The god of knowledge, the god of secrets and the god of lies.

[the_david]

I've had this idea for a god of knowledge for a while now, and I need to write all of this stuff down. I'm not that far that I've gotten to naming the deities of this mini pantheon, but I've got these interesting concepts that need some more development.

The god of knowledge is also known for being a god of civilization and education. His temple is located in a big city and also includes a library, a university and a monastery. (Kinda like Vatican city.)

The god of secrets is worshipped by an assassin guild that specializes in making sure people take their secrets to the grave. His unholy symbol is a smashed skull and jawbone as the assassins try to prevent the use of spells such as Speak with Dead. His favored weapon is a light mace.
In my mind this is where things get interesting as even the existence of the god of secrets is a secret. Even the god of knowledge is trying to keep his existence a secret. I'm just not entirely sure about the specifics, but my favorite possibility is:
"The god of secrets was unintentionally created by the god of knowledge when he kept something hidden. As such, the god of knowledge would be the parent of the god of secrets, more or less."
I have no idea what the secret was in the first place, but it might not really matter. I suppose only the god of secrets and the god of knowledge know.

Finally, there's the god of lies. I haven't got much on him, except that he sprang into existence when the god of knowledge lied about the existence of the god of secrets. That would make him a sibling of the god of secrets, and a child of the god of knowledge. I do feel that I could make one deity of lies and secrets, but I think that this is a better representation of how lies and secrets can get out of hand.

[JoshuaZ]

Possible ideas for the secret that was hidden:

Some incredibly dangerous magic that even the god of knowledge felt should not be widely known.

Some method of actively erasing information from the universe, which a god of knowledge wouldn't want known for pretty obvious reasons.

[Max_Killjoy]

An alternate belief -- and adherents of this belief might be considered heretics: Knowledge, Secrets, and Lies (false knowledge) are actually one triune deity.

Heck, maybe that IS the secret and the thing lied about.

[noob]

Or maybe the secret that created the god of secrets is its own existence and the lie that created the god of lies is the lie to hide the existence of the god of lies.

[Xuc Xac]

An alternate belief -- and adherents of this belief might be considered heretics: Knowledge, Secrets, and Lies (false knowledge) are actually one triune deity.

Heck, maybe that IS the secret and the thing lied about.

Or there's only a god of lies who claims that there are gods of secrets and knowledge. The "knowledge" and "secrets" are mostly unverifiable stories made up by the liar in disguise.

[JoshuaZ]

Or maybe the secret that created the god of secrets is its own existence and the lie that created the god of lies is the lie to hide the existence of the god of lies.

Is this deity then also the deity of temporal paradoxes?

Edit: To be clear, while the above question is a joke, I actually really like the idea here, and might steal it for future use.

[the_david]

Is this deity then also the deity of temporal paradoxes?

Edit: To be clear, while the above question is a joke, I actually really like the idea here, and might steal it for future use.

I actually thought of this. It's more like these gods are abstract entities. (Like the ones in the Marvel comics.)
There's a god of knowledge because knowledge exists, so there should be a god of secrets too. Ofcourse the biggest secret is that there is a god of secrets, so not many people actually know about him. The same would go for the god of lies.

There's also another option which is that all of it (including the Triune theory.) is accepted as the truth by the different religious groups. It's like Corellon claiming he took out Gruumsh's eye, and Gruumsh claiming he always had one eye. That could work, except that we're dealing with a god of lies, a god of secrets and a god of knowledge. It seems kinda obvious which one should be right, doesn't it?

There's a moral to the story I came up with in the original post. Keeping secrets is bad, lying is bad too and things will only escalate when you're being dishonest. Myths and fairytales tend to have a moral, and that's why I want to go for this version of the story. It just seems more real this way. Or at least it has a better plot.
Ofcourse that doesn't mean that the god of lies hasn't made up his own version of the story. Or versions, there's no reason to stick to one version. Which is beside the point, because the people won't really know about these deities, will they?

I'm also thinking of adding one of the 7 deadly sins into the mix. Pride seems to work like a good motivation for lying. I'm just not sure who should get pride in his portfolio. Maybe pride should be the 4th god?

[MoiMagnus]

Some remarks:

In a lot of setups, the god of secrets is actually an "god of egoistic knowledge".
Its followers are still seeking knowledge, and power trough those knowledge.
He tempt people promising knowledge unknown from most (how to become immortal, ...) or banned (dark magic, ...)
And he encourage seeking knowledge at ANY cost.
And the only reason why he try to enforces secrets is that knowledge is more powerful if less peoples knows about it.

From what I understand, you don't go at all in this direction, and your gods of secrets actually try to suppress knowledge.
Which mean he is not a tempting god. He is more a Loyal Neutral god that have for only objective to make secrets remain secrets.
Am I right?

About the "first lie":

Suggestions of lies:
1) Existence of the after-death. Everyone believe in the after-death, but it doesn't exist, or in a very limited way. (Maybe too depressing)
2) Creation of himself. The god of knowledge is hiding how he was created. (Maybe he was a mortal who ascended, and want to prevent other peoples from become gods).
3) "I will never lie to you".
4) The reality of the universe. (Ex: the god of knowledge do know that he is just a part of the lore of a RPG in another dimension)

About the existence of the god of Secrets:

That's something difficult to maintain. Unless the plot is that the god of lie is becoming stronger and stronger because the god of knowledge is forced to lie more and more to maintain the god of Secrets a secret. (Including letting his fellow priest die when they discover the truth but refuse to keep it secret).

About the god of Lies:
You have a lot of template you can use:
+ Loyal Evil: he is telling things that are mostly true, but are interpreted in a very wrong way.
+ Chaotic Evil: he knows the truth, and try to use it in the most destructive way (including lying when needed, of course)
+ Chaotic Neutral: truth isn't important, lies and believes shape the world and become the truth.
...

[noob]

maybe the god of knowledge lied then discovered that if he backs down and reveal the truth the god of lies would die from the truth and so that the god of knowledge is now forced to keep lying on that subject because the god of knowledge cares about the life of the god of lies.