Homebrewed Deities

[Nhoj]

I am currently creating my own homebrewed campaign and I have decided to create Gods as well. All will either be of neutral, or good alignment. I wanted Demons to their advesaries, perhaps once a mortal follower or an angelic agent turned into a Tanar'ri.

I hope someone could help me flesh out the rest of this pantheon.

There are three tiers.
3 Greater Gods
4 Intermediate Gods
5 Lesser Gods

Greater Gods
Nature Goddess
God of War, Strategy, and Wisdom
God of Water, and Rebirth

Intermediate Gods
Goddess of Passion, Pain, Love, and Hedonism.
God of Divination, Illusions, and History.

Lesser Gods
God of Protection, Family, and Honor

[Rhawin]

A God of Luck and Fortune.
A God of Commerce, Trade, and Merchants.
A God of Art, Beauty, and Crafts. (ABCs!)
A God of the Restful Dead.
A God of the Forge and (practical) Creations.
A God of Agriculture (unless it is included under the Nature Goddess) and Hunting.
A God of Travel and Wandering.

All of these domains were loosely drawn from Roman mythology. If your just looking for domains and functions rather than more precise fluff, then polytheistic religions are ideal fonts of inspiration.

[Nhoj]

I like the God of Luck and fortune, maybe he'll also hold dominion over commerce, trade and merchants.

I definately will add a deity who reigns over travel and wandering. And as well as the god of the forge.

[AngryRussian16]

I'm working on a homebrew campaign and deities at the moment too, here is what I have so far

1 Alpha God
3 Intermediate Gods
6 Lesser Gods

I'm going on the premise that that the universe works in "cycles" and that the gods end up destroying themselves and the world and have several times before. Usually a few gods are left over from the previous cycle and they start things all over again.

Also, I am not including alignments in my campaign world, though that does not mean that gods and afterlives are independent from them. AKA everything has a general alignment, but are not restricted by it.

Alpha:

The Forger - Only remaining god of the previous cycle. Created all current gods and the new world from the remains of the dead gods and destroyed planet. His domains are Creation, metal-work, and fire

Intermediate

I don't have names for these gods yet, just premises and some domains

Sun - Valkyrie type warrior goddess (Yeah, I stole this and the moon concept from Rich, big whoop, wanna fight about it?) Domains include the Sun, Warfare (Tactics), and rebirth. I chose to add rebirth to her domains since the sun rising and setting everyday can be symbolized as rebirth.

Moon - Sneaky rogue-ish trickster god. Domains include the Moon, Music, Thievery, and Chaos. I also have it fluffed in that he takes newly dead souls to the outer plane for their afterlife. Kind of an amalgamation of Loki and Hermes.

Earth - Still working on appearance here, thinking about stereotypical passive female, but don't want to do that. Domains include Life, Earth/Land, and Freedom.

Lesser Gods:

No names here as well

Death - Goddesses that spends most of her time in the evil afterlife. Domains include Ice/Winter, Death, and Wealth.

Luck - I'm planning for this god to take human form sometimes and be the deity most involved in the lives of mortals. Domains include Luck, Drama, and Entertainment. I'm thinking of having this god being the head of a traveling circus.

Conquest - Sort of an angrier, more aggressive version of the Sun. Domains include Conquest, Strength, and Storms. Also takes human form a lot, but uses it to try to influence kingdoms to engage in war.

Sea - Still working on the fluff for this one, including gender. Thinking about just making this deity an incarnate of something. Domains include the Sea/Water, Exploration, and Beauty.

Fertility - I'm thinking of having either an animal in this spot, or a satyr of some type. Domains include Fertility, Agriculture, and Wine. Sort of a wild, party animal. Pun intended, I guess.

Magic - No fluff either. Domains include Magic, Knowledge, and Law.


Feel free to comment on my rough-draft pantheon or take any of my concepts, though I know several of these deities have domains you already have

[Nhoj]

Thats a really interesting idea. How your Deities continue a cycle of death and rebirth, while only perhaps a few might survive or none at all.

In my campaign, I've decided that the gods live on the material plane. Their planar realms destroyed in an epic battle against the Tanar'ri, so they chose to seek refuge with their mortal followers. Each residing in a main city, who's customs and traditions were heavily influenced by a particular god.

The citizens of these twelve cities were thankful, since the Tanar'ri also plagued the material plane as well. Then smaller towns and villages formed around them seeking protection. This left much of the world untouched by mortal beings.

[Innis Cabal]

Might I suggest an angel that I doubt many think of? A God of Half Elves?

[AngryRussian16]

I like that idea, it seems like it would give your players lots of chances to explore and make your campaign world very easy to add on to, should it need to expand.

[Nhoj]

Yeah, in the wild lands they would eventually be finding ancient civilizations of their ancestors. Some of them will hold powerful artifacts or something that they might need on their quest.

I haven't really found a campaign idea that i like, so it is forever changing at the moment. I would like to have one so then I can properly plan where it might lead them.

I don't particularly want my deities to be aligned with any races, so that gives my players more freedom to worship any god equally.

One inspiration for a deity is a god of magic, who was once Tanar'ri who gave the world magic. Trying to corrupt mortals to elevate himself to godhood but he battled against the Goddess of Nature, leaving him to serve her. And over time he became a lesser god. Other Demon Lords thought him as a traitor for choosing her over his demonic race.

[AngryRussian16]

That sounds interested, one thing I like about lesser deities is that they seem easier to integrate into mortal affairs, but your concept seems to do that already

[Nhoj]

Most of my roleplaying experience comes from playing in the Forgotten Realms. I liked it alot and tried to do my first run at DMing in that realm but I found myself prefering to be slightly original.

It also helps that there isn't an over deity like Ao to interrupt Divine Affairs.

The only real reason why I'm actually building my gods is incase one of my players might be stupid and wants to kill them first then if they are alive ask questions after.

So I figured, if they need assistance or need to be smited might as well be by their god.

[Set]

To take the 'god of travelers' and 'god of the restful dead' into a more Legba direction, perhaps they are a single god, a god of crossroads and transitions, both in the physical world, and into the world(s) beyond. Such a diety might seem whimsical, cold or dispassionate, leading the living along the road from birth to maturity to death, but be simply in charge of the journey, and making sure that everyone gets to where they are going. (As such, the god of travellers would loath undead, although, paradoxically, would send ghostly travellers as messengers, and these figures would be pitiable things, who have so offended the Gentle Guide that he has blocked their path and forbidden them to ever reach their afterlife! He would also function as an intermediary diety for any resurrection magic, as he must be convinced that the deceased 'had not finished their journey' before he will allow them to return. In game terms, anyone who the DM wants resurrected, such as a PC, will 'have not yet reached their destination' and will be allowed to return, while any NPC that the DM wants to stay dead will find their way back blocked, as the Guide has ruled that their journey in the physical world is complete, and they have a different journey now to concentrate upon...).

I'd consider also going sideways and making the god of artifice and craft female, associated more with weaving and pottery and hearth and home, but that same hearthfire can also be seen as the flames of the forge, and while she is not often shown in temple art with a blacksmiths hammer, she is still the patron of smiths, who often have the horn of their anvil shaped like a maiden, similar to the prow of a ship, or some sculpture or bust of the goddess in their smithy, for luck. (It's only lucky if it's a bust or sculpture created within that smithy, and this is more important than aesthetic quality, making for some fairly hideous 'busts' of the goddess of crafts hanging in smithies around the world!) As goddess of the hearth and home, she would also be seen as a goddess of order, both the natural order of the household, and the order of the crafter, who imposes structure and purpose upon base materials, turning ore into tools or wool into clothing or grain into bread. She becomes a goddess of fire, crafts, family, the home, law, community and perhaps even fertility (and would be terribly unimpressed with the goddess of passion, who would have more emotive arts such as painting and singing and dancing among her purview, they might even be sisters, with the craft-goddess being the 'stuffy, practical one who likes being tied down' and the hedonist being the 'flighty one who is wasting her life on fancy and frivolity,' as they harshly critique each other's choices). Again, to flip traditional gender roles for dieties, perhaps the hedonistic sister is the craft-goddesses 'good for nothing layabout' *brother,* and the god of passion, love, etc. is a male, and the patron of Bards?

Take the Hephaestus / Aphrodite trope and turn it around, making the woman the crafter of the gods, and the man into the pretty 'bimbo' whom the other gods take turns riding like the neighborhood bicycle.

[Muntang]

You need a twin god of fratricide
a Goddess of Male Misfortune and lefthandedness

And things like
Madingo the three eyes goddess of good fortune.

[dentrag2]

I've homebrewed twenty deities for my campaign... Unfortunately, most of them are evil.

[Yora]

I usually have problems with lawful characters. Races and NPCs I design usually end up as chaotic, and the whole setting is much more leaning towards chaos with not that many lawful civilizations and spirits.
But somehow I ended up with lots of lawful deities, but a severe shortage in chaotic good ones.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Might I suggest an angel that I doubt many think of? A God of Half Elves?

Taking this idea and Set's suggestion of a god of transitions, perhaps a deity of "in-between-ness" or being between two worlds or the like (deity of Division would be good, but it sounds too mathematical) would be a good fit. It could be worshiped by half-elves and half-orcs (between two races), warrior-mages (between two vocations), neutral folks (between two sets of two alignments), fishermen (between the land and the sea), and so on.

[Nhoj]

I did make the God of the forge, take on a female apperance. I do like the appeal of a Dual Deity. To flip the stereotypical gender roles is what I'm trying to convey with more "Manly' or "Womanly" social occupations. But once in a while, certain area's feel more natural in a certain gender role. Like Nature being governed by a woman.

For the deity of passion, I'm giving her a dual purpose. Of fire and ice, fire easily being attributed to passion while ice being applied to pain and suffering. Two opposing forces on opposite sides of the spectrum.