Six-God Pantheon

LG - Raelor
The Shining Lord is the paragon of Goodness and Law. He stands for nobility and just rule. He is chief among the gods and patron to the line of Luxorian monarchs.

• Portfolio: the Sun, Justice, Nobility, Honor, War, Tactics, Leadership, Summer
• 5e Domains: Light, War
• 3e Domains: Fire, Healing, Nobility, Sun, War, Law, Good
• Symbols: Shining Sun, Rearing Lion with Sunrays, Eagle on Golden Disk of the Sun, Sun with Crown
• Favored Weapon: Longsword (Holy, Flaming)

NG - Alrainna
The Earth Mother is well loved by those who work Her land. Her holidays are many, particularly in the Spring and Fall. She has few Paladins, but many Clerics, Druids and Rangers.

• Portfolio: Fertility, Growth, Harvest, Protection, Community, Agriculture, Earth
• 5e Domains: Life, Nature
• 3e Domains: Animal, Earth, Healing, Plant, Protection, Good
• Symbols: Serpent Biting its own Tail, Winged Serpent Coiled around a Staff, Serpent Coiled around a Sheaf of Wheat, Golden Calf on Green Square
• Favored Weapon: Mace (Merciful, Defending)

CG - Eilonwy
The Dancing Maiden is a trickster. She is represented as a child as often as she is represented as a beautiful or tomboyish woman. She has few temples, but many shrines. She is a patron to gamblers and thieves, investigators and musicians.

• Portfolio: Love, Trickery, Truth, Luck, Air, Travel, Music, Spring
• 5e Domains: Trickery
• 3e Domains: Air, Healing, Luck, Music, Travel, Trickery, Chaos, Good
• Symbols: Rearing Unicorn, Guitar or Lute with Rainbow Strings, Black or Silver Mask on Blue Triangle
• Favored Weapon: Rapier (Keen, Seeking)

LN - Selene
The Pale Lady is a contemplative goddess. She represents secrets and knowlege, magic and death, cycles of nature and order among men. Her power and domains include the Ocean (especially tides), so her worshippers include many sailors. She is the patron of Wisdom and those who seek it.

• Portfolio: the Moon, Tides, Death, Magic, Knowledge, Water, Law, Winter
• 5e Domains: Arcana, Knowledge, Grave
• 3e Domains: Death, Ice, Inquisition, Knowledge, Magic, Water, Moon, Law
• Symbols: Owl on White Disk of the Moon, Owl bearing crossed Spears, Scales balanced on a Spear
• Favored Weapon: Spear (Icy Burst, Ghost Touch)

N - Kassoth
The Forgemaster is lord of fire: the illumination of a candle, the utility of a forge, and the destructive might of an inferno. He teaches that the Flame of Faith simultaneously consumes and purifies. He teaches that destruction is a vital step along the Great Wheel of Life, as much a part of the natural order as creation. His Holy Flame both disintegrates and concentrates, burning the old into ash and forging the new. He has as many students among the Druidic circles as he does in Priestly garb.

• Portfolio: Forge, Artifice, Fire, Civilization, Runes, Creation, Destruction
• 5e Domains: Forge
• 3e Domains: Artifice, Ash, Blades, Fire, Magic, Ooze, Summoning
• Symbols: Warhammer wreathed in Flames, Anvil with Hammer and Bellows, Hammer and Tongs
• Favored Weapon: Hammer (Flaming, Corrosive Burst)

CN - Cernunos
The Horned Hunter (also known as the Stormlord, the Thundering Stag, and the Blade of Fate) is followed by those who prize strength and personal excellence. Some communities pay Him tribute to ward off His wrath; others, to celebrate victories in His name. His "clergy" are as often animists as they are theists.

• Portfolio: Storms, Battle, Hunting, Vengeance, Fury, Chaos, Autumn
• 5e Domains: Tempest
• 3e Domains: Battle, Destruction, Renewal, Storm, Strength, Chaos
• Symbols: Axe with Lightningbolt Handle, Wolf with Stag Horns, Thunderhead Cloud on Red Disk
• Favored Weapon: Axe (Shocking Burst, Thundering)

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This pantheon includes some mythical patterns like Maiden / Mother / Crone => CG Eilonwy / NG Alrainna / LN Selene.

On the male side you can see an aristocratic caste system as Lord / Soldier / Worker => LG Raelor / CN Cernunos / N Kassoth.

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In terms of Law vs. Chaos, we have:

Law	Neutral	Chaos
Justice, Nobility, Sun	Benevolence, Healing, Growth	Truth, Trickery, Travel
Knowledge, Magic, Death, Moon	Technology, Artifice, Fire	Storm, Battle, Strength

The general axis is Law:Organization <---------> Chaos:Individual.

LAW: The Lord and the Librarian are representatives of an organization, and without their structure, they're powerless.

NEUTRALITY: The Farmer and the Blacksmith are both individuals who represent individual skill, but who also profit from the social order.

CHAOS: The Liberator and the Berserker are exemplars of individualism, who disrupt the social order.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nifft

NEUTRALITY: The Farmer and the Blacksmith are both individuals who represent individual skill, but who also profit from the social order.

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And without whom the social order would not exist. Agriculture is the single most important, most fundememntal foundation of civilization, and technologies like metalworking and brick making are not so far behind.

It's an interesting choice to have no evil gods. Are there no evil clerics then? If so (er, I mean, if not? I mean, if there are none) that takes away some classic story elements.

Six gods is uncommonly small for a pantheon, and I think I like that. I'd be interested to know how it goes over with players and how it works in play.

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Originally Posted by jqavins

And without whom the social order would not exist. Agriculture is the single most important, most fundememntal foundation of civilization, and technologies like metalworking and brick making are not so far behind.

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Yeah.

But they're often the least powerful -- so they're both the building-blocks for order which need protection by the wise and powerful, and they're also the ones who keep crying out for violent liberation from tyranny.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jqavins

It's an interesting choice to have no evil gods. Are there no evil clerics then? If so (er, I mean, if not? I mean, if there are none) that takes away some classic story elements.

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There were no evil gods.

There were evil cults which venerated Demon-Lords and Arch-Devils, but divine power was pretty much exclusively non-Evil.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jqavins

Six gods is uncommonly small for a pantheon, and I think I like that. I'd be interested to know how it goes over with players and how it works in play.

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It was the pantheon I used for a four-year long game roughly a decade ago.

The players did like it. :smallsmile:

I think having evil devil/demon cults fill in the "gap" in the pantheon is a great idea.

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Originally Posted by NYpurdy

I think having evil devil/demon cults fill in the "gap" in the pantheon is a great idea.

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My only issue (maybe problem) with it is the matter of evil clerics. If the fiends that the cults worship are able to grant spells to their clerics, then what differentiates them from gods? If nothing, then there are evil gods after all.

If they can't grant spells, all I was saying is that that takes away numerous possibilities for story lines. There are still plenty more.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jqavins

My only issue (maybe problem) with it is the matter of evil clerics. If the fiends that the cults worship are able to grant spells to their clerics, then what differentiates them from gods? If nothing, then there are evil gods after all.

If they can't grant spells, all I was saying is that that takes away numerous possibilities for story lines. There are still plenty more.

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Evil cultists are NPCs, and NPCs are not required to follow the rules that PCs follow.

I guess I didn't think to use whatever plots require evil Clerics -- could you enumerate a few? I honestly can't think of any story line that requires an evil Cleric.

Insofar as the rules go, the Fiend Cults either cannot grant evil clerical spells, or they can, and I don't really care which because AFAICT it's irrelevant to world-building -- perhaps the fiends can only grant spells when the evil cultists sacrifice an innocent life, which is plot-appropriate ("PCs investigate cult after murders occur"); or they only grant spells with some other non-PC-friendly constraint, or on a non-PC-friendly timetable, or the like.

As I used the cults of fiends, they didn't need to grant evil Cleric spells, so they didn't. Divine spells were an advantage for Team Good -- which they needed, because Team Evil had other significant advantages.

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Originally Posted by Nifft

...I guess I didn't think to use whatever plots require evil Clerics -- could you enumerate a few? I honestly can't think of any story line that requires an evil Cleric...

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Saving the intended victim of human sacrifice, and stopping a cult from raising a "Dark Elder God" are classic pulp tropes.

Oh, BTW your pantheon looks AWESOME!

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Originally Posted by Nifft

I guess I didn't think to use whatever plots require evil Clerics -- could you enumerate a few? I honestly can't think of any story line that requires an evil Cleric.

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The cleric can be either the BBEG or the BBEG's lieutenant. Rebuke undead to get them to fight for the bad guys. Resurrect the BBEG, or resurrect other villains to get them to join the cause. All the handy things that the party cleric does, but for the other side. (Though I guess no plots really hinge on that one.) By the classic trope, cult leaders who are not frauds are usually clerics who perform miracles that impress the members and keep then in line (or enthralled) and they are often True Believers themselves, just as good clerics are supposed to be.

Its a dead campaign, so you don't need anything critiqued... Sooooo what's the point of the post. Are you just hoping for accolades and praise, or was this so that we can appropriate your work for ourselves?

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Originally Posted by 2D8HP

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Saving the intended victim of human sacrifice, and stopping a cult from raising a "Dark Elder God" are classic pulp tropes.

Oh, BTW your pantheon looks AWESOME!

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Thanks!

I used demon invasions as the major world-breaker threat instead of "dark elder god" in this campaign... except it had already happened, and this was the post-apocalypse Renaissance on the other side of the planet.

But yeah, fiend-cults were a thing in this game, not "dark god" cults.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jqavins

The cleric can be either the BBEG or the BBEG's lieutenant. Rebuke undead to get them to fight for the bad guys. Resurrect the BBEG, or resurrect other villains to get them to join the cause. All the handy things that the party cleric does, but for the other side. (Though I guess no plots really hinge on that one.) By the classic trope, cult leaders who are not frauds are usually clerics who perform miracles that impress the members and keep then in line (or enthralled) and they are often True Believers themselves, just as good clerics are supposed to be.

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Ur-Priest is a thing.

Or an evil Cleric could just worship a principle, instead of a god.

Maybe that's what the layers of Hell were: each one an evil principle which could be worshiped, and each Duke of Hell merely dons the appropriate mantle of the principle's planar power.

The Abyss might have a similar thing going on, but less organized (as is their wont).

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Originally Posted by redwizard007

Its a dead campaign, so you don't need anything critiqued... Sooooo what's the point of the post. Are you just hoping for accolades and praise, or was this so that we can appropriate your work for ourselves?

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If you have an insightful critique, please do share. Anyone in the future who uses this (or is inspired by it) might find value in your insight. That might include me, if I re-use the pantheon.

There was a discussion in another thread, and it was going off-topic. I started this thread instead of letting an off-topic derail happen. It worked.

Of course you are also welcome to appropriate anything you find on the Internet -- nobody can stop you -- unless you try to sell it for money of course. So don't do that. But you're 100% free to use anything I write in your own non-commercial games.