I have been writing my own campaign setting for quite some time and I'm polishing off the 6th iteration of my list of deities. One thing that I have been working with is the idea of removing alignment entirely from deities.
Alignment still does exist normally for everything else, but deities are far too powerful and mysterious for mortal ethics to be used for the gods. They are all working toward goals that are so long term that even something as ancient as a dragon or a lich would last a mere fraction of a single move in a god's plans.
As such, I will be allowing players to have any alignment and worship any deity they want to. Deities do typically attract mortals of certain alignments, but religious dogma is still up to interpretation for individual mortals. This leads to different sects of the same deity that have vastly different views and alignments.
For example, the god of war may have a LG/LN sect that views war as something that must be fought honorably, with no advantages taken over their opponents. A CN sect would likely take advantage of anything they can. A CE sect would most likely stoop to deception and mass murder in order to begin wars between kingdoms and groups for the express purpose in fighting in them because they like killing.
Id love for some advice and critiques on my deity list, as well as ideas for potential sects for my gods. Specifically I'd love to see ideas of how to corrupt the deities portfolios and create potentially evil cults for these gods.
God of Battle, Strife, and War
Domains: Destruction, Glory, Protection, Strength, War
Favored Weapon: Battleaxe
Eunna
Goddess of Agriculture, Family, the Sun
Domains: Community, Earth, Healing, Plant, Sun
Favored Weapon: Sickle
Edall
God of Cities, Invention, Law, and Wealth
Domains: Artifice, Community, Nobility, Rune, Trickery
Favored Weapon: Warhammer
Aavith
God of Honor, Justice, Redemption, and Virtue
Domains: Fire, Glory, Protection, Strength, Sun
Favored Weapon: Bastard Sword
Ellerin
Goddess of the Heavens, History, Knowledge, Magic, and Prophecy
Domains: Destruction, Knowledge, Magic, Darkness, Void
Favored Weapon: Quarterstaff
Harean
Goddess of Birth, Healing, Illness, and Medicine
Domains: Charm, Death, Healing, Madness, Protection
Favored Weapon: Morningstar
Sylys
God/Goddess of Art, Beauty, and Music
Domains: Air, Charm, Glory, Luck, Water
Favored Weapon: Scimitar
Iros
God of Illusion, Mystery, Secrets, and Subterfuge
Domains: Darkness, Knowledge, Luck, Trickery, Travel
Favored Weapon: Dagger
Draseriss
Goddess of the Afterlife, Death, Dreams, and Time
Domains: Darkness, Death, Madness, Repose, Void
Favored Weapon: Halberd
Udena
Goddess of Nature and the Wilds
Domains: Animal, Earth, Plant, Water, Weather
Favored Weapon: Longspear
Abrisi
Goddess of Change, Companionship, Love, and Pleasure
Domains: Air, Charm, Community, Healing, Liberation
Favored Weapon: Shortbow
Samarand
God of Adventure, Bravery, Freedom, and Luck
Domains: Glory, Luck, Strength, Travel, Trickery
Favored Weapon: Rapier
If it's anything pre-modern the first 2 deities will likely have much larger & more powerful sects than the others. Is that intentional?
Evil sects:
Varangian: If you can't think of evil sects for him you aren't trying.
Eunna: Blood sacrifice for fertility is an ancient meme. On the other hand, people don't like sacrificing their own or even their neighbours'. A good sect might do symbolic sacrifices instead, an evil sect might favour capturing and sacrificing enemies.
Edall: Lawyers get a bad rep. Sometimes it's justified. Perhaps they started off keeping records of indentures & wound up with powers which effectively let them assign debts and bankrupt people into slavery. Just defending those powers could easily make them evil.
Aavith: Justice, fire, I'm thinking enthusiastic inquisitors for an evil sect. 'Kill them all, Aavith will sort them out."
Ellerin: In PF some knowledge really can drive people insane. Secret prophecies might lead their keepers into crazy evil.
Harean: Effective medicines can be poisons too, speaking as someone who's been through a fair bit of chemotherapy. Some apothecaries might run a concealed side business in poisons, and besides the possible moral effects of supporting concealed killing, the corruption and bribes necessary to keep the business going could be evil too. Alternately I read recently about just how nasty orphanages and asylums could be, especially in Ukraine - the people running them could reasonably be classed as evil.
Sylys: Bards can manipulate people with magical music. If the bards have selfish intent, or if they're following orders from an evil leader, that could be evil.
Iros: See Sylys but with trickery rather than art.
Draseriss: Afterlife and death - we could be looking at an apocalyptic cult here. Trying to bring about Ragnarok or the End Times.
Udena: Extremist druids who feel civilisation is a terrible idea, and try to stop it. Nah, I never liked the weird anti-green attitudes that seems to bring out. Try a hunting society where rank requires killing dangerous monsters. Some of the most dangerous monsters of course are experienced and combat trained adventurers.
Abrisi: Prostitution can be reasonably nice, or it can be controlled by brutal criminals. For an evil sect imagine the latter.
Samarand: Look up the term 'murderhobo' as applied to D&D/PF adventurers. Or just consider a philosophy of 'might makes right'.
I always thought that the gods/goddesses of beauty should have followers with punk aesthetics wildly different from the mainstream.
I really like some of those avr!
I was stuck on Eunna for a while yesterday. Best I could come up was a small group that was opposed to relationships that could not produce children. A cult of blood sacrifice makes things a lot more interesting.
Draseriss might have a good few as well. Apocalyptic cults and necromancy cults (may or may not be overlap). Standard but makes for fun possibilities.
I never thought about a hunting cult that may target sentient beings for a nature deity. It's an interesting proposal. I am still doing an anti-civilization cult though, I think it's just fun. And ties in well with a cult for Edall that want to turn the world into an ecumenopolis.
@Amanuensis, that may become a thing. Thank you for the idea