Help Me With Campaign Building! Part 1: The Basics

[chitoryu12]

Originally Posted by Raekai

Hmm... I do like the idea of multiple deities hiding behind different masks. I think that will be a good starting point for the mythologies... I'll find the overlaps. I could create a list of deity of death, deity of agriculture, deity of war, etc. and find the corresponding deities for each culture.

The idea of deities having multiple "masks" is actually used in Rick Riordan's books that take place in the Percy Jackson universe, including the Heroes of Olympus series and The Kane Chronicles. Heroes of Olympus is actually a direct sequel series to Percy Jackson and the Olympians, but focusing on the Roman pantheon; it's explained that the Roman and Greek counterpart gods are the same entity, but is essentially an "alternate personality" that can take over their form. Because the gods never actually appear in their true form to humans, they even change appearance to better match the mythology when they change personality.

The reason for this change is because the gods in the Percy Jackson universe change their residence as history goes on, moving to the most powerful locations. When Ancient Greece began to lose its influence, they moved to the Roman Empire and spent so long there that they took on a more militaristic, disciplined character that they can shift into at will.

Meanwhile, the Kane Chronicles books deal exclusively with the Egyptian pantheon and reveals that the pantheon exists simultaneously with the Greek/Roman one. While they have different powers and mythologies, it's implied that the Greco-Roman and Egyptian gods are basically the "same species" of being.

The books also bring up the existence of the Judeo-Christian God, suggesting that he's basically the big guy in charge of everything and even the immortal gods like Apollo and Juno are less powerful than him. The idea is that "every machine has its creator."

[DangerousThing]

In my setting, the DJverse, most gods are humans with an extraordinary amount of magic, and they gain more with worship. Some of them change roles as time goes on, some seem to disappear.

Some have multiple roles.

For instance, Zeus/Jupiter became Thor as a hobby to get out from under the pressure of trying to lead the Greco-Roman gods. A few of the gods are aliens stranded on Earth, and a few seem to have spontaneously been created by worship. The massed worship does create a huge power source for them to draw on.

Since the setting extends tens of thousands of years into the future most of the older gods who were still around are powerful, but much closer to the human level. Thor was part of a musical duo with Bast (both incognito) under the name of Dr. Zeus and the Cat in the Hat. :)

The characters heard them once in a bar, but didn't notice anything exceptional about them and never interacted with them.