Let's make a pantheon!

[Calinero]

So, in a story I am writing, I went into my world creation only having a vague idea of what the religions in the setting would be. I settled on the idea of some sort of vague, polytheistic...thing. However, my procrastination can help me no longer! The time has come to actually sit down and hammer out some gods and goddesses for my fictional people to worship. Any ideas?

I have been thinking about how to organize the gods, what aspects should define them. Some thoughts I had had were--

1. Seasons (fall, winter, summer, ect)
2. Character traits (pride, wrath, love)
3. Elements (sea, fire, sky, earth, ect)
4. Professions (god of policemen, god of blacksmiths, ect)

I don't know exactly how many gods I want, but I feel it should definitely be more than two, and probably more than three. The possibilities of including an evil god of demons also exists.

Thoughts?

[Darkandus]

Are these actually effectual Gods that do things? If so how about a relaxed, laid back kind of God. Doesn't mind you worshiping other Gods as long as the other gods you worship are nice enough too, goes real easy on the whole smiting thing, likes his/her/its worshippers to have a good time and not worry overmuch. Helps out if you ask them and are willing to put in work towards it as well. Doesn't really have a lot of rules and is perfectly happy with you as long as you have a bit of common sense, lay off being judgemental, and don't deliberatly hurt yourself or other people unless you have a very good reason, like you are trying to save someone from a fire or you're defending yourself when someone is trying to kill you. One thing they do frown on though is not helping people when there is no personal risk for you to do so. For instance, walking past someone who is lying on the ground and bleeding to death because you want to go have lunch would result in you being hungry forever, or at least until you redeemed yourself.

For seasons this God strikes me as a summer kind of diety.
Character traits, sort of like a much older sibling or that person who you don't really know but is cool, interesting and takes the time to make sure everyone is included and happy.
Elements...Fire, basically for the connection to campfires and the like.
Professions...Comediens, Musicians, aidworkers etc. Basically people who either entertain, love their work or make other peoples lives better.

[AntiNaba]

I thought this was a topic for the Pantheon of Viridian Dreams, similiar to the Trope Pantheon. Bummer.

[Calinero]

That might be kinda cool. Just to clarify, though--I don't really want these gods to become characters in the story. I have not exactly made up my mind as to whether they are real in the setting or not. Unless the story takes a very different direction from the one I currently have in mind, we're not going to be running into any of their avatars walking around. I just want to have an idea of who/what the gods are, and what they represent. It will add flavor to the setting I think.

Also, I didn't mean that a particular god needs to have some qualifying characteristics in each of those categories, but was rather thinking of ways to organize the pantheon as a whole. For example, if I chose the first option there would be either four gods or eight gods (either one god per season, or a lord and lady of each season.) If I chose to go by elements, there could be a god of the sea and a god of the earth, and their personalities would reflect their elements (the water one would be moody, the earth one dependable, the fire one passionate, etc.) That being said, I kind of like your idea of a god...but, he might actually be too good. I don't want any one god to seem like the perfect option, or there's no reason anyone would worship any of the others.


Also, in response to AntiNaba: apologies for the lack of a Viridian Dreams Pantheon. I'm afraid I'm too new to know of any deserving deities other than the Authorlord and his wife.

[SirKaid]

The Ladies of Chance: Lady Luck and Malus Fortuna.

Lady Luck is the deity you pray to when you want good luck in a way that doesn't hurt anyone. For example, you've studied for an important test for weeks now, and you're pretty sure you know the information required to pass. However, the teacher is known to put a few trick questions on every exam. You pray to Lady Luck in the hopes that the trick questions will be ones you know how to answer. No one loses, since you really are qualified to get the good grade, but you still win.

Malus Fortuna is the deity you pray to when you want good luck at the expense of everyone else. At a poker game, for instance, you could pray to her so that you would win and everyone else would lose. Same with if you wanted to bust a friend out of jail when he's innocent. You pray to her for a jailbreak or a fire to distract the guards. You and your buddy win, but overall it's a loss for society. Or perhaps you want your shipping company to prosper. Bam, your rival's HQ is covered up by ash when the volcano erupts. Thousands die, but you're making more money, so you win.

With these two in place, people would believe that there is no such thing as "bad luck", merely Malus Fortuna smiling on someone who isn't you.

[Tempest Kitsune]

Trickster god of some sort. Can be a wholesome guy with a mischievous streak like Hermes, or someone with a darker bend like Loki. Or have someone who walks a happy medium between the two, or twins, one for "acceptable" mischief, the other for the really soul-chilling "fun".

[Calinero]

I do like the idea of a trickster god along the lines of Loki. Also, a god of luck or chance was something I had considered--partially because I am a gamer, and would then ask my made up deity for help in dice rolls. A third god I had considered would be a god or romance/sex/lust--but, to screw with conventions, it would be a guy. I see no reason the god of love always has to be a girl, like Aphrodite.


In an only vaguely related note: AntiNaba, after reading through twenty three pages or so of the Troper thread (only....5? of which had anything to do with tropes) I have to say that if I were making a pantheon of people on this site, you and many others from that thread would be nominated for the Gods of Insanity. That was some crazy thread. Very entertaining to read. But it did raise one question for me--where is Ed Becerra? I have been a part of the yahoo group since before these forums started, and remember seeing his comments back when they were sent out via email. However, I was slow in signing up here. Did he not make the transition, or what?

[Tempest Kitsune]

Ed does what he does best. Lurks, and makes bulls-eye contributions when he feels the need.

[Phht]

BOOM! Headshot.

;)

BTW, what is the setting for the story? Not sure if it might affect things, but it couldn't hurt to know more of the surrounding culture.... What does the culture value - a person's traits, the group's production, trade, whatever? Is it agricultural or more spread out (like also big with trade, etc)? If it's more agricultural, then season-based deities might work well. By the same token, elements might also work well in that area.

EDIT: If they're a culture centered around professional killing... Well, luck deities would certainly be in there somewhere. Maybe the pantheon centers around traits.

[gman391]

What about deities based around virtues? god of courage, god of love, god of hope ect....

[Calinero]

Ideas I'm liking right now:

A Trickster god: manipulative, possibly known as "The Jester." Basically screws around with everyone...not inherently malicious or cruel, but sneaky as hell

A Love/Sex god: wanted to shake things up by making it a guy instead of a girl who is in charge of love.

A Chance goddess: a goddess of random chance, still considering whether or not to use SirKaid's idea and divide this goddess into two.

A goddess of the sea/sailors: figured this would be a goddess, since the sea is always referred to as a 'she.' Fickle by nature, hard to please...much like many wives, as many sailors would joke.

A goddess of warriors: Mixing things up here again, rather than having a male god of war and female goddess of wisdom (like Ares and Athena) I'm having a female goddess of warriors (think sort of like an Amazon, or maybe Joan of Arc)

A god of wisdom/scholars: and here is the male god of wisdom, intellect, knowledge, scholars, etc.

A goddess of stone/builders: maybe a bit like Hera, of Greek fame, but not a vindictive wife so much as a nurturer and stable influence. Motherly

[MrRigger2]

A Trickster god: manipulative, possibly known as "The Jester." Basically screws around with everyone...not inherently malicious or cruel, but sneaky as hell

More Anansi, than Hermes?

A Love/Sex god: wanted to shake things up by making it a guy instead of a girl who is in charge of love.

That's not really shaking it up, remember Cupid/Eros? Also, Thor was a god of fertility. Yes, the big strong warrior who wielded a hammer with a handle too short to use unless he rubbed it, was a god of fertility. No, no veiled references there.

A Chance goddess: a goddess of random chance, still considering whether or not to use SirKaid's idea and divide this goddess into two.

May I recommend the Lady Luck interpretation from the Nightside series? She walked through a crowd of mortals, and every sort of thing happened to them. De-aging, fatal heart attacks, touch of gold, turned to stone, and everything in between.

A goddess of warriors: Mixing things up here again, rather than having a male god of war and female goddess of wisdom (like Ares and Athena) I'm having a female goddess of warriors (think sort of like an Amazon, or maybe Joan of Arc)

I don't really think that mixing it up too much, Artemis was the Goddess of the Hunt, and was one of the most dangerous warriors on Olympus. She also had a habit of castrating men, so take that for what it's worth.

A goddess of stone/builders: maybe a bit like Hera, of Greek fame, but not a vindictive wife so much as a nurturer and stable influence. Motherly

That kind of goes against most gods and goddesses, at least the vindictive part. I'm not sure how familiar you are with mythology, but there are relatively few deities that would be known as "nice" to mortals or their fellow gods and goddesses. And motherly isn't necessarily the best thing either, as goddesses tend to take things to an extreme. For instance, Demeter hid her daughter Persephone away from the rest of the world, and when Hades took her away to be his bride, Demeter nearly destroyed the world in her search for her daughter.

MrRigger

[ewuvi]

There was that hearth goddess. I don't think even Zeus dared to defile her. Hestia, it was. The only one who never did nasty shit to people, and she stayed out of mortal affairs and stuff.

The idea of sanctuary came from her, too. It was an offense against her to refuse hospitality to anyone.

[Phht]

Maybe a genderless deity of love/sex than?

[ewuvi]

An obese old woman. With voyeuristic tendencies.

No wait, that's been done.

[gman391]

Nice gods that didn't do nasty shit to mortals....Umm coming up with Baldur and possibly Hemidall here.

As for a unique deity of love/sex I don't remember seeing many Hermaphrodites although I think the Egyptians had some. Mind you the Egyptians had some F**** up shit you know?

[Calinero]

Just realized I totally ignored someone's question into the setting of the story. Here goes:

Basically, the story takes place inside a walled city. Outside of the city, there is nothing but the relatively few other permanent settlements that have accumulated sufficient defenses to survive, and roaming hordes of horrible creatures known as demons. The level of technology is something along the lines of Victorian, although that's still getting hammered out a bit...it might be a bit less advanced. The main city is located on the sea (which demons do not go into....though there are sea monsters) and is surrounded on all other sides by a large Wall that is endowed with enough magic to keep out the demons. For now.

[Phht]

Nice gods that didn't do nasty shit to mortals....Umm coming up with Baldur and possibly Hemidall here.

As for a unique deity of love/sex I don't remember seeing many Hermaphrodites although I think the Egyptians had some. Mind you the Egyptians had some F**** up shit you know?

Two words: Centauri pantheon. But that's more of a tentacle pantheon...

[gman391]

I thought we were doing real world pantheons. Not to mention I don't know the Centauri pantheon.

Seriously though near as I can remember the Egyptians thought their gods had two things to do: Change shape and have sex. Often at the same time.

[Greybane]

Seriously though near as I can remember the Egyptians thought their gods had two things to do: Change shape and have sex. Often at the same time.

Just like Zeus.

[gman391]

Touché I think...but on the other hand Zeus as far as I know never anally raped anyone and then used the semen as proof of their superiority. So I still got to give it to the Egyptians for most messed up pantheon.

[Greybane]

Touché I think...but on the other hand Zeus as far as I know never anally raped anyone and then used the semen as proof of their superiority. So I still got it give it to the Egyptians for most messed up pantheon.

Well he raped several people...

[gman391]

Let's just leave it. I prefer the Norse Pantheon anyway

[Greybane]

Concur.

[Calinero]

Pantheons are definitely full of some messed up crap. That is going to be either avoided entirely or greatly reduced with mine, as I don't plan on there being much of a physical presence for these gods in the stories...only references.