What archetypes of gods should I include in my setting?

[Rfkannen]

So I am working on a new homebrew setting, and just got to the gods. My idea is that I am going to pick one for each "archetype" of god that people like to worship in dnd. For example the 3 I have so far

The god of light and law, the classic paragon of virtue. Strict church structure, classical light symbolism, ect. Your classic crystal dragon jesus/bahumat/pelor.

God of passion/freedom/music . Patron saint of players who like to play clerics that have some fun. Not sure what the religious structure is like yet. Hermes/Corellon/Aphrodite

And a dark edgy death god. Not sure what flavor would be best.


What am I missing? What types of gods do you like to worship or see people wanting to worship? What type of death god do you see people liking to play? Do you have any suggestions for the gods I have so far? Any other ones?

[Goaty14]

Well, you have the alignment paragons pretty well...

Virtue Sun God - Good
Passion God - Chaotic
Edgy Death God - Evil

Now you just need a strictly lawful god and a god that couldn't care less (perhaps focused on trading, or whatever is the most profitable profession in your setting).

Those are your top main gods, and then start creating lesser gods based on that. So like have a god of parties and happiness linked to the chaotic god. Perhaps also consider making some gods share aspects but be differently focused, so like a god of sailors and a god of the sea*, etc.

*See the D&D Pelor vs This one

Spoiler

Show

Pelor is a Neutral (lawful tendencies) Evil god of Sun and Strength.
Pelor is a god of skin cancer, sun burns, thirst, and burning agony.
Pelor hates undead as they cannot properly suffer in the same way as mortals.
Pelor’s divine realm is on Elysium.
Pelor has deceived the good gods and mortals for so long that he has grown complacent in his position. The recent revelations are not purposeful, they are accidents caused by the god being sloppy.
Pelor has many connections with Hell through both Bel and Belial and previously through Zariel.
Pelor may have engineered the Great Fall of Eblis, Triel, and the others.
It is unknown if the devils, yugoloths, or demons are aware that Pelor is evil. Presumably they are ignorant.

[Oddcraft]

What if none of the gods were particularly good.

I mean Zeus punished The hell out of Prometheus for giving man fire. Then he tosses mankind Pandora’s Box just to show everyone who’s boss. But he still had tons of temples and worshipers.

I mean, imagine a Paladin’s attitude towards breaking his vows when redemption and atonement aren’t an option, but rather an eternity of his intestines being consumed by a vulture.

[aimlessPolymath]

If we're going by generic archetypes:
A god of nature is pretty common, as well as various racial deities.
Also, a god of magic.
God of luck.

Several evil archetypes, especially CE and LE- perhaps the gods of greed or anger?

Some gods rarely worshipped by players:
God of the sea and sailors.
God of the harvest.
God of travellers.
Generally, vocational deities- god of crafts, god of trade.

[JellyPooga]

For my homebrew setting, I have seven gods that do not have names, but titles;

The Artisan - Goddess of craft, art and by association, wealth and technology.
The Farmer - God of nature and cultivation. Also associated with humility and tenacity.
The Lover - Goddess of beauty, family and fertility. Also associated with healing amd warmth.
The Reaper - God of death, law and judgement.
The Wanderer - God of travel, the sea and commerce. Also of trickery and mischief.
The Warrior - God of war, strategy (both on and off the battlefield) and luck.
The Watcher - Goddess of shadows and secrets, the night and hidden things.

None of these deities are strictly "Good" or "Evil", though different cultures perceive them in different ways. All have aspects of both; The Reaper is God of retribution and vindication as much as he's the God of meaningless death and The Lover is as much the Goddess of spite in her aspect of "the crone" as she is the Goddess of love as "the maiden", for example.

They are paired off in the myths as lovers, collaborators and oft times antagonists; The Artisan and The Warrior (for war is a source of inspiration, industry and wealth), The Lover and The Farmer (for without family, hard work and cultivation mean nothing), The Reaper and The Watcher (who can truly sit in judgement without knowledge?), leaving only The Wanderer alone to roam, playing his (or is it hers?) tricks.

I can send a more detailed overview if you're interested, but that's the gist of my pantheon.

[Florian]

Archetypical gods should cover the basic nature around us. So "Nature", "Sun", "Heaven", "Moon", "Life", "Magic", "Death" and so on. That's basically a set of "old gods". Archetypical "young gods" should cover civilization and be prone to change with the time. So "Tyranny", "Freedom", "Money", "Skullduggery", "Honor" and such.

[FreddyNoNose]

So I am working on a new homebrew setting, and just got to the gods. My idea is that I am going to pick one for each "archetype" of god that people like to worship in dnd. For example the 3 I have so far

The god of light and law, the classic paragon of virtue. Strict church structure, classical light symbolism, ect. Your classic crystal dragon jesus/bahumat/pelor.

God of passion/freedom/music . Patron saint of players who like to play clerics that have some fun. Not sure what the religious structure is like yet. Hermes/Corellon/Aphrodite

And a dark edgy death god. Not sure what flavor would be best.


What am I missing? What types of gods do you like to worship or see people wanting to worship? What type of death god do you see people liking to play? Do you have any suggestions for the gods I have so far? Any other ones?

Does death have to be evil? Can it be neutral? How about good = living, evil = undead with death inbetween...

[Anonymouswizard]

I'll note that my favorite gods are gods of knowledge or gods of justice.

My current D&D character worships Bahamut (not the dragon one), and is a follower of a religion with two top gods in a pantheon. Bahamut the great fish and lord of the sea, god of knowledge and justice, and Baal the lord of the sky, god of might and weather. The religion views might and knowledge as the two requirements for a civilisation, and has a whole host of lesser gods for most aspects of life, some of them identified as servants of Baal or Bahamut, some seen as independent. Still haven't named the darn religion though.

So my point is that gods aren't interesting. The same archetypes appear again and again, the sun god, the war god, the justice god, the knowledge god, the nature god, the trickster god, the death god, and so on. Sometimes with multiple archetypes in one god, or multiple gods for an archetype.

What's interesting is the religions. The commandments, the holy days, the scriptures, the religious figures. To your average person in the setting this is their experience of the divine, what they interact with and form their opinions based off of.

[GreatWyrmGold]

You need to ask yourself what kind of tone you're going for, because that's going to influence both the archetypes you need and how they'd best be implemented.

Are you going for an upbeat sort of fantasy? Have a bunch of gods embodying different aspects of reality (elements or what-have-you) or regions of the world, and a handful of gods representing the evil that makes that more interesting than a standard Sugar Bowl. If you're going for low fantasy (or fantastic horror), you might take classical deities and sprinkle in a little (or a lot) of quasi- (or fully-) Lovecraftian elements. If dark fantasy, then take your normal deity archetypes and give each a dark twist (whether that involve taking their portfolio to the extreme, e.g. the goddess of justice and authoritarianism, or by having them embody both extremes, e.g. the god of fertility and famine).

But if you're just going for a vaguely generic world...choose some random deities and make sure their portfolios fit under one of your gods. If they don't, either tweak an existing god or add a new one. Repeat until your pantheon is wide or deep enough.

[Amazon]

This may help:

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Sphere