So we've talked about randomly rolling to create gods, and we've talked about how demigods can fit into your campaign world. Today we're going to talk about pantheons and how they can be incorporated.
Something that a great many people seem to forget when dealing with fantasy pantheons is that the people in the fictional world don't look at the pantheon, pick a single god or goddess and say, "That's the god I worship!" They make offerings to all of the gods when appropriate. A traveling merchant would make offerings to a god of roads or of the sea before setting out on a venture regardless of whether that god was good or evil.
First you need to determine the number of gods, are there only a few or are there dozens? Personally, I feel that 10-15 major gods provides enough to cover all the important aspects of reality while not so many as to be overwhelming.
But moving on, assuming that you aren't building your pantheon as you go there are two basic ways that you can fill out a pantheon: culture first or pantheon first. The domains of the gods and their politics says a lot about the culture that worships them. Are there a dozen gods with the War domain? Odds are that the culture is a very militant one. Perhaps one god has the Chaos domain with several having Law; the government in such a society would naturally have a great deal of power.
I will primarily be discussing pantheon first, as I have seen fewer guides on doing so online and the few that I have seen are almost always about using real world historical pantheons. The two biggest factors in how culture will reflect the pantheon are domains and alignment. An isolationist and xenophobic culture is unlikely to have a god of Travel with the Good alignment. Use alignment associated with certain domains to tell you how the culture views aspects of reality.
If all of the gods with the Magic domain are also Evil, then that tells you that the culture hates or fears magic. If the gods with Magic are evenly split between Good and Evil then the culture probably views magic as something neither inherently good or evil.
I will build a pantheon that you are free to use in your own games as an example.
Worshiped by the Tarza, the gods of this pantheon consist of Yino (LE; Community, Evil, Law, Magic, Water), Makra (CN; Chaos, Fire, Knowledge, Madness, Trickery), Zuka (LG; Air, Good, Law, Sun, Travel), Raza (NG; Darkness, Good, Protection, Trickery, War), Uuth (LN; Law, Luck, Magic, Plant, Rune), Nambe (LG; Animal, Artifice, Good, Law, Magic), Ino (CE; Chaos, Destruction, Earth, Evil, Glory), Orak (LG; Charm, Good, Healing, Law, Nobility), Pare (CE; Animal, Chaos, Evil, Liberation, War), Dendo (CG; Chaos, Darkness, Death, Good, Nobility), and Thurza (NE; Evil, Protection, Repose, Strength, Weather)
So all of the gods with Magic are Lawful, of the Chaotic gods one is Neutral, one is Good and two are Evil; amongst other things this paints a picture of a culture that views magic an innately structured and chaotic influences as the enemy. Based on the Lawful Good Orak being the provider of the Charm domain and the Neutral Evil Thurza being the provider of Strength they probably view diplomacy as being better than warfare, yet Thurza also has the Protection domain. This leads to the view of martial strength as a necessary evil, rather than something glorious and a means of prestige.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you like my work and want to support me, check out my homebrew race book here.
No comments:
Post a Comment