I am trying to create a pantheon of quasi-immortal elemental deities to live in my world as tangible very much present rulers. I have a large list of 24 elements, all of which are some aspect of the observable universe (except void that’s more non-material/existence I suppose) 1. Fire 2. Air 3. Void 4. Darkness 5. Space 6. Gravity 7. Light 8. Time 9. Water 10. Earth 11. Air 12. Wood 13. Metal 14. Stone 15. Life 16. Rain 17. Ocean 18. River 19. Cloud 20. Lightning 21. Sun 22. Moon 23. Stars 24. Lake Magic is Based upon either receiving of one of these beings power, or the manipulation of the element over which they reside. My 1st problem is specifically how do I organize this group into a coherent pantheon with both good and evil members? My 2nd problem is that something feels like its missing when I look at the list maybe its the lack of organization, or the lack of classical mythology’s gods of Wisdom, Love, War, Panic, Drunkness, Crafting, Farming etc.. Anyways the short hand of my first post here is this; How would you organize the list of elements seen above, ie who rules who or is opposed to each other? Secondly would you add or remove anything?
@Roadblocked Writer You can start with four basic elements: Fire, Water, Air, Earth. Now, these are characteristics: Fire - Hot and Dry Water - Cold and Wet Earth - Cold and Dry Air - Hot and Wet Thus Fire opposes Water (Hot - Cold, Dry - Wet) and Earth opposes Air (Cold - Hot, Dry - Wet). Your system is much more complex and thus relatively unwieldy. What I would suggest is separating elements into groups, and creating oppositions based on that, as well as reducing number of elements where necessary. For example: GROUP: ELEMENTS - Fire (Hot, Dry, Active) opposes Wood - Air (Hot, Wet, Active) opposes Earth - Water (Cold, Wet, Active) opposes ??? - Earth (Cold, Dry, Passive) opposes Air - Wood (Cold, Wet, Passive) opposes Fire - Metal (Cold, Dry, Passive) is same as Earth - Stone (Cold, Dry, Passive) is same as Earth - Rain (Cold, Wet, Active) is same as Water - Ocean (Cold, Wet, Active) is same as Water - River (Cold, Wet, Active) is same as Water - Cloud (Cold, Wet, Active) is same as Water GROUP: ENERGIES - Gravity cannot be really characterized, so I would remove it - Light (Hot, Dry, Active) opposes ??? - Time cannot be characterized, so removed - Void (Cold, Dry, Passive) opposes Life - Darkness (Cold, Dry, Passive) is same as Void - Space (Cold, Dry, Passive) is same as Void - Life (Hot, Wet, Active) opposes Void - Lightning (Hot, Dry, Active) is same as Light - Sun (Hot, Dry, Active) is same as Light - Moon (Cold, Dry, Active) is same as Light - Stars (Cold, Dry, Active) is same as Light Now see what elements overlap and where there are holes. For example, there is no "Cold, Wet, Passive" in Energies, thus Light has no opposition; in Elements, it is Water which lacks opposition - said opposition would be "Hot, Dry, Passive".
I'm not sure what exactly about it doesn't make sense. So, gods don't always have to be strictly good or strictly evil. Pagan gods tended to represent human desires and wants. For example, a desire for a good harvest. They had wants. For example, a god wanting to over throw his or her father wasn't uncommon. Was that god evil? Maybe. It wasn't uncommon that there would be two deities that looked like they had the same function. For example, Ares and Athena. Both of them were deities of war. But if you look at their mythologies and such, you can see they were very different idea about war. Ares was more the blind, savage destruction of war. Athena also was the Goddess of Wisdom, and Art, so could be said was more about the strategic art of war. Basically fighting with your head to minimize casualties. As for them having conflicts, you have to decide where they could have conflicts. The sun and the moon and the stars could have a conflict over their space in the heavens, and it was finally negotiated that the Sun, the elder brother, would rule during the day and the moon and the stars, the younger siblings would rule the night.
I would avoid having the gods associated with each element opposed to each other just based o Couple things: I would avoid having the gods oppose each other just based on their elements. Light opposes dark, fire opposes water has been done to death. What are each god really responsible for? what do they want to accomplish? I would look at that first. The gods may clash with each other due to their personalities/native element, but their goals may be the same. Secondly, some of these seem to really overlap-Water, Rain, Ocean, River, Lake how do these differ? Or Sun and Stars since technically the sun is a star? You have free rein to create your pantheon, so get creative. Try to take things in a different than expected direction. For example, you can have the God of Rot and Decay. Seems like someone you would expect to be evil right? Nope, in this world he is the patron god of farmers because without fertilizer(decaying plant matter or animal waste) their fields are dead. You may want to give the gods two or three elements to avoid them being one dimensional. For example, Ignatius is the God of Fire, Light and Heat, also viewed as the god of passion and creativity and therefore is worshiped as the god of artisans and prostitutes. Ignatius is the elder twin brother of Ferrea, the god of earth and metal, who is the patron god of blacksmiths. Ignatius' fires are the ones that fuel the great forge of the gods that Ferrea mans, and as such blacksmiths pay tribute to both and frequently have small shrines in their shops to house offerings. This is just an example but by doing little blurbs like this for each god you can flesh out your pantheon pretty well.
