Pantheon for Evil Elves

Okay I have a campaign where elves are Lawful Evil expansionists. They aren't drow, but more of an ancient force of magical power which is enough to cast down even dragons (they're the big bads of the campaign for now; I might have Yawgmoth and the Phyrexians show up).

Well I need a good pantheon for these evil immortals and, because I like making pantheons into homages, I was wondering if there were any suggestions for awesome gods for them to worship.

So far at least one elf worships Tzeentch (the elf is a mad experimenting wizard who may or may not have created multiple of the PCs' species; he's also how I explain owlbears). I decided it off my sleeve when I was ad hocing the first session since the players randomly met up with me early and made their characters.

I'm thinking about also using Loki, Yog-Sothoth, and who knows what else but I decided I'd see if anybody had any good suggestions.

The 4e core version of Bane might be right for you. He's pretty much the god of Lawful Evil expansionism there. He has a bit of Ares about him, if you're looking for historical deities.

Bane is all about skill, oppression and conquest. The other 4e war gods are Gruumsh (CE) who's into mindless slaughter, and Kord (N) who is more about individual in strength in battle.

A god of conquering others because you're better than them sounds just right for most elves.

What setting? Obviously Bane wouldn't work if you're in Eberron, and the Mockery wouldn't work in Greyhawk. (I think.)

If it's homebrewed, what mythologies are allowed?

Homebrewed.

Pantheons allowed:

I like dropping deities in as homages (in an anti-illithid campaign I made the Elder God of Chaos R'lyeh and when they saw an avatar of his I quoted the description of Cthulhu from the book... no one got it; they also met the Duke of Arkham at one point) so ones drawn from fantasy books or real world myths either work.

If it's from myth other than Norse or Greek (and to a lesser extent Chinese, Egyptian, Hopi, or Japanese) I'd be quite overjoyed to learn more about them. If it's from a book series/game that I don't know (I'll admit there are many) if they're interesting I'd go straight to a wiki (I only know about Tzeentch due to the Chaos in the Old World board game and TVtropes; which got me to look him up on the Warhammer Wiki).

I prefer not using D&D deities (it's irrational I know).

It's not irrational at all - Dei & Demi wouldn't have gone to all the trouble of statting them if they weren't meant to be used.

Unfortunately, I can't help you beyond the standard Greek/Egyptian/Norse/Babylonian fantasy mainstays, and it sounds like you've considered those already...

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Originally Posted by Psyren

It's not irrational at all - Dei & Demi wouldn't have gone to all the trouble of statting them if they weren't meant to be used.

Unfortunately, I can't help you beyond the standard Greek/Egyptian/Norse/Babylonian fantasy mainstays, and it sounds like you've considered those already...

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I know them, but I've only started thinking which ones would be most appropriate and I know I have certain bias's on how I use them in fantasy (for example I'd not think of Ares and LE in the same sentence*) which is exactly why I decided to ask for outside help so that they don't have the same evil pantheon I always use.

*Not quite true when creating my own LE war god I used a Spartan appellation for Ares because I was basing him on the Spartan version.

Well if you're taking the "usually good" elves and making them evil, you could also try taking a "good" deity and turning him/her/it evil too. An evil Aphrodite could be a lot of fun, especially as goddess of the elves. There's the whole pride and beauty angle to work with.
Maybe Osiris got cranky after being killed, or Isis went all vengeful.
Otherwise, Frey and Freya are associated with elves and both quite warlike, so they'd fit in easily enough.

*This may all be wildly inaccurate. Feel free to use as little or as much of it as you prefer.

This just screams Michael Moorcock's Elric Saga.

These elves sound very much like the Melniboneans. Worshiping beings like Arioch (Lord of the Seven Darks, Knight of the Sword, Lord of the Higher Hell, etc.) sounds right up their alley.

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Originally Posted by loaded.dice

Well if you're taking the "usually good" elves and making them evil, you could also try taking a "good" deity and turning him/her/it evil too. An evil Aphrodite could be a lot of fun, especially as goddess of the elves. There's the whole pride and beauty angle to work with.
Maybe Osiris got cranky after being killed, or Isis went all vengeful.
Otherwise, Frey and Freya are associated with elves and both quite warlike, so they'd fit in easily enough.

*This may all be wildly inaccurate. Feel free to use as little or as much of it as you prefer.

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:smallbiggrin: I especially like the Osiris one and the Freya one. Frey I think I'll just keep out, or maybe I'll look up an alternate name for him and make him the King of the Elves (which was one of his titles).

Thanks

Chernabog? The real one is actually similar to that one, so ignore the origins :P He is an evil deity of winter from Slavic mythology.

You could also look into the Dreamtime mythos of the aborigines; its got a very "old ones" feel, with a single God creating the universe and then inviting gods from his reality to come live in it.

Howzabout Kokopelli, the Native American fertility/trickster god of music?

You probably would have to alter a fair amount, but I got the impression that you were okay with that, and tricksters are always fun, and Kokopelli is one of the more fun tricksters.

I currently think I'll include

Yog-Sothoth as a god of knowledge, time, and magic with an emphasis on divination.
Tzeentch as a second god of magic, with an emphasis on experimentation and transmutation.
Freya emphasizing her role as war goddess as well as goddess of love, maybe look up more about Slaanesh and splash some of zir in.
Osiris as a god of necromancy, judgment, and the Eldest Elves.
Arioch as an evil war god (tempted to use Khorne but I want to put the shout out to Michael Moorcock's works). I'm thinking about making him Neutral Evil because he didn't really act CE in the D&D sense.

I need to figure out a head god, and now I have the question should I have 1 god for each of the 8 schools of magic?

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Originally Posted by Zaydos

I currently think I'll include

Yog-Sothoth as a god of knowledge, time, and magic with an emphasis on divination.
Tzeentch as a second god of magic, with an emphasis on experimentation and transmutation.
Freya emphasizing her role as war goddess as well as goddess of love, maybe look up more about Slaanesh and splash some of zir in.
Osiris as a god of necromancy, judgment, and the Eldest Elves.
Arioch as an evil war god (tempted to use Khorne but I want to put the shout out to Michael Moorcock's works). I'm thinking about making him Neutral Evil because he didn't really act CE in the D&D sense.

I need to figure out a head god, and now I have the question should I have 1 god for each of the 8 schools of magic?

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Nah, you should have each of the spell casting gods have 4 aspects, splitting the schools evenly between them. So Yog-Sothoth gets Conjuration, Illusion, Necromancy, and Abjuration say, and each one has a particular avatar associated with it. That system lends itself better to cults, because than extremists can claim their aspect/avatar is the actual god and the others are imposters while still being technically part of the same church.

Its essentially the idea that you need an orthodox point of view to have heresy; in this case orthodoxy is the aspects are all one god, while heresy is they are either multiple gods or 1 god and his helpers.

Consider the Draegarean pantheon from Steven Brust's books? Starting with Jhereg, the world premise is one where the elves have taken over, have access to massive magical power, have a strict caste system including worship of a number of bloodthirsty deities, and view humans as expendable dift farmers at best (except the humans who join the only official elven 'family' that accepts them, in which case they are viewed as unreliable and expendable thieves and assassins).

Fun series - the main character is Vlad Taltos, a human assassin who has a talent for avoiding doom almost on par with his knack for getting into trouble.

One of the recurring entities is the Demon Goddess Verra, who is a relatively pleasant being to deal with - just remember to sacrifice a few villages to her from time to time.