# Help with a pantheon



## Gurkhal (Aug 12, 2015)

Ok, I've got a an idea for a pantheon that I would need some help with fleshing out. The basic idea is that at its core, the deities of the pantheon are connected with primal aspects of nature and its this foundation that I would need some help to expand on. So what other types of basic deities could be pressed into this collection?

Once I've done this I'll start to dress them up for human cultures etc. but its this basic part that I need the help with.

Deities

Sun
Storms
Wind
Sea
Death
March of time
Competition
Hunt
Protection
Joy
Attraction
Nurture
Growth
Decay
Rule (as in alphas in packs)
???


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## evolution_rex (Aug 12, 2015)

What about a fire god? You have sun, but nothing about fire. It's a dangerous but useful tool of mankind. It can burn down forests and it can keep you warm at night. It's a bit too important to ignore.


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## WooHooMan (Aug 12, 2015)

I did a parody pantheon a little bit ago.  With it, I tried to "touch all bases".  What I had was...
Life and death, justice, hunting, art, war, weather, time, water, nature/plants/harvest, love, wisdom/knowledge, fate/luck, disease, destruction/chaos and insanity.

Then I had a more serious pantheon that was supposed to be the _real_ foundational forces of nature.  They were...
Fate/inevitability, change, chaos, symbols/manifestations/meaning, passion, logic/wisdom/knowledge and the four elements of nature: time, space, energy and matter.

I had a pantheon I was kind of playing with recently that includes gods of...
Beauty, knowledge and wealth (the head honcho god)
Names/titles/reputation/authority and by extension, law and justice
Traveling and herds (animals or people)
Ancestry, history and burials/death
Oaths and curses
Pain and mercy

So, there's some ideas.


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## Gurkhal (Aug 13, 2015)

Thanks guys! The ones I've decided to add from the posts you've made are:

Fire (feel a bit silly to have missed this one)
Earth
Learning
Change

If anyone has got more, throw them out here!


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## Swordfry (Aug 13, 2015)

I have always liked the idea of a God of a planet's core. It's not an earth god, or a fire or sun god. It's its own unique thing really. It can possibly have some characteristics of a sun or fire god, but would be more. You could associate this god with the heart, as it is the heart of the planet, and then throw in some fire or sun characteristics too.

You could also have a god of for the moving tectonic plates of the planet. A great earth moving god. It can work either with or against the core god to form volcanoes and earthquakes.

I have also always been fascinated with fungi and think a fungi-based god would be cool. They are not animals or plants, they are their own unique thing. It is also interesting that they feed off of dead matter. So you could make a fungi god (or at least inspired by fungi) that is all about not just eating dead matter like carnivores, but attaching to and thriving off of dead things, and creating life from that (like mushroom spores). This one is a bit more out there, but still cool and fun to think about.

Gods of crystals and metals could really work too. They would be different from normal earth gods because they are more refined, rigid in structure, and visually appealing. A crystal god could be all about finding one's inner core values and holding true to them, like a precious gem buried deep in the earth. I imagine disciples of crystal gods would be very rigid thinking, as this ties into the intense physical pressure it takes to form at least diamonds.


Honestly, now I think about it, you could really make a solid, large pantheon of gods just based on the earth alone: Core, mantle, fertile crust, tectonic plates, crystals and metals, minerals, and maybe plants.


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## Gurkhal (Aug 13, 2015)

Good, good. More ideas, keep them coming!

Present and modified list of additions to my pantheon are thus: 

"Old"
Fire
Earth
Learning
Change

"New"
Tectornic movement
Core of the world
Minerals (several)
Metals (several)

Other added
Animals (several)
Plants (several)
Moon


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## Swordfry (Aug 14, 2015)

Just a suggestion for mineral, metal, animal, and plant gods: You might want to make one over god for each group. From there you have several choices: have other servants of the god or maybe lesser gods represent individuals of each group. Or you can simply just have one god for all the metals, etc.

That is UNLESS you just want to write up a very large group of gods to work with, all up to you.

Maybe try this for metal gods: Have an older one to basically represent all of them, and then have a newer, younger god represent specifically the metals of wealth like gold, silver, copper, and maybe even iron. This younger god is more about the glam, greed, profit, trade, and treasure hunting aspect of these specific metals, and possibly even a more morally evil god.

Just maybe try things like that, categorizing each group so you won't have to write up dozens and dozens of gods. Unless you want to, that is. Just a suggestion.


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## ChasingSuns (Aug 14, 2015)

I always thought it would be interesting to have a deity who is based on reaction. As in, to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It is definitely a "force of nature" so to speak, and could be an interesting concept (IMO).


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## evolution_rex (Aug 14, 2015)

I think those concepts are a tad bit too complicated for gods, in my opinion. I always think about logical things ancient people would attach a supernatural being to.  Stuff like war, food, emotions, etc. Stuff relevant to them. I think it works well even if the story assumes the gods are real.


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## Gurkhal (Aug 14, 2015)

Swordfry said:


> Just a suggestion for mineral, metal, animal, and plant gods: You might want to make one over god for each group. From there you have several choices: have other servants of the god or maybe lesser gods represent individuals of each group. Or you can simply just have one god for all the metals, etc.
> 
> That is UNLESS you just want to write up a very large group of gods to work with, all up to you.
> 
> ...



At this point I brainstorming and gathering concepts and ideas so I'll throw everything into the bucket and sort them out later.



ChasingSuns said:


> I always thought it would be interesting to have a deity who is based on reaction. As in, to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It is definitely a "force of nature" so to speak, and could be an interesting concept (IMO).



True, but I think its a bit to complicated for the themes and feel I have for the world. 



evolution_rex said:


> I think those concepts are a tad bit too complicated for gods, in my opinion. I always think about logical things ancient people would attach a supernatural being to.  Stuff like war, food, emotions, etc. Stuff relevant to them. I think it works well even if the story assumes the gods are real.



While its true that these are complicated concepts the main idea is that the cosmos is run on powerful forces, that the intelligent creatures have termed as "gods". And then different cultures and stuff will imagine and project different things on these forces. So for example a Mespotamian city-state culture, a race of humanoid felines and a Norse-inspired northern culture could all worship the "god of the hunt" but each of them will have an idea that is colored by their culture as to what this god is like and how it looks. So right now I'm gathering these cosmos-running forces that could make for interesting deities and so it will be a gathering between physical items, natural laws and forces and philosophical concepts that comes together into a pantheon that the different cultures will then have a certain view and create a relation to. Or so I plan that this will result in.


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## Gryphos (Aug 14, 2015)

How about a god for the stars? As a bonus, stars are often associated with navigation, so the god could also have connotations of pathfinding and discovery.


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## Gurkhal (Aug 14, 2015)

Gryphos said:


> How about a god for the stars? As a bonus, stars are often associated with navigation, so the god could also have connotations of pathfinding and discovery.



True that astral deities could be interesting, although with the many different starts, patterns and even planets moving about up there, maybe several star-related gods would be in order?


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## Gryphos (Aug 14, 2015)

Gurkhal said:


> True that astral deities could be interesting, although with the many different starts, patterns and even planets moving about up there, maybe several star-related gods would be in order?



Oh definitely. You could even go the route of having each individual star/celestial light be a god. The distant, watchful gods.


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## Gurkhal (Aug 14, 2015)

Gryphos said:


> Oh definitely. You could even go the route of having each individual star/celestial light be a god. The distant, watchful gods.



I'll probably have some gods for the major stars, like the polar star, but be more vague for the others as I'm not in the place to start with details for them just yet.


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## Swordfry (Aug 14, 2015)

Since you already added a Core god to your pantheon, and are considering star gods, try this: Make the two connected. Both are large spheres of crazy hot stuff like lava and chemicals. Think of it like this: the star gods rule over solar systems and maybe galaxies, and the core god (or gods maybe if multiple planets) have more domain over the actual planet and some of the inner workings of the planet.


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## Gurkhal (Aug 15, 2015)

Swordfry said:


> Since you already added a Core god to your pantheon, and are considering star gods, try this: Make the two connected. Both are large spheres of crazy hot stuff like lava and chemicals. Think of it like this: the star gods rule over solar systems and maybe galaxies, and the core god (or gods maybe if multiple planets) have more domain over the actual planet and some of the inner workings of the planet.



Interesting concept although I'm not sure if I'm going "natural science galaxy" or a more strict "mythological" view of my cosmos. But I still like the concept.


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## DanJames (Aug 15, 2015)

I don't know how this will fit for your own, but for the one me and my friend are working on we have Gods and Devils, each representing the flip side of each thing they represent and keeping a balance amongst the realm. We haven't decided all of the seats for one or the other, but some of the maybe more original ideas are things such as Sex and Love being seperate entities, as while they can both be tied to one another they aren't synonymous, much as death and war can be tied to one another but aren't synonymous.

This works great for our verse contextually as the Gods and Devils aren't a finite resource, so their cance be hundreds of them, each represent things great and small in their own right. It depends how complex you wish to make the sytem itself. We've given ourselfves a large amount of work just to make this functional.


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## Gurkhal (Aug 15, 2015)

Ok this is my current list of basic gods for my pantheon, along with an initial name for them. Thanks alot everyone for your help, as I'll start to work on the pantheon now and hammer out names, attributes, lesser deities connected with them etc.

Tetonic plates and their movemen
Sun
Storms 
Wind 
Sea
Death
March of time
Competition
Hunt 
Protection
Joy
Attraction
Nurture
Growth
Decay
Rule (as in alphas in packs)
Fire
Earth
Learning
Change
Core of the world
Minerals (several)
Metals (several)
Animals (several)
Plants (several)
Moon


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## Gurkhal (Aug 15, 2015)

DanJames said:


> I don't know how this will fit for your own, but for the one me and my friend are working on we have Gods and Devils, each representing the flip side of each thing they represent and keeping a balance amongst the realm. We haven't decided all of the seats for one or the other, but some of the maybe more original ideas are things such as Sex and Love being seperate entities, as while they can both be tied to one another they aren't synonymous, much as death and war can be tied to one another but aren't synonymous.
> 
> This works great for our verse contextually as the Gods and Devils aren't a finite resource, so their cance be hundreds of them, each represent things great and small in their own right. It depends how complex you wish to make the sytem itself. We've given ourselfves a large amount of work just to make this functional.



An interesting idea although it goes against the themes I want to run with this world where the gods are both angels and devils in the same person. If you feel like it, it would however be interesting if you would post it and let us see the fruits of your labor.


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## Mectojic (Aug 15, 2015)

But hold on bro..
having studied ancient history, I have found that many times, gods have been blended together and reshaped over time. Take for example, Sparta's 'Artemis Orthia', goddess of fertility, growth, and also of hunting and vegetation.

Rather than trying to cover all your bases with a god, why not blend some together? Remember that Apollo was a giant blend - god of prophecy, music, healing, truth, poetry, and even the sun.

I'm not saying to take away any of your gods - but try and blend some together. It's easier for the reader to see less names, in all cases.
... Or you could retain some primary gods, and then have lesser gods, like the Greeks did.

Good luck, sounds fun! 

Edit: I also noticed your later list just then - why not blend god of rubies with the god of fire? Makes sense - most people back then related gemstones to the elements.


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## DanJames (Aug 15, 2015)

Gurkhal said:


> An interesting idea although it goes against the themes I want to run with this world where the gods are both angels and devils in the same person. If you feel like it, it would however be interesting if you would post it and let us see the fruits of your labor.



Well the short of the idea is essentially That each God of whatever the hold dominion over has a counterpart devil, and vice versa. Numbers aren't decided, it will be at least twenty, but with some of the specificities we've set we could easily end up with like 400 (hopefully it'll never reach those numbers). If it was to stretch into triple figures for them, naming wouldn't technically be an isue anyway for the following reasons. The realm of the Gods and the Devils respectively, are both completely reachable by mortals. If you make it to either realm you automatically gain the title of a Godhood/Devilhood, this is something that is just understood by the mortals of the realm. However, tey both pose completely seperate but equally grueling challeneges in terms of reaching them, and it can be all in vain for most that achieve it, as becoming a God isn't as the mortals perceive it.

Most Gods tend to be sort of free agents, they don't have dominion over anything, and are basically immortal peasants in the grand scheme of things, each that rules over something has a seat in a sort of grand council type setup, but at any time a free agent god can challenge a seated God for their position. If the challeneg is okayed by the grand master ('The King God' as a working title) allows the challeneg then both the challeneged and the challenger must commit acts within their respective dominions (for God of War they must both create some form of war), and the other seated Gods wil vote on who commited the better act within the dominion based on different factors (e.g. the scale of impact within the realm, in comparison to their actual direct influence).

The Devils seats are treated in much the same way.

That's sort of the basics of it, there are more complex elements to it as well that are still very much in a conceptual stage.


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## Gurkhal (Aug 15, 2015)

Mectojic said:


> But hold on bro..
> having studied ancient history, I have found that many times, gods have been blended together and reshaped over time. Take for example, Sparta's 'Artemis Orthia', goddess of fertility, growth, and also of hunting and vegetation.
> 
> Rather than trying to cover all your bases with a god, why not blend some together? Remember that Apollo was a giant blend - god of prophecy, music, healing, truth, poetry, and even the sun.
> ...



I agree with blending and in particular blending cultural traits and spheres together which is what will come later in the work. Right now I'm picking together a primodial pantheon to have as a working basis for later more culture specific pantheons. Ancient Greece is one of my main sources of inspiration and I will confess to being a bit of a Hellenic civilization fan.



DanJames said:


> Well the short of the idea is essentially That each God of whatever the hold dominion over has a counterpart devil, and vice versa. Numbers aren't decided, it will be at least twenty, but with some of the specificities we've set we could easily end up with like 400 (hopefully it'll never reach those numbers). If it was to stretch into triple figures for them, naming wouldn't technically be an isue anyway for the following reasons. The realm of the Gods and the Devils respectively, are both completely reachable by mortals. If you make it to either realm you automatically gain the title of a Godhood/Devilhood, this is something that is just understood by the mortals of the realm. However, tey both pose completely seperate but equally grueling challeneges in terms of reaching them, and it can be all in vain for most that achieve it, as becoming a God isn't as the mortals perceive it.
> 
> Most Gods tend to be sort of free agents, they don't have dominion over anything, and are basically immortal peasants in the grand scheme of things, each that rules over something has a seat in a sort of grand council type setup, but at any time a free agent god can challenge a seated God for their position. If the challeneg is okayed by the grand master ('The King God' as a working title) allows the challeneg then both the challeneged and the challenger must commit acts within their respective dominions (for God of War they must both create some form of war), and the other seated Gods wil vote on who commited the better act within the dominion based on different factors (e.g. the scale of impact within the realm, in comparison to their actual direct influence).
> 
> ...



Sounds cool, although like I said it isn't really work with the themes I want to establish. I can see how "free" gods and devils can be used in a story where you might not want the heavens themselves to rain down fire but still want a powerful character to help or oppose the various characters.


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## DanJames (Aug 15, 2015)

Yea, I had a feeling it probably wouldn't be much use. It's entire design basically serves as an icing to the verse-cake we're working on. However hopefully it maybe sparks something in your own ideas. The reason I want a lot of deities for example is because I love the idea of somebody getting the short stick and end up being something utterly inconsequential like the God of long hair (not a working God in my verse btw), and being so unimportant that their existence isn't even known by most and their name is known by even fewer, just as a nice bit of layering to being a God, that it isn't all that great for some of them. Of course, that totally works for me because that's kind of the overall tone of the verse.


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## Alpha (Aug 19, 2015)

Am I the only person here who had to define 'Pantheon'?

Anyway, now that I know what you're talking about... in most religions that had multiple deities, the were the god/goddess of numerous things. Take the norse god Odin, for example. The vikings believed Odin was the god of War, Wisdom and Poetry. In norse mythology there is also more than one war god (which may because of how heavily combat influenced their culture.)

In the religion I created there are no gods, instead there are things called Ancients, which represent thoughts and emotions. So it doesn't always have to be gods and goddesses.


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## Gurkhal (Aug 26, 2015)

And now I've come to the inclusion of the forms of gods that are actually worshipped by humans. I'll use the Greek-inspired Elysians as the center of the pantheon, just like Greek cults and theology did spread across the Mediterranean and formed the core of Hellenistic religion, so have the Elysian theology, cults and mythology spread itself over the civilized world.

The basic form of the pantheon is that the gods, or most of the gods, are connected to one of five different groups. The nature of these groups change after the nature of human society, but the core should remain. 

A more detailed write up for the main deities in each of these groups should, hopefully, follow

Basic pantheon of the Elysians

*Anakos* — King of Heaven and Earth, cheif of the ouranic gods
*Pheas* — King of the Sun, cheif of the solar gods
*Thalakis* — King of the Sea, cheif of the maritime gods
*Charotes* — King of the Dead, cheif of the gods connected with the dead and death
*Agras* — King of the Wilds, cheif of the nature gods


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