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Newspaper
2009-08-19, 05:04 PM
I'm in the middle of creating a new campaign setting but I'm having trouble with the "divine entities".

In this setting three great beings created the world and all it's inhabitants and so they were worshipped. So basically there are only three gods.

Each god is worshipped but most people choose one as their favored deity. None of the gods have alignments and worshippers of one respect worshippers of the other two.

I want each god to represent a different philosophical lifestyle or something like that but I can't think of any philosophies that work well in groups of three.

One group I thought about was maybe Patience, Diligence and Vigilance but that doesn't seem quite right. If worse comes to worse I can just go Earth, Air and Water and leave it at that but that feels like giving up.

So does anyone have any good ideas on what could define three deities?

erikun
2009-08-19, 05:17 PM
Wisdom, Power, and Courage? :smalltongue:

More to the point, why three? Why not five, or two, or a total of six and seven, working together as the thirteen to create the universe? Why not just one? If the world needed to be created in three parts, wouldn't basing them on each part make the most sense?

What is the three-way conflict in religions? Is there even a conflict? If not, the whole point of there being three deitys seems kind of lost. If everybody worships all three, gets their spells from one of the three, and works with all three, wouldn't in make more sense to just worship the "Divine Three Creators" and leave it at that?

Flabbicus
2009-08-19, 05:25 PM
How about pathos, ethos and logos?

Pathos: a deep and abiding commitment of the heart, as in the notion of "finding your passion" as an important aspect of a fully lived, engaged life

Ethos: "the state of being", the inner source, the soul, the mind, and the original essence, that shapes and forms a person or animal; the characteristic spirit, prevalent tone of sentiment, of a people or community; the 'genius' of an institution or system

Logos: the rational principle that governs and develops the universe

I'm sure you could work something out of my very loose definitions.

So you have the one god who is very passionate about everything, the one who is concerned with maintaining institutions and groups, and the one who considers all things rationally in terms of upholding the greater good.

Clementx
2009-08-19, 05:25 PM
Three neutral deities is a bit narrow for DnD and a world-wide pantheon. There is nothing wrong with having two or three broad philosophic entities (e.g. Ebberon's Three Dragons), but you need a wider supply of divine power and domains. As is, DnD gods have one portfolio and four-ish domains, which is a pretty small section of reality.

Either develop further divisions within each, or justify the large numbers of ideal-based clerics. Three families, a three-fold reflection of three gods, three gods in different stages of life, etc. Even if these aren't full-fledged separate gods in themselves, it still gives more ideological breath to your world. You can eliminate a lot of redundancy in the existing setting pantheons. You have already tossed racial deities, which is a good start. A lot of the evil/natural aspects can be attributed to regular archdevils, demon lords, genies, or elementals.

I personally use twelve deities, three good, three evil, and six neutral. Between them, they grant 24 domains, including one unique for each. You've got valor, redemption, strength, travel, fate, sin, knowledge, nature, purification, secrets, slaughter, and death. Looking at the Western mystery-cult traditions, that covers a lot. You would be hard-pressed to get three to embody them all.

RoninFrosty
2009-08-19, 05:26 PM
If you're playing 3.5, it's easy to tie them to alignments. Also, check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_%28number%29#In_religion_and_mythology

"Good DMs borrow, great DMs steal!"

Sir_Elderberry
2009-08-19, 05:58 PM
Borrow some philosophy? Ethics?
Kant, God of Justice -- Believes in law and universal principles above all else. Always act according to that principle which you can, at the same time, will to become a universal law. Worshipers work to bring about a utopia "Kingdom of Ends".

Bentham, God of Utility -- Believes in the greatest good for the greatest number of people, "whatever works". Worshipers believe in bettering the world in whatever way possible.

Aristotle, God of Virtue -- Believes in bettering the individual and acting in accord with internal values and virtues. Worshipers seek to spread the ideas of "perfect virtues" and encourage people to be such people.

or social contract theorists?

Hobbes, God of Law -- Believes that the most important thing is having a code, because only a code of conduct separates society from its inherent bestial nature. Worshipers are suspicious and believe humankind to be inherently prone to violence, needing a strong guiding hand.

Locke, God of Society -- Believes that people must act by common agreement and rational cooperation, and that while most people are good, the minority that are not are dangerous. Supports humanoid rights and will act to help those who are being oppressed in any way.

Rousseau, God of Nature -- Believes that the best, most ideal state of man is pre-civilized, and that a person's cooperation with others should be no more than necessary, stresses self-reliance and freedom from those who would force themselves upon others. (I don't know Rousseau well, I may have gotten this wrong.)

Newspaper
2009-08-19, 06:16 PM
Well these are only the deities for a small island in a larger world (which the PCs wont take their first step in for a while). One of the points of the plot is that these three gods used to walk among mortals but have since disappeared to some other plane.

Other ideas I had were to have these three be the "overgods" and have lesser gods who would give clerics there power. Or to have these be "overgods" and then have spirits that give clerics power (i.e. River Spirit, Tree Spirit, Cloud Spirit, etc.).

I like the Justice/Utility/Virtue trio. I think I could fit that in.

(Sidenote) In this campaign I got rid of Law/Chaos because my players and I couldn't make sense of it.

And I chose three because it's my favorite number.

P.S. Should this be in the homebrew section?

Zaq
2009-08-19, 08:39 PM
Freud's ego-superego-id trichotomy (is that a word? It is now.) might be interesting, but it would be easy to caricature them into meaninglessness.

Perhaps a past-present-future setup? The god of the past is the god of knowledge, who seeks to preserve tradition, learn from past mistakes, and venerate past ancestors/heroes/whatever. The god of the present is pragmatic, focused with making sure that people are surviving and thriving. He's associated with fertility (both agricultural and reproductive), recovery, and all that stuff that lets you keep breathing from minute to minute. The god of the future seeks change and revision, but promises great rewards to the faithful. He keeps watch over the afterlife, but also seeks to promote technology (in all its forms), progress, new ideas, and creativity. He demands the harshest sacrifices of the three, but he claims that they will be important later.

Ooh, I know, base them off of three of the big forms of written literature: poetry, prose, and drama! It's nontraditional and unexpected, and I think you can do a lot with it. For bonus points, base them off of Bashō, Saikaku, and Chikamatsu. Google/Wiki the Genroku Era if you don't know what I mean.

For something slightly more traditional, there's always creation-destruction-preservation.

Coidzor
2009-08-19, 10:27 PM
They have saints or servitors to sort of serve as lesser deities to flesh out the domain racket?

ondonaflash
2009-08-19, 10:56 PM
The Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone! The maiden is beauty, passion, destruction, fire, and virtue, the mother is temperance, kindness, love, care, nature, earth, and life, and the Crone is time, wisdom, aging, death, decay, and fate. I can't remember what religion they represent

Coidzor
2009-08-20, 01:46 AM
The whole triplicate goddess/goddesses thing shows up in a number of religions of antiquity.