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prufock
2013-06-24, 10:17 AM
Hey all, I'm working on a new setting for my home games, which is going to based around the number 6 - there are six nations, six races, six planes, six gods, etc, and it's an E6 setting. I've narrowed down the number of planes and gods because the current system has so much bloat and I want to simplify (it's 3.5, but the system is not really important to this question).

So basically I'm looking for suggestions on names for all these things, but more specifically the planes and gods. I'm not above borrowing from other sources, but I want them to be sort of broad concepts.

"Planes" in this system are hard-to-reach part of the physical world, not alternate dimensions the way D&D treats them by default. Think Mount Olympus and Styx from Greek mythology or - more modernly - the Grey Islands from Lord of the Rings. You can literally reach the other planes by walking, swimming, climbing, whatever.

The domains will be put into one or more category so that all domains can be available despite the limited number of gods.

The basics of the planes and their gods so far are not fleshed out, but it's sort of a "grey" setting where each can be thought of in positive or negative terms. While they may be tagged with alignment descriptors, alignment will not be as cut and dry in this setting as in default D&D.

1. Good plane/good god - I'm thinking of stealing Olympus for this one, a huge mountain that must be climbed to the top. Altruism, charity, etc are the important things to this plane. Subsumes parts of all the good planes as well as the positive energy plane.

2. Lawful plane/lawful god - not much on this one yet, except that it adheres to the letter of the law, social order, etc. Mechanus, arcadia, etc are rolled into this one. The god here is a type of cosmic judge.

3. Evil plane/evil god - I'm thinking of stealing the name Hell, possibly shortened to Hel in the Norse way. Favours those who strive for self-improvement, which can be seen as taking advantage of others. Negative energy and parts of the abyss, hell, and so on are rolled into this.

4. Chaotic plane/chaotic god - I'm thinking that this will be the deepest part of the forest, and will be a Feywild (in fact I think I'll steal that name) type place. Passion, freedom, unrestricted urges are the key points here.

5. Neutral plane/neutral god - Balance, knowledge, and fairness are the keys of this plane. The god may be seen as uncaring by some, or as just and fair by others. This may be a "transitional" part of the world that you have to go through to get to ANY of the other planes - maybe by sea, maybe a desert that you have to cross, replacing the astral and etheral planes.

6. Natural plane/natural god(s) - This is the basic material plane, where mortals dwell. I believe I'm going to use Gaia as the god(dess)'s name, and possibly for the plane itself, but that isn't set in stone. It's a type of pantheism - every rock, tree, etc is part of Gaia and are extensions of herself, though they may be treated as distinct, interconnected entities. This plane subsumes the elemental planes.

Suggestions on names, locales, and whatever else are welcome!

Kitten Champion
2013-06-24, 04:26 PM
1. Good - Eryushion/Erymanthos

2. Lawful - Arteviah/Artemia

3. Evil - Karr/Karkinos

4. Chaotic - Kerivah/Kervius

5. Neutral - Mehshion/Mehelos

6. Natural - Atalah/Atalanius

Just throwing names out.

You might want to suggest a linguistic feel you're going for. People don't randomly assign names to things, and the names themselves follow some logical scheme even if they've been translated and mangled quite a bit over the years.

Avaris
2013-06-24, 07:43 PM
Ok, because I like coming up with cosmologies, here are my thoughts based on what you've said. Take as much or as little as you want!

At the centre of the known world stands Mount Helios, the seat of all that is pure and 'good' in creation. Here, enthroned, is the Lady of Light. A being of pure positive energy, she turns her gaze upon the world, beneath which all life flourishes and grows. She cannot look everywhere at once, so the light moves across the land, creating night and day as she turns from place to place. It is said that in ages past she civilisations existed that offended her so much that she refused to look upon them, and all things whithered and died. For now though, many are inspired to seek out the mountain, cleansing their souls through charitable deeds pleasing to the Lady of Light so as to not be consumed by her firey gaze.

Basically, the sun appears to be above the mountain at all times, but only shines across part of the world at any one point in the day. People would likely tell time of day not by where the sun is in the sky, but by how bright it is (i.e, where is she looking?). Could easily encorporate things like the story of Icarus into stories about trying to reach the mountain

Despite her mountain heights, the skies are not the domain of the Lady of Light. Instead, these are claimed by the Watcher, called by some the Lord of Time and by others the Great Judge, who roams the sky in his great mechanical ship, Mundus. Although it is forever moving through the sky and shifting in shape, Mundus is tied to a pattern said to be so complex that only the Lord of Time himself can understand all its permutations. It is as regular as clockwork, and is the home of all law and order. The Great Judge watches all, and dispatches his servants to the world below to reward those he favours... Or to bring justice where it is lacking.

the moon. Given the sun is static, I though it would be cool to have another plane that is moving in a constant, regular pattern

Far from the mountain, away from the gaze of the Lady of Light and the interest of the Watcher, is Hel. It is the fringes of the world, of reality itself, for all other reality is laid atop it. It is said that if you walk far enough into Hel you will find other realities, other islands in the cosmic darkness that exists away from the light. Yet this realm is not anathema to creation, nor does it strive to destroy it. The wise realise that all of reality is simply echoes of Hel, which is the embodiment of the yearn for self-improvement, and what is creation if not an improved form of nothingness? The one who dwells here is called by some The First, by others Father and yet others Mother. It created all that is for it's own unknowable reasons, and it longs to see those who dwell there carve out their own destinies, to compete and make themselves better at the expense of others. Only when one form has improved itself enough to conquer all will the darkness know that it's own strive for improvement is complete.

bit of a strange one this. I'm very much making this up as I go along! I figure Hel is what you reach if you turn your back on Helios and keep walking, so it is the edge of reality. This naturally led to the creation myth! All of reality, including the other planes, was created from Hel by The First, but no-one really knows why, and The First is not necassarily a benevolent creator... At least not to those who haven't earned it.

And then we come to the realm of mortals, which sits between Helios and Hel, under the vigilant gaze of The Watcher. Gaia is known by sages as the realm of the Shattered God, for it is here that a now unknown and forgotten deity broke itself into a million million pieces, so as to give life to mortals and the world around us. Shards of Gaia are everywhere, in every rock and every stream, and even in our very souls. In holy places these shards collect and speak, memories of a long dead God which now serve as guardian spirits and guides in their own right.

Simple pantheism. The Shattered God is long dead, so the remains exist as lesser deities that are worshipped or otherwise on a smaller scale

No-one knows why Gaia was shattered, but some speculate that it was to keep the final two realms apart. The Huntmaster, called by some the Lord of Misrule and Chaos rules the Feywild, which can be reached by losing oneself in the maze of the deepest forests. He is opposed by The Sleeper Queen of the Tranquil Spaces found in the deepest deserts and beneath the waves, and also reachable in dreams by those who know the way. The Huntmaster's passion and urge for freedom forever play on the waking hours of those who live on Gaia, while the Sleeper offers wisdom, calm and balance to those at rest.

Chaos and Balance seem more interesting to oppose than Chaos and Law. I made the Realm of Tranquil Spaces accessible by dreams due to the desire to link to the astral/ethereal, which has a bonus of making the Feywild different to normal realms of chaos (I can't see the illusions and dreams normally associated with the fae having a place here!)

Well, there you go, one cosmology. I wrote rather more than planned, so hope it is of some use!

lsfreak
2013-06-24, 08:55 PM
You might want to suggest a linguistic feel you're going for. People don't randomly assign names to things, and the names themselves follow some logical scheme even if they've been translated and mangled quite a bit over the years.

To expand a bit, gods tends to have names that transparently meant something else, and were adopted to represent the god. Over time, the original word and the name for the god undergo separate linguistic development (a new word will pop up for the original word, but the original word's use as the name for the god stay). Jupiter, Zeus, Dispater, Tyr, Deva etc all come from "dyeus (phter)," literally "(Father) Sky."

My suggestion if you want something that sounds more consistent is to pick out descriptive terms like Dark, Light, Nature, Chaos, pick a semi-obscure language, take direct translations with maybe a couple alterations. For example:
Good: Anateps
Law: Tanmimde
Evil: Shavi
Chaos: Miukhevelur
Neutral: Natsrisperi
Natural: Kvelapir

Kornaki
2013-06-24, 08:59 PM
My suggestion if you want something that sounds more consistent is to pick out descriptive terms like Dark, Light, Nature, Chaos, pick a semi-obscure language, take direct translations with maybe a couple alterations. For example:
Good: Anateps
Law: Tanmimde
Evil: Shavi
Chaos: Miukhevelur
Neutral: Natsrisperi
Natural: Kvelapir

Or go for a less obscure language

Gottie, the lord of all that is good and pure in the world
Lou, lord of law and order
Chase, lord of discord
Evelyn, lord of the seven hells
and Natalie, goddess of nature and protector of the mortal realm from the meddling of the other gods

Kitten Champion
2013-06-25, 12:20 AM
Come to think of it, you could just do without the proper nouns and simply make them a title. As lsfreak said, that's more or less how these names came to be in the first place - we just exists outside of that context where the etymology is readily apparent.

So,

Good - The brilliant radiance, the fount of benevolence, the merciful one.
Lawful - The noble heart, the fount of wisdom, the one who judges.
Evil - The ruination of spirit, the fount of despair, the unspeakable one.
Neutral - The immutable gem, the fount of temperance, the still one.
Nature - The continuous flow, the fount of vitality, the one who embraces.
Chaos - The eternal storm, the fount of liberty, the impetuous one.

The names, technically, would be whatever language your fantasy civilization speaks. What their true names, as in what they call themselves could either be unknown, blasphemous to utter, or possibly bring literal ill fortune upon the speaker by having that god's disagreeable attention upon them.

prufock
2013-06-25, 07:00 AM
Thanks for these ideas. Using reverse etymology is what I do when I make PCs, so that should work well for gods as well, I'll just use a less common language. I will probably pick and choose some of Avaris' ideas as well.

Avaris
2013-06-25, 07:56 AM
Thanks for these ideas. Using reverse etymology is what I do when I make PCs, so that should work well for gods as well, I'll just use a less common language. I will probably pick and choose some of Avaris' ideas as well.

I'd be interested to see what you come up with. The base ideas you had were a strong enough foundation for me to write the above with very little thought, so it will be good to see what happens with development from the overall ideas you have, as I'm sure it'll be more developed than what I did!

Ashtagon
2013-06-25, 07:59 AM
Good - Tayba
Evil - Hazin
Law - Imsakkra
Chaos - Bidla
Neutral - Stess
Nature - Hadra

When in doubt, pick an obscure language.