther the Beholder lord and often travels through dreams but he has a deep hatred for practically everything.
Rhydern-Nature, Life- Patron of painters, waterfowl, sailing, and those who are trapped, wounded, and hunted and disfigured people. He is inspired after Phillip Rhyder from the Snow Goose. He is married to Flittra, goddess of Prey.
Goreaxe-War, Death- Brother of Gruumsh, he also helped create orcs. He protects murderers and poachers and is the patron of cruelty, murder, and vile hunting.
Denethorn- Nature, War- The Noble Hunter, he hunts down monsters that are dangerous to life. He patrons good hunters and rangers.
Myrmidon the Twin-trunked- Don't know yet- He takes the form of a giant, elephant headed man with two trunks. Beyond that I know nothing about him.
Religion always plays a huge role in my games, and I homebrew the main deities in all my settings. I don't really do depictions of deities (though all of mine have symbols and colors associated with them), but I have more fun with their personalities and domains.
My campaign that recently ended had an official pantheon of 9. Their portfolios were pretty broad such that people could approach any of the Nine with a request and all that would change would be how the request were handled. The most powerful in the pantheon were the Big Four (listed first):
Justi, lawful good, god of order and might. The Lord of Law. Strict and cheerless. Encounters with him earned my death mechanic the nickname "God Court." Soteria, neutral good, goddess of story and destiny. The Lady of Fate. Kind and helpful, if mysterious. Vitu Sempra, chaotic good, goddess of epilogues and second chances. The Lady of Choice. Friendly but easily offended. Vor Ibitva, chaotic evil, god of wit and power. The Lord of Leverage. Charming and ruthless, who views reality as his personal chess board. Rumored to have created lycanthropy.
Ilmarinen, lawful neutral, god of love and industry. The Lord of Unions. Fatherly yet impartial. Senno, true neutral, god of truth and reason. The Lord of Logic. A dead god, which explains a lot of what the party dealt with. Even his clerics don't know he's dead. Belanat, chaotic neutral, god of luck and warfare. The Lord of Chance. Mercurial and petty. Also rumored to have fathered lycanthropy. Dermaret, lawful evil, goddess of desire and need. The Lady of Yearning. Vain and self-interested. Louhi, neutral evil, goddess of beauty and health. The Lady of Form. Manipulative and coy.
There was also a cult in my setting that was intent on destroying the gods' power by making people lose their faith. My players didn't chase that arc too strongly, so they never learned how deep it went. I liked it so much that I am adapting it for my next campaign. And in case any player of mine sees this, I'll hide it in a spoiler and expect them not to metagame:
There was a tenth god. The Gloomsire, lawful evil, god of balance and judgment. The Lord of Reckoning. He once served the Nine as a vassal and, when a worldwide catastrophe struck and most of the pantheon refused to intervene, he was so disgusted with their hypocrisy and betrayal that he tried to tear their domains from them. He lost the war and was cast out of the divine realm. He was the true figure behind the cult and the events of the entire campaign.
At one point in the game, I had a Forge cleric of Ilmarinen, a Trickster cleric of Vor Ibitva, an echo knight who was a cultist, and a barbarian who had been the first person in history cured of lycanthropy by none other than Vitu Sempra herself...who willingly became a werewolf again after Vor offered to return his "gift" to the barb. It was a heck of a party, lol.
I have never really pigeonholed most of my Non-Dragonlance games merely with the lore that was available to that setting. Although I started in the early 80's on AD&D, and then when AD&D2E came out that was such a major Godsend!! And don't forget to pull ideas from the archived "Dragon Magazine" pages you can find online. There are some real gems published in those old magazines.
That said, I have no idea what you are talking about with a lack of pantheons. In 5E games the tables I have been at whether as a DM or player has used the history of D&D pantheons and never played 5E by strict RAW. Just to make most settings a little more entertaining and believable always requires homebrewing touches, or at least going back a couple of editions to a time when the rules and lore made more sense. That said, we have always allowed for a couple of homebrewed God's as long as they somehow could be shoe-horned into the existing lore and make some sense. This became even more useful when Warlocks became a thing, and we wanted to branch out into the various creatures who could and wanted to extend their powers through a proxy. There have been a couple times we have brought Cthulhu cults and even the ancient gods into our stories.
You really need to look outside of Appendix B of the SRD for pantheon knowledge and ideas. Here is a down and dirty link to a list of different pantheons by edition. And then broken down by setting. There are well over 200 gods mentioned, and roughly 50 pantheons to look over if the lesser and greater gods mentioned are not your cup of tea.
I have never really pigeonholed most of my Non-Dragonlance games merely with the lore that was available to that setting. Although I started in the early 80's on AD&D, and then when AD&D2E came out that was such a major Godsend!! And don't forget to pull ideas from the archived "Dragon Magazine" pages you can find online. There are some real gems published in those old magazines.
That said, I have no idea what you are talking about with a lack of pantheons. In 5E games the tables I have been at whether as a DM or player has used the history of D&D pantheons and never played 5E by strict RAW. Just to make most settings a little more entertaining and believable always requires homebrewing touches, or at least going back a couple of editions to a time when the rules and lore made more sense. That said, we have always allowed for a couple of homebrewed God's as long as they somehow could be shoe-horned into the existing lore and make some sense. This became even more useful when Warlocks became a thing, and we wanted to branch out into the various creatures who could and wanted to extend their powers through a proxy. There have been a couple times we have brought Cthulhu cults and even the ancient gods into our stories.
You really need to look outside of Appendix B of the SRD for pantheon knowledge and ideas. Here is a down and dirty link to a list of different pantheons by edition. And then broken down by setting. There are well over 200 gods mentioned, and roughly 50 pantheons to look over if the lesser and greater gods mentioned are not your cup of tea.
There is not a lack of official pantheons, it is that many of the gods in those are boring in my opinion. They mostly are just embodiments of their domain and look just like powerful people that maybe carry a symbolic object.
I was in a campaign where we had a sorcadin who followed Bahamut, a paladin who followed Tebo the football player, a life domain cleric that served Cubby Bear, and my monk/divine soul sorcerer was empowered by both Auril and Lathander. As you can see, that list involves some of the normal ones and a few who are weird homebrew deities that were just for fun. It might be that I just haven't read a lot on Dnd deities, but that list in Appendix B has a lot of bland ones. There aren't much that are really interesting, like Axomama the Incan god of Potatoes or Aipoloovik, inuit god of murder, the sea, earthquakes, and comets. This is really just my opinion, and I like it when they are a little more farfetched and have weird backstories, but I haven't really extensively researched most of them.
There is not a lack of official pantheons, it is that many of the gods in those are boring in my opinion. They mostly are just embodiments of their domain and look just like powerful people that maybe carry a symbolic object.
I was in a campaign where we had a sorcadin who followed Bahamut, a paladin who followed Tebo the football player, a life domain cleric that served Cubby Bear, and my monk/divine soul sorcerer was empowered by both Auril and Lathander. As you can see, that list involves some of the normal ones and a few who are weird homebrew deities that were just for fun. It might be that I just haven't read a lot on Dnd deities, but that list in Appendix B has a lot of bland ones. There aren't much that are really interesting, like Axomama the Incan god of Potatoes or Aipoloovik, inuit god of murder, the sea, earthquakes, and comets. This is really just my opinion, and I like it when they are a little more farfetched and have weird backstories, but I haven't really extensively researched most of them.
That is the crux of your problem. Appendix B was not written as some mind blowing new content. It is basically repeating cliff notes of boring deities that have much more content written about it back in the day, and they saving page space in their newer handbooks. This was never meant to wow you with possibilities, as much as giving you quick references to look up for story lines and arcs from previously created content. If I am wrong on that assumption, I have even less respect for WotC's content creators of recent years.
But that is why I posted some reading material. Just look up the the Basket Ogress of the Salishan speakers from BC and the Northweastern states of the US. Kurtulmak the patron deity of Kobolds, also the intermediate god of trapmaking, mining and war. Lolth the chief goddess of the Drow. Persana the creator-god of the Triton race. Cegilune the goddess and mother of hags (night hags), which can open up a campaign about Soul Larva, the Abyss, the Grey Wastes, Oinos, Altraloth, the Blood War, and/or the Grand Emporium of Hades (Wandering Emporium) . Or all sorts of hundred of other gods not mentioned in Appendix B. My main point is Appendix B is a quick reference for new players. As a seasoned player and DM, I never even thought to look there for deity references before it was brought up in the forum. In fact many of the discussions I have been on in this forum and others discus some of the more intricate and interesting Gods and how they interact within their mythos. Also, "which one" a DM may want to use in their realm because every single "god of" has at least 4-12 counterparts in other settings. One of my more favorite pantheons to look up was the Seelie Court, which has so much left to the DM to add to, that the mystery is a common discussion point. But honestly, you are only limited by your own imagination, and your own motivation to look up all this content waiting to be used.
However, if you are just hear to show off some of your ideas, then I appreciate that as well. I have pulled inspirations from many players homebrews that they showcase on the forums.
Thanks for that information, I will definitely research it more. I also never meant to say that none of the PH options were good, I use Lolth, Kurtulmak, Gruumsh, Bahamat, Tiamat, and a few others in my games, I just meant that I am not really interested in the other ones, but I don't know much about them so I will definitely read about them.
However, the main purpose for creating this was to show some of what I use, and to see if anybody else also has good ideas for gods that are either fun or interesting.
I am currently working on a new homebrew world and this is the pantheon. Some extra stuff you should know is that the gods abandoned the world to prevent a dark prophecy, but they left creatures there to carry out their jobs. I’ll be using some art I found to describe these creatures.
Frella - Goddess of night, knowledge, hunting, and neutral magic
Creatures of Frella:
Sanga - god of the day, fire, wisdom, and chaotic magic
Creatures of Sanga:
Vitete - deity of life, death, and neutral magic
Creatures of Vitete:
Baterra - god of protection, strategy, and war
Creatures of Baterra:
Belleno - goddess of beauty and sleep
Creatures of Belleno:
Paureno - god of fear and poison
Creature of Paureno:
Shizoki - goddess of nature
Creatures of Shizoki:
Sutosado - god of storms and shadows
Creatures of Sutosado:
Umikari - Goddess of seas and light
Creatures of Umikari:
Brogo - god of trickery and curiosity
Creatures of Brogo:
The Nameless One - god of gods
Creatures of The Nameless One:
That’s all of them. Should I post the the personality’s of the gods and creatures too?
Buzzbelbub - Buzzbelbub is a chaos god of destruction, paranoia, and taking things way too far. She most often takes the form of a tiny bee that always manages to escape unscathed from any attempts to kill it. She buzzes just out of reach of her victims, causing them to slowly go insane and they start to believe that every small misfortune is a personal attack.
Vot - God of peace, contentment, cute things, warm fuzzies, and all around docile pleasantness. This isn't a god to exhibit any power or wrath. This god does not avenge the weak or bring destruction upon the unrighteous. Neither do they send storms or raise mountains. At the most, they might have created a couple of puppies and kittens, but they didn't grow up into dogs and cats with teeth and claws. This is the type of god that you pray short rhyming prayers out of habit before going to bed or eating dinner. Some may pray to Vot to cure a cold, but nothing much more than that. Vot does not require you to change to follow them. As long as you believe you are a good person, and other people believe it to (more or less) Vot and Vot's disciples will except you into their ranks.
Dapunk - Dapunk is the god of rebellion. Especially teenage rebellion but he also stirs up other rebels too. Teenagers are just so easy to get at so they are his favorite followers. When people see him they often describe him as a, "Piece of work." His hair often changes but it is usually either in dreads or a mohawk. He has tattoos and piercings all over himself and if you look closely they say that his tats show scenes from the future. His clothes are usually leather and they are often artistically torn with spikes all over. He often holds an electric guitar and he wears his pants backwards. His followers do not consider themselves his followers. That would be against his teachings. Dapunk and his disciples do not believe in authority, heroism, education, government, labels, truth, working together, genres, freedom, modesty, consistency, gods, or anything else for that matter. Artistic depictions of him are often done in tattoo form or graffiti.
I've been working on changing and adapting the Greek pantheon for a homebrew world. I've been having a lot of fun with the minor gods: either disappointing offspring of more powerful deities or creations of the madness of kuo-toa. Notable examples include Zephyr, the god of slight breezes, and Tumaniseedyetis (too-many-sea-deities), the name for what is actually a ridiculously large amount of gods that all lay claim to bodies of water. Their constant petty squabbles and bickering is what causes the tide.
I might just have to steal Clang for my list of minor deities. The type of stealing where you have consent from the person you're stealing from, of course.
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
Almost universally, my message to players is: The world has an overabundance of gods and religions, an endless profusion of lesser and greater powers - you can create your own, or if you like, I'll make one for you. In the homebrew I use the most, there's regional greater gods (the port city of Ghazzad is dominated by powers of the sea, and of the land, since that's where it sits, right on the dividing line), plus a weird group of 'other gods' called simply The Nine. The Nine are the state religion of the primary human empire, but it's a strangely empty shell, with barely any churches or clerics or other things you might expect of a religion.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
The same deities have so many different names around the world, and every one of them has two aspects either of creation and destruction or of order and chaos. Most of them have power over multiple things. As one might guess, people consider them to be very moody.
We have weather/seasons, rivers/oceans/fishing, harvest/hunt, conflict/justice, health... but no life/death deity.
Weather and seasons can be gentle or harsh. Floods, rough waters, and bountiful fish can go either way. Wars can rise to the doom of all or be little more than legal spats and justice might never happen. Low and high health may be considered the cause of death and the restoration of life, but life and death are not the wills of deities but of the cycle of life and the machinations of people. What happens when one is not alive is not a consideration. Too many names to consider, though. Baras. Vill. Pora. Agilliance. Simon. Bentonicio. ... all for the Seasons depending on where one is on the planet.
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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.
I've been working on changing and adapting the Greek pantheon for a homebrew world. I've been having a lot of fun with the minor gods: either disappointing offspring of more powerful deities or creations of the madness of kuo-toa. Notable examples include Zephyr, the god of slight breezes, and Tumaniseedyetis (too-many-sea-deities), the name for what is actually a ridiculously large amount of gods that all lay claim to bodies of water. Their constant petty squabbles and bickering is what causes the tide.
I might just have to steal Clang for my list of minor deities. The type of stealing where you have consent from the person you're stealing from, of course.
Nice. You definitely have my consent. Clang's reach stretches across the multiverse.
The Mother or Memory - Nature, Knowledge/Arcana, Life - The girl, Nausicaa, was daughter to the greatest chieftain Elkenbrand's tribes knew in recent years. The blood of giants flowed through Harrowgrim's veins, and he would have lead his people to greatness--yet, Elwyn's need for an army saw his people subjugated to the wizard's whims. In order to ensure his compliance, Elwyn kidnapped Nausicaa and held her for leverage, while meanwhile Harrowgrim prosecuted the wizard's war. Moved by desperation, Harrowgrim trusted his daughter's safety to adventurers who managed to rescue her. Sometime after, she spoke to her people, convincing them to remember themselves and abandon Elwyn's war. And that would have been the end of it, yet the legend of her life grew in the telling to become a faith practiced mostly among those who live by Elkenbrand. Her shrines are found in the wild lands around that mountain, and her adherents urge others to become unlost by honoring memory.
The Binder of Demons - Tempest, Light, Forge - His is a cult following practiced mainly by members of the Knighthood of the Silver Anchor. The main shrine to him is at Ft. Uloomu. His philosophy maintains that there is no way to be free from the burden of struggling for self improvement. Warriors who have done unspeakable things are still obligated to be better people tomorrow than they were today. His worship involves soul searching, holding vigils, undertaking vows and boasts, and trying for redemption--especially when there's no reason you should deserve to be redeemed. The Knighthood is in part a traveling order, so his shrines can be found in many places, though few are large or important.
Gohṡn, the Deathgod - Order/Peace, Grave, Feast - Gohṡn the Deathgod is the god of fatal endings. He is also a preserver. Through the intercession of ancestors He already holds in His hand, the faithful are preserved from misfortune until such time as they meet the end of their thread at His appointed hour. The center of His worship is in Wawloon, where the the Vicar of Gohsn administers the earthly affairs of His church. The position is elected by a council of cardinals, and said council is composed of the politically adept leaders of His churches from across the world who manage to advance themselves. His church runs soup kitchens and orphanages is cities throughout the world. Because he is the god of preserving and of endings, the best way to worship him is to enjoy the time given. Therefore, his church celebrates many feast days, the most important of which comes at the cross-quarter day between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox--because that's the day when the ground thaws. The feast is celebrated by digging up the embalmed bodies of one's relatives and bringing them to a communal feast. The richer you are, and the bigger your feast, the better you have honored the ancestors. Tomb sweeping is also an important way to show your dedication. His shrines tend to be located at crossroads, because they are liminal spaces and sacred to Him. The cardinal sin for those who worship Him is suicide, because it fundamentally denies His agency.
The Mistress of Mistresses - Death, War, Trickery - The Mistress of Mistresses is Gohṡn's distaff counterpart. Legend says She began as a mortal nun in Gohṡn's service before Her apotheosis. For members of Her church this is dogma, although for members of the Chruch of the Deathgod it is heresy. The nature of Her enlightenment was this: one night this nun received a divinely inspiring dream, sent to her by Gohṡn Himself. In the dream she made love to the Deathgod and when she woke she began to preach a new scripture. You see, the Church had strayed from Gohṡn's intended purpose by favoring His role as a preserver over His role in ending lives. Specifically, by preserving life past the point of accomplishment, Gohṡn's clergy were adding to the suffering of the world. Better, she began to preach, would be for the final moment to preserve us from dissolution before the grave. The Mistress of Mistresses' worship is outlawed in every civilized place, because Her church doubles as the assassin's guild. If there is a stabbing in a marketplace, Her clergy were behind it.
Cheesus: domain of life, patron god of all good aligned cheese makers
Cheesulbub: death, trickery, he is a demon lord over his realm of the abyss, cheesyztia. He is the lord of fake cheeses, like spray cheese or American cheese
Does anybody else find the sample pantheons given in the player's handbook slightly boring? I mean, when you look through ancient mythology and folklore from around the world, you can find some really crazy stuff that is really fun to use. For example, there is an actual llama god from Incan mythology. I am definitely using him with a cleric some day.
Most of the example gods in the PH seem pretty boring and are just embodiments of their domain. I have come up with a very large pantheon that borrows very heavily off of other mythologies, or is just some weird spawn of my imagination. I would like to see if anybody else uses or have served strange celestials in their games and if they have, who and what are they?
Here are a few of my own and what domains they are in. I may put more up later:
Name Domain Other
Oothret- Knowledge, magic- Oothret takes the form of a giant owl- man with a feathery cloak that can unfold into wings. He carries a golden trident with candles instead of spear points, and hovering ethereal candles follow him everywhere. He is True Neutral and only really cares about the persute of knowledge.
Clang-War, but doesn't really fit in a domain- Clang takes the form of a ginormous starry formed figure with a bucket stuck firmly on his head and his feet are also stuck inside buckets. He spends his time placing buckets in inconvenient places in the hopes that people will get their head or feet stuck in them. When people do get stuck in his buckets, they go crazy and become one of his fanatical soldiers. His entire goal is to raise an army of these bucketheaded soldiers who will then overrun the world and he will be in absolute control. The bucketheads often chase people around in order to wedge their heads in buckets, but this is quite hard because they are practically blind with a bucket stuck on their heads. Others draw faces on their head buckets and go into towns and try to blend in, and persuade folks to willingly stick their head in a bucket in order to be under Clangs service. As you might imagine, they have very lemited success. Is neutral evil
Uruchillay- Nature- the Incan llama god I mentioned earlier. He takes the form of a man with a llama head.
Issitoq- Order- The inuit spirit who either is a giant flying eyeball, or a hairy beast with spiky fur and weird eyes that is cursed with deep sadness. He punishes those who breal forbidden laws and I can see him leading a whole order of paladins. Is lawful good.
Zankallala- Nature, War- Takes the form of a tiny, hairy man that wears a swarm of bees like a hat, carries a snake like a walking stick, rides a jerboa, and has scorpions stapped to his feet to use as spurs. Birds constantly follow him to sing his praise, and he often rescues folks from horrible monsters. He is from African Mythology and probably is chaotic good.
The Morrigan-Death, War, life- Celtic goddess of war, death, fertility, crow, and cattle. She is either extremely chaotic, or follows some higher form of inncoprehensible law.
Gryxdanthar-Unkown- Beholder lord with incredible dream powers, it is unknown whether or not he dwell on the material or lower planes, or if he is in his own sort of nightmare realm.
Axomama-Nature- Goddess of Potatoes
Umarth the Masked One- Trickery- Trickster, wheres a mask that can alter his appearance.
Arachne-Trickery- Ruler of a subsection of drow, weaver
The Porpoise of Life-Life- Basically a joke off of the purpose of life, the Porpoise of life is a magical porpoise with powerful healing abilities and many hospitals in my setting are named in his honor. He can take the form of a giant porpoise-headed man but will never stray to far from water.
The Grim Sweeper- Grave, Death- Death in my world. He is a skeletal figure robed in a tattered cloak who carries a broom instead of a scythe. He is more of a Lawful Neutral and maybe even good force who is just doing his job, sweeping away the souls of the dead to send them on their way to the afterlife.
Xolotl- Death, Tempest, Grave- Xolotl is the dog-headed Aztec god of fire, lightning, death, and axolotls. He ferries the dead across the river of the dead to the underworld and strangely, he is a Lawful good being.
Hephaestus- Forge- Lord of the dwarves, he is the patron of fire, forges, ugly people, and is neutral good. In my world, the dinosaurs were killed by a "meteor" which held the first celestials. Gruumsh threw Hephaestus's sister Jalaena, the goddess of beauty and jewels off the meteor in an attempt to weaken Hephaestus. Hephaestus flew after his sister and caught her before she crashed, shielding her from damage but horribly disfiguring himself in the process. Jalaena called for Xolotl who healed him, but Hephaestus will also be horribly ugly, and that incident is the cause of the rivalry between dwarves and orcs.
Pandemonium- He is the patron GOOlocks- He is the brother of Dionysus, and has become the Lord of madness and chaos. Dionysus was accepted into the celestials presence, but because of his evil actions, Pandemonium was rejected, and he is an aberation instead. He takes the form of a purple suited figure with a top hat, a moon pendant and a walking stick. His head is actually a bunch of floating eyeballs that he blasts lazers out of to destroy his foes. He is allies with Gryxdanther the Beholder lord and often travels through dreams but he has a deep hatred for practically everything.
Rhydern-Nature, Life- Patron of painters, waterfowl, sailing, and those who are trapped, wounded, and hunted and disfigured people. He is inspired after Phillip Rhyder from the Snow Goose. He is married to Flittra, goddess of Prey.
Goreaxe-War, Death- Brother of Gruumsh, he also helped create orcs. He protects murderers and poachers and is the patron of cruelty, murder, and vile hunting.
Denethorn- Nature, War- The Noble Hunter, he hunts down monsters that are dangerous to life. He patrons good hunters and rangers.
Myrmidon the Twin-trunked- Don't know yet- He takes the form of a giant, elephant headed man with two trunks. Beyond that I know nothing about him.
Religion always plays a huge role in my games, and I homebrew the main deities in all my settings. I don't really do depictions of deities (though all of mine have symbols and colors associated with them), but I have more fun with their personalities and domains.
My campaign that recently ended had an official pantheon of 9. Their portfolios were pretty broad such that people could approach any of the Nine with a request and all that would change would be how the request were handled. The most powerful in the pantheon were the Big Four (listed first):
Justi, lawful good, god of order and might. The Lord of Law. Strict and cheerless. Encounters with him earned my death mechanic the nickname "God Court."
Soteria, neutral good, goddess of story and destiny. The Lady of Fate. Kind and helpful, if mysterious.
Vitu Sempra, chaotic good, goddess of epilogues and second chances. The Lady of Choice. Friendly but easily offended.
Vor Ibitva, chaotic evil, god of wit and power. The Lord of Leverage. Charming and ruthless, who views reality as his personal chess board. Rumored to have created lycanthropy.
Ilmarinen, lawful neutral, god of love and industry. The Lord of Unions. Fatherly yet impartial.
Senno, true neutral, god of truth and reason. The Lord of Logic. A dead god, which explains a lot of what the party dealt with. Even his clerics don't know he's dead.
Belanat, chaotic neutral, god of luck and warfare. The Lord of Chance. Mercurial and petty. Also rumored to have fathered lycanthropy.
Dermaret, lawful evil, goddess of desire and need. The Lady of Yearning. Vain and self-interested.
Louhi, neutral evil, goddess of beauty and health. The Lady of Form. Manipulative and coy.
There was also a cult in my setting that was intent on destroying the gods' power by making people lose their faith. My players didn't chase that arc too strongly, so they never learned how deep it went. I liked it so much that I am adapting it for my next campaign. And in case any player of mine sees this, I'll hide it in a spoiler and expect them not to metagame:
There was a tenth god. The Gloomsire, lawful evil, god of balance and judgment. The Lord of Reckoning. He once served the Nine as a vassal and, when a worldwide catastrophe struck and most of the pantheon refused to intervene, he was so disgusted with their hypocrisy and betrayal that he tried to tear their domains from them. He lost the war and was cast out of the divine realm. He was the true figure behind the cult and the events of the entire campaign.
At one point in the game, I had a Forge cleric of Ilmarinen, a Trickster cleric of Vor Ibitva, an echo knight who was a cultist, and a barbarian who had been the first person in history cured of lycanthropy by none other than Vitu Sempra herself...who willingly became a werewolf again after Vor offered to return his "gift" to the barb. It was a heck of a party, lol.
I have never really pigeonholed most of my Non-Dragonlance games merely with the lore that was available to that setting. Although I started in the early 80's on AD&D, and then when AD&D2E came out that was such a major Godsend!! And don't forget to pull ideas from the archived "Dragon Magazine" pages you can find online. There are some real gems published in those old magazines.
That said, I have no idea what you are talking about with a lack of pantheons. In 5E games the tables I have been at whether as a DM or player has used the history of D&D pantheons and never played 5E by strict RAW. Just to make most settings a little more entertaining and believable always requires homebrewing touches, or at least going back a couple of editions to a time when the rules and lore made more sense. That said, we have always allowed for a couple of homebrewed God's as long as they somehow could be shoe-horned into the existing lore and make some sense. This became even more useful when Warlocks became a thing, and we wanted to branch out into the various creatures who could and wanted to extend their powers through a proxy. There have been a couple times we have brought Cthulhu cults and even the ancient gods into our stories.
You really need to look outside of Appendix B of the SRD for pantheon knowledge and ideas. Here is a down and dirty link to a list of different pantheons by edition. And then broken down by setting. There are well over 200 gods mentioned, and roughly 50 pantheons to look over if the lesser and greater gods mentioned are not your cup of tea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dungeons_&_Dragons_deities
I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
There is not a lack of official pantheons, it is that many of the gods in those are boring in my opinion. They mostly are just embodiments of their domain and look just like powerful people that maybe carry a symbolic object.
I was in a campaign where we had a sorcadin who followed Bahamut, a paladin who followed Tebo the football player, a life domain cleric that served Cubby Bear, and my monk/divine soul sorcerer was empowered by both Auril and Lathander. As you can see, that list involves some of the normal ones and a few who are weird homebrew deities that were just for fun. It might be that I just haven't read a lot on Dnd deities, but that list in Appendix B has a lot of bland ones. There aren't much that are really interesting, like Axomama the Incan god of Potatoes or Aipoloovik, inuit god of murder, the sea, earthquakes, and comets. This is really just my opinion, and I like it when they are a little more farfetched and have weird backstories, but I haven't really extensively researched most of them.
That is the crux of your problem. Appendix B was not written as some mind blowing new content. It is basically repeating cliff notes of boring deities that have much more content written about it back in the day, and they saving page space in their newer handbooks. This was never meant to wow you with possibilities, as much as giving you quick references to look up for story lines and arcs from previously created content. If I am wrong on that assumption, I have even less respect for WotC's content creators of recent years.
But that is why I posted some reading material. Just look up the the Basket Ogress of the Salishan speakers from BC and the Northweastern states of the US. Kurtulmak the patron deity of Kobolds, also the intermediate god of trapmaking, mining and war. Lolth the chief goddess of the Drow. Persana the creator-god of the Triton race. Cegilune the goddess and mother of hags (night hags), which can open up a campaign about Soul Larva, the Abyss, the Grey Wastes, Oinos, Altraloth, the Blood War, and/or the Grand Emporium of Hades (Wandering Emporium) . Or all sorts of hundred of other gods not mentioned in Appendix B. My main point is Appendix B is a quick reference for new players. As a seasoned player and DM, I never even thought to look there for deity references before it was brought up in the forum. In fact many of the discussions I have been on in this forum and others discus some of the more intricate and interesting Gods and how they interact within their mythos. Also, "which one" a DM may want to use in their realm because every single "god of" has at least 4-12 counterparts in other settings. One of my more favorite pantheons to look up was the Seelie Court, which has so much left to the DM to add to, that the mystery is a common discussion point. But honestly, you are only limited by your own imagination, and your own motivation to look up all this content waiting to be used.
However, if you are just hear to show off some of your ideas, then I appreciate that as well. I have pulled inspirations from many players homebrews that they showcase on the forums.
I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
Thanks for that information, I will definitely research it more. I also never meant to say that none of the PH options were good, I use Lolth, Kurtulmak, Gruumsh, Bahamat, Tiamat, and a few others in my games, I just meant that I am not really interested in the other ones, but I don't know much about them so I will definitely read about them.
However, the main purpose for creating this was to show some of what I use, and to see if anybody else also has good ideas for gods that are either fun or interesting.
I have 10 deities that I always use, known only by their numbers. Whenever a specific number appears in the campaign, it is a clue of what may happen
1- Self-sacrifice, darkness 5- Luck 9- leadership, snakes
2- Valour 6- evil, light 10- Defence, protector of women
3- Balance, shade 7- greed, the sea
4- Family, nature, twins 8- wisdom, age
🍅 PM me the word 'tomato' 🍅 Extended Signature Musk Sucks, Quit X!
That is a really cool idea. It must provide many great opportunities for foreshadowing.
I am currently working on a new homebrew world and this is the pantheon. Some extra stuff you should know is that the gods abandoned the world to prevent a dark prophecy, but they left creatures there to carry out their jobs. I’ll be using some art I found to describe these creatures.
Frella - Goddess of night, knowledge, hunting, and neutral magic
Creatures of Frella:
Sanga - god of the day, fire, wisdom, and chaotic magic
Creatures of Sanga:
Vitete - deity of life, death, and neutral magic
Creatures of Vitete:
Baterra - god of protection, strategy, and war
Creatures of Baterra:
Belleno - goddess of beauty and sleep
Creatures of Belleno:
Paureno - god of fear and poison
Creature of Paureno:
Shizoki - goddess of nature
Creatures of Shizoki:
Sutosado - god of storms and shadows
Creatures of Sutosado:
Umikari - Goddess of seas and light
Creatures of Umikari:
Brogo - god of trickery and curiosity
Creatures of Brogo:
The Nameless One - god of gods
Creatures of The Nameless One:
That’s all of them. Should I post the the personality’s of the gods and creatures too?
Hi, I’m DrakenBrine, here’s my Sig and characters
I am The Grand Envisioner!
Cool style. If you want to you can.
Thanks
Hi, I’m DrakenBrine, here’s my Sig and characters
I am The Grand Envisioner!
Here are a couple minor comedic gods I find fun.
Buzzbelbub - Buzzbelbub is a chaos god of destruction, paranoia, and taking things way too far. She most often takes the form of a tiny bee that always manages to escape unscathed from any attempts to kill it. She buzzes just out of reach of her victims, causing them to slowly go insane and they start to believe that every small misfortune is a personal attack.
Vot - God of peace, contentment, cute things, warm fuzzies, and all around docile pleasantness. This isn't a god to exhibit any power or wrath. This god does not avenge the weak or bring destruction upon the unrighteous. Neither do they send storms or raise mountains. At the most, they might have created a couple of puppies and kittens, but they didn't grow up into dogs and cats with teeth and claws. This is the type of god that you pray short rhyming prayers out of habit before going to bed or eating dinner. Some may pray to Vot to cure a cold, but nothing much more than that. Vot does not require you to change to follow them. As long as you believe you are a good person, and other people believe it to (more or less) Vot and Vot's disciples will except you into their ranks.
Dapunk - Dapunk is the god of rebellion. Especially teenage rebellion but he also stirs up other rebels too. Teenagers are just so easy to get at so they are his favorite followers. When people see him they often describe him as a, "Piece of work." His hair often changes but it is usually either in dreads or a mohawk. He has tattoos and piercings all over himself and if you look closely they say that his tats show scenes from the future. His clothes are usually leather and they are often artistically torn with spikes all over. He often holds an electric guitar and he wears his pants backwards. His followers do not consider themselves his followers. That would be against his teachings. Dapunk and his disciples do not believe in authority, heroism, education, government, labels, truth, working together, genres, freedom, modesty, consistency, gods, or anything else for that matter. Artistic depictions of him are often done in tattoo form or graffiti.
I've been working on changing and adapting the Greek pantheon for a homebrew world. I've been having a lot of fun with the minor gods: either disappointing offspring of more powerful deities or creations of the madness of kuo-toa. Notable examples include Zephyr, the god of slight breezes, and Tumaniseedyetis (too-many-sea-deities), the name for what is actually a ridiculously large amount of gods that all lay claim to bodies of water. Their constant petty squabbles and bickering is what causes the tide.
I might just have to steal Clang for my list of minor deities. The type of stealing where you have consent from the person you're stealing from, of course.
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
Almost universally, my message to players is: The world has an overabundance of gods and religions, an endless profusion of lesser and greater powers - you can create your own, or if you like, I'll make one for you. In the homebrew I use the most, there's regional greater gods (the port city of Ghazzad is dominated by powers of the sea, and of the land, since that's where it sits, right on the dividing line), plus a weird group of 'other gods' called simply The Nine. The Nine are the state religion of the primary human empire, but it's a strangely empty shell, with barely any churches or clerics or other things you might expect of a religion.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
The same deities have so many different names around the world, and every one of them has two aspects either of creation and destruction or of order and chaos. Most of them have power over multiple things. As one might guess, people consider them to be very moody.
We have weather/seasons, rivers/oceans/fishing, harvest/hunt, conflict/justice, health... but no life/death deity.
Weather and seasons can be gentle or harsh. Floods, rough waters, and bountiful fish can go either way. Wars can rise to the doom of all or be little more than legal spats and justice might never happen. Low and high health may be considered the cause of death and the restoration of life, but life and death are not the wills of deities but of the cycle of life and the machinations of people. What happens when one is not alive is not a consideration. Too many names to consider, though. Baras. Vill. Pora. Agilliance. Simon. Bentonicio. ... all for the Seasons depending on where one is on the planet.
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.
Nice. You definitely have my consent. Clang's reach stretches across the multiverse.
I have:
The Mother or Memory - Nature, Knowledge/Arcana, Life - The girl, Nausicaa, was daughter to the greatest chieftain Elkenbrand's tribes knew in recent years. The blood of giants flowed through Harrowgrim's veins, and he would have lead his people to greatness--yet, Elwyn's need for an army saw his people subjugated to the wizard's whims. In order to ensure his compliance, Elwyn kidnapped Nausicaa and held her for leverage, while meanwhile Harrowgrim prosecuted the wizard's war. Moved by desperation, Harrowgrim trusted his daughter's safety to adventurers who managed to rescue her. Sometime after, she spoke to her people, convincing them to remember themselves and abandon Elwyn's war. And that would have been the end of it, yet the legend of her life grew in the telling to become a faith practiced mostly among those who live by Elkenbrand. Her shrines are found in the wild lands around that mountain, and her adherents urge others to become unlost by honoring memory.
The Binder of Demons - Tempest, Light, Forge - His is a cult following practiced mainly by members of the Knighthood of the Silver Anchor. The main shrine to him is at Ft. Uloomu. His philosophy maintains that there is no way to be free from the burden of struggling for self improvement. Warriors who have done unspeakable things are still obligated to be better people tomorrow than they were today. His worship involves soul searching, holding vigils, undertaking vows and boasts, and trying for redemption--especially when there's no reason you should deserve to be redeemed. The Knighthood is in part a traveling order, so his shrines can be found in many places, though few are large or important.
Gohṡn, the Deathgod - Order/Peace, Grave, Feast - Gohṡn the Deathgod is the god of fatal endings. He is also a preserver. Through the intercession of ancestors He already holds in His hand, the faithful are preserved from misfortune until such time as they meet the end of their thread at His appointed hour. The center of His worship is in Wawloon, where the the Vicar of Gohsn administers the earthly affairs of His church. The position is elected by a council of cardinals, and said council is composed of the politically adept leaders of His churches from across the world who manage to advance themselves. His church runs soup kitchens and orphanages is cities throughout the world. Because he is the god of preserving and of endings, the best way to worship him is to enjoy the time given. Therefore, his church celebrates many feast days, the most important of which comes at the cross-quarter day between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox--because that's the day when the ground thaws. The feast is celebrated by digging up the embalmed bodies of one's relatives and bringing them to a communal feast. The richer you are, and the bigger your feast, the better you have honored the ancestors. Tomb sweeping is also an important way to show your dedication. His shrines tend to be located at crossroads, because they are liminal spaces and sacred to Him. The cardinal sin for those who worship Him is suicide, because it fundamentally denies His agency.
The Mistress of Mistresses - Death, War, Trickery - The Mistress of Mistresses is Gohṡn's distaff counterpart. Legend says She began as a mortal nun in Gohṡn's service before Her apotheosis. For members of Her church this is dogma, although for members of the Chruch of the Deathgod it is heresy. The nature of Her enlightenment was this: one night this nun received a divinely inspiring dream, sent to her by Gohṡn Himself. In the dream she made love to the Deathgod and when she woke she began to preach a new scripture. You see, the Church had strayed from Gohṡn's intended purpose by favoring His role as a preserver over His role in ending lives. Specifically, by preserving life past the point of accomplishment, Gohṡn's clergy were adding to the suffering of the world. Better, she began to preach, would be for the final moment to preserve us from dissolution before the grave. The Mistress of Mistresses' worship is outlawed in every civilized place, because Her church doubles as the assassin's guild. If there is a stabbing in a marketplace, Her clergy were behind it.
Cheesus: domain of life, patron god of all good aligned cheese makers
Cheesulbub: death, trickery, he is a demon lord over his realm of the abyss, cheesyztia. He is the lord of fake cheeses, like spray cheese or American cheese
As a cheese maker, I appreciate this.