Give me some nonstandard Gods

[Trask]

I am developing a cool little religion in a new mini setting im working on called The Church of Forgotten Saints. Why forgotten? Because an apocalypse like plague broke the back of the empire and many of the most learned fled the lands. So most of the formal knowledge of the Saints was lost and had to be reconstructed with bits and pieces of lore, and in some cases Saints were combined Egyptian style. Why Saints and not Gods? Idk its cool and it evokes a certain kind of verbal aesthetic thats appealing to me.

My idea for these Saints is for them to be somewhat nonstandard and perhaps a bit weird. Not cthulhu weird, but I had an idea of them not being all just larger humans with some special features. For example, a six armed, efreet looking Saint of war. A jackal headed, robed Saint of knowledge and art. A woman with hair and eyes of flame of light and purity. Stuff like this, I think im decently creative most gods ive ever made have basically just been the same sort of gods of agriculture, war, magic all evoking a very plain and predictable aesthetic. Im looking to the fine folk here for help making a (small) catalog of Saints that have a bit of a strange, or at least nonstandard touch. Limiting purely human looking gods and lawful neutral burly smith gods of the forge and creation.

[Potato_Priest]

A god of agriculture who has a multi-headed yuan ti shape, but with worm heads.

[GorinichSerpant]

A man with a mosquito head and cricket legs. He conducts a concert in the swamp at night.

A great warrior who lost all his appendages except an arm and a thumb. No one has ever bested him in battle.

A tiger-headed girl with a single eye and rabbit ears. She's the patron of carvers of wooden toys and hopscotch.

A goblin with cockroach wings and rat tails for hair. He's orchestrates the music of bustling markets.
His father the mosquito-headed-guy is greatly disappointed in him.

A constantly creaking chair. It laughs because it's in on the divine joke.

A man who's blue right hand spins rain clouds together and who's red left hand smashes winds into existence. His lower half is that of a lizard.

A person with a incredibly long arm which ends in a hand that has embers at the tip. The patron of lamplighters.

The hands of a once great hero/villain who tried to drink from the fountain of immortality. He was slain just as he was dipping his hands in the pond, thus his hands became immortal.

A beautiful maiden made out of glass. She is sad because she can't hug anyone without giving them many miniscule wounds.

The Old Lady who politely but sternly told Death that it wasn't yet her time. Time doesn't let Death live that one down. Life also prefers to avoid the stubborn old hag when possible.

An athlete who just so high that they became a constellation.

A hermit who is currently meditating at the bottom of a great lake that was once a valley long ago. Signs show that he is still alive and well down there. He's good friends with the chair.

A goose who breathes out poison and fire, whose feathers are made of razors and whose beak is said to have broken the previous world.

[redwizard007]

A man with a mosquito head and cricket legs. He conducts a concert in the swamp at night.

A great warrior who lost all his appendages except an arm and a thumb. No one has ever bested him in battle.

A tiger-headed girl with a single eye and rabbit ears. She's the patron of carvers of wooden toys and hopscotch.

A goblin with cockroach wings and rat tails for hair. He's orchestrates the music of bustling markets.
His father the mosquito-headed-guy is greatly disappointed in him.

A constantly creaking chair. It laughs because it's in on the divine joke.

A man who's blue right hand spins rain clouds together and who's red left hand smashes winds into existence. His lower half is that of a lizard.

A person with a incredibly long arm which ends in a hand that has embers at the tip. The patron of lamplighters.

The hands of a once great hero/villain who tried to drink from the fountain of immortality. He was slain just as he was dipping his hands in the pond, thus his hands became immortal.

A beautiful maiden made out of glass. She is sad because she can't hug anyone without giving them many miniscule wounds.

The Old Lady who politely but sternly told Death that it wasn't yet her time. Time doesn't let Death live that one down. Life also prefers to avoid the stubborn old hag when possible.

An athlete who just so high that they became a constellation.

A hermit who is currently meditating at the bottom of a great lake that was once a valley long ago. Signs show that he is still alive and well down there. He's good friends with the chair.

A goose who breathes out poison and fire, whose feathers are made of razors and whose beak is said to have broken the previous world.


Wow! I haven't been this high in ages.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Came to reference The Word for World is Forest...


A goose who breathes out poison and fire, whose feathers are made of razors and whose beak is said to have broken the previous world.

...stayed because this guy clearly has first-hand experience of geese! Curse those feathered bastards...

[Trask]

"A goose who breathes out poison and fire, whose feathers are made of razors and whose beak is said to have broken the previous world."

So a normal goose?

But yeah all these are great for inspiration. I think that these kinds of deities can be really good to use, especially for players who are tired of Pelor types.

[Pronounceable]

Saint of Chamberpots. Three guesses what he looks like.

Saint of Wine. One gigantic grape bleeding and weeping wine through massive gashes and empty eyesockets covering the skin.

Saint of Animal Husbandry. A dozen floating dongs from various farm animals orbiting each other.

Saint of Warmth. Tiny sheep made of fire constantly crapping highest quality wool.

Saint of Killers. Giant walking tree with a hundred corpses dangling on hangman nooses.

Saint of Sun. Wreath of sunflowers crawling on tentacly roots.

Saint of Birds. A cat with dove wings. Probably also knows the Chair.

[Hillsy7]

Geoff, the god of biscuits....
Simon, the god of hairdos.......


I'm so sorry, I couldn't resist....:smallbiggrin:

[The Glyphstone]

Bilous, the Oh God! of hangovers.

[Gwaednerth]

A massive, room-sized contraption composed of self-playing stringed instruments all strung across each other. It is the god of artifice and automata.

A god of subjectivity that looks, sounds, acts, etc. differently to each observer and about whom no two observers can resist bickering.

A god of the land who is an octopus (I mean, if humanlike gods can be the god of the sea...)

A flying anvil who is the deity of hilarious irony and impossible physics.

A flowing piece of silk that suggests a nondescript form pressed against it; perhaps a face, perhaps a body, perhaps a beast... This would be a god of implication or suggestion

A terrible beast that looks like Cthulu mixed with Demogorgon mixed with some of those creepy deep sea fish, but that casts a shadow that looks like it belongs to a handsome/attractive youth. The god of metaphor and first impressions.

[Bohandas]

The goddess of "the moon and other useless rocks", she's shaped like a full moon and wears a stone hat.

[Potato_Priest]

A flying anvil who is the deity of hilarious irony and impossible physics.


Domain spell list MUST have both levitation and telekinesis.

[Dalinale]

A human-shaped entity made entirely of maggots that feasted during the last war between the gods. Is relatively weak, but is invulnerable to most forms of damage due to it's nature. It's individual maggoty components contain fragments of the memories and personality of the slain gods, and as such it's whims are unpredictable but occasionally are beneficial to mortal worshipers.

The moon; those are not craters covering it, but eye-sockets. A half-dead god of foresight and knowledge, it's war-form is eternally floating in space, acting against the wishes of the sun-gods by merely refusing to vanish.

The entire flayed epidermis of a elf, floating in the air like a sheet in the wind and usually depicted as clad in heavy robes. Her other half, a skinless humanoid, is a minor power of evil who removed her skin as a symbol to dedication to powers of evil that made such earthly pretensions unnecessary. The skin-sheet is usually portrayed as the god of redeemed evildoers.

[Max_Killjoy]

A goose who breathes out poison and fire, whose feathers are made of razors and whose beak is said to have broken the previous world.



...stayed because this guy clearly has first-hand experience of geese! Curse those feathered bastards...


I was going to say... so, this god is pretty much a normal goose on a slightly worse than average day?

[lightningcat]

One of the strangest gods I've ran across over the years was a Good god of precognition and assassination. His followers killed people that would cause great misery before they did so.

[tantric]

my favorite real world goddess, Mami Wata

priestesses of Mami Wata:

http://d19lga30codh7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/CLABAR-WOMEN.jpg


Mami Wata (Mammy Water) is venerated in West, Central, and Southern Africa, and in the African diaspora in the Americas. Mami Wata spirits are usually female, but are sometimes male.[1]

Appearance
The appearance of her hair ranges from straight, curly to kinky black and combed straight back.[2][3] "Mami Wata" where "Mami" is the Pidgin English spelling of mammy (mother) "Wata" is the Pidgin English spelling of water is essentially a mermaid or humanistic water entity.

Mami Wata is often described as a mermaid-like figure, with a woman's upper body (often nude) and the hindquarters of a fish or serpent.[4][5][6] In other tales, Mami Wata is fully human in appearance (though never human). The existence and spiritual importance of Mami Wata is deeply rooted in the ancient tradition and mythology of the coastal southeastern Nigerians (Efik, Ibibio and Annang people). Mami Wata often carries expensive baubles such as combs, mirrors, and watches. A large snake (symbol of divination and divinity) frequently accompanies her, wrapping itself around her and laying its head between her breasts. Other times, she may try to pass as completely human, wandering busy markets or patronising bars.[2] She may also manifest in a number of other forms, including as a man.[3][7][8][9] Traders in the 20th century carried similar beliefs with them from Senegal to as far as Zambia. As the Mami Wata traditions continues to re-emerge, native water deities were subsumed into it.[10]

Water
Traditions on both sides of the Atlantic tell of the spirit abducting her followers or random people whilst they are swimming or boating. She brings them to her paradisiacal realm, which may be underwater, in the spirit world, or both.[2] Should she allow them to leave, the travellers usually return in dry clothing and with a new spiritual understanding reflected in their gaze. These returnees often grow wealthier, more attractive, and more easygoing after the encounter.[3]

Van Stipriaan further reports that other tales describe river travellers (usually men) chancing upon the spirit. She is inevitably grooming herself, combing her hair, and peering at herself in a mirror. Upon noticing the intruder, she flees into the water and leaves her possessions behind. The traveller then takes the invaluable items. Later, Mami Wata appears to the thief in his dreams to demand the return of her things. Should he agree, she further demands a promise from him to be sexually faithful to her. Agreement grants the person riches; refusal to return the possessions or to be faithful brings the man ill fortune.[2]

Her worship is as diverse as her initiates, priesthood and worshippers,[10] although some parallels may be drawn. Groups of people may gather in her name, but the spirit is much more prone to interacting with followers on a one-on-one basis. She thus has many priests and mediums in both Africa, America and in the Caribbean who are specifically born and initiated to them.

In Nigeria, devotees typically wear red and white clothing, as these colors represent that particular Mami’s dual nature. Igbo iconography, red represents such qualities as death, destruction, heat, maleness, physicality, and power. In contrast, white symbolises death, but also can symbolize beauty, creation, femaleness, new life, spirituality, translucence, water, and wealth.[3] This regalia may also include a cloth snake wrapped about the waist.[10] The Mami Wata shrines may also be decorated in these colors, and items such as bells, carvings, Christian or Indian prints, dolls, incense, spirits, and remnants of previous sacrifices often adorn such places.[3][10]

Intense dancing accompanied by musical instruments such as African guitars or harmonicas often forms the core of Mami Wata worship. Followers dance to the point of entering a trance. At this point, Mami Wata possesses the person and speaks to him or her.[2] Offerings to the spirit are also important, and Mami Wata prefers gifts of delicious food and drink, alcohol, fragrant objects (such as pomade, powder, incense, and soap), and expensive goods like jewelry.[10] Modern worshippers usually leave her gifts of manufactured goods, such as Coca-Cola or designer jewelry.[2]

Nevertheless, she largely wants her followers to be healthy and well off.[3] More broadly, people blame the spirit for all sorts of misfortune. In Cameroon, for example, Mami Wata is ascribed with causing the strong undertow that kills many swimmers each year along the coast.

a few weeks back i was in the hospital and one of my nurses was from cameroon. we talked and talked about Mami Wata and the Duala people. he was utterly convinced that Duala shamans could turn into mermaids.

[tantric]

some more of my favs: the eight taoist immortals

the one i follow is Lan Caihe:

Lan Caihe (Chinese: 藍采和; pinyin: Lán Cǎihé; Wade–Giles: Lan Ts'ai-ho) is a Chinese mythological figure and one of the Eight Immortals in the Taoist pantheon. Their age and sex are not clearly defined. They are usually depicted as a boy or girl dressed in sexually ambiguous clothing and carrying a bamboo flower basket and/or a pair of bamboo castanets. Lan was said to have been in a drunken stupor when they left the human world by riding on a celestial swan or crane into Heaven. One legend says that they became an Immortal with the help of Sun Wukong, who transferred 500 years of magical powers to them.

https://ferrebeekeeper.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/lan-caihe.jpg

you can read about the rest of them on wikipedia Eight Immortals (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Immortals)

[The Glyphstone]

A quartet of four identical twin brother gods, all of whom answer to the name George. Together, they are a minor 'god' of war and fire.

[tantric]

and then there's gurps fantasy II - where the gods are gigantic maleficent characters from winnie the pooh. i kid you not. i'm assuming the following is fair usage


Bax Powu Kag (the Moose)

Bax Powu Kag is an odd sort of moose, with stubby legs, gray fur and (usually) no antlers. His face is long, his saucer-sized, staring eyes deep and mournful. He's fatter than a normal moose, lacks its characteristic goatee and doesn't seem to like swamps very much. Bax Powu Kag is more often found out in scrub plains than in the bog. In most stories he's about the size of a wavobak, though in a few he's smaller than even a normal moose, closer to the size of a young boar.

He's one of the less active gods; even storytellers profess to understand little about his purposes. He shows little interest in humankind, and is supposedly the hardest god for shamans to summon. In the small number of tales he's featured in, encounters with humans are invariably accidental, with people stumbling upon him in the woods. Often the heroes end up in serious trouble without Bax Powu Kag so much as noticing them. When encountered, Bax Powu Kag is usually minding his own business, grazing on bits of vegetation most real animals would find inedible.

Bax Powu Kag is known to exude an oppressive emotional aura, seizing all who come near him in a heavy web of despair. Contactees lose, temporarily or permanently, all of their mental defenses against the harsh realities of the Mad Lands. They start to feel sorry for themselves, lose hope for the future and become obsessed with the negative side of everything. Some who run into him remain rooted to the spot until they starve to death, convinced of the futility of any effort. Others attempt suicide. Victims of his aura can develop odd compulsions, relent- lessly repeating meaningless activities: they might spend hours trying to swat imaginary insects. GMs should determine the exact nature and duration of reac- tions to the presence of Bax Powu Kag based on the length of exposure, the needs of the storyline and degree of success at IQ rolls.

In a couple of stories, Bax Powu Kag speaks. He turns out to be much like those infected with his presence: gloomy, pessimistic and apathetic. In one story, Zo Do Wabda tries to gain shamanic powers from him by cheering him up; everything he does simply makes Bax Powu Kag more unhappy. Finally, he achieves his goal quite by accident - he throws away a broken arrow that the Moose finds fascinating. In exchange, he is given a remarkable power- the ability to make everyone around him pathetic and mournful. The effect cannot be turned off, so Zo Do Wabda eventually ends up living in self-enforced exile alone in the forest, lest he infect others with despair. Eventually he stumbles across Bax Powu Kag again, and they spend the rest of their days together in mutual self-pity.

There are stories of shamans with despair-inducing auras, so it is presumably possible for them to get power from the Moose.

[shawnhcorey]

Geoff, the god of biscuits....
Simon, the god of hairdos.......


I'm so sorry, I couldn't resist....:smallbiggrin:

Tyrion, the god of tits and wine.

(Neither could I. :smallbiggrin:)

[Max_Killjoy]

Tyrion, the god of tits and wine.

(Neither could I. :smallbiggrin:)

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/PHOTO/LARGE/tufted_titmouse_2.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/11/16/article-2508394-1974888900000578-954_634x335.jpg

[Benthesquid]

This is an image of the Saint of Sinners Redeemed. It depicts a great bull, bleeding from seven times seven wounds. The tail of the bull bears a serpent's head. It is said that one of the bull's horns drips with honey, and the other with gall. If you light a candle at the shrine of the Saint of Sinners Redeemed, you will dream of those you have done the greatest wrong.

This is an image of the Saint of Love Forgotten. It depicts a woman with the head of a mourning dove. The dove wears a crown of thorns, which have pierced its eyes. It is said that this Saint's voice is sweet enough to stop the sun in it's procession across the sky, and make the heavens weep healing tears. If you light a candle at the shrine of the Saint of Love Forgotten, you will find someone you have lost, or they will find you.

This is an image of the Saint of Dark and Lonely Places. It depicts a headless woman, with the legs of a hyena. The woman has an eye in the palm of her left hand, and a mouth in the palm of her right hand. It is said that this Saint foresees the past and remembers the future. If you light a candle at the shrine of the Saint of Dark and Lonely Places, you will find paths open to you that you have never noticed before.

[Bohandas]

*a combination of khepera and atlas that rolls the planet through space around the sun

*an obese deity known as "The LARD" (Instead of "The LORD", get it?)

EDIT:
Also, since others have also brought up stuff from existing traditions, in the satrirical Church of the SubGenius one of the running gags is that the stylized low resolution image of messianic figure Bob Dobbs (aka "The Saint of Sales") that appears on much of their literature is actually high resolution and only appears lo-res because Bob really is made out of circular pixels

[AuraTwilight]

The Unborn Infant. An undead godchild akin to an Atropal, except it's Neutral Good and has all the stock "benevolent god" domains like healing and protection. The divine child was stillborn and never got to live, and through this tragedy dedicated it's half-existence to making sure this never happens again, and making life as good as possible for those who are already here.

[tantric]

and if you're really scraping the bottom of the barrel for nonstandard gods (statistically speaking), i'll tell you about those i actually serve, Coincidence Control Central up in their n-dimensional cislunar station. but i don't think we need to go there just yet....

[Telok]

http://www.random-generator.com/index.php?title=Fantasy_Pantheon

Joquinnia, the Goddess of Loss, takes on the guise of a small viper snake with the head of a forest gnome.
Aylak, the God of Fear, sometimes takes on the shape of a chained lord holding a disk.
Cherarrah, Goddess of Protection and Mother of Trickery, who usually is seen as an unsociable young woman with eyes like a spider.
Kathya, Goddess of the Deep and the Elegiac Goddess, visible to mortals only as a serene nun.
Weynathan, God of Knowledge and Protector of craftsmans, having the form of a brute with feathers like a bird, holding a scroll.
Etha, Goddess of Thieves and Song and Dance, having the form of a young woman screaming madly.
Corborn, the God of Healing and Father of the Gods, traditionally assumes the guise of an insane monk.
Emagusette, Lady of the Sea, traditionally appears in visions as an indignant woman holding a trumpet.
Agawyr, the God of Betrayal and the Stars, who takes the appearance of a huge dire bat.
Garmir, the God of Victory and the New God, often takes the guise of a child with a fin like a shark, holding a candle.
Brittira, the Goddess of Volcanoes and Lies, is seen in dreams as a woman with the head of a goblin, crushing a dagger.
Bercim, the God of Caverns, who is seen in visions as an old man with horns like a rhinoceros.

[Zale]

There's a thread over in the RPGnet forum (https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?18026-necro-from-2002-Nobilis-CHALLENGE!) that's one of those forum game type things revolving around making Imperators for Nobilis.

You could probably mine that for ideas.

Here's one of my posts from the thread:


Money is the life-blood of a living, breathing thing. It is the power of perception at it's finest, the embodiment of a shift in understanding, a change in orientation- it turns worthless metal, pointless paper into something of value, of worth. Keys are much the same way, completely worthless without their shape, without their intent. Oriented wrong, turned wrong, they do nothing and have no worth.

And as for maids.. They flock to the power of money, the embodiments of wealth- By trick and shift, nothing is turned into loyal service, into symbiosis. Money for work, work for money. They hum along like cells in blood, like bees in a hive, animating something vaster than they could ever know.

The being behind this power, the face behind the mask, the heart behind the flow is called Ullsebenth, or more recently, Miss Green Smiling. She is one of the ancients, one of the True Gods of creation.

She lives in the flow of dollars, in the shift if digits, in the clink of coins. She lives behind eyes and ears, crouches in the depths of the brain, teaching it's reality, rather than her own. She offers the key to the minds of others, the ability to encompass all perspectives and orientations of thought.

When Miss Green Smiling walks the earth, it is in the form of a maid with a bright green dress, who leaves dollars and coins in her wake; and, all her fingers are keys.

She never stops smiling.

[Bohandas]

Church of the Subgenius pantheon and beastiary (warning. contains some instances of coarse language) (https://web.archive.org/web/20160908224954/http://www.poee.org/documents/Other_Religions/Church_of_the_SubGenius/Dictionary_of_the_Gods.htm) - This is also where my screen name comes from

[Benthesquid]

This is an image of the Saint of Fires in the Darkness. It depicts a young man wearing a crown of thirteen tapers, which have melted down to cover his face in a waxen mask. It is said that this flames of this Saint's crown will burn out on the first day of the Last Summer. If you light a candle at the shrine of the Saint of Fires in the Darkness, you will find warmth and light, although perhaps not a source or in a form you will recognize.

[Zorku]

An armless goddess that is the patron of juggling and sleight of hand. Followers are split roughly equally between belief that she has invisible antlers, whether such antlers would technically count as tentacles, or whether both ideas are for idiots obviously she can juggle and sleight of hand without arms because she is a god/saint.

Domain include mage hand, and most notable artifacts break action economy in ways that aren't practical for abuse in combat. Introduce them to player at your own risk.


One legend says that they became an Immortal with the help of Sun Wukong, who transferred 500 years of magical powers to them.
Still strikes me as weird how a religion will sweep through that part of the world, incorporating the ideas of the religions that came before it, only to have those religions incorporate it back into themselves.