101 Gods

[Ranting Fool]

(Might be in the wrong section)

Hey guys in an upcoming campaign I'm planning on having a vast amount of minor Gods rather then the standard 3.5 ones or some of the ones listed in some of the source books (partly because I really do want to have tons and partly because my players have difficulty remembering the more archaic names from the setting books) but I want to give as much character and life to the different Gods as possible and any help is always welcome.

Any and all Gods welcome if you lot have any deities that you feel would enrich any campaign.

(3.5 rules. Any domain fine)

[Zero grim]

My setting has the seven sins encroaching as the evil gods, being able to worship a sin is simple.

and of course there is always Sithrak

[Platymus Pus]

I suggest Dionysus a greek god.
Fairly minor.

[QuintonBeck]

Elemental gods and goddesses are always good ones (air, earth, fire, water)

If you truly want a multitude you could split them up into smaller categories rivers vs seas vs lakes for water for instance.

You might be crossing into "spirit" more than god at this point but you could even have it be smaller scale still with Lady(ies) of the Lake(s), River Lords, etc. for specific bodies of water within an area.

[LOTRfan]

Bjartr, God of the Sea and of Joy

The story is definitely going to need some refluffing, but feel free to use the deity is you like.

Many eons ago, when the world was still young and freshly created, there was a young god. Unlike the other gods, he had not created anything. Instead, he preferred to gallivant across the whole of reality, going between worlds and making merry with the creations of the gods. He would dance between sudden strikes of elemental energy in the Maelstrom, watch the beauty of the realm of the faeries, and roam the mortal world. The other gods, still heavy at work finishing the rest of the multiverse, saw the joy-filled god, named Bjartr, as lazy. He preferred to think that out of all the gods, he was the one who best gave Creation the appreciation it deserved.

He continued his journeys for countless millennia, taking in every new sight the multiverse graced him with. He became known to cultures across the planes as The Wanderer, a being of mighty power who brought joy and celebration with him wherever he went. And yet, even with the love and adoration of millions, Bjartr felt empty. Caught in the moment of his drinking and merry-making, he had a sense of belonging and companionship, but reality would always hit the next morning. People couldn’t party forever, after all, and soon enough he would grow bored after the return of the status quo. The cycle of partying and the resulting self-exile would continue for many centuries more, until he met the elven warrior Falfna.

Legend says that Bjartr was wandering the Faerie Realm when he chanced upon an incursion of hobgoblins from the Mortal World. They had savaged a settlement of high elves, and were planning on performing the vilest of tortures and other actions upon the survivors. Bjartr, angered by what he saw, began to walk down into the valley to stop the violence when an arrow soared past his head. The arrow dug itself into a weak spot in the armor of the hobgoblin leader, and then his neck. Shocked and angered by what had just occurred, the raiders turned to see the archer who had slew their leader, and Bjartr himself turned to gaze upon the skilled warrior.

And there she was. Releasing an arrow with the most precise aim he had ever witnessed, the warrior Falfna cracked the skull of another. And another. The hobgoblins scattered, some taking up bows of their own as others scrambled atop their wargs. Further down the road, a company of elvish cavalrymen rode into battle, further shattering the hobgoblins’ forces. Even with all the bloodshed occurring around him, Bjartr focused on this woman. After felling three more of the goblinoids, she jumped further into the valley, taking down several more with a combination of elegant daggerwork and point-blank archery.

Falfna wasn’t nearly as beautiful as some of the nymphs he had been with, nor could she be considered very attractive by elvish standards, but there was something about her that was absolutely magnetic. And that was her skill, her bravery, and above all else her passion. Bjartr could feel the glee emanating off of her as she cut the bonds of the captured high elves, and it was... enthralling. He had to talk to this woman. At that point, the hobgoblins were in full retreat. It was then that he revealed himself to the elvish company, using his powers to raise many of the fallen and reconstruct the town. A great celebration was held for the defeat of the hobgoblins that night, and before it was over he found himself bedding the her.

He felt strange afterwards; whereas normally he would have began his journey to the next sight to see, he himself unable to leave just yet. He asked her to come with him, so that they could spend the rest of her life together. She refused him, the first of three such refusals. When asked why, she explained that she would always choose her people over the young god’s life of constant adventure. She was content with what her life was, and that concept was alien to him. He respected her wishes, and continued his adventures without her. All the same, part of his mind never truly left Falfna, watching over her and the town as the rest of his being traveled all of reality.

As the years went on, the hobgoblin presence in the valley grew larger, and soon they built a village of their own among the crags. The newly married Falfna continued to serve as the scout in her company, fighting alongside her commander and lover Einhri. The pair would perform acts of such strategic genius that they would become immortalized in the lore of the Alfar. Those tales are for another time, however, for as epic as those battles were, they were sadly overshadowed by the tragedy that was the Fall of Einhri.

The war was not going in the favor of the hobgoblins, and, fearing for their lives, the goblinoids planned a desperate attempt to put an end to what they saw as their oncoming extinction. The hobgoblins’ war council revealed to its citizens a plan to enact a ritual that would reopen the portal they had used to come to the Faerie Realm, and use it to bring in more reinforcements from the Mortal World. Word soon leaked to the high elves, which was exactly what the hobgoblin leadership had hoped for. Einhri gathered a force of three hundred elves, and marched to battle. When they arrived at the glade, there wasn’t a hobgoblin in sight. That’s when the howling began.

Coming from all directions, the hobgoblins came in on a new breed of war warg. The first of the heavily muscled canines bit into the neck of Einhri’s horse, killing the animal and sending him tumbling from its saddle. Other wargs quickly followed, dampening the fields with the blood of screaming elves and braying horses. The battle was short, lasting less than an hour, and it left over half of the elvish army dead or dying. Einhri stood surrounded by the bodies of twenty hobgoblins he had personally slain, challenging any who dared to approach him. Falfna stood by him, so even those who did wish to approach often didn’t get close enough before they were bitten by metal.

They stood side by side, killing sixty hobgoblins and over a dozen wargs, but this was not enough to turn the tide of battle. They called for a withdrawal, and were the last of the elves to flee. This may have been a grave mistake on their part, as Einhri fell to a flurry of bolas, his arms and legs bound. Turning and realizing her husband was being captured, Falfna fired arrow after arrow. Though many were killed, they were still able to land a mortal blow. He died in her arms, and she wept. Right then, as she clutched Einhri’s body, the god that she had known over ten years ago revealed himself to her again.

Bjartr had been jealous of Einhri, and was enraged when he had first seen him and Falfna together. Though he never acted on it, that rage had simmered over the years, and he had no love for his love’s spouse. But at the same time, his love for Falfna outweighed his hatred for Einhri. He offered to bring her fallen husband back from the dead, in the same condition she had seen him the morning before the battle had started. Weeping harder now, she refused one of Bjartr’s offers for the second time. When asked why, she explained that as painful as it was to have lost her love, his martyrdom would strengthen the resolve of the elves. She knew in her heart that they would be destined to meet again, together in the afterlife, so she was willing to endure the pain until that day.

Though Einhri’s death did indeed fuel the desire to finish the war in the elves, the chaos caused by the death of their leader prolonged the conflict. The war would continue for another three bloody years, in which atrocities were committed by both sides. Just as it was before his death, however, the elves found themselves slowly gaining the upper hand in the conflict. The last battle to be fought occurred in the fields just outside the hobgoblin king’s main fortress, with Falfna leading the charge. It was said that, on that day, Falfna fought in ways that no mortal had ever done before, and that she rode atop a great phoenix mount, picking off hundreds with her magical bow.

Had things been allowed to continue, the elves would have most assuredly would have prevailed, but it was not meant to be. The phoenix was a very easy target, and it was ultimately pierced by one too many arrows. The noble creature gave out a loud shriek as it started plummeting to the ground, its form already starting to smolder as its rejuvenation process was beginning. The phoenix was too high to survive jumping from, so Falfna resigned herself to her fate. Even as her mount burst into a ball of fire, she spent her final moments ending the lives of as many hobgoblins as she possibly could. Mere moments after, her charred remains smote the ground like a tip of lead against paper.

Bjartr held her corpse close to him as the battle raged around him. He stood there for a long time, not reacting at all as stray arrows harmlessly hit and bounced off of his divine form. And after hours of staying in that position, he let out a wail so loud and so filled with sorrow that the entire battle ceased so that the combatants could watch him. Most were confused, though they wouldn’t have been if they had witnessed Bjartr’s initial reactions upon arriving at the site of her corpse. For when he first arrived, he grasped the remains, and attempted to resurrect his unrequited love. And so the third refusal came to pass.

Why exactly Falfna’s soul refused to return to the life, no one knows. Some believe that, upon meeting her long lost husband in the afterlife, she was so overcome with joy that she decided she would never leave him again. Others believe that she chose not to allow herself to be resurrected because she did not want to be indebted to someone who had repeated expressed strong feelings for her. While it will never be known with certainty why she stayed dead, the results of her death changed the world forever. For Bjartr’s wailing soon became sobbing, and his sobbing soon became violent crying.

Bjartr wept for so long that the valley soon became drowned in his tears, and the water level continued to rise. He wept so much that his tears came to fill all of the lowest valleys of all of the Material World, filling the Mortal World, the Faerie Realm, and the Shadow with their first oceans. Though it was by accident, and though it was only the result of a great tragedy, Bjartr had finally created something for himself; the warring high elves and the hobgoblins who found themselves drowning in the Wanderer’s tears were transformed. The high elves became the aquatic elves, and the hobgoblins became the amphibious koalinth. The few humans who were in the area at the time of the Great Weeping too were transformed, becoming the first mermaids.

When he first came out of his incoherent state, the Wanderer was filled with rage, and very nearly eradicated the koalinths. Watching as they cowered under him, however, he realized that they were not just evil creatures who had reveled in the suffering of the elves; both sides had encouraged the conflict, and that was something that had to stop. Bjartr took claim over the new domain he had created, proclaiming himself Protector of the Seas, and laid out a set of rules that he expected all of his followers to obey, including an armistice between the aquatic elves and the koalinths that still exists to this day. It is said that when you listen to the sound of waves in a sea shell, it is actually Bjartr singing to the soul of his beloved Falfna, who remains forever out of his grasp.

[JusticeZero]

Well, what is the story and relationships of your core pantheon? It's best not to work from a list but rather from an origin story. Then you can have a feel for what the staff and hangers-on would resemble.

[Ranting Fool]

Well, what is the story and relationships of your core pantheon? It's best not to work from a list but rather from an origin story. Then you can have a feel for what the staff and hangers-on would resemble.

Campaign isn't for a few months (Still finishing off the current one) but I'm starting work on a rather large scale and fleshed out world (Rather then my last two that started small and had bits slapped on as I thought of them)

So not 100% sure on the Pantheon, though was thinking more along the lines of "The old Gods (5-7 or so) went to war which they all lost and had their essences shattered into many smaller aspects" It's mostly a vague idea at the moment.

@LOTRfan, Quite a bit of background cheers :D

[JusticeZero]

Well, once you have that figured out, the creation bit is easier. I have built a few pantheons in the past, and it works a lot better from the exact opposite side of the equation than starting from random gods. Once you understand the theology, the origin and role, and what role the priests play, suddenly the whole pantheon practically builds itself.

[Gigas Breaker]

Save a spot for Lemmy.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Lemmy-02.jpg

[ranagrande]

Follow the links to find thousands of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deities

[Seclora]

My setting has the seven sins encroaching as the evil gods, being able to worship a sin is simple.

and of course there is always Sithrak
Conversely, you can run the Virtues as good gods.

I wonder what his Alignment would be? True Neutral maybe?




There's also the Archdukes of Hell(Asmodeus, Etc...) and their demon equivalents, and Exalted Deeds has got some Angelic Equivalents you could use as semi-gods too if needed.

[Thanatosia]

There's always Banjo and Giggles, and their eternal Battle of Pie consumption.

[GilesTheCleric]

The different published settings already have hundreds of gods, all with domains, portfolios, weapons, and everything else already statted out. It might be easiest to just take a list of those, re-name or re-fluff a few that don't make sense, and run with that. Grab crystalkeep's list of all of the deities to make it easier on yourself. See also FaP, PlH, FoE, CD, DaD, and DotF for most of the fluff.

If you want gods with a little bit more fluff already added, try the list of living greyhawk deities - it has a paragraph or two about each deity in addition to their vital stats.