World Building, list of diety domains

[nedlud]

Hi There,

I've been having some fun cobbling together a pantheon for my game from various mythologies and sources including Forgotten Realms, Greek/Roman, Homebrew, and other bits and pieces. The more I look into the various domains attributed to different gods, the bigger my list gets, so I thought I'd post what I have so far and invite comments. I'm not attributing domains to any particular gods, just trying to come up with a comprehensive list of potential domains to work from when designing my gods.

Let me know what you'd add or remove.

Agriculture
Air
Ale
Animal
Arcana
Art
Autumn
Avarice
Balance
Battle
Beauty
Bestial
Blacksmithing
Cavern
Change
Chaos
Charm
Child Birth
Children
Civilization
Cold
Commerce
Communication
Community
Corruption
Courage
Cowardice ( @Tiadoppler suggestion)
Craft
Creation
Darkness
Day ( @Tiadoppler suggestion)
Death
Deception
Demonic
Desire
Destruction
Diabolic
Domesticity
Dragon
Dreams
Drow
Dwarf
Earth
Earthquakes
Elf
Envy
Evil
Family
Farming
Fate
Father
Fertility
Female
Fey
Fire
Fishing
Fog ( @Tiadoppler suggestion)
Food ( @Tiadoppler suggestion)
Force
Forge
Fortune
Freedom
Glory
Gluttony
Gnome
Gold
Good
Grain
Grave
Gravity ( @Tiadoppler suggestion)
Greed
Halfling
Harvest
Hatred
Healing
Hearth
Herbal Medicine
Heroism
Home
Hope
Hunting
Human ( @Tiadoppler suggestion)
Illusion
Insects
Inspiration
Justice
Knowledge
Law
Learning
Life
Light
Lightning ( @Tiadoppler suggestion)
Love
Luck
Lust
Madness
Marketing
Marriage
Maternity
Medicine
Male (Added as per @particle_man comment)
Mentalism
Messages
Metal
Mind
Mist
Moon
Mother
Mountains
Music
Nature
Night ( @Tiadoppler suggestion)
Nobility
Ocean
Orc
Order
Pain
Patience
Pestilence
Plagues
Planning
Plants
Pleasure
Poetry
Poison
Portal
Pride
Prosperity
Protection
Psionics
Purity
Rain
Renewal
Repose
Retribution
Rivers
Rune
Scalykind
Sea
Secrets
Sex
Sexuality
Shadow
Skill
Sky
Slavery ( @Tiadoppler suggestion)
Slime
Sloth
Snow
Speech
Spell
Spider
Spring
Spirit
Stone
Stories
Storm
Strategy
Strength
Strife
Suffering
Summer
Sun
Temperance
Tempest
Theatre
Thieves
Thunder
Time
Torm
Torment
Trade
Travel
Trickery
Truth
Tyranny
Undeath
Understanding
Underworld
Valleys
Vengeance
Virility
Volcanoes ( @Tiadoppler suggestion)
War
Water
Watercourses
Watery Death
Wealth
Weaving
Wilderness
Wind ( @Tiadoppler suggestion)
Wine
Winter
Wisdom
Wood
Woodlands
Wrath
Writing
Zeal

[Particle_Man]

Why is Torm a domain?

Why is Woman a domain if Man is not?

Is Zeal something that some clerics don’t have and others do? Shouldn’t they all have zeal?

[Tiadoppler]

Nice list! Here are some suggestions (some of them might be in there already, but I didn't see them)



Cowardice

Day + Night

Humans/Humanity

Fog

Food

Slavery/Subjugation

Volcano! Volcano gods are important!

Lightning

Gravity

Wind

Explosions

Discourse/Discussion/Communication

[nedlud]

Why is Torm a domain?

I cobbled this list together from various sources. Torm must have come from one of those lists. I have no idea what Torm is ;)

Why is Woman a domain if Man is not?

Good point.
Actually I think I'll change them to "Male" and "Female". In a fantasy setting "Man" and "Woman" might seem to Human centric. If I go with "Male" and "Female" you can then pair it with a racial domain and say "Male Orc" for example.

[nedlud]

Nice list! Here are some suggestions (some of them might be in there already, but I didn't see them)

Volcano! Volcano gods are important!

Nice. I have added these to the list. I can't believe I overlooked Volcanoes. Splod would be unhappy with me.

[Atarax]

There's a pretty good list that's similar to yours starting on page 30 of a 3.5 edition book called Deities and Demigods.

Maybe a better one though is here:

http://therafimrpg.wikidot.com/cleric-domains#toc113

[Arkhios]

Is Zeal something that some clerics don’t have and others do? Shouldn’t they all have zeal?

Zeal isn't necessarily universal for all clerics and/or priests. Being a priest doesn't mean you're a preacher. In fact, being a priest doesn't necessarily mean you're a Cleric.

[Lotar138]

Personally, I'm unsure as to what specifically ur meaning with this post, cuz u blur n confound between the Cosmic portfolio Spheric domain the God holds as his perview or specific areas of interest/influrnce/concern; & the Mortal Priests who serve the God n receive the divinely granted boons contained n priestly spell n powers' Domains (Similar to 2nd Ed Spell spheres for their spell ranges). In the case of the latter, it's not just important to list em but also to flesh em out for what they do, or it's just a brainstorming exercise in all directions u have in the end with no clear idea just a word without parameters or even a starting point. If u instead meant the former, then I would like to shortly add to ur list not just in the Spheric domains but in what I call the schema, format, and aspect of that domain.
[**To explain, thing of each as a narrowing in on the exact nature & scope of the perview in that topic that represents the God's take on perspective of the sphere of his influence; for example, if the domain was war, the schema could bwarfarin, format could b battlefield tactics, & aspects could b headlong charges or logistics of supply or routed troops, or any variation thereby to show the exact, precise nature n viewpoint or version (His or Her take on it u could say) till crystal clear.**]
In that spirit I give u the following:
Abundance/Bounty/Plenty/Surplus Supply;
Acceleration/Speed/Burst/Fastly Growing;
Acquisitiveness/Acquired/Collected/Seize;
Acolyte/Initiate/Apprentice/Recruit;
Affluence/Bourgeoisie(Upper Middle)/Well-
to-do Status/Clout/Comfortable Means;
Air/Atmosphere/Gases/Gas Compounds;
Skies/Space-Intrastellar(Heliospheric)/
Sp.Interstellar(Phlogistonal/Primal/
Wyldsp.)/Space-Void (Intergalactic/
Deepsp.)/The Heavens(Cosmologic/
Planes/Sublevels-Layers-Pockets);
Alchemy/Potion/Tincture/Infusion/Orient;
Allegiance/Affiliations/National Identity;
Animal/Any Of Order/Family Level or Less
[Canine, Feline, Ape, Insect, Cephalopod];
Artifice/Mechanics/Clockwork/Gadgeting;
Artifice/Infusions-Transfusioning(Specific);
Ascession/Abdication/Dethrowned/Coup;
Arcana/School/Indiv.Sch./Circle[Subclass];
Arcane History/Ancient-Classic-Mid-
Modern Arcanology(Periods)/Figures;
Arcane Lore/General Subj./Topic/Classes;
Arcane Professions/Indiv.Classes/Prestige;
Arachnae[Race from Mystara(Basic OD&D)];
Attribute/Spec.[Str/Dex/Con/Int/Wis/Cha]

I will list more A's & into B &C next post lol

[Magicspook]

Magic :) that is, if you really want a god of magic.

Rather than making a greek style pantheon (which honestly has been done to death by every famtasy setting out there), you could consider something more unique to your setting. Perhaps there are only few gods with very broad spheres, while their angels/saints have more specific portfolios. Maybe the gods represent more vague philosophical concepts (Im a big fan of the femininity vs masculinity gods of wicca), while the more concrete spheres you list above are constantly debated about by scholars as to which god they belong to. Maybe gods always represent one concept as well as its opposite, so that every life priest is also a death priest, and every priests of mother/fatherhood are androgynous figures who help in childbirth even as they defend homesteads from monster attacks.

Good luck and good fun with worldbuilding!

[Lotar138]

Truth b told, I had at one time ( now stored by a dear friend in The Finger Lakes of W NY, With my entire library of over 30 years of archived tables, notes, charts, & ALL MY BOOKS ALAS 😭) Was a % random table of Portfolio Spheres from 01-00, derived using the spirit of the World Builders Guildebook Mythology Chapter Guidelines yet derived from the listing as presented from p182 on in 2E Planescapes Epic On Hallowed Ground to bunch alike Spheres on one line & fit it down to fit 1d% Roll for ease of fast random deity assemblage, plus the juxtaposition factor of having inspired matchups lead off to signature Gods!
I've been Laboring for months to recreate n expand on this seminal old chart by devising a 2 or even 3d100 Roll, which would essentially b rolling the 3% alongside 2d2 (hadnt figured yet how d2's will work out on the whole of consistent rolling over the multitude of times it would take to truly b worthy of a true play testing lol), with no 2 = 1 predetermined first set n color/1 2s = add set 1 to predetermined set color 2 but not 3/& 2 2s = Add em all!! Sounds complicated but so is rolling actual d100s 3 times lol.
The problem I'm running up against ain't the rolling system but rather the accumulation of 300 sets of spheres & slotting as I did with my old table a bunching up of alike Spheres like Killing & Murder or Knowlwdge & Wisdom to both reduce the overall count some but also to provide a little wiggle room for the DM to have a range or spectrum for many rolls so that if he rolls 139 twice in a sst he can still right built into the table have alternative options, ideas, n gradations to work with so he dont say get death & death n have nowhere to go but disregard 1, whereas if say death is stored with the dead or with murder, Killing, & violent acts theres more ways to paint ur Gods with the full Crayon box of colors n not just the basic few 8 or so in a simple color set, metaphorically speaking that is.

Anyway, I would love ideas suggestions friendly pointers or just feed back as I go n try n get this done n post the drafts so that I can refine it over some trials to get the thing efficient, & well run over to avoid more common problems like an important sphere like war on 300 n so rare that u almost never have a war God to work with by the numbers arranging n order.
Anyway, please hmu n fire away as I try n get this up over the next week, first on paper then posted or linked on here. Thankx

[Wizard_Lizard]

how about these?
Narrative Probability
Rock music
Rains of frogs
Sports
Cats
Cheese
People with short and unusual names

[Trandir]

Is there a "God" domain?
Associated with the deity that rules all the others in that pantheon

Tecnology and tinkering for the gnomes and the arteficers out there

Magic and maybe even one for every school of magic (only if the god of magic has lesser gods at his service):
Abjuration
Conjuration
Divination
Enchantment
Evocation
Illusion
Necromancy
Transmutation

Royalty, similar to nobility but this one is just for kings, queens and their offspring.

Stars
Misfortune