Sibling Deities Conflict

[Bartmanhomer]

I notice there a lot of sibling deities conflict (between Heironeous vs. Hextor and mostly the dragon deities which is always end a huge mess with is ok and interesting.) So anyway do you use Sibling Deities Conflict in your campaign? If so, how did it turn out?

[denthor]

I have not.

Best guess they target each other on the field as primary targets. In the case of the two H brothers it says that right in the books.

[Bartmanhomer]

I have not.

Best guess they target each other on the field as primary targets. In the case of the two H brothers it says that right in the books.

Ok. The Heironeous vs. Hextor conflict is very common in campaign and so are Bahamut against his sister Tiamat as well.

[weckar]

I don't think I've ever run a game in which gods played a major role, but I guess I would probably use this yeah - to a point. I don't really like most of the canon D&D gods so I'd rope in some different pantheon.

[AllanniaNevini]

I haven't.

I created my own gods for my campaign and they will play a major role the pcs just haven't met them yet. I have an evil God who was disavowed by the other gods for breaking the rules so that is inter God conflict

[Particle_Man]

I have an idea for a homebrew world where Eldest Sibling created the world as a sanitarium for the insane, evil and immortal Youngest Sibling (in this universe the gods cannot die, even at the hands of each other). The idea is that the lives of mortals, when lived well, might act as role-models for Youngest Sibling so that one day they might be cured. This would also explain the deal with Paladins being LG.

Haven't run it though.

[RedMage125]

I think the trope exists to explain deities that are equal, but opposite. Two sides of the same coin. And sibling rivalry is something that resonates with a lot of people IRL, so it's easy for us to understand the idea that two deities who share so much in common could be opposed.

Anyway, in my home campaign, the first two deities to come into existence are Adonathiel (NG god of sun) and Asharaska (NE goddess of darkness). They both have other aspects to their portfolios as well, but those are their primary baliwicks. This is because to me, fundamentally, the first aspect of creation is Light and its counterpart, Darkness.


My pantheon write-up explains that other deities sprang from them. When they cooperated to create the world, it awoke with sentience, calling itself Silhain-Vitrus (Neutral god of wild nature). When they created the Veil of magic in the world (what FR calls "The Weave"), it, too, gained awareness (Neutral goddess of magic), Sacerai. When these two original forces began to have conflict, the conflict itself created the (Chaotic Neutral) god of war, Damacles. The two deities allowed their creation to flourish on their won, without constant supervision and intervention. Chance and Luck became a thing, embodied by a new goddess thereof (Chaotic Neutral), Lysiera. The creation of Life marked one of the last times the sibling deities collaborated, and also the source of their rift becoming permanent. Life was emobied by a Neutral Good goddess, Theafera (who was also known as the goddess of harvest and agriculture once mortals developed that); but with Life comes Death, and when the first souls found themselves in the Fugue Plane, they found Vorador (Lawful Neutral god of the Dead) waiting to judge them.

The other races had their own pantheons, and the gods themselves have children. In early ages, before the Descent of the Drow (when Aurshnee was still Corellon's consort), the elf goddess Sehanine Moonbow had a dalliance with Adonathiel, resulting in Lucrece, goddess of the Moon (an actual half-elf deity). Mensyannah, the goddess of the hunt, claims to be the daughter of Silhain-Vitrus, which hasn't ever been contested, but Silhain rarely communicates even to other gods (let alone his high priests or grand druids), in a direct, verbal manner. The goddess of Justice (Lawful Good) was the offspring of the god of war with the goddess of Love, and she embodied the best of both her parents. Other gods almost seem to spring forth from human civilization, or at least, they are silent on their origins. The goddess of Trade, the god of Protection, the god of Thieves, god of Knowledge, goddess of Love...they've never really revealed where they came from. Others, like the Lawful Evil god Bridenal, claim to have once been mortal champions who rose to divinity.

Of course, a lot of this is moot, since during my shift to 4e, I made some sweeping changes to my pantheon, cleaning a great deal of it up. These changes remained in the conversion to 5e. I killed off some deities in a conflict with Primordials, caused other deities to be so weakened in power that they gave their portfolios to other gods. In the end, my pantheon has 5 Good aligned deities, 5 Evil, and 5 Neutral ones. There are no more "racial pantheons", Moradin and Corellon are worshipped by all races for their respective portfolios, as are Bahamut and Tiamat. "Monster" races still have their won gods, however. And as for the Sibling Deities? They represent power so deep and pervading, that they are more or less eternal, and still have their place in the pantheon.

As for "how did it turn out"? Well, Adonathiel remains one of the most popular deities, with most people being at least somewhat familiar with him. And Asharaska...no one knows how pervasive her faith is, because she's a secretive deity. Her very existence is not common knowledge, and the various cells and sects of her faith keep secrets even from each other. There could be 2 cells of her cult in the same town that don't even know about each other.