Sea God? Who needs a sea god?

[Rolaran]

The grizzled captain looked out to sea, his face set in a glare.

"I just don't like the look of the sea today. I'd prefer to wait 'til the weather clears up, this fog's a bad omen to be sure."

The clerics began to converse among themselves.

"I shall offer ritual praise to Poseidon. May he clear this fog, and grant us a safe voyage across his realm."
"I shall chant the words of the old Eddas. Njord will protect us from the spite of Aegir."
"In my meditations, I will ask holy Isis to stave off the servants of cruel Sobek."

They looked expectantly at the fourth of their number.

"Well um... I suppose I could pray to Obad-Hai. I mean, water's not exactly his specialty, but... he's a nature deity, it's kinda sorta the same..."

Okay. So I was looking through Deities and Demigods when I noticed this. The three pantheons that are based on actual pantheons all have water gods of some kind. The Greeks have Poseidon, the Egyptians have Sobek, the Norse, being great ocean voyagers, have two different ones...

...but the closest thing in the traditional D&D pantheon is Obad-Hai. No offense, but that seems a bit... inadequate somehow.

In my current campaign, I noticed this because the party spends a lot of time on ocean voyages. I actually ended up homebrewing in a Chaotic Neutral god; he was basically an ascended mortal, and ended up being somewhat akin to the captain of the Flying Dutchman.

Thoughts? Opinions?

[AslanCross]

Having Jack Sparrow as a sea god opposed by a more sinister Davy Jones-like sea god would be awesome.

[Crow]

Having Jack Sparrow as a sea god opposed by a more sinister Davy Jones-like sea god would be awesome.

...or would be the opposite. Chaotic Neutral sounds like a great choice of alignment. Have you thought of a name yet? Making your god female may be flavorful as well.

[the_trooper]

At least a single sea god is a necessity in a water-based campaign, but I'd venture to go so far as two gods of the ocean. One neutral, less wrathful True Neutral god, an Obad Hai for the ocean, along with a Chaotic Neutral god of sea and storms. And if you wanted to riff off of what AslanCross said, the neutral could be the Jack Sparrow-type, with the more sinister Davy Jones being the god of storms.

[TheLogman]

The god (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3227211#post3227211) of Crabs and the Ocean. Embodiment of the Forum of this site itself. He is, however, True Neutral.

As for your homebrew god, great, but is just 1 too powerful? On land, there are good, evil, indifferent, and Travel-based gods, why not similar for the sea? Trolls, those Lizard things, and mer-people all need a god to follow as well.

[Neon Knight]

Cthulhu? What about the deity of the Kuo-Ta?

[the_trooper]

The god (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3227211#post3227211) of Crabs and the Ocean. Embodiment of the Forum of this site itself. He is, however, True Neutral.

As for your homebrew god, great, but is just 1 too powerful? On land, there are good, evil, indifferent, and Travel-based gods, why not similar for the sea? Trolls, those Lizard things, and mer-people all need a god to follow as well.

I'd still go with two major sea gods. Howabout. . .

- a God(dess) of the sea, merfolk, and tradewinds, N(G?)

- a God of the Sahuagin, the sea, storms, and That Damn Crab, CE

as the two big ones, along with minor gods for skrags, locathah, whatever else.

[UserClone]

Blibdoolpoolp?

[Rolaran]

Actually, I'm using a more traditional version of the Flying Dutchman, not the Pirates of the Caribbean version. (Nothing against PotC though, I enjoyed the movies a lot.)

The guy's name is Vaust Vallen (a nod to a former PC in one of my campaigns that I liked), and essentially he spent so long at sea that he eventually found he could no longer come ashore. He spent the rest of his life roaming the sea, and when he "died", the gods granted him a spark of godly power to continue his voyage. Now he roams the sea in a ghostly version of his former ship, controlling the sea winds and the currents. Sailors pray to him for a swift trip, and it's considered an incredibly good omen to see his ship sailing alongside yours in the middle of the night...

The reason he's CN is that he tends to be capricious- he's as likely to leave you becalmed as to grant you good winds. He's not actually evil - he often rescues the last survivor of a shipwreck - but he's been at sea long enough that he cares little about the concerns of land-dwellers.

I also put in a goddess of storms, but she never ended up as well developed.

EDIT: Wow, lots of posts while I was writing this. I looked at some of the monster deities, but they always seem to end up being little more than "Deity X is the god of Creature Y. Creature Y worships Deity X. Deity X urges his followers to behave however Creature Y tends to behave."

[Crow]

The god (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3227211#post3227211) of Crabs and the Ocean. Embodiment of the Forum of this site itself. He is, however, True Neutral.

Yes, just keep adding templates. That makes a good, well-designed monster which is beneficial to the campaign world in which it's inserted.

...

Sorry, that's not a knock against you. FC's "creations" grate on me.

I think there are some gods for merfolk and kua-toa already? I can't remember where they are for the life of me.

[Collin152]

At least a single sea god is a necessity in a water-based campaign, but I'd venture to go so far as two gods of the ocean. One neutral, less wrathful True Neutral god, an Obad Hai for the ocean, along with a Chaotic Neutral god of sea and storms. And if you wanted to riff off of what AslanCross said, the neutral could be the Jack Sparrow-type, with the more sinister Davy Jones being the god of storms.

Weh tha-
Jack Sparrow? No!
You mean Davy Jones-type and a Callisto-type. One malevolent, one forever changing.

[the_trooper]

Weh tha-
Jack Sparrow? No!
You mean Davy Jones-type and a Callisto-type. One malevolent, one forever changing.

I'm not here to fit PotC into game mythology, I was just trying to tie multiple ideas together.

[Neon Knight]

Yes, just keep adding templates. That makes a good, well-designed monster which is beneficial to the campaign world in which it's inserted.

...

Sorry, that's not a knock against you. FC's "creations" grate on me.

I think there are some gods for merfolk and kua-toa already? I can't remember where they are for the life of me.

Perhaps your joke detector is on the fritz?

[Collin152]

Ah, you misunderstand. I'm saying that, assuming we are using those characters as representations of sea-god-worthy personalities, Sparrow's just doesn't make the cut.
Sides, you must admit- Nothing mimics the ocean more than Callisto. Sometimes literally...

[Icewalker]

Well I think I know what I'm doing for my sea-based campaign world.

One ocean god, one weather god.

[littlechicory]

Or you could... you know... "borrow" Umberlee from the Forgotten Realms setting?

[ocato]

I remember reading somewhere that some sea-people/creatures worship sea-giants. I kind of liked the idea of worshiping something that wasn't technically a deity (like how old timey pagans worshiped the sun and moon since you could see them and you knew they affected you) so I often used a Colossal sized Water and Air elemental for my sea gods. The water elemental was a god of good fishing, safe travel, and sea creatures (TN) and the air elemental was storms, good trading, and swift travel (CN), but that was just me.

[OneWinged4ngel]

Okay. So I was looking through Deities and Demigods when I noticed this. The three pantheons that are based on actual pantheons all have water gods of some kind. The Greeks have Poseidon, the Egyptians have Sobek, the Norse, being great ocean voyagers, have two different ones... Well o'course they do. It's not until we get into silly anachronistic thinking that we start to think of the realms of the sea and the realms of the trees as basically the same sort of territory.


...but the closest thing in the traditional D&D pantheon is Obad-Hai. No offense, but that seems a bit... inadequate somehow. Greyhawk pantheon sucks. A lot. As does the idea of picking out one god, who you may actually KNOW to exist, so there's no faith involved, who you want to choose to follow when you believe they all exist and cover different domains. 'Nuff said.

[MrNexx]

Greyhawk pantheon sucks. A lot. As does the idea of picking out one god, who you may actually KNOW to exist, so there's no faith involved, who you want to choose to follow when you believe they all exist and cover different domains. 'Nuff said.

The pantheon they presented in the PH and D&D is SEVERELY truncated. Checking out my resources, it would seem that Greyhawk's traditional god of the sea would be Awkamon (no, I not making his name up), who was of Suel origin; he was the god of storms and the life in the sea. You might also pray to Osprem, the Suel Goddess of Ocean Voyages, or maybe Xerbo, the god of Sea trade (specifically the sea, money, and business). If you're a Touv (a human nationality), you might prefer Vogan, the God of Storms, but most of the other peoples of the Flanaess are landsmen... they don't have sea gods.

[Kaelaroth]

A quick look through my book collection reveals:

- Procan, god of the sea-storm, Complete Divine.
- Osprem, goddess of sea-travel, Complete Divine

Any of those? I think there are more in Stormwrack.

Good Luck. :smallsmile:

[RTGoodman]

RealmsHelp has a deity search area that has all the Forgotten Realms deities, so you can get some inspiriation from there (or just take some of those deities if they work for you). The list of human deities is here (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/dieties/human.shtml), and you can search for them by alignment, domain, or portfolio. Also, for non-human deities, check here (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/dieties/index.shtml).

Of course, I think you should just go with Blipdoolpoolp, because her name is the most fun o say.

[Fuum Bango]

I was going to make a whole pantheon of sea gods for a game, but the party went underground instead, heh heh.
He's a outline of what I was thinking:
God of Over-Sea - Power over good wind, travel, gulls, albatross and many fish. Worshiped by sailors (from pirates to merchants) and fishermen. Travels the seas on a ship covered in pearls. NG
God of Under-Sea - Power over waves, currents, fish with sharks as a main, whales. Worshiped by merfolk and some islanders. Lives in a coral castle with his merfolk clerics. LN
God of Deepest-Sea - Power over deep sea creatures, pressure, darkness and secrets. Worshiped by wizards and warlords. Trapped at the bottom of the sea. NE
God of Stars - Power over stars, night, navigation and future sight. Worshiped by sailors, seers, historians and scribes. Captain of a shooting star, races the God of Over-Sea some times. TN
God of Tempest - Power over harsh wind, storm, some birds and chaos magic. Worshiped, or feared at least, by sailors and worshiped by wizards, vengeful people and the insane. Lives in a black cloud fortress that shoots lightening from cannons that cause thunder. CE

Demi-God of Pirates
Demi-God of Swashbucklers
Demi-God of Navy
Demi-God of Volcanoes
Demi-God of Glaciers
Demi-God of Death by Drowning

[Overlard]

For some reason this reminded me of a game where one of the characters achieved godhood. But ended up being the god of the sea.

The character and player was aquaphobic.

[Kaelaroth]

For some reason this reminded me of a game where one of the characters achieved godhood. But ended up being the god of the sea.

The character and player was aquaphobic.

Oh, the poor, foolish fool. :smallamused:

[MrNexx]

For some reason this reminded me of a game where one of the characters achieved godhood. But ended up being the god of the sea.

The character and player was aquaphobic.

Who was the sadist that determined that?

And what would be the physical and metaphysical side effects of having an aquaphobic sea god?

[TheLogman]

He'd probably get his own Domain: Water Survival

Special ability would be granting of Endurance as a bonus feat. Spells would include Water Walk (Why swim when you can float above the wretched stuff?) Freedom of Movement (Move fast under there), and Water Breathing (At least this way you definitely will not drown)

[Skjaldbakka]

In my current campaign, the god of the sea (and all the unspeakable horrors that lie at its depths), is the BBEG. It sponsored a mortal who took over the world, and now rules an empire with an iron fist. The PCs, of course, are trying to destroy him and his empire, a thousand years after it was formed.

[Khosan]

Who was the sadist that determined that?

And what would be the physical and metaphysical side effects of having an aquaphobic sea god?

God of Irony?

[Dervag]

God of Irony?So the God of Irony is an overdeity now?

Let me guess. His name is...

Murphy.

[Zeevico]

Perhaps the Peter Principle might be more applicable in that case--i.e. a person is promoted to the position at which he is incompetent (as opposed to being left at where he remains competent)--i.e. an aquaphobic but powerful mortal being promoted to being God of the Seas. Though strictly speaking the Peter Principle is more for hierarchical corporations than one a strict one way express ticket to Godhood, especially when the person is not necessarily incompetent in other fields (and could therefore make for a good God of something else, for instance). God=>Boss is stretching it a bit.

[Prometheus]

The underlying problem is that the deities of D&D are based around the lifestyles and the alignments of their followers rather than based on forces, aspects of nature, emotions, virtues, and vices as much of the "real world' pantheons are. As such, you cannot treat each one as a muse or even divide up its territories. D&D's approach is to say it doesn't matter so much that you are on water, but who is in the water and why.

That being said, I think it is better to have a kickass Storm God.

[Sylian]

Dragonlance has a sea god, Zeboim. I will quote Wikipedia:

"Zeboim, also known as the Sea Witch, the Darkling Sea, and the Dragon Turtle, represents the godly force of strife. She encourages souls to give into its urges and release anger. She is the unpredictable and embodies storm and raging sea, which is the element she commands over. Her attitude constantly changes, going from calm to raging in a minute. She wants souls to continually cause anguish and anger, so that they remain active and vital, instead of becoming predictable and stagnant. Sailors and mariners try to calm her during voyages so that she does not make trouble for their vessel."

She would sink the ships of her clerics to show everyone that noone is save, and that you must always give her large donations. She is Chaotic Evil.