So there are tons of deities focusing on all manor of very specific things but not cooking?

[noble peasant]

I haven't managed to find a god of cooking yet and considering all the deities that focus on very specific or all around not terribly important things, like a major deity that basically only cares about how pretty something is, it's odd that there isn't even a minor deity whose focus, or at the very least has it listed as an area of concern, is cooking. Did I miss a deity somewhere? Because frankly looking at all the deitites and how truly mundane some of their focuses are I kind of want to call it an oversight at this point.

[Daw]

Paizo has given short shrift to the idea of hearth goddesses. I suspect there isn't a perceived market for such a thing.

Erestil's Family focus, Milani's Four Pillars (Health aspect), and any with a Craft or even Art aspect; might attract cooks, chefs, and any who provide food.

I expect Milani supports soup kitchens, as would any Community focused temples.

[Quandary]

Urgathoa is quite the connoisseur of culinary delights. Sentient flesh included.
Her Herald, the Mother's Maw even has a +23 to Profession: Cookery. No kidding.
Likewise Kabriri, although she's a bit more of a raw foodist, if you know what I mean.

[Daw]

Well, a lot of head chefs I know are rather monstrous personality-wise so....

[Khudzlin]

Wouldn't Yondalla also work?

[Kileanna]

Daw wrote:

Well, a lot of head chefs I know are rather monstrous personality-wise so....

Demilich head chef of Urgathoa sounds appealing.

[crashcanuck]

Khudzlin wrote:

Wouldn't Yondalla also work?

You're thinking of D&D deities

[Khudzlin]

crashcanuck wrote:

Khudzlin wrote:

Wouldn't Yondalla also work?

You're thinking of D&D deities

Probably. I don't know much about deities (regardless of the setting). I had a quick look at Golarion deities when I made my current character (I wanted a thematic choice). Given said character's favorite method of solving problems is violence (and if it doesn't work, it's because he needs to hit harder), cooking wasn't a theme I was looking for. But how come there isn't a Halfing deity with a cooking theme?

[Revan]

Shelyn would be an obvious patron for gourmet chefs. Erastil's aspect of rural community touches on 'hearth goddess' aspects despite a more masculine, hunter-orientes tilt to the church in general perception. Over in the Dragon Empires, Daikitsu is associated with rice and agriculture as well as being the patron of Kitsune. Urgathoa and various Demon Lords are associated with the gluttonous and hedonistic aspects of cooking. Irori's dedication to self-perfection might also be appealing to a chef striving for mastery of their craft.

[Alzrius]

It's Torag. He puts the iron in Iron Chef.

[Entryhazard]

Cayden even gets the Revelry subdomain

[Magus Black]

Kileanna wrote:

Daw wrote:

Well, a lot of head chefs I know are rather monstrous personality-wise so....

Demilich head chef of Urgathoa sounds appealing.

Don't know why there's no meat on the bones.

[graystone]

Pavnuri/Zura: Granted it'd be cooking other people...

Khepri: Cooking should fall under Work.

Ptah/Ra: Creation can also work for cooking.

Daikitsu: LOL It's got rice as an interest.

Kofusachi: Abundance, discovery, happiness, prosperity... I think cooking can fit in there.

Xoveron/Circiatto: Gluttony...

Bharnarol: Creativity, invention, persistence

Halcamora: Gardens, orchards, wine

Thisamet: Celebrations, feasts, holidays

[MannyGoblin]

Kileanna wrote:

Daw wrote:

Well, a lot of head chefs I know are rather monstrous personality-wise so....

Demilich head chef of Urgathoa sounds appealing.

Would someone please photoshop a chef hat on Mother's Maw?

[Knight Magenta]

I've wanted to play a militant cleric of a harvest deity that wields a scythe and has fun thematic battle cries like:

"Reap the whirlwind!"
"Your cruelty has sown the seeds of your own demise"

She would also get offended when people kept confusing her for a cleric of Urgathoa. She would call them weaponist or scytheist. I don't think Pathfinder has very many domestic gods.

[Drahliana Moonrunner]

noble peasant wrote:

I haven't managed to find a god of cooking yet and considering all the deities that focus on very specific or all around not terribly important things, like a major deity that basically only cares about how pretty something is, it's odd that there isn't even a minor deity whose focus, or at the very least has it listed as an area of concern, is cooking. Did I miss a deity somewhere? Because frankly looking at all the deitites and how truly mundane some of their focuses are I kind of want to call it an oversight at this point.

That's because cooking is a chore and activity that's usually done in the context of more important areas of influence, such as war, charity, and family, as opposed to cooking simply for cooking's sake. The world hasn't yet invented CrystalVox and Julia Child.

[Calybos1]

My goblin alchemist was bitterly disappointed at the lack of a God of Eating. "Wait, we've got a god who does ale AND wine, but nobody thought of cooking up a feast to go with it? Shenanigans!"

Maybe that's a subskill for Alseta the Hostess, or one of her chief servitors?

[graystone]

Calybos1 wrote:

"Wait, we've got a god who does ale AND wine, but nobody thought of cooking up a feast to go with it? Shenanigans!"

There IS a god of feasts so someone thought of it. ;)

[Fromper]

I had a similar question. My PFS fighter with profession: chef as his day job joined the Pathfinder Society for the specific purpose of traveling the world, sampling and learning to cook all the fine foods of different regions. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a patron deity.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Fromper wrote:

I had a similar question. My PFS fighter with profession: chef as his day job joined the Pathfinder Society for the specific purpose of traveling the world, sampling and learning to cook all the fine foods of different regions. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a patron deity.

There is only one solution, then. He must take the Test of the Starstone and BECOME the new god of cooking HIMSELF!

[Fromper]

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

Fromper wrote:

I had a similar question. My PFS fighter with profession: chef as his day job joined the Pathfinder Society for the specific purpose of traveling the world, sampling and learning to cook all the fine foods of different regions. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a patron deity.

There is only one solution, then. He must take the Test of the Starstone and BECOME the new god of cooking HIMSELF!

That's what Golarion needs - a tiefling mercenary/chef to become a god.

[Arcaian]

I feel this - Thisamet - is the closest you'll get - feasts and holidays as areas of interest, food as the holy symbol, and the community domain.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Fromper wrote:

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

Fromper wrote:

I had a similar question. My PFS fighter with profession: chef as his day job joined the Pathfinder Society for the specific purpose of traveling the world, sampling and learning to cook all the fine foods of different regions. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a patron deity.

There is only one solution, then. He must take the Test of the Starstone and BECOME the new god of cooking HIMSELF!

That's what Golarion needs - a tiefling mercenary/chef to become a god.

DON'T LET YOUR DREAMS BE CREEEEEAAAAAMS!!!

[Cole Deschain]

I figure chefs who regard what they do as art that benefits all who partake of it honor Shelyn.
Chefs who regard what they do as a rigorous process to continually improve? Irori. The scrawny git!
Chefs of Excess? Urgathoa.

Cooks who want something to hold down their booze? My Least Favorite Pathfinder Deity! (Who would be improved quite a bit by adding a potbelly and some culinary excesses to balance out the guzzling and swagger, now that I think of it... making him the Chaotic Neutral God of Overdoing It, maybe...)

[Tacticslion]

Dot.

[Gimral]

And what of our lady Folgrit?

[GeraintElberion]

Do real world pantheistic religions have gods of cookery?

[Fromper]

I can't think of any real world pantheons with even 1/10 as many deities as Golarion.

[Cole Deschain]

Fromper wrote:

I can't think of any real world pantheons with even 1/10 as many deities as Golarion.

...

Chinese mythology (a massive, sprawling subject, but even if you go region by region and era by era...), Greek Mythology (where every Grace or Muse was a distinct deity-figure), Aztec mythology, Mayan mythology, Celtic mythology, and Norse mythology, to list a few, all have about as many- or more- deities than Pathfinder. We just don't hear much about relatively minor deities like Ialonus Contrebis or Njörðr.

[Cantriped]

For one of my campaigns the party's halfling cleric worshiped Byron The Traveler, the Halfling God of Campfire Cooking. He isn't a Cannon Deity though, I made him up. I racistly decided that halflings have more than a dozen gods different of Cooking.

His Favored Weapon was the Halfling Sling Staff, His Domains included Fire, Community (and a few others I forget), His Holy Symbol was a Campfire, and his holy book also functioned as a cookbook and survival manual (and is usually hand-written by the Byron, or a cleric of Byron).
Most of Byron's clerics are trained by the god himself; who often appears to them in a guise of a helpful traveler of the same race as themselves.

[GinoA]

Fromper wrote:

I can't think of any real world pantheons with even 1/10 as many deities as Golarion.

Which is a straw-man anyway. Comparing an entire planets multi-pantheon to one culture's pantheon on another planet is just silly.

How does Golarion as a whole compare to Earth as a whole?

Or, how does Galt compare to France?

[Davia D]

Fromper wrote:

I can't think of any real world pantheons with even 1/10 as many deities as Golarion.

Note that in some cases, cultures would consider deities of neighboring cultures just as much a part of the 'pantheon' and/or would absorb gods into their own system. The Hittites at one point were having actual problems with too many gods (their ruler, you see, would be announced with all the gods in front of them saying they ruled in these god's name and favor and all that), and it was causing such problems getting things done that their Queen literally had to streamline their pantheon.

Yes, the Hittites had so many gods it was causing friction in the running of their country to simply name them all (and now most exist only as names). They themselves referred to them as a 'thousand gods'. If you see a list of Hittite Gods now? Consider it a 'best of,' list/the ones who's information happens to have survived, not an inclusive one.

Even big name mythologies like, say, Greek Mythology. 12 Olympians, right? Well, that's just the *top* ones, lots of them had multiple kids who were gods, the Titans were themselves basically a pantheon on top of a pantheon, plus there was a good number of minor gods that just don't get talked about much now but showed up in different stories. There's groups of minor gods like the Charities and Fates (3 apiece). I'd say with some confidence the total number probably reached well into the triple digits.

The Norse had the Aesir, Vanir, and Jotun (which, while often translated as 'giant,' were often the most godly in the 'forces of nature' respect. They represented Nature while the Aesir were more gods of civilization, and the Vanir seem more like a pantheon absorbed in at some point. Though it varied between the categories, most Gods had Jotun in their family tree, Loki was a fairly conventional trickster god and he was a Jotun-turned-Aesir... then there's Utgard-Loki, a completely different Jotun king who's got the same powers as Loki, similar personality, and hangs with him sometimes. Yes, Norse Mythology doubled up on Lokis). And, like the Greeks, there were groups of deific types around. For example, did you know Heimdal had 9 virgin mothers? It's true!

The Egyptian Pantheon shifted around, changed it's membership, even changed who was in charge throughout it's history several times, plus, of course, every past Pharaoh was considered a god.

Also depends on what you mean by 'pantheon' and 'god'. Shinto has tons of gods, just many are local. The Hopi Kachina- there's over 400 known Kachina. Which ones each settlement focused on varied, with some overlap but different Kachina having different ranges. Kachina aren't exactly gods but they're powerful beings who control many aspects of life.

In short, real pantheons had tons of gods, and that most Avistan cultures have the main 20, some of the lesser gods, plus whatever Empyreal Lords or whatever they pay attention to, probably puts them on the shy side of things. I'd expect more active communities to have the 20, most of the minor ones, mention some Tian and Osirion ones, include Eldest and Empyreal Lords and Protean Lords, Inevitables, and etc. in their stories, and have 'em all move in and out without rhyme or reason. And maybe scoff at other countries that only worship a handful of 'em.

[AlgaeNymph]

Well...Arshea has heroes' feast as a 3/day spell-like ability. Being able to feed 87 people, that'd be quite the munch...

[Archpaladin Zousha]

AlgaeNymph wrote:

Well...Arshea has heroes' feast as a 3/day spell-like ability. Being able to feed 87 people, that'd be quite the munch...

*ba-dum-ching!*

[FormerFiend]

Fromper wrote:

I can't think of any real world pantheons with even 1/10 as many deities as Golarion.

Certain interpretations of Hinduism put the total count of deities at around 300 million.

[Ventnor]

If your path to self-enlightenment involves becoming the ultimate chef, you could probably worship Irori. He doesn't care what your craft is, as long as you do it well and always seek to improve upon it.

Alternatively, if you make food with magic, Nethys is a good choice. As long as you use magic, he's cool with it.

[Mark Thomas 66]

Cooking is most definitely an art, so Shelyn makes sense. It's all about sensory enjoyment.

[Set]

Any sort of god of crafts, including cooking (and not just art, like Shelyn, or forgecraft specifically, like Torag), could be a useful addition.

But the gods of Golarion (and most game settings, for that matter) are at least somewhat biased towards being useful to adventurers. There's not much dramatic need for gods like Hera, goddess of marriage, or Hestia, goddess of hearth and home, or Athena, goddess of wisdom and crafts, as there are for the more dudely divine roles like gods of war, smithing, etc.

A deity like Hestia, in particular, could be pretty neat in a fantasy setting, being a god of fire in it's role as a tool, and not destructively, and a god of walls and safety, who might be the source of the vampire's traditional inability to enter a home uninvited.

[CorvusMask]

GeraintElberion wrote:

Do real world pantheistic religions have gods of cookery?

Excuse me, do you mean polytheism aka belief in multiple gods or pantheism the belief that reality is identical with divinity?

[Vidmaster7]

Isn't cooking under God/goddesses of the hearth?

[Mark Thomas 66]

Quote:

Do real world pantheistic polytheistic religions have gods of cookery?

Shintoism does, Uke Mochi or Ōgetsuhime-no-kami (大宜都比売神?) goddess of food.

Annapoorna devi is the Hindu goddess of the kitchen.

So...yes