After reading the thread "How Many Dieties can Balance on the Head of A pin?" I got an idea for a setting. Perhaps there is a setting in which all of the various deities of particular things were split into much smaller pieces.
As such. Let us begin by stealing someone else's god, credit goes to user "I'm hiding in your closet" for the original design.
Uoriteph, the Hidden Savior
Domains: protection, scalykind, healing, death, good
Favored Weapon: Light Pick
Uoriteph is generally known as a patron of apothecaries, alchemists, and a protector from poison - but His real role is much more exclusive. He appears as a small, friendly serpent to worthy souls trapped in times of misery and suffering, whose potential could, and rightfully should be so much greater had they not been born into the misfortune of the wrong time and place. The these elite few, he offers succor, knowledge, and even the gift of immortality.
Even those touched by Uoriteph do not know his actual intentions. He was the last deity that remained whole during the great shattering, and hopes to bring the various far flung pieces of the old gods back into the beings they are supposed to be.
For this, you'll want to begin with the original pantheon that you plan to break. A True God, followed by dividing His roles into various major dieties, followed by breaking them into smaller chunks and smaller chunks and smaller chunks until you have your full family tree.
Example:
True creator breaks down to physical things, non physical things.Physical things breaks down to solids, liquids, vapors.
Non physical things breaks down to energy, thought, void.
Solids breaks down to stone, metal, sand, soil. Liquids breaks down to water, blood, cats. Vapors breaks down to air, clouds, breath.
Energy breaks down to magic, electricity, fire, life, un-life, light. Thought breaks down to innovation, emotion, planning. Void breaks down to vacuum, darkness.
Now you have much smaller fragments of the whole which, restored in layers, create larger and larger fragments of the Divine.
Obviously these are rather brutish places to make your breaks, a quick and dirty proof of concept rather than anything you'd likely use, but it gives you a starting point to work from. Decide what theme your campaign runs on, do you follow the avatar elements of earth/wind/fire/water? Do you use a different element wheel? Is your campaign more science based and perhaps uses the old alchemy elements to break down the universe? Maybe you want to divide roles in a semi-random way and say that some of this stuff falls into this portfolio and some falls into that one and that's just where the fault line was when the gods broke like glass?
How you choose to make your divisions will impact the flavor of your campaign very heavily, so think of the world you want to generate and work out the way to break your gods that best fits with how your citizens view the world, because they'll view it very differently if they have a god of fire and a god of lightning than if they have a god of plasma and a god of fuel and conductivity.
When all that is more or less worked out, find out what broke the god. Whether you ever want to...
Admittedly I thought of something a lot more simple than that, basically with the whole other thread concept of "How are there multiple deities with sun powers when surely there aren't multiple beings all controlling one stupid star).
And I came sharing it here in case anyone would have any ideas for what each of those shards would be. the idea that... Just to use the whole sun example again the idea that why is there sarenrae, amatarasu, AND Sol (norse sun god)? Because they are all the little broken fragments of the original solar avatar.
This makes me so happy.Uoriteph, the Hidden Savior
Domains: protection, scalykind, healing, death, good
Mind if I ask what makes you so happy about it?
Mind if I ask what makes you so happy about it?It's a Good god who's a snake. Snakes don't get enough good press in Western fantasy.
Also a god of death and Good. Not a lot of that around (especially if an ancient death god gets hyjacked as Evil despite mythology to the contrary).
Again don't thank me, the original was made by someone else on a challenge to make gods with random domains. Though I do personally think that scalykind needs more good people.
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Mind if I ask what makes you so happy about it?It's a Good god who's a snake. Snakes don't get enough good press in Western fantasy.
Also a god of death and Good. Not a lot of that around (especially if an ancient death god gets hyjacked as Evil despite mythology to the contrary).
His official write-up is here, if you were interested.
To perpetuate the side note, I'd love to see a good aligned god with Bees as a small note, able to grant the insect domain with them in mind, and other insects as part of the natural circle of life (less pronounced perhaps in the portfolio but present).
This is the closest I've come to that. The top entry of the three.