Madlands gods

[sir_pudding]

Road-runners are native to North America...

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Road-runners are native to North America...

It's also not technically a strictly North American or even Eastern Woodland tribal structure. A lot of South American imagery is being tossed into the mix.

And anyway, donkeys and moose don't look all that much alike, besides being quadrupeds with hooves and a wide mouth.... :)

[Flyndaran]

Rhinos don't look much like horses but that's how they got described back in Europe, I think.

[AlexanderHowl]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Road-runners are native to North America...

So are turkeys, but turkeys are much more spread out than road runners.

[Tuk the Weekah]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

So are turkeys, but turkeys are much more spread out than road runners.

Depends on how fast you hit 'em with your tire...

[MrTim]

Originally Posted by warellis

Is that literally the case, like mentioned in an afterword or something in the sourcebook they're in?

The author, Robin D. Laws, has certainly said as much publicly, including on his podcast (co-hosted with longtime GURPS writer Kenneth Hite) "Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff."

[MrTim]

Submitted for your approval: The 13 Good Gods

The Youngest, naive and somewhat selfish, but acting old and wise.
The Clown, kindly and cheerful..
The Champion, flamboyant but sometimes harsh in his defense of the faithful.
The Changing One, always charming but sometimes aloof; the most widely seen of the gods.
The Kindly One, youthful and benificent.
The Harlequin, mercurial and sometimes even dangerous to those who seek his aid.
The Cunning One, who sometimes acts the clown but is always thinking two steps ahead of evil.
The Lost One, rarely seen and little known.
The Penitent, angry and lost but trying to atone for the evils done in the name of good.
The Charmer, most loved of the gods.
The Clever One, whose schemes for defeating evil are often devious and convoluted; he is sometimes seen in the company of his wife, a spirit of the waters.
The Eldest, most worldly but still a fierce champion of good.
The Goddess, newly-born and largely unknown.

One heresy says there is another, a warrior-god of good, but the pantheon largely promotes peaceful solutions. They are opposed by the Seven Gods of Evil (The Dark Mirror, The Schemer, The Revenant, The Possessor, The Hidden One, The Madman, and The Dark Goddess), the Demons (who seek the destruction of all non-Demosn), and the Immortals (undead trying to remake all mankind in their image).

[Phantasm]

Which one(s) of those 13 is(are) the fertility god(s)? Nearly every culture has a fertility deity, commonly also associated with agriculture or the sea, depending on how they feed themselves. Also which of the 13 deals with caring for the souls of the deceased? Speaking of which, what are the metaphysics surrounding what happens to spirits/souls after death?

Honestly, I'd probably consider merging The Clown and The Cunning One into the same trickster deity.

[MrTim]

Yeah, that was fairly off-the-cuff. Seven is more brooding and plotting, while Two is more playful and tricky.

The fertility god bit is a good point. Maybe that would be in Eleven's remit, since he and Ten are the most overtly sexual.

(Edited because I originally thought you said "Clever," not "Cunning.")

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by MrTim

(Edited because I originally thought you said "Clever," not "Cunning.")

Actually, that's something of a good point. You essentially have THREE tricksters: Clown, Cunning, and Clever. As this is a culture that is more about outwitting evil than it is defeating it, though, I think it's forgivable. (The Norse had four at least death gods, after all: Odin, Ran, Freyja, and Hel.)