Help with a pantheon

[DanJames]

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.

 

[Gurkhal]

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.

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.

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.

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.

 

[DanJames]

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.

 

[Alpha]

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.

 

[Gurkhal]

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