Will the real Sun God please stand up?


Homebrew and House Rules

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Sovereign Court Contributor

In India, technically, all of the Adityas - a subset of the Devas, though some are also Asuras -are Sun gods: i.e., Varuna (the god of the sun on the water and twilight), Mitra/Surya (the noon sun), Aryaman, god of time, Bhaga, god of wealth and gold, Ansha, the inheritance god, Dhartri, god of hymns and domesticity, and Indra, god of kings, heaven, and lightning. They all share solar attributes and symbols and are all brothers.

While Surya or Mitra (Mihir in western India) are the most solar of these gods, they all represent aspects of the sun, as wealth bestower (gold-colored), creator of light, ruler of the heavens, and patriarch.

Egypt, also, represented dozens of gods as solar gods, each representing different positions in the sky. Ra was combined with other gods, like Amun (a wind god), or Osiris (a death god) to create different conceptual takes on the idea of the Sun.

Now, these gods are not competing - they complement each other. I suspect few pantheons have competing Sun gods. The Sun, however, is generally seen as a distinctly positive thing, and hence even Sun gods from disparate pantheons would share a great deal in common.

It's the Moon where no one seems to agree on the symbolism...


chaoseffect wrote:

"Neither is the true sun god; the sun works fine without gods. Why are they claiming to run the sun?"

If god's are dependent upon worship to survive in your setting, that pretty much sums up why they would pretend they are needed for the sun to keep on shining. If that's the case, that would explain why in different areas different gods are claiming to do the same thing; I'd treat those gods as rivals should their followers ever meet.

If your gods don't need worship, I'd probably go with either the same god, just worshiped different ways or with them being different aspects of the same god. If your gods are "closer to earth" and routinely interact with the world besides their clerics/paladins then I'd go with the alternate aspects. If they are more distant, I'd go with the same god period.

Did I ever tell you this one?

Well Allah, God and Yahweh walk into a bar....

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