Pathfinder Deity Symbolism

[EtsuElfRanger]

So I was reading through some of the old DnD downloads I had on my laptop, and I came across the Deity Do's and Don'ts. It had some useful ideas, along with a chart of the FR deities and what their sacred attributes were. Things like favored colors, animals, etc. So, that got me thinking about what the Pathfinder deities might list if they had a chart like that.

I will post some of what I come up with here, but I'm also interested in community response. (or response from James, since they were from his home campaign originally.) Was looking for something like this. Feel free to add more categories if you think of any.

Deity:
Colors:
Animals:
Plants:
Monsters: What the deity likes or dislikes
Gems/Metals: Either what is sacred to the deity or popular among followers.
Misc: Other specific signs that the deity uses to convey favor or lack thereof.

Will post Desna as an example in the morning. Getting too sleepy to make sense.

[Set]

An old post that you might find useful for this project;

James Jacobs wrote:

It's true that all of those deities you list are from my campaign setting, Baria, and carried with them their delicious bugs... I mean, their insectoid symbols. The 1st edition Deities & Demigods had a really nifty chart that not only listed all of the gods in that book by pantheon with their areas of concern and holy days and sacred colors, but also their sacred animals. That's something I did for all of the gods in my world too, back in the day, and as it worked out there was a pretty strong presence for bugs and birds in that list because I happened to like them better than, say, most mammals.

To round things out as I recall them and working mostly from memory (note, some of these associations may not have carried over to Golarion, and I'm skipping deities that I didn't invent or use lots in my homebrew)...

Abadar: Monkey (lemur)
Asmodeus: Goat
Calistria: Wasp
Desna: Butterfly
Erastil: Elk
Gorum: Bear (I think...)
Gozreh: Sea gull
Lamashtu: Hyena
Norgorber: Raven
Pharasma: Whippoorwill
Rovagug: Scorpion
Sarenrae: Dove
Urgathoa: Fly
Zon-Kuthon: Beetle (I think...)

Achaekek: Mantis
Besmara: Big mean dog
Ghlaunder: Mosquito
Groetus: None
Milani: Wren
Sivanah: Bat
Zyphus: Worm

I would absolutely change Abadar's holy animal to a bull. Both for the 'cattle as wealth' thing, and for the 'symbol of Wall Street / Mammon / Golden Calf' thing.

Iomedae's animal would be a warhorse.

Milani, a wren? I think not. She's totally a badger. :)

[EtsuElfRanger]

Well, here's what I've got so far. I'm going through the articles in the AP's that I have. I will continue to update it as I get through it.

Spoiler:

Abadar
Colors: Gold, silver, white
Animal: Monkey, bull
Monsters: two-headed eagles hippogriffs, griffins, kolyaruts
Gems/Metal: Gold, silver, copper

Asmodeus
Colors: Red, black
Animal: Goat

Calistria
Colors: Black, yellow
Animal: Wasp

Cayden Cailean
Colors: Maroon, amber
Animal: Hound dog
Monsters: Cayhound, satyrs, rust monsters

Desna
Colors: Blue, silver, bright colors
Animal: Butterflies, moths, dragonflies, sparrows
Plant: ??
Monsters: Star monarchs, lyrakien, celestial brass dragons
Gems/Metal: Rose quartz, star gems

Erastil
Colors: Brown, green, earth tones
Animal: Elk

Gorum
Colors: Gray, rust
Animal: Bear

Gozreh
Colors: Blue, green
Animal: Seagull

Iomedae
Colors: Red
Animal: Warhorse

Irori
Colors: Orange (Buddhist monk robes?)

Lamashtu
Animal: Hyena
Monsters: Worgs, barghests, nightmares

Nethys
Colors: Black/white
Animal: Owl?(for association with wizards)/ Falcon, Cobra? (Osirian/Egyptian)

Norgorber
Colors: Black
Animal: Raven

Pharasma
Colors: Black, silver
Animal: Whipporwill, scarab beetles
Plant: Black roses

Rovagug
Animal: Scorpion

Sarenrae
Colors: Gold, yellow, red, sky blue
Animal: Dove
Plant: Sunflower
Monsters: Angels
Gems/Metal: Gold, bronze

Shelyn
Colors: White, red, gold, green
Animal: Songbirds, doves
Plant: Roses

Torag
Animal: Burrowing mammals
Gems/Metals: Gold, silver, mithral

Urgathoa
Colors: Black
Animal: Fly

Zon-Kuthon
Colors: Black, ?
Animal: Beetle?

Any input encouraged. I've also got Gods and Magic, so I will go through that, too.

[Mikaze]

On Zon-Kuthon:

This goes into crazy-town quick, but his father, or rather his father's current state as a mutilated and broken wolf, could serve as the chosen animal mascot for the faith.

Which leads to horrible implications if his worshippers want to keep an example of such a beast around...

As for monsters, all the kytons are crazy about him!

Just my personal bias on the animal, but I'd probably give the raven to Pharasma as well. Caw!

Here's a headscratcher: What is Brigh's favored animal?

A Mecha-Godzilla?

Then again, insects are Nature's Machines...hm...

[Set]

Random thoughts;

Calistria
Monsters: (PF 17) giant bee, tiefling rogue, spider eater, hellwasp swarm

Cayden Cailean
Colors: Maroon, amber (golden-brown, color of thick ale?)
Monster: (PF 14) cayhound, satyr, rust monster

Erastil
Monsters (PF 32): elk, dire boar

Gorum
Colors: Gray, rust definitely rust, combines the color of iron with the color of blood
Monsters (PF 35): iron cobra, bulette, behir, gorgon

Gozreh
Colors: Blue, green (aqua, blue-green, or blue and green individually)

Iomedae
Colors: Red (a color of metal, and yet also a sunny color, yet not gold, because that's not weapony/armor-y enough. Perhaps bronze?)

Irori
Colors: Orange (Buddhist monk robes?) (something like white for purity, or pale blue or grey or some other peaceful, serene color)

Lamashtu
Color: Dark red. She's all about the nature, red in claw and tooth, bloody births, bloody destruction, etc.

Nethys
Colors: Black/white either black and white, or just grey?
Animal: Owl?(for association with wizards)/ Falcon, Cobra? (Osirian/Egyptian) I like the cobra or snake. Serpents are associated with both wisdom and danger. An ourobrous symbol, a snake devouring itself, representing creation and destruction, perfectly suits two-faced Nethys

Pharasma
Colors: Black, silver grey or white seems more appropriate to me.

Rovagug
Monsters (PF 23): choker, grick, gibbering mouther, emkrah

Sarenrae
Colors: Gold, yellow, red, sky blue yellow, or gold
Animal: Dove mourning dove, perhaps?
Plant: Sunflower ooh, that's perfect!
Monsters: Angels (PF 20) janni, djinni, redeemed efreeti
Gems/Metal: Gold, bronze

Shelyn
Colors: White, red, gold, green rose-pink?
Animal: songbirds, doves songbirds is a great choice

Zon-Kuthon
Colors: Black, ? silver, or otherwise metallic colors, to signify chains, hooks, etc.?
Monsters (PF 11): lesser shadow, shadow, erinyes, greater shadow

[EtsuElfRanger]

So after reading the Pharasma article in PF #44, I would say that the art supports including red and lavender in her colors as well. Both of the priests depicted are wearing a lot of light purple. And Pharasma herself is in a black dress with red trim.