Dungeon Fantasy Pantheons

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by Kromm

You'll have the official answer later this month.

Great... a new release date.

BTW, good thread here.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Kromm

You'll have the official answer later this month.

What will be in the PDF?

[Xenophile]

With druids, I assume that they draw their power not from any one god, but from generic "nature spirits" that inhabit all the wilderness. This, I feel, fits the general theme of Dungeon Fantasy druids better and explains why they can't use their full power in urban of polluted areas.

[vitruvian]

First off, it was essentially a modified Greek pantheon with some changes, with names derived from actual Classical and Homeric epithets. The 'Olympian' twelve were Megistos (Zeus Olympios), Potnia (combo of Hera and Demeter), Nestis (Persephone), Kreno (Kronus/Saturn reconceived as a second generational harvest god), Arcas (Zeus Lykaios), Aethon (Apollo/Helios), Ortheia (Artemis/Selene/Hecate), Enyalios (Ares/Hephaestus composite), Tritogeneia (Athena/Poseidon composite), Cytherea (Aphrodite with aspects of Athena and the Fates), Bromios (composite of Dionysus, Pan, and Herakles), and Dolios (Hermes).

I've somewhat modified the pantheon, so that there is a clearer split between the celestial and the chthonic deities, with the Celestial ones generally served by clerics and the chthonic ones by druids, since their domain includes all of nature including the clouds and winds. The clerics tend to serve all the celestial members of the pantheon, the druids all the chthonic ones, except that there is a distinction between those related to the living earth and those associated with the Underworld. So, clerics in this setting are more likely to swear by Megistos and Aethon, druids Potnia and Bromios.

1) Megistos - God of the Sky, ruler of the gods (Celestial)
2) Potnia - Goddess of the Earth, queen of the gods (Chthonic, but can also be considered celestial and served by clerics in her capacity as Queen of Heaven)
3) Aethon - God of the Sun (Celestial)
4) Eleutheria - Goddess of the Moon (Celestial, yet just as likely to be honored by bards and wizards (she may grant Magery or Bardic Talent with a Pact to serve her), may also grant druidic Power Investiture in her darker aspect of Enodia, Goddess of Darkened Paths)
5) Nestis - Goddess of Spring and Queen of the Dead (Chthonic, can also grant Necromantic Magery with Pact for controlling the dead)
6) Kreno - God of the Harvest and Time (Chthonic)
7) Dolios - God of Merchants, Messengers, and Thieves (Split Celestial/Chthonic, also not infrequently grants Magery)
8) Enyalios - God of War and Metallurgy (Celestial, smith priests may also gain Magery with Pact)
9) Arctos - God of Storms and the Hunt (Cthonic)
10) Bromios - God of Nature, Strength, and Wine (Chthonic, add Water to Wine to druid spell list)
11) Tritogeneia - Goddess of the Sea, Horses, War and Cities (Split Celestial/Cthonic)
12) Turanis - Goddess of Crafts, Love, and Marriage (Split Celestial/Cthonic, may grant specialized Magery as well)

There are of course darker gods led by Erebus and Adrasteia, Darkness and Mother Night, who grant their clerics Power Investiture with a completely different spell list.

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by vitruvian

Or is this just way overthinking the 'background' for Dungeon Fantasy?

Overthinking? I don't think that.

Anyway, an enough developed Dungeon Fantasy campaign isn't by need radically different from any other roleplaying campaign so, why don't invest some good and fun effort on it?

Originally Posted by vitruvian

I've somewhat modified the pantheon, so that there is a clearer split between the celestial and the chthonic deities, with the Celestial ones generally served by clerics and the chthonic ones by druids, since their domain includes all of nature including the clouds and winds. (...)

There are of course darker gods led by Erebus and Adrasteia, Darkness and Mother Night, who grant their clerics Power Investiture with a completely different spell list.

Maybe interesting to keep in mind Chtonic deities sometimes have clear Underworld-Infernal aspects, too. Chtonic isn't limited to the surface of the earth, but to its abyssal depths too (oops, we are going close to the Underdark!).

So, Druid's preferred gods can be dark or ambiguous in nature. Perhaps someone individual or a entire culture or race perceives them as friendly while they reveal their hellish nature to others.

Or in other words, Darker gods can be different masks or external manifestations of the same Chtonic entities. But perhaps that is a cosmic secret of the campaign world, only for the GM eyes...

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by demonsbane

Maybe interesting to keep in mind Chtonic deities sometimes have clear Underworld-Infernal aspects, too. Chtonic isn't limited to the surface of the earth, but to its abyssal depths too (oops, we are going close to the Underdark!).

About the Chtonic - Underworld relation, is interesting the fact of the earth having richness in its surface (crops, vegetables...) and treasures in its depths.

In a mythological interpretation, earth produces its richness and fruits because Pluto (or another one with a similar role) dwells in its depths:

"Pluto. . .the Roman version of Hades, the dreadest god of the Underworld. . .Pluto also had some connections with agriculture. Being the god of the underworld, he owned all the wealth hidden under the ground, including minerals and recently-planted crops. Still, no one worshiped, and rarely mentioned, this deity except in the vilest curses." (GURPS Imperial Rome, second edition, p. 108; see also Plato's Phaedo and Cratylus)

Dungeon delvers have good reasons for going under earth seeking treasures!

This leads also to Druids with ambiguous or darker possibilities.

[Bruno]

Because I own Green Ronin's "The Book of the Righteous", I'll be happily using the pantheon and general history and cosmology presented therin for my campaign. It's 300+ pages of fluff, with very little D20 material in it, and I bought it for just such a purpose ;)

I'm curious why you've decided to rename and rework the greco-roman gods, rather than mostly stealing them whole-cloth... but I'm a bit lazy when it comes to my game-worlds religions.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

What will be in the PDF?

Given that I'm doing the final edit, I don't think that anything will be dropped, so I can rattle it off:

• nonhuman races (37 of them, if I counted right, with notes on how to afford them if you're using character templates, as well as asides on wings, scaled-down gear, and legitimizing reaction penalties as racial disads in a game with little social context*)
• template lenses (each of the 11 base templates gets lenses for the 10 others, which does mean 110 lenses . . . plus various notes on niche protection and how to afford lenses on a budget)
• special lenses for creating evil clerics and unholy warriors (along with evil clerical spells, Unholy Might power, etc.)
• a few suggestions for additional role-specific power-ups that aren't on the templates in DF1
• a few suggestions for new capabilities for any profession that meets the prerequisites (cheesy psi powers of the 1979 vintage, spell-archery, etc.)
• optional rules for old-school experience-point advancement instead of "bonus character points for roleplaying" advancement
• optional guidelines for changing professions and training expenses
• a few new advantages used in all of the above

In short, "advanced character creation and advancement."

* Yes, I kept social disads in the end. As I was trashing them, I thought, "What would dungeon fantasy be if you couldn't use Charisma as a dump stat? What would dungeon fantasy be if it didn't then race to invent dumb way to make Charisma useful after all?" Those who hate it are welcome to charge an extra 20 points or so for "monster races."

[demonsbane]

Superb content!

I hope to see there some wizard/warrior "eldritch knight" template or something similar, and some added cool general dungeon delving gear.

However, there is a strong drawback here: we need to wait days for having it!

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by Kromm

(...)
special lenses for creating evil clerics and unholy warriors (along with evil clerical spells, Unholy Might power, etc.)

So both faces of the coin... Nice addition to DF!

I was thinking days ago about Dark or Vile Empowerment as the inverse of Power Investiture and Holy Might.