Homebrew Deities - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Homebrew Deities

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
Shiftkitty
Jun 01, 2009 17:16:43 What homebrew deities have you guys come up with? Stats and stuff aren't important if you don't happen to have them.

The best one in my game is "Rouke" (pronounced Rook). He's the (minor) god of the spontaneous wish. Unaligned. You know how they say "Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it"? He's the guy that will deliver. Wishes, usually angry thoughts, uttered aloud are picked up by Rouke and acted on. This can be avoided by simply uttering something like "I take that back," or "You didn't hear that, Rouke." So if you're in my game and get mad at one of the party and say something like "I hope that ogre we're hiding from finds you," better take it back, or Rouke just may point the ogre in the party's direction, focusing on the PC you've got a problem with, but you know how ogres are. One PC is as tasty as another.

Rouke responds to these utterances on a whim.
#2
factol_rhys_dup
Jun 02, 2009 22:50:12 I wanted to make a god of magic who wasn't Boccob/Aureon/Lunitari/Gilean/Ioun/SagelyOldNerdGod with a long beard and an armful of library books. So I ripped off the Prometheus myth and made a god who stole arcane magic and gave it to mortals. This ushered in an age of unmatched creation and magic achievement, during which mortals forged empires that pierced the heavens. But it was also an age of untenable chaos, during which the whims of archmages unmade worlds. The other gods punished him and cast him out of the pantheon, stripping him of his identity. Now he is known as Nog the Unspeakable Prince. In retaliation for Nog's theft, the pantheon locked magic away behind cosmic mysteries and encoded in numbers and riddles, forcing mortals to dedicate their lives to its study, or to beg and scrape for its power. A small following still exists, perceiving Nog as the Giver, who empowered mortal-kind to create and advanced learning. So, they build secluded shrines to him on lonely hilltops and consider all the world to eternally be in his debt, regardless of the divine decrees that condemned Nog to endless torment for his crimes.
#3
kieferz
Jun 03, 2009 12:05:17 I went with ambiguous, unnamed gods for my setting. I took the idea of the poetic epithet (used in Greek epics, basically a god would have a bunch of nicknames that used common meter and rhymes) and started referring to the gods as "The Valorous," "The Destroyer," "The Sage," etc. I eventually realized that I had a lot of overlapping deities, so I came up with the idea of "Aspects;" the gods haven't been see in person in millennia, but myths talk about what they did. A lot of gods start off consistent in these myths, but over time become more varied in their deeds, and later on the myths were "revised," with The Valorous gaining Aspects called The Tactician, The Protector, etc.

In the setting, some theologists say that the different aspects are just names given to different facets of the same god, others say that there are a bunch of gods that are similar and were initially confused with each other, and others say that there haven't always been so many gods, but that mortals' belief caused the lesser aspects to split off. Usually, there's one primary aspect (like The Valorous) and a number of other aspects. Depending on your beliefs, you may worship a primary aspect and all the secondaries as a pantheon, a primary aspect and secondaries as facets of the same god, a single aspect, or a collection of many aspects.

My players are bemused by the idea, partly because there are around 100 aspects in total.
#4
descrii
Jun 04, 2009 3:52:41 I posted my homebrew pantheon here. It's meant to be a little on the morally ambiguous side, and I was aiming for a real "ancient world" feel to it rather than medieval Europe pseudo-Christian feel.

I have a god of giving you things you thought you wanted but actually don't, too, like your Rouke. Ige-Halki, the boongiver. He's the guy you meet at the crossroads and ask for fiddle lessons. His appearances are preceeded by hundreds of snakes and he appears to you as someone you know except with totally alien facial expressions that don't belong to that person and reptile feet. He generally gives you exactly what you ask for but requires some small task of you. By performing that task you usually doom one of the people he's previously given a boon to.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Shiftkitty Jun 01, 2009 17:16:43	What homebrew deities have you guys come up with? Stats and stuff aren't important if you don't happen to have them. The best one in my game is "Rouke" (pronounced Rook). He's the (minor) god of the spontaneous wish. Unaligned. You know how they say "Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it"? He's the guy that will deliver. Wishes, usually angry thoughts, uttered aloud are picked up by Rouke and acted on. This can be avoided by simply uttering something like "I take that back," or "You didn't hear that, Rouke." So if you're in my game and get mad at one of the party and say something like "I hope that ogre we're hiding from finds you," better take it back, or Rouke just may point the ogre in the party's direction, focusing on the PC you've got a problem with, but you know how ogres are. One PC is as tasty as another. Rouke responds to these utterances on a whim.
#2 factol_rhys_dup Jun 02, 2009 22:50:12	I wanted to make a god of magic who wasn't Boccob/Aureon/Lunitari/Gilean/Ioun/SagelyOldNerdGod with a long beard and an armful of library books. So I ripped off the Prometheus myth and made a god who stole arcane magic and gave it to mortals. This ushered in an age of unmatched creation and magic achievement, during which mortals forged empires that pierced the heavens. But it was also an age of untenable chaos, during which the whims of archmages unmade worlds. The other gods punished him and cast him out of the pantheon, stripping him of his identity. Now he is known as Nog the Unspeakable Prince. In retaliation for Nog's theft, the pantheon locked magic away behind cosmic mysteries and encoded in numbers and riddles, forcing mortals to dedicate their lives to its study, or to beg and scrape for its power. A small following still exists, perceiving Nog as the Giver, who empowered mortal-kind to create and advanced learning. So, they build secluded shrines to him on lonely hilltops and consider all the world to eternally be in his debt, regardless of the divine decrees that condemned Nog to endless torment for his crimes.
#3 kieferz Jun 03, 2009 12:05:17	I went with ambiguous, unnamed gods for my setting. I took the idea of the poetic epithet (used in Greek epics, basically a god would have a bunch of nicknames that used common meter and rhymes) and started referring to the gods as "The Valorous," "The Destroyer," "The Sage," etc. I eventually realized that I had a lot of overlapping deities, so I came up with the idea of "Aspects;" the gods haven't been see in person in millennia, but myths talk about what they did. A lot of gods start off consistent in these myths, but over time become more varied in their deeds, and later on the myths were "revised," with The Valorous gaining Aspects called The Tactician, The Protector, etc. In the setting, some theologists say that the different aspects are just names given to different facets of the same god, others say that there are a bunch of gods that are similar and were initially confused with each other, and others say that there haven't always been so many gods, but that mortals' belief caused the lesser aspects to split off. Usually, there's one primary aspect (like The Valorous) and a number of other aspects. Depending on your beliefs, you may worship a primary aspect and all the secondaries as a pantheon, a primary aspect and secondaries as facets of the same god, a single aspect, or a collection of many aspects. My players are bemused by the idea, partly because there are around 100 aspects in total.
#4 descrii Jun 04, 2009 3:52:41	I posted my homebrew pantheon here. It's meant to be a little on the morally ambiguous side, and I was aiming for a real "ancient world" feel to it rather than medieval Europe pseudo-Christian feel. I have a god of giving you things you thought you wanted but actually don't, too, like your Rouke. Ige-Halki, the boongiver. He's the guy you meet at the crossroads and ask for fiddle lessons. His appearances are preceeded by hundreds of snakes and he appears to you as someone you know except with totally alien facial expressions that don't belong to that person and reptile feet. He generally gives you exactly what you ask for but requires some small task of you. By performing that task you usually doom one of the people he's previously given a boon to.