Creating a Egyptian Multiverse, Need help!

[Jazath]

I'm building an entire Egyptian world In 3.5e. Immortals handbook I have determined Atum to be the Time Lord of the universe, Ra being the Greater Deity. The Entire planet the adventure is on (And multiple other worlds) are ruled by pharaohs and kings. The pantheon remains the exact same. With the same sets of beliefs. But I have questions on how the cosmology should be designed. I know the Realm of the Dead, and The Mortal Realm both very well. But I want to know if the elemental planes could be included, and should we have Upper and Lower Planes? I don't think we should have upper and lower because everybody goes to the realm of the dead in their afterlife as a continuation of their original lives.
So I'd scratch that out. But also brings to the question if their could be demons and angels included.

I also have questions related to epic-level characters, how could they interact with society on egypt?
Great Ennead was a group of nine deities, all of them were intermediate deities. They were some of the strongest of the pantheon. I'm sure the rest of hundreds of deities or some such were all lesser powers. So if one of these lesser powers or mortals rises up as a Intermediate power.....you think they'll be cool with that? (Besides Set)

Please give me as much advice as you can. Educate me. Enlighten me. Bring things I need to consider. And if you do, thanks!

[Tzardok]

Deities and Demigods has a very simple cosmology based on the Egyptian gods. It's made up by six planes: Material, Etheral, Shadow, Astral, The Offering Fields and The Twelve Hours of Night. The Etheral is just like in normal 3.x. The Astral is, in fact, the sky, and when Re travels in his barge (which is treated as a very small, mobile plane) through it, he is visible as the sun. The Astral-as-sky is visible from both the Material and the Offering Fields and connects to both. The Twelve Hours, on the other hand, are connected by the Shadow to the Material. Besides those there are natural points (where the barge enters and leaves the Hours, and the mountains that seperate Material and the Offering Fields) where one can move from one plane to another without using a transitive plane.
In that cosmology, fiends are natives to the Twelve Hours, born from the souls of people whose corpses were destroyed or who failed the tests. Celestials would likely be servitor beings living in the Offering Fields.

If that is too simple for you, you could also add Nu, the Primal Waters, as a surrounding plane of Chaos, or differentiate the Twelve Hours. Regarding the Inner Planes, on one hand the Egyptian mythology doesn't have a place for the classical elements (which are in fact younger than it), on the other hand Ancient Egypt invented alchemy, and the elements would be intrinsically linked to that later.

I just had a stupid idea: Inner Planes based on the different souls and parts of a complete human being. A Plane of the Ka, a plane of the Ba, a plane of the Name, a plane of the Heart...

Regarding divine ranks: First, in case you are interested, Deities and Demigods gives the Greater rank also to Isis, Osiris and Set. Furthermore, there is the possibility that a lot of the local deities are classified as demigods instead of lesser ones.
Much more importantly, over the course of history deities waxed and waned in popularity a lot, fused with each other and were seperated into aspects that became independent. Assuming that's also the case for your world, I would imagine that the deities would be quite blasé about people/gods ascending and descending to higher or lower ranks; it happened so often, and chances are that they themselves got to where they are now the same way. Easy come, easy go. Also, there's always the chance that the lesser god didn't ascend, but fused with an intermediate one.

Finally a little thing: I've been meaning to invent a Maat Domain for clerics in the Great Wheel. If I manage to come up with a working version, I'll post it here. If you manage to come up with one first, please post it. Then I won't need to. :smalltongue:

[Particle_Man]

What kind of tech level/magic types are you aiming for, given the domination of multiple worlds?

Egypt: The Multi-verse, strikes me as a very lawful place that Inevitables (and Modrons) could function well in.

[Jowgen]

I have nothing of value to contribute, only an empathic suggestion that the Egyption Gods should consider anyone painting them a sin punishable by literal divine intervention. That is all.

[Bullet06320]

https://greenroninstore.com/products/egyptian-adventures-hamunaptra-pdf
Egypt based setting

I3 Pharaoh, I4 Oasis of the White Palm, I5 Lost Tomb of Martek
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Desert_of_Desolation
Egyptian flavored adventures

Lost Empires of Faerun has details on Mulhorand which is Egpytian in origin as well as the older source book Old Empires, as well as Faith and Pantheons has the Mulhorndi pantheon

[Tzardok]

I have nothing of value to contribute, only an empathic suggestion that the Egyption Gods should consider anyone painting them a sin punishable by literal divine intervention. That is all.

Why should they? It's part of Ancient Egyptian belief that any depiction of a god serves as a body for him through which he can act and interact. Logically they should want to be painted as much as possible. :smallconfused:

[Particle_Man]

Yeah are there not pictures of Ancient Egyptian gods on Ancient Egyptian tombs? Isn't that how we know what they thought their gods looked like?

[Jazath]

What kind of tech level/magic types are you aiming for, given the domination of multiple worlds?

Egypt: The Multi-verse, strikes me as a very lawful place that Inevitables (and Modrons) could function well in.

I'm thinking the spelljammer-level technology. Nothing too advanced, but simplistic and easy enough to maintain without going super-technobabble. Using the Forgotten realms Spelljammer as a model for my world.

Anything advanced would take away that "Old Egypt" feeling that I desire so much....

https://greenroninstore.com/products/egyptian-adventures-hamunaptra-pdf
Egypt based setting

I3 Pharaoh, I4 Oasis of the White Palm, I5 Lost Tomb of Martek
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Desert_of_Desolation
Egyptian flavored adventures

Lost Empires of Faerun has details on Mulhorand which is Egpytian in origin as well as the older source book Old Empires, as well as Faith and Pantheons has the Mulhorndi pantheon

I'll use this, thank you!

[Jazath]

Why should they? It's part of Ancient Egyptian belief that any depiction of a god serves as a body for him through which he can act and interact. Logically they should want to be painted as much as possible. :smallconfused:

Agreed, spreading pictures of their divine glory would rally up spirituality among the worshipers. Also having a picture comfort them by KNOWING what the god looks like, having the comfort of recognizing when that god comes, and who they dedicate their worship and life to appearance wise!

Are they painting shy?:smalltongue:

[Jowgen]

Are they painting shy?:smalltongue:

Have you ever been painted without your consent? :smalltongue:

I suppose there can be an exception for clerics of the faith, specific to each deity. A God Pic trademark.

Will owning a painting of Ra do anything for you? No. But it's articifial scarcity, so people will want it.

[Tzardok]

As promised, here my attempt at a Maat Domain:

Maat Domain
Granted Power: You can make a Dispelling Touch once per day. You touch a creature, an object, an effect or an area (if the target is unwilling, you need to make a touch attack) and make a dispel check (1d20 + caster level) against a magic effekt you identified, with a dc of 11 + caster level of the effect. If the check is successful, the effect is dispelled.

1st - sanctuary
2nd - zone of truth
3rd - attune formSC
4th - bestow curse
5th - flame strike
6th - banishment
7th - dictum
8th - bestow greater curseSC
9th - disjunction

Any thoughts?