This is great advice! I especially like the the concept of different cultures worshiping different aspects of a god. It is close to the way how historically gods started in the near east and by way of the greek pantheon endet up in the roman pantheon, completely transformed.
Another method I used to make my gods more interesting is to build them from 2 to 3 ramdom domains. It's fun to think about what characteristics a god has to unite those domains. A product of this is a life/war/wealth mother goddess which demands you to repay her for giving you life (by traid or raid).
My favourite version of this was the Egyptian god Neith; at first, she was a god of the hunt. Then, the Egyptians moved away from their polytheism, and found their way back; but they had just forgotten she was a god of the hunt, and reinterpreted her symbol (a bow) as a weaving loom, and so she became the goddess of weaving and destiny (influenced by the greek notion of the Fates, no doubt). Actual history has a bunch of examples of this kind of thing and I love it every time. I also enjoy the 'Triangulation' method of god design. I have a similar tool for making civilisations that players care about; take two stereotypical civilisations and splice them. Dwarven kingdoms? Goblin outposts? A dime a dozen. A kingdom of outposts run by dwarves and goblins together? What's that like!? Keeps it easy for players to understand, while letting you have a lot of fun.
I've always found these kind of videos interesting. A few years ago i made a minecraft SMP and during a battle it started raining, thus meaning the god of the rivers was blessing us and granted us victory. After this i created a temple to worship the god i created, Ayses. After a while we added three more gods to the list; Elychi the god of hell/nether, Arxeus the god of the void/end and the father of the Aysesian gods, and Rehaita who is the goddess of chaos. Over nore time, more concepts were filled with these gods and stories were written to give each god/goddess their own background and story. Now we have three factions of gods which are all making alliances and fighting amongst each other. These factions are the Aysesian gods (Arxeus, Ayses, Elychi, Rehaita, Ataris, Falexius, and the fallen god Ward), the Psychic gods (Suexar, Trusea, Falta, and Ceatrix), then the Angelic gods which are Falexius and Ceatrix's children (Ceatrix, Falexius, Taurignis, Luxius, and Ventus) Overall tho, great video and thanks for more advice on how to better strengthen the religions of my improv RP SMP!
My god of death is a Morrigan inspired one, and people worship them because it is comforting to know that everything they suffered for is leading to something, if not for them, than for their children or their grandchildren. Just to let you know as well, when you reach a certain age, you are forced to worship only one god. The most pious followers become clerics and the like.
Starting with worshipers is a good idea! A related approach is letting gods (and religions) be created by the various peoples and cultures. Religions and gods would change as the culture changed. This could also be used to explain similarities between pantheons. For instance, the Nordic, Greek and Hindu pantheons were likely derived from a common Indo-European source that was modified according to local history and development. Often themes are recurrent, for instance both the Indo-European and Babylonian religions have the notion of generations of gods, where the old generation (titans in Greek mythology, representing the chaos of nature) are replaced by the Olympian gods (representing order, but not really law). This could represent the gods of hunter-gatherers being supplanted by the gods of farming and pastoralist cultures, or that farming and pastoralist cultures were reliant on a certain degree of regularity in nature, so their gods needed to have control over nature.
This was posted a very but this was very very helpful although I’m not using it for dnd but my own gave and this made me reconsider and add somethings so thank you
This is probably the greatest advice I've ever heard about pantheons. It really echoes what a lot of reconstructionist pagans actually talk about, too!
It also cleverly allows for people to have arguments and discussions about the gods! Normally it's so black and white. "So and so is the god of this." There is no room for interpretation. But with this people can actually have theological discussions! Brilliant!
I suppose the idea of creating the god from the worshipers first isn't too far removed from how I first started concepting out certain deities. Namely, to start with a mortal who will later become a god; what aspects define them, and what powers best augment those traits. One might even say that worship can come from following the example of a hero who has come before.
This is a really helpful way to handle making deities. I'm working on making my first pantheon and was struggling to fill in each domain and making them relevant. Going to give this method a shot now
I am not, actually. Pathfinder is in an awkward spot, where it's so close to DnD that whenever I have an itch only a new rpg can scratch I tend to go further afield. My new pet interest is Monte Cook's Numenera. Is there anywhere I should go to get an overview of the Pathfinder pantheon?
@@BuildingBetterDungeons That makes a lot of sense. I was introduced into RPGs with Pathfinder, so it’s home plate for me. I’d really recommend a pf2e one shot or something if you’re looking for something a little closer to home that isn’t quite home. The three action system is absolutely crisp. The Pathfinder wiki is well constructed and will have everything you need for sure. I’d recommend starting with any given god (esp if that god is Nethys) and delving from there.
This video was awesome and I just became a subscriber. That being said, do you have any tips on naming deities for your world and how to make them unique? That's the issue I'm having with my own worldbuilding.
It's easier than it looks. What do their worshippers know them by? Is it a first name, like Baal, or is it a title/job descriptor, like the Emperor? Or is it *both*, like Athena Parthenos or Athena Nike? I usually go for the job descriptors because I find them cooler and more impactful than random syllables cludged together. In the case of the job descriptor, you usually don't need to be elaborate, a couple words are enough (Chained Oblivion, First King, Scarred Hand, Blessed Steel, etc). You can use the "both" case to refer to different attributions of the same deity; for example, if you have a god who covers slaughter and biological warfare, their worshippers might address them (and therefore call with different names) different names when they're asking for favour in slaughter or to be spared the biological warfare.
If you build from the worshippers up then you make gods who have no reality where they don't touch human lives. You get gods who only stretch as far as human imagination can reach. Quirks are not just for mortals. Gods need them as well.
And for an extra level of complexity you have things like the 7? daughters of Poseidon who were likely local deity's to begin with so they are associated with an animal and or a place as well as having gained some overly specific aspect of sea weather island or water since their incorporation into his myth cycle. So I suppose the question is does Mohr have more clerics or more warlocks? It could be fun to incorporate some of your own negative divinities into a pantheon as non infernal demons that are available as patrons for warlocks and cults. Sure you've got a psycopomp god of death, but you may have another deity that started out as an environmental dirty (desert or oasis or mountain river etc depending on the local terrain) then because of a historical battle the locals made them their war god, however a century later your main culture concurred them and the locals continued fighting a guerilla insurgency so they have been transformed once again into a death/murder god.
If the physical gods (i.e. beings so powerful to be almighty) aren't, a) the explanation why has to be real convincing and b) something else will be worshipped in their stead, it's pretty much inevitable
I don't know if you're still looking, but almost all of these gods come from a Magic the Gathering set turned D&D Campaign Setting called Theros. He's jumbled up the names, but a quick search of the Pantheon will bring you to the right space.
...i don't understand how ur examples of 4 of the Theros gods with slightly tweeked names is sposed to teach anyone how to make their own cool gods? Like y not just use the Theros gods by name in ur world? I'd have to dive back into Theros lore to tell if u actually changed anything about their backstories that u recounted. Cuz i forget the names of the war gods but Athreos, God of Passage n Kruphix, God of Horizons have the exact same roles as ur gods, it's right their in their titles (for those who don't know, those r the verbatim card names of Magic: the Gathering cards that were the first representations of those gods in card form). The confusing part is I'm not sure if u were even trying to hide it cuz u used the Theros gods artwork so it wasn't subtle but it sounds like u haven't realized it yet. U renamed someone else's gods, so if u try n pass that off as ur own then isn't that plagiarism? The weird part is ur main point of "start with the worshippers" is smart
God, it's been a while since I got a comment on this channel. It was just something we threw together over COVID, when I was in college, and I forgot I made it at all until I got an email notification for your comment. The similarities between the Thermos gods and the gods I outlined here are supposed to be obvious. In my own campaign, I used them because all of my players were familiar with MTG lore. Because I was making changes, I tweaked their names, so the players wouldn't think that Athrennon worked exactly like Athreos (and to keep all their names more similar). This is an MTG/DnD crossover channel, so I definitely wasn't trying to fool anyone, I thought the fact that I was borrowing would be very obvious All the later vids in this channel were made as I got a new job, and I eventually realised I couldn't keep up working full time and making vids. The latter videos were all made under a lot of time pressure as I tried to put out content in a reasonable timeframe with a lot less free time. That was probably way more information than you needed but your comment sent me down memory lane. I liked making these vids, can't believe people are still watching them.
If the world is neat, they will care ;) If they're given a reason to care (which the current cast of books doesn't, I agree with you on that), they will.
![On Worldbuilding: Religions [ polytheistic l Avatar TLA l Game of Thrones l Cthulhu ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Wz2H1t5XvP8/mqdefault.jpg)
![How To Create a Pantheon for Your Homebrew DnD or TTRPG World [Ep. 05]](/img/1.gif)
This is great advice! I especially like the the concept of different cultures worshiping different aspects of a god. It is close to the way how historically gods started in the near east and by way of the greek pantheon endet up in the roman pantheon, completely transformed.
Another method I used to make my gods more interesting is to build them from 2 to 3 ramdom domains. It's fun to think about what characteristics a god has to unite those domains. A product of this is a life/war/wealth mother goddess which demands you to repay her for giving you life (by traid or raid).
My favourite version of this was the Egyptian god Neith; at first, she was a god of the hunt. Then, the Egyptians moved away from their polytheism, and found their way back; but they had just forgotten she was a god of the hunt, and reinterpreted her symbol (a bow) as a weaving loom, and so she became the goddess of weaving and destiny (influenced by the greek notion of the Fates, no doubt). Actual history has a bunch of examples of this kind of thing and I love it every time.
I also enjoy the 'Triangulation' method of god design. I have a similar tool for making civilisations that players care about; take two stereotypical civilisations and splice them. Dwarven kingdoms? Goblin outposts? A dime a dozen. A kingdom of outposts run by dwarves and goblins together? What's that like!? Keeps it easy for players to understand, while letting you have a lot of fun.
This is really interesting and helpful, a more realistic and believable take of deities, I think
Good luck with your pantheons going forward!
I've always found these kind of videos interesting. A few years ago i made a minecraft SMP and during a battle it started raining, thus meaning the god of the rivers was blessing us and granted us victory. After this i created a temple to worship the god i created, Ayses.
After a while we added three more gods to the list; Elychi the god of hell/nether, Arxeus the god of the void/end and the father of the Aysesian gods, and Rehaita who is the goddess of chaos.
Over nore time, more concepts were filled with these gods and stories were written to give each god/goddess their own background and story.
Now we have three factions of gods which are all making alliances and fighting amongst each other. These factions are the Aysesian gods (Arxeus, Ayses, Elychi, Rehaita, Ataris, Falexius, and the fallen god Ward), the Psychic gods (Suexar, Trusea, Falta, and Ceatrix), then the Angelic gods which are Falexius and Ceatrix's children (Ceatrix, Falexius, Taurignis, Luxius, and Ventus)
Overall tho, great video and thanks for more advice on how to better strengthen the religions of my improv RP SMP!
That's so cool that your civilization created such an interesting culture in a game!
Very good advice not only for DMs but also aspiring authors! Thanks!
There was a lot of parallels between the names of the MTG theros deities and yours. As well as the relationship between the two god of wars
Heard, start with the worshipers. Why didn’t I think of that?! Thank you so much!
That’s actually such a good idea! I need to implement this for a book idea I have. Thank you so much!
My god of death is a Morrigan inspired one, and people worship them because it is comforting to know that everything they suffered for is leading to something, if not for them, than for their children or their grandchildren. Just to let you know as well, when you reach a certain age, you are forced to worship only one god. The most pious followers become clerics and the like.
Starting with worshipers is a good idea! A related approach is letting gods (and religions) be created by the various peoples and cultures. Religions and gods would change as the culture changed.
This could also be used to explain similarities between pantheons. For instance, the Nordic, Greek and Hindu pantheons were likely derived from a common Indo-European source that was modified according to local history and development.
Often themes are recurrent, for instance both the Indo-European and Babylonian religions have the notion of generations of gods, where the old generation (titans in Greek mythology, representing the chaos of nature) are replaced by the Olympian gods (representing order, but not really law). This could represent the gods of hunter-gatherers being supplanted by the gods of farming and pastoralist cultures, or that farming and pastoralist cultures were reliant on a certain degree of regularity in nature, so their gods needed to have control over nature.
This was posted a very but this was very very helpful although I’m not using it for dnd but my own gave and this made me reconsider and add somethings so thank you
This is probably the greatest advice I've ever heard about pantheons. It really echoes what a lot of reconstructionist pagans actually talk about, too!
It also cleverly allows for people to have arguments and discussions about the gods! Normally it's so black and white. "So and so is the god of this." There is no room for interpretation. But with this people can actually have theological discussions! Brilliant!
@4saken404 Oooo to have characters argue theology in game/story would be so *chef kiss*.
I suppose the idea of creating the god from the worshipers first isn't too far removed from how I first started concepting out certain deities. Namely, to start with a mortal who will later become a god; what aspects define them, and what powers best augment those traits. One might even say that worship can come from following the example of a hero who has come before.
this was really helpful actually thank you !
This is a really helpful way to handle making deities. I'm working on making my first pantheon and was struggling to fill in each domain and making them relevant. Going to give this method a shot now
Well done and helpful! Thanks a lot!
Are you familiar with the Pathfinder pantheon? I think it follows a lot of what you’ve explained here well! Great video, btw!
I am not, actually. Pathfinder is in an awkward spot, where it's so close to DnD that whenever I have an itch only a new rpg can scratch I tend to go further afield. My new pet interest is Monte Cook's Numenera. Is there anywhere I should go to get an overview of the Pathfinder pantheon?
@@BuildingBetterDungeons That makes a lot of sense. I was introduced into RPGs with Pathfinder, so it’s home plate for me. I’d really recommend a pf2e one shot or something if you’re looking for something a little closer to home that isn’t quite home. The three action system is absolutely crisp.
The Pathfinder wiki is well constructed and will have everything you need for sure. I’d recommend starting with any given god (esp if that god is Nethys) and delving from there.
@@joewelljackson454 Will do! Thanks
This video was awesome and I just became a subscriber. That being said, do you have any tips on naming deities for your world and how to make them unique? That's the issue I'm having with my own worldbuilding.
It's easier than it looks.
What do their worshippers know them by? Is it a first name, like Baal, or is it a title/job descriptor, like the Emperor? Or is it *both*, like Athena Parthenos or Athena Nike?
I usually go for the job descriptors because I find them cooler and more impactful than random syllables cludged together.
In the case of the job descriptor, you usually don't need to be elaborate, a couple words are enough (Chained Oblivion, First King, Scarred Hand, Blessed Steel, etc).
You can use the "both" case to refer to different attributions of the same deity; for example, if you have a god who covers slaughter and biological warfare, their worshippers might address them (and therefore call with different names) different names when they're asking for favour in slaughter or to be spared the biological warfare.
If you build from the worshippers up then you make gods who have no reality where they don't touch human lives.
You get gods who only stretch as far as human imagination can reach.
Quirks are not just for mortals. Gods need them as well.
I really like this I'd actually to try this.
I do have some interesting twists to this. Though I'm not sure how it would work.
J R R Tolkien started his by finish a poem he found in Oxford. Then he created languages before he made the gods.
J R R Tolkien didn't make any gods
@@Thkaal read the Sulmaillan Melkor was a god, Umo the water god, Tolkien causes them Valar.
And for an extra level of complexity you have things like the 7? daughters of Poseidon who were likely local deity's to begin with so they are associated with an animal and or a place as well as having gained some overly specific aspect of sea weather island or water since their incorporation into his myth cycle.
So I suppose the question is does Mohr have more clerics or more warlocks? It could be fun to incorporate some of your own negative divinities into a pantheon as non infernal demons that are available as patrons for warlocks and cults. Sure you've got a psycopomp god of death, but you may have another deity that started out as an environmental dirty (desert or oasis or mountain river etc depending on the local terrain) then because of a historical battle the locals made them their war god, however a century later your main culture concurred them and the locals continued fighting a guerilla insurgency so they have been transformed once again into a death/murder god.
If you think about it, this is how the grecoroman religions have evolved xD
It seems you took alot of your god ideas from theros which is a very good building block of gods
Great advice, but what about a world where gods aren't worshipped, and some are even integrated into society?
If the physical gods (i.e. beings so powerful to be almighty) aren't, a) the explanation why has to be real convincing and b) something else will be worshipped in their stead, it's pretty much inevitable
They could sort-of worship an unknown god.
So your god of death is Pluto
I made a pantheon with chatGPT.
Very inspiring, thanks :-)
does anyone know how to spell the gods names?
I don't know if you're still looking, but almost all of these gods come from a Magic the Gathering set turned D&D Campaign Setting called Theros. He's jumbled up the names, but a quick search of the Pantheon will bring you to the right space.
Yes gods are created by their believers
...i don't understand how ur examples of 4 of the Theros gods with slightly tweeked names is sposed to teach anyone how to make their own cool gods? Like y not just use the Theros gods by name in ur world? I'd have to dive back into Theros lore to tell if u actually changed anything about their backstories that u recounted. Cuz i forget the names of the war gods but Athreos, God of Passage n Kruphix, God of Horizons have the exact same roles as ur gods, it's right their in their titles (for those who don't know, those r the verbatim card names of Magic: the Gathering cards that were the first representations of those gods in card form). The confusing part is I'm not sure if u were even trying to hide it cuz u used the Theros gods artwork so it wasn't subtle but it sounds like u haven't realized it yet. U renamed someone else's gods, so if u try n pass that off as ur own then isn't that plagiarism?
The weird part is ur main point of "start with the worshippers" is smart
God, it's been a while since I got a comment on this channel. It was just something we threw together over COVID, when I was in college, and I forgot I made it at all until I got an email notification for your comment.
The similarities between the Thermos gods and the gods I outlined here are supposed to be obvious. In my own campaign, I used them because all of my players were familiar with MTG lore. Because I was making changes, I tweaked their names, so the players wouldn't think that Athrennon worked exactly like Athreos (and to keep all their names more similar).
This is an MTG/DnD crossover channel, so I definitely wasn't trying to fool anyone, I thought the fact that I was borrowing would be very obvious
All the later vids in this channel were made as I got a new job, and I eventually realised I couldn't keep up working full time and making vids. The latter videos were all made under a lot of time pressure as I tried to put out content in a reasonable timeframe with a lot less free time.
That was probably way more information than you needed but your comment sent me down memory lane. I liked making these vids, can't believe people are still watching them.
Tip #1 99% of players don't care for your pantheon and even the 1% are only interested in a paragraph from wichever sky daddy gives them divine smite.
If that's the case at your table, then you should just copy what's in the DMG. I've rarely had players who don't want a relationship with their gods.
If the world is neat, they will care ;)
If they're given a reason to care (which the current cast of books doesn't, I agree with you on that), they will.