This, post #2, will go into the general Demographics of The Main Pantheon Camps in my Multiverse, n Specifically for Crusades Amidst Wyrmsfyre CS (Campaign Setting fyi). There R two Major Great Camps that form the Two Great Unified Pantheons over the Cosmos, The Imperial Court of The Topaz Emperor Over The Heavenly Cosmos, or just The Imperial Court, and The Monstrous Overseer-Scions Of Apzsu, Or just The House of Abpzsyzu (The Abyssal Lower Depths). The First Is the Imperial Court; Using terms dating Back to the 2nd Ed. Accessory World Builder's Guidebook (A true gem of work so small, I still have my original copy, tattered but usable n intact since buying it in the mid-90s as a teen), the System of Pantheons Is a Universal One, but Split into Opposed Diametric Camps to Divide all Powers Betweem. The Organizational System is Mixed, With a Bureaucracy akin to A Royal Appointed or Feudal Court of Royals n High Nobles as Councilor Heads of A Godly Governance of the Cosmos; Elements of a Family n Heroic Godly System form Secondarily, n an element of Celestial enters in the CS with the Cosmic Pillars of Dhaharmua that Connect the World (n all worlds, in truth) to the Prime n other Planes of Creation, as well as Zodiac n Godly Symbolic Constellations n Planet Bodies linked to a Power. In terms of Involvement, the Imperial Court Exercises a Formal, Strict Level that falls between the Original Levels of Aloof n Moderate, n Indicate The Powers Directly Get Involved In Preset Way Dictated by The Branch, Dept, Bureau, Division, n Circle Has Direct Authority in the Matter n/or is their Portfolio Spheric Aspect to Govern; Plus, Done Only when Authorized by a Level Head Cleared by 1 lvl higher or by a Royal or Imperial Court Scion Member. Any Reckless Manifesting Would b Severely Contested by a Champion of a Dept or Branch Power, or a Royal or Imperial Force Possibly Including the Topaz Emperor Himself, Ehndrurel The Ravensfather. For the House of Abpzsyzu, They R Organized Mixed Between A Family System Of Birth Order n Position Equaling Power plus A Focus on Elemental n Natural Persuasions, All under the Draconian Tyrannical Tentacled Fist of the Abomination of The Outer Deepest Reaches, Apzsu The Progenitornial Alienesque Entity, with a nod to His Portrayal in Palladium's Rifts Conversion Book two-Pantheons. Their Level of Involvement Is Active, Steadywhich is between the Original Levels of Moderate n Meddlesome, n Indicates This Pantheon Regularly Manifests in the World, mainly as Avatars to Avoid Both Total War that Apzsu Sees His Scions r too few Numbers Yet to Fully Destroy the Master's Chosen Court, but also to Conserve Divine Essence that Could b Stupidly Wasted In a Mere Glory Display, yet speak to Captains on up in their Sway n manifest visions Omens Signs n Divine Judgements as often as or more than Donning Avatar Form to Impress n Terrorize. That's the basic jist of the Structures of the two, more details to follow upcoming. . . .
Regarding: You sound like you've got a lot of passion for this topic. What does CS stand for?[/QUOTE] Well to answer, yes I have a huge passion on this topic n other topics related to CS's I use n those I create whole cloth or in collaboration with death ole friends or new excited working partners;CS which is short for Campaign Settings like Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, or Ravenloft, is just a shorthand way of pointing to a world as a setting with built in hooks, motifs, mechanics, n signatures that make it if ya work on it a worthy place for a product line just like my examples. As for passion, I've been disabled officially for close to 11 years come Sept 1, due to mental illness n suffered a very nearly death blow of a 13 day coma that I survived n fought back to gain my abilities yet my memory n disability became much worse because of it. With all that Stacked on my Shoulders like the weight of Atlas, I can do little sustained with concentration except on good days, yet as a storyteller n budding DM since 4 n formally DM/GMing rpgs starting with BasicD&D since age 11 in the 6th grade running outta the Rules Cyclopedia, Storytelling n RPG is the one thing that still brings me joy n fulfillment like I can still do something in creating gods Nations worlds n so on. So with nearly 30 formal years plus another 6 or 7 just drawing n designing without rules just with my own ideas, this is my greatest joy to design painstakingly what forms in m head, n the struggle to get in somehow onto the page to share with others lmao.
For Part 3, I'll impart it's a work in progress cuz I'm tackling huge amounts of info to distill the Assimilating concept in practice Combing thru thousands n thousands of gods n generating new random ideas all to create new takes on Gods Every rpg head thinks they know but instead take that familiarity n turn it into nostalgia so that Jupiter-Tyrrus Creates one feeling yet as the assimilated end of Jupiter Justicar n Tyr The EvenHanded Scale Balance with others in a lesser way mixed in, the New God Is New AL, new Personality, New Rank, Spheric Path n More to harken back as It goes forward n new more interesting ways. Ok, having said all that I'm gonna mention a few of the Pantheon that they themselves r a dead locked on tho not every piece myth n detail is set in canonical concrete just yet lol. I have the Following: Ehndrurel, formally Andral of Barovian-BallinoksMt Pantheon, who Assimilated Enlil, then Anu, El, Shang Ti, Shu, n several others, passing more trials than any other Power plus being Critical in the last Epochal Crisis known As the Time of Unparralled Darkness sometime between 13K-27K years as Measured in Wyrmsfyre's Longer Year of 1060 Solar Days, over three times the Earth's Yearly Span, But Serving As the Start of the 9th Aeon The Imperial Topaz Court. Ehndrurel falls into a new divine ranking system for the new Aeon, with 30 ranks instead of 20, counted to the .1 level Score, with 31+ Reserved for the Overpower of my Reality, The Great Master-Watcher Beyond serving as a story acknowledgement of the DM n his role n initiating a story but leaving all decisions to the players, PCs, NPCs, Monsters, Powers, and all forces that r given fair equal but judicious degrees of consideration n chance for success or failure depending on the PCs actions n their Player's as well More on Ehndrurel, n how Andral became Ehndrurel to come shortly upcoming . . . .
Regarding: holy wall of text batman ... paragraph breaks are your friend, just sayin'[/QUOTE] Ur probably right about paragraph breaks Haha. It's been a long time since I've written for any peer's consumption, critique, n considerations n advice, about as long as when I'd just got out of Grad school say 2007 or 08, n i can see my approach will need some improvement for consumption. However, I'm a very verbose wordy speaker n thinker, so i tend to write very long wordy n deep as if I was talking on the phone. I've always used 10000 words when ten would suffice hahaha just part of my personality, I'm mostly colorblind so if I cant paint my world with colors why I'll tender n describe my world with words i guess u can say so in a nutshell. hehe.
It can be good to write fast, without paragraph breaks, and get all your ideas out there as they come to you ...stream-of-consciousness. But it's also a good idea to go back afterwards and break up what you've written into digestible portions. If you don't, readers may see a huge wad of unbroken text and go away without reading any of it. Which would be a real shame—after you've worked hard on what you've written, and so obviously care about your subject. I'd say writing-for-consumption comes in two parts. Part One is where you express your ideas any way you want, without fear or boundaries. Part Two is where you make sure you've actually communicated your ideas to others. What you thought you said might not be hitting the reader the way you hoped it would. I think the idea of 'talking on the phone' is a good one ...but think about it. If you are talking on the phone nonstop and never pause for breath, the person on the other end might end up thinking about something else altogether while you are talking. Attention spans vary. Give the recipients of your words a better chance to take them in—maybe even mentally react to them—and you'll make a bigger impact, I reckon.
One of my main secondary ideas, for after I've done my WIP I'm actually writing, includes the Irish Fae Folk Aes Sidhe(Aos Si) . They worship the Irish pantheon of the Tuatha De Dannan, and in their stories(within my story) they are the God's chosen race. The Tuatha include a number of colourful characters including Dagda, father god with a bottomless cauldron, the Morrigan which is a triple deity of crows goddesses that foretell doom, and Lugh, a shiny warrior with a super-lethal spear that has a sentient craving for blood. I'm so glad my ancestors worshipped these gods.
In my latest horror projects - I tend to write within the same world, so while most of my stories (or ideas for future projects) are separate, they'll share little details and be linked by certain things or characters - I've found that I've started to build up my own little "pantheon". The first of mine is the yellow-skinned man, who is a version of Death. He's essentially just a creepy fella, but in terms of god-like aspects he can arrange events to result in somebody's death and transfer himself between the real world and others in-between. He'll be developed (a lot) in the sequel to Hide, but I don't think I'll give him any more powers like that. He's fairly minor, despite everything. On the same sort of tier as Yellow Face, I've got Cain, who hasn't appeared yet but will show up in White Worm (when I get to writing it) and the sequel to Hide. He's been around for a very long time, but he's just a man, and that makes him a truly scary boy. Third is Scarecrow (not sure about the name, the simple option was just Fear but who knows) who's going to be the main antagonist in the sequel to (you guessed it) Hide. He's the god of Fear, and he can play with your nightmares. When the story opens up he'll be tied up and masked so his face is covered - if you look, you die. Finally the god they all serve - Leviathan. I've planted a few seeds, and this one shows up in Red Weeping, but he won't truly be a threat to a (hopeful) third book in the Hide series. He'll be painted as a big, scary darkness, but when we finally encounter him it turns up he's just a shrivelled, leathery creature. Powers and gifts TBD, but in Red Weeping we find out that he can twist and shape reality - as long as he's kept fed. Along the way I hope to introduce more - I've already worked Hell into my little world, so I'd like to explore how my "gods" tie in to that or whether they do at all. We'll see!!
In the time before time, there was only an entity now called the Mother Goddess. She consolidated into a physical form, though not as we understand the term. From her will, she made a number of gods (the precise number is argued ad nauseum by the priesthood). The first to wake from slumber, Jakar, was given the right to create the physical universe (here, 'physical' does mean what you think it does). The second to wake was no mere god at all, but a shard of the Goddess' power herself, called the Infinite. The Infinite walked about the cosmos, and as she walked, began to dream. Of all life, she dreamed, filling the dead and empty planets Jakar had created. Of fish and birds, of that which lives and of that which dies. As she dreamed, it became so, and the extent of her power so worried her that she drew space around herself, sealing her power and herself into a separate dimension, that she might not cause more upset. Next woke the god of Fate, Nikyrion, who with a word gave the concept of past and future to mortal life. Until then, they had simply been, not knowing what had come before or that something might come after. After, the order of waking is hotly debated, as even the gods themselves are uncertain. In some order, Halla (goddess of solar wind), Otuli the Trickster God, Tyrion (the master of conflict), the Twins Branach and Alexion (whose domains are crafting and travellers, respectively), and the dichotomous forces of order and chaos, Zoroash and Cathinos woke and presented themselves to the Tree Which Breathes, where the soul of the Great Mother rests. All the gods have planes (dimensions, the terms mean the same thing but aren't generally used to refer to the same place/area) of their own, in addition to the Godsplane. In addition, magic working the way it does, there are 'elemental' gods, or wild gods, who manifest as the owners and/or guardians of certain areas and facets of reality on their planets. I'm also working on adding 'magical creatures' to the world, but it's definitely an in-progress thing. The MC gets to hang out with a made-of-water water spirit, so there's that.
The Eternum, a collective of timeless Eternals, exists in The Void that surrounds all realities. Any expression by an Eternal/s can only be made manifest by The Eternal Creator, and become a reality or an existence. All Eternals may enter any reality/s (omnipresence). yet may not influence the expression of other Eternals, save by permission of The Eternum/Creator/Expressor. Example: The Eternal, Love, and The Eternal, Time, came together to express a reality with The Eternal Creator. This raised concerns within The Eternum. "There must be balance" They demanded. "All that begins must end" said Eternal Time. "With love, all things are possible" said Eternal Love. "It must be as it is" said The Eternal Creator. "Let it be so" agreed The Eternum. Thus was our reality, universe, space and stars created.
Well I don't have a pantheon so much as I have a religion. You see, my story doesn't really ever say anything one way or the other about whether the entity giving all of humanity magical powers seemingly for shits and giggles is a god or aliens or some suspiciously-intentional-seeming random magical phenomenon. But humans sure as hell come up with their own theories. Mainstream real-life religions are in a bit of trouble, as when around 75% of the entire human population was granted eternal youth, healing, and immunity to disease (which shuts most of the more innocuous and peaceful doors to the afterlife) and humans got magical powers with no followers of any religion being treated with any favor whatsoever, "our god works in mysterious ways" becomes a bit of a stretch. But someone comes along with this brand new religion called Gloryism, short for the Temple of the Gods of Glory and Spectacle, and his own interpretation of the god(s) behind these events that actually seems logically consistent: It's an old-school pantheon of pagan, violent, incestuous psychopaths like you'd find in Greek and Norse mythology, who are doing it because they're bored. The gods created us not for any higher spiritual purpose or any grand master plan, but sheerly for their own entertainment, and over the centuries life's just gotten too monotonous and stable for their liking, so they brought magic back into the world as a last ditch effort for humanity to earn their keep before they destroy us all. Because this Gloryism teaches that mankind's highest calling and most important spiritual commandment is to live as entertaining a life as possible, morality be damned. Their followers act like walking ratings stunts for planet earth, adopting flamboyant, exaggerated personas, doing whatever sounds fun, filling the world with their own particular brand of intrigue, and disrupting tedium wherever they find it. The moderates are more of the "live every day like it's your last" types who encourage people to get out and have fun when they can. The extremists are absolutely, completely and totally out of their gourds, and only get more daring as their religion gains power. They start fights at the slightest provocation, have almost no respect for conventional authority, and at their worst regularly commit terrorist attacks just to liven things up, trying to go out in a blaze of glory to get sent straight to the afterlife. I am going to have a ton of fun writing these guys.
I like relating pantheons and deities of fiction in a similar way to how early humans in real life made them. I'm especially a fan of volcanic deities, known for destruction and fire, and the unusual reflection of how some of them would also eventually bring fertility to the land. I love natural disasters and unusual weather patterns societies couldn't quite explain, and yet have been attributed to the unknown rulers of the heavens. The Minotaur, Pele, and so on! I always try to think of new ways and ideas of how different cultures and people would interpret and try to explain the world around them. Especially when magic and other races than humans are involved.
OK Guys I'm finally back!! Been struggling to make heads or tail feathers outta my work cuz my Outer broader life away from gamelife kept happening hard n painfully so I've been attending to issues other than what has me brought me back on today, the powerful Immortallyx-Dyeux (Translates Roughly As the Immortal-Divines) of my DMing multiverse lol. For these Divines' n for the target world Drakkgehdhein Starting out has been a matter of deciding both of what Spheres of Interest to incorporate, and how to best capitalize by way of DM tools n tables how to cast at that Spheres at random and in successive bursts to most ably work down to a key sphere or two then research how to shape a God from there, but how to start? I've got a D300 table in mind, that is still work in progress, but once done n tested for kinks I'll post it both on Reddit n on here for others to see if it might be worth a look to em or not for their own work. Anyway, as I've got that table n research working on, I've begun to assemble and in some cases assimilate into a rough final Product that r the Divines I have to show y'all tho still, they r not done, more character n work especially on the story side needs to go in em, but at least the how of setup, technical attributes, and who combined or died vs whom to get the choices I have come to have, a few of em anyways lol. (Please Note: throughout this n future sessions u may find my reference to each Divine by multiple names, usually 2 distinct ones of 1 corresponding to the surviving power who makes up the base or starting point of this journey & the other a working name or a Moniker to try out test for working or not working punch until it's right or better can be drafted to fit the Divine so New yet with earmarks of the familiar.) See next post for Detailing out some of my working draft powers of the 9th Aeon.
The gods don't show up (much) in the stories I'm idealizing... I'm thinking more about kinds of faith for each character. There are those who believe in the gods and believe they interact with the gods; there are those who believe they should please the gods but not necessarily think much about relationship with them, being more attached to the laws and/or superstitious principles; and there are those who question whether there are gods or not at all. Once it's set in the Roman empire, there are also those who believe in one god only (Hebrews and Christians), among whose there are the same three main sorts of faith. But I'm just beginning to develop these interactions.
In a way, I can say that there are, therefore, beliefs in Roman and Greek deities, in the Hebrew (and Christian) god (and, in the case of Christians, in the human son of the god), and I'll have to pay a special attention to Mithras, because it was peculiarly different, it seems. For now I haven't touched (or felt that I needed to pay much attention to) Egyptian gods, nor to Celtic ones. In a way, Egyptian and Celtic gods were easier to enter the Roman pantheon, it seems, so, in a way, they are included in it, to me. (...)
