(yet another) Community Worldbuilding!

[LordChaos13]

yes, it is time for another world-building of epic proportions! (maybe)


I will be your Omnipotent RulerThread Collater and the guy suggesting all the things to vote on initially.

Rules:
I will post a vote with 2+ options, A week later or whenever I believe we have enough votes (whichever comes first) I will close voting and tally thing
At any time you can suggest a new option to be voted on, like say an Ice Biome when voting between Mountain and Plain Biomes.
You can add in bits and pieces of Canon (which are considered fact unless it directly interferes with the voting or another more popular bit of Canon) in the following format

Canon stuff:
Words here


So, to kick things off let us begin

How the world was made:
1) The Creator was born from nothing and shaped it into Everything.
2) Multiple Gods from another place arrived and began making stuff
3) Multiple gods formed from nothing, each one representing a specific aspect of Existence
4) The world is shaped by the belief of the sentients. They formed themselves and then around them came Creation. Humans formed plains, Elves forests etc.

Onto the voting

[Sabeki]

Going with 4.

[erictheredd]

I'm going to have to go with 2. number 4 feels like a bandwagon idea that robs religious systems in worlds of meaning. And if we focus on creation we may as well have some history on the creators.

[Alexkubel]

2 sounds like the community here.

[Sergeantbrother]

2 is the option I like most

[Thunderfist12]

#1: monotheistic worlds are usually very different from standard D&D worlds, especially if that god is all-powerful.

[ArlEammon]

2

Two seems good enough for me.

[The Witch-King]

I vote for option 3.

[D20ragon]

Option 2.
Because it leaves possibility open for a cosmos from whence the Gods came




http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/20.jpg (http://www.nodiatis.com/personality.htm)

[Malachi Lemont]

Option 2 seems like a good place to start - if the Gods came from another place, it begs the question- who created them? Unanswered questions always make for the best stories.

[Newcomer]

2 seems pretty close to a consensus, and I slightly (but only slightly) prefer it to the others at the moment. So I vote 2.

Suggestion for further voting: did all of the gods come from the same place, at the same time? Perhaps a few came at first, but more gods arrived at a later time from a different place, creating a bit more tension/conflict in the pantheon.

[Sergeantbrother]

2 seems pretty close to a consensus, and I slightly (but only slightly) prefer it to the others at the moment. So I vote 2.

Suggestion for further voting: did all of the gods come from the same place, at the same time? Perhaps a few came at first, but more gods arrived at a later time from a different place, creating a bit more tension/conflict in the pantheon.

What is the gods are wizards from another plane who started creating this universe as some kind of utopia to rule over? Then perhaps the wizards either started to disagree and eventually became enemies, or their original creator wizards had rivals from their home plane who discovered what they were doing and broke in to interfer.

[LordChaos13]

So two seems to pass as an overwhelming majority

So we have a Blank Slate, then an unknown number of beings step through into the new world
But how many are there?


Number and theme of the initial Gods:
a) 9 Gods, one for each Alignment
b) 4 Gods, one for each of the 4 states of matter (the elements, liquid solid, gas and plasma)
c) 3 gods, A trio representing 3 founding principles (eg. courage, wisdom, power but not necessarily those)
d) X Themeless gods, X is a second vote for an actual number
E) option A + Gods of natural phenomena eg wind water ice

As always feel free to suggest more

[Sergeantbrother]

I vote for d, I would prefer themeless gods who have complex personalities.

[ArlEammon]

I vote for d, I would prefer themeless gods who have complex personalities.

Uh, E?
Multiple gods of Natural Phenomenon plus one god of each alignment.

For instance, Air, Earth, Wind, Water, Thunder, Ice, etcetera + Lawful good, Lawful Evil etcetera.

[Meeky]

Myself, I'd go with D, if by "Themeless" you mean "Deities who don't necessarily prescribe to a specific alignment but are instead representative of broader ideologies such as Strife, Order, Freedom, Justice, Honor, Terror, Hope, etc." If you'd consider those to be themes, then call this F.

Essentially, I don't see any reason to limit deity number necessarily. This world could have a nigh-limitless number of deific spirits that embody certain aspects of the spiritual realm. Such ideologies as those given can be interpreted in a ton of different ways; Strife, for instance, could simply be construed as suffering, but it could also be construed as the process through which people and societies develop; societal evolution if you will. Justice could be true, real justice, but it could also be harsh and sometimes meaningless revenge.

In short: Use ideologies, use these higher concepts, but purposely refrain from giving the deities an alignment. Leave it ambiguous. That's my vote.

[Malachi Lemont]

I would like to combine C and D, but mostly D. I think a trio representing three distinct values would sort of act as the leaders of the world - and I also think having lots of minor deities (no specific number) with personalities would add flavor to the world.

[Malachi Lemont]

In short: Use ideologies, use these higher concepts, but purposely refrain from giving the deities an alignment. Leave it ambiguous. That's my vote.

Precisely.

[LordChaos13]

Please note these are the INITIAL gods.
More could arrive, be born, ascend etc.
Think the Titans from Greek mythology not Hercules or Zeus

[Amblehook]

Please note these are the INITIAL gods.

I would then like to throw my support behind option 3. As to the specifics of those three, I'm still unsure. Perhaps it could be two deities representing the extremes of an ideology and the third as a neutral balance.

[Meeky]

Oh, these are just the INITIAL gods?

In that case, yeah, Option C all the way. The infinite number of unique but lesser deities can come later; give us a lucky number. Three overdeities.

[Thunderfist12]

C is my favorite. Reminds me of the three godesses from Legend of Zelda.

[Newcomer]

Voting for d, and I think a number between 5 and 7 sounds about right. I like the whole thematic stuff, but as beings coming from a different place, I don't feel like they should initially "represent" an aspect of the world. They might grow into certain portfolios, perhaps, but I like the idea that the initial gods didn't exactly have a grand plan for the universe.. they just started wielding their (newfound?) powers.

[D20ragon]

Option c,but more gods later on.

[Shyftir]

C
Yes, three gods but make them fit some other form of alignment.
Light, Darkness, and their child Shadow maybe?

[TheFamilarRaven]

I say C, Strife, Anguish and Sorrow (synonems I know). They
created a world which they could oppress

[bryn0528]

Option B is my initial favorite, especially if it avoids just being a direct facsimile to the classical elements (fire for plasma, earth for matter). But, it seems at this point it seems that C is the winning vote, so I would like to suggest that the founding principles each represents a similar outlook. Actually, I like Matter (the physical), Thought (the abstract), and Fortune (the indifferent) as founding principles, so let's just go with that.

tl,dr; C.

[LordChaos13]

Wow I totally forgot about this :smallredface:
I must have accidently deleted the subscription and didnt check on it because I rely on subs to remind me


I'll tally the votes after I try and find my notes

[Thunderfist12]

... You forgot about the thread again, Lord Chaos.

[LordChaos13]

That really is a problem for me isnt it. At least I kept the sub?


Alright I always was better at winging it.


So C seems to have won.
We have 3 Gods stepping through from X into a blank world.
What do they represent?

a) Law, Chaos, Balance
b) Good, Evil, Balance
c) Charisma and Leadership, Personal might and the Knowledge of how to use both effectively
d) Any other suggestions, feel free

[Thunderfist12]

A. I vote for A.

Edit: Woohoo! First on page 2!

[D20ragon]

I like c,for it's unique-ness.
woohoo,first on page 2! aww,I was gonna say that.

[Benthesquid]

D) Plant, Animal, Fungus.

[DMwithoutPC's]

D:1. the concrete world
2. the abstract world
3. life

[LordChaos13]

I'm going to need a tiebreaker here

We have 1 vote each for 4 different options

[Alexkubel]

can I say A

[LordChaos13]

Yes you can. though I really dislike leaving something down to a single vote so Imma leave this open another 2 days. If no-one else votes or it is still A then I'll move onto the next round