Replacing the Osirian Pantheon?


Lost Omens Campaign Setting General Discussion


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I’m not a fan of real-world gods in my fantasy settings, and I’d prefer not to argue about it.

With that as the baseline: what would you replace the gods of Osirion with? Deity lore is probably my weakest link in terms of Pathfinder lore, and I’d love some help retooling this culture so that I can more happily use it in my own home games.


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I only use Wadjet/Apep and Khepri because they are more centered in interesting stories within the setting, and less obviously Egyptian like Osiris and Ra, etc.

Mostly you can just cut references to them, and replace with calls to Abadar, Gozreh, Nethys, and Pharasma who are already established in northern Garund as the most common gods from my understanding.

Sarenrae will obviously be popular because of a long history of Keleshite influence, while Achaekek and Norgorber were important in Rahadoum before the Oath Wars, and are not unreasonably present in most of northern Garund.

Thuvia also has Pharasma, Gozreh, Sarenrae, and Nethys as patrons of 4 of the 5 city states.

If you want to do a search and replace (these are far from perfect, but should capture rough themes in main deities, art can be local interpretations, like Cat-Headed Calistria, etc.):

Note, I'm trying to avoid the ascended as Osirion was old before the Starstone rose.

Anubis ~ Pharasma
Apep ~ Dahak
Bastet ~ Calistria
Bes ~ Shelyn
Hathor ~ Desna
Horus ~ Abadar (1/2)
Isis ~ Jaidi
Khepri ~ Lorris (1E only)
Maat ~ Abadar (2/2)
Neith ~ Erastil (1/2)
Nephthys ~ Barzahk
Osiris ~ Erastil (2/2)
Ptah ~ Torag
Ra ~ Sarenrae (1/2) (Osiriani traditions may vary from Keleshite with both present in Osirion)
Sekhmet ~ Gorum (1/2)
Selket ~ Sarenrae (2/2)
Set ~ Zon Kuthon
Sobek ~ Gorum (2/2)
Thoth ~ Tsukiyo
Wadjet ~ Lysianassa / Apsu

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vagrant-poet has covered it in great detail, and I agree, just use the non-Egyptian gods, for the most part.

The Inner Sea World Guide from 1st Edition (and the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting before that) Abadar, Irori, Lamashtu, Nethys, Norgorber, Pharasma, Rovagug and Sarenrae as the biggies, so I'd stick with them.

Abadar, Nethys, Pharasma and Sarenrae seem the most popular 'officially,' but plenty of Rovagug, Lamashtu and Norgorber worship seems to go on below the surface (or among tribes of gnolls in the desert, or whatever). The Irori worshippers seem to be more their own faction, than one of the 'big religions' in the cities, on the other hand.

Abadar's focus on wealth and the earth tends to suggest taking on the mantles of Nepthys (among other things, a god of wealth) and Geb (the earth god).

Nethys takes over for Isis and Thoth, gods of magic and knowledge. Just not so much the creepy getting knocked up by your dead husband thing. :)

Pharasma covers aspects of Anubis and Osiris, judge and guardian of the dead and the afterlife.

And Sarenrae, the sun goddess replaces Ra, but has a different, almost sinister reputation, being associated with a hostile force that invaded and ruled Osirion for many years (ironically making her also kinda / sorta analogous to Set, among other things, god of foreigners/outsiders!).

If 2nd edition adds Gozreh to the local list (I don't have my 2nd ed books nearby to check), then they can take over for gods of water and sky, like Tefnut and Shu (and snap up Osiris' dominion over vegetation).

If you like the idea of 'Egypting them up' a bit, the Osirioni might make statues of the gods with the heads of their favored animals, or the animals whose attributes they feel best exemplify those gods.

So the temple of Sarenrae might have their angel of mercy with the head of a falcon, making her even more explicitly 'Ra-like,' in that particular region.

Pharasma could have the head of a whip-poor-will, her sacred animal, or a jackal (mimicing Anubis, whose role she takes here), or even an assortment of animal headed statues around the temple, signifying all the different animals seen as psychopomps by the Osirioni.

And Abadar's golden statue could have the head of a bull, just because the bull-market / gilded calf jokes write themselves. :)


The core deities (new gods) already exist in Osirion, and the clash between old and new is an important part of the setting.

If you're going to replace the real world mythology, I'd avoid reinventing the wheel.

Personally, I don't have a strong issue with how it's been betrayed, but it's still weird to have a real world pantheon just sort of exist in a fantasy world. But palette swapped stand-ins would be a step in the wrong direction.


Thank you for the replies! Animal-headed aspects of Abadar, Gozreh, Pharasma, Nethys, and Sarenrae seems like a simple enough fix (I love the tensions with Keleshite views of Sarenrae and how they mirror the issues around Set), and I hadn’t thought of pulling on Rahadoum’s history with Norgorber - this is a huge help!

Any clue what beasts are sacred to these gods and can be found in Northern Garund?


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keftiu wrote:

Thank you for the replies! Animal-headed aspects of Abadar, Gozreh, Pharasma, Nethys, and Sarenrae seems like a simple enough fix (I love the tensions with Keleshite views of Sarenrae and how they mirror the issues around Set), and I hadn’t thought of pulling on Rahadoum’s history with Norgorber - this is a huge help!

Any clue what beasts are sacred to these gods and can be found in Northern Garund?

Most of the pathfinderwiki pages have sacred animal entries on deities.

Sarenrae = Dove, etc.

Scarab Sages

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Inner Sea Gods lists the sacred animal of every deity in the appendix towards the back. That information is also on 1E Archives of Nethys (just click on the deity entry to see its animal). If you own Lost Omens Gods and Magic, the Core 20 have their sacred animals listed there as well. Changes were made between editions.

As for whether or not they can be found in Northern Garund, I recommend just hand-waving it and saying "Sure, zebras (Nethys' sacred Animal) are found somewhere in Northern Garund." rather than performing research. The sources we have about northern Garund (mostly Osirion) aren't going to have that level of detail.

If you're still looking for advice on how to replace the Ancient Egyptian pantheon in Lost Omens, I recommend browsing empyreal lords, psychopomp ushers, primordial inevitables, protean lords and the occasional fiendish divinity, picking ones you like. Something similar was done for Azlant, and having demigods like Nergal or Zura be given the spotlight was really interesting.


Last question for now; if you had to pick one Garundi beast to be sacred to Gozreh, what would you swing for? The canon answer is “any,” but that’s no fun; I’m inclined to go crocodile, but I could be swayed.

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keftiu wrote:
Last question for now; if you had to pick one Garundi beast to be sacred to Gozreh, what would you swing for? The canon answer is “any,” but that’s no fun; I’m inclined to go crocodile, but I could be swayed.

All things being equal for Gozreh, I'd go with a cormorant, since these birds are all about diving into the water and then shooting back out of the water into the air, and I could see worshipers of Gozreh getting a kick out of seeing these birds bridge the gap between wind and wave.

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32

The Gozreh cormorant (or shag)
lays eggs inside a paper bag,
the reason as you'll see, no doubt
is to keep the lightning out.

But what these unobservant birds
have not noticed is that herds
of wandering bugbears come with buns
and steal the bags to hold the crumbs.

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