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  1. - Top - End - #31
    Ogre in the Playground
     
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    Nov 2006

    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    ^That's a nice Lolth, you should write it up.

    However this Lolth is no drow goddess and Gruumsh is already doing what you describe.
    ...
    Anyway, I tried to get a Mystra up here but failed. She's far too tightly tied up in FR stuff of dubious quality, just like Cyric, and removing all that stuff just makes her boobed Boccob. Was a bummer.

    Therefore, I decided to put my huge list here. Maybe it'll generate some recommendations and ideas. It's a list of bona fide DnD gods of variable fame that I'm trying to whip into a satisfactory cosmology( with commentary). Deities been mentioned until now are guaranteed to be in but even they're not set in stone. I also looked up the noobs of 4e, some of them do have potential.
    Spoiler: huge
    Show
    Supreme Deities:
    Luminous Overmother Selune
    Ruinous Overmother Shar
    Elder Elemental Evil Tharizdun

    Primordial Greater Deities:
    Mother of All Abominations Tiamat (terriblest of them all)
    Soul Forger Moradin (arranger of the Great Wheel, bigwig of Upper Planes)
    Sun Father Pelor (creator of mortals, king of Material Plane)
    Lord of Lords Gruumsh (player of the long game)
    Glorious King Corellon (sparkly manbaby)
    Heir of Ruin Lendor (dear diary)

    Brood of Pelor: (bigwigs of Material Plane)
    Beshaba, Twin Goddess of Bad Luck
    Chauntea, Goddess of Family and Agriculture
    Eldath, Sweet Goddess of Sweet Waters and General Chill
    Erythnul, Literally A Piece of ****
    Silvanus, God of Ecoterrorism
    Olidammara, Tricksy God of Rogues and Roads and Civilization
    Talos, Manly God of Storms and Mommy Issues
    Tymora, Twin Goddess of Good Luck
    Umberlee, the Bitch Queen of RIP AND TEAR

    Seldarine of Corellon: (allied against all others, for a given value of allied)
    Aerdrie, Goddess of Rain and Summer
    Angharradh, Tripartite Goddess of Indulging In Corellon’s Wacky Fetishes
    Fenmarel, Emo God of Survival and Suicide and Angst
    Hanali, Goddess of Satisfying Corellon’s Lust For Sune Without Giving Her More Influence
    Rillifane, Protective God of Treehugging
    Sashelas, Tailchasing God of Seas and Diplomacy
    Sehanine, Goddess of Magic and Dreams and Moon and Stars
    Solonor, God of Hunting and Triggerhappiness

    Orcish Pantheon: (ostracized and disliked)
    Baghtru, Strong God of Stupidity
    Ilneval, Envious God of Strategy
    Luthic, Goddess of All The Girly Stuff
    Shargaas, God of Darkness and Assassination
    Yurtrus, God of Getting Owned By Nerull (also age and disease)

    Miscellaneous Descendants of Overmothers:
    Abbathor, God of Greed and Thievery
    Araushnee aka Lolth, Goddess of Shadows and Schemes
    Auril, Queen of Winter
    Berronar aka Yondalla, Mother Goddess of Family and Badassery (and Halflings)
    Clangeddin, Manly God of Crusading and Goodytwoshoery (Moradin’s little helper)
    Duerra, Axe Princess of Conquest (of Duergar)
    Eilistraee, Goddess of Grace and War and Crafts
    Haela, Demigoddess of Berserkers and Joy of Victory
    Laduguer, Hard God of Hardassery and Hardwork and Hard Men Making Hard Decisions
    Kiaransalee, Demonic Goddess of Undead and Vengeance
    Obad-hai, Tripartite Fey God of Goblinoids and/or Prince of Spring
    Oberon, Horny King of Autumn
    Titania, Queen of Summer
    Vhaeraun, God of Romance and Rebellion
    Waukeen, Goddess of Capitalism

    Independent Deities: (small fish of Material Plane)
    Amaunator, Old School God of Pelor Heretics
    Arvoreen, A Little Too Short To Be A War God
    Azuth, God of Magicians
    Bane, God of Tyranny
    Bhaal, Dead God of Murder
    Brandobaris, Trickster God of Awesomeness
    Boccob, Douche God of Knowledge and Magic
    Deneir, God of Being Oghma’s Secretary
    Erathis, Neutralized Pelor Groupie
    Garagos, Dead ******* God of War and Bloodshed
    Gond, God of Invention and Machinery
    Heironeous, Twin God of Order and Expansionism
    Hextor, Twin God of Order and Conquest
    Ioun, Goddess of Knowledge and Skill
    Lathander, Cool and Hip Sun God for Cool and Hip Young Mortals
    Lirr, Goddess of Literature and Fiction
    Loviatar, Goddess of Weakness and Bravery
    Malar, Animal God of Beasts
    Myrkul, Faulty Nerull
    Mystra, Worst Goddess of Magic
    Nerull, Dread God of Death and Fear
    Oghma, Nice God of Knowledge and Arts
    Raven Queen, Goddess of Fate and Inscrutability
    Selvetarm, God of Being Lolth’s Boytoy
    Sharess, Goddess of Hedonism and Angst
    Sune, Conniving Goddess of Lust and Beauty
    Thaun, The Dark Night
    Tempus, Yet Another Manly War God
    Velsharoon, God of Supervillainy
    Wee Jas, Goddess of Necromancy

    Random Spawn Of Tharizdun That Nobody Knows Is Of Tharizdun:
    Annam, Lovestruck Giantdad
    Othea, Goddess of surprisebitch.gif (where else would manifestations of primal matter come from)
    Moander, Deity of Rot and Decay (he ded)
    Ghaunadaur, Deity of All the ****

    Godspawn of Tiamat: (not all the disgusting nightmare beasts are evil)
    Blipdoolpoolp of Kuo-toa
    Eadro of Locathah
    Great Mother of Beholders
    Ilsensine of Illithids
    Jazirian of Couatls
    Laogzed of Troglodytes
    Merrshaulk of Yuan-ti
    Nameless Emperor of Grells [this doesn’t actually exist]
    Panzuriel of Krakens [closest match]
    Pastafar of Flumphs [this needs to exist but without a goofy name]
    Pisaethces of Aboleths
    Psilofyr of Myconids
    Sekolah of Sahuagin
    Semuanya of Lizardmen
    Shekinester of Nagas

    Giantish Pantheon:
    Diancastra, Trickster Goddess of Arrogance and Tailchasing
    Grolantor, God of Willful Stupidity
    Hiatea, Taller and Weaker Chauntea
    Iallanis, Taller and Nicer Sune
    Karontor, God of Selfhate and Deformity
    Memnor, God of Pride and Smarts
    Skoraeus, God of Knowledge and Isolationism
    Stronmaus, Tailchasing God of Sun and Sky and Joy
    Vaprak, Deformed God of Ogres

    Powers of other planes:
    Aoskar, Uncle Ben of Planescape
    Apomps, Worst Fiend of the Year, Every Year (also God of 4chan)
    Asmodeus, Dominus Infernus
    Demogorgon, Demon Prince of Demons
    Dumathoin, God of Japanese Cartoons
    General of Gehenna, Master of Daemons
    Gorellik, God of Gnolls (for a given value of god)
    Hebdomad, the Seven Councilors of Celestia
    Lady of Pain, Owner of Sigil
    Malchanthet, Succubus Queen of Collaborators
    Morwel, Queen of Arborea
    Primus, Primary Modron
    Queen of Chaos, A series question marks
    Ravanna, God of Rakshasi
    Solars of the First Sphere, paragons of Arcadia
    Talisid, Lion Marshall of Beastlands
    Torm, God of Superheroism
    Vaati, Wind Duke of Aaqa

    List of deities from internet to be cherrypicked:
    Celestian, God of Astronomy and Travel (distinctive from other travel guys so has chance)
    Fharlanghn, Just Another Shaundakul (I despise writing his name)
    Incabulos, Hateful God of Bad Things (boring)
    Joramy, Discount Shiva with Fire Motif (lame but may serve a purpose)
    Leira, Tricksy Goddess of Illusion and Deception (another one?)
    Lliira, Goddess of Joy (might work)
    Muamman, God of Visitors, Expats and Lightning (??) (might be in)
    Shaundakul, Just Another Fharlanghn (don’t really like any of these guys)
    Talona, Goddess of Poison and Disease (Loviatar did it first)
    Torog, God of Underdark and Torture (might be in)
    Wastri, God of Amphibians and Human Supremacy (!?!?) (want him in just for the weird)
    Zarus, God of Human Racism (kinda already folded into Pelor)
    Zuoken, Ascended Bruce Lee (unlikely but not impossible)
    Cyric, Megavillain

    List of rejected deities: (the Losers)
    Avandra, Goddess of Luck and Halflings (Yondalla says nope)
    Bahamut, God of Dragonborn (dragonborn gotta gtfo and stay gtfo)
    Cyrrollalee, Goddess of Hospitality and Friendship (rejected for ****ty name alone)
    Dugmaren, Brainy God of Scholarship and Invention (Boccob/Oghma says no)
    Ehlonna, Bleeding Heart Silvanus (unnecessary)
    Erevan, Trickster God of Tricks (Brandobaris is cooler)
    Garl Glittergold, and buddies (no gnomes allowed)
    Gorm, A Little Short To Be Helm (nope)
    Helm, Stupider Named Heironeous (nope)
    Ilmater, Basically Jesus (so nope)
    Istus, Superfluous Tripartite Goddess of Fate (don’t need two triunes)
    Iyachtu Xvim, Official Bane Knockoff (nnnope)
    Kord, Discount Crom (Tempus is superior)
    Labelas, Stuffy God of History and Education (Boccob/Oghma is superior)
    Marthammor, God of Travel (Olidammara+Fharlanghn+Shaundakul=nope)
    Mask, Worst Named God in the History of Badly Named Gods (rejected HARDEST)
    Melora, Just Another Nature Goddess (lame)
    Mielikki, Yet Another Nature Goddess (laaaame)
    Milil, Official Discount Bragi (nope)
    Procan, Uncaring Primal God of Sea (Tiamat says no)
    Ralishaz, Genderbent Beshaba (superfluous)
    Sharindlar, Discount Sune (no)
    Sheela, Random Assortment Goddess of Nature and Agriculture and Song and Love (too unfocused)
    St Cuthbert, Just Another Knight God (Tempus+Heironeous=nope)
    Trithereon, God of **** Yeah, Murrica! (no)
    Tyr, You Again? (nope)
    Ulaa, Boringer female Dumathoin (boooooring)
    Urogalan, Kindest God of Death and Earth (Nerull isn’t gonna let him be)
    Vergadain, Trickster God of Luck (far too many tricksters)
    Zehir, Fake Set (nope)

    I'll be here, trying to hammer Mystra into a round hole. I don't think she'll fit tho.

    vThat'd be Ludic. All of his stuff is awesome.

    much later edit: keeping the updates
    Last edited by Pronounceable; 2017-07-08 at 05:04 AM.
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  2. - Top - End - #32
    Halfling in the Playground
     
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    Apr 2016

    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    Someone had written up a really good Hextor, but it might overlap with Laduguer.

    Maybe demote Asmodeous to an archdevil?

    Also, maybe Pelor spawned off Amaunator to watch some old prime worlds, and then when he got too powerful split him into Lathander?

  3. - Top - End - #33
    Ogre in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    ...Managed to hammer Mystra into the hole. Here's me channeling all of my hatred for shovelware fantasy "literature" that pollutes our hobby.


    MYSTRA (greater goddess), Spellweaver, Mistress of Magic, She Who Chooses
    Domain: magic, wizardry
    Spoiler
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    Mystra is well known as the most harmful and destructive of all deities, an impressive achievement for a goddess of magic considering that actual psychokiller deities like Erythnul, Bhaal and Moander existed; made more impressive by the fact that she's simply apathetic instead of actively malicious. A parasitic goddess without real worshippers of her own, Mystra’s power stems from powerful wizardry all over the multiverse. She continually disseminates knowledge of extremely powerful and terrifying spells, capable of causing untold death and destruction in the wrong hands (which consistently happens). She claims it’s for the advancement of the science of wizardry and overall good of the planes, as magic is clearly the most superior resource and needs to be utilized better. A great believer in free and open source magic, Mystra is both the least and most successful arms dealer of the planes. While she gives away the knowledge of apocalyptic wizardry for free to all who asks (and some who don’t), she's managed to reach greater deityhood by feeding off of the spells she's disseminated to the planes. She cheerfully supplies all beings of multiversal power with extremely destructive magics with no regard to what purposes they'll be used for, going out of her way to deliberately arm both sides of any planar conflict to see what sort of innovative uses they'll find for her spells. While that would've been enough to earn her eternal enmity from half the multiverse, it’s the source of her new spells that gets other deities’ gears grinding.

    Mystra empowers a mortal every few years, granting them magical prowess far beyond anything even the epicest characters are capable of. This is always either an accomplished mage or someone with obviously great magical potential. All Mystra asks of them in return is that they personally develop new and innovative magics to find and kill the previous mortal she empowered (who’ll also have access to phenomenal arcane power). As can be expected, these “Chosen of Mystra” recklessly utilize the entirety of Mystra’s massive library of disgustingly powerful spells in their clashes, racking up death tolls in millions and fully destroying an entire planet once or twice. Mystra just shrugs, calling it the price of progress. The surviving Chosen loses the divinely inflated part of their magical power until the next “match” but doesn’t sit around, they know it’s just a matter of time until the next challenger comes and keep working on developing new magics. The new, innovative, revolutionary (and invariably horrific) spells designed by Mystra’s Chosen are then spread far and wide, free of cost, and it’s generally agreed that the entire multiverse hasn’t been destroyed solely because beings strong and skilled enough in wizardry to regularly use them are very rare. This doesn’t stop lesser mages from developing and deploying weaker versions however, which fuels a looot of magical carnage all over the planes.

    The Chosen of Mystra are unfailingly self centered, tenuously sane individuals who use their great power to warp everything, doing their best to repaint the multiverse so everything seems to revolve around them. They are just as much hated as Mystra herself yet stay unkilled, for their raw power usually exceeds many demigods even when they don’t have Mystra’s power flowing through them. The most current one is some guy named Elminster, he’s been the winner for a few centuries now and seems to be growing complacent, spending his time seducing the young and pretty girls he’s taking as apprentices instead of working on new, stronger apocalyptic spells. Rumors claim Mystra is unhappy with this and the next match might not be as fair as the previous ones.

    Of course, Mystra doesn’t get to mess with the multiverse in the name of progress without consequences. She has been captured many times but her Chosen always finds and frees her from wherever she’s trapped. Killing the Chosen before such an attempt doesn’t work either, as they’re always strong enough to last a few seconds even against a full fledged deity, which gives Mystra enough time to come to their aid (or make another Chosen if the aggressor is too big for her to chew). And when a disgruntled deity finally killed her (for the first time), it turned out that she’d taken mortal forms and procreated in secret, spawning a bunch of mortal women (all who’d grown up to become powerful wizards themselves) to serve as phylacteries. No matter how many times she gets killed, Mystra always comes back. Nobody knows exactly how many “daughters” Mystra has or where they’re hiding and it’s suspected that she’s replacing them when one dies, so it’s generally accepted that she’s virtually impossible to kill and also pretty useful as a source of ever escalating spells.

    As one of the most destructive deities, Mystra has earned enmity of actual deities of death and destruction for being better at it than them. Gods of magic are none too happy with her either, for she has a habit of nabbing their most promising worshippers. She’s probably the only greater deity without a divine realm, for she regularly gets attacked and has to stay on the move. Almost every single mover and shaker of the planes has definitely benefited from the mighty spells she hands out for free but none would be sad to see her gone, they all know she’s giving the same weapons to every one of their enemies. There’s no powerful being in the multiverse who’d lift a finger, talon or tentacle for her sake, which is probably another reason why she makes her Chosen so overpowered, which creates an endless cycle.

    Mystra cares nothing about worship or establishing a church, she has no clerics and praying to her never does anything. Powerful wizards sometimes pray to her, hoping to get Chosen but it’s not really known how she picks them. It’s not uncommon of her to pick a mortal who hasn’t even heard of her name.



    Maybe I'm not being fair here. Don't care. Going back to old Mystryl roots gives some breathing room and I got to spew hate about things I hate. It's a good day.
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  4. - Top - End - #34
    Firbolg in the Playground
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    Actually, honestly that's a pretty cool write up on Mystra and her Chosen. I actually like it and find it cool and proper.
    You got Magic Mech in My Police Procedural!
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  5. - Top - End - #35
    Ogre in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    Today, I have a story about twins. Twins twinning twins in fact.


    HEIRONEOUS (lesser god), Archpaladin, Lord of Valor, Knight God, the Good Brother
    Domains: chivalry, honor, law, order

    Spoiler
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    Goddess of civilization and law predictably had her divine realm on Nirvana, where she raised her mortal sons right under the shadow of the great machine Mechanus. Their mother’s portfolio, planar bent of Nirvana and proximity to Mechanus in their formative years deeply imprinted into both Heironeous and Hextor, making them probably the most lawful deities on all the planes even today. As they grew up, Erathis always talked about taking them to meet King Pelor once they were worthy. Heironeous, being a good and dutiful son growing up with tales of his father’s benevolence and power, worked hard at becoming the greatest knight ever worthy of the greatest king ever. His brother Hextor always mocked his desire to satisfy others but he was working just as hard as Heironeous to grow strong and knightly, which was clearly just his way of siblingly messing around. Erathis, for her part, knew what the deal really was and disapproved of Hextor’s general cynical air and independence based desire at becoming stronger. She made her disapproval abundantly clear. Their mother’s favoring of Heironeous over Hextor caused a rift over the years but that slight bit of family quarrel was forgotten when the long awaited day came.

    Heironeous didn’t really know what to expect when they entered King Pelor’s palace in Elemental Fire but he was excited to finally meet his father. What he got was beyond anything he could’ve ever imagined. Pelor was baffled at Erathis’ introductory speech, he denied having any sort of affair with her and completely refused to acknowledge Heironeous and Hextor as his sons. Erathis kept pushing, claiming that she was impregnated by sunrays and the uncanny resemblence of the brothers to Pelor was proof of her word and was he calling her a liar? Their normally cool, calm and collected mother screaming, throwing a tantrum and acting like a teen girl dumped on prom night was a major shock to the brothers. Pelor was also enraged; he was a greater god, capable of creating anything or anyone by his will alone, he would never stoop to reproducing like some mortal. He had no idea where or how she’d conceived these boys and didn’t care, but it certainly had nothing at all to do with him. It slowly dawned on Heironeous during the prolonged shouting match that his mother was a crazy ex girlfriend, one that might even actually be a stalker who’s delusional about the girlfriend part. After what seemed like ages, Pelor got tired of getting nowhere and banished Erathis from the throne room, then talked to the brothers. He swore that he never had any sort of relationship with Erathis (despite her one sided desperate efforts) and was deeply sorry about what she’d done to them, they were welcome to join his court as servants if they wished but he wouldn’t adopt children of a delusional mother and an unknown father. Pelor then used his power on the brothers, binding them so they could never spread Erathis’ lies, which also gave them a small measure of divinity as compensation for the life their mother had forced them to live.

    The return trip was awkward and none said anything. Erathis refused to see or talk to her sons, locking herself into her chambers. Heironeous and Hextor was idle for the first time in their lives, training or studying didn’t seem to have a point now. But then a visitor came. Tymora and Beshaba was the Conjoined Goddess of Luck and had their eyes on the brothers ever since they came to her grandfather’s palace. They talked to the brothers seperately; Tymora urged Heironeous to keep following his dream, she said he should become the greatest knight in the multiverse, the magnificent son his mother wanted, a powerful deity who could earn his place at Pelor’s side instead of just being handed over a station like one of Corellon’s pampered boys. Heironeous didn’t know what Beshaba told Hextor but when the Conjoined Goddess was gone, both brothers were determined to become great and powerful, powerful enough to make Pelor accept them.

    So they left their mother’s realm and went to Material Plane. They found mortal worlds in chaos, embroiled in constant and pointless wars and set out to stop that. Working together, they brought order and prosperity to a number of worlds, helping city states unite into kingdoms and kingdoms unite into empires, ushering in ages of peace and progress and strengthening their mother’s influence on Material. Beneficial coincidences happened often around them and the brothers’ opposers tended to suffer random misfortune at critical moments, leading many mortals to dub them the beloved of the Conjoined Goddess. Which was at first just amusing conversation for their many meetings but slowly became true. Heironeous was really glad Tymora and Beshaba were able to at least manifest seperately enough to be in different rooms, it would’ve been seriously awkward otherwise.

    It wasn’t long until the order Heironeous and Hextor was representing got serious opposition. They were clear in their ultimate goal of all the mortals living in peace and harmony as one massive planar civilization, which was an affront to god of war Tempus. Tempus demanded the brothers stick to proper deityhood and watch their followers from above, two demigods personally taking to the field and killing mortals en masse in the name of order was straight up slaughter. When they refused, Tempus accused them of being mere butchers serving Erythnul under all that peacockery. Such an insult to their honor was unacceptable, so the brothers challenged him to a fight, wagering their divinity against the domain of war that belonged to Tempus. Tempus was a greater god, he eagerly accepted to teach the demiwhelps a lesson. Even two to one, it would be a complete stomping. So it was a great surprise to all when he was beaten, foiled by a staggering number of unlikely coincidences and miraculous misfortunes during the fight. Tempus was no mastermind but he knew bull**** when he saw it, this was work of the Conjoined Goddess. He’d lost his most prized domain but his godly power was intact, so he went and cleaved her in half. Both halves of the Conjoined Goddess died, which was terrible luck for the entire multiverse.

    Upon hearing this, Pelor was enraged. He demanded Tempus to come and explain himself. He ordered all of his court to also attend, Pelor intended to put Tempus on a trial and grill him until he gave up the domain of war as punishment for killing his granddaughters (which would be also taken from Heironeous and Hextor for their own part in death of the Conjoined Goddess). War was one of the very few things Pelor or his children didn’t have any power over in Material Plane, this was a golden opportunity to grab it. Heironeous and Hextor were also well briefed beforehand to make certain they didn’t mess up the plan; Pelor promised them Erathis would get war and she’d be accepted into Pelor’s court officially as a consort (Erathis was still a diehard Pelor groupie and ok with this, even if his sons weren’t and Pelor wasn’t going to touch her with a ten lightyear pole afterwards). Pelor expected the usual suspects to make an appearance during the trial and was prepared against anything Sune or Nerull could say to defend Tempus. Unlike him, Pelor was a mastermind and felt pretty confident about winning this. There were a massive number of beings from all over the multiverse in attendance as well, nobody on the planes wanted to miss the spectacle. But Tempus was good at thinking outside the box (the box being Material Plane), and showed up for the trial not accompanied by Sune or Nerull, but with his fellow warlike gods from the courts of other primordials instead. Pelor realized that Clangeddin, Baghtru and Rillifane united behind Tempus was a loud and clear message from Moradin, Gruumsh and Corellon that was saying watch it, bro. War was the only avenue Pelor had left for his siblings to get any major foothold in Material, they weren’t going to take this stunt sitting down.

    Pelor’s plan was ruined but he had to at least save face, so he declared the gathering to be a trial for the murder of her granddaughters. He had to at least extract an apology from Tempus before handing war back to him. Which backfired spectacularly when Tempus demanded to have a representative to speak legalese on his behalf and Domina Infernus Bensozia stepped up from among the audience and volunteered. She explained it’s her duty and pleasure as an archdevil and consort of Lord Asmodeus to defend a "murder committed in cold blood for revenge" (Tempus didn’t much like that description but let it slide because Pelor was clearly alarmed about having to face an archdevil in debate). Nobody knows if this was planned or Bensozia just saw an opportunity to discredit the forces of good and took it. In the following trial, Pelor gave almost as good as he got but was prepared to contest Sune and her proMaterial, anti primordial tyranny claptrap, not the vicious and merciless LE view of justice from an archdevil. Domina Bensozia didn’t just get Pelor to concede that Tempus had been wronged by his granddaughter and deserved to have the domain of war returned to him, she also dived straight into the divine politics. Somehow she knew about the ruckus caused by Erathis back in the day right here in Pelor’s throne room and explained it at length to the audience (the version narrated by Bensozia was slightly different than reality, Pelor contested all the bits she was twisting but the more scandalous picture Bensozia painted was going to catch on no matter what he said) and had this trial ended with domain of war being taken from unaligned god Tempus, it would’ve been a major victory for Pelor and a heavy blow to his siblings (observant beings noticed her manner was suggesting that Pelor really was their father and lying about it). Pelor’s objections were feeble and hollow because Bensozia was right about the great and benevolent Sun Father was using the hideous murder of his own granddaughter as an excuse for a powergrab (she congradulated him for it too). She was slowly accelerating into full alarmism that Pelor was a little late to realize, pointing out the united gods of war standing behind Tempus meant another war against titans affair was in the cards if Pelor didn’t back down and give up on his expansionist ambitions. Every being in the audience was wondering how true Bensozia’s words were, they all knew she couldn’t be trusted an inch but none of the assembled deities were saying or doing anything to contradict her. Domina Infernus was attractive and assertive on top of being an expert demagogue; by the time Pelor’s court or the gods of war arrayed against them understood what she was doing (except for Baghtru, who was too stupid), anything they could say would just be twisted to feed her story of imminent, catastrophic war.

    Heironeous, recognizing that he and his brother were the only ones who could speak now, stepped up and interrupted Bensozia. He admitted to conspiring to usurp Tempus for Pelor’s benefit, apologized to Tempus and promised to return the domain of war. Pelor was incensed but he knew now it was either his pride or a pit next to Annam’s, so he admitted to not just powerhungry plotting, but also to fathering Heironeous and Hextor. Tempus was bright enough to recognize it was his turn, so he accepted Heironeous’ apology and declared the matter settled with the return of his domain, thanked Domina Bensozia for her services as his representative and dismissed her before she could help further (Domina Infernus was happy enough with her work and later sent a massive bill to Tempus, which was secretly paid by Pelor). The show ended and everyone left except for Pelor’s court, his new consort Erathis and their newly acknowledged sons.

    To say Pelor was upset would be an understatement. He fused Heironeous and Hextor together, resurrected and handed over their divinity to Tymora and Beshaba (Tempus had cleaved them so hard he’d even cut the domain of luck in half; from that day on Tymora was the Goddess of Fortune and Beshaba was the Goddess of Misfortune), took Erathis’ power and domains to give them over to Olidammara for all the trouble her sons caused to his daughters, placed Erathis in a dark and small “guest room” permanently, barred Heironeous and Hextor from his fiery sight (meaning they could never enter Material or Elemental Planes again) and cursed them to fight each other eternally for control of their one body.

    Heironeous/Hextor was sitting forlornly by themself in Nirvana, wondering what to do now when the finally seperated goddesses Tymora and Beshaba came to them again. Tymora pointed out Heironeous had gotten that public acknowledgement he wanted from Pelor. Beshaba said Hextor had also gotten his wish of permanently getting rid of his mother’s neverending prattle about Pelor (which was the first time Heironeous was hearing of it). They were greatly fortunate and unfortunate, a fitting result for the beloved of the goddess of luck. Tymora was sorry for Heironeous’ misfortune and kept apologizing but he wasn’t going to have any of it, they were done. Hextor however, was appreciative of the irony and missed Beshaba while she was dead, he’d be happy to continue from where they left off. It was also going to be very awkward for Heironeous, which was a plus as far as both were concerned.

    Both Heironeous and Hextor would go on to gain a measure of power and influence on some outer planes, going so far as to become lesser gods with some mortal followers in Material Plane, but they are forever locked in a battle for dominance over their single form, slowly losing all brotherly affection for one another until nothing but enmity remains. Meanwhile, Erathis is imprisoned in a small dark room of Pelor’s palace, her churches and followers on many Material worlds keep revering and worshipping in her name but all of that flows to Olidammara instead. Erathis is closest to the object of her obsession she’s ever been yet he’s forever out of her reach. The obsession and isolation is slowly eroding her sanity, she’s beginning to suspect her own memories about the conception of her sons, which is the insight of insanity even if she doesn’t realize it. Erathis has recognized that her mind is going but is powerless to do anything but wallow in despair.

    Such is the fate of idiots who’d dare draw on Overmother Shar's power for fertility. Shame it didn’t start that second ragnarok, though.



    ...Bet you didn't expect this when you saw "law" on the domains above.

    You know those noobs of 4e? I recognized one of them was a repackaging of an oldie. An oldie but not a goldie, you probably haven't heard of her >_> (I hadn't until I looked into it). Goddess of law and civilization? Yea, that's not a noob, that's Alia. She predates a whole load of much more famous deities. So she got in like this.

    This is more of a story that a reskin, minus all the things that make a story story. It's what happens when someone who isn't a writer writes a story, I guess. Anyway I think it's neat. I thought to tie up all the more famous enemy twins. I couldn't get Selune in here, so it's not tripled twins, but I'm content.
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    That's actually a pretty cool story. Shame about Heironeous and Hextor's fate, but it's not all bad, and hey, it's fitting for a deity level story! Have you ever heard a story about demigods and their bickering family that end up in happily ever after
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    The parts I've read s0 far seen pretty neat.
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    Quote Originally Posted by Fri View Post
    Actually, honestly that's a pretty cool write up on Mystra and her Chosen. I actually like it and find it cool and proper.
    I second this. It adequately reflects my own view of Mystra's chosen, and gives an interesting perspective to her role on the planes.
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    This is my favorite reimagining of the D&D gods I've ever read, and if it's alright I think I might yoink it. I was loving this all through the first page, and then the bit about Mystra amazed me well beyond everything before (as an added plus, I dislike most of the writing for the Realms so turning Mystra into a chaotic neutral-at-best goddess who wants to see magical knowledge advanced at all costs in lives and even shattered worlds is awesome). I definitely like this theology. It has just enough to be recognizable while still being deep and flavorful, and allegiances among the deities are more complicated than alignments. Dwarves' distaste for arcane magic also makes sense if Moradin loathes Mystra, as he probably would. She's, like, the first creation of Selune and Shar's conflict in the Realms; is she up there with the primordial gods here too?

    Waukeen as a goddess of usury (as in interest-bearing debt) is also interesting, though not far from what she was.

    As an aside, the 5e DMG says that Erathis started as a reskin of Athena, IIRC; that said, your version of her is way more interesting than that. I like Olidammara as a god of civilization, definitely, too.

    Oh, another source of deities you might want to look at is Crawl; the gods there are made for a video game without very deep lore, so they're more mechanics than myths, but nonetheless some are pretty flavorful or have aspects that you can borrow, in particular 'cause their mechanics allow there to be drawbacks to worshipping gods (which a lot have), and their drawbacks are pretty diverse (one requires that you permanently sacrifice skills; one requires that you wear cursed items; the good-aligned ones all have onerous codes of conduct). Plus some of them have interesting concept seeds but none of them have more than a paragraph of lore.

    Also, in my understanding of Realmslore, Eldath and Mielikki are Sylvanus's daughters. While there's not much room for Mielikki in this (she is, after all, just another nature goddess of rangers and unicorns; under this schema she'd probably be better put as a high-ranking but not properly deific agent of Sylvanus. or perhaps a minor deity under his umbrella), Eldath as a peace goddess being the daughter of the god of ecoterrorism (and not his earthmother aspect) is interesting. Mielikki or Ehlonna (same goddess, different names) could perhaps be a third (second)-party mediator between Sylvanus and Chauntea; a child thrust in the job of mediating her parent's two aspects. Or at least, her followers are thrust in the job of mediating between their followers.

    Also, from a certain point of view, this version of Shar is also a goddess of peace (as in "peace and quiet")

    I personally like Sheela Peryroyl (among other things, aside from being another nature goddess she also has love, trade, and mediation, and is as closely allied with Waukeen as with the other nature gods (still closer with Yondalla. Lady runs a tight ship). though admittedly, it's hard to fit another love goddess in with what you're doing with Sune, and trade with Waukeen. though a trade goddess who disfavors interest-bearing debt could be interesting). How deep is Othea's secret? Did she let some of her giant god in children on the secret of the halflings and let some of them take up aliases as halfling deities? Admittedly, Yondalla/Othea/Berronar has taken most of the role of mediator here, given that she's pretending to be a young god and marrying into the old, and calming disputes between Moradin, Correlon, Gruumsh, and Pelor; I guess with all that there isn't room for Sheela Peryroyl except as a daughter who takes too much after her mother to be of note. There are enough "some minor gods were there too" moments in these myths to justify that role. But perhaps Sune could be playing her? There was also a while when FR's canon made the claim that Yondalla was an aspect of Chauntea, which (while not true in this theology, and in fact downright blasphemous, nor is it true in any other barring the 4e Realms) is something Chauntea might try claiming. Strangely, though, if I remember my lore right, the halflings, rather than follow the greater deity their chief deity was an aspect of, decided instead they'd stick with a halfling deity: Sheela Peryroyl. I think between, like, trying to mediate with Sune, either stalling her or being played by her, and being her mother's coup insurance, that could be an interesting role for her.

    Though her way of coup insurance isn't to be prominent enough that nobody ever attempts a coup because they don't think it'll work, but to be in position for a quick steady transfer of power to her instead of whoever else should her mother be de-throned, with an eye to putting her mother back in power. Which means that, one, she sticks to the background and pretends to be a bit player, and two, Yondalla, a goddess who has been without anyone worthy of trust for longer than any civilizations have existed, has to trust her utterly. Perhaps in that way, Sheela Peryroyl is the ultimate halfling: easily overlooked, but when her moment comes everything will hinge on the depths of her character. Personally, I'd fit her into this by making her an alias of one of the other giant god(desses), who did something as a giant that means Othea trusted her, specifically, enough to let her in on the Yondalla plan (if she didn't let the others in) and put her in this role; that way they'll have a long secret history. I'm just not sure what would be a big enough sacrifice to win Othea's trust.

    How do Gnomes fit into all of this? I'd imagine them, under this, as being even younger than halflings, perhaps started as halflings with a more dwarvish bent, given over to Moradin/Garl?

    I'm also seeing some interesting secret halfling/giant alliances (or perhaps not alliances, but recognition of kinship). Could be an interesting distinction given that most editions of D&D have giants intrinsically at war with dwarves and gnomes. Yondothea, then, is playing both sides (or perhaps just hedging her bets, as her grand strategy here doesn't seem to involve jockeying for power, just surviving).

    As an aside, Tempus, and all the gods who followed him into Pelor's court, were aspects of Gruumsh, yes? Did Gruumsh do anything in the creation of Duerra?
    Last edited by Beneath; 2016-10-19 at 06:35 PM.

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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    Aha, a comment with some meat.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Beneath View Post
    This is my favorite reimagining of the D&D gods I've ever read, and if it's alright I think I might yoink it.
    What would be the point in posting all this if it doesn't get yoinked. Also, hurray!

    Dwarves' distaste for arcane magic also makes sense if Moradin loathes Mystra, as he probably would.
    Moradin (also Corellon) doesn't do mortals much and when he does, he goes metropolitan. Humanoids (except orcs) are mostly either on Pelor or Sune blocs, but there's always some worlds where dwarves worship Moradin and elves go for Seldarine. Everybody hates Mystra though.

    She's, like, the first creation of Selune and Shar's conflict in the Realms; is she up there with the primordial gods here too?
    This Mystra's young and lightweight and unrelated to Overmothers (except maybe as a spontaneous manifestation of Shar's hatred for all existence, you could go for that).

    As an aside, the 5e DMG says that Erathis started as a reskin of Athena, IIRC; that said, your version of her is way more interesting than that.
    Fantasy deities who're mere renamings of real myths (and sometimes not even renamed) are usually boring. And I'm surprised they weren't thinking of Alia instead.

    Oh, another source of deities you might want to look at is Crawl
    I'm gonna look at that. I can always steal their stuff for appropriate DnD deities.

    Also, in my understanding of Realmslore, Eldath and Mielikki are Sylvanus's daughters.
    Mielikki and Silvanus are both straight up stolen from real mythology as canon. They both migrated to Toril from different Earth pantheons. Realms canon occasionally sucks so hard it blows. And Eldath is so unfitting for adventurer worship she's all but ignored by lore since 1e (far as random internet writings claim).

    Mielikki or Ehlonna (same goddess, different names) could perhaps be a third (second)-party mediator between Sylvanus and Chauntea;
    There's no mediating, what with Chauntea being Silvanus in drag. Which isn't much of a secret since Olly keeps telling it to anyone who'd listen.

    a child thrust in the job of mediating her parent's two aspects. Or at least, her followers are thrust in the job of mediating between their followers.
    That's a neat idea for some sort of deity. I might nab it but it's too good to waste on a boring forest goddess.

    Also, from a certain point of view, this version of Shar is also a goddess of peace (as in "peace and quiet")
    True. The same point of view can see the goddess of cold, dark and rest too. As goddess of oblivion and nothingness, she can be the lack of anything.

    I personally like Sheela Peryroyl
    Sheela was just a name on the wiki lists for me. Her nonlove domains made her look like Yondalla's apprentice and love is pretty well filled up with Sune, so I passed her over.

    How deep is Othea's secret? Did she let some of her giant god in children on the secret of the halflings and let some of them take up aliases as halfling deities?
    No, she never liked anything she birthed until the halfling race. And it's as deep as it gets, nobody knows it. It's the kind of secret to build I -am- your father moments around.

    There was also a while when FR's canon made the claim that Yondalla was an aspect of Chauntea
    That was actually among the bits of info that inspired Yondotherronar Thaun. Just not directly.

    Strangely, though, if I remember my lore right, the halflings, rather than follow the greater deity their chief deity was an aspect of, decided instead they'd stick with a halfling deity: Sheela Peryroyl.
    Sounds like a thing someone might've written.

    Perhaps in that way, Sheela Peryroyl is the ultimate halfling
    That's a pretty cool concept too. It's not gonna fit in here but you should make it so when you grab this stuff for a game. Though if you're gonna have an ultimate halfling of that lot, I'd nominate Brandobaris (discounting Yondalla ofc). Boy has style.

    How do Gnomes fit into all of this?
    They don't. I despise gnomes, idiots at Dragonlance ruined gnomes forever in my formative years. So they don't exist. But if they did, they'd be fey obsessed with building vast underground lairs and warrens, possibly engaged in a subterran turf war with kobolds (who'd also be fey). Gnomes have no unique place whatsoever in DnD. Anything gnomish could be replaced with dwarves or halflings, so there's no point in having another shorty humanoid. Getting rid of them as default was probably the best thing 4e did. At least they have a proper niche if you make them mole fey.

    As an aside, Tempus, and all the gods who followed him into Pelor's court, were aspects of Gruumsh, yes?
    Yup. That's Gruumsh's covert way of telling Pelor to shut up, sit down and stop touching his toys.
    (it's cool seeing others see things you leave them to see)

    Did Gruumsh do anything in the creation of Duerra?
    Gruumsh's guys are always manly men of mannheim (even when they're Rillifane). Duerra was crafted to be badass by the greatest crafter.


    And today, a truly massive wall of text.

    KIARANSALEE (intermediate goddess), the Revenancer, Thrice Betrayer, Shame of Arvandor, the Fallen of Seldarine, Scornful Bride, Demon Goddess, Mistress of Vengeance
    Domains: vengeance, undead, memory

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    The Seldarine goddess of justice and the judge and the keeper of the dead was resurrected by Corellon along with the rest of them after Lolth’s betrayal and the ensuing war. Like all her siblings, Kiaransalee was grateful to Corellon for bringing her back and full of an immense love for her fellow deities. At first she was just as happy as the rest of Seldarine, but something wasn’t right. Corellon told them the trauma of getting violently killed must’ve destroyed parts of their memories but Kiaransalee was missing most of her life before her death at Lolth’s hand. She also clearly remembered being completely uninterested in love or romance before but was now deeply and passionately in love with every single other member of Seldarine (like they all were). Since their resurrection, the Seldarine had become closer than they’d ever been, everybody was in love with everybody else and were spending majority of their time dating, dining, romantic walking, handholding, longingly eye gazing or screwing every single other Seldarine (all of whom were now going both ways). None except Kiaransalee thought this was odd either, they all considered this strange lack of jealousy and overeagerness to engage in orgies to be a sign of loyalty to each other. Her queries soon ended, for Corellon had announced that he was going to marry again. It was a contest to see which goddess was the most romantic, most gracious and pretty. Everyone suddenly became too busy with preparations and/or speculation.

    Kiaransalee also would’ve dearly loved to marry her lord and savior Corellon but she knew she was the least desirable goddess among Seldarine, evident by the fact that she’d had the least amount of dalliances since their resurrection. Kiaransalee was sensible and dutiful, not sensual like Hanali or mysterious like Sehanine or lively like Aerdrie, and nobody else seemed to think she’d be chosen either. Kiaransalee was sad and angsty about it but then she noticed that Eilistraee (who was the only survivor of Lolth’s massacre) seemed to be the completely out of this race too. While it seemed reasonable that Lolth’s daughter wouldn’t be chosen to replace her and Eilistraee’s distaste for this thing mortals call incest was famous, there was something else going on here. Eilistraee had always been the only one who wasn’t into this newfound Seldarine fellowship and passion, she seemed to be getting more and more distant from the rest of them since their resurrection. Something was fishy, Kiaransalee was getting more and more suspicious. The intense and burning love she felt for every single other member of Seldarine made her almost unable to leave Corellon’s realm by herself, it was torturous to even think about being seperated from the multiple loves of her life for more than a few hours at a time, but she had to discover the truth. She was the goddess of justice, how could justice be without truth?

    So, with great and melodramatic angst, she went to the divine realm of Oghma. The Grand Library of the Lord of All Knowledge was said to contain all answers to all questions (Oghma would be the very first to admit that’s horsecrap; like all good scientists, he knows that more information only solidifies the knowledge of one’s own ignorance). Kiaransalee was very lucky indeed, for she found Oghma conferring with his longtime ally Boccob, the Lord of All Magic. Both were very interested in her story but strangely enough, neither great gods of information knew what had actually gone down in Arvandor during or after Lolth’s rebellion. However Oghma was sympathetic to Kiaransalee’s plight and wanted to help her. Boccob would also help because she seemed like an entertaining puzzle to solve. So the two great gods of knowledge summoned their underlings, the lesser gods of various stuff they’d created together to use as special consultants and assistant researchers for important matters. Kiaransalee was shortly surrounded by a large crowd of gods including but not limited to Gond, Deneir, Azuth and Ioun. They poked and prodded her as if she was an interesting insect but at least had enough tact to not say it out loud (unlike Boccob). After some humiliating hours of prodding Kiaransalee, the collected gods of knowledge and research came up with the plans for a device that should let Kiaransalee watch her life from her own birth. They lost her at temporal regression of the subconscious self part, but she was smart enough to watch Oghma and Boccob’s reactions during the incomprehensible explanation, she saw that both seemed satisfied and agreed to subject herself to the odd device.

    They built it and it worked. Kiaransalee was able to watch her entire existence from her creation, including everything that led to Lolth’s betrayal. She saw all the wrongs Corellon did (with Vhaeraun and Othea and countless other, less catastrophic events) that caused Lolth to eventually rebel. She remembered how all of Seldarine (except Eilistraee) had risen up against Corellon with Lolth. Kiaransalee saw Corellon personally beat, imprison and then execute them one by one after letting the instigators Lolth and Vhaeraun go free. She watched in horror as Corellon reshaped her astral corpse, altering her memory and personality to create a member of the perfectly united harmonious divine family he demanded. Kiaransalee watched in disgust as her warped self frolicked with her siblings and pined after Corellon. She got angier and angrier as it played out, until the device melted down and exploded (causing much concern to Oghma as he scrambled to put out the fires). Among the burning wreckage, Kiaransalee stood seething. The infantile, sappy, melodramatic fool Corellon had twisted her into was sorted out, replaced by the real Seldarine goddess of justice. The idealist goddess who was fooled into joining Lolth’s selfish uprising against an irresponsible dumb tyrant and had died for her belief in fairness and responsibility was back. It could be said that she was unhappy.

    Oghma and the underlings were surprised at the transformation but they were all very happy to get their hands on such important information. However the sight of the restored goddess of justice inspired Boccob and he demanded a price, knowing she wouldn’t refuse payment for the sort of service they just rendered her. He would take part of Kiaransalee’s divine power, splitting the latent melodramatic and overemotional bits of Corellon’s design that were still buried inside her. Oghma was concerned about that sort of splitting but Kiaransalee agreed immediately, she didn’t want any possibility of a relapse. So the lesser gods got to work again. The operation removed a large part of Kiaransalee’s natural empathy as well but it was fine. She wanted to be more rational anyway and didn’t even care what Boccob would do (namely creating Sharess to be their special consultant on sensuality, hedonism and teen angst) with her divinity.

    Kiaransalee knew she couldn’t bring Corellon to justice. This was hard for a goddess of justice to admit but it was the truth. He could easily kill her or warp her back into a melodramatic idiot. So she went to the only being who might help her have justice. The Soul Forger listened to her tale intently, agreeing that a terrible crime had been committed upon Seldarine. But nothing Moradin could muster would work against King of Arvandor, only him personally engaging Corellon in battle would stand any chance at forcing him into anything and Moradin was unwilling to fight his sibling or start a multiverse shaking war. He assured her that Pelor and even Gruumsh would say the same thing (and Tiamat would eat her if she went to Water). As Kiaransalee got it, this was all but a confession that the strong were beyond the reach of justice. She was crestfallen. But Moradin would not send Kiaransalee away empty handed, he’d always had a measure of fondness for her for being a dutiful and serious deity among the frolicking court of Arvandor, therefore he swore that if Corellon ever killed or warped her again like that, Moradin would restore her to her real self, no matter what. He even invited her to move over if she wished to be rid of Corellon, he’d accept her into his court. And this was favoritism, an anathema to justice. All that coming from the lord of Mount Celestia was enough to convince Kiaransalee that justice was a lie and she’d been a fool to think otherwise. When she left, Kiaransalee was already “fallen” from Seldarine.

    Once back in Arvandor, she pretended to be the same melodramatic idiot. Justice might’ve been a lie all along but vengeance was real. She wanted it, needed it and was gonna get it. She continued acting sad that Corellon wasn’t gonna pick her, it let her bide her time and mostly stay away from the others (she had to endure the occasional cheering attempts from males of Seldarine but at least all females were busy). On the day of wedding, she was ready. Once Corellon got busy and distracted with his new wife, Kiaransalee would grab the countless Seldarine worshipper souls afterliving in Arvandor she had control over. By the time any Seldarine understood what had happened, Kiaransalee would be all the way across the Great Wheel, dumping the souls into Mechanus to be sorted and spread to outer planes by alignment. Corellon couldn’t recover or, considering the damage Lolth’s uprising had done to Seldarine interests in Material, replace those precious mortal worshipper souls anytime soon. Even Corellon wouldn’t be dumb enough to create enough new mortals to replace that loss and infuriate Pelor (though Kiaransalee wouldn’t mind if Pelor attacked Arvandor and ruined Corellon’s millenium). Afterwards, Kiaransalee would probably take up Moradin on his offer and move to Celestia. It was a good, smart, spiteful plan, hitting Corellon right where it’d hurt. She’d missed only one unlikely possibility.

    When Corellon named Kiaransalee as the winner of the contest and his new wife, she was first flabbergasted. Then repulsed and disgusted, but the shock was paralyzing. Why’d he pick the least pretty, least romantic, most straightlaced one of the lot? It turned out Corellon chose her for being least similar to his ex-wife, as picking Hanali or Sehanine or Aerdrie would feel like him replacing his old wife with a newer model and that’d be horrible. Rest of the Seldarine loved it, for Kiaransalee had been acting all sad and forlorn since she knew she wasn’t gonna win and they were all suckers for the underdog story. As they cheered, Kiaransalee could only remember the sight of Corellon coldly executing them all after the rebellion. And now he wanted her to marry him and be grateful for it? Suddenly her vengeance plan wasn’t nearly enough. So she got on the stage for a speech and told them she had actually prepared a surprise for them, asking them all to shut their senses and wait a bit. They did so, even Corellon, wondering what sort of surprise overly serious but nevertheless adorable Kiaransalee would prepare.

    It didn’t take more than a few seconds for them to realize something was wrong but by then Kiaransalee had already dragged the souls their entire worshipper base to the Abyss, billions of mostly nonevil mortal souls were heaped in front of the throne of the Demon Prince of Undeath. Orcus wasn’t having a good day; he’d just gotten word that his army had soundly been beaten by Demogorgon’s in yet another skirmish, the messenger who’d brought the news had tasted awful, he had a headache and then some random deity had suddenly smashed her way into his palace as if she owned the place. But the sight of all those souls was tempting and this daughter of Corellon had enough divinity in her scrawny frame to be nonimmediately devourable, so he waited long enough to listen to Kiaransalee. Orcus was a proper demon prince, steeped in paranoia and expert at intricate schemes, but Kiaransalee’s story of wrath and spite seemed valid enough and what she wanted from him was a thing he’d have given countless demons’ right arms for. Not that he had anything close to empathy, but he knew a thing or two about being up against an unbeatable enemy and all those souls at his feet were making him reckless. So he devoured all souls immediately before Corellon or others from Seldarine appeared to recover them, just like Kiaransalee was asking him to. This much power suddenly made Orcus ascendant, power from millions of souls inside him was enough for him to become an actual god now. Kiaransalee also seemed much smaller than she used to be a moment ago, so Orcus grabbed her, she made a fine dessert.

    The millions of souls abducted from their well earned afterlives were in horrible pain as they were being digested, they were angry at the traitorous judge they’d entrusted their eternal souls to. They wanted revenge on the betrayer who’d been betrayed in turn and joined them in the belly of the demon. Kiaransalee clung to her hatred of Corellon to keep herself together, hoping the hateful nature of the Abyss would help her, and channeled her own divine power into the souls she betrayed as they assaulted her. The domain of justice was being warped with the pain and fury from millions of mortals and her divine self; her divinity mixed with Orcus’ mastery of undeath, empowering and warping the ex-worshippers of Seldarine. They changed en masse, becoming things created and sustained by hunger for vengeance. Thus the first revenants of the planes were created inside the Demon Prince of Undeath and exploded outwards, tearing him to pieces and scattering his essence. All of Orcus’ servants fled before the grostesque rebirth as Kiaransalee remade her form from the shredded bits of former Demon Prince of Undeath. She was now the goddess of vengeance and undead, a hybrid of deity and demon, who’d come to call herself the Revenancer in honor of this event.

    It was all over before Corellon or Seldarine could react, they could do nothing but sit stunned as they felt the loss of their worshippers.

    Today, the church of Kiaransalee is made up of highly skilled individuals spread all over the planes who offer guidance for any being seeking vengeance for wrongs done to them. For a small fee, clerics of Kiaransalee offer their expertise at imagining, planning and executing elaborate revenge schemes, with particular attention paid to irony. Their only requirement is that the crimes should be real and dire and the vengeance planned needs to be proportional in severity. A prospective client needs to be careful, for church of Kiaransalee doesn’t stop once engaged, any attempt at backing off is met with disproportionate retaliation as clerics give up on the target and refocus their efforts on ruining the life of the ex client. Neither do they like being bothered for unimportant or imaginary slights, visiting them might be suicidal if the cause isn’t good enough. Clerics of Kiaransalee don’t set up temples or preach the virtues of vengeance to the masses, they’re highly mobile and usually just observe (mainly in taverns and inns), occasionally nudging unhappy people they see towards places where they might find someone willing to listen and maybe help. They never act on their own to avenge anything, the victim must desire vengeance and seek their help. Dispensing “justice” is a sin that inevitably ends the cleric’s service (and life). She also places much importance on memory and its preservation in writing, demanding her clergy to keep good records of their lives and affairs. After much effort, she managed to gain a small power over memory, ostensibly for the importance of remembering the wrongs done to you correctly, but it's mostly due to the leftover trauma she can't get over.

    Kiaransalee doesn’t have fancy words or creeds for mortals beyond get even and hurt those who hurt you. She might manifest after any prayer to her, offering to induct the mortal into her church if their grievance is valid and needs divine help to settle. Educated and/or skilled people are much more likely to have their prayers answered (she learned the value of specialists well) but she’s not that picky, any genuine desire for revenge is enough to draw her attention. In return for dedicating their lives to her once they have their revenge, Kiaransalee’s power is freely given to all beings anywhere in the multiverse. She particularly delights in bringing harm upon followers of Seldarine or Lolth, but she’s known to help even victims of her church against her own clergy.

    As the Revenancer, Kiaransalee spends most of her time watching dying mortals. She chooses who gets to become a revenant and what conditions will apply to them, even the strongest of magics can’t create a revenant without her permission. There's only one known exception. In one of multiverse’s greatest ironies, Demon Prince Orcus (notably no of Something anymore) has managed to claw his way back into existence by making himself a revenant. He’s the only undead demon in the multiverse and is currently engaged in a fierce war against Kiaransalee. Rumors claim Kiaransalee let him become a revenant to give him a chance at vengeance. As the (Half)Demon Princess of Undeath, Kiaransalee controls Orcus’ old domain, his armies of the damned, her own armies of demons, vast legions of the original revenants and some mortal Orcus cultists (as both are able to influence them, there’s no telling if any given cult of Orcus is serving him or Kiaransalee). Orcus is fighting an uphill battle many beings expect him to lose but it's not like that's new to him. Kiaransalee’s simple and direct faith is very appealing to most evil exemplar races and she’s revered and sometimes even worshipped by many fiends all over the lower planes, contributing to her relative uninterest in Material. Corellon and Seldarine are also her bitter enemies but have no way of meaningfully engaging her outside the Abyss and she never leaves her stronghold. Kiaransalee’s one divine enemy who poses real danger is Lolth, the fellow Seldarine outcast and dweller of the Abyss. The greater goddess covets Kiaransalee’s unique power and has long tried to ensnare her in the dreaded Demonweb (which should’ve been easy considering how universally alluring Lolth is and how much she and Kia have in common to talk about) but unlike Vhaeraun, Zinzerena and Selvetarm, Kiaransalee knows better than to trust Lolth and has thus far managed to avoid her enchanting presence.

    She’s not entirely alone however. It’s an open secret that Gruumsh channels large numbers of orcish souls towards Kiaransalee, empowering both her and her demonic armies. He knows this infuriates Corellon (orcs get a relatively large number of revenants, as orcs in general have a lot of vengeance in need of getting, frequently from followers of Seldarine). Moradin’s protective oath also still stands, even though he’s grown to hate her and could now use his oath as an excuse to destroy and remake Kiaransalee as a regular goddess, Moradin is not in the habit of abusing the letter of the law to screw someone over, even if that someone has now become a demon princess. Kiaransalee regularly reminds him that if things go real bad for her in the Abyss, she’ll go to Arvandor and Corellon will probably destroy her. Moradin is dreading the day he’ll have to resurrect and empower a (half)demon, but he will do it. Boccob also has a working relation with Kiaransalee, they have a steady trade of information about various feuds and hostilities all over the planes, usually sharing things the other might be interested in for modest prices (Oghma is ashamed for his part in her transformation and avoids her).



    Is this the longest one yet? Think it's the longest one. Long ones always include Corellon being a douchenozzle for some reason...

    I had to put that demon goddess thing somewhere and Lolth wasn't available. And Revenancer is prolly the best nickname they gave to anyone since Duerra. Since it was strange for the Revenancer to not have anything to do with revenants, I had to fix it. And a fallen Seldarine makes for a much better story than the now ruined concept of Lich Queen. Warcraft has a lot to answer for. We now have a way to cram in an arbitrarily large number of deities for whatever you might want for your campaign. Just put whomever in and say they're Boccob's Irregulars. I also put Oghma and Boccob into the cage for a deathmatch as I said I would, then they found a way to cooperate and get off together. It was amazing, a shame you couldn't see it.


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  11. - Top - End - #41
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    I'm surprised to see Pelor the Burning Hate isn't listed yet. Its late, or I'd take the time to post it. Perhaps tomorrow if i have time.

  12. - Top - End - #42
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    I'll admit my personal soft spot for Sheela Peryroyl comes entirely from a character I had in NWN2 who worshipped her because she was a halfling ranger and her options were either a non-halfling god or her b/c NWN2 enforces FR's deity rules, and I like my character so therefore I like her goddess (my NWN2 characters are the source of 90% of my positive feelings about anything Realms-related; except as these characters' homes, I dislike the Realms)

    So you're going with ascended mortal as this Mystra? Makes sense, I guess, since Mystra's also that. My vision of your Shar is that she just wants the peace and quiet that will come when all Creation stops being so Creation-y, a cosmic consciousness seeking the peace she once had before she had to share existence with other minds, and this Mystra seems a bit loud for her tastes. Like yes she kills people en masse but she's enamored with discovering new and louder ways of doing so, which I can easily see Shar hating almost as much as she hates the lives extinguished with Mystra's aid.

    The duplication of divine portfolios is interesting if the gods aren't culturally limited (two gods of justice are weird; a god of justice for elves and a god of justice for humans are less so). Though this is a multi-world theology, so there's enough room for multiple gods of justice. Admittedly, I'm not much of a fan of the "divine portfolios" concept D&D uses; they're gods, they're powerful and they do things, but any law saying that some schtick belongs to some god is either because of who or what they have influence over (with a finite number of well-positioned "who"s and "what"s to have influence over) or because of a law imposed on them, not because there are cosmic trading cards of "war" "beauty" and "justice" and gods are bound by the ones they've collected.

    I like Kiaransalee's plot too. A little surprised at you keeping both Boccob and Oghma though.

    Part of me wants to yank this whole theology but part of me wants to keep to each 5e domain belonging to exactly one god 'cause that's more aesthetically pleasing for me. Except I could see Yondalla and Chauntea both having Life (and this being important to both divinities' backstory), and there are a bunch of nigh-identical War gods.

    With that the pantheon might be
    Death: Nerull
    Knowledge: Oghcob or maybe cut him and put Moradin here
    Light: Pelor
    Life: Yondalla, Chauntea*
    Nature: Sylvanus*
    Tempest: Auril
    Trickery: Olidammara
    War: Gruumsh and clones

    *I could also see making Nature Clerics into Chauntea's thing and the Sylvanus aspect is worshipped only by Druids.

    Other deities of note:
    Sune: Clergy are Bards (College of Lore, with an emphasis on enchantment spells, as a stopgap. I might have to write my own kit for this and decide whether it's a bard or cleric kit)
    Shar, Selune: Do not grant spells, I guess, mostly 'cause I can't fit them in this scheme and neither is particularly interventionist. Or Shar might not trust anyone with that kind of power and Selune is the goddess of Moon druids?
    Tharizdun: Clergy are Warlocks (Great Old One patron). Possibly the ultimate patron of all GOOlocks
    Mystra: No clergy
    Duerra: Clergy use that one class from the psionic unearthed arcana
    Tiamat: No clergy
    Vecna: Clergy are wizards

    Not entirely sure what domains to give Moradin and Correlon. or maybe they don't field clerics in the conventional sense. Moradin fields exclusively Paladins and Correlon exclusively Bards? or they could have custom domains. or Moradin could get Knowledge. He gets Knowledge according to the PHB (they were writing D&D. these are the gods they had to write for. and they wrote a system for distinguishing the clergy of different deities and the way they came up with to distinguish clergy of Boccob and Moradin is that Moradin's clergy are on average shorter and beardier). They gave Correlon Light, which is really Fire so it suits Pelor in this scheme but not Correlon at all. I could see making Valor Bards his thing.

    Actually, if I cut Death domain clerics or possibly give them to Shar, I could make an interesting cutoff where mortal-born gods aren't able to field worshippers with the Cleric class. I'm not sure if I like that one though. Leaves Nerull with nothing though and he's too interesting for that.

    Hmm...

    I mean, before now I was at a loss for how I'd fit my scheme to recognizable D&D deities and now I've covered it and each deity has hidden depths. So thanks for that.

    Edit: also, entirely unrelated, but my favorite reimagining of Loviatar (if she's not to be the goddess of torturing people) was the one the Sigil Preparatory Academy campaign used that basically made her into a BDSM goddess. You have your write-up for her already and it reminded me of that version, which I found amusing.
    Last edited by Beneath; 2016-10-20 at 04:18 AM.

  13. - Top - End - #43
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    Quote Originally Posted by Beneath View Post
    I'll admit my personal soft spot for Sheela Peryroyl comes entirely from a character I had in NWN2
    I could admit to being inordinately fond of Bhaal for his part in BGs. Instead I fed him to Erythnul here so he won't occupy my mind.
    So you're going with ascended mortal as this Mystra? Makes sense, I guess, since Mystra's also that.
    I haven't thought to have concrete rules about deity generation in Material Plane. Some just pop up from belief (S&N), some ascend from mortal (H bros, Dread3), some are created purposefully by greater deities (Irregulars) and some are just weird (titans). Mystra can be any of those, according to taste. Her true origin didn't really matter for her writeup so I left it blank.
    My vision of your Shar is that she just wants the peace and quiet
    True. Sadly for her, there's no such thing as peace or quiet when you're omniscient. The only peace and quiet Shar's gonna get will be after she's reduced every single thing that exists back to nothingness. And even without Selune's constant opposition, Shar's infinite fertility is liable to spawn more things even as she erases things. So peace or quiet is never gonna happen, so Shar is mad. She does hate Mystra, but not any more than she hates everything else that exists.
    Admittedly, I'm not much of a fan of the "divine portfolios" concept D&D uses
    I like domains/portfolios/spheres. It's an abstraction like hit points. Makes it easier to work with this stuff. I find it best not to think too deeply about it. Cosmic trading card is a great analogy. The weight and value of the cards can change with great effort by the owner, whereas the primordial greaters can create more to hand out to their flunkies or modify theirs on a whim.
    A little surprised at you keeping both Boccob and Oghma though.
    One is the god of knowledge, other is the god of knowledge. They solve problems!
    Part of me wants to yank this whole theology but part of me wants to keep to each 5e domain belonging to exactly one god 'cause that's more aesthetically pleasing for me.
    It'll be a very small group you're taking only one deity per domain (unless you're going to invent new ones). However it's doable as the pantheon of a single world (which is a pretty normal setting for a DnD campaign and no reason why that specific world doesn't exist somewhere in this cosmology). Here's what I'd pick looking at 5ephb:
    Death: Nerull
    Knowledge: Oghma
    Light: Corellon (he's uppity like that)
    Life: Pelor (actually Tiamat but she wouldn't answer airbreathing losers)
    Nature: Silvanus
    Tempest: Umberlee
    Trickery: Lolth
    War: Gruumsh

    All others without domains would be left out. If you're willing to create new domains, you can add more. Beauty for Sune, Law for Moradin, Protection for Yondalla, Travel for Olidammara... However limiting all domains to single deities or all deities to single domains is far too restrictive for my tastes. As would any other definite rulings about this matter be. If I had to follow hardwired rules, this Nerull couldn't exist.
    Also that's an insanely narrow list. Probably to facilitate later sale of splatbooks.
    my favorite reimagining of Loviatar (if she's not to be the goddess of torturing people) was the one the Sigil Preparatory Academy campaign used that basically made her into a BDSM goddess
    I'd say she's already that if her usual depictions are any indication, on top being goddess of torturing people.
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  14. - Top - End - #44
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    The reason I want to do the one domain:one god thing is because I like the idea of a cleric's deity defining what they're like as a cleric, instead of having two clerics of gods who are little alike playing exactly the same (like, for instance, Moradin and Mystra are both, in the players handbook, Knowledge gods. and even core Mystra is so different from Moradin that it seems weird that their clergy play the same).

    Lolth as trickery is good though, especially if I outright get rid of alignments so being a cleric of a god who lairs in the Abyss doesn't mean you can't be a good person (I mean, already, it's decided that a god who lairs on the upper planes isn't necessarily a good person, from what you've done with Correlon). Correlon needs to be in if Lolth is, but regardless of what the PHB writers said, I don't think all the fire spells in the Light domain fit him, and they do for this version of Pelor.

    Also, giving Pelor Light rather than Life and making Yondalla (who as far as he knows is an ascended mortal/the creation of a mortal cult) the one who gets the domain from the basic rules, the default cleric, gives an excuse for Auril to be there. Pelor and Auril as secret allies is too cool for me to pass up.

    Maybe:
    Death: Nerull
    Knowledge: There's a case to be made for Moradin or Oghma here. Mostly I find Oghma kinda uninspiring, so I favor Moradin
    Life: There are cases to be made for Chauntea and Yondalla here both. And Tiamat but she doesn't answer air-breathing losers and that means her followers use the monster rules.
    Light: Pelor
    Nature: Chauntea
    Tempest: Auril
    Trickery: Lolth
    War: Gruumsh

    I'd need to slot Correlon in there somewhere since Lolth is there, though already three of the domains given are taken by gods who used to be race-specific (Life, Trickery, and War), four if I use Moradin. I might have to find or make something for him then. Maybe split the Light domain into like "Radiance" (Correlon) and "Flames" (Pelor). I bet Correlon inching on Pelor's territory on this world when he's already not the god of all that lives would incense Pelor enough to make throwing Auril at this world an even higher priority, too, which is great. Sune too, since the Sune/Nerull alliance is also awesome.

    Giving Chauntea and Yondalla both Life clerics is, like, the one case doubling up makes sense, given that Sylvanus, in this version, actively ripped off Yondalla when making Chauntea's cult, and the reason for not wanting to double up is that it makes little sense that very different religions and gods would train and bless their priests in the exact same way (but a religion that is literally a plagiarized copy of another would). That'd give room for another Nature deity, possibly Sylvanus.

    Side-note: Is there also a connection between Pelor (the burning eye) and Nyarlathotep (the three-lobed burning eye) in this cosmos? and how did Mechanus come to be?
    Last edited by Beneath; 2016-10-21 at 03:57 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Beneath View Post
    The reason I want to do the one domain:one god thing is because I like the idea of a cleric's deity defining what they're like as a cleric, instead of having two clerics of gods who are little alike playing exactly the same
    That's always been one of the dumbest things in DnD. The god of wizards Azuth has clerics who're not wizards and god of thieves Mask has clerics who're not thieves (unless they multiclass), and god of paladins Torm has paladins and clerics because why wouldn't he. But there's no god of clerics because that would be ridiculous. Then there's goddess of peace and pacifism Eldath empowering mace swinging murderhobos in plate because phb says so.

    The solution is to forget about the Cleric class. Gods give spells and blessings to the sort of people they like, not to the sort of people those wizards living on the coast claim they do. Guys like Moradin, Helm, Hextor, Lathander will give spellcasting and turning/rebuking to fighters who're sworn to them (thus making guys who look identical to Clerics). Azuth, Mask, Oghma and Sune will empower wizards, thieves, librarians (adept) and prostitutes (commoner). Battlefield performance balance between their faithfuls is not really a priority for deities. You still give the cleric class to your players but only if they chose an appropriate deity, no worshipper of Loviatar or Eldath gets to be the healbot in a murderhobo pack.

    So yeah, majority of the gods don't have any Clerics. But plenty of blessed worshippers who preach their creed and are allowed to perform miracles in their name. The devout hooker with her 1d4+2 hp and 11 ac will Gate in a Solar to wreck the 12th level murderhobo pack if Sune likes her enough (aka DM hates them enough). That'd be a fringe case tho.

    With that in mind, I'd suggest you let Cleric with these domains exist:
    Death: Nerull (no other choice here)spoilers: he kills every god who tries to move in on his turf, he killed Yurtrus so many times Gruumsh gave up and switched him to age and disease)
    Knowledge: Shar (the worst pick; the only things Shar should give you willingly are insanity, amnesia, enslavement or oblivion but only other deities that come anywhere near are Hextor/Heironeous or Bane in their lawmaker aspects, Oghma/Boccob/Irregulars are too scholarly for clerics)
    Life: Pelor (militant, antiundead and the only primordial attention whore enough to desire direct worship)
    Light: Seldarine (special emphasis on Rillifane and Sehanine but they're all too attached to all the others)
    Nature: Silvanus (clerics are far too aggressive for Chauntea's image)
    Tempest: Umberlee (I read 5ephb; it says storms, sea and sky, as if they tailormade it for her and Talos)
    Trickery: Lolth (Yondalla is the only other trickster militant enough to empower warlike clerics but she's too halfling centered)
    War: Tempus or Bane (Gruumsh doesn't really need clerics, he gets much faith from orcs and has other arrangements too)also it's already Gruumsh
    Other deities will have plenty of spellcasting worshippers (or not) but they'll be anything from level 1 commoners to level 47 monks depending on the god's and DM's tastes.

    Lolth as trickery is good though, especially if I outright get rid of alignments so being a cleric of a god who lairs in the Abyss doesn't mean you can't be a good person (I mean, already, it's decided that a god who lairs on the upper planes isn't necessarily a good person, from what you've done with Correlon). Correlon needs to be in if Lolth is, but regardless of what the PHB writers said, I don't think all the fire spells in the Light domain fit him, and they do for this version of Pelor.
    Lolth is the goddess of shadows and schemes. It doesn't say evil anywhere. Though she thinks men are inherently flawed and need female supervision constantly to not be a danger to themselves and society (or at least until they're too old to get it up anymore aka able to think clearly). Being married to Corellon for so long would do that to anyone. She needs to be militant to keep her ultramatriarchal societies in place, hence Clerics. So long as you're manipulative and conniving, Lolth welcomes you (even if you're male and not old, tho then you should find a woman to take care of you asap).
    Big Daddy thinks mortals aren't worthy enough to worship him directly. That's what Seldarine was made for. He also lives inside Positive (mom's basement), not upstairs.

    Pelor wants to be the classic your dad but in the sky. He's the only primordial greater who wants to be respected and loved and worshipped. That's the whole reason he went into the mortals business and he gets pissy when mortals don't go for him or his children. His siblings only like mortals for the ease of extracting belief (it's very much harder to convince a respawning exemplar/elemental who's immune to time to worship). Moradin is too busy making sure the outer planes run on time, Corellon is too good to associate with mere mortals, Gruumsh is playing on another level, Tiamat is as Tiamat does. That's why Pelor would be the only one with specialized Clerics running around in Material and life for benevolence.

    I realize the above bits haven't been explicit in any of the stuff I've posted before. But that's what I have in mind when writing this stuff and I've kinda been leaving a lot of stuff (like these details of greater primordial siblings) unwritten deliberately for all posts to be modular and not tie things down too tight. But sure, you can switch Pelor and Seldarine on my list. It's not like that's gonna ruin everything forever.

    Pelor and Auril as secret allies is too cool
    Auril's "clerics" are all psychopathic cultists who hope to become fey (thus immortal), entirely too similar to cultists of lower planar powers. They'd at most get a couple of magic tricks from Auril. Only her fey soldiers would be actual Clerics (with war, tempest or trickery). You can have the mortal "clerics" do evil ritual stuff to bring in the real Clerics who'll do the summoning of crushing ice meteors and fey armies. Exact same campaign as would be against a Demogorgon/Orcus/Graz'zt/Asmodeus cult. That's a whole world saving adventure right there.
    Less cliche alternative: Auril hit the world centuries ago but some worshippers remained behind. Their numbers increased insidiously over the years and they've finally come out, trying to call her back for another go. As no mortal knows her real job, it looks like another ice apocalypse might happen if these psychonuts aren't stopped. You can spin this off to a Feywild jaunt fighting through the Winter Court, building up to a confrontation with Auril herself, who's totally chill when not on the job and has no idea why you mortals are trashing her place now, it's not like it was you she invaded, do you go around assaulting everyone who attacked your ancestors hundreds of years ago?

    Side-note: Is there also a connection between Pelor (the burning eye) and Nyarlathotep (the three-lobed burning eye) in this cosmos?
    No. But there could be if you want. I haven't thought of it, not being much for Lovecraft, but it's possible to remake the elder beings into eldritch Lovecraftian things. Tiamat is quite Shub-Niggurathy from what little I know, and Selune is somewhat Azathothian. Tharizdun (and Moander and Ghaundaur and maybe Ibrandul if I ever get around to him) is straight up Lovecraftian but I couldn't put a Mythos name to him.

    and how did Mechanus come to be?
    I've wanted to write that up for a long while but couldn't fit it into any deity story so far. Short version: Moradin had to build it because Pelor ****ed up the multiverse.
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  16. - Top - End - #46
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    Hmm... I'd have to figure out the connections (like, if Nyarlathotep is secretly Pelor, I want that to make Pelor more horrifying, not Nyarlathotep less), if I decide to go lovecraftian with this. I've got room. I don't think Tharizdun and the others are meant to be mythos expies so much as mythos-inspired. Mostly, I was asking 'cause of the phrase "burning eye" and my associations for that are Sauron and Nyarlathotep (even though it's supposed to be the sun).

    The "Auril attacked a while back but now things are fine" idea is pretty good. Her leftover clergy wouldn't be clerics then because they wouldn't be PCs, but that gives more flexibility for what they are.

    I might stick Moradin in as Knowledge instead of Shar; he's martial enough for clerics and knowledge-oriented enough (at least, if all the dwarven stereotypes of writing everything down and crafting (which is knowledge-domain in 5e) apply to him even though he's not god of dwarves anymore) to be that (plus Knowledge is his recommended domain in the PHB). Like you said he's busy with the cosmos rather than mortals, but the intercessory deities I might put in this place aren't famous enough to merit making into the general-purpose God of Knowledge. Maybe he built a machine to answer prayers?

    I still might come up with a modified Life for Yondalla (take away the heavy armor proficiency since hobbits have enough DEX not to want it, take away Divine Strike, replace it with abilities that protect others maybe), but you've convinced me Pelor should have the default Life, and that makes the Seldarine the best fit for Light despite all the fire making it not a particularly great fit for them. Or Pelor might be the kind of self-important deity who takes up two whole domains representing different orders of his clergy, but with how little room that leaves for other deities maybe not.

    So that means clerics of Lolth, Moradin, Nerull, Pelor, the Seldarine, Sylvanus, Tempus, and Umberlee exist; Mystra and Vecna have wizards but openly worshipping either isn't a great idea, Tharizdun and perhaps Auril and Kiaransalee have warlocks (GOO, Fey, and Fiend, respectively, though Auril's warlocks would most likely at this point be, like, people who learn to dream travel to her court to use her libraries rather than anyone she cares about), Duerra has Mystics, Heironeous might have Paladins (and Hextor too, maybe? and maybe even Kiaransalee given that "paladin of vengeance" is a thing), Tiamat & her spawn have monsters and maybe some mortal sorcerers (but are mostly villains), Gruumsh has orcs and Yondalla has hobbits. Sune was there too but most of what she gives her faithful is not appropriate for open discussion at my table.

    I wonder if a propagation of nigh-identical war gods could be justified to people who don't know the secret as them being locked in an arms race that means their forces always resemble the others'. Though admittedly different militaries play to different strengths, even when they're in an arms race.

    Oh, another thing: Is Arvoreen Yondalla's kid, a piece of Gruumsh, both, or their kid together (which would give him a full sibling among the giant gods, right)?

    ETA: I couldn't agree more with wanting to forget about the cleric class, but I'm playing with the rulebook I'm given. Path of least resistance and all. If I were writing a new system, it wouldn't include a Cleric class, but as it is, it's there and I have to work around it, preferably without lengthening my house rules document too much.

    Oh, and an idea to stick in the deities section of my house rules document as apocrypha: Few people pray to Shar, and most prayers go unanswered. She does not empower clerics. Accounts claim a few, though, end up dead, beyond ressurection and even Speak with Dead, either struck dead on the spot or dying in accidents later. Others simply vanish; divinations can confirm that they do not live yet they are not counted among the dead. A song, often sung by masked bards around secretive campfires on moonless autumn nights, tells of a farmer's only son who finds out that he once had a sister, and blames Shar for having erased almost all trace of her even from others' memories. In many versions of the song he dies under mysterious circumstances soon after discovering this. Only the most daring, curious, suicidal, or those who possess those traits in some combination ever test her.

    Oh, and a mock-up Gruumsh cleric:
    Level 1: Barbarian unarmored defense, martial weapon proficiency. Maybe barbarian reckless attack WIS/day but they already get a lot.
    Level 2: Channel Divinity: Rage (using the table for an equal-level barbarian but without any of the rage special abilities barbarians get other than Rage itself. and they can use it whenever they can channel divinity). Also they can cast cleric spells while raging, but doing so instantly ends their rage.
    Level 6: Maybe they can channel divinity to make their friends rage? I'm not actually sure.
    Level 8: Reckless attack, if they didn't get it at level 1, otherwise same as war domain
    Level 17: Casting while raging no longer ends their rage (if this ends up being too weak, maybe add "and you can cast a spell of 5th level or lower with a casting time of one action as a bonus action while raging as long as you attack on the same turn").

    Spells are as war domain until Gruumsh decides to change them.

    Maybe add a maximum level they're allowed to gain class features and spell progression for if they have more than one eye, and penalties for going from two eyes to one, since even if Gruumsh never had more than one eye, one-eyed orc casters is too much of a thing (and clerics of Gruumsh who are not orcs or half-orcs would be rare). Basically they're a cleric who fits in with a pack of orc barbarians; their weaker hit die and greater MAD makes them vulnerable if they rush in, to say nothing of lacking all of the barbarian's defenses except unarmored defense and damage resistance, but their casting makes them able to support from the front line.

    I should probably spin off my application of one world in this cosmos to its own thing rather than make long posts in this thread about it so that this thread can be abou the gods in general.
    Last edited by Beneath; 2016-10-22 at 12:14 AM.

  17. - Top - End - #47
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    Quote Originally Posted by Pronounceable View Post
    ^That's a nice Lolth, you should write it up.

    However this Lolth is no drow goddess and Gruumsh is already doing what you describe.
    ...
    Anyway, I tried to get a Mystra up here but failed. She's far too tightly tied up in FR stuff of dubious quality, just like Cyric, and removing all that stuff just makes her boobed Boccob. Was a bummer.

    Therefore, I decided to put my huge list here. Maybe it'll generate some recommendations and ideas. It's a list of bona fide DnD gods of variable fame that I'm trying to whip into a satisfactory cosmology( with commentary). Deities been mentioned until now are guaranteed to be in but even they're not set in stone. I also looked up the noobs of 4e, some of them do have potential.
    Spoiler: huge
    Show
    Supreme Deities:
    Luminous Overmother Selune
    Ruinous Overmother Shar
    Elder Elemental Evil Tharizdun

    Primordial Greater Deities:
    Mother of All Abominations Tiamat (terriblest of them all)
    Soul Forger Moradin (arranger of the Great Wheel, bigwig of Upper Planes)
    Sun Father Pelor (creator of mortals, king of Material Plane)
    Lord of Lords Gruumsh (player of the long game)
    Glorious King Corellon (sparkly manbaby)

    Miscellaneous Descendants of Overmothers:
    Araushnee aka Lolth, Goddess of Shadows and Schemes
    Auril, Fey Goddess of Winter
    Berronar aka Yondalla, Mother Goddess of Family and Badassery (and Halflings)
    Clangeddin, Manly God of LG War (Moradin’s little helper)
    Duerra, Axe Princess of Conquest (of Duergar)
    Eilistraee, Goddess of Grace and War and Crafts
    Laduguer, Hard God of Hardassery and Hardwork and Uncompromise and Hard Men Making Hard Decisions
    Vhaeraun, God of Romance and Rebellion
    Waukeen, Goddess of Capitalism

    Children of Pelor: (bigwigs of Material Plane)
    Silvanus, God of Ecoterrorism aka Chauntea, Goddess of Family and Agriculture
    Olidammara, Tricksy God of Rogues and Roads and Civilization
    Umberlee, good ol’ Bitch Queen

    Seldarine of Corellon: (allied against all others, for a given value of allied)
    Aerdrie, Goddess of Rain and Summer
    Angharradh, Tripartite Goddess of Indulging In Corellon’s Wacky Fetishes
    Fenmarel, Curmudgeon God of Aloofness and Antisociality
    Hanali, Goddess of Satisfying Corellon’s Lust For Sune Without Giving Her More Influence
    Rillifane, Protective God of Treehugging
    Sashelas, Tailchasing God of Seas and Diplomacy
    Sehanine, Goddess of Autumn and Dreams and Night Sky
    Solonor, God of Hunting and Survival
    Erevan, Trickster God of Tricks (it’s either him or Brandobaris and Brando is cooler)
    Labelas, Stuffy God of History and Education (not in, Boccob/Oghma is superior)

    Orcish Pantheon: (ostracized and disliked)
    Baghtru, Strong God of Stupidity
    Ilneval, Envious God of Strategy
    Luthic, Goddess of All The Girly Stuff
    Shargaas, God of Darkness and Assassination
    Yurtrus, Orc Nerull

    Independent Deities: (native powers of Material Plane)
    Nerull, Dread God of Death and Fear
    Sune, Conniving Goddess of Lust and Beauty
    Lathander, Cool and Hip Sun God for Cool and Hip Young Mortals (something something Amaunator, something something Sune)
    Loviatar, Goddess of Weakness and Bravery
    Thaun, The Dark Night
    Aoskar, Uncle Ben of Planescape
    Bane, God of Tyranny
    Myrkul, Discount Nerull
    Bhaal, God of Murder (Terrible Trio Rides Again)
    Raven Queen, Goddess of Fate
    Velsharoon, God of Dead and Undead
    Wee Jas, Goddess of Necromancy
    Erythnul, God of Slaughter without Laughter (Aaand Crashes Again)

    Random Spawn Of Tharizdun That Nobody Knows Is Of Tharizdun:
    Annam, Lovestruck Giantdad
    Othea, Goddess of surprisebitch.gif (where else would manifestations of primal matter come from)
    Moander, Deity of Rot and Decay (he ded)
    Ghaundaur, Deity of Oozes and Filth (something always seeps through)

    Godspawn of Tiamat: (not all the disgusting nightmare beasts are evil)
    Pisaethces of Aboleths
    Ilsensine of Illithids
    Great Mother of Beholders
    Sekolah of Sahuagin
    Pastafar of Flumphs [this needs to exist but without a goofy name]
    Blipdoolpoolp of Kuo-toa
    Psilofyr of Myconids
    Shekinester of Nagas
    Merrshaulk of Yuan-ti
    Jazirian of Couatls
    Nameless Emperor of Grells [this doesn’t actually exist]
    Panzuriel of Krakens [closest match]
    Eadro of Locathah

    Giantish Pantheon:
    Diancastra, Trickster Goddess of Arrogance and Tailchasing
    Grolantor, God of Willful Stupidity
    Hiatea, Taller and Weaker Chauntea
    Iallanis, Taller and Nicer Sune
    Karontor, God of Selfhate and Deformity
    Memnor, God of Pride and Smarts
    Skoraeus, God of Knowledge and Isolationism
    Stronmaus, Tailchasing God of Sun and Sky and Joy
    Vaprak, Bastard God of Ogres

    Remaining Morndinsamman: (not a thing as a whole, listed for cherrypicking purposes)
    Abbathor, Envious God of Greed (he might be in)
    Dugmaren, Brainy God of Scholarship and Invention (Boccob/Oghma says no)
    Dumathoin, Random Assortment God of Mining and Earth and Exploration and Secrets (needs work but maybe can make it)
    Gorm, A Little Short To Be Helm (nope)
    Haela, Goddess of War Loving (!?!) (might be in as cheerful psycho goddess, except wtf was Moradin smoking?)
    Marthammor, God of Travel (Olidammara+Fharlanghn+Shaundakul=nope)
    Muamman, God of Visitors and Lightning (??) (might be in)
    Sharindlar, Discount Sune (no)
    Vergadain, Trickster God of Luck (far too many tricksters, just like manly war gods; gotta do something about that)

    Hobbit Deities: (also listed for cherrypicking)
    Arvoreen, A Little Too Short To Be A War God (he’s in)
    Cyrrollalee, Goddess of Hospitality and Friendship (probably nope for ****ty name alone)
    Brandobaris, Trickster God of Awesomeness (he’s totally in)
    Sheela, Random Assortment Goddess of Nature and Agriculture and Song and Love (Berronar doesn’t need a copycat)
    Urogalan, Kindest God of Death and Earth (chances are low but not nope)

    Huge list of deities from internet to be cherrypicked:
    Kiaransalee, Goddess of Undead and Vengeance (gotta be a “fallen” Seldarine somehow)
    Selvetarm, God of Being Lolth’s Boytoy (same as Ki)
    Zinzerena, Goddess of Illusion and Assassins (same as Ki)
    Amaunator, Old School Sun God (gotta tie into Lathander somehow)
    Asmodeus, God of Sin (go home Asmo, you're drunk)
    Avandra, Goddess of Roads and Halflings (Yondalla says nope)
    Azuth, God of Magicians (seems lame but might make it)
    Bahamut, God of Dragonborn (dragonborn gotta gtfo and stay gtfo)
    Beshaba, Twin Goddess of Bad Luck (like her, she should be in)
    Boccob, Snobby God of Knowledge and Magic (a staple)
    Celestian, God of Astronomy and Travel (distinctive from other travel guys so has chance)
    Deneir, God of Being Oghma’s Secretary (uhh)
    Ehlonna, Bleeding Heart Silvanus (unnecessary)
    Eldath, Peaceful Goddess of Waters (pretty cool actually)
    Erathis, Lawful Goddess of Civilization and Buddying to Pelor (might make the cut)
    Fharlanghn, Just Another Shaundakul (travel domain isn’t big enough for the lot of y’all)
    Garagos, Just Another Savage War God (Gruumsh fodder)
    Gond, God of Invention and Machinery (could serve Moradin)
    Heironeous, Just Another Knight God (can’t have enough enemy twins)
    Helm, Stupider Named Heironeous (nope)
    Hextor, Better Named Bane (in but needs to differ from Bane)
    Ilmater, Basically Jesus (so nope)
    Incabulos, Hateful God of Bad Things (boring)
    Ioun, Goddess of Knowledge and Skill (Boccob+Oghma=not likely)
    Istus, Superfluous Tripartite Goddess of Fate (don’t need two triunes)
    Iyachtu Xvim, Official Bane Knockoff (nnnope)
    Joramy, Discount Shiva with Fire Motif (lame but may serve a purpose)
    Kord, Discount Crom (not with Tempus)
    Leira, Tricksy Goddess of Illusion and Deception (another one?)
    Lendor, God of Tedium and Time (like the concept)
    Lirr, Goddess of Literature and Fiction (also sounds good)
    Lliira, Goddess of Joy (might work)
    Malar, God of Savagery (more Gruumsh fodder)
    Mask, Worst Named God in the History of Badly Named Gods (nope just for the **** name)
    Melora, Just Another Nature Goddess (lame)
    Mielikki, Yet Another Nature Goddess (laaaame)
    Milil, Official Discount Bragi (nope)
    Mystra, Goddess of Magic and Revolving Doors
    Obad-Hai, Reincarnating God of Spring
    Oghma, Another Boccob (should put these two in a deathmatch cage to see which survives)
    Procan, Uncaring God of Sea (Tiamat says no)
    Ralishaz, Genderbent Beshaba (no need)
    Sharess, Literally Bast (mmmmayybe)
    Shaundakul, Just Another Fharlanghn (don’t really like any of these guys)
    St Cuthbert, Just Another Knight God (more fodder for Godfather)
    Talona, Goddess of Poison and Disease (Loviatar did it first)
    Talos, Just Another Storm God (obvious Gruumsh plant is obvious)
    Tempus, Just Another War God (not with Kord)
    Torm, Again with the Knight God
    Torog, God of Underdark and Torture (might be in)
    Trithereon, God of **** Yeah Murrica! (no)
    Tymora, Twin Goddess of Good Luck (in with her twin)
    Tyr, You Again? (nope)
    Ulaa, Boringer female Dumathoin (boooooring)
    Wastri, God of Amphibians and Human Supremacy (!?!?) (want him in just for the weird)
    Zarus, God of Human Racism (kinda already folded into Pelor)
    Zehir, God of Darkness and Poison (no likey)
    Zuoken, Ascended Bruce Lee (unlikely but not impossible)
    Vecna, Supervillain
    Iuz, Supervillain
    Cyric, Megavillain (these three stooges could’ve been a nice Dread Three replacement instead of the usual suspects except they’re cooler than this lot)
    No Company of Seven*?

    *the pantheon of demigods that includes Zagyg (the god of eccentric geniuses, humor, and ill-conceived urban renewal plans such as building houses out of elemental fire instead of earth) and Murlynd (the god of technology and of Paladins who are the character from Have Gun, Will Travel), among others
    Last edited by Bohandas; 2016-10-22 at 01:34 AM.
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  18. - Top - End - #48
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    And now some light entertainment.

    BRANDOBARIS (lesser god), Irrepresible Scamp, Master of Misadventure, King of Pranks, Luckiest Rapscallion
    Domains: chaos, trickery, stealth, luck, adventurers

    Spoiler
    Show
    In its long and efficient history, the great Mechanus only had one single malfunction. Due to a preposteriously small rounding error, there’d been a very slight systemic flaw from the start and it built up to the fabled Malfunction of Mechanus that caused untold bafflement and much hard work for the modrons. The Malfunction was just a single mortal soul getting stuck inside instead of being sent to his proper outer plane. There has never been any other problems or issues with the running of Mechanus before or since, distribution of dead mortal souls to outer planes in a balanced manner continues unabated and Ethereal Plane hasn't had any dangerous buildup of ghosts heavy enough to break down planar barriers ever since it came online, but that single error's existence was Serious Business. Primus the Prime Modron ordered the offending soul to be investigated, just in case there was something special with it that triggered the mishap. At first there wasn’t, it was a perfectly ordinary halfling soul by the name of Brandobaris who’d lived and died a mostly uneventful life and probably would’ve gone on to have a mostly uneventful eternity in Bytopia. But as the modrons were ordered to observe and investigate him and his mortal life, they came to the conclusion that there had to be something special about him that they somehow couldn’t detect, otherwise why would this one soul out of trillions to pass through Mechanus get special treatment? Brandobaris had to have caused the Malfunction in a way that no modron measurement could detect. This was belief (to the best of modrons’ ability) and, modron hivemind being what it is, it was the greatest surge of belief in a thing in the history of ever.

    So, Brandobaris ascended to godhood. It was an undeniable case of observation affecting the observee, it was all very quantum.

    He was pretty confused about the strange clockwork creatures but, being a helpful guy, he offered to help them with their machine. He used to tinker with things as a hobby when alive and liked to think himself with some aptitude for machinery. Of course, an amateur interest grandfather clocks and water pumps didn’t really help with intricacies of the great Mechanus, but Brandobaris still offered some advice to show willing. Modrons wrote down everything he said (and would calculate effects of each later on to be certain) but it was clear doing anything he suggested would range from useless to catastrophic. As there’s no such thing as deceit or miscommunication on Nirvana, modrons knew he meant everything he said and his intentions were wholly helpful. Ignorance or incompetence being completely alien concepts to modrons, they concluded this ability to genuinely believe that things would do something despite the fact that they won’t is chaos and therefore Brandobaris was a god of chaos. Which had to be the cause of the Malfunction, Mechanus had accidentally sucked in a chaotic deity from Ethereal Plane instead of a mortal soul. This sent the modron race on a centuries long calibration spree to make certain such things can’t happen again. Brandobaris was unceremoniously thrown out on Primus’ order.

    This was the first in a long, loooooong list of misadventures the newly minted god of trickery and chaos would go on to have. The stories of Brandobaris’ misadventures are too many to count, containing such episodes as the time he made off with Lord Asmodeus’ pocket watch, the time he got barred from Moradin’s court for sneaking into his closet to wear his pants, his failed attempt at trying to steal the cloak off of Thaun’s back as she fought Bane, his brief imprisonment by and romance with the Frostmaiden, the time he barely survived Hextor’s wrath for his unwitting seducing of Beshaba by triggering Heironeous’ resurgence, the ill advised and embarrassing attempt at stealing the magnificent hat of the Demon Princess of Fungi (what hat?!?), the time he tricked Baghtru (no great feat admittedly) to agree to teach Arvoreen to be a better warrior so he could impress Eilistraee (kickstarting their famous romance), the gripping tale of his escape from Demonwebs of Lolth, the time he snuck into Myrkul’s castle and traded erotically shaped chocolate for the imprisoned halfling souls* and whatever other ridiculous stories DM cares to think of. Brandobaris is good natured and always gets off of any and all troubles, he likes getting into it as much as getting away with it and takes special care to never seriously harm anyone (even evil exemplars of lower planes or submarine abominations of Water).

    Brandobaris doesn’t have official worshippers or clergy, he’s usually too busy having adventures. But he’s well known to listen when tales of his exploits are told and more than a few adventurers got unexpected divine help when they prayed to him in desperation (assuming they were on the sort of rousing or amusing adventure that’d make a fun story). He wants you to stop talking about it and just do it, make your dreams come true. Brandobaris likes to grant his blessing to many mortals who’re about to do something foolhardy just for the thrill of it and he likes playing deus ex machina for especially tricksy folks when they’re in over their head. He’s a patron of rogues who’re in it for excitement and artists whose aim is to amuse and thrill. He dislikes greed, order and harming sentient beings and will sometimes hinder evil and/or greedy adventurers and servants of malicious deities. Occasionally Brandobaris goes so far as to take a mortal guise and join ventures that promise to be fun or especially humiliating to the sort of beings he dislikes.

    He’s known to have the occasional dalliance with exciting mortals and various goddesses (Tymora is one of his closer allies with many benefits, Sune throws herself on him at every chance she gets, Diancastra would be chasing him all over the planes if she wasn’t imprisoned in Jotunheim, Auril’s still sore about getting played and been trying in vain to reconnect with him so she can be the one who dumps this time, even Lolth tries to trick the trickster by disguising herself as a mortal woman to seduce him [to conclusively determine the better trickster she'd claim, not that anyone can prove she's been doing it]) but unlike most trickster deities, Brandobaris lusts only for more adventures. He’s pretty friendly with most deities of good and chaos, even primordial daddies think he’s all right (for a souped up mortal). On the rare occasions Brandobaris needs help, his bro Arvie (who hates that name) and Eilie (who also hates that name) usually got his back. One thing he doesn’t realize is the lengths Yondalla goes behind the scenes to make certain nothing truly bad will happen to his favorite son (every halfling is her child but modrons were right, there is something special about him, even if it was just a self actualizing quantum prophecy thing). She’s had to seal a lot of secret deals and send Arvoreen to bash the occasional head to prevent many a revenge scheme from harming Brando. Very few beings are aware of the extent of Yondalla's protectiveness over him, most everyone else think he’s just lucky (which is true from a certain point of view).

    Modrons still believe he’s a god of chaos, so despite not having many mortal worshippers or a church, Brandobaris gets by. He’s also surprisingly popular among goblinoids (a very rare occurance for any deity of humanoid origins), Arborean eladrins and Beastlander guardinals (who rarely give time of the day to anyone except Moradin).


    *totally canon from totally canonic sources



    My boy Brando is here to bring some levity to the heavy drama of the likes of Kiaransalee and Erathis. It's best to come up with even more ridiculous misadventures for him for any game, they don't even have to be true.
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  19. - Top - End - #49
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    Quote Originally Posted by Beneath View Post
    The reason I want to do the one domain:one god thing is because I like the idea of a cleric's deity defining what they're like as a cleric
    It would be better to reinstate 2e's spheres of clerical magic (basically there wasn't one cleric spell list, there were a bunch of miniature spell lists and each god had access to several but not all of them
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    This is a good Brandobaris. I like how his main worshipper base is Modrons who don't so much worship him as assume he must be a chaos god (plus borrowed power from Yondalla). So Arvoreen trained under the orcs but he's not a proper War God in this cosmos's sense of the term? and Mechanus was built as a release valve to prevent another Nerull or Sune?

    Quote Originally Posted by Bohandas View Post
    It would be better to reinstate 2e's spheres of clerical magic (basically there wasn't one cleric spell list, there were a bunch of miniature spell lists and each god had access to several but not all of them
    Didn't 2e also, like, suggest messing with the weapon restrictions clerics of different gods had? and I vaguely recall the "priests of specific mythoi" section of the PHB suggesting that some of them trade their undead turning for other abilities.

    Dividing the entire cleric spell list into spheres and then assigning different gods different selections of spheres, weapon and armor proficiencies, etc sounds almost like writing up a whole new class for each god. Which, like, I guess would be ideal for the deities who send people totally devoted to them on adventures, but honestly the others might as well limit themselves to a feat or three for what they give adventurers (their miracle workers would be different)

  21. - Top - End - #51
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    Quote Originally Posted by Beneath View Post
    This is a good Brandobaris. I like how his main worshipper base is Modrons who don't so much worship him as assume he must be a chaos god (plus borrowed power from Yondalla). So Arvoreen trained under the orcs but he's not a proper War God in this cosmos's sense of the term? and Mechanus was built as a release valve to prevent another Nerull or Sune?
    I thought it'd be amusing to have modrons create a god of chaos and trickery. And you also have a part in this latest writeup, since I thought I should answer your questions about Arvey (he really hates that name) and Mechanus but with posting another deity instead of giving simple answers, as I'd posted too much without new deities. I was gonna write Arvey first but then went for Brando instead cos he's cooler and I had new ideas.

    Which doesn't actually answer the question, so the plan didn't work. Anyway here's the answer: Arvoreen is another ascended mortal, powerful famous fighter dude who died defending the weak and got demigodded as patron of protectors of the weak (stuffing this bit into Brando's writeup would've been too random). Brando looks out for his fellow exhalfling almost as much as he looks out for Brando (such as getting him a good personal trainer or setting him up with this hot girl he knew). Tho still a proper manly (by halfling standards) war god (like Bane).
    And no, Mechanus enabled the Material deities by ending ancestoral worship but as side effect. It stops mortal ghosts massing in Ethereal, aka the Luminous Teardrop, tethering the planes to Overmother's Glittering Eye (Positive), until it breaks. Without Moradin's expertise, Pelor's little vanity project would've dropped the multiverse into Allmother's Gaping Maw (Negative).
    So the multiverse would look like a wheel suspended inside a shiny tear hanging down from a silver woman's eye above a gaping woman's mouth with black lipstick and sharp teeth if anybody could actually look at it from outside. Which is a pretty image I feel. More secret and offtopic cosmology claptrap: Selune is holding the planes, they won't fall, the eye and maw image is just an abstraction of Shar's explosion. The Luminous Teardrop is actually for protecting elemental souls; every elemental, giant, titan, fey, genie and assorted critters and deities would go psychonuts if anything happened to it due to being tiny pieces of Tharizdun.
    Dividing the entire cleric spell list into spheres and then assigning different gods different selections of spheres, weapon and armor proficiencies, etc sounds almost like writing up a whole new class for each god...(their miracle workers would be different)
    In that case, spheres would be lists of miracle workers, clerics still restricted to more martial deities. It'd be a lot of work however and probably not worth the effort for many 5e DMs.
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    Here, have another god.


    TALOS (greater god), the Destroyer, Stormlord, Lord of Fury, Cloudrider, Eye of the Storm, Son of the Bitch
    Domains: anger, storms, destruction, strength, children, slavery

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    Umberlee is generally considered to be the least suitable being for motherhood and nobody would agree more readily than Talos the Destroyer. Despite his continued attempts, Stormlord has never managed to sever the umbilical cord that still ties him to the Bitch Queen, even losing one of his eyes permanently in a particularly ill advised attempt. And since he’s obviously still a little baby who can’t even break free, mommy is keeping an eye on him and can manifest at any moment to metaphorically make him eat his veggies. Umberlee is pretty disappointed in his son’s inability to grow up and become the manliest man among the manly men like she wanted, but she’s hopeful. It’s gonna happen any day now, he’s just a late bloomer and shouldn’t listen to those mean bullies. Talos, for his part, knows he’s already grown up into a massively powerful, fearsome and vengeful greater god of destruction and could probably kick any renowned war god right in the ass, but all his gaining of power and influence only served to strengthen the cord, which is an incarnation of the Bitch Queen’s smothering love for him (also she’d probably manifest during battle and destroy his enemy for him, which would be far worse than any beating he could take).

    Everyone else except Pelor finds this amusing but he can’t bring himself to disabuse his poor mad daughter from her delusions, even to save his grandson. So Talos has to live bound in slavery, sinking the occasional ship or creating typoons and tsunamis here and there when ordered, made worse by the fact that his slavedriver doesn’t even realize his enslavement. In frustration, Talos has turned to extreme measures, ordering his worshippers to become murderous and stepped up on creating disasters, causing thousands of mortals to die. This has created a lot of enmity but nobody has dared to attack yet for fear of Umberlee. Talos thinks if he can kill enough mortals, he can lay claim to domain of death, hopefully goading Nerull into killing him as he’s killed every other deity who tried to get a foothold on death. Talos figures if dying worked out for his twin cousins, it might work out for him too and even if he stays dead, it’s better than this. Umberlee just thinks he’s being a cutie and imitating mommy, so she’s been increasing her own efforts at disasters and destruction all over Material to be a better role model. Thus, seas continue to kill mortals at extremely inflated rates on most worlds.

    Clerics of Talos are an angry bunch, befitting the Lord of Fury. All of his clergy are expected to be good warriors and also experts at navigation and astronomy to interpret his will. Promotion in the clergy comes from both fighting prowess and ability to interpret signs and portents in the waves and clouds, nobody can advance far without being good at both. All of Talos’ worshippers are passionate and aggressive people, the mild and the meek are looked down upon. They’re also commanded to be promiscious and increase their numbers for glory of the Stormlord, Talos teaches that children are the greatest treasure that can be gathered in his service, for it’s the children of the faithful who’ll conquer the world in the name of Talos in the future. It’s very hard to find a female Talassan who isn’t pregnant or nursing newborns or a male one who isn’t training a few of his kids in ways of Talos (possibly compensating for the fact that Talos has never got to meet any ladies due to his mother always breathing down his neck). This causes women to rarely rise to prominent positions in Talos clergy, as pregnancy or multiple births take their toll on their ability to beat men in duels, which isn’t something he’d want anyway. Another thing Talos clergy is big on is slavery; it’s right and proper for the weak to serve the strong and the tedious requirements of day to day life are a waste of the strength of Talos’ worshippers, so Talassans are well known for being slavers and pirates. However might makes right, so every Talassan is required to allow their slaves to fight for freedom and any slave who can defeat the master in a duel must be freed. Owning numerous slaves is therefore a sign of pride both as a symbol of wealth and a declaration of personal strength. Breeding with slaves is generally frowned upon, since slaves are weak, they’d only dilute the strength of Talassans. Enslaved children however, have potential. If they show signs of strength and are young enough to be molded easily, a child slave might be adopted by a Talos worshipping couple to be raised as a proper Talassan. None of this makes followers of Talos much liked by anybody else.

    All in all, Talos is a bad dude who’s trying to vigorously live through his worshippers and nobody likes him. Especially Olidammara, who opposes Talos’ followers for both being a menace to society and as payback for loss of his original domain of air, which Umberlee tore off him and devoured to mutate into storm and give birth Talos (as long time resident of Water, she thinks the humanoid way of reproduction is lame and unimaginative). Thanks to Olidammara’s influence over most civilized lands on Material, simply being a Talassan is frequently a capital offense, which further drives them into piracy and banditry. Talos also orders his worshippers to ruin the day of any Umberlee worshippers they come across, any Umberlant is to be killed and their holy places destroyed. Umberlee doesn’t mind this, it’s a good way to purge her own followers of weakness and the bulk of them are deep sea monsters far out of reach of Stormlord anyway.

    Praying to Talos only works if you’re an official worshipper but he gives blessings and inspirations freely to his devout followers when they’re in pursuit of his goals of destruction and fury and slavery.



    So not all that different a Talos from mortal perspective, but I think the divine bits are neat. It allows the slavery and children stuff and also I couldn't have the cord if Talos was the boss like usual. He's pretty distinct from Bane and Tempus too, which is always a plus.

    e:
    Quote Originally Posted by Beneath View Post
    Mostly, I was asking 'cause of the phrase "burning eye" and my associations for that are Sauron and Nyarlathotep
    Hey, I missed this. "Fiery eyes of Pelor" are the holes he drilled from his palace in Fire into Material to look through, which came to be known as suns or stars. Silvanus, Olly and Umberlee have others covered (except Olly wasn't really using air so Umberlee bit it off as has just been unveiled here).
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    I figured that's what you meant, re:fiery eyes.

    But, one, burning eyes are a great evil symbol (even if they can also just be the sun) and two, the idea of twisting a sun into an eldritch abomination is awesome and also not without precedent.

    I'm thinking I might make the eldritch abominations, like, manifestations of the fact that reality not only doesn't have to be this way, but would prefer not to be (if you view Shar as like, a kind of cosmic consciousness); that from one perspective it's just a dream Shar is having that is being unfortunately stabilized by beings she dreamed up and can't purge herself of.

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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    And the biting off of the bits continues on.


    GARAGOS (lesser deity), Master of All Weapons, the Reaver, Scarlet Stained Ground, Sailor on the Vermillion Sea, Crimson Juggernaught, Besieger of the Reddened Walls
    Domains: warriors, battle prowess, tenacity, weaponry

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    When Gruumsh set his covetous eye upon the Material Plane, he saw the orcs were ripe for picking. They had fought the hardest against the empires of giants, their might and courage costing them the most out of all the humanoid races in the downfall of giantkind, yet their allies were growing complacent and greedy even as they struggled to secure the supremacy of humanoids. The arrogance and hypocrisy their “fellows” wasn’t lost on the orcs and Gruumsh knew to enflame their resentment, slowly convincing them to become the barbaric savages other humanoids saw them as. And since Amaunator had risen up from all the variations and differences of sun worship that occured naturally on all mortal worlds to challenge the Sun Father for his own domain, Pelor couldn’t devote enough of his attention to protecting the orcs from Gruumsh’s hateful influence.

    So the constant, centuries long wars against the giants, followed by horrific wars of orcish retribution for real and imagined slights empowered Garagos, he rose to become the greatest god of war multiverse has ever seen. Since he’d managed to secure domains such as war, anger, strength, tenacity, hate, slaughter, bloodlust and victory, Garagos had power rivaling or exceeding any deity of Material Plane. Even Amaunator’s death at the jaws of Pelor’s mythical mad daughter returning from Water didn’t do much to slow down Garagos’ rise, for the conflict between Gruumsh and Pelor over humanoid worship was enough to continue ceaseless warfare across mortal worlds.

    By the time Pelor had to concede defeat and let the orcish race belong to Gruumsh as a whole, Garagos was all but unstoppable. His bloodlust was almost as endless as Gruumsh himself and only his worry about Nerull’s power was standing between him and trying to enslave all deities of Material. It was about this time that Gruumsh created a divine family for himself, to show Corellon how it was really done, which included Yurtrus, the orcish god of death. Nerull did not take kindly to this and summarily executed Yurtrus on his first foray into the Material Plane (Gruumsh resurrected him, which didn’t stop Nerull from repeating it). Garagos thought this was a swell idea and he should kill all other gods who claimed dominance over war too. Overconfident and malicious, Garagos decided to target the Master of Mount Clangor, who was an insufferable goody two shoes anyway. Even to this day, he claims he could’ve taken Clangeddin if Moradin hadn’t interfered (in the rare moments he cares to remember blurry his past).

    Soul Forger was busy forging when he heard the commotion from Mount Clangor. He went to see what was causing the racket and found some chaotic evil, bloodthirsty idiot from Material had come to challenge his son. This was an ******* who had the same deplorable mentality that kept powering up the cancerous Abyss and endangering the planar balance, and he’d dared to come over to Moradin’s own home to make trouble. Moradin grew furious and struck him down with his forge hammer, shattering the great god of war into a thousand pieces. As he looked upon his handiwork with satisfaction, Moradin noticed a few tiny pieces of Garagos weren’t that bad. Even this bloodthirsty idiot had a few things going for him. So Moradin swept him up and took him back to his forge, reconstructing him without the few good bits he had. He would later use Garagos’ salvageable pieces to craft Haela, demigoddess of berserkers, righteous fury and joy of victory. Garagos himself was sent back home with a stern lecture and cracks showing like a glued up plate, Moradin had left him weakened.

    Things only went worse for Garagos from there. Umberlee had her eye on him ever since she’d come back, figuring his temperament and power make him a suitable mate for her. And since she doesn’t subscribe to traditional reproduction methods, Umberlee ambushed and bit Garagos’ lower half off, devouring domains of slaughter and bloodlust, along with a sizable part of his divine power (unfortunately the touch of Moradin didn’t agree with the Bitch Queen and she soon had to excrete it as Erythnul, intermediate god of slaughter, hate, bloodshed and ugliness). This was soon followed by a young and ambitious lesser god invading his divine realm and wresting the domain of war off of Garagos’ diminished form, who went on to become the great war god Tempus. Nerull was next to take a part, figuring such a pathetic deity no longed needed strength. Garagos had to beg Nerull to spare his life and crawled off in disgrace, a mere lesser god of battle prowess and tenacity now, hiding himself in the darkest depths of Pandemonium where nobody could find him.

    He stewed alone in the howling tunnels for millenia, marinating himself in anger and hate, killing all that came across him. Eventually the maddening winds of Pandemonium overwhelmed even his will and he shattered along the cracks Moradin had left in him so long ago. He was reborn in darkness, gathering himself up as a new demigod of warriors and weaponry through sheer bloody mindedness. Bits of his ancient religion had survived as small cults of psychokillers and berserkers dotting the Material, a testament to his tenacity, and he swiftly took those over. He was a young and powerful demigod, poised to start over and rise again (even if he wasn’t completely sure what exactly happened to him last time).

    And he probably would’ve done it too if he hadn’t went to the Abyss first to gather armies of demons, where he met a goddess so alluring, so supreme of beauty, so incredibly pleasant that he was already fully engulfed in the shadowy Demonweb by the time he noticed the enchantment.

    Thus christened Selvetarm, the newborn god of warriors and weapon mastery became the hottest new property of the great goddess Lolth. While being the patron of warriors and battle prowess for Lolthites is tolerable, being the patron of emasculation and henpeckery stings deep. But Selvetarm plays along dutifully and Lolth has been pleased enough with his servile performance to elevate him to lesser deityhood over the years. However he knows she can take it all away in a moment, sinking him to a new depth lower than any before. His only consolation is that nobody knows who he used to be and how far he’s fallen and is deathly afraid of being sent out to the wider multiverse on Lolth’s order, where one of the older deities might recognize him. He dreams of the day the drips of power from his few mortal cults that Lolth doesn’t know about give him enough power to break free of Demonweb.


    Think I got all synonyms for red. Also, did y'all notice how similar DnD's savage gods of savagery are? Cos I did. Also also, this is what Gruumsh too looks like when you live inside the multiverse and not read DM notes I post. I was gonna stuff Malar in there too...(as Umberlee's other son that she impregranted him with)
    But this seems humiliating enough. You can add the white bit if you disagree.
    ...
    Quote Originally Posted by Beneath View Post
    I'm thinking I might make the eldritch abominations, like, manifestations of the fact that reality not only doesn't have to be this way, but would prefer not to be (if you view Shar as like, a kind of cosmic consciousness); that from one perspective it's just a dream Shar is having that is being unfortunately stabilized by beings she dreamed up and can't purge herself of.
    Very Secret World. Cool beans.


    e: You know what? I count (actually Word did it but whatevs) ninety seven deities here in this thread. 97 (in numbers). I could've sworn I couldn't count 30 DnD gods when I first started this thread. I'm updating the huge list somewhere above, in case you're wondering what sort of monster we're looking at here. Sure, most are barely more than mentions but I know the names of more than 97 gods of DnD (and at least 50 more is either rejected or pending). How the **** did that happen?
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    Why hold back, re:Malar?

    I can definitely see adventure seeds for Talos. and reasons for his an Umberlee's clerics to be similar, since every time he does something she's like "awww, that's so cute"

    ... but no reason why either would wear heavy armor. Seriously, what were they thinking putting that proficiency on the Tempest domain?

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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    And now, I'm gonna admit I've been pretty hard on Corellon. Sure, he's a douchenozzle but he's not a raging pooplord like someone else...


    LUTHIC (intermediate goddess), Cave Mother, Blood Moon Witch, Dweller in the Dark, Mistress of Abuse, Blackclaw
    Domains: orc women, slavery, fertility, family, healing, breeding, magic

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    If there was an Abused Ladies Monthly, Luthic would be the centerfold in every issue. As the patron and role model to all orcs, Gruumsh makes it his business to beat, maim or kill his wife at least once per day. As far as he’s concerned, restraint is for scrubs who can’t reverse the damage they inflict at will. While it might be argued that Gruumsh also makes it his business to beat, maim or kill every other orcish deity for the flimsiest of reasons, he takes a special glee in abusing Luthic. The endless abuse Gruumsh heaps on his family guarantees that they’re always under control, unlike Corellon’s rebellious and disrespectful offspring.

    Despite being the ur-example that makes every abusive man in the multiverse go at least I don’t do THAT to my wife/kids, Gruumsh is well liked by the orcish gods who all agree that this is the right and proper way of being a family orc. As Gruumsh commands and as far as orcs are concerned, women are slaves of men and exist mainly to produce more orcs and relieve men’s stress. Correspondingly, Luthic has the most severe case of battered housewife syndrome in the multiverse and prides herself for it, proclaiming to all that her treatment at Gruumsh’s hand is proof of her strength. And she might have a point about that, as Gruumsh is widely recognized as one of the most powerful deities and the amount of battering Luthic can take before she dies proves that she’s got toughness in spades. And unlike the other orcish deities, Gruumsh always restores Luthic immediately, never leaving her maimed or dead for prolonged periods, which is proof of Gruumsh’s love (according to Luthic).

    When she’s not being abused, Luthic is usually busy abusing her son Baghtru. The Legbreaker is absolutely terrified of his mother, even more than his father (who doesn’t abuse him more than he abuses any other orcish god) and will always obey her, even over Gruumsh. Of course, Baghtru doing anything against Gruumsh’s will is swiftly and heavily punished by Luthic, even if it was something she ordered him. Orcs see this as the platonic ideal of family and strive to be like their deities, creating an endless loop of abuse that gives the orcish societies their characteristic cruelty. Luthic approves of this, as does Gruumsh.

    As the goddess of orcish women and children (and the only one they’re allowed to worship in the pantheon), Luthic has a truly massive and devout worshipper base. The fact that she hasn’t become a greater goddess can only be explained by Gruumsh somehow redirecting the power that should be flowing toward her. While this holds true for other orcish gods as well, the effect is far more pronounced on Luthic, whose worshippers are an order of magnitude more numerous than worshippers of some greater deities. Some learned sages point out that such a unique binding of divine power is far too complicated for a god as barbaric and base as Gruumsh and suspect there’s more to Luthic than is apparent. (they’re wrong)

    However Luthic does have power over magic and especially healing, as orc women are usually in need of plenty of healing for all the abuse and breeding. The only orc women who’re allowed to not be slaves of men are the priestesses of Blood Moon Witch, the healers and wiseorcs that keep the orcish race alive despite all their wars. While these priestesses’ command of magic includes more than just healing, Luthic makes certain no orc woman ever gets too uppity with those powers and starts thinking about maybe changing things in their society.

    While Gruumsh would never admit it, he’s pretty fond of Luthic. She’s perfect, exactly as Gruumsh wants her to be to make him look like the worst guy in the multiverse. It took a lot of work for Gruumsh to get her just right as both a parody and inversion of Corellon’s wife Araushnee. Where Araushnee was gracious and charming, Luthic is pathetic and tough. Where Araushnee was a willful (and eventually rebellious) equal, Luthic is an obedient slave. And most importantly, Luthic loves abusive Gruumsh far more than Araushnee has ever loved romantic Corellon. This most important fact will probably stomp hardest on Corellon’s manful pride on the day of reckoning. Gruumsh can hardly wait.
    (Of course, someone (if anyone knew) could say creating poor Luthic like this just so she can be a prop for his masterplan called **** everything Corellon holds dear is a **** move, not to mention everything that has happened to orc race. But that’s wrong, for Gruumsh would say the actual **** move is banging Corellon’s precious darling daughter, bonus points for managing that under the guise of a relationship healthier and more romantic than any Corellon has ever had. Or arguably it’s that hot new stud that his ex-wife "captured" that’s the actual actual **** move.
    The masterplan is named rather literally and Gruumsh spends a lot of time and effort on it.)



    Gruumsh isn't really a misunderstood guy, despite being really misunderstood. I find that to be funny. Also forum gave me a lot of asterisks today but I'd say that's to be expected when you're dealing with a ****.

    vv Mentioned in passing up in Brando. Gruumsh pops up even more than Othea.
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    I was with the Luthic story right up until the "precious darling daughter" part. What happened/will happen there?

    Also, this side of the gods is making me really respect the Athar point of view (more than I already did 'cause like D&D gods suck already). Maybe overthrowing them would be better for everyone.

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    The well has ran mostly dry. I'm now having real trouble finding new places to stick gods into. While this has happened before, it was when deities were a lot more standalone. Intertwining them let us come this far but I've discovered an awful truth: the more stuff you make up, the more your own stuff constrains you. At this point, I've filled up a whole multiverse with literally dozens of deities in this thread and can't see many openings for more refluffings. At least not without attempting to flesh out the previous mentions left vague on purpose and I can't think new grounds to cover with longer posts about the likes of Sehanine or Tempus.

    That is not to say I can't find inspiration in strange places anymore.


    ABBATHOR (intermediate god), Trove Lord, Great Master of Greed, the Unearther, Glittergreed, Treasure Turtle
    Domains: greed, thievery, malice, chaos, disgust

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    Abbathor is the creepy old man of the multiverse. Not only is he dour, whiny, rude and arrogant when encountered, he also has a perverted obsession with wealth. He’s irredeemably evil and horrifyingly malicious but it’s the disturbingly lusty manner with which he constantly (and apparently involuntarily) touches and caresses the massive bag he always carries over his shoulder that first created and still reinforces the creepy old man image. The object of his creepy obsession is the container of the Trove, the mind bogglingly massive wealth Abbathor has accumulated since the dawn of time. What most beings don’t realize is that the Unearther doesn’t actually like the stolen goods inside his bag, it’s the memories of their acquisitions that he treasures. Abbathor has stolen every single bit of his legendary trove, whether through regular thievery, divine skill or magical ability and remembers each one clearly. The more damage and misery his robbery has caused, the more Glittergreed relishes it. A dirt cheap medicine whose sudden disappearance led to the death of a sick child is a million times more precious to Abbathor than a giant statue made of solid gold taken from a king’s palace. Luckily for most, he doesn’t specifically look for opportunities to maximize the pain and misery he causes, he just steals whatever catches his fancy.

    For all his evil (and creep), Trove Lord insists that he never harmed anyone and would have had a pathological aversion to violence if deities had pathologies. In fact, Abbathor is famous for the many beatings he took when caught stealing. Whenever he’s caught before he finishes a robbery (which is an incredibly rare event due to his immense skill), he just freezes, becoming unable to do anything except hunker down and wait for whatever punishment his discoverer sees fit to unleash on him, even when it's mere mortals. He sometimes offers to give up one piece of treasure from his bag if he gets beaten long enough, but only if his attacker is the actual owner of whatever he wanted to steal and not a guard, neighbor, family member or random passerby. The very few scholars interested in Abbathor speculate this is a twisted remnant from his lawful and good origins from the forge of the Emperor of Artifice. Whatever the case, Treasure Turtle seems to lose all of his godly power and skill if discovered during a thievery and can’t do anything without either his captor explicitly giving him permission to leave or he’s left alone and unobserved (at which point he disappears). The reason for this exceedingly fey behavior from an unimaginably ancient deity is one of the most unknown bits of mythological lore, mostly due to the fact that Abbathor is a skilled enough thief to steal memories if he wants to (he writes those on a hidden book inside the Trove).

    The primordial Abbathor that Moradin created to help him bring order to the planes after Overmothers’ battle was a god of curiosity and passion. Old Abbathor was an explorer, a traveller and a scout crafted to discover the planes, and it was him who suggested them arranged in a spinning circle for sustainable balance, making him the original inventor of the Wheel. His brother Laduguer hadn’t liked that however, he wanted the planes stacked with law and good at top and chaos and evil at bottom, to use the weight of other planes to push Abyss down into the Yawning Void below. Moradin, who only wanted to stop the cancerous growth of Abyss instead of destroying it, went with Abbathor’s idea. Once the Great Wheel of Planes was established, it became clear that Abyss was still threatening to spill into other planes as Laduguer warned, so Moradin asked Laduguer to start gathering and training armies from denizens of Upper Planes to combat it. Instead, he rebelled. Laduguer had decided that his father was short sighted and lacked the will to do what really needed to be done to fight evil and chaos (the staggering number of good and lawful beings that have been corrupted or seduced by evil since then seemingly proves Laduguer right). Lacking his father’s power of universal creation, Laduguer waited until Moradin left to stuff his dumber brothers into Carceri to prevent their pointless brawling from breaking the Wheel and stole the original Soul Forge. He then poured his own essence into crafting the greatest weapon multiverse had yet seen. And while giving the Ruby Rod to devils did eventually lead to creation of the greatest and most successful enemy of Abyss, the newly crowned Dominus Infernus didn’t waste any time in imprisoning the severely weakened god of determination and ruthlessness. Upon seeing how far his brother had fallen in the name of good and law, Abbathor decided that selflessness, determination and devotion were for fools and abandoned the celestial armies being gathered in Moradin’s name, snuck into Inferno and restole the Soul Forge, then tried to reforge himself in the hidden depths of Pandemonium. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a very good smith and, thanks to the maddening influence of Pandemonium, the twisted result was far from the cool and hip trickster god he had in mind. He fled in shame and disappeared, concentrating all of his power to becoming invisible to other deities.

    Today even his long freed brother can’t stand Abbathor for long. The uncountable ages he’s spent as an evil thief has warped him, surrounding him with an unholy aura of malicious repulsiveness and he’s almost as insufferable a being as Erythnul. Moradin has barred him from his court and nowhere else is welcoming for a god as strangely vulnerable as Abbathor. Not that he cares, his sack is the only company he needs.

    As a god of greed, he’s utterly loath to answer any prayers and the chances of getting any answers from him is almost none. As a god of thievery, he doesn’t want worship or belief either, anything given freely and willingly disgusts him. But he does love stealing, which includes divine powers of other deities, so it’s not at all unusual for Abbathor to steal small bits of divine power and use such stolen divinity to empower and induct mortals they wouldn’t want into their flocks. More than one deity has found themselves devoutly worshipped by beings they wouldn’t ever want anywhere near their faith, occasionally converted from among the believers of their bitterest enemies. Many divine spats have happened due to Abbathor’s mischief and all wrongfully ordained clerics inevitably met bad ends. When he’s not busy sowing discord among the divine whelps infesting his multiverse, Abbathor increases his Trove at the expense of puny mortals.

    Nobody likes Abbathor and Abbathor likes nobody.
    Spoiler: the awful truth
    Show



    Abbathor is a ridiculous god. DnD canon is just dumb sometimes. I daresay this is better (as in even dumber).
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  29. - Top - End - #59
    Colossus in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    I must admit that last Spoiler got a big chuckle out of me.
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  30. - Top - End - #60
    Dwarf in the Playground
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    Default Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods

    Does that mean you're calling this project complete-ish here?

    I guess that's enough deities covered for a good-sized world. Certainly more, counting all mentioned ones, than were in the 3e PHB.

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