They are for a fantasy analogue of Louisiana, set in a world that is medieval magitech (Kind of like Eberron, but reliant on steam engines fueled by boiling alchemical concoctions instead of on bound elementals).
In this world, the deities are neither good nor evil, and all support both good and evil causes. Also, different ethnic groups have different pantheons. Here I have two pantheons, one "French" and one "Spanish", with the "French" once having more adherents. Voodoo is also a common religion, but it is monotheistic, and therefore lacks a deity list.
Here are my deities:
Racinian Pantheon
Valentin
Valentin is the patron of soldiers, guards, knights, and others who give their lives to the service of either a community or an ideal. The structure of the community or morality of the ideal is largely irrelevant to Valentin, so long as it is there. Valentin is seen as a military god, though politicians and charitable organizations or individuals have also been known to devote themselves to him.
Domains: War, Community, Protection, Glory, Strength, Nobility, Liberation, Destruction, Death, Repose
Sybilla
Sybilla is the goddess of duty, prosperity, labor, parenthood, community, justice, and the home. She serves as patron and protector to parents, the work force, community leaders, children, and those who enforce the laws of society.
Domains: Community, Travel, Protection, Nobility, Charm, Law
Jacquelle
Jacquelle is the goddess of life, love, death, day, night, and love. She is the enforcer of the cycle of life, and is a goddess of both healing and harming, and is also a goddess of love and pleasure, whether courtly love or hedonism.
Domains: Healing, Death, Darkness, Sun, Repose, Protection, Destruction
Mathieu
Mathieu is the god of learning, science, advancement, exploration, magical study, and invention. He is the patron of those who seek out hidden knowledge, those who teach the uneducated, and whose who advance the study of magic and technology.
Domains: Knowledge, Artifice, Travel, Rune, Magic
Rosalie
Rosalie is the goddess of nature, architecture, and technology. Like Mathieu, she is a patron of the technical arts, but she is also the protector of nature and settlements. She believes that instead of existing in competition, the ideas of technology and settlement and the protection of nature can exist hand in hand. What is needed is a balance between these things, not the domination of one over another.
Domains: Artifice, Animal, Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Plant, Void, Scalykind, Weather, Sun, Darkness
Gaillard
Gaillard is the god of the underworld. Thieves, spies, murderers, corrupt politicians, and the like all pay homage to him, whether good intentioned rogues, disenfranchised folk just trying to survive or diabolical villains. Worshippers of Gaillard aren't necessarily criminals. Members of legal but ill liked professions, such as prostitutes, and others shunned by mainstream society, such as the mentally ill, often worship him.
Domains: Liberation, Trickery, Charm, Death, Destruction, Darkness, Glory, Strength, Madness, Chaos, Luck
Castillaran Pantheon
Martisa
Martisa is the goddess of leadership, justice, community, and battle. She is the patron of soldiers, politicians, judges, and other trappings of civilized society.
Domains: Law, Community, Strength, Healing, Glory, War, Protection, Destruction, Nobility
Ferando
Ferando is the god of love, pleasure, freedom, and chaos. He represents both the simple pleasures in life and the refusal to live under the rule of another.
Domains: Liberation, Chaos, Trickery, Luck, Healing, Glory, Charm
Aniceta
Aniceta is the goddess of the natural world. She is the patron of both the mercy and malice of the natural world, and seeks to protect it and it's inhabitants from the onward march of civilization and technology.
Domains: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Weather, Animal, Plant, Sun, Darkness, Healing, Death, Scalykind, Repose
Dionicio
Dionicio is the god of the sun, and of strength, healing, life, and prosperity. He represents all that is healthy and bountiful in the world, as well as childbirth. He is also a god of the strength and power that the sun provides.
Domains: Sun, Fire, Healing, Destruction, Strength, Protection, Luck, Nobility, Glory
Evita
Evita is the goddess of night, death, and the poor and downtrodden of society. She represents both the protection of those who the rest of society sees fit to ignore and the trickery, deciet, madness, and dark interests of night, as well as the end of life that must come to all beings.
Domains: Knowledge, Death, Destruction, Darkness, Trickery, Madness, Charm, Void, Repose
Emiliano
Emiliano is the lord of advancement, whether scientific, magical, or technological, and of teaching and scholarship.
Domains: Travel, Rune, Nobility, Magic, Knowledge, Artifice
Do these deities seem like they would work? Did I cover all the areas that need to be covered? Is six per pantheon enough? Are the two pantheons too similar, or is the similarity not necessarily bad? These are major deity lists. There are also minor deities, but they are too numerous to list.
Also, I would like to have some deities for Native tribes that live in the Louisiana area. Any ideas?
Your deities have quite large number of domains per head.
Your deities have quite large number of domains per head.
It's because they are neither good nor evil, but both, and therefore have domains that support good behavior and ones that support evil behavior, and usually have a couple portfolios.
I noticed that as well. More options for clerics is never a bad thing!
I'd be interested in more information regarding your voodoo religion. I think that even if it is monotheistic, you could implement a pantheon of loa spirits akin to lesser gods.
I may eventually create a spirit pantheon for the Voodoo religion. However, that religion is still under invention. I have some decisions to make.
What I'm doing right now is asking if the "French" and "Spanish" pantheons look complete enough.
I'd be interested in more information regarding your voodoo religion. I think that even if it is monotheistic, you could implement a pantheon of loa spirits akin to lesser gods.
Or group them into families of related spirits.
If Jacquelle "is goddess of love and pleasure, whether courtly love or hedonism," I'd imagine her followers are quite divided. Each faction could claim the other is a corruption of the faith. They might be at each others' throats over their interpretations!
Would make for an excellent source strife within the community (aka - RP-gold).
If Jacquelle "is goddess of love and pleasure, whether courtly love or hedonism," I'd imagine her followers are quite divided. Each faction could claim the other is a corruption of the faith. They might be at each others' throats over their interpretations!
Would make for an excellent source strife within the community (aka - RP-gold).
That's a feature of all of the deities. They are all neutral, and all have substantial good and evil factions.
My favorite has to be Rosalie. I love the idea of a nature goddess with a deep love of technology. I'm thinking I might let Druids have the Artifice domain if they are faithful of Rosalie.
You might want to flesh out Mathieu and Emiliano a little more. As of now, there isn't much to distinguish them.
Do both pantheons need a god devoted to technology/advancement and the like?
Are these pantheons mutually exclusive, or would people often worship both? Are people ethnocentric, refusing to worship deities which aren't of their own (French/Spanish)?
My favorite has to be Rosalie. I love the idea of a nature goddess with a deep love of technology. I'm thinking I might let Druids have the Artifice domain if they are faithful of Rosalie.
Machine Druid that sets free into wilds self-replicating clocklings and steamlings?
The pantheons are not mutually exclusive, and it is possible to worship both, but only common among those of mixed ethnicity. Most people not of mixed ethnicity stick to their own gods.
My favorite has to be Rosalie. I love the idea of a nature goddess with a deep love of technology. I'm thinking I might let Druids have the Artifice domain if they are faithful of Rosalie.Machine Druid that sets free into wilds self-replicating clocklings and steamlings?
I kind of prefer a Druid that blends nature magic and technology magic over a full technology druid, though I won't say no to a clockwork companion.
Perhaps I could find Mathieu a different portfolio that knowledge and technology, and let Rosalie stand as the technology deity and fold the knowledge parts into Sybilla?
Any ideas for a portfolio for Mathieu?
I kind of prefer a Druid that blends nature magic and technology magic over a full technology druid, though I won't say no to a clockwork companion.My favorite has to be Rosalie. I love the idea of a nature goddess with a deep love of technology. I'm thinking I might let Druids have the Artifice domain if they are faithful of Rosalie.Machine Druid that sets free into wilds self-replicating clocklings and steamlings?
Self-replicating and self-adapting then? Or is evolution/adaptation idea unknown to science/philosophy in your setting?
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Druid artificers: perhaps they might create constructs to protect the wilderness and guard against the encroachment of civilization (see Woldwardens, Iron Kingdoms).
Druid artificers: perhaps they might create constructs to protect the wilderness and guard against the encroachment of civilization (see Woldwardens, Iron Kingdoms).
Yes, but they wouldn't so much guard against it's encroachment as it's overextension. Rosalie is also a goddess of cities, towns, and architecture, and believes in a balance between wildnerness and civilization, not the dominance of one or the other.
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Mathieu could be less concerned with techical discovery, and more so involved in the pursuit of bettering one's self? Personal advancement and discovery.
Could be too vague a concept, but a god fostering a path to 'enlightenment' could a place within the world.
His followers might include philosophers and the like...
Self-replicating and self-adapting then? Or is evolution/adaptation idea unknown to science/philosophy in your setting?I kind of prefer a Druid that blends nature magic and technology magic over a full technology druid, though I won't say no to a clockwork companion.My favorite has to be Rosalie. I love the idea of a nature goddess with a deep love of technology. I'm thinking I might let Druids have the Artifice domain if they are faithful of Rosalie.Machine Druid that sets free into wilds self-replicating clocklings and steamlings?
Evolution is known. I'm just kind of scared of any machine that can self-replicate.
I'm just kind of scared of any machine that can self-replicate.
Too much Stargate? XD
Too much Star Trek. Borg don't technically self replicate, but still.
The pantheons are mostly ethnic, so they don't try to recruit members from other pantheons. It's accepted that the "French" have one pantheon, the "Spanish" another, and so on.
Deities tend to be strategic allies for the most part. They usually don't hate each other (though a couple do). For the most part, they let each other alone unless it benefits them to work together or one encroaches into another's jurisdiction.
Major and minor (demigod) is the extent of the hierarchies, as the pantheons lack leaders.
Evita serves as the closest thing to an underworld goddess in the Castillaran pantheon.
Self-replicating and self-adapting then? Or is evolution/adaptation idea unknown to science/philosophy in your setting?Evolution is known. I'm just kind of scared of any machine that can self-replicate.
But... but... How can one not love the clanks?!
I have decided that there is a counsel of all the world's gods that sometimes meets to handle important issues involving all the races. It meets infrequently and only when necessary, and made such decisions as making the genders physically equal (women have less muscle, but it is stronger than male muscle) after the planned gender roles had some unintended consequences, gifting elves with great arcane power so they could rule over the other races, and giving everybody else with the same arcane power as the elves after the elves went and abused it thoroughly.
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Resistance is useless.
"Futile." "Resistance is futile."
I like it; I've always tended to add more domains to pantheons I've dabbled with, and the fact that the gods are uninvested in morality really clicks for me. If worship is somehow needful to deities, it's perfect: take the prayers and sacrifices where you can get 'em, and damn the mortal obsession with good and evil. Gods should be into less or more.
And technology is application of natural laws; there's no reason why druids couldn't be technomantic, especially in a setting where magic and technology are linked so closely.
Good stuff!
Resistance is useless."Futile." "Resistance is futile."
It's a parody! XD
How can they be both good and evil? Good and evil aren't symmetrical or zero-sum; good is a narrower path. Evil people can do good sometimes and still be evil, but if you do evil you are evil.
How can they be both good and evil? Good and evil aren't symmetrical or zero-sum; good is a narrower path. Evil people can do good sometimes and still be evil, but if you do evil you are evil.
As far as the gods are concerned, good and evil is a definition to be left to humans to decide, not gods. They are also pretty hands off. They may allow evil acts to happen at the hands of their followers, but they do not commit them. Same with good acts. I put them at neutral as a result. Individual humans are free to think different if they wish.
It reads well, and if your goal is to create a "system" that supports and supplies boundaries for your game, then well done.
On the other hand, it is soundly illogical. For if the presumption is that there is a “world” wherein beings of phenomenal cosmic power derive some of that power from the act of worship, and therefore they are in a position to cultivate that worship for their self preservation it is illogical to try to persuade mortals to worship you if you yourself cannot make a definitive stand on what is important to you.
Take for example the “altruistic” versus “hedonistic” love situation. For the purposes you yourself have stated this Deity will fulfill a role in the game you hope to run, but if the world is to have any verisimilitude the question must be raised, “How did this Deity convince two ideological opposed camps to agree that there is a single cosmic entity that represents them?” Surely the mortals would clamor for clarification, or more reasonably they would create personifications of the Deity that make clear that they are two separate identities. Now it could be that the one Deity is the reality (in the world you have created) and this Deity receives power from the worship of the mortals, even though the mortals worship symbols of the Deity that suggest there are two separate Deities.
Well, what the deities say is that you need to decide for yourself what kind is good, not have me tell you. The deity will support you either way. The deity cares about, in this case, love. The form of that love is unimportant. Humans can consider it importan, and are free to kill each other over which is correct, but the god does not champion any one form of love over another.
Fertility?
Harvest?
Storms?
The Moon?
Water?
All real pantheons had these essential elements of life covered by their Gods.
You might consider looking over some real Earth pantheons to see what their gods were of. One thing that drives me nutty about Pathfinder / DND pantheons, is unlike the real world, they're not about what the peasants need, they're about different spell lists. It makes mapping real world deities onto the artificial game mechanics quite difficult, actually.
I do cover all those things you mention.
Sybilla, Dionicio - Fertility (falls under childbirth/parenthood)
Sybilla, Dionicio - Harvest (falls under prosperity)
Rosalie, Aniceta - Storms (falls under nature)
Jacquelle, Evita (falls under night)
Rosalie, Aniceta (falls under nature)
I may take more IRL influence in the pantheons, however.