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View Full Version : [Pantheon] The Styxians(Gods of life and death)



Cryptonym
2004-11-15, 10:18 PM
Please note that these don't fit into any of the established campaign settings - they're designed around my own.

Mork, god of death
Nicknames: Black Hood; Death
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Portfolio: Death, Vengeance, War, Murder
Domains: Evil, Law, Death, Destruction
Favored Weapon: Scythe
Basically the odd man out of the group, Mork is closest to resembling the idea of the Grim Reaper. Although he does where a black cloak with the hood up, he has no skeletal features underneath them, simply a rather common-looking face. Mork is hated by most of the gods and disliked even by Charon, mostly because he isn't a member of the family the rest of the gods belong to. When he showed up and began killing people, the gods allowed him to continue doing so as long as he handled it according to their rules, primarily being at the site of deaths to take a person's soul out of their body.
Typical worshippers of Mork are evil rogues, fighters, members of organized criminal organizations. Temples to Mork are almost unheard of.

Anemen, god of life
Nickname: Whimsical Man
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Portfolio: Fertility, Life, Passion, Athletics, Zeal
Domains: Chaos, Good, Healing, Strength
Favored Weapon: Hand Crossbow
The widely worshipped Whimsical Man is the creator of all life, and his nickname explains well why life is the way it is. His strange sense of humor usually results in the recipient of a joke not realising they heard a joke, but this sense of humor and his older-brother relationship to most of the other gods have kept his popularity at a peak among them. Anemen is quick to lose his sense of humor when he sees evil being commiitted, but prefers to leave ending that evil to mortals. Despite his huge base of worshippers, Anemen is not so much the king of the gods as a kind guide that the others turn to for advice. He is the oldest child of Gaia.
Typical worshippers of Anemen are rangers, sorcerers, and commoners. Temples to Anemen are widespread and the vast majority of the population worships him.

Fas, goddess of fate
Nicknames: Lady Luck; the Diviner
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Portfolio: Fate, Luck, Prophecy
Domains: Luck, Knowledge, Law, Death
Favored Weapon: Whip
Fas is the goddess of fate, but better known among commoners as the goddess of luck. The second child of Gaia, Fas holds dominion over destiny. She typically preserves order, although she is easygoing and willing to change what she had decided to happen previously based on the prayers of others. This makes her a favorite among gamblers, and quick prayers to her are frequent before taking a great risk of any kind. Lady Luck is the most carefree of the gods, although she holds her most devout worshippers and friends to high standards of order. Fas has a permanent vendetta against Mork, who raped her before the gods worked out a peace between the groups.
Fas is typically worshipped by gamblers and adventurers, who risk their well-being on a regular basis. Her temples are uncommon but not unexpected, and her clergy are typically diviners seeking to preserve order.

Charon, god of journeys and the underworld
Niicknames: The Ferryman, Sailor
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Portfolio: Agriculture, Sea, Ships, Bribery, Underworld
Domains: Evil, Water, Trickery, Travel
Favored Weapon: Ranseur
Third child of Gaia, Charon is the evil god of the underworld to almost everyone. He ferries souls into the underworld, where they are traped to spend the remainder of eternity. But to a tiny, seagoing element of the population he is instead the fickle god of the sea and the journeys over it, not evil so much as uncaring. They pray to him in the hopes that they will be granted a rare exception to the storms and crashing waves that travel over most of the sea. In reality, Charon covers both, devoting most of his attention to the underworld and only occasionally glancing at the sea and those who ask his favor in crossing it. Charon readily yields to the demands of his older sister and the requests of his older brother, but he is unlikely to give in to anyone else.
Charon's worshippers are mostly mariners hoping(usually fuitlely) for good seas. Temples to Charon are found entirely near large bodies of water, and are very rare even there.

Tisiphone, goddess of vengeance
Nickname: Vengeance(the people are prone to expressions such as "vengeance herself")
Alignment: Lawful Good
Portfolio: Victory, Vengeance, Loyalty, Law
Domains: Law, Good, Protection, Magic
Favored Weapon: Longbow
Child of Anemen and Fas and twin to Aeacus, Tisiphone is the avenger. She pursues murderers and burglars, killing some and driving others to insanity. On the whole, she prefers letting her followers catch and punish most criminals. Those who commit the worst crimes she's more than willing to hunt down herself, however. While she obeys her parents and grandparents, she frequently pursues vendettas against Aeacus and Charon.
Tisiiphone is worshipped by policemen, paladins, and those who have been wronged and seek vengeance. Her temples exist in every city, where her clergy are usually willing to serve as a sort of detective service to determine the perpetrator of a crime and bring it to the attention of authorities, or occasionally to deal with the criminal themselves.

Aeacus, god of judgement
The Mediator, The Judge
True Neutral
Portfolio: Wisdom, Truth, Judgment
Domains: Protection, Knowledge, War
Favored Weapon: Warhammer
Aeacus is the twin of Tisiphone, both being children of Anemen and Fas. Aeacus is the supreme mediator. His negotiating power is the greatest of all of the gods, but in his neutral position, he rarely finds it necessarry to persuade anyone to his point of view. Instead, he finds a middle solution to keep peace between the gods when one's ideals don't correspond with those of another. The only god to directly oppose him is his sister, Tisiphone, who feels that his moderation prevents good things from happening. Their clerics have met in violent war more than once, when Aeacus' level head did not transfer to his clergy.
Aeacus is worshipped by those seeking to negotiate a solution, especially by judges and diplomats. Courts typically feature a shrine to Aeacus, and fairly common temples to Aeacus house clergy members always willing to negotiate a peaceful solution.

Bylathaea, goddess of resurrection
Nickname: Remaker
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Portfolio: Undead, Rebirth, Underdogs, Trickery
Domains: Chaos, Trickery, Healing
Favored Weapon: Punching Dagger
Bylathaea was originally Sky, an evil, male god who was Gaia's companion. Sky and Gaia fought a massive battle, and Gaia killed Sky. Sky's soul refused to be bound to the underworld and instead wandered the world until Fas gave birth to the child named Bylathaea. Sky attempted to take Bylathaea's body away from her soul, and the conflict between the two still rages on inside Bylathaea's body centuries later. The conflict between the two souls has produced a tormented, orderless goddess who rules over reincarnation. The two souls have worked out a strange peace that involves a partial merger of their souls, which makes the divine dcisions about who receives reincarnation and who does not, as well as running the body from day to day, while the remainder of the souls battle for complete contro. of Bylathaea's body.
Bylathaea has few worshippers except necromancers and healers, who seek to achieve two somewhat twisted and very different versions of reincarnation on their subjects.

Gaia, goddess of the earth
Nickname: Mother
Alignment: Neutral Good
Portfolio: Mothers, Animals, Plants, Creation
Domains: Animal, Plant, Earth, Water
Favored Weapon: Greataxe
The most elusive of the gods, Gaia gave birth to nearly all of the remainder. She loves most of her children, although she is continually angry at Charon, who harms living beings, and Anemen, who created the humans that disrupted what she believed to be a beautiful balance. Gaia is the only god who doesn't dislike Mork, feeling that he carries out the necessity of bringing death to those who have died.
Gaia has worshippers among nature-lovers, druids, fauns, and elves. Despite this, her clergy and temples are few, as those who would dedicate themselves to her typically become druids, and those with a less complete interest are turned away by Gaia, who wants completely devoted servants.