How to -- 4th century BCE setting

[Lacuna Caster]

I finally filled in the rest of the abridged "secret history of the gods" here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/shows...3&postcount=73 It includes the currently-intended "global pantheon", although how global they are I'm still very much not set on. There's a conflict between the appeal of having "foreign lands and foreign gods", and the nature of their backstory. There's room for foreign local city gods and family "gods" either way, but strict adherence to that history would make the detailed pantheon unique.

Sticking to the detailed pantheon at the moment, I have ten of them. They aren't split up quite like most "pop-mythology" or RPG pantheons are, both because I wanted to avoid the same pattern, and because it reflects their origin. They're ALL gods of war, so a separate "god of war" is incongruous. There's no "god of love" because "love" isn't a single thing and all the different types and ways and actions of love are split up between the ten listed. Etc. I am willing to entertain the suggestion that I missed something that leaves a giant hole, and that it's not covered by one of the ten, however.

Very nice. I don't see any gaping holes per se... though I also don't see anything particularly ahistorical about having patron deities for love/war, given that 'deified heroes emerge after violent rebellion against the primordial titans' is a common theme in many ethnic mythologies. Up to yourself, though.

I noticed the names of the major deities sound vaguely Sumerian, which I guess has a nicely antedeluvian ring to it. The Sumerians, Greeks, Aztecs, etc. all had a habit of selecting a patron deity for a given city-state, so it might be an idea to have some kind of political mapping there? Speaking of which-

In the states themselves, the political structure will be as complicated as I can reasonably make it while still remaining functional. There's a lot of public works, flood control, fresh water supply, drainage, irrigation control, etc that need to be administered and maintained, so there's a place for a strong ruling figure and their extended family and a "loyal" administrative class; the temples are also strong; and there's likely an underlying elite/oligarchy made up of successful international traders, craft guilds, etc, who can't directly oppose the ruling nobility or the temples, but have resources to work against them behind the scenes of their interests not considered.

Out beyond the states, in the marches and the wilds and the highlands and steppes further inland, most the social structure will be clans / tribal, think Keltic or pre-Christian Germanic or maybe Scythian.

Yeah, I gathered that much from the previous post, but surely there's some variation in terms of which factions have the upper hand in which cities? e.g, where the traders and craft guilds are pulling the strings, or that verge on theocracy, or where fat eunuch-bureaucrats monopolise the civil service, etc.? (It would seem odd to exclude elective government entirely, since that cropped up to varying degrees in both India and the Mediterranean during the period.)

(Of course, this is also when we see Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Legalism taking root. Maybe some of that would map to, e.g, the Zahnu/Divinists, Tammites and Su Du Nam? Which leads me to-)

I don't think I can fit human sacrifice into the main civilization -- nature and ancestor spirits probably don't care, and I can't see the main pantheon approving of it, given their origin.

Oh, come now- you're telling me the Dalkhu don't get the itch to tear out the still-beating hearts of virgins now and then? :P (Honestly, if I don't see at least one blood-stained pyramid rearing itself out of the sultry jungle, I'll be very disappointed. I know it's a different period/tech-level, but nothing says 'hydraulic despotism in karst terrain' to me quite like the mesoamericans.)

I am a little curious as to why the 'practical magic' examples you gave all seem to rely on animism- do the Gods/Ancestors see bestowing powers of this sort as beneath them, and just stuck to pillars of fire and ghosts of christmas past? What sort of access to divine power would the clergy receive? Can the top brass, e.g, cure leprosy X times/week, or are they just especially literate faith-healers that dispense unguents and petition miracles?


EDIT: I don't know if you've any exposure to Hero Wars/Hero Quest, but the rulebooks there (and Glorantha/RuneQuest in general) might have a few ideas you could borrow, particularly in terms of mapping geography to social structure to trade to magic to mythology and back again. Roughly the same tech-level and spread of religious diversity too, plus some addressing of gender topics.