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So, I had an idea for a new homebrew world, but I'm kind of stuck on a point. I'm not sure if anyone has ever thought of this particular idea or not, but I thought I'd throw it out and see what opinions I could get.
The idea starts with Odin. He knows that, at some point, Ragnarok is going to occur and then he's screwed. So he decides to get together with some other gods and create another world, a hidden world where evil doesn't exist.
One god I had Odin recruit is good old Prometheus. He wants to get away from the Olympians before Zeus decides he needs to be punished again. Plus Prometheus likes the idea of a world where his creation (mankind) can live in peace and comfort, without the problems brought about by evil.
Now we get to my sticking point. I want at least one more god to go with these guys, but I can't decide on any good candidates. I had a few ideas, such as Perun (Slavic), Indra (from the Rigveda and Hinduism), Mithra (Persian), Belenus (Gaul/Celtic), or even Bast (Egyptian). I even considered Vishnu, whose motivation would be that he was tired of always being caught between Brahman and Shiva. Any other idea on this would be welcome.
Of course, eventually (and no matter who the third god turned out to be) things would go bad. The Norns/Fates, being the ones who had power even over Odin, would appear and throw a monkey-wrench into things. Evil would be creep into the world, maybe from an over looked source, such as Erebus (I've been wanting to use him for a while now). Stufff like that. Either way, things wouldn't go exactly as the gods had planned.
So, there's my idea.
Have you considered any of the Loa from voudoun? some are supposed to be godlike and some are ancestor spirits, but they might be what you need. Some are also thought of as having 2 sides, and that might be part of "why it all goes wrong". I dont have a book in front of me atm but I'm sure you could probably find something. It might be something to consider.
Just to screw with your players and make the game that much more interesting, you could have the third deity be the modern God. All these centuries he's thought that if he could get people to worship him and only him, he'd be able to control and nurture us toward goodness. Unfortunately, he's come to the realization that even worshipping only him, we end up creating different versions and names for him and fighting and hating each other anyway. So now he's moving on to a new experiment with two partners (which he's never had before) in a new type of Eden.
Hope this helps, though it might not go over so well if any of your players are religious.
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Have you considered any of the Loa from voudoun? some are supposed to be godlike and some are ancestor spirits, but they might be what you need. Some are also thought of as having 2 sides, and that might be part of "why it all goes wrong". I dont have a book in front of me atm but I'm sure you could probably find something. It might be something to consider.
You know, I hadn't considered them. That is a good idea. I'll have to look up some infor on them.
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Coyote. Cept Odin doesn't know Coyote is really Loki. Except Loki's TRYING to do good this time, he just hoses everything up anyway. And they gotta frag a giant like the way Odin, Vili and Ve fragged Ymir to make the earth outta.
That's my brainstorm onnhoo.
I summon forth.....Lilith!
Hmm. I had thought about Coyote at one point. If I remember correctly, he was in the old 2E version of Deities and Demigods (was that its name?). He is a trickster and would fit with the others. The problem with Native North American mythology is that it seems that every tribe had some different ideas. There are a few universal concepts, but no unified mythology. Still, three trickster gods might be kinda cool.
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Just to screw with your players and make the game that much more interesting, you could have the third deity be the modern God. All these centuries he's thought that if he could get people to worship him and only him, he'd be able to control and nurture us toward goodness. Unfortunately, he's come to the realization that even worshipping only him, we end up creating different versions and names for him and fighting and hating each other anyway. So now he's moving on to a new experiment with two partners (which he's never had before) in a new type of Eden.
Hope this helps, though it might not go over so well if any of your players are religious.
Actually, I don't have any players. I have a group that I game with, but I've never DM'd for them. In fact, I haven't DM'd in years. But I love world creation, and this idea hit me the other day.
I summon forth.....Lilith!
*appears in a cloud of barbecue-scented smoke*
What? Who summons me?
My ideas:
Grandmother Spider Native American; Some myths state that she brought fire to humans after the other animal spirits failed; others that she saved humans from the destruction of the previous world by weaving a ladder made of spider silk (good explanation for the Infinite Staircase and other planar gateways).
Guan-yin/Kwan-yin/Kannon Benevolent mother figure (I'm being grossly generic here), "One Who Hears the Cries of the World", rescues those shipwrecked, pleas given to her by women in childbirth.
Feng Po-po The Chinese goddess of the winds, literally "Madam Wind". She is represented as an old, wrinkled woman, sitting on a tiger riding on a path made of clouds. On quiet days she placed the winds back in the bag she carries over her shoulder. (from Pantheon.org)
Viracocha Supreme Inca god, synthesis of Storm-and-Sun god.
Morrigan Celtic triple goddess - read about her here.
Marduk Fertility god and god of thunderstorms from Mesopotamian mythos. Defeated Tiamat and Kingu (Tiamat's second consort, after Apsu) and took the Tablets of Destiny from them. (Nice resume, eh? Could be a nice setup for Tiamat's children to follow to this new world...)
The loa spirits of Voudoun would be excellent as well, given their general protective/familial aspects.
(Unfortunately, most of my mythology books are at home, so I'm wingin' it here.)
For what it's worth, I've always wanted to run a post-Ragnarok campaign. I think it would be a heckuva lot of fun. :)
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Have you considered any of the Loa from voudoun? some are supposed to be godlike and some are ancestor spirits, but they might be what you need. Some are also thought of as having 2 sides, and that might be part of "why it all goes wrong". I dont have a book in front of me atm but I'm sure you could probably find something. It might be something to consider.You know, I hadn't considered them. That is a good idea. I'll have to look up some infor on them.
Now that's ironic, what with youse bein' a zombie an' all.
Aphrodite could be running away with Prometheus. Soon her flirting and beauty starts attracting Odin. Then you have a divine romantic traingle. To satisfy her own whims Aphrodite begins coaxing a rivalry between the two gods. Throw in a jealous old flame like Hextor or Ares to even more fun on a divine scale.
What about Galactus? ;)
or the Beyonder
every Pantheon needs a guy who looks like Peter Brady!
Well if you have the Silver Surfer (air deity and messenger of the gods) you have to have Terrax (earth and fire deity) and Thanos (destruction and fancy gauntlets)!
Well if you have the Silver Surfer (air deity and messenger of the gods) you have to have Terrax (earth and fire deity) and Thanos (destruction and fancy gauntlets)!
well if you brought thanos he'd want to bring along Death since he's so in love with her.
and thatd be bad news
For what it's worth, I've always wanted to run a post-Ragnarok campaign. I think it would be a heckuva lot of fun. :)
I've thought about that too. But there would be a sad lack of gods. Balder is back. And I think the Norns have decreed that Vidar Odinson is around too. Maybe Modi Thorson(or Magni). But that was about it. :-(
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For what it's worth, I've always wanted to run a post-Ragnarok campaign. I think it would be a heckuva lot of fun. :)I've thought about that too. But there would be a sad lack of gods. Balder is back. And I think the Norns have decreed that Vidar Odinson is around too. Maybe Modi Thorson(or Magni). But that was about it. :-(
I've actually thought about that from time to time myself. The deities that I think are supposed to survive are: Balder, Hodur, Hoenir, Vali, Vidar, Modi, and Magni. I'm sure a couple others could be thrown in, like Balders wife Nanna, since she follwed him to the underworld to begin with.
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I summon forth.....Lilith!*appears in a cloud of barbecue-scented smoke*
What? Who summons me?
My ideas:
Grandmother Spider Native American; Some myths state that she brought fire to humans after the other animal spirits failed; others that she saved humans from the destruction of the previous world by weaving a ladder made of spider silk (good explanation for the Infinite Staircase and other planar gateways).
Guan-yin/Kwan-yin/Kannon Benevolent mother figure (I'm being grossly generic here), "One Who Hears the Cries of the World", rescues those shipwrecked, pleas given to her by women in childbirth.
Feng Po-po The Chinese goddess of the winds, literally "Madam Wind". She is represented as an old, wrinkled woman, sitting on a tiger riding on a path made of clouds. On quiet days she placed the winds back in the bag she carries over her shoulder. (from Pantheon.org)
Viracocha Supreme Inca god, synthesis of Storm-and-Sun god.
Morrigan Celtic triple goddess - read about her here.
Marduk Fertility god and god of thunderstorms from Mesopotamian mythos. Defeated Tiamat and Kingu (Tiamat's second consort, after Apsu) and took the Tablets of Destiny from them. (Nice resume, eh? Could be a nice setup for Tiamat's children to follow to this new world...)
The loa spirits of Voudoun would be excellent as well, given their general protective/familial aspects.
(Unfortunately, most of my mythology books are at home, so I'm wingin' it here.)
For what it's worth, I've always wanted to run a post-Ragnarok campaign. I think it would be a heckuva lot of fun. :)
Those are some great ideas Lilith. I'll have to read up on those. I've been getting alot of my myth info from Encyclopedia Mythica, which is a great site, really comprehensive. I've also been buying alot more books on mythology. Just this weekend I picked up a book called A Dictionary of Ancient Deities. It's pretty cool so far.
Marduk was actually one of the gods I had first considered, along with Perun from Slavic/Russian myth. I thought Perun would be nice, because (according to the aforementioned Encylopedia Mythica) Slavic folklore also has a triumvirate version of the Fates/Norns. That might fit really well.
I also considerd Indra. In Vedic myth he was the supreme deity, but got downgraded in favor of Vishnu. It seems like that would have been a good motivation to go away with the others.
Of course, I've also been considering that maybe they could find some mother/fertility goddess to go with them. A good choice might have been Rhea, since she might be ffeling eclipsed by her children. But I don't want to have more than one deity from each pantheon.
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And they gotta frag a giant like the way Odin, Vili and Ve fragged Ymir to make the earth outta.
I think this is something I might do. Basically I can see Odin telling Prometheus that they need some primordial being to kill so they can make a new world out of it. Prometheus would then be like, "Well, let's just go down to Tartarus and Find somebody. Zeus has all kinds of folks imprisoned down there. I'm sure we could borrow one." They'd get someone like Ophion, or Typhon, there'd be a big fight, and POOF - new world. Then any blood spilled by the monster could come back to haunt them in the form of new gods of evil.
well, you have in Odin a god that can make gods and with Prometheus a titan of thought. I am kinda thinking you should have Thoth to add magic and ingenuity, heck, even the Egyptians consider him an outsider, but as he was created and was on Old One; ie enter cuthuluism; that would make the sleeping Old Ones aware of this new paradise and their influence would creep in; ie; the slimes; oozes, tenticled things like Kraken, behemoths and whatnot; vikings/greeks against cuthulu sounds fun. Raganorok all over again but instead of a world dragon; you have the world worm eating away from the core; hehe let the pc's try to stop that; sounds like a whole lot of fun.
of course; as usual; aberzombies ideas sound cool too.
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i highly recommend you read [u]American Gods[/u] by Neil Gaiman
pretty much what you're describing, he's got.
as far as a 3rd party to the group, you've already got trickery, war, death, magic, knowledge, fire, creation, and presience amongst your pair.
they need a god (goddess) of life, nature, family, community, and the like. (well, they don't NEED one, but that's what they're missing out on.)
a woman's touch, so to speak.
grandmother bear?
anasazi?
buddha?
someone who can soften the edges of these pretty hard-nosed gods, and make them palatable to fearful commoners.
namaste'
the hamster
'zombie, how about Isis for a mother-deity? Very strong, very iconic, very powerful.
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i highly recommend you read [u]American Gods[/u] by Neil Gaiman
I did. That was an excellent book.
they need a god (goddess) of life, nature, family, community, and the like. (well, they don't NEED one, but that's what they're missing out on.)
a woman's touch, so to speak.
grandmother bear?
anasazi?
buddha?someone who can soften the edges of these pretty hard-nosed gods, and make them palatable to fearful commoners.
namaste'
the hamster
I've been thinking this myself. One possibility is Branwen. According to Encyclopedia Mythica,
The Celtic goddess of love and beauty. Also of Manx and Wales. She is the sister of Bran the Blessed and Manannan mac Lir, daughter of Lir, and wife of the Irish king Matholwch. She is similar to the Greek goddess Aphrodite and the Roman goddess Venus. After the death of her brother Bran, due to a war caused by Matholwch, Branwen died of a broken heart.
But what if she didn't really die? What if Odin and Prometheus (both being good at tricks) convinced her to come with them and be a mother goddess in their new world? Then they found some way to fake her death.
Hmmm.....
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'zombie, how about Isis for a mother-deity? Very strong, very iconic, very powerful.
The only problem that I could see with Isis is "the Why". Why would she send an aspect of herself off with these two other gods. In the words of some Hollywood-type, "What's her motivation?" She's not really hurting for worshippers, the head god isn't pissed off at her, and there are no prophecies proclaiming her ultimate death at the teeth of a hand-munching hound of chaos and death.
If I don't go with Branwen, as in the above post, then I'll probably go with a deity from either Egypt, Persia, or maybe India. There seem to be a lot of older goddesses in these myth cultures that eventually combined with others as their worship spread.
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i highly recommend you read [u]American Gods[/u] by Neil GaimanI did. That was an excellent book.
they need a god (goddess) of life, nature, family, community, and the like. (well, they don't NEED one, but that's what they're missing out on.)
a woman's touch, so to speak.
grandmother bear?
anasazi?
buddha?someone who can soften the edges of these pretty hard-nosed gods, and make them palatable to fearful commoners.
namaste'
the hamsterI've been thinking this myself. One possibility is Branwen. According to Encyclopedia Mythica,
The Celtic goddess of love and beauty. Also of Manx and Wales. She is the sister of Bran the Blessed and Manannan mac Lir, daughter of Lir, and wife of the Irish king Matholwch. She is similar to the Greek goddess Aphrodite and the Roman goddess Venus. After the death of her brother Bran, due to a war caused by Matholwch, Branwen died of a broken heart.
Then maybe Odin went down to the land of the dead and ganked her outta there.
My 2 copper
Isis, shes had her husband chopped to bits by her brother in law, Her son swear an undying holy war against his uncle, and during all of this lost what was one of the most promising worshipper bases on this planet. If nothing else this world would be a place of succor for her and her healing husband. A place where True magic (her main sphere of infulence) could thrive again. a peaceful place without war or slavery, a utopia. Odin could help provide all of that, he plucked out his own eye to learn magic and see the future, surely he could understand the need for a respite.
On the other hand Mithras, a Deity of war and light, still sore over losing his empire due to the death of Justinian, yearns for a place where he can be worshipped again, a place of honor and goodness, ever vigilant against any invasion. A place where the legions will remember his name. and surely Odin can help him with that. his former enemy is as weakened as he, and was himself a God of warrior peoples, surely he also longs for a day where honorable battles were fought, and mead flowed over the tales of battle.
this sets up a basic groundwork of Odin = worldbuilding facilitator. and an Isis vs Mithras = Hidden and unobtrusive vs prepared readiness mindset.
It also allows for the introduction of good vs good conflict as Freya,and Osiris take an exception to thier spouses "creating another world" with other dieties. The resulting conflict would introduce evil as Loki,and Set are tipped off out of the resulting conflict.
Mithras could introduce Hecate to the mix as a "second fiddle" in case the Isis thing falls through.
Aberzombie, are you specifically looking for deities who have completely lost their earthly base of worship? And that said loss is what makes them a "part of the team" of disenfranchised deities who are building this "Second World"?
If so, even though Indra was crowded out in most of Indian Hinduism, he is still pretty important in Nepal. Nepal is supposedly the gash left by his sword, making him, in effect, a "patron" of that nation.
Justinian's little coniption fit really didn't spill over into the Parthian Empire. Mithras did just fine there until the coming of Islam. He is still one of the "angels" of Ormmazd in Zoorastrianism as it is currently practiced. Mithraism may have passed out of Roman ken, but it was/is still alive and kicking outside the areas once under the Empire's sway.
On another line, if you are looking to make these three the "good" gods, you are probably going to have to clean up any ancient Near or Middle Eastern divinities. They pretty much would be evil as categorized in D&D. But then, you can really say the same about Odin too. The whole "Gallows God" thing, the sacrifice of criminals, etc.
I thought of Thoth too. The Egyptian pantheon is pretty much a complete goner.
Branwen got downgraded from a mythic goddess to a legendary figure. You could upgrade her back to a more archetypical status. Otherwise she's got a BIG family to deal with: her dead twin whose disembodied head won't seem to shut up, a wandering trickster older brother, good and evil twin little brothers, etc.
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If you're looking for deprecated gods, you might want to consider using the Vanir as a group.
They are believed to have been the gods of a predecessor society that was subsumed into the Aesir-worshipping later society, though I don't know whether this is thought to have happened before or after those people ended up in Scandinavia.
If you are looking for really vanished/dead/gone deities with no living worshipful population, how about Asherah? She was the wife of a sky-god called Yaweh way back in the day. As his worshippers got more and more monotheistic, she became his staff (yahweh and his asherah) and then just disappeared all together....
So, I had an idea for a new homebrew world...
One god I had Odin recruit is good old Prometheus.
Prometheus is an excellent choice. I love that its not only a second chance for him but also for his chosen (people).
I had a few ideas, such as Perun (Slavic), Indra (from the Rigveda and Hinduism),
I'm not sure if Perun and Indra are that great. They seem a little too warlike to me (both of them always reminded me of Thor in some ways). Indra is suitably disenfranchised though, after the vedic era.
Mithra (Persian), Belenus (Gaul/Celtic), or even Bast (Egyptian). I even considered Vishnu, whose motivation would be that he was tired of always being caught between Brahman and Shiva. Any other idea on this would be welcome.
As far as Indian gods go I could see Vishnu a lot better than Indra. I think that Indra would be bored in a world without struggle (he did kill his own dad because he didn't agree with his handling of a demonic threat). In helping to create a perfect world Vishnu could be attempting to bypass the continuous cycle of sacrifice, birth, and rebirth (samsara) that is the cycle of creation in the Hindu cosmology (though the idea that Vishnu would go against the cosmic order is sacriligious).
If you're not really feeling Isis (who I think is a great choice) I think that Bast could really work. She's a goddess in decline from previous greatness (like Indra), and she has a great motive for wanting to help create this world - the absence of pain! In a Utopia her portfolio of pleasure would be much more important than in a world filled with pain. Story-wise she could also help to give rise to a civilization of hedonists who are totally unprepared and unable to deal with the bad guys when they eventually show up (which is why the heroes, the PC's, are needed so much).Just my 2 rusty coppers rubbing together. I think that your idea is great, the evidence being how much cool brainstorming has gone on in this thread :)
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If you are looking for really vanished/dead/gone deities with no living worshipful population, how about Asherah? She was the wife of a sky-god called Yaweh way back in the day. As his worshippers got more and more monotheistic, she became his staff (yahweh and his asherah) and then just disappeared all together....
Hmm....Now there's an interesting idea. I had forgotten all about her.
Although, thinking about it last night, I asked Myself,
"Myself, why limit yourself to just three deities?"
Of course, then Myself had to answer I(just to be polite),
"Why yes I, your meaning is quite clear. There could be a number of renegade gods: Odin as leader, Prometheus (as patron of men), maybe someone to build a big chariot for them to travel in (do they have a god of chariots?), a fertility-type goddess (such as the above mentioned Ashera, or the previously mentioned Isis), etc."
Then Me had to comment as well,
"You could add any other god you think is cool but never gets much D&D attention."
That all sounds very, very cool. Using real-world mythologies doesn't seem to go on in D&D anymore (and I'm only assuming it did in older editions, as I've heard such things, but never played them). It instantly gives people a sense of understanding and connection to them.
And I second Typhon as a choice for the guy they gotta waste to make a new world. But don't limit sources of new evil to just his blood- if you go with Thoth, or Ptah, or any other Egyptian, Set also finds out and sends minios through. Loki does the same. Ares isn't happy at all with the existence of this paradise. Lovecraftian elements can also be crept in as some primordal force that permeates this new world for some reason. It's all good! Happy world building- it's deffinately one of, if not the, best part of DMing.
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That all sounds very, very cool. Using real-world mythologies doesn't seem to go on in D&D anymore (and I'm only assuming it did in older editions, as I've heard such things, but never played them). It instantly gives people a sense of understanding and connection to them.
You'd be amazed at the number of deities taken from real world myth and used in D&D. Here is a partial list that I've been able to come up with:
Dragonlance - Chemosh
FR - Loviatar, Silvanus, Tyr, Oghma, Tyche (previously combined form of Beshaba and Tymora), and of course the entire Mulhorand Pantheon.
Greyhawk - so far I've only found some of the Olman gods to be real-world in origin. Among them are Tlaloc, Quetzalcoatl, Mictlantecuhtli, and Camazotz.
And of course there are some of the staples that seem to be found in all the main D&D worlds: Tiamat, Bahamut, Surtr, Thrym, and many of the Demon Princes and Arch-Devils.
For someone who loves mythology, as I do, it really is fascinating.
Maybe you don't have to being evil in through having evil god(s) finding the new creation or by having a material defect in using "bad stuff" from an evil being used to create the foundations of the new world. In many ways, this new world is inherently flawed by the very fact of its creation.
Most of the deities described are basically running away from some sort of problem with the previous mythology. Isn't Odin's creation of the world an attempt to circumvent his own fate? That sounds like pride or even cowardice (if he is going to opt out of his forseen death).
Prometheus knew the consequences of raising up humanity by the gift of fire. He accepted them and his punishment. Making a run for it is really cheapening his act of sacrifice.
I'm sure the same arguments can be made for a lot of the other deities suggested (Asherah is being petulant - she just didn't like getting crowded out by monotheism, Thoth is making a run for it since he was Ra's scribe and Ra has lost power to his grandkids, etc.)
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Isn't Odin's creation of the world an attempt to circumvent his own fate? That sounds like pride or even cowardice (if he is going to opt out of his forseen death).
Not the way I planned it. The way I see it, he basically knows his original aspect cannot avoid his fate. But he can take some of his followers with him, thereby making mankind's chances at survival better. Even though some are supposed to survive Ragnarok, he doesn't want to put all his eggs in one basket (so to speak). He is supposed to be wise afterall.
Prometheus knew the consequences of raising up humanity by the gift of fire. He accepted them and his punishment. Making a run for it is really cheapening his act of sacrifice.
Not at all. Prometheus knows how petty Zeus can be. He also knows that when it came down to once again helping humanity at the risk of Zeus' wrath, he'd would make the same choice. This way, he can also take some of his people with him and at least try to ensure that they have a life free of the sometimes petty whims of the Olympians. Not to mention that he simply wants to try to make a better world for mankind.
I'm sure the same arguments can be made for a lot of the other deities suggested (Asherah is being petulant - she just didn't like getting crowded out by monotheism, Thoth is making a run for it since he was Ra's scribe and Ra has lost power to his grandkids, etc.)
Any deity can be written up as you subscribe. It all depends on the motivations of the person doing the writing. If you want it to be for ignoble reason, that is your choice. I prefer to think of it as gods trying to do what they think is the right thing for their followers, but fate gets in the way.
Any deity can be written up as you subscribe. It all depends on the motivations of the person doing the writing. If you want it to be for ignoble reason, that is your choice. I prefer to think of it as gods trying to do what they think is the right thing for their followers, but fate gets in the way.
Hmm... I wasn't going for making every deity ignoble. I was offering an alternate interpretation for the existence of evil in the new and hopefully perfect world. There was a lot of "evil coming from flawed materials" ideas and I wanted to present an alternative.
But you are dead on right about it all depending on your point of view. For example, Zeus could just as easily be the good guy. He loved humanity and wanted to keep it in a state of bliss. He knew that if humanity got fire they would procede towards things like making sharp stuff from metal and sticking it into each other. But that Prometheus dude, he always thinks he knows better....
All in all I think I would still hold to the coherency of the idea that there is no need to bring in evil from the outside. As you are setting things up, this universe is the result of a conscious choice by the deities in question to try and obviate difficulties in their respective home worlds. Choices have consequences, usually unforeseen ones. And even though the intentions may be golden, the road to Hell can be paved with good intentions.
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But you are dead on right about it all depending on your point of view. For example, Zeus could just as easily be the good guy. He loved humanity and wanted to keep it in a state of bliss. He knew that if humanity got fire they would procede towards things like making sharp stuff from metal and sticking it into each other. But that Prometheus dude, he always thinks he knows better....
I suppose the myth could be interpreted that way. However, every version I've ever read follows pretty much along the lines of
- Mankind was suffering from the cold and had to eat their meat raw. Prometheus felt sorry for them, wanted them to be more happy and comfortable, and so gave them fire. Zeus saw this and punished mankind by fixing it so that Pandora unleashed all those evils on mankind. -
To me, that sounds like Zeus being an a~~+$*@.
All in all I think I would still hold to the coherency of the idea that there is no need to bring in evil from the outside. As you are setting things up, this universe is the result of a conscious choice by the deities in question to try and obviate difficulties in their respective home worlds. Choices have consequences, usually unforeseen ones. And even though the intentions may be golden, the road to Hell can be paved with good intentions.
Actually, the way I plan it, the evil will first develop "in world" so to speak, resulting from some of those choices and consequences you mention. Then later on I was thinking of an invasion masterminded by two of Odin's "good old buddies" - Thrym and Surtr at the head of an army of Frost Giants, Fire Giants, Ogres, Trolls, Minotaurs, etc.
Then if I ever actually DM'd this world, the campaign would start some time after the war with the invading giants. Each of those (Frost and Fire) would have their own kingdoms and their gods would be part of the Pantheon.