Gods Are Real (2020's+)

[ArlEammon]

Great Old Ones And Outer Gods
Hyborian And Thulian Gods
The Valar
Krynnic, Torilic and Oerth Gods
The Immortals

Basically, the setting is Earth in an alternate universe where Gods from Dungeons and Dragons, Middle Earth, the Conan/Kull setting, and Lovecraft's works all coexist equally together. The idea is that magic is returning after a long waning phase. It never went away entirely, but it's been weaker for hundreds of years. Ever since the 1600's, magic has been returning slowly but surely to it's former glory. Countless gods have been destroyed by various threats over the millenia, and the powers of Hyborian/Thulian, Valar, Krynnic, Torilic, Oerth gods and Immortals are what mortals are clinging to in order to survive the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods. Archdevils and Archdemons also exist, but they aren't the focus of the setting's cosmology. (If you don't know what I mean by Immortal, I'm referring to the semi-deific peoples of the Mystaran Setting, only in this setting, all the Immortals are locals from Earth).

At the moment, the setting is going through an important transition between low magic, to high magic. Soon, an Elf, Dwarf, etcetera, might be your next door neighbor. The setting play will come in three phases. Pre-Apocalyptic, Post-Apocalyptic, and New World. Basically, I'm thinking of causing this to be a Dungeons and Dragons setting. As of the Post Apocalyptic Setting, various new Immortals will be either cooperating or competing in order to form their own protective societies and stave off anarchy and Fallout like conditions from over coming the world.

So. . . how can I reconcile this with a D20 setting? There won't be much of a need for swords with an AK-47 handy.

[khadgar567]

Great Old Ones And Outer Gods
Hyborian And Thulian Gods
The Valar
Krynnic, Torilic and Oerth Gods
The Immortals

Basically, the setting is Earth in an alternate universe where Gods from Dungeons and Dragons, Middle Earth, the Conan/Kull setting, and Lovecraft's works all coexist equally together. The idea is that magic is returning after a long waning phase. It never went away entirely, but it's been weaker for hundreds of years. Ever since the 1600's, magic has been returning slowly but surely to it's former glory. Countless gods have been destroyed by various threats over the millenia, and the powers of Hyborian/Thulian, Valar, Krynnic, Torilic, Oerth gods and Immortals are what mortals are clinging to in order to survive the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods. Archdevils and Archdemons also exist, but they aren't the focus of the setting's cosmology. (If you don't know what I mean by Immortal, I'm referring to the semi-deific peoples of the Mystaran Setting, only in this setting, all the Immortals are locals from Earth).

At the moment, the setting is going through an important transition between low magic, to high magic. Soon, an Elf, Dwarf, etcetera, might be your next door neighbor. The setting play will come in three phases. Pre-Apocalyptic, Post-Apocalyptic, and New World. Basically, I'm thinking of causing this to be a Dungeons and Dragons setting. As of the Post Apocalyptic Setting, various new Immortals will be either cooperating or competing in order to form their own protective societies and stave off anarchy and Fallout like conditions from over coming the world.

So. . . how can I reconcile this with a D20 setting? There won't be much of a need for swords with an AK-47 handy.
so basicly tulsa doom in shadowrun please send me the pdfs

[Altair_the_Vexed]

You know that by including the Middle Earth pantheon, you've added Iluvatar, the omnipotent omniscient creator god, who has determined the fate of all things? Basically, Iluvatar is the god of the Abrahamic religions - that's entirely what Tolkien meant when he invented him - so if he's a real presence in your setting, he wins.
Can't really go into more detail without breaking this forum's religion discussion rules.

[khadgar567]

You know that by including the Middle Earth pantheon, you've added Iluvatar, the omnipotent omniscient creator god, who has determined the fate of all things? Basically, Iluvatar is the god of the Abrahamic religions - that's entirely what Tolkien meant when he invented him - so if he's a real presence in your setting, he wins.
Can't really go into more detail without breaking this forum's religion discussion rules.
believe me good old tulsa doom and conan pantheon isnt that easy to get rid of plus set and few conan gods has to much followers to go down that easy each of them can summon empire state building sized avatars just by single priests prayer. good old asmodeus isnt go down easy either as he is keeping mother of tarasques in cage and at any hostile attempt out of his league he will release it. and considering lord of rings they cant get rid single big bad overlord for how many films 4 as my memory serves. even you have nukes and guns in setting lot of godly powers gonna keep the status quo same.

[Fire Tarrasque]

Yeah, ME doesn't have a pantheon as you'd expect. It's got Eru Ilúvatar, and any other "gods" might be better described as angels. Ilúvatar is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, basically just capital G God. And even the lesser being of Tolkien's mythology are terrifyingly powerful. Let's take Gandalf for instance. A lesser being, a Maiar. But it's a fairly common hypothesis that Gandalf in his true original Maiar form was capable of creating numerous galaxies. Let me remind you, Gandalf is weak in the grand scheme. Your also bringing into this Melkor/Morgoth, who is basically just Satan. Like seriously. He's just Satan.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

believe me good old tulsa doom and conan pantheon isnt that easy to get rid of plus set and few conan gods has to much followers to go down that easy each of them can summon empire state building sized avatars just by single priests prayer. good old asmodeus isnt go down easy either as he is keeping mother of tarasques in cage and at any hostile attempt out of his league he will release it. and considering lord of rings they cant get rid single big bad overlord for how many films 4 as my memory serves. even you have nukes and guns in setting lot of godly powers gonna keep the status quo same.

Do you even Silmarillion, bro? :smallwink:

Seriously, in Tolkien's writing, Iluvatar is the creator of EVERYTHING - including those puny so-called deities you just mentioned. They're just part of his divine plan to show off how awesome he is, and how futile evil is in the face of infinite love and goodness.

[khadgar567]

Do you even Silmarillion, bro? :smallwink:

Seriously, in Tolkien's writing, Iluvatar is the creator of EVERYTHING - including those puny so-called deities you just mentioned. They're just part of his divine plan to show off how awesome he is, and how futile evil is in the face of infinite love and goodness.
nope I dont care about how tolkien created most common elves in all dnd equivalents. as current rpg genre Iluvatar has atleast two clones in dnd genre corelion is basicly its d&d clone and pathfinder has one as well

[ArlEammon]

I thought about this. Illuvetar is God, but that does not mean that Illuvetar is the only portrayal of God in the setting. He is God, but basically, the Valar are the stand in Gods that represent Tolkien's mythology here. Somewhere an NPC could mention, by the way, God is called Illuvetar by the Valar, or something like that.

[rferries]

Do you even Silmarillion, bro? :smallwink:

Seriously, in Tolkien's writing, Iluvatar is the creator of EVERYTHING - including those puny so-called deities you just mentioned. They're just part of his divine plan to show off how awesome he is, and how futile evil is in the face of infinite love and goodness.

Eru Ilúvatar may be a capital G God in the Tolkienverse, but clearly in this setting he's only a greater deity (or less).

OP, what specific D&D gods are you including? I get the feeling you want a "darker" feel, so presumably most of the good-aligned gods are gone?

I worry that the cosmology might get too "busy", especially with the inclusion of archangels/archdemons. Makes for great fluff but will your PCs actually be interacting with all the various pantheons?

You could solve this by merging gods of overlapping portfolios into one god with different "faces" - Paladine, Corellon, Ilúvatar, the archangels etc could all be the same god for example (just manifests differently to different followers).

[ArlEammon]

Eru Ilúvatar may be a capital G God in the Tolkienverse, but clearly in this setting he's only a greater deity (or less).

OP, what specific D&D gods are you including? I get the feeling you want a "darker" feel, so presumably most of the good-aligned gods are gone?

I worry that the cosmology might get too "busy", especially with the inclusion of archangels/archdemons. Makes for great fluff but will your PCs actually be interacting with all the various pantheons?

You could solve this by merging gods of overlapping portfolios into one god with different "faces" - Paladine, Corellon, Ilúvatar, the archangels etc could all be the same god for example (just manifests differently to different followers).

Nah, Illuvetar smote Azathoth, thus making him comatose. Apart from that, it's unknown what Illuvetar's role is in this setting is apart from guiding people away from evil deities.

As for as the PCs interacting with Pantheons, I'm thinking yes, Scion style. It wouldn't be Scion the role playing game mechanics, it would still be another system, but basically, it would be characters sometimes meeting avatars, clerics, etcetera, and attempting to deal with them.

[Fire Tarrasque]

Ah.
Azathoth...
I forgot about Azathoth.
The issue is: Azathoth doesn't really exist. Well, I mean, he does exist, but... It could be better explained that he is MORE real than everyone else. Everything else is just... Azathoth's dreams. We aren't real. Only Azathoth is.
Azathoth is a bit of a problem.

[ArlEammon]

Ah.
Azathoth...
I forgot about Azathoth.
The issue is: Azathoth doesn't really exist. Well, I mean, he does exist, but... It could be better explained that he is MORE real than everyone else. Everything else is just... Azathoth's dreams. We aren't real. Only Azathoth is.
Azathoth is a bit of a problem.

What if it's the Doctor Who version of Azathoth?

[Mechalich]

This idea is stupidly overstuffed. To make it workable, drop everything but the Cthulhu mythos deities and the Hyborian ones (which overlap anyway, such as via Yog-Sothoth). Howard mostly used real world deities, repurposed (Set is not associated with snakes in Egyptian mythology), anyway, so that makes it easy to justify in a magic-comes-back scenario. That's plenty to handle and exists in a workable continuum (also keeps you nicely in the public domain).

[ArlEammon]

This idea is stupidly overstuffed. To make it workable, drop everything but the Cthulhu mythos deities and the Hyborian ones (which overlap anyway, such as via Yog-Sothoth). Howard mostly used real world deities, repurposed (Set is not associated with snakes in Egyptian mythology), anyway, so that makes it easy to justify in a magic-comes-back scenario. That's plenty to handle and exists in a workable continuum (also keeps you nicely in the public domain).

I don't know, I see Immortals as working just fine with everything, as long as I just make it more of a "My idea" kind of thing.

[khadgar567]

I don't know, I see Immortals as working just fine with everything, as long as I just make it more of a "My idea" kind of thing.
dont bother re inventing the wheel just to make your fluff unique after few years of work you find original creator did what you want then it become like this.