Creating a Pantheon, Part One: Culture First
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- I begin the process of building the pantheon for Rioja and Capital, the location of my next D&D campaign. We start by considering Rioja's history and its relationship with the Caelian Empire, and then go on to discuss Riojan culture, from which the gods will be drawn.
![[UNCUT] The Loyal Pin ปิ่นภักดิ์ EP.4 (2/4)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MN-p1DHjPtI/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm years late, but hoping Matt will like this, given his fondness for real sayings finding new roots in his world -
"Those who can, paint. Those who can't, patron."
Good comment
at 53:10 I expected the sentence to end "Vaslorians believe every man has his place, but Riojans believe every man has his time."
Same! That would have been much snappier!
Mage 424046 stealing that for my campaign (in some variation)
Excellent
Being from Spain, it is really weird to hear you talk about Rioja as a fantastical place (it is a region here, know for its wine and little else).
Love a good Rioja, nice full-bodied wine.
Wine IS CULTURE. Many fantasy world builders imo gloss over wine & strong drink in their setting. I brewed beer back in the 90s & even tho Ed Greenwood had detailed the FR so well that he had all these wines & ales I introduced my own spin on Sembian Ale, etc. Gave another detail point my players enjoyed. So wine my friend, IS CULTURE. 😊
@@helixxharpell I didn't say it wasn't (?)
I've been working on some lore myself, and I was missing a pantheon... one day I started turning the word "winter" around, and compared it to different languages, and it all sprouted from there: winter, night, moon, hell, summer, victory, war, celebration, spring, harvest, commerce, fortune, justice,....
before I realized it, bam, 20 gods, complete with crests, worship chants and paladins.
I literally jumped out of bed, grabbed a pen and started writing, still in underwear, so I wouldn't forget lol
best single-handed brainstorm I've had in years.
So Riojan commoners think of themselves not as commoners but 'temporally embarrassed Nobles'?
Like American Politicians always say you are a nation of "People who made it" and "People who are about to make it"? At least from the outside it looks like an important American Value.
That's exactly what I was I was referring to Civer.
It's like the american dream but instead of making it rich, everyone aspires for true nobility
Had something else up on screen blocking my view and for a solid ten seconds was CERTAIN you'd listed "fate and Portugal" as godly virtues.
As a portuguese, can't say I would be against that xD
I am reminded of a phrase from Carl Sagan "In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you first must invent the universe." It seems you are in company, Mr. Colville. Nice work and looking forward to the conclusion.
I LOVE this.
A
I may continue this before next Saturday. I don’t want to wait a whole week before we continue, this may become a regular thing weeknights.
Matthew we are running a competition on Deities RIGHT Now for our guild member in World Anvil :D We will be sharing this with them. - :D
Thank you for uploading this so quickly. I started watching it with everyone but it was late here in the UK and I fell asleep half way through.
have you considered Greed as a vice in place of wealth on this list? Hoarding wealth is a sure thing, goes against gambling, and is something that the guilds would be guilty of.
For Art, maybe there is a saint that could be comparable to a muse in Greek mythology. When you think of art in many form painting, music etc. there is always a great story or a great woman (the portrait of Madam X by John Singer Sargent) sometimes these woman were courtesans or woman from noble families.
Stealing from Shakespeare, maybe the evil/black gods are bastards to the more virtuous or “high” gods. Baldessare maybe the god of nobility but not virtue. In the idea of the 7 sins and virtues, there can be balance, i.e. the idea of fate/serendipity as opposed to conspiracy and subterfuge.
"Portfolio" makes it sound like Lathander has 900 shares in Light & Dawn Inc.
LOL - Now I'm imagining, what if deities did operate a sort of stock exchange of faith? Maybe they trade shares (followers) for favors/aid from other deities.
This.., is actually a brilliant idea.
Gods buying and selling ‘souls’ for their portfolio, and the souls actions in life determine their ‘stock value’.
ProfessirRay it would be a great reason for gods to argue. Wouldn't want someone taking over your domain. Certainly be a way for less straightforward gods to have power.
He doesn't?
Why can I only click once on the lick button for this comment?
"How do you spell bureaucracy?"
"With a 'B'."
Charlie Turk /there's a b?/
I haven't played D&D yet, I'm getting into it, but I can't imagine NOT wanting to know the pantheon! For example; I love the game Skyrim of the Elder Scrolls series, part of my favorite part of the game is the lore! I know way too much about what and who the gods are, Aedra and Daedra, and I have favorites who I know various stories of, such as Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness, challenged Molag Bal, the Daedric Prince of Destruction, Domination, and Rape. Molag Bal made a hideous creature who was big and strong and had sharp teeth and claws, good old Sheo made a pretty delicate bird. When they creatures entered combat Molag Bal's creature kept attempting to attack the bird, but the bird was too fast. Then the bird landed on the creature. and the creature attacked it, the bird moved out of the way and the creature hit its self. The bird kept doing this until the creature killed its self and Sheo won the bet!
The knowledge of this story does nothing in the games, but I'm such a lore nerd, I love to know as much about the gods of fantasy worlds as possible.
Wasn't that a contest sheogorath had with hircine? =p
(Doesn't really matter ofcourse, it's still a nice story and the Elder Scrolls do have a wonderfully deep lore with great little stories/myths in it)
I hope the 'amen' equivalent of the followers of Adun is "En Taro Adun"
Adun toridas.
Nas beru uhn'adarr?
As a web developer, the pain of naming things is very familiar and real to me.
Honestly your process here is _very_ like my day-to-day (Googling and naming is 80% of the job).
I have a dwarvish god of drunkeness in my setting. His sacred animal is the baboon. One of my players, who was a cleric, went on a crusade against the god. Great time.
Holy crap! Some of my players would absolutely LOVE a god of drunkenness! LOL Might have to steal that. 😃👊
There is a yet to be named god in my worldscape of drunkenness, marry making and feasts. That god also happens to be the patron deity of the vinyers, Brewers, and distillers.
I played a dwarven cleric once that worshipped a human saint who converted the communion of dwarves into human religion by introducing them the idea of church vine... Some stuff happened.
I had an evil Cult of Dadd in my campaign. Dadd is a God of puns, and his followers are granted the Vicious Mockery cantrip. However, they must wear a Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts, and sandals over knee-high socks.
Just wanted to drop some praise. I have been watching your running the game series and now I started watching this. Love your content. It has served as an inspiration for my own dnd campaigns and writing. Really appreciate your content.
58:45 is around where Matt mentions how he steals a lot of stuff from the real world. "Why not just have your setting in the real world?" Well, because we don't want to be in the real world. I think a lot of players want to be somewhere disconnected from our real-world problems, yet familiar enough for comfort. For example, one of the most popular fantasy worlds ever devised was J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth/Arda. He borrows a lot from real-world mythologies, even going so far as to state that, in his "setting", golf was invented by an oversized hobbit decapitating a goblin king with a club, causing it to fall down a rabbit hole.
Just thought this was interesting food for thought :)
That is literally what Matt means.
Great timing Matt. I am literally working on my first custom pantheon for a campaign setting. :)
Wow, I can't believe it's been over 6 years since I last saw one of your videos. Guess I just got too busy when I finished school. I loved your maps and your M&B gameplay, crazy seeing your (admittedly old) comment on a random video. Hope you're doing well.
I know it's been some time since you uploaded this! But "Rioja" it's actually a Province from my country Argentina; it's called "La Rioja" and it's very beutifull and have some breathtaking landscapes. I'm very gratefull for all your work, a group of friends and I are since the last year playing D&D thanks to you and it has been a wonderfull time!
Haven't seen the whole thing yet, but as you mentioned that Riojans are too familiar with political intrigue, I immediatly though of a saying: "The only lasting king is Baldassure." or "Mortal kings come and go" as to reinforce the everchanging nature of their society.
Victor Braz Hail Noxus. Hail the Triferix
Tyler H Strength, Vision and Guile.
"No no no, pistols right now" Has got to be one of my favorite things I've heard you say.
This was beyond helpful, thank you Matt. Seeing your skilled and developed thought process is so interesting and valuable. I will absolutely take away a lot from this stream. Thank you again for sharing it with us.
On several occasions my players have wanted to create their own gods when they’re in character creation. Because of the expectations of my group and my game I have always been able to work with them and support their vision
"The Saint of gambling", now I know what to aspire for :D
Irawulf Ecaflip
St. Cajetan is the Catholic patron saint of Gamblers. Gambling itself has no patron, but gamblers do. Also St. Balthasar is the patron saint of playing card manufacturers...because he's one of the "Three Kings." The more you know.
I want that saint to be called Eadric Vegas
I'm currently tinkering with a game in a 1960s Africa inspired setting and this video really helped me naming the cities, towns and important NPCs
They hate planing, spawning phrase, "The devils are in the details."
I really appreciate that I can see you read this one article about Italian names and I hear members/names of the noble houses in capital coming through already! I'm listing to this after already listening to Up to episode 26 of the chain and I Think it is actually more exciting than doing it in the reverse order I am glad I didn't know where these names came from and then heard them in context I believe them to be reoohen and now we're seeing how the sausage was made feels extra exciting.
This is why in my Homebrew setting(s) I use the same sort of religious panteón; for each domain their is a church or multiple church, such as a church of life, church of war, church of trickery , etc. And some clerics still worship individual gods, but most clerics (and even Paladins) worship the idea of a particular domain
I've literally been slowly reading through priest and it wasn't until this video that it dawned on me they're set in your campaign world...
Hey Matt, I have been a viewer/subscriber for a little over a year now and, while I don't play D&D, I love world-building and storytelling. I found this pantheon concept particularly interesting. I want to respect that your world is your world, but I saw you respond to some twitch comments and entertain their ideas so I thought I might add a couple ideas to the conversation. I thought these up, not because I thought they were just cool ideas, but because I saw logical connections between the culture/gods you described and certain traits.
1. Attaching cowardice to the god of treachery and planning could be an awesome connection. Through this, you could have visuals of schemers and planners being cowards in plays/operas and them inevitably being foiled by the power of Fortune. This would also give another reason for commoners to despise guild members, because they attempt to spurn Fortune and, like cowards, rely on a "sure thing."
2. It might be interesting, with the concept of nobility, gods, and the changing of nobility being so closely tied, to have a belief that, if a member of nobility, from birth to natural death, stays in nobility, they get a chance to usurp the place of their ancestor god or saint, who didn't do their job of causing the wheel of fortune to turn on them. There could be a symbolic duel upon their death to determine if the previous god/saint succeeded in holding their position, or if fate pulled them from power. This would allow the pantheon to reflect Riojan culture, and allow for intrigue in the current story-point. Maybe the guilds, which are so hated for their scheming, have had the power to take over noble lines and they are starting to have children in that lineage, who would corrupt the whole concept of Fortune & Nobility if they survive to old age to challenge their saints.
3. It might be good to attach the concept of the sea and the god/goddess of fortune. With Riojans being so primarily attached to the sea, maybe it is where their first view of the Lord of Fortune came from, dashing some ships to the rocks and speeding others on their way. The fickle and unpredictable nature of the sea might be a good metaphor for the Lord of Fortune.
4. This one is a little out there. You could possibly have a Dionysus-esque god related to bravery and ambition. They could view being inebriated as a enlightened state where planning goes out the window and the normal fears and inhibitions are thrown aside, allowing for them to trust fortune.
Once again, I don't intend to tell you how to make your world, but I found it intriguing and wanted to add to the discussion. Thanks for all you do for storytellers Matt!
Oh man, I want to play in your Riojan cluture! The Pratchett reference was perfect, so evocative.
I think all of my players engage with my pantheon, because I don't like the idea that a character coming back from the dead is as simple as casting a spell, even if it's a very expensive spell. So except in the case of a wish spell or a true resurrection spell, I treat these spells as way to ask a god (and they can choose which one - doesn't have to be their own) to pretty please use their power to bring the character back from the dead. And whether or not the god does as asked depends on whether or not the god wants to, which depends on their personality, goals, relationship with the person being brought back and/or the person asking, etc. And when I explained this to my players, all of the sudden even the people who are not clerics or paladins want to know about the gods, what they care about, and how one ought to behave in order to make them very pleased.
Matt, Thank you so much for putting this all together! I'm an artist who's focusing on making video games atm. and it's fantastic being able to see the process of world building. Like seriously there is not enough of this kind of content on the interwebs. Thanking you, you are THE dude.
I call upon Fabio, god of beauty and good hair, to manifest a light spring breeze that sensuously blow my silken locks back as I gently shake my head back and forth in slow-motion, drawing the gaze of all available women in the immediate area.
XD
All hail fabio 'the peerless'
how are his followers/priests/vestals called?
"The Fabulous".
XD
EXACTLY! XD
One of my favorite elements from Raymond E Fiest's Riftwar Cycle series of novels is that there were originally 100 gods, 7 greater and 93 lesser. But then before Man arrived on the planet, there was a great war in the cosmos against an unknown enemy. After the Chaos War, only 12 gods remains. The remaining gods expanded their domains to absorb the ones that were no longer managed. The God of the Sea was killed, and so his domain was taken over by the God of Nature for example.
I love this idea, and want to steal it. But I also want to push it into being a little ridiculous. What does it look like when the God of Sports and Competition takes over for the God of War? What happens when the God of Domesticated Animals takes over for the God of Nature? When the God of Travel takes over for the God of Death?
+1 for a fun idea. +1,000 for any reference to the Riftwar Saga.
What happens when the God of Travel takes over for the God of Death? He kills settlers. Everyone must be nomadic!
DrLipkin if i remember correctly, Midkemia is based on a homebrewed game that Feist played
Hour and a Half video uploaded at 2 AM? Thank Colville it's a Sunday.
Great video, thank you. It seems like the theme running through all the Riojan virtues is "passion".
There were more than 3 moments over the course of this video, that caused me to close fullscreen to like the video, only to find that I'd already liked it. Sign of high quality right there.
Oh man, I'm about to paint miniatures for the entire day, what a great start to have this in the background!
Really enjoyed watching your thought process! Would definitely watch another If you made this a thing.
I would love to see you talk with The Lorerunner. Two extreme with world building and lore.
a) I found this very valuable, thanks Matt.
b) I really enjoy watching Matt trying to assure us how short the video will be while I'm watching how long the video is.
The reason is Matt, Early Medieval Italian Names are actually called Late Roman Names. The fall of Rome as a military Power was the ushering in of the Medieval period, the Italian names remained very latinated even through to today in their surnames.
"Riojans hate planning, hate administration and bureaucracy and outlines!"
That line alone makes me wonder how they would build/run a city/population; how they would live, since money, and living takes planning and personal bureaucracy; if they are like a barbarian horde, or like a gypsy type civilization, former nomads who settled in a place they did not build.
Not to say it's wrong, but I think it would be more natural to say 'they PREFER a relaxed living situation; Planning, administration, and bureaucracy are not considered a natural state of existence, but a price one must pay.'
Add a bit of Eden in there 'The gods saw that they had spoiled their children, drunk with luxury and spontaneous pleasures, and cast them out from (eden stand in) to curse them with mortal woes so that they could better appreciate the gifts that had been bestowed upon them'
But that's my thought. I thoroughly enjoyed this video. I'm told I do too much research for my stories, but this just tells me, I don't do enough world building XD
Feeling inspired, thank you, and hope my 'input' was at least enjoyable (even though its like a year after this was posted, lol)
sometimes I really have to take a second to say wow this guy knows how to make basically everything for dnd, and me having run the game for about a year makes me feel a bit overwhelmed. Then again Matt has been playing since he was a teenager, the amount of resources and experience he has is giant.
Hey, now I'm glad I downed that last, inadvisable cup of coffee.
See this comment the moment after I took my own sip
(Commenting before watching because the title got me going. Will edit if necessary.) This is a good approach to take because whether you believe in certain deities or not, it is the culture and the environment that affect a region's gods. The behavior of the deities is influenced by the environment and vice versa. Another reason to begin with culture is because it 100% affects the gameplay environment. Your players will always have to deal with the culture. They may never meet its deities, though they'll certainly have to deal with how that culture interprets those deities. (Sorry, this is why I love D&D rpgs: the worldbuilding)
There wasn't any Early Medieval Italian names because there wasn't an Italy in the Early Medieval period. Lombard names would be a better search.
I know I am like 6-7 months late but I just screamed at my youtube screen saying that the female aspect of the queen is fortune and the male is fate...
I like the idea that domains are filled with multiple gods, and that each one of those are embodiment of a more specific idea. It reminds me of Greek Myth, and how you not only had the god of "War", Ares who was more about the brutal aspects of it, but you also had Athena, who embodied warcraft and strategy, Kratos the god of strength, Nike the god of victory, Deimos the god of fear in battle, etc. It definitely makes your culture more varied and realistic.
I’m currently running a campaign where all the gods walk around the planet and are the children of gods from the PHB
And making them wasn’t to bad but from watching this I need to add more to them just in case I get a cleric
This has been very helpful thank you keep up the great work
I simply love the fact that you chose to take inspiration from the Italian Renaissance, and not for a weirdly exaggerated, overly zealous pride and sense of patriotism. I got none of that, I don't want that. But if there is one thing I personally take pride in, and the reason I'm writing this (hopefully not too much) long comment, is the fact that the medieval Italian Renaissance translates incredibly well to a fantasy setting. I love that, and I thank you for having even thought of that, of this culture in particular.
I've spent a number of years, both in school, during class, and on my own, to research and learn about those times.
So, again, thank you Matt, and keep up your amazing work!
Sir, you are an absolute genius, and seeing your process of thinking just inspired me to work on my world. It's amazing how your line of thought is fast and flexible, and I am definitely watching this series over and over again, thank you.
Thanks so much for this video Matt! So useful for DMs who don't know where to start in constructing a world (like many of your Running the Game videos). I kept waiting for the word "passion" to come up. That side of their culture looks like it bleeds into many of the virtues that you've identified, but to me it seems like a useful word to keep in mind. Can't wait to see the next part.
"La Rioja" is a province in my country XD
This was fascinating! I wonder what you could do with a dual pantheon, like the Norse Aesir and Vanir?
Hmmm...**opens Excel**
I absolutely love you audio. Most everyone else sounds like they are transmitting through a tin can. Also - no adds. Love it.
Art is an end unto itself reminded me of another Terry Pratchett novel. In Maskerade, one of the characters has to explain to another that opera houses don't make money. "You put money in, and opera comes out."
When we played a one shot run by a memb3r of our DnD group, I wasn't aware we were playing in our regular DM's universe, so I went with "Istus" as my Life cleric's God. Her phillospophy clicked with me and if I ever create a world of my own for people to play in, I'll take her methods into account when designing a deity of fate.
Ok, this is my favorite type of video I've seen you make so far, it's so involved and detailed from both a DM and a writer point of view.
This is the kinda thing I love about this channel.
Darn it, I will have to watch this video out of order now as one of my players has just asked an in game npc about how to worship. I am only on video 28. I am a first time DM with almost no experience in playing, we are up to session 4 in our game and i am loving the experience. Thank you Matt for giving me the confidence to build my own world for a later campaign whilst using a pre-written adventure for this one. I was panicking about having to build my own world for the first session and watching your videos made me realise I didn't have to.
One thing I like to do for engaging players with thing like gods, is if, for example, the cleric is playing a race/culture that I've not done much world building for, I have them help me make a god for their character. That way they have an attachment to the god in the same way that they have an attachment to their character. This can also work for other aspects of the culture.
Terry Pratchett reference FTW! Those books have given me a huge fount of inspiration for D&D worldbuilding and playing. Humorous but also deeply meaningful.
Matt this is awesome, honestly this is what I needed. Thank you please continue this kinda work, where we break down and analyze how you do your writing. It gives me the opportunity to compare how I would do it that situation, especially when I'm currently stuck on how to build my own world. Again thank you
best video i have seen of yours,, im building my first homebrew world and guess what? what i started aint exactly the same way but similar gave me a some confidence about my logic
This campaign setting looks awesome can't wait for when the live game starts
My favourite thing is taking the names of important figures during the 1st Crusade, as they are so old and steeped in tradition. People like Adhemar, Baldwin, Berenguer, Bohemond, Tancred, and so on.
Matt, the concept of nobility and art costing money, and the whole culture surrounding that culture phenomena, is strikingly similar to athletics and sports in the early 20th century, with the rise of the professional over the “wealthy” amateurs. Love this concept in your setting.
I have literally been putting off my pantheon section. Then I saw this, you sir are awesome thank you.
I plan on DM'ing my first session EVER next month. You have made me a much better DM before I ever started, so thank you!
Only watched part of the video so far so he might answer it better than I can, but heres what I would do for the question of getting your players to care about the gods. If the gods are present and active in the world, then you should show them doing things (good or bad) even at low levels. Eg. A storm blows through, and as the sky grows dark over the mountains, you hear the cries of the preist. He yells, "The Storm God has arrived, join me brethren to send him on his way!" He is joined by upwards of thirty people, dressed like ordinary townsfolk except for the silver symbol hanging from their neck. They all start chanting words of an unknown tongue that together mimic the sounds of the storm until they fade together and become one voice.....
If the gods are not present and active, then the followers are the active party. Followers can be small like town preists and ignorable doomsayers, or large like orders of templars, armies and church states. You dont need to have these events be so huge, or even have them be involved with the main storyline. Just including them as more than a peice of info in a book, can make them engaging. Treating them as characters or as part of the game world mechanics, rather than lore. If it doesnt impact the game in a visible engaging way, then players arent going to engage with it. Plus you can always put in the more detailed histories and lore in for the players who will explore the world beyond what they are playing.
This was really interesting. Both as a world-building exercise and as a window into your personal perspective on religion. Thanks for taking the time to share it with us.
Just found this. You're very entertaining, Matt. Thank you. I love your process.
Matt makes this look so easy.
It IS easy!
Yooo, this is sick. People should do writing streams! This really demystifies the entire process. Now I don't feel as bad that it takes me like 30 mins to write a page. Thanks, Matt!
I started thinking about that Terry Pratchett bit just before you started talking about it! It was like you read my mind!
Interesting Idea, building the gods around the culture, never thought of doing it that way.
This gave me the drive to put some more work into my own setting. I'd love to see more streams like this where we just watch you do some worldbuilding or planning, it really gets my creative juices flowing. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for doing this Matt! I loved seeing you work things out and found this super valuable.
Each culture had its own ideas on the gods, but these can generally be broken down into three very broad categories:
The Greeks and Babylonians had the conceptions of gods we normally think of, kind of. They had "gods of x", and these gods were imperfect beings who could interact with and mate with mortals. These gods were also masters of nature, having power beyond mortal understanding.
The Norse and Celts had an idea of deities as these beings who were powerful, yes, but more of Avenger-like super heroes and wizard-knights than forces of nature. These gods could be killed, and though they were extremely powerful- Loki could shape-shift into pretty much anything, Thor could create craters with his hammer, Dagda had a pot that could produce infinite porridge- but in the end, just a powerful race of humanoids that were to be respected and feared.
The Turks and the Egyptians had more natural gods. These gods were forces of nature. Generally speaking, they did not breed with humans and seldom interacted with them, and were far removed from the material plane. These gods had few of the petty arguments of mortal life, instead being infallible, unthinkable evil, or amorally neutral.
Most people now and days shift this notion, making all gods fit within the Greek/Babylonian model, making Thor not a strong god who wields lightning and a hammer, but The God of Strength, Lighting, and Hammers. Likewise, we think of Egyptian/Turkic-style deities as those that can be interacted with easily, so that you could have a casual talk with Horus or Umay. Try to think about these three pantheon models and decide which you think your campaign falls under.
Best quote - "We've already been talking for twelve minutes, and we haven't made ONE god yet!"
Verisimilitude in a nutshell: there should be things in your world that the player characters know are real but do not care about.
Why must I see this 5 months later?! Matt, you could also look up the names of constellations and planets and galaxies. There's a lot of interesting names there. And I go to Behind the Name a lot to see what they have.
Something I like doing for names is using Sean Puckett's Random Word Generator and putting in a number of names in from a real world culture or two that my fictional culture takes inspiration from, and it gives me a bunch of new names by combining ones from my list. I'm not sure how 'linguistically' sound this is but if I make a list long enough, I occasionally get some names that seem both unique and 'right'-feeling.
Also get a bunch of ridiculous ones, as with all things you have to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Was wondering if anyone had thoughts on doing it this way?
Having read your novels, Priest and Thief, I love your religious system of Saints and Gods!
I supported the kickstarter but was always like "Mm maybe I'll watch the stream but probably not ". After this video, I can't wait for the streams
Creating gods in a fantasy setting can be super fun because you get to consider what the supernatural races would worship. Dragons, elementals, illithids, lizardfolk, whatever else could have gods. Also you can come up with creation myths, which is another way to figure out who the gods were.
the differences between Vaslorian and Riojan nobility seems to be that Vaslorian nobles come from blood and steel while Riojan nobles come from pen and ink.
Hey Matt, great video. As someone native from Spain I think that you may like to know that Rioja is famous throughout the country for having the best red wine. It might be fun for you to roleplay tavern owners that boast about their wines.
Question: What is the Riojan opinion on Science, Philosophy and Invention, seperately? If they hate planning and overthinking, those professions which require detailed planning and are built around thinking are practiced less? Is technology upgraded to look nicer, but is only as functional as it was centuries prior, because nobody is scientifically minded? Is intelligence celebrated or shunned? - Smart people learn to lie earlier after all. Are Riojans discovering things? Are Riojans finding out things about neighbouring kingdoms, strategising for conquest or at least defense, and if not does that make them weak? Will Rioja fall because of their unwillingness to strategise and upgrade?
Liam Needham And because magic is an equivalent to science, what is their opinion on it. I see them seeing sorcerers as men blessed or cursed, both being romantic characters, while wizards aren't men to inspire, instead men to distrust. Warlocks are somewhere in between, they have taken their shot and fate will decide whether it works out
Instead of intelligence, Riojans admire savvy. Riojans respect those who have figured it all out, those who have put forth successful plans (even through treachery). Every plan is a gamble, but better than that, a gamble you can always win if you play your cards right.
I think that Riojans have a mixed relationship with science.
If we were talking about modern science, which is gathering data and evidence to back up and test a hypothesis, Riojans would think it was a waste of time, as all good scientific truths are self-evident. A Riojan wouldn't discover gravity, a Riojan would know all things fall down. Riojans hate career scientists but love revolutionary inventors, as the scientist is hoping to figure out about the world and the inventor already has.
I want to write more but I think this is good for now.
Edit:
And right as I publish this, Colevile says riojans hate planning.
Dan Scantland i agree that sorcerers are the ones who would be romanticised, since magic is not pursued but thrust upon them. Do they consider magic as a scientific or technological utility to be shunned or do they see it as an art form to create beauty from that which is beyond our conception?
Dan Scantland Also are there any spells that are shunned or feared? If they dont invent, do they have access to named spells like the mansion one (i dont know exactly what its called)? Maybe they do but drop the name so as not to celebrate the inventor, to them its just a tool. Are there any illegal spells/schools? Do they even have access to the full spell list? Are there any spells they have that other places dont? What is there opinion on illusions - decietful or wondrous?
MajorWX They admire savvy and spontaneous heart-driven crime. The pirates and swashbucklers and highwaymen and duellists are romanticised, maybe even celebrated (with statues and books and plays and guided crime tours). But do the victims of these crimes accept such a light approach? How does the romanticism affect the justice system? How much does public opinion sway the courts and the lawmakers? Are there factions and political disputes that wish to toughen the government up? Why arent they winning, whats stopping them?
"Completely arbitrary, fuck off"
I've never been more confused and yet understood so completely
"Googling it" will eventually = A planet of perceptually programmed automaton.
the impression that I got was that there would be a god or major saint of passion
I’m just about to start my pantheon for my campaign that starts in August... I still got time, but this is perfect timing! Amazing work as always!
Perhaps you should consider changing Rioja's name to something with "g" and not "j", since "J" is not a part of the proper italian alphabet and would perhaps shake off that "feeling".
Perhaps Rioggia? (Pronounced exactly the same as Rioja)
oh this is clever
Pretty sure Rioja is set in stone from years of use in other lands for his stories, tabletop and published both, prior to fleshing out the region proper.
Maybe he could instead replace some instances of uses of the letter "g" with uses of the the letter "j" in the conventional Italian he's sourcing from?
“La Rioja” - complete with letter J - is a region of Spain.
Yeah, I was surprised when he said Rioja, and then said it was a medieval Italian type of culture. Even beside the fact that it is a region of Spain (known for its wines), it also SOUNDS Spanish and not Italian.
Has he ever commented on this ? Anyone asked him directly ?
FVonMuller it’s worth mentioning that it’s not actually italy, merely based on italy. he could do that, but he doesn’t need to.
I have played a cleric once, in a 1E game, and a shaman once (4E). Both times I was allowed to basically create the contents of my charcater's faith. If DMs want players to interact with portions of the game world, they should allow the players to shape the bits they are interested in interacting with.
I'm Italian and I appreciate this...
Love this video. Despite your intention to the contrary it feels like more of a discourse than your other videos (even if it is, bizarrely, with yourself, a very DM talent x) Really useful as guidance and reassurance. Reassurance because being DM can be isolating, literally spending your time with your mind in your own world.
my elven and dwarven gods took form after I asked myself how their respective races handled death. For the elves, they place the dead in trees (or the colossal Grave Trees, if they are in the capital cities in which those trees reside). The dwarves turn to stone when they die, and so the dead are brought back to a large hallowed out mountain, the Ancestry Fortress. Here, the dwarves believe their dead will come back to life when their god, Morn, returns to life.
YOINK.
Glad to know that I don't struggle alone with names.
Gary Gygax's Extraordinary Book of Names was probably my greatest investment.