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[Cultist]

I think a couple of folks mentioned this up above, but I would really enjoy at least one god who is so absolutely remote, so alien to human thought, that we simply can't comprehend his motives. ...And I want him to do stuff. I don't want him to be the big bad guy, but I want a definitely feeling that he's just working towards some crazy assed goal no one else understands.

 

You have been assimilated...

 

 

 

 

 

Change me, Great Conspirator, for a taste of your touch, I would suffer this fate a million times and burn the galaxy entire in your unholy name.©Chaos Dreadnought

[Hormalakh]

There is one true god!

 

ZALGO

Corruption. Madness. yet promise of unspeak͔̮͉able power. Lov̬̰͖̩̣̻ͧ̏̎̅͂̊̚ė̂craftia͓̙͖̟͓͉̽n̫̥̟͇̫̙̮̒̃͒͊̇̇̉ otherwordly and alien entity, that h̬̭̫̳͈a͉̞̖̙͇̪s hidden goals. More malevolent than B̸ane or Cyric-like go̬̝̝͇̹ds͙͍̻̦̫͙. Madness and insanity, chaotic ḩ̸̵i̢̢͜v̷͝e̛m̕͢i̕nd̶͞ ̛̕ that may corre̶̦̳s҉̠̭̟p̨̗̳̗̙o̖̲nd to D&D "Lords of M̕a͏̶́d̸͝ness" rulebook.

A g̈́̓͞͠rͭ͋̈́͟ęͧ̽̉ͪ͗ͦ͌ͮā̾̊ͪtͭ̏̉̌ͮ͡ ̷̅̾͐̃͝ potential for impl̈̽̓ͯ̀̍̊̒̑̀ë̐̇ͭ̑̀̚m̈́ͨͫ̇ͩ̌ͭenting cov̵̷̩̩̙̖͔̭e̢҉̳̜̯͙̕n̵̶̗̘͈̲͠s̷̹̞̯̣̞̗̣̥ of cultists, performing their m̷̟͇͈͖͞a̵̢̪ͅd̡͓̻̟̗̰͚̦̕d̹̹è̶̹̰̮̹̼̮̟́n҉̜̱͍̱͇͍̫i̺̟n̩̜͈͘g̹̬͓͕͙ r̤͙͙͓͉͌̓i̥ͫ̌t̹̯̙̭̰̆̓̒͆u̪̥̳͛a̘̠͔̘͋̉̍ͦͩͦ͆ͯl̘͕͎̝̱ͤͥͥ̋̿̄s̠͎̘̠̝͒̑ͣ͛̓ͪͪͦͫ.

H̡̛͢҉̵E̵̷̶͘͜ ̀͘͏͢C̀̕͝͞Ơ̵͜͡M͏̢E̡͡͡S̷̶̨̡͞

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFmHs6dJPww

 

ok take all my internets. how did you do that?

[Zaigo]

I, in general, would like to see the downsides of being god (as in living forever, people being dependent of you).

 

As for examples, how about a forgotten god, that is, for one reason or another, left out of the pantheon and is worshipped by no one? This said god would then try to find a way to make people know and worship him/her. Perhaps s/he can't directly approach humans (other gods wouldn't like it if someone tries to "steal" their worshippers) and disguises him/herself as a mortal prophet (quest, maybe)?

 

Or a childish god who uses his/her powers only to pull mischievous pranks on mortals. S/he wouldn't nesessarely be evil though, just enjoys a good laugh.

[Hormalakh]

A Dr. manhattan type god. He doesn't care much for this world.

[mvmiller12]

Back in the day when I had a regular AD&D gaming group, I an games where each deity was aspected by alignment, and each aspect was represented by an immortal Avatar. The deity would have their primary alignment and portfolio (i.e. Neutral Good god of healing and wisdom) and the NG Avatar would basically have the name and appearance of that god and in overall power would be like a Demigod. The other Avatars would have some of the portfolio abilities of the god but would be progressively lesser in power (i.e. the Neutral Evil Avatar would be the weakest, as the opposite of NG, and have a different name from the god). Again, all the Avatars were immortal - if they were killed, they would just appear again somewhere else randomly, and all of the Avatars roamed the world as NPCs. and could interact with the PCs and sometimes even join the party (the lesser ones, naturally, and the PCs would not be aware of their Avatar-ness).

 

Example:

 

Makaan is the Neutral Good god of healing and wisdom and has 9 Avatars:

 

Makaan - Immortal,- Neutral Good Human Priest, can heal pretty much anything at will, is amazingly wise, and is normally found in the primary Cathredal devoted to Makaan. Can grant wishes and do most of the stuff associated with the actual god Makaan. Most folks believe he IS Makaan.

 

Maria of Calamsham - Immortal, Lawful Good Elf Paladin, seems to just be a really powerful /adventurer known for being wise. Folks have no idea she is an Avatar of Makaan.

 

Grimtosh the Barbarian - Immortal, Chaotic Good Half-Orc Barbarian, frequently misunderstood warrior. Has a nasty temper, but always means well - when he's around pestilence and disease seem to fade relatively quickly

 

and so on down to:

 

Galadriel - Immortal, Chaotic Neutral Human Wild Mage - definitely insane, but largely harmless. She doesn't really demonstrate any kind of wisdom and is the kind of character to toss a fireball in a crowded corridor to get the monsters and end up hitting most of the party as well. She will often hurt people by accident, but feel kinda bad about it later. This one I normally played for humor - she tries to make things better, but her idea of better is not always. . . better. She will not deliberately harm the party, but will frequently do so by accident (i.e. Party tries to sneak past guards, Galadriel says out loud "Do you think they can hear us?").

 

Radadash - Immortal, Neutral Evil Gnome Rogue - He's always looking out for himself and is an administrator in a mid-size city. He believes in graft and corruption and can easily manipulate others into his point of view (talks people into courses of action that may or may not benefit them, but definitely benefit him).

[Giantevilhead]

Since in a lot of fantasy worlds, gods are sustained by the beliefs of their worshipers, I think it would be interesting if gods are also influenced by those beliefs. For example, if people believe that a certain god is fickle and shortsighted then that god will become more fickle and shortsighted over time. And when a god gains more worshipers, they also start to lose their own free will as they become subject to the beliefs of mortals and change in ways to conform to those beliefs whether they like it or not.

 

This would have a flanderization effect where a god's defining traits and features become more extreme over time. So a war god may have started out being a bit ruthless bu then becomes consumed by blood thirst and cruelty over time as a result of the fears of mortals.

 

So it's a balancing act for the gods, they want the power gained from worshipers but they also want to keep their own free will. Some gods choose to abandon all their followers because they don't want to be controlled by others while other gods don't care about losing their free will in their quest for more power and try to spread their faith as much as possible.

Edited November 28, 2012 by Giantevilhead

[ratiocinative]

I was recently considering how writing about a god and his champion(s) would be challenging to keep interesting due to gods being so, well, godly powerful. And what I came up with was this: A God of Boredom. Not to be confused with a God who IS boring, but rather a god created by the worship of boring unimaginative people who desired a God who wasn't always getting up to trouble and shananagins and generally causing a ruckus. A God created by the wishes of millions for an end to interesting times during periods of intense war. The end result being a god who is constantly bored and hating every moment of it.

 

Such a God would of course dislike his followers rather strongly for making him so bored all the time. In an effort to keep the boredom at bay, and out of general spite, the God of Boredom would constantly be searching for champions amongst his believers whom he could throw into trying situations, offering only the most capricious and seemingly benign abilities to them as support. The end results being facinatingly random and often hilarious.

 

Such a God would offer ample opertunities for engrossing encounters within the world of Eternity. The player's party could run into several champions, or the same champion several times, and choose whether to help or hinder them on some of the strangest quests imaginable. Perhaps even have the option to accept one as a permanent companion character.

[Aerose]

It turns out the easiest way to get me to register for a forum is to ask me to create a god, here goes:

 

The Lord of Swords (also known by some as The Blacksmith)

 

The story of the Lord of Swords is one of caution, a warning to those of the dangers of not taking pride in one's work. In the time before times a simple blacksmith was given a simple task, to create a sword fit for battle. The man who approached him offered little in payment, but was desperate in his pleas. The blacksmith, while simple, was not particularly poor, but even though the amount being offered was slightly less than he'd take for such a task, he accepted the payment and began work. The fire blazed and steel sang, the blacksmith worked into the night, eventually looking on his sword, he had worked hard, but there was still much work to do. He wiped his brow and though, "if I am to only receive a partial payment, surely it is ok to deliver a sword worth it's price." he fit the sword with a proper hilt, giving it a few swings to check the balance and went to bed. When he woke he gave the man his sword, wrapped in cloth and thought nothing more of it. Within a few months a story filtered down, a great man had led a force to battle, rallying agaist an oppressive tyrant however in the fight his sword shattered, and before his death he cursed the man who made it. The gods heard this plea and cursed the blacksmith not with death, but with a life eternally devoted to his mistake, he was to make 4 swords, one for each piece of the sword that broke, taking a thousand years to forge each one, and no rest.

 

After his deed was done, he is now said ro watch over those who forge, and serve as a reminder that everything you make should be forged to the extent of your ability, lest you marr your name as your work fails.

 

The swords themselves are said to still exist, and rumors will occasionally swell of a kingdom who holds one in their keep, they are said to be the most masterful swords in existence, a perfect attempt to right a wrong. and on each of them, on the tang of the blade is the true name of The Blacksmith.

 

Sprung from this, is the Cult of the Sword, a fantaical blacksmith's Guild dedicated to forging the perfect sword, much like the story, on the tang of each sword is written what they believe to be the secret name of The Lord of Swords, written in an ancient text. These swords, while far from god like are phenominal works of art, and can sometimes take a master half his lifetime to create

[NarokKurai]

What about a God of Lies? He literally has absolute domain over everything that ISN'T true. So long as he tells a lie, anything he says becomes true, so if you were to stab him in the gut, he'd say something like, "Wait, you didn't stab me, you stabbed yourself!"

 

And then John was a zombie.

[Endarire]

A request for divine forces: Make a small number, preferably no more than 3. Dragon Age uses one, The Maker. That way, I can have a more intimate connection with these fictional entities instead of them just being window dressing. (Discworld seems to have a god for everything, including a God of Corridors.)

[like100bears]

Personally, I think a god who used to be another god and has since passed on that mantle would be very interesting.

An old grizzled god of war who no longer fights in battles but remembers the glory and horror of combat. He might be worshipped by veterans or even the families of soldiers who wish for their safety and survival.

A reformed god of drink who has vowed to never deal with alcohol again because he has seen what abusing it did to some of his followers. He could be worshipped by anyone fighting addiction or wishing strength to loved ones who are.

A retired god of adventurers who has become benevolent and calm in his (relatively) old age, and whose worshippers run museums full of ancient treasures brought there by explorers.

 

More of a silly suggestion, but what about a god who spends their time judging which objects and concepts are worthy of having a god? This god's opinion could bring into question the validity of Caseus, god of cheese, because Bos, god of cows, already covers that. At the same time he could help end debate over whether or not Pileus, god of hats, deserves recognition alongside any other god of clothing.

[Wulfic]

I like Gods which show the what the people need. I always think of them as non existent and only roleplay that they exist ( in my setting they dont exist but ppl believe in them ).

Gods that I created are : Zagat - the god of death, but in a good manner, hes helping the dead go to the other site and reancarnate. Golthyr = Poseidon,Dana the goddes of marriages love but also crop and weath and everything what is associated with farming, Doron=Ares, Iona the goddes of medicine and herbs( in my setting only Ionas priests are healers ),Asgon=Artemis but male,Huron=Hephaestus,Baltar the God of wisdom and books and poems and so on,Orum the god of Money and everything what is associated with it,Hyronar the god of all gods but also the god of justice and the killer of mages ( in his name templars and murdering all mages in the world of Moroin ) and last Baragul the false God. The most dont believe in him but he has some servants. Some mages which make rituals for him and kill ppl , and criminals but they only believe in him cause they dont have anyone else and they dont show theyre faith too much.

[noivad]

I played this character in an open ended D&D type of game, where we made up our own deities, and other supernatural powered beings. Here is my favorite that I made up:

 

Not so much a god, or at least they didn’t consider itselves a god, but it had god-like abilities in the sense that it was not of this plane, nor did it exist in any one plane of existence. It was a sort of repair-man-like/janitor of a daemon in the sense that it did its job dutifully and without tiring (since it wasn’t tied to a physical form). Now it’s power was simple, but cold be as lethal as a person stepping on an anthill, with about as much effort. It repaired the fabric of reality because it could see and existed outside of all the planes. They were called plane walkers and since it was more of a force, it was a sort of “all or one” being. So, when it spoke it said “We” instead of I, since it was in a sense a collective that could materialize out of nothing. It essentially manipulated the fabric or reality to appear anywhere it wanted (including multiple places at once if need be) and could “unmake” things without doing anything visible (after all the body was just for show).

 

You would thing this being could be very dangerous if encountered, and it was, but only to things that ripped apart the plane. So, destructive magic users and other forces that depended on weakening the natural physical order could find themselves face to face with something that was essentially reality taking form. As such the personality was very distant and and could be misconstrued as “cold.” However, it would occasionally appear to young magicians if it sensed their threat to order to encourage them to take the non-volatile path or discouraged them from undoing all this being’s hard work. So, it had a bit of a funny disposition and didn’t particularly care for killing or harming anything, except in defense of what even it could not repair: death. It was a sort of sad creature because it saw all the destruction and wished they could make all the destructive things see that they were eventually just hurting themselves.

 

I really had the way this thing thought down, and Role-played a very rich character. If I could have backed at the 5K+ level to create this character, I would have, that’s how much I loved breathing life into it, since those that took the time to interact with this character often seemed pretty impressed by the depth and thoughtfulness of the character.

 

I am sure I will get flack for such a crazy-powerful idea, but it wasn’t a power grab type of thing. It was more of like, “How would a creative god feel?” and wouldn’t one just hand off the repair job to a daemon, and how would it feel about its never-ending job?

 

Thanks.

[lazareth]

A god of Sanity and Mental Fortitude, who is also the god of secrets. A god who allegedly knows all secrets in shape and form and who actively wants to share this information, but who also know that mortals have to earn their knowledge or risk being overwhelmed (at least according to its scripture and priesthood). This is a god who seems to want the best for mortals, but somehow ends up being the one who takes the most indirect of approaches. Paradoxically it is exceedingly rare for any piece of information to be traced back to this god, but at the same time people keep attributing new breakthroughs and the uncovering of ancient secrets to this god, even if no connection can be made.

 

In short a god who tries to prepare mortals for the truths of the universe while maintaining their personal and cultural sanity. Ultimately a god of progression, who allegedly already knows the road. Secondarily a god of meditation and personal strength, who promotes the idea of a clear and sound mind and who scorns any and all forms of intoxication.

 

The image of the god would be a hooded figure clasping a huge tome while holding a key towards the viewer in an outstretched hand.

 

Its priesthood would consist of librarians and scholars. Followers would be patrons of the arts and the like, any people who seek to promote enlightenment and truth-seeking in an ordered manner.

Edited November 28, 2012 by lazareth

[Schelling]

Here's a crazy idea: what about gods that are not antropomorphic nor animal-like but truly other-worldly? Why does God(s) always have to be created in man's own image?

 

- Yeah, I'm thinking more along the lovecraftian lines. Gods that are worshipped out of fear or ignorance or just because their influence is felt through dreams and hallucinations, through the distorsions of reality or "souls". Gods whose motives are not really discernible, but maybe - just maybe - they feast on our souls and spit and/or **** out spiritual carcasses who are struggling to become whole again (and mortals = all singing, all dancing god crap of the world). And if there need to be some kind interaction between the mortals and the gods some kind of Psychopomps might be the right way.

 

 

If not the above, at least i'd like to see a well-written trickster like many other posters:)

 

And I'm still of the opinion that whatever gods - whatever their motives - their schemes should be challenged;)

[twincast]

I'm in a bit of a hurry and frankly the only thing I really care about is the following, so I'll just restate it once more:

 

Have the pantheon(s) have proper family relations. Too often in fiction deities seem like a random assortment of natural forces grown sentient at best with only some half-assed relationships mentioned at most.

[Zed]

No Pantheon is complete without the "forgotten ways" or "old religion". Either druidic or diabolic.

 

I would also like Gods that aren't necessarily just "God of Healing" or "God of Battle". How about... "God of Fertility", "God of Luck and Fortune"?

If farming is prominent, then there should definitely be a God for that.

[wyldwabyt]

I would really like to see the God’s that are in it for themselves, this would include the “good” God’s as well… While perhaps these said good God’s would be less abusive toward their followers they would still see them as little more than ants.

 

Continuing with that it would it could also be considered that the God’s are so far removed from the mortals that they take little interest in what is going on. Instead, perhaps their children (demigods) do in their stead or for self-interest (thinking Greek here).

Edited November 28, 2012 by wyldwabyt

[Westbound Scandal]

It might have been posted, but, i think a god of rain and rainbows would be something i could get behind.

[Lashmush]

A God of Hunger, worshipped by impoverished and starving outcasts and slumdwellers, vampiric sects and druids.

 

The Gods personality would be hushed and brooding with no regard for the politics and powerstruggles of other deities, who delights in cursing the overfed and those who let many starve so they can eat. The god shows great care and warmth towards his faithful. A chaotic neutral god, perhaps a sibling or child of a nature god/goddess.

Edited November 28, 2012 by Lashmush

[Archmage Silver]

Good update, Adam!

 

The pathing/collision test map is interesting, can we get more of these in the future updates? Along with possible screenshots of WIP areas of course.

 

I don't have anything really specific to add to the pantheon design phase, but I'd personally prefer to keep the whole thing smaller in scope than those of Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk. I think they just extended on it a bit too much. Also... can we skip Bhaal?

[Boatmurder]

Oh, paypal is still open.

 

Guess that explains i havn't received anything other than the paypal donation-confirmation?

[Classic]

At the risk of being boring, I really hope we don't have some "reality is subjective" nonsense, or deities fighting over portfolios and worshippers. I feel like that's almsot been done to death.

 

I do like the idea of everything being made of the same, fundamental "soul-stuff" but then we're inviting the Hindu concept of Brahman. Which... I dunno, could be better represented in games?

It might be neat to have a god be the "wheel of transmigration," if the fantasy cosmology permits transmigration in the first place.

[nerevar]

A god, maybe a fallen one, joins your group or acts as a trusted guide in your travels who actually manipulates you or your companions just to reach his/her goal, set itself free or take revenge by using you as a tool without you know him/her is in fact a god.

[Alexjh]

I think for me I prefer to have Gods with fairly broad domains on the basis that the smaller the domain, the less reason people would bother to worship them in the first place, but this can be achieved through having two or more aspects to them. These don't have to be obvious pairings, for a campaign i ran I designed a new pantheon, and the one I liked the most was fairly day of the dead inspired, being the god of death but also things like music, dancing and drunkenness. It adds a much different tone to the traditional obviously evil gods. Infact on te subject of that, I don't think there should be evil gods at all per say. There should certainly be deities with unpleasant domains and have the kind of personalities that in a human would make you want to hit them, but realistically, there is fairly minimal reason to worship a moustache twirling deity without a very good reason.

 

The other thing, is I'd like to see a mixture of religions, not just the traditional d&d omnipresent polytheism, where everyone believes in everyone, but they just choose specific deities to focus their personal worship on. For a start, it'd be nice to have a monotheistic religion in there somewhere even if they aren't a huge thing.

Another similar thing would Be to have a situation where there are two branches of the same religion, perhaps the difference only in their entire pantheons are identical, but for the domain of say, the sun where on side worships a fairly archaic deity but the other worships a different one, perhaps they both believe in both but regard one as a minor figure each.

 

I think a lot of this boils down to the nature of deities in project eternity, there are certainly various models for this, most obvious of which is the real world scenario where gods do not exist in and proveable say and the power of clerics comes from themselves. Then there is the opposite end of the spectrum where gos very definitely do exist, created everything and muck around people's lives in a day to day basis, up to and including wandering round incarnated. I'd personally shy from this, as while it works fine for Greek and Norse mythology, its fairly hard to pull off your own importance in a world where Zeus could just decide he doesn't like you and zap you (and knowing yZeus, seduce any attractive female relatives you might have).

 

The other options are somewhere inbetween, the Pratchett model for example, where gods always exist as insignificant spirits, but if one manages to get people to believe in them, they begin to be elevated to an actual god. A similar one would be where deities are created from nothing by belief, as sentient beings - this might make a lot of sense for project eternity as soul energy is such a potent force, people going around dedicating their souls to beings might do more than they know.

Indeed, on that model, perhaps cleric spell casting works by essentially using the belief of others as their personal power battery and it would then follow that certain pantheons would literally have more potent clerics than others.

Lastly, there is he option that people might believe in one guy/lady so much that they then become a god as they reach some sort of belief critical mass hat allows them to ascend to god hood.

 

Designing pantheons has always been on of my favourite aspects of world building, so many possibilities to choose from!

 

(sorry for any weird typing, not used to writing on an iPad with its weird predictive text)