So I'm mostly done with my project to build a pantheon from scratch, but my selection of evil deities looks light to me. So I have come to solicit aid. My basic premise is was to list all of the primary archetypes that a fantasy pantheon needs/ has openings for, and then brew up something to fill each one. There are no race or region specific deities, there are just variations in name and superficial trappings to each deity in different places, specific symbols, exact favored weapon, that sort of thing can vary.
So, for evil deities I have:
The Night King, the Usurper. Ruler who takes by force and guile, rather than ruling by right. LE
Master of Murder, patron of assasins, revenge and hate. NE
The Beast Lord. God of the aspects of nature that are feared, rabid starving wolves eating your babies and such. NE
The Mad One, insane destruction and revelation. CE
The Jealous Whisperer. Giver of secrets that are not yours, temptress of stuff you shouldn't have. CE
Looking for a few others, any ideas?
If your going for the primary stereotypes/archetypes, you should looks at the 7 deadly sins.
Seems like you have a lot of Wrath-y ones, so that ones fine.
Perhaps you could have a god that combines Greed and Gluttony? A god that wishes people to not only hoard copious amounts of objects and coin, but also take indulgence in more... questionable acts.
You could also have a god that is more CN, but is based around Sloth (and a bit of Pride), the god that encourages egotism and procrastination.
Here's a detailed example of one you could use:
The God of Egotism and Procrastination
Gokron's holy symbol is a tall flower.
Gokron's favored weapon is a blowgun.
Gokron is a god that relishes in lazing about, indulging in his personal pleasures. Gokron and his followers are typically nobles, as both love to get those below him to do his job for him. However, among the many nobles who follow him, their is the occasional follower who prefers to wield Gokron's name properly, rather than a pitiful excuse not to get out of bed in the morning, and so assassins and rogues are known to kill people with devious poisons from far distances.
I like to have gods that are neither good nor evil, leaving morality as a mortal problem.
The most 'good' god in my current setting happens to see mortals as poor helpless babies that need to be coddled and protected... even if they don't want to be. Mortals just don't know any better, right?
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Dark reflections of your good gods might be a start. If you have a god of dreams and prophecy, add a god of nightmares and dark fates (which might be your Mad One, possibly.) What does the rest of the pantheon look like?
Try THIS. Better yet: several of them, each claiming to be the One True God (and all of the followers of the others are heretics/apostates/heathens, and are all going to Hell or something).
I initially left out the rest for brevity sake, but since it was asked for,here goes.
King of Heaven, the Sun King. Divine ruler and patron of just law. LG
Hearth Mistress, Mother, Healer. Patron of "proper women" LG
Storm King. True good requires all to have freedom, and a voice, wild unrestrained masculine power. CG
Moon Lady, mystery, magic, fate. Patron of "improper women" CG
The Sword of Light. Defender of the weak, just war and crusade against darkness. NG
The Beautiful Liar, art, beauty, music and passion. CG
Great Smith. Patron of those who make things with their hands. LN
Divine Scribe. Keeper of the Record, teacher of stuff. LN
Queen of the Grave. Keeper of the Doorway of Souls. N, really N
The Wandering God, patron of free spirits, travellers, and others that he notices, when he remembers them. CN
The Sailor on Eternity. Mysterious dude of the Sea, both the one of water, and the subconcious. N
King of the Wilds. Wilderness, animals, untamed. CN
The Seeker in the Void. Mysterious searcher, dweller in the spaces between, specific stuff of my campaign that is way too much to type out. N
The Lord of War. Loves a good fight, not picky. N
There you go.
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It looks like most of the dark reflections are there already. You might add something like
The Lady of Discipline. Judges, contracts and domination. LE (reflected from the Hearth Mistress)
if that doesn't overlap with your idea of the Night King too much. Or maybe
The Shadow Weaver. Corruption, ambition and dark magic. CE. (reflected from the Moon Lady)
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I love the idea of evil gods that can play benevolent. In my setting, I actually hid gods' alignments and split them into sub-faiths based on their portfolio. Here's two examples of what that could be.
The Seller of Time - LE - A ruthless bargainer who seeks out desperate, condemned mortals and offers them another chance in life as payment for furthering his dark plans.
The Great Teacher - CE - A master of pain who tricks people to push themselves through immense suffering for false promises and achievements.
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A god of the path towards personal power (be it through achievement, strength, magic or politics) is another option for an evil god that has appeal to normal folk. He who rewards those who strive to be strong, seize what they need and brook no weakness. Works very well as a god who takes 'survival of the fittest' a step too far, too.
It looks like most of the dark reflections are there already. You might add something like
The Lady of Discipline. Judges, contracts and domination. LE (reflected from the Hearth Mistress)
if that doesn't overlap with your idea of the Night King too much. Or maybe
The Shadow Weaver. Corruption, ambition and dark magic. CE. (reflected from the Moon Lady)
I would say this, at most, and you're done. It seems to me you already have a balanced pantheon between good, neutral, and evil. Nice.
I built a pantheon by combining the "spheres of influence" archetypes with the nine Alignments. Then put 2 lesser/demigods under each. Worked pretty well, and gives a certain "logic" to the Alignment system. Although, I envision using the pantheons "concerns" to define morality, and leaving actual alignment out of the game for mortals...
A couple ideas I will have to explore and ponder a bit more. As long as I have your attention, I will beg your indulgence for two more questions.
Are there any other standard divine roles/archetypes missing? Any type of cleric that isn't supported by this list?
And, reality/ ego check for me. While folks are awesome in their willingness to help, how many are really interesting in reading the homebrew work of others? Is it worth my time to link the final doc here when it is all done and polished?
A god of storms (either land-based or sea-based)
A trickster who can be both good or bad depending on his/her/it's whims.
Storms are being covered by the Storm Lord, and the Sailor of Eternity. I'm looking at the Beautiful Liar, Wanderer, and to some extant, the Master of Murder for filling various trickster roles.
Associations between gods and goddesses of the pantheon will help inform you as well.
And you can realize that you don't need to have one deity per portfolio or related concepts. Historically, mythology is filled with all sorts of gods that seem to contradict themselves in their patronage of concepts that seem odd together.
For my homebrew I have a god of the dead who was a wealthy merchant in life. He went to the underworld (no heaven/hell in my cosmology) and literally bought his way onto the throne of the King of the Dead to become the next ruler of the underworld.
The then current King was released having been imprisoned there (he was a "dead god"). Unleashed upon the world, he become the god of liberty, madness, excess/gluttony, and undeath.
The merchant become the Lord of The Dead, plus the god of wealth, bargaining, and contracts. During his rule spirits either eternally toiled in the deep mines of the underworld delivering gems and precious metals to him (if they were evil in life) or spent eternity in comfort in his court (if they were good in life).
Sorry I missed "The Storm King"
Oh, I realize that many figures from real myth/ religion have connections to a mix of things that looks odd to an outsider. For purposes of this project, I am looking for roles that are more pure and specific than much of real stuff. A central concept that I didn't mention earlier, again that brevity thing, is the dynamic of the three way tension/ conflict between the three principal Patriarch figures (each with their respective Matriarch) for control of the sky, symbolic of the cosmos. We have the Sun King, with the Hearth Mistress ( good little wifey) contending directly with the Night King, (in his utterly disfuncfional marriage to the Jealous Whisperer). The Storm King and his partner, The Moon Lady, don' t so much want to rule the sky, as have the freedom to go where they will and own the spot they currently occupy. The other deities are divided between these three, or in some cases ignoring the whole matter.
OK that's very cool. I like the Greek pantheon feeling you have going with the 3 couples.
So to throw away brevity, have you come up with an origin of the gods? Are the gods outside of the 3 major couples related to one or more of those couples?
Do any of the other gods have good reason to ally themselves to one of the 3 couples? (loyalty, safety, rewards of some kind)
Are the opposed gods/goddesses directly at war or do they use mortals as proxies to control the ebb and flow of power?
if you divide these gods up into camps (good, neutral evil or law, neutral chaos) is there anything obviously missing that sticks out to you? And is what seems to be missing a matter of symmetry (needing the same number of gods in each faction) or is it matter of trying to cover all bases?
These gods did not create the world, they are in fact all younger than most, maybe all, of the races. Their precise origin is debated and argued, but comes from around the time of a massive cataclysm that sbaped the 'modern' world. The older divinities are distant and noninteractive. Though some interpratations will arrange 'famalies' of the gods, this is not universal. I'm not seeing any gaps in the list, but I, like most, don't edit my own work well.
I love the idea of evil gods that can play benevolent. In my setting, I actually hid gods' alignments and split them into sub-faiths based on their portfolio. Here's two examples of what that could be.
The Seller of Time - LE - A ruthless bargainer who seeks out desperate, condemned mortals and offers them another chance in life as payment for furthering his dark plans.
The Great Teacher - CE - A master of pain who tricks people to push themselves through immense suffering for false promises and achievements.
-
A god of the path towards personal power (be it through achievement, strength, magic or politics) is another option for an evil god that has appeal to normal folk. He who rewards those who strive to be strong, seize what they need and brook no weakness. Works very well as a god who takes 'survival of the fittest' a step too far, too.
Another evil God that appeals to the common people: The God of Pride, Sovereignty, and Restoration of Past Glory. Master of Pride/Illusion magic. Worship him, and he promises to make your nation/people great again . . . .
Hmmm, I think I see where you are going here, hmmm.
On topiic, this would fit very well with the Night King of this pantheon.
Not so much another deity, but just wondering how the cults work. Assuming there's ceremonies for coming of age, getting married etc., have you thought about whether these would be handled by a cleric or other figure in the cult the person favours, or are they each duties of some cult in particular?
Also whether there are cults which worship some group of the deities. In Eberron for example a cleric can worship the Sovereign Host or the Dark Six as their 'god' if they see that as being more important than one of the individual gods.
Elsther of the Crawling Veil - goddess of poison, vermin and disease. A sadistic opportunist who feels that poison, vermin and disease are misunderstood ("people are ignorant of these fascinating things!"). She enjoys afflicting the uneducated masses and watching them suffer from natural forces which they fear. To Elsther, this is punishment for their ignorance. Neutral Evil. Favored weapon is the blowgun.
Carral the Iron Hand. The patron of slavery and tyranny. Lawful Evil. Weapon of choice is the Whip.
Reaper of the final death; personification of The Void.
God of darkness, death, magic, inspiration, mischief and malevolence.
CE, favored weapon is the scythe.
Golden Jenneal. Goddess of greed and betrayal. "The original gold-digger" who seduced, married, extorted, betrayed, killed, and then cannibalized her godly husband, Torreg of the Bountiful Horn.
Chaotic Evil
Favored weapon is the axe, which she used to kill and butcher her husband.
I would suggest reading Proto-Indo-European religion on Wikipedia.
You have a sky-father and a storm-god but not dawn-goddess or cattle-god. A god of the sea but not of fresh-water.
As a peasant, I would be more interested in the Protector of the Pastures than the gods of badness.
Let's see, lots of comments to ponder. Peasent concerns, I'm looking at fields and flocks falling under the Hearth Goddess, basicly the simple, sustaining crafts and industries, the kind of thing that Heroes takes for granted, like all things food related. Dawn and dusk I have delibrately left out, these are the transitions and battle lines between Sun and Night.
The other big ommision from most gaming pantheons is racial deities, this is a design choice. There are some obscure world reasons for this, certainly diferent races and cultures have a preference for one or more deities, but there is no God of the Dwarves.
Day to day and ceremonial practices will vary by region, the multiple faces and names of each deity are followed in different fashions. In some their will certainly be joint worship of a few that are viewed as allies or relatives by that culture.
Fresh water, good point, rivers are quite important, need to work on that.
Another intentional omission, the fluffy bunny unicorn good nature deity. The closest I want to that is the Hearth Mistress having domain over crops and flocks, domesticated, tamed nature.
Edit, annoying typo.
Do you have a god of the undead? Maybe some evil gods dedicated to other evil monster types, like demons, devils, dragons, aberrations, magical beasts, evil fey, evil humanoids, monstrous humanoids? Maybe gods of pirates, bandits, marauders, thieves, robbers, waste, torturers?
In my campaign, I focused on Good and Neutral pantheons that PCs, heroes, and normal folk would worship, at least in public.
The evil deities are less organized and more secretive, partially because the PCs won't be worshipping them, and partially to give me some wiggle room as the campaign develops.
I'd suggest giving them names to go with their titles. Ugroth the Mad One or something.
Names, names. A basic design idea I am working with is that these are the true gods worshipped across the world, with variations in revional and cultural interpration. So their names vary in different places. The True Name of each would be a trmendously secret fact.
While most, maybe all, would have demons, angels, dragons, whatever, as servants, I want to shy away from anything too specific as far as portfolio goes.
After looking at folk's suggestions and input I am feeling more like they're aren't really holes that I really want to fill, just more meat to put on the bones. I do appreciate the comments, and the chance to ramble and spout my head contents here with you all.
Malkinrend, The Festering Taint - CE God of Disease, Poison, Corruption, and Filth. Patron of healers, poisoners, vermin, sewer-dwellers, etc.
It is said that many years ago the world's most virtuous knight fell to envy, greed, wrath, or some other base emotion and poisoned his king - the corruption which took hold of his heart was stronger than any ever known, and many years later after this person died their corruption survived them as Malkinrend. The name is not spoken in polite company, nor impolite company for that matter, as it is believed that those who invoke it fall deathly ill or experience some other similar misfortune.
However, many doctors, physicians, and healers whisper in dark corners of the world that he will respond when called to heal the sick, the poisoned, and the ill. All it takes is one simple deed - a painkiller left underneath a bench, a phrase spoken into the sewers at night, food left out on the street overnight - but the truth is that these deeds invariably lead to a profound corruption; the painkiller distilled to create a numbing agent to allow needle pricks and darts of poison to go unnoticed, the phrase coded information about the cult's next target, the food bait for a verminous swarm to devastate a farmer's crops.
Devout followers willingly spread his corrupting influence, bringing plagues to the land, poisoning goblets at a ball, and giving safe haven to criminals who know to travel the sewers. His cult is unseen and unheard, but their influence spreads far and wide. Many have attempted to fight it, but thus far all have failed, for the cult is not a singular force to be faced and defeated but a legion of vermin in a restaurant's cellar, a colony of bacteria placed in a bag of copper pieces, a surgeon who doesn't sterilize his tools, a desperate woman seeking to cure her ailing husband.
Malkinrend especially favors the fallen devout of Good-aligned deities whom he "blesses" in often disturbing and grotesque ways. (If your setting uses Antipaladins, they would make amazing disciples of this deity as they are immune to the effects of disease but can still become carriers)
Another intentional omission, the fluffy bunny unicorn good nature deity. The closest I want to that is the Hearth Mistress having domain over crops and flocks, domesticated, tamed nature.
I'm was not suggesting a bunny unicorn goddess of nature.
I'm guessing your Hearth Goddess is also the goddess of childbirth as well as the earth mother?
How many goddesses are in your pantheon?
I am actually cool with giving gods titles, not names. Although it sometimes it is really hard to come up with a non-cheesy title that also isn't boring.
Something I have always been curious about doing is to see the kind of god/pantheon you can come up with by randomly rolling alignment and then randomly rolling two concerns. Than use the alignment and concerns (not domains, but rather broader/narrower themes, like love, murder, horses, etc) to draft the deities personality, goals, relationships, and interests
Another intentional omission, the fluffy bunny unicorn good nature deity. The closest I want to that is the Hearth Mistress having domain over crops and flocks, domesticated, tamed nature.I'm was not suggesting a bunny unicorn goddess of nature.
I'm guessing your Hearth Goddess is also the goddess of childbirth as well as the earth mother?
How many goddesses are in your pantheon?
1) Sorry for the confusion, was not intending my "fluffy bunny goddess" comment as a response to your input ( which is appreciated), but as a general distinction between where I am going and where some published gaming pantheons go.
2) Actually Childbirth I have mostly settled on putting with the Grave Queen, sort of a unity of the entrance and exit from life. I don't really see a single earth mother figure in this comcept, aspects of it I find split about, but not seeing a single figure for it.
3) Apart from the three "power couples" and the Grave Queen, none of these deities have fixed genders/ sexes/ or whatever term you use for a nonreproducing, non- biological entity. I see that as another thing that will vary between different subfaiths on a refional basis. I use a lot of male titles in my writing, old habits, in this case not actually intended to carry information.
I realize that I am also coming at this kind of backwards if you think like someone actually educated on mythology/ ancient religion. Mythological pantheons are constructed by people trying to make sense and assign meaning to the world. My pantheon construction is based on the idea that these beings showed up, said high to people, and asked to have a church built. Over time folks would figure out who was most helpful for a specific concern, but they aren't writing a new saga to explain this new cult they are starting.
I know the last paragraph is grossly simplified, but I hope I'm making sense.
Are you familiar with the Unification Church from Dragonstar? It sounds similar to what your posting, I think. The following are the deity archetypes (with alignment, domains, symbol and favored weapon for flavor):
The Destroyer
Chaotic Evil
Chaos, Evil, Destruction, Death, War
A black, five-pointed star
Morningstar
The Father
Lawful Good
Good, Healing, Law, Sun*, War
A golden sun
Mace
The Judge
Lawful Good
Good, Destruction, Knowlege, Law, Protection
A balanced scale
Hammer
The Lover
Neutral Good
Animal, Good, Healing, Protection, Water
A white dove
Dagger
The Magus
Neutral
Knowledge, Luck, Magic, Protection, Trickery
An open eye
Quarterstaff
The Merchant
Lawful Neutral
Knowledge, Law, Luck, Travel, Trickery
A gold coin
Shortspear
The Mother
Chaotic Good
Animal, Good, Earth, Protection, Plant
A crescent moon
Sickle
The Reaper
Lawful Evil
Death, Earth, Evil, Law, Trickery
A humanoid skull
Scythe
The Stormlord
Chaotic Neutral
Air, Chaos, Destruction, Travel, Water
A silver trident
Trident
The Smith
Neutral
Fire, Knowledge, Magic, Strength, Technology*
An anvil
Warhammer
The Trickster
Chaotic Neutral
Chaos, Knowledge, Luck, Magic, Trickery
A fool's scepter
Short Sword
The Warrior
Lawful Neutral
Law, Luck, Magic, Strength, War
A greatsword
Greatsword
In contrast, Realistic Religion from Dragon 283 offers these deity archetypes:
The Great Mother
usually neutral good
Gaia, Isis
The Green Man
neutral
male counterpart to the Great Mother
Holly Man, Green Jack/George
The Trickster
always chaotic, usually neutral or evil
Coyote, Loki
The Destroyer
chaotic, usually evil
Kali, Angra Mainyu
The God of Revelry
always chaotic, usually good or neutral
Dionysus
God of War and Storms
lawful
Thor, Marduk
The Sun God
lawful
Apollo, Ra
The Celestial Queen
lawful neutral
goddess of night
Artemis
Keeper of the Dead
any alignment
usually male
Osiris, Hades
I hope this helps.
Based on what I read, I believe your Hearth Goddess will be the most important divinity in your world since most people (who aren't adventurers) are concerned with agriculture, animal husbandry, family, community and healing.
Interesting, yes, this looks alot like what I am working toward. With regards to your comment about the importance of my Hearth Goddess, you are spot on. I have mixed feelings about that fact. This stems from having two semi-conflicting agendas. First I want a consistent, workable system of worship for my imaginary world. Second, I want a good set of rule options for my RPG. These two have some differences.
It does seem that the Hearth portfolio is a bit thick, a logical portion to shave off and give to another deity might be helpful, either existing or maybe new. But from the RPG standpoint, maybe not too important.
As an aside, the list above references Lawful storm gods, this has always struck me as odd. Unless it is wishful thinking that the one in charge of storms is honorable and can be bargained with.
Great!
Do-it-yourself Deities is an another article also in Dragon 283 that I think you might find helpful.
{. . .}
Another intentional omission, the fluffy bunny unicorn good nature deity. {. . .}
Now I've got this vision of a fluffy bunny Trickster deity, a rather dim-wittented Hunter deity, and a duck deity who can never seem to find a secure place . . . .
Great!
Do-it-yourself Deities is an another article also in Dragon 283 that I think you might find helpful.
Thanks for the advice, I stopped reading Dragon many issues before that, will have to hunt for an archive.