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The two other "religion" threads got me thinking, and I believe this a separate enough topic to warrant its own thread...
Is the world of Pathfinder going to have one single unified pantheon, with each race paying homage to the same gods (or demon lords, as the case may be), or is each race going to have its own separate pantheon? The assumption of the World Most Popular RPG seems to be the latter: it has Gruumsh, Corellon, and Yondalla as racial deities in the PHB.
There's my question, and I will voice my opinion on the subject: I hope Pathfinder has only one pantheon. Each race using different names and perhaps focusing on different aspects of each god, but still a finite number of gods existing. It's a slippery slope, and the fifty-plus major, minor and demigods of the Forgotten Realms is to me far, FAR too many.
Thats's my tuppence on the subject. What's yours?
SPC Jason Dawson
Baqubah, Iraq
I agree. What you described is how I do it in my own setting. There are only 7 major gods in my homebrew and they are cross-racial, though each race thinks of the gods as being of their race, and each god has two different aspects for whether they are talking to an Elf or an Orc for example.
I find it is much simpler, and besides, as someone said in the other thread, the only person who's going to care about the gods is the one playing the cleric.
If anyone's interested they can see what I've done here.
i agree with the cross-racial gods being the way to go. it keeps things simpler and easier to follow. not that evil humans serving the same god as goblins and the same god as aboleths etc will all necessarily cooperate with each other...
i do feel, however, that some races should have individual "hero-deity" type demigods, because that's interesting and flavorful. :) they might even be local to a particular tribe or region.
Count me in this camp, too. As much as I like Moradin and Gruumsh (Corellon sucks!), since they're not going to be in Pathfinder, I'd just as soon see a unified pantheon. Dragonlance had this, with Reorx being god of smiths and craftsmen, and thus dwarves as well. Elves worshipped Paladine/Bahamut/Big Good Guy in the Sky.
If every race has its own pantheon... what happens if they each have a sun god? There's only one sun, so what happens if one sun god is evil and wants to black out the sun because his people didn't appease him? Or is the sun just some object they have an interest in but little real power over?
Better all around to just have one sun god.
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Is the world of Pathfinder going to have one single unified pantheon, with each race paying homage to the same gods (or demon lords, as the case may be)?
This is our intent, yes. We like the idea of there being universal deities worshiped by different races in their own ways and for their own specific reasons. And there's nothing stopping a particular race might favor a deity more than other races (for example, the dwarves might favor the god of mining more than elves do). The dwarves might depict most deities as dwarves, of course, while elves show them as elves and different human cultures depict them as humans from their cultures, but at the end of the day all the deities are the same.
The dwarves might depict most deities as dwarves, of course, while elves show them as elves and different human cultures depict them as humans from their cultures, but at the end of the day all the deities are the same.
Another way this could show up is with national / patron gods. If a city-state worships the "Sun God," and their enemies worship the "God of Thunder" (Yes, I'm just throwing things out there), the former might demonize the latter's patron deity. Elves who despise dwarves (if you set up such a relationship) might do the same to the "God of Mining." Is the god a demon? Perhaps one of its aspects is quite demonic. There's so much you could do with the "single unified pantheon." It'd almost be like you didn't have one to begin with.
Which is, in a way, a little more complex than the FR/GH model... but I like it.
Is the world of Pathfinder going to have one single unified pantheon, with each race paying homage to the same gods (or demon lords, as the case may be)?This is our intent, yes. We like the idea of there being universal deities worshiped by different races in their own ways and for their own specific reasons. And there's nothing stopping a particular race might favor a deity more than other races (for example, the dwarves might favor the god of mining more than elves do). The dwarves might depict most deities as dwarves, of course, while elves show them as elves and different human cultures depict them as humans from their cultures, but at the end of the day all the deities are the same.
Sweat, that makes the most sense, Different Gods will appeal to different races, such as the Goddess of Love and orcs. I mean elves
Sweat, that makes the most sense, Different Gods will appeal to different races, such as the Goddess of Love and orcs. I mean elves
Hey you never know.... :)
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Someone said earlier that the only one who is concerned about the gods is the cleric.
A friend runs a homebrew and his gods are very active. In the previous game I played a dwarven fighter and he would get all nervous when he smelled pumpkin spice. The scent was associated with Ichabod, the god of mischief. We loved the priestesses of Kalani, the sea goddess and I will never forget the clerics of Ith, the fire god, with their Flame On!
I now play a cleric. I used to HATE playing clerics, but come on, I get to trade a Turn Check to have flames wash across my body and do extra damage on melee attacks. Talk about a bonus to Intimidate checks!
Its more about bringing them to life as characters in the game. Whether they are active or not, their religions certainly are and they spread their faiths across communities and touch almost every aspect of a PCs life.
Gods are like royalty, they add great flavor to the game. You may not intereact with them every session, but they are always there (usually collecting their gold from your stash)...
eeeeewwwwww :)
Is the world of Pathfinder going to have one single unified pantheon, with each race paying homage to the same gods (or demon lords, as the case may be)?This is our intent, yes. We like the idea of there being universal deities worshiped by different races in their own ways and for their own specific reasons. And there's nothing stopping a particular race might favor a deity more than other races (for example, the dwarves might favor the god of mining more than elves do). The dwarves might depict most deities as dwarves, of course, while elves show them as elves and different human cultures depict them as humans from their cultures, but at the end of the day all the deities are the same.
So far, you guys are taking Pathfinder 100% in the direction I am hoping for and for leaving (at least some of) the D&D idiosyncracies I can't stand behind.
BPorter
What I was hoping for was different types of religious belief altogether. Like the dwarves worshipping their ancestors and great heroes and the elves being worshipers of the earth.
I really liked the conception for the elves in Eberron. Don't much care for the setting as a whole, but that part was really cool.
What I was hoping for was different types of religious belief altogether. Like the dwarves worshipping their ancestors and great heroes and the elves being worshipers of the earth.
I really liked the conception for the elves in Eberron. Don't much care for the setting as a whole, but that part was really cool.
I prefer flipping their focus of worship to celestial bodies rather than the earth, but I agree completely with the dwarves revering their ancestors rather than "gods" per se. There could be one great "Dwarf Father," supposedly the first ever from which all clans are descended, but otherwise, they worship the departed members of their clan. You could just have a large pool of domains that sum up "dwarfdom" and allow dwarven clerics to pick any two.
I always thought Dwarves seemed like atheists.