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I would've thought the opposite of Nature would be Technology the corruption of nature.they could be the ones that make swords & forge metal into things & make bows. They form nature into technology that is not what it's natural form was, they remove the natural form of nature to build something different & new seen as a corruption of nature by the nature cult.
Hey there! By any and all means, great video, looking good, doing great, and I'm very well aware that your interpretation of color is taken from a stance of creative symbolism. Not here to say that's the wrong way of doing things. But, for those curious... The opposite of green is red (and thus the opposite of pink would be dark green, although in a complementary palette, it's not uncommon to pair shades with shades), The opposite of orange is blue, And the opposite of purple (This shade of purple I think I will henceforth call 'Guy's Pink') is yellow. But yes, the opposite of white is black, I'll give you that. At least that's my little lesson of the day for Color Theory 101. Anyway, keep up the good work! Peace!
Thank you. I know it's not a color theory channel, but having an extensive knowledge on the subject that section was particularly cringy. HOWEVER This is still a good series, and will continue to watch the rest.
I was thinking about having talisman/zodiac ideas replacing Gods while I was making my own map during 'creating the campaign #5'. Thank you for indirectly telling me I'm not half bad at this.
There's a novella series that basically does this. A GM gets tired of these dicks making snide remarks when they had hired him to DM their D&D campaign, so he sends them to the world they are playing in as their characters. It's full of player stupidity and murder hobo punishments. It's rather entertaining to read. xD
The Demigod of scorekeeping (who happens to cover history) sounds awesome. Reminds me of No Game No Life for some reason (probably just because its a game-themed god, but still)
Want to say thank you for the great video. Been having trouble with coming up with deities for the last 6 months, this was the last piece of the puzzle I need to finish my idea. Keep up the amazing work and thank you again :)
Despite Cleric being my favorite class and, as a GM, frequently invoking gods, I'm not a big pantheon person. Most pantheons (both real and published for RPGs) are waaaay too big to engage with either as a player or a GM. To me, this implies it's not so important to have a logical, pre-planned pantheon--they're usually contradictory and overwrought. I just design gods as I need them, including when a player says they want to play an X Cleric/Paladin/etc. Then I really dig into those three or four relevant gods. I DO love making creation stories. In fact, I love it to the point of it being a problem. I struggle to make small-scale campaigns because I always want my players involved in some mystery of creation.
I love my Disney inspired pantheon! My deity of Trickery is Chessur, patron to Tabaxi, Travellers, and Madness, known as “He of the Untrustworthy Grin”.
@@wildcatlax2015 Aw thank you! It’s very hard to pick and choose the pantheon, but the Good Fairy is a benevolent diety for sure! And the Chernabog makes an excellent god of evil~
Some hot gods to steal are the Dawn War Pantheon for D&D 4E. Really well defined domains and personalities. I just tend to replace some of the more well known deities with my favourite evil ones. If anyone's keen, I touch on religion in the worldbuilding video I posted 10 minutes ago: ruclips.net/video/0vaH2ifl6J8/видео.html (Guy, please holler if you'd rather I didn't link to another video in your comments and I'll edit it out - cheers!)
I have an idea for a pantheon that's largely based on Steven Erikson's deities. I've got 3-4 tiers of gods, the vast majority of whom are ascended mortals. Many of them are historical high level adventurers. I've got this idea (the details of which are unclear as yet) where public acclaim grants greater abilities, and successful adventuring parties eventually become widely known heroes who thousands or millions of people know about. The ultimate pinnacle of confers immortality (aside from elves, who start out that way in this setting). Ascendants can be killed as easily as anyone else (well, any other level 20 PC who's been wandering around for hundreds of years collecting relics of power to bolster their already considerable abilities), but they're not going to die without someone deliberate act (or an extreme mistake). Once they've reached this point, they're kinda on the level of Heracles and Deadalus and their ilk, and transitioning from this point to being a god is largely just a matter of carving out a niche in someone's pantheon and cultivating a group of followers. There's more ascendants than any one person, no matter how knowledgeable, and which ones are gods in which cultures (rather than just being mythic figures, or someone else's god, etc) is somewhat fluid. There's a few concrete positions around, like the god of the dead, but there's only a handful on this tier that actually effect everyone. The fluidity of the definition of a god vs a non-god ascendant is why I say there's 3-4 tiers of god. There's 2 higher tiers of God as well, which combined have a total of 11 surviving members. (Note that this is where I start throwing around the capital G on that title. They're beings born of elemental chaos, the original creators of the world. I've got far more worked out for these 11 (and the 2 dead ones, and the others of their kind who chose a different path), but that's more on the side of the deep lore that''s mostly useful for me as the GM of this setting to develop a campaign. These higher tier Gods are less mechanically significant; most mortals are busy dealing with the specifics of day to day life, and the gods that represent that, rather than dealing with the Big Picture side of things that these Gods deal in. (This latter part isn't pulling from any specifically identifiable source, by the way. Erikson's writings do have beings that seem to be greater than your average ascended mortal "god" but the details of them are very different. Also, his writings are deliberately murky about mechanics since, y'know, he's an author and he doesn't need to have clerics controlled by other people following the rules properly, so I've got no idea what the Elder Gods of his books really are. Even the most egocentric psychotics among them don't go so far as to claim they built the world from the ground up, though, so I'm pretty sure my idea is completely unrelated.)
Just as an aside, I think the opposite of Nature is Civilization, Technology, whatever you'd like to call it. Like the Weaver and the Wyld in the old White Wolf books. Abundant Creation vs Stasis. Balanced by Entropy, which would be your Death Cult. Also, I'm not sure if you change it later on, but Mind Cult rings better than Logic Cult. Just in my inconsequential and uninvited opinion. As always, however, great job. Even though my setting has been pretty set in stone for nearly 20 years, I still watched this vid just to see if I could mine any tidbits from you. Also, sorry for the late commentary, I'm just now watching them in preparation for my overarching campaign starting in a few days. Your book has been amazingly helpful in helping me organize especially individual adventures, and I popped on here for some clarification and to actually see how you go about plotting out your narrative. So, very much, thank you.
I’m going to play around with this idea but use the elements, fey, shadow, and arcane (with maybe aether as a 5th element?). Those are the forces that make up my world and beings people may revere as gods are those that could use these chaotic forces to shape features. The first lich could tap into arcane and shadow so necromancers may worship her. Sylvanus analogue could wield fey and earth energies. I think it would be enough to cover any campaign needs. I usually really dislike pantheon making. It’s fun at first. And then I get to thinking about all of the different races, regions, offshoots, etc. The approach I’m trying now gives space for the real way the world was made and different peoples’ interpretations.
Omg, thanks for this. I've been pondering on a dilemma in a Pathfinder Adventure Path campaign I'm going to be running, had decided on a solution (in my AP play, elevating my fave PC to deityhood [which is his plot] in order to fufill an unfair first few books lack of access to shops that the PCs can keep access to). Looking over similar levels of deityhood's stats, I've been trying to figure out how to translate those kinds of stats with my PC's stats. Been pretty hard. So thanks for this.
I really like the idea of the Blood and Logic cults actually being really cool and buddy-buddy with each other. Like a red oni and blue oni dynamic. Because in fiction the passionate beings and more logical ones are usually opposed to one another. Like I could easily see the Bloods feeling that the Logics are inadvertently passionate about being calm, intelligent and balanced. While the logics appreciated the bloods' natural instinct and can-do approach. After all great ideas come from the heat of the moment sometimes! Same with life and death. Life has to remember what's came before it to continue on. And death needs life to create what needs to be remembered. Void and nature also can't exist on their own either. The void can't be "void" if there was nothing there to eliminate in the first place. And there has to be nothing for a time for things to naturally pop up and live again. Think of most extinctions and whatnot. Life that came from a void. Also the last two? Maybe I'm a nerd, but the last two should be truth and ideals. Maybe you'll get the reference, maybe not. XD
Like everyone else, I love the intro. Thanks for that. I think that you're just redefining d&d alignments for the gods. But, good/evil and law(order)/chaos is a bit too simplistic. I'm ignoring neutral, as it doesn't really add anything here. If you rename good/evil to selfless/selfish, and you add in life/death, you'll probably get a good mix. selfish/chaos/life = nature (complex, druids) selfish/chaos/death = blood (anarchy, orcs) selfish/order/life = time (immortality, elves) selfish/order/death = subjugation (stagnation, undead) selfless/chaos/life = liberty (growth, halflings) selfless/chaos/death = irrelevance (sacrifice, humans) selfless/order/life = logic (harmony, dwarves) selfless/order/death = void (simple, goblins) You had nature/void, blood/logic, time/elements, and death/life. So, I essentially replaced elements with irrelevance. death/life and subjugation/liberty are very similar. -tek
Two things have - pretty recently - changed my approach towards deities in RPGs. Firstly, the Primeval Thule setting by Sasquatch Games. In this setting, the gods take such a "hands off" approach to the mortal world that it's frankly an open question as to whether they exist at all. Even creatures like Angels have no more direct knowledge or communication with the gods. Clerics etc. get their powers from being "initiated into the Mysteries" of their particular religion. Basically, once a character gets the power, it can't be taken back. This allows for much more moral ambiguity than the traditional approach to the divine. Things like corruption, crises of faith and apostasy are much more doable in the game. Secondly, this article arguing that five gods is the perfect number for an RPG. theangrygm.com/conflicted-beliefs/ Essentially, come up with five thematic conflicts in your campaign and have each deity embody these conflicts. Having five deities means that each can have two potential allies and two potential adversaries. Having them embody themes you intend to use in your adventures means you have an easy way to introduce those themes.
That was a great article. I like the idea of thematic conflicts rather than strictly good vs bad. Thanks for your thoughts, @Nick Williams! (I know you wrote this a year ago, but I'm just now making a campaign so now I'm doing the research)
I Feel It Would Make Sense To Keep The Name As Uther's Dragons, First Because "Utherios's Dragons" Just Sounds Bad, And Second Because Perhaps Utherios Is Named After It's First King (Or Some Mythological Hero) Named Uther, And Perhaps The Legend Goes That He Once Owned The Dragon Eggs, Perhaps He Travelled Far And Wide To Collect One Egg From Each Of The Four Great Dragons Of The Land?
Quite the contrary, you did have logic cults in magna graecia. The pythagoreans studied mathematics for the purpose of understanding the divine. Heck even the scholastics of the catholic church could be seen as logicians.
My fantasy setting is ruled mainly by two gods. The god of light and the godess of darknes. In the creation myth the they created together a child, which turned against it parents and tried to consume them. They fought it and split it into four beings, The four elemental gods. Together they created the universe. Each of them ruled it's own "realm" of the universe. They made a rule that they will never directly fight each other. But the siblings created the first dragons, god like being with the power of their creators. Those dragon fight so hard that the universe almost got destroyed, again. So the parents had to create their own dragons to fight the ones of their children. After the fight setteled down the realms got mixed together to form the now existing universe. The god-dragons were ordered to keep the elemental forces of he universe in balance. So most religions in that world worship one of the dragon-gods . There are even paladin orders for 5 of them....and yes, the black dragon god doesn't have a paladin order, because the black dragon god doesn't care for worship
Day 7, and I've enjoyed making my pantheon. Considering the context of my campaign map so far, I've decided it would be interesting if all of the civilisations that the players encounter all technically follow the same pantheon, and agree upon the roots and general themes of the pantheon, but paradoxically completely disagree on the specifics of most of the gods. At the top of the "family tree" is the Sleeper: not necessarily worshipped as a god, but more recognised as the one that started it all, and created the dense jungles the game will take place in. The colossal mountain in the middle of the Lands Left Behind is said to be its corpse covered in sediment and crystallised Next is Val'sophir and Xem. Val'sophir is the androgynous king/queen of the gods, and a notorious trickster. They delight in messing with the other gods. But at the same time, their ultimate goal is to acquire knowledge, and after a time, recognised a need for a successor. Xem is the husband wife of Val'sophir. Xem is profoundly protective of her family and children; believing that family can only matter for as long as they exist. Her first response to hearing of Val'sophir's new need for a successor was to order a crusade to find this heir. Val'sophir and Xem had 4 children, all of which none of the civilisations in the Lands Left Behind can agree the specifics of. However, they do agree that they are of these categories, listed by the the party's primary aide through their adventure; Xalvie: "The Passionate" "The Ordered" "The Reaper" "The Progeny" Anything about these gods beyond the basic thoughts one thinks by the simple title given by Xalvie differs wildly between the civilisations of the Lands Left Behind. Yet, at the same time, they all loosely claim to be worshipping the exact same gods
The setting I've been running with has a more shinto-esque take on the divine (where there are untold thousands of gods that inhabit the world, representing each tree, mountain, river, etc) which gives them the potential to be very small. What I've found in the few sessions I've managed to get in with the setting is this creates far more opportunities for your pantheon to interact with the players in meaningful yet believable ways. The earthly manifestation of a mountain god might be as small as a modified large earth elemental (with some divine magic thrown on them) or even larger, depending on the significance of the mountain. This allows a lot of personalization with classes that deal with the divine on a regular basis, as it allows the players to make their gods part of their characters, to grow the influence of their god or to surpass them and move on to greater patrons. A cleric that began his career faithful to his village's local river god might, after a storied career in working in his god's name, get noticed by the god of *all* rivers, who the cleric's god personally answers to. The relationship between the cleric and his original god could evolve with the cleric, to where they might just have a casual chat one day... they'd talk about how things are back in the cleric's home which he is so far from now, maybe there's a message from the cleric's wife... and generally you'd get a relationship between cleric and diety that you just couldn't get if the cleric was serving some vast, unknowable divine entity.
@@jordanwhite8718 I was sticking to purely natural spirits because it kept things simple for the description, but it does extend beyond the natural world into more traditional gods as well. I felt digging into the minutia really didn't serve the purpose of "if you're plotting the gods of a setting, this might be a neat jumping off point for you"
I honestly think that, when thinking about some types of religious sects or factions you should definitely read up on Planescspe Torment's factions or just play it. The ideas behind them, and the uniqueness is something really really marvellous and uncommon in other fantasies.
Keep in mind that the darker and more dangerous the setting the more likely people are to be religious. It is much easier to be faithless if you don’t have a million things trying to kill you. It is very easy to be comfortable not having an afterlife when people aren’t constantly dying.
It's a great video on a great and useful subject! It's worth pointing out that in ancient times, the ACTUAL purpose of the gods, and myth was to explain things too complicated for the population to really understand at the time. Humans have a psychological "need" (?) to "humanize" whatever they don't understand... SO when dealing with things as complicated and unpredictable as volcanic activity, torrential storms, seasons of ice cycling between seasons of horrifyingly dry heat... etc. They created spirits, demons, angels, fay, and deities...etc. While you do NOT have to create so intricate and elaborate a pantheon with all the rich background and storied relationships, just for an RPG, it's perfectly understandable if you WANT... SO just keeping in mind that deities and demigods give personality and depth to something that's otherwise just a giant mountain raining fire, liquid rock, and hell on the ground for miles in every direction. ...OR a storm that would otherwise just wash an entire village into the sea and maybe blast a very large hole into the ground where the temple used to be... People tend (first) to look for a reason, a cause... AND they like the comfort of pointing fingers and blaming someone, so early deities were often fickled, and petty. Going directly back to the vid' now... THESE are the notes from your Pantheon development that your Players will likely be most interested in. The stories should be available, and definitions will help keep everything "straight" in their minds... While the mechanical benefits of a given "religion" or "cult" will be the focus of any given Player for creating a PC to develop in-game. AND it can be a LOT of fun, figuring out which goddess of whatever kind of mischief (tsundere) was actually spawn-taneously generated when another deity tore (or bit) off the balls of his intolerable opposition and tossed them into the boiling sea... {yes, believe it or not REAL "IRL" myth} ;o)
"OR a storm that would otherwise just wash an entire village into the sea and maybe blast a very large hole into the ground where the temple used to be." Literally kamikaze, that sank the Mongol ships, thwarting their invasion of Japan. The fact that the Chinese who were ordered to build the ships at swordpoint made them shoddily on purpose helped, but still.
@@oz_jones Well, a good story-teller never let the details get in the way of a good tale before... why should we bother now??? ...OF COURSE... if in the midst of the Campaign, you find a perfect moment to put a "Chinese Shipwright" appropriately into the game, the PC's can get an ear full of "the rest of the story"... as it were, too... It's not something you necessarily want to do too often, but once in a while, the odd "other side of the coin" just casually peppered into a scene or two can deliver as the Players eventually wrap their heads around what they've uncovered... even from some dubiously unobtrusive hole in the wall joint... AND it's as great a gift to the game as ANY punchline, when someone pipes up "You mean, they just built crappy boats that weren't designed for the trip to the sea?" AND you (GM) casually nod and hint at a smile. ;o)
blue is opposite to orange, red to green, purple to yellow etc etc basically you use paint mixing base colour, and you need equal portions of red green and yellow.
There is so much fun to be had here. I believe the most important thing is to just create some ground rules for the pantheon, maybe create a handful of gods or natural powers, and fill the rest in as you go, as I've experienced players often like to create their own gods (and I love to help them do that). The Paladin in my campaign created a blind justice goddess, and I thought it was such a cool deity I made her into a central part of the plot. Also like the idea of having no gods. or gods just being people with certain powers and responsibilities. I made the gods of my world work more as grumpy bureaucrats than actual creators. The world is already created, right? Here are the deities who are supposed to make sure the trees are behaving as they should, or if the seasons are coming in the correct order... And they're all sick and tired of doing it, and what they hate most of all is worshippers.... never giving them a moment's peace.
I love this series and respect you greatly, but I have to say, literally none of these colors are opposites. It's actually impressive how not a single pair is right.
Well he did say he didn't really know and was just going off the top of his head for the sake of brevity. Also, one pair was right. Black and white are opposites lol.
You know what? That sounds like a fantastic idea. It reminds me a lot about the Illiad and how the various gods screwed around with their human "pawns" because they were bored/had some soap opera drama going on.
I really want gods in my campaign. Something like how they worked with the Hercules TV show... Especially with Clerics, Paladins, Druids, and Rangers and other subclasses that are divine related.
Great video and tips for doing this, especially happy that you took this idea and worked on a more "godless" base. Which is what I have been aiming towards myself since I rather would see everything as different forms of energy/essence and all gods more as fictional idols that only represent the underlying energies. Keep up the great work! Starting a campaign in D&D5th on sunday, won't get a Pantheon running by then tho! Especially as I have never played a D&D game before. Hopefully I can get the first session done and then have more meat to work with. Aaaand.. I hate to be that person. But Orange is the complementary color of blue, red is the complementary of green. Which is why they de-saturate each other when mixed. :)
Admittedly only of tertiary relevance, but (color theory) THAT is exactly why most people come into my kitchen and immediately suffer the effect of "HOLY SH*T!" ;o)
Nature - Chaos, Void - Space Aquariuns getting off their heads out of their butts and finally doing something?!? What about Libras finally deciding on something and sticking to it instead of flip flopping back and forth?
This video inspired my own magic system. So in my setting there are 5 elements that make up the fundamental nature of the world. Fire, water, air, earth & aether. Aether (in my setting) is the element of magic & all forms of magic is birthed from it. Arcane, Divine, Nature ect... even Angels, Demons & other "divine" beings are linked to it based on the combined higher-concious beliefs of the races in my world. Creates a fun in world debate on religion & if it's really "gods" or a "clap-youre-hands if you beleive" type thing. Aether is split into 6 forms of Magic: •Arcane (processed magic learned/taut & used by Wizards) •Divine (religious magic brought on by faith & beleif in Clerics) •Eco (nature magic channelled through the World by Druids) •Fel (pact magic gifted to Warlocks by higher beings like demons, fae or old ones) •Spirit (Animist magic that is deeply linked to the spirits, used by Shamans & Witch Doctors) •Blood (dark magic that manipulates the life-essesnce of the living as a power source, this is Necromancers & Biomancers)
Good afternoon Guy. A thousand thanks for your informative content to make us better GMs. Just a thought.. Instead of the void.... Perhaps an industry diety
I made my own pantheon of gods with a rich backstory that explains how the world came to be how it is. All my gods have a dual nature rather than being "good" or "evil". So now my players are running around stressing out about which god is the "benevolent" one they should follow, and are continually confused when they see cultists and holy priests who worship the same god XD
I would say that opposite to nature should be "Artifice" (or something like that) because the desire to create artifacts/objects and structured societies with well kept histories is a great counterpoint to the notions of "the course of nature" that the nature cult may lean into in some regard while also earning its spot on the wheel next to the death cult for similar emphasis on memory, but in a different vein. It could be like a spirited rivalry, where they're not exactly at each others throats, but still fundamentally disagree and are finding ways all the time to prove themselves more right (or less wrong) than the other. "HaHA! See, this inventor may have died with others to the tidal wave that hit his town, but his invention survived it! A clear sign that we can outlast the 'rigors of nature' you prattle on about so much." Also I gotta say my inner world builder loves this set up for its potential dynamics. It seems like almost a natural course of things for people to seek personified things to worship, as well as have find and make things that they can aspire to, and so while it still wouldn't be anything like gods, I kind of like the idea that there are "Paragons" and/or "Avatars" (as overused as the latter term is sadly) for each cult, where members can all strive to become a paragon or avatar of their given sphere and each cult can have different means of attaining the status(es) as well as different quirks and bonuses and maybe drawbacks to the title(s). ....Wow that's a hell of a comment. If you read to the bottom: Thank you dearly, lol
Instead of void i'd thought about science or technology since nature is about cicle and let nature find a way the opposite it would be to be actors of change, to oppose the force of nature, as life is to experience life so technology is to change our surrounding... and thus give space to maybe gunpowder and/or scientific evolution like on the real earth
I was thinking along a similar line. I'd have moved Void opposite Elements. And then, as you propose, oppose Nature with some form of technology -- be it of magical, alchemical, or mechanical. But this is why I enjoy watching Guy work. I wouldn't have thought up Time. Seeing how people approach things differently puts more tools in the toolbox!
I like to allow players to create lessor powers in the pantheon. I generally prefer smaller numbers of named deities. Even moreso in a homebrew world where players are already trying to learn vast quantities of lore.
i have been thinking about the nature of immortals, sans curses (vampires, werewolves, liches) just a pure and strong immortal … remember corvenus from the underworld series?
How would you go about an animistic setting, where virtually everything is or has a spirit beyond simply the literal existence of spirits/souls, and actually make it more meaningful than, say, just having an enormous pantheon?
In Homestuck the opposite of Blood is Breath, the opposite of Life is Doom, the opposite of Time is Space, the opposite of Void is Light, the opposite of Mind (logic) is Heart, & the opposite of Hope is Rage
In my world gods are created by the innate magic of belief. So, they are absolutely real and powerful, but only as long as enough sentient creatures believe in them. The more believers a god has, the more powerful they are. And they also have the powers and limitations people believe them to have. This means, I only have to invent the gods necessary to my current setting and don't have to create a whole pantheon. And if a player wants a specific god to exist, the only limitation is whether it makes sense for many people to believe in them.
According to Opponent-Process Color Theory, the opposite of red is green (not blue), and the opposite of blue is yellow (not red). Also, I'm proud to be a "party pooper."
Your system sounds a lot like Flight Rising. Each dragon clan (ie player account) belongs to 1 of the 11 Flights: Ice, Shadow, Wind, Water, Nature, Light, Lightning, Fire, Arcane, Plague, and Earth. Each Flight has a home region, a color, and a patron god(dess).
Question: What if your idea is that only one god is alive and the campaign is to kill them in order to kick off new gods? As you might tell, I chose the hard setting
Why would he be the only god alive? Have other gods died? What does the god do to the setting? Who worships him? Usually I start with writing simple questions down and then try to answer them, it helps me create the setting, god etc.
I'm sorry but the opposite of... Red -> Cyan (bright blue) Green -> Magenta (pink) Blue -> Yellow. Think of printers and their colour types. You have the standard RGB but you also have the opposite CMYK (K being black)
I love your videos, but I feel this has been more about philosophy and religion as opposed to pantheon. this might be a good way to start thinking about it, but the deities need to be explained. who works with who? who holds a grudge? who is at war? what do the gods want? let's not forget that the gods want something badly and are having a hard time getting it.
If it's like a zodiac, shouldn't it start with life and end with death? Seasons changing and all that stuff. I guess my pantheon would be a little different. I'd also put void opposite of the elements. Mostly because the void would be void of any elements. That would make the opposite of nature something unnatural? Lovecraftian perhaps? I wouldn't build a zodiac pantheon myself. I would make a zodiac with a minor influence on the PCs. Something like the traits system in Pathfinder.
Is there any ruling what so ever on how devine meta physics work in D&D? The system my group plays has a very clear rule: Gods are created by believe - evertime someone prays to an entity this entity gains power, no matter if they existed before or not. If they did not exist before they just pop into existance. However this is meta knowledge, every sentient being in this world thinks they were created by some devine power and believe in their gods. This implies one thing: Every PC can come up with their very own god/pantheon and start cenverting NPCs to their religion.
Should the opposite of Nature be everything artificial and "man-made" such as engineering, artificing, constructs etc, things not a natural part of nature. In Dnd that would be the Forge domain or possible Arcana depending on if you create unnatural things using science or magic. Another good contrast-pair would be Trickery domain vs Knowledge domain where one focus on hiding the truth while the other one is about revealing the truth.
one reason why LoTR is so successful is the seamingly unnecessary detail you think you never need but CAN refer to if the occasion arises. Little details like different names for major divine powers alongside the different cultures adds depth. You do not have to mention it but you can. That is the power of immersive world building. Also you prepare a big playground keeping the players busy if tgey choose to be. Anyway I rather use published material and adapt it to my world. Nobody will know the difference if I call Zariel Nasty Nina but give the same stat block....
I feel like this is an appropriate time to mention my channel. For any of you out there who have wondered about playing D&D in a Christian way, or if you encounter players (or potential players) who might be inclined to do so, I have started a video series (only two vids so far, but there will be more). I know that a lot of people are probably turned off to such an idea, and that's okay. I'm going for a specific niche and hopefully it will serve someone's needs.
I, myself, might be relatively ambivalent about the matter... just full disclosure. BUT... It IS worth noting, that the Chaplain (technically Baptist Minister) on my ship in the Navy was consistently the best Rogue at the table... hands down. ;o)
@@christianrpg4889, While there have been a few spits and spots of "Satanic Panic"... AND for the interest of full disclosure, I was caught up through the 80's in such a spot... It's just my experience that once they get past the concept of "this is fiction", most Christians don't really run into problems in play. Obviously there are exceptions, and there IS definitely some dubious lack of specifically Christian/Judeo focused materials for the game... SO the point being that you have a niche to fill, go for it. My only concern at the table has ever been disruption of the game... I even had a character that had a vast collection of swords for specific uses, because it amused the Jewish kid who played with us, and didn't expect that line of comedy. "NO! I can't go running around killing Dragons with an Orc Killing Sword, it's just not civilized!!! I have to go back to town and get the Orc killing sword!" -a very real hilarious conversation/argument with a Paladin...;o)
@@gnarthdarkanen7464 I agree with what you say. My contention for those who call themselves Christian is that it's not as simple as saying "this is fiction". People can take from it what they want after that.
Nature could be more about unbridled unimpeded potential and raw law of the jungle and survival the opposite could be ingenuity and technology. harnessing and adding purpose to an otherwise blind nature
I'd say it changes depending on the setting, what necromancer wants/needs, type of undead etc. For example vampire (far fetched but could count as a necromancer since they create vampires which are undead) could worship god of blood. Maybe necromancer wants power by creating an undead army? I'm sure he would benefit from worshipping god of tyranny/kings/etc. Edit: My spelling sucks balls.
My gods won’t give a shit about the world unless they are evil I just want them to hang out and eat Cheetos together Instead spirits will be the actual useful deities :D Also. I’m afraid you might be slightly colorblind.
20:14 Instead of calling it 'cultish' wouldn't it be more fair to call it 'tribes' as a way to divide them without bringing to minds the negative connotations of cults? 24:00 Logic and Blood...did you just make the Jedi and the Sith? XD
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I would've thought the opposite of Nature would be Technology the corruption of nature.they could be the ones that make swords & forge metal into things & make bows. They form nature into technology that is not what it's natural form was, they remove the natural form of nature to build something different & new seen as a corruption of nature by the nature cult.
I’m pretty sure you have to take Color Theory 101 over again next semester
The four classical elements can represent the four stages of matter: solid (earth), liquid (water), gas (air), and plasma (fire).
Hey there! By any and all means, great video, looking good, doing great, and I'm very well aware that your interpretation of color is taken from a stance of creative symbolism. Not here to say that's the wrong way of doing things. But, for those curious...
The opposite of green is red (and thus the opposite of pink would be dark green, although in a complementary palette, it's not uncommon to pair shades with shades),
The opposite of orange is blue,
And the opposite of purple (This shade of purple I think I will henceforth call 'Guy's Pink') is yellow.
But yes, the opposite of white is black, I'll give you that.
At least that's my little lesson of the day for Color Theory 101.
Anyway, keep up the good work! Peace!
Thank you. I know it's not a color theory channel, but having an extensive knowledge on the subject that section was particularly cringy.
HOWEVER
This is still a good series, and will continue to watch the rest.
I started my chart with these intentions before seeing this comment lol and I'm using the symbolism that tends to be shown in cinematography
That moment when you realize yaboi has never seen a color wheel in his entire life. :P
Spot on intro as always 😂
I was thinking about having talisman/zodiac ideas replacing Gods while I was making my own map during 'creating the campaign #5'. Thank you for indirectly telling me I'm not half bad at this.
0:00, well there's the god for my campaign.
Could be a rather fun semi-serious idea to have a campaign where "the Game Master" is actually the main / only god.
There's a novella series that basically does this. A GM gets tired of these dicks making snide remarks when they had hired him to DM their D&D campaign, so he sends them to the world they are playing in as their characters. It's full of player stupidity and murder hobo punishments. It's rather entertaining to read. xD
My friend made a campaign set on a planet where post humans used to play that very intro.
I would say: orange = artifice / construction, purple: illusion
I thought of that too for orange, and I would have finished with light blue as sky/air and pink as love, fidelity, fertility, earth.
The Demigod of scorekeeping (who happens to cover history) sounds awesome. Reminds me of No Game No Life for some reason (probably just because its a game-themed god, but still)
Want to say thank you for the great video. Been having trouble with coming up with deities for the last 6 months, this was the last piece of the puzzle I need to finish my idea. Keep up the amazing work and thank you again :)
Despite Cleric being my favorite class and, as a GM, frequently invoking gods, I'm not a big pantheon person. Most pantheons (both real and published for RPGs) are waaaay too big to engage with either as a player or a GM. To me, this implies it's not so important to have a logical, pre-planned pantheon--they're usually contradictory and overwrought. I just design gods as I need them, including when a player says they want to play an X Cleric/Paladin/etc. Then I really dig into those three or four relevant gods.
I DO love making creation stories. In fact, I love it to the point of it being a problem. I struggle to make small-scale campaigns because I always want my players involved in some mystery of creation.
I love my Disney inspired pantheon! My deity of Trickery is Chessur, patron to Tabaxi, Travellers, and Madness, known as “He of the Untrustworthy Grin”.
I love Disney never thought of incorporating it like that what an interesting idea
@@wildcatlax2015 Aw thank you! It’s very hard to pick and choose the pantheon, but the Good Fairy is a benevolent diety for sure! And the Chernabog makes an excellent god of evil~
Pretty interesting to see your pantheon come together, Guy. Great video! Our pantheon was the first thing we created, 30 gods xD
Some hot gods to steal are the Dawn War Pantheon for D&D 4E. Really well defined domains and personalities. I just tend to replace some of the more well known deities with my favourite evil ones. If anyone's keen, I touch on religion in the worldbuilding video I posted 10 minutes ago: ruclips.net/video/0vaH2ifl6J8/видео.html
(Guy, please holler if you'd rather I didn't link to another video in your comments and I'll edit it out - cheers!)
Does anyone else think that "Pink" looks like "Purple"? Or is it my eyesight?
Fully agree
I have an idea for a pantheon that's largely based on Steven Erikson's deities.
I've got 3-4 tiers of gods, the vast majority of whom are ascended mortals. Many of them are historical high level adventurers. I've got this idea (the details of which are unclear as yet) where public acclaim grants greater abilities, and successful adventuring parties eventually become widely known heroes who thousands or millions of people know about. The ultimate pinnacle of confers immortality (aside from elves, who start out that way in this setting). Ascendants can be killed as easily as anyone else (well, any other level 20 PC who's been wandering around for hundreds of years collecting relics of power to bolster their already considerable abilities), but they're not going to die without someone deliberate act (or an extreme mistake). Once they've reached this point, they're kinda on the level of Heracles and Deadalus and their ilk, and transitioning from this point to being a god is largely just a matter of carving out a niche in someone's pantheon and cultivating a group of followers. There's more ascendants than any one person, no matter how knowledgeable, and which ones are gods in which cultures (rather than just being mythic figures, or someone else's god, etc) is somewhat fluid. There's a few concrete positions around, like the god of the dead, but there's only a handful on this tier that actually effect everyone.
The fluidity of the definition of a god vs a non-god ascendant is why I say there's 3-4 tiers of god. There's 2 higher tiers of God as well, which combined have a total of 11 surviving members. (Note that this is where I start throwing around the capital G on that title. They're beings born of elemental chaos, the original creators of the world. I've got far more worked out for these 11 (and the 2 dead ones, and the others of their kind who chose a different path), but that's more on the side of the deep lore that''s mostly useful for me as the GM of this setting to develop a campaign. These higher tier Gods are less mechanically significant; most mortals are busy dealing with the specifics of day to day life, and the gods that represent that, rather than dealing with the Big Picture side of things that these Gods deal in.
(This latter part isn't pulling from any specifically identifiable source, by the way. Erikson's writings do have beings that seem to be greater than your average ascended mortal "god" but the details of them are very different. Also, his writings are deliberately murky about mechanics since, y'know, he's an author and he doesn't need to have clerics controlled by other people following the rules properly, so I've got no idea what the Elder Gods of his books really are. Even the most egocentric psychotics among them don't go so far as to claim they built the world from the ground up, though, so I'm pretty sure my idea is completely unrelated.)
Just as an aside, I think the opposite of Nature is Civilization, Technology, whatever you'd like to call it. Like the Weaver and the Wyld in the old White Wolf books. Abundant Creation vs Stasis. Balanced by Entropy, which would be your Death Cult. Also, I'm not sure if you change it later on, but Mind Cult rings better than Logic Cult. Just in my inconsequential and uninvited opinion.
As always, however, great job. Even though my setting has been pretty set in stone for nearly 20 years, I still watched this vid just to see if I could mine any tidbits from you. Also, sorry for the late commentary, I'm just now watching them in preparation for my overarching campaign starting in a few days. Your book has been amazingly helpful in helping me organize especially individual adventures, and I popped on here for some clarification and to actually see how you go about plotting out your narrative.
So, very much, thank you.
I’m going to play around with this idea but use the elements, fey, shadow, and arcane (with maybe aether as a 5th element?). Those are the forces that make up my world and beings people may revere as gods are those that could use these chaotic forces to shape features. The first lich could tap into arcane and shadow so necromancers may worship her. Sylvanus analogue could wield fey and earth energies. I think it would be enough to cover any campaign needs.
I usually really dislike pantheon making. It’s fun at first. And then I get to thinking about all of the different races, regions, offshoots, etc. The approach I’m trying now gives space for the real way the world was made and different peoples’ interpretations.
Omg, thanks for this. I've been pondering on a dilemma in a Pathfinder Adventure Path campaign I'm going to be running, had decided on a solution (in my AP play, elevating my fave PC to deityhood [which is his plot] in order to fufill an unfair first few books lack of access to shops that the PCs can keep access to).
Looking over similar levels of deityhood's stats, I've been trying to figure out how to translate those kinds of stats with my PC's stats. Been pretty hard.
So thanks for this.
I really like the idea of the Blood and Logic cults actually being really cool and buddy-buddy with each other. Like a red oni and blue oni dynamic. Because in fiction the passionate beings and more logical ones are usually opposed to one another.
Like I could easily see the Bloods feeling that the Logics are inadvertently passionate about being calm, intelligent and balanced. While the logics appreciated the bloods' natural instinct and can-do approach. After all great ideas come from the heat of the moment sometimes!
Same with life and death. Life has to remember what's came before it to continue on. And death needs life to create what needs to be remembered. Void and nature also can't exist on their own either. The void can't be "void" if there was nothing there to eliminate in the first place. And there has to be nothing for a time for things to naturally pop up and live again. Think of most extinctions and whatnot. Life that came from a void.
Also the last two? Maybe I'm a nerd, but the last two should be truth and ideals. Maybe you'll get the reference, maybe not. XD
Like everyone else, I love the intro. Thanks for that.
I think that you're just redefining d&d alignments for the gods. But, good/evil and law(order)/chaos is a bit too simplistic. I'm ignoring neutral, as it doesn't really add anything here. If you rename good/evil to selfless/selfish, and you add in life/death, you'll probably get a good mix.
selfish/chaos/life = nature (complex, druids)
selfish/chaos/death = blood (anarchy, orcs)
selfish/order/life = time (immortality, elves)
selfish/order/death = subjugation (stagnation, undead)
selfless/chaos/life = liberty (growth, halflings)
selfless/chaos/death = irrelevance (sacrifice, humans)
selfless/order/life = logic (harmony, dwarves)
selfless/order/death = void (simple, goblins)
You had nature/void, blood/logic, time/elements, and death/life. So, I essentially replaced elements with irrelevance. death/life and subjugation/liberty are very similar.
-tek
Two things have - pretty recently - changed my approach towards deities in RPGs.
Firstly, the Primeval Thule setting by Sasquatch Games.
In this setting, the gods take such a "hands off" approach to the mortal world that it's frankly an open question as to whether they exist at all. Even creatures like Angels have no more direct knowledge or communication with the gods. Clerics etc. get their powers from being "initiated into the Mysteries" of their particular religion. Basically, once a character gets the power, it can't be taken back. This allows for much more moral ambiguity than the traditional approach to the divine. Things like corruption, crises of faith and apostasy are much more doable in the game.
Secondly, this article arguing that five gods is the perfect number for an RPG.
theangrygm.com/conflicted-beliefs/
Essentially, come up with five thematic conflicts in your campaign and have each deity embody these conflicts. Having five deities means that each can have two potential allies and two potential adversaries. Having them embody themes you intend to use in your adventures means you have an easy way to introduce those themes.
That was a great article. I like the idea of thematic conflicts rather than strictly good vs bad. Thanks for your thoughts, @Nick Williams! (I know you wrote this a year ago, but I'm just now making a campaign so now I'm doing the research)
I Feel It Would Make Sense To Keep The Name As Uther's Dragons, First Because "Utherios's Dragons" Just Sounds Bad, And Second Because Perhaps Utherios Is Named After It's First King (Or Some Mythological Hero) Named Uther, And Perhaps The Legend Goes That He Once Owned The Dragon Eggs, Perhaps He Travelled Far And Wide To Collect One Egg From Each Of The Four Great Dragons Of The Land?
Why Are You Capitalizing Every Letter Isn't That Bothersome When Typing?
@@ewak.1155 Longest title ever, I suppose.
Quite the contrary, you did have logic cults in magna graecia. The pythagoreans studied mathematics for the purpose of understanding the divine. Heck even the scholastics of the catholic church could be seen as logicians.
My fantasy setting is ruled mainly by two gods. The god of light and the godess of darknes. In the creation myth the they created together a child, which turned against it parents and tried to consume them. They fought it and split it into four beings, The four elemental gods. Together they created the universe. Each of them ruled it's own "realm" of the universe. They made a rule that they will never directly fight each other. But the siblings created the first dragons, god like being with the power of their creators. Those dragon fight so hard that the universe almost got destroyed, again. So the parents had to create their own dragons to fight the ones of their children. After the fight setteled down the realms got mixed together to form the now existing universe. The god-dragons were ordered to keep the elemental forces of he universe in balance.
So most religions in that world worship one of the dragon-gods . There are even paladin orders for 5 of them....and yes, the black dragon god doesn't have a paladin order, because the black dragon god doesn't care for worship
Day 7, and I've enjoyed making my pantheon.
Considering the context of my campaign map so far, I've decided it would be interesting if all of the civilisations that the players encounter all technically follow the same pantheon, and agree upon the roots and general themes of the pantheon, but paradoxically completely disagree on the specifics of most of the gods.
At the top of the "family tree" is the Sleeper: not necessarily worshipped as a god, but more recognised as the one that started it all, and created the dense jungles the game will take place in. The colossal mountain in the middle of the Lands Left Behind is said to be its corpse covered in sediment and crystallised
Next is Val'sophir and Xem.
Val'sophir is the androgynous king/queen of the gods, and a notorious trickster. They delight in messing with the other gods. But at the same time, their ultimate goal is to acquire knowledge, and after a time, recognised a need for a successor.
Xem is the husband wife of Val'sophir. Xem is profoundly protective of her family and children; believing that family can only matter for as long as they exist. Her first response to hearing of Val'sophir's new need for a successor was to order a crusade to find this heir.
Val'sophir and Xem had 4 children, all of which none of the civilisations in the Lands Left Behind can agree the specifics of. However, they do agree that they are of these categories, listed by the the party's primary aide through their adventure; Xalvie:
"The Passionate"
"The Ordered"
"The Reaper"
"The Progeny"
Anything about these gods beyond the basic thoughts one thinks by the simple title given by Xalvie differs wildly between the civilisations of the Lands Left Behind. Yet, at the same time, they all loosely claim to be worshipping the exact same gods
Me as a magic player: He's recreating Ravnica live XD
The setting I've been running with has a more shinto-esque take on the divine (where there are untold thousands of gods that inhabit the world, representing each tree, mountain, river, etc) which gives them the potential to be very small. What I've found in the few sessions I've managed to get in with the setting is this creates far more opportunities for your pantheon to interact with the players in meaningful yet believable ways. The earthly manifestation of a mountain god might be as small as a modified large earth elemental (with some divine magic thrown on them) or even larger, depending on the significance of the mountain. This allows a lot of personalization with classes that deal with the divine on a regular basis, as it allows the players to make their gods part of their characters, to grow the influence of their god or to surpass them and move on to greater patrons.
A cleric that began his career faithful to his village's local river god might, after a storied career in working in his god's name, get noticed by the god of *all* rivers, who the cleric's god personally answers to. The relationship between the cleric and his original god could evolve with the cleric, to where they might just have a casual chat one day... they'd talk about how things are back in the cleric's home which he is so far from now, maybe there's a message from the cleric's wife... and generally you'd get a relationship between cleric and diety that you just couldn't get if the cleric was serving some vast, unknowable divine entity.
Kevin Griffith so basically Druids?
@@jordanwhite8718 I was sticking to purely natural spirits because it kept things simple for the description, but it does extend beyond the natural world into more traditional gods as well. I felt digging into the minutia really didn't serve the purpose of "if you're plotting the gods of a setting, this might be a neat jumping off point for you"
I honestly think that, when thinking about some types of religious sects or factions you should definitely read up on Planescspe Torment's factions or just play it. The ideas behind them, and the uniqueness is something really really marvellous and uncommon in other fantasies.
Keep in mind that the darker and more dangerous the setting the more likely people are to be religious. It is much easier to be faithless if you don’t have a million things trying to kill you. It is very easy to be comfortable not having an afterlife when people aren’t constantly dying.
It's a great video on a great and useful subject!
It's worth pointing out that in ancient times, the ACTUAL purpose of the gods, and myth was to explain things too complicated for the population to really understand at the time. Humans have a psychological "need" (?) to "humanize" whatever they don't understand... SO when dealing with things as complicated and unpredictable as volcanic activity, torrential storms, seasons of ice cycling between seasons of horrifyingly dry heat... etc. They created spirits, demons, angels, fay, and deities...etc.
While you do NOT have to create so intricate and elaborate a pantheon with all the rich background and storied relationships, just for an RPG, it's perfectly understandable if you WANT... SO just keeping in mind that deities and demigods give personality and depth to something that's otherwise just a giant mountain raining fire, liquid rock, and hell on the ground for miles in every direction.
...OR a storm that would otherwise just wash an entire village into the sea and maybe blast a very large hole into the ground where the temple used to be...
People tend (first) to look for a reason, a cause... AND they like the comfort of pointing fingers and blaming someone, so early deities were often fickled, and petty.
Going directly back to the vid' now... THESE are the notes from your Pantheon development that your Players will likely be most interested in. The stories should be available, and definitions will help keep everything "straight" in their minds... While the mechanical benefits of a given "religion" or "cult" will be the focus of any given Player for creating a PC to develop in-game.
AND it can be a LOT of fun, figuring out which goddess of whatever kind of mischief (tsundere) was actually spawn-taneously generated when another deity tore (or bit) off the balls of his intolerable opposition and tossed them into the boiling sea... {yes, believe it or not REAL "IRL" myth} ;o)
"OR a storm that would otherwise just wash an entire village into the sea and maybe blast a very large hole into the ground where the temple used to be."
Literally kamikaze, that sank the Mongol ships, thwarting their invasion of Japan. The fact that the Chinese who were ordered to build the ships at swordpoint made them shoddily on purpose helped, but still.
@@oz_jones Well, a good story-teller never let the details get in the way of a good tale before... why should we bother now???
...OF COURSE... if in the midst of the Campaign, you find a perfect moment to put a "Chinese Shipwright" appropriately into the game, the PC's can get an ear full of "the rest of the story"... as it were, too...
It's not something you necessarily want to do too often, but once in a while, the odd "other side of the coin" just casually peppered into a scene or two can deliver as the Players eventually wrap their heads around what they've uncovered... even from some dubiously unobtrusive hole in the wall joint... AND it's as great a gift to the game as ANY punchline, when someone pipes up "You mean, they just built crappy boats that weren't designed for the trip to the sea?" AND you (GM) casually nod and hint at a smile. ;o)
This reminds me of the 12 "aspects" in Homestuck. Are you aware of them? If not I recomend checking them out!
blue is opposite to orange, red to green, purple to yellow etc etc basically you use paint mixing base colour, and you need equal portions of red green and yellow.
There is so much fun to be had here. I believe the most important thing is to just create some ground rules for the pantheon, maybe create a handful of gods or natural powers, and fill the rest in as you go, as I've experienced players often like to create their own gods (and I love to help them do that). The Paladin in my campaign created a blind justice goddess, and I thought it was such a cool deity I made her into a central part of the plot.
Also like the idea of having no gods. or gods just being people with certain powers and responsibilities. I made the gods of my world work more as grumpy bureaucrats than actual creators. The world is already created, right? Here are the deities who are supposed to make sure the trees are behaving as they should, or if the seasons are coming in the correct order... And they're all sick and tired of doing it, and what they hate most of all is worshippers.... never giving them a moment's peace.
I love this series and respect you greatly, but I have to say, literally none of these colors are opposites. It's actually impressive how not a single pair is right.
Well he did say he didn't really know and was just going off the top of his head for the sake of brevity. Also, one pair was right. Black and white are opposites lol.
we had a meta campaign before where the dm sent your charater to the real world every player was the god of there character
Where?
@@McSenkel my college
You know what? That sounds like a fantastic idea. It reminds me a lot about the Illiad and how the various gods screwed around with their human "pawns" because they were bored/had some soap opera drama going on.
@@cdgonepotatoes4219 your character may not have their sanity when they return to their plane
I really want gods in my campaign. Something like how they worked with the Hercules TV show...
Especially with Clerics, Paladins, Druids, and Rangers and other subclasses that are divine related.
Great video and tips for doing this, especially happy that you took this idea and worked on a more "godless" base. Which is what I have been aiming towards myself since I rather would see everything as different forms of energy/essence and all gods more as fictional idols that only represent the underlying energies. Keep up the great work!
Starting a campaign in D&D5th on sunday, won't get a Pantheon running by then tho! Especially as I have never played a D&D game before. Hopefully I can get the first session done and then have more meat to work with.
Aaaand.. I hate to be that person. But Orange is the complementary color of blue, red is the complementary of green. Which is why they de-saturate each other when mixed. :)
Admittedly only of tertiary relevance, but (color theory) THAT is exactly why most people come into my kitchen and immediately suffer the effect of "HOLY SH*T!" ;o)
Nature - Chaos, Void - Space
Aquariuns getting off their heads out of their butts and finally doing something?!? What about Libras finally deciding on something and sticking to it instead of flip flopping back and forth?
This video inspired my own magic system. So in my setting there are 5 elements that make up the fundamental nature of the world. Fire, water, air, earth & aether. Aether (in my setting) is the element of magic & all forms of magic is birthed from it. Arcane, Divine, Nature ect... even Angels, Demons & other "divine" beings are linked to it based on the combined higher-concious beliefs of the races in my world. Creates a fun in world debate on religion & if it's really "gods" or a "clap-youre-hands if you beleive" type thing.
Aether is split into 6 forms of Magic:
•Arcane (processed magic learned/taut & used by Wizards)
•Divine (religious magic brought on by faith & beleif in Clerics)
•Eco (nature magic channelled through the World by Druids)
•Fel (pact magic gifted to Warlocks by higher beings like demons, fae or old ones)
•Spirit (Animist magic that is deeply linked to the spirits, used by Shamans & Witch Doctors)
•Blood (dark magic that manipulates the life-essesnce of the living as a power source, this is Necromancers & Biomancers)
This to me is more World Building rather than Campaign Creation
wait but that's purple not pink..
Looks more like Magenta to me
Dionysus AKA the god of wine spilling and drunkenness.
had the same thought
And possibly... death, vines, animals, and anything that messes with the mind. But he likes to keep that part of his resume under wraps.
Ran a game with no god and used philosophical ideals instead. It slowed the plates to invent their own religion. Really pulled them into the world.
Good afternoon Guy. A thousand thanks for your informative content to make us better GMs. Just a thought.. Instead of the void.... Perhaps an industry diety
Elements cult could also be about unity and working together with each other. Such as the Earth and Fire and ash example you gave!
I made my own pantheon of gods with a rich backstory that explains how the world came to be how it is. All my gods have a dual nature rather than being "good" or "evil". So now my players are running around stressing out about which god is the "benevolent" one they should follow, and are continually confused when they see cultists and holy priests who worship the same god XD
I would say that opposite to nature should be "Artifice" (or something like that) because the desire to create artifacts/objects and structured societies with well kept histories is a great counterpoint to the notions of "the course of nature" that the nature cult may lean into in some regard while also earning its spot on the wheel next to the death cult for similar emphasis on memory, but in a different vein.
It could be like a spirited rivalry, where they're not exactly at each others throats, but still fundamentally disagree and are finding ways all the time to prove themselves more right (or less wrong) than the other. "HaHA! See, this inventor may have died with others to the tidal wave that hit his town, but his invention survived it! A clear sign that we can outlast the 'rigors of nature' you prattle on about so much."
Also I gotta say my inner world builder loves this set up for its potential dynamics. It seems like almost a natural course of things for people to seek personified things to worship, as well as have find and make things that they can aspire to, and so while it still wouldn't be anything like gods, I kind of like the idea that there are "Paragons" and/or "Avatars" (as overused as the latter term is sadly) for each cult, where members can all strive to become a paragon or avatar of their given sphere and each cult can have different means of attaining the status(es) as well as different quirks and bonuses and maybe drawbacks to the title(s).
....Wow that's a hell of a comment. If you read to the bottom: Thank you dearly, lol
Instead of void i'd thought about science or technology since nature is about cicle and let nature find a way the opposite it would be to be actors of change, to oppose the force of nature, as life is to experience life so technology is to change our surrounding... and thus give space to maybe gunpowder and/or scientific evolution like on the real earth
I agree with this completely. But I would also add un-death, forging, magic, anything else where something that is not found in nature is involved.
At least arcane magic...
I was thinking along a similar line. I'd have moved Void opposite Elements. And then, as you propose, oppose Nature with some form of technology -- be it of magical, alchemical, or mechanical. But this is why I enjoy watching Guy work. I wouldn't have thought up Time. Seeing how people approach things differently puts more tools in the toolbox!
I agree. I was thinking industry and urbanization as the opposite of nature
The Tech Cult, or even the Magitech cult! Guns, pictoboxes, and motorized carriages!
30 min in about the movie that make you think of love as an element is that fifth element it is a great movie!!
Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier both focus heavily on the concept of god.
Also Stargate.
I like to allow players to create lessor powers in the pantheon.
I generally prefer smaller numbers of named deities. Even moreso in a homebrew world where players are already trying to learn vast quantities of lore.
i have been thinking about the nature of immortals, sans curses (vampires, werewolves, liches) just a pure and strong immortal … remember corvenus from the underworld series?
How would you go about an animistic setting, where virtually everything is or has a spirit beyond simply the literal existence of spirits/souls, and actually make it more meaningful than, say, just having an enormous pantheon?
Not everyone goes for who they believe is strongest. Some people like some things for different reasons like moral ones or it simply looks cool.
In Homestuck the opposite of Blood is Breath, the opposite of Life is Doom, the opposite of Time is Space, the opposite of Void is Light, the opposite of Mind (logic) is Heart, & the opposite of Hope is Rage
In my world gods are created by the innate magic of belief. So, they are absolutely real and powerful, but only as long as enough sentient creatures believe in them. The more believers a god has, the more powerful they are. And they also have the powers and limitations people believe them to have.
This means, I only have to invent the gods necessary to my current setting and don't have to create a whole pantheon. And if a player wants a specific god to exist, the only limitation is whether it makes sense for many people to believe in them.
anyone notice that around 17:30 ish he was switching between mythos while explaining opposites
I would say nature is change and the opposite of change is stagnation.
According to Opponent-Process Color Theory, the opposite of red is green (not blue), and the opposite of blue is yellow (not red).
Also, I'm proud to be a "party pooper."
Water, by definition, cannot be wet.
Your system sounds a lot like Flight Rising. Each dragon clan (ie player account) belongs to 1 of the 11 Flights: Ice, Shadow, Wind, Water, Nature, Light, Lightning, Fire, Arcane, Plague, and Earth. Each Flight has a home region, a color, and a patron god(dess).
Opposite of nature is mechanistic?
Question: What if your idea is that only one god is alive and the campaign is to kill them in order to kick off new gods? As you might tell, I chose the hard setting
Why would he be the only god alive? Have other gods died? What does the god do to the setting? Who worships him?
Usually I start with writing simple questions down and then try to answer them, it helps me create the setting, god etc.
@@Xeirn thanks. Just with those I got some ideas
I'm sorry but the opposite of...
Red -> Cyan (bright blue)
Green -> Magenta (pink)
Blue -> Yellow.
Think of printers and their colour types.
You have the standard RGB but you also have the opposite CMYK (K being black)
What is this "Cult" thing? All are dependent on each other. Is that the point?
Still waiting on those timestamps down here in the "doobly doo"
I love your videos, but I feel this has been more about philosophy and religion as opposed to pantheon. this might be a good way to start thinking about it, but the deities need to be explained. who works with who? who holds a grudge? who is at war? what do the gods want? let's not forget that the gods want something badly and are having a hard time getting it.
If it's like a zodiac, shouldn't it start with life and end with death? Seasons changing and all that stuff. I guess my pantheon would be a little different. I'd also put void opposite of the elements. Mostly because the void would be void of any elements. That would make the opposite of nature something unnatural? Lovecraftian perhaps?
I wouldn't build a zodiac pantheon myself. I would make a zodiac with a minor influence on the PCs. Something like the traits system in Pathfinder.
Is there any ruling what so ever on how devine meta physics work in D&D?
The system my group plays has a very clear rule:
Gods are created by believe - evertime someone prays to an entity this entity gains power, no matter if they existed before or not. If they did not exist before they just pop into existance. However this is meta knowledge, every sentient being in this world thinks they were created by some devine power and believe in their gods.
This implies one thing:
Every PC can come up with their very own god/pantheon and start cenverting NPCs to their religion.
Should the opposite of Nature be everything artificial and "man-made" such as engineering, artificing, constructs etc, things not a natural part of nature. In Dnd that would be the Forge domain or possible Arcana depending on if you create unnatural things using science or magic.
Another good contrast-pair would be Trickery domain vs Knowledge domain where one focus on hiding the truth while the other one is about revealing the truth.
one reason why LoTR is so successful is the seamingly unnecessary detail you think you never need but CAN refer to if the occasion arises. Little details like different names for major divine powers alongside the different cultures adds depth. You do not have to mention it but you can. That is the power of immersive world building.
Also you prepare a big playground keeping the players busy if tgey choose to be.
Anyway I rather use published material and adapt it to my world. Nobody will know the difference if I call Zariel Nasty Nina but give the same stat block....
I feel like this is an appropriate time to mention my channel. For any of you out there who have wondered about playing D&D in a Christian way, or if you encounter players (or potential players) who might be inclined to do so, I have started a video series (only two vids so far, but there will be more). I know that a lot of people are probably turned off to such an idea, and that's okay. I'm going for a specific niche and hopefully it will serve someone's needs.
I, myself, might be relatively ambivalent about the matter... just full disclosure.
BUT... It IS worth noting, that the Chaplain (technically Baptist Minister) on my ship in the Navy was consistently the best Rogue at the table... hands down. ;o)
@@gnarthdarkanen7464 Fair enough. I have heard that a lot of clergy of various faiths play. That's why I think there might be a very select audience.
@@christianrpg4889, While there have been a few spits and spots of "Satanic Panic"... AND for the interest of full disclosure, I was caught up through the 80's in such a spot...
It's just my experience that once they get past the concept of "this is fiction", most Christians don't really run into problems in play.
Obviously there are exceptions, and there IS definitely some dubious lack of specifically Christian/Judeo focused materials for the game... SO the point being that you have a niche to fill, go for it.
My only concern at the table has ever been disruption of the game... I even had a character that had a vast collection of swords for specific uses, because it amused the Jewish kid who played with us, and didn't expect that line of comedy.
"NO! I can't go running around killing Dragons with an Orc Killing Sword, it's just not civilized!!! I have to go back to town and get the Orc killing sword!"
-a very real hilarious conversation/argument with a Paladin...;o)
@@gnarthdarkanen7464 I agree with what you say. My contention for those who call themselves Christian is that it's not as simple as saying "this is fiction". People can take from it what they want after that.
I am curious. Do you mean that you only have god, jesus etc in your setting or what when you say "D&D in a christian way"?
I am now making a campaign where the only race is crabs
Nature could be more about unbridled unimpeded potential and raw law of the jungle and survival
the opposite could be ingenuity and technology. harnessing and adding purpose to an otherwise blind nature
I think I know who the god of Guy-Ah is >w>
Isn't Red The Opposite Of Green, Not Orange? I'm Pretty Sure Orange Is The Opposite Of Blue...
This intro gave me crabs.
That's pretty funny.. green and red/ blue and orange/ yellow and violet
Which cult would necromancy fall into I wonder. Not death given they're about the futility and end so I'm unsure.
life?
I'd say it changes depending on the setting, what necromancer wants/needs, type of undead etc.
For example vampire (far fetched but could count as a necromancer since they create vampires which are undead) could worship god of blood.
Maybe necromancer wants power by creating an undead army? I'm sure he would benefit from worshipping god of tyranny/kings/etc.
Edit: My spelling sucks balls.
It's a typical story of love... begetting, marrying and getting a goose
Crabs are People! Clams are People! Legit of quit!
If crabs are people, does that mean crabs can get crabs on their clams?
Look at a color wheel, red is the opposite of green not Orange
Berserkers and Stoics?
Poseidon is still the god of the land. Zeus rules the Skies, Ades the Underworld and Poseidon the Overworld.
The opposite of pink is light green
You say that you are a Libra then that explains your interest in the Greek culture. I don't meet many Gamers who are Libra.
Then the opposite of elements could be oblivion
Or void.
My gods won’t give a shit about the world unless they are evil
I just want them to hang out and eat Cheetos together
Instead spirits will be the actual useful deities :D
Also. I’m afraid you might be slightly colorblind.
bruh either you or i am colorblind because that is purple and yellow not pink and orange
Agreed on the purple, however that is definitely Orange
The opposite of pink is yellow
I mean thats not even pink its purple
Color Theory 101
20:14 Instead of calling it 'cultish' wouldn't it be more fair to call it 'tribes' as a way to divide them without bringing to minds the negative connotations of cults?
24:00 Logic and Blood...did you just make the Jedi and the Sith? XD