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View Full Version : Voodoo-esque loas as deities.



Abstruse
2007-10-04, 11:10 PM
Assuming you had a cleric who followed deities based on voodoo loa, what kinds of domains would you think they'd have?

Ogoun: fire, war, metal (?)
Shango: lightning/air/storm?
Legba: protection, healing

Those are just some thoughts off the top of my head from random things I recall reading. Any other ideas?

Greenfaun
2007-10-05, 12:19 AM
I dunno, if you like voodoo, check out the binder class in Tome of Magic. They replaced loa and other rider-spirits with weird monsters and in-jokes from previous editions, but the mechanics are pure voodoo. At least, IMO- accepting spirits into the supplicant's body, using "seals" that even look like veves, moral complexity rather than "good spirits" and "evil spirits" etc.

As for domains, I don't know a lot about voodoo off the top of my head, but Baron Samedi would be Death and Chaos at least, and Erzulie might be, I dunno, Love and Luck?

KIDS
2007-10-05, 12:23 AM
I played a voodoo themed spirit shaman or cleric a few times and it was quite fun while it lasted; doing so in a world themed like that would be pure bliss :)

Voodoo does have a large number of loas that each deserves some of domains, with shamans serving the entire pantheon, basically. Your best guess would be finding a list on Wikipedia or somewhere and checking who has to do with what domain.... but as Greenfaun said, binders also fit the bill rather well. You can rename some vestiges if you are bothered by names.

Abstruse
2007-10-05, 05:58 AM
Oh, I've got Tome of Magic and I heartily agree that binders fit the whole "ridden by the loa" archetype quite well. That's just not what I'm as interested in from a crunch standpoint. I've checked out Wiki, which has (as with all things) some great entries, some so-so entries, and a number of stubs, but nonetheless each loa does seem to claim certain domains.

Closet_Skeleton
2007-10-05, 07:23 AM
Green Ronin made a 3rd party d20 campaign setting called Skull and bones that had some Voodoo rules. Binders still work well.

As for cleric domains, they should be quite easy to assign. Worshiping an entire pantheon is too hard to do with the core cleric however,

Telonius
2007-10-05, 09:25 AM
Well, other than a nitpick that the loa aren't exactly deities so much as spirits...

Ghede: Death, Trickery, Healing, Magic, Earth, Undeath, Repose, Necromancy, Darkness
Legba: Good, Travel, Luck, Protection, Balance, Sun, Portal, Oracle
Carrefour: Evil, Travel, Destruction, Chaos, Moon, Spirit
Erzulie: Charm, Joy, Passion, Pleasure, Moon
Azacca: Plant, Animal, Feast
Ogoun: Fire, Metal, Strength, War
Xango: Storm, Air, War
Agwe: Water, Weather, Ocean
Agassou: Law, Knowledge
Damballah: Nobility, Scalykind, Sky
Ayizan: Trade, City, Commerce
The Marassa: Law, Truth

It's a little harsh on Carrefour, but there really aren't any loa that are explicitly evil (just dangerous or less dangerous). Making him the mirror of Legba works, I think.

Abstruse
2007-10-05, 02:49 PM
Wow, great list. Thanks!

(Did you have that already written down, or snag it from somewhere?)

Telonius
2007-10-05, 03:06 PM
Nah, just worked from the Wikipedia loa page, some not-strictly-OGL webpages listing all of the d20 Cleric domains, and memory of my "Religions of the African Diaspora" college course a couple years ago. (I'd recommend "Divine Horsemen" by Maya Deren and "Working the Spirit" by Joseph Murphy if you're interested in some more scholarly work about Voudou and other Haitian religions).