Deities

I have always tried to build worlds where characters can role-play with the world itself.  Back in the early days, my first online game world was built around the Celtic, Norse and Finnish pantheons – and the minor tensions that created between the players.  Since then, my worlds moved to 3e and then Pathfinder, and I have experimented with different game aspects for players to incorporate into their character’s growth.  For a while, I was helping to build online persistent worlds for Neverwinter Nights, and specialized in scripting the social systems that gave the world a personality- and it has gone on from there.  Now that I am working on a more traditional pen-and-paper type world, albeit slanted towards online play, I want to try and incorporate the best of the elements that I have played with in the past.  However, all of them will be tweaked, to account for the lessons that I have learned along the way.

I don’t throw game worlds away, and I still have the world I started with, nearly forty years ago, sitting in ring binders on top of my bookcase. The paper is yellowed and brittle, but I still look at it occasionally.  OK, I won’t go back to the detailed ferry schedules I had for that very first world, but not everything has worked as well as I hoped :}

However, I will use a those game worlds as background for the new setting.  I have a world map, that incorporates all of those areas, although that will only be used as a background material for initial character development.  Player will be asked (OK, required) to build a character that comes from one of those regions, with the core philosophies informing the character’s world view.  Yep, it is limiting – but that gives a world ‘personality’, rather than the ‘everything goes’, let’s keep everyone happy and sell more supplements, approach of the big game companies.  And, Ironically, that starts with the religious philosophies that are common in each region.  That doesn’t mean that every character from a given region worships, or even follows, the same deity.  However, it does define the environment in which they have grown up. 

While I have updated the 1^st ed deities, my world has deities from the 3e pantheon, the Pathfinder pantheon, Al Quadim, and several bespoke deities, and philosophies, that have appeared in my games over the years.

I have started by building a pantheon from some of my bespoke deities, the Cult of The Small Gods.  Or at least that is how it is known to the major religions and pantheons; its followers probably don’t have a formal name for it at all.  Some of the bespoke deities have evolved over the years, but just reflects a growth within the pantheon – and my apparent fixation with death in the game world.  For example, Yarma, was once a Pschopomp, as well as a patron of guards – but when Takri came along that portfolio became redundant.

The Small Gods

A pantheon beloved, particularly, by sailors.  All of these deities have their origins in the east of Hann, my overarching game world, and spread along the coasts of The Hann Sea as sailors from the east spread news of their existence.  None are powerful deities, but each offer something of value to sailors who cross dangerous seas as they travel between ports.

Takri – A demi-goddess who made her way from Sakhar, via Port Elizabeth.  She is a patron of Navigators and a Psychopomp charged with overlooking The Paths of the Dead.  Many a ship will have a low-level priest of Takri responsible for navigation, who also conducts funerals at sea, if they are required.

Yarma – A quasi-deity, who is sacred to the local population and was incorporated into the Pantheon of Porter’s Bar.  Yarma is a patron of guards who has found favour with marines and sailors who might need to defend their vessel.

Shan – A weather spirit who came with the settlers from Sinan, an ‘eastern’ style region, although set in the far west of my world.  He found a home in Porters Bar as a patron of sailors and fisherfolk.

Azan – A patron of the market and small traders, from Port Elizabeth.  Many sailors, emulate their merchant masters, and trade a few small items as they travel between ports.  Azan is often invoked, as they pull into a new port, and then thanked when they make a small profit.