Designing gods from scratch || D&D Lifehack
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.ค. 2019
- This time talking Dungeons and Dragons, Dael Kingsmill talks through the philosophical theory behind mythological pantheons of gods, and gives one nifty worldbuilding trick for designing your own gods for your homebrew dnd setting.
Here's that link I mentioned:
Colville's Streams on Culture Design - • Creating a Pantheon, P...
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"Why is there a Domain of Light?"
I feel pretty sure it's because the DevTeam want to get away from the way religion actually works. They *want* domains that don't bear any real association with the human experience. Basically, the way Blizzard does it. "How can we implement religion without offending anyone?" Well, you do it in the most meaningless, content-free way possible.
It's a shame, because I think the domain of Light really does have a place as one focused on prophecy and understanding. It could be a different direction from which to approach the Knowledge domain, less academic and more meditative. Give it some divination spells, not just "let's give the Cleric fireball with this one."
For me the Light domain resembles a multitude of things; good & rightousness, fire and warmth & truth. It is a bit much but it would fit a god of protection.
@@KimKimeraKimes
Or a god of knowledge, inspiration. Think of "light" in a more metaphorical sense.
I don't agree. Or rather I wish I could say I don't think you're right but then I don't have 20 something years in the industry. That said, I imagine the Light domain speaks to very comfortable mythological standard of Light vs Darkness. Where "the Dark" is that scary unknown time between sundown and sun up where we can only have so many torches. A god of Light would be incredibly comforting, and SOMEONE must have created that big hot, bright thing in the sky.
Or it could be (big G) God is copywritten material and the developers don't want to get sued by the Bishop of Rome. But I like my answer better.
Light can be cold, too. Especially when connected to “order”. Think of what Nietzsche said about the Apollonian vs the Dionysian.
Those words also make a good acronym!
Purpose
Authority
Treachery
Harbor
Walk the PATH and you'll have a Pantheon.
+1000 internets
I'm laughing so hard, that's so much smarter than mine - I was using the acronym PHAT in my head, and going "yeah, it's phat like it's cool", yours is so much better, I'm dying
@@MonarchsFactory Haha, well it's yours now! Thanks for the video, I'm now going to take my pantheon spreadsheet and see what Phat Paths they will walk!
I was also thinking PHAT. From the channel that taught us how to create towns via the SPERM method, PHAT fits in well.
@@raykendo Do... Do I wanna know what the sperm method is?
Lion King Pantheon:
Mufasa- Authority
Rafiki- Harbor
Simba- Purpose
Scar- Treachery
Well, the Lion King is basically Hamlet, which she mentioned...
I’d say Nala is harbour but more or less yeah
Timon and Pumba should be Harbor, lets be honest.
Wow, now I get it!
"If you just start listing off gods attached to domains, it's going to feel like a spreadsheet."
_Me, looking up from the spreadsheet where I am writing about my gods:_ 😳
Lol me too
I'd say listening them out on a spreadsheet or google docs is fine but when you adapt it into a story/world that's when you don't want it to feel like you're reading it from a spreadsheet. Personally, I don't really play DnD but I'm writing a fantasy world and I intend to introduce the gods in a meaningful way through the story; usually as a myth or by showing worshippers praying to an aspect of the god.
I've been following you for just under a year and I only just realized... King's Mill.... Monarch's Factory... brilliant.
Well that's interesting, thanks for pointing that out.
that never occured to me either.
Son of a...
Really? I figured that was obvious. I'm legit surprised so many people never thought of it.
@@KaiserSoze679 i dont think of the word mill much. and i didnt think of it like a factory but i guess they both produce things.
"I'm so worldly" *waves her hair*
I love this woman
i have no idea what word she used just before though
@@jaebedo1599 That'll be the Frenchness of it assailing your mind :D.
@@dallassukerkin6878 that's the thing : i AM french, and i still can't understand D:
Is it supposed to be like a french pronunciation of "the hack" ?
Or is it a english joke i am too french to understand ?
@@jaebedo1599 :grins: I took it be a joke, Jae :). To pretend to say something in a foreign language and follow it up with the little self-praising phrase :D.
Almost by coincidence I created a similar version of "the one good story" when I made my pantheon for my game a year ago.
That story being that originally there were two gods, Corona and Cronotch, the goddess of light and creation and the god of darkness and time respectively. After the two of them created the universe Corona fell asleep forever (she was tired) and left Cronotch to rule everything, including their eight godly children, four sons, and four daughters.
But being the god of time Cronotch knew of a prophecy that four of his children would rise up and destroy him, taking his throne for themselves. He assumed it would be his boisterous and rowdy sons so he invited them all to a party and when they were all very drunk he one by one lured his sons into a giant pestle and mortar and ground them up into dust, before them scattering that dust to the wind.
The four sisters. mourning their brothers each traveled in different directions to collect the remains of their brothers, they placed each speck of dust in the sky to hang there forever (this is how the stars came to be). Along their journey each sister found or made a different weapon from a different materiel. A staff of Oak, A Shield of Stone, A sword of Silver, and A Spear of Gold. Using these weapons the sisters destroyed their father, thus bringing the prophecy to pass, and the four sisters divided up the world among themselves. Each taking their favorite places from their journey as their domain. But not only did that leave most of the earth neutral, they also noticed that wherever their father's blood hit something that something became a sentient creature (elves, dwarves, humans, all those guys). And so rather then fight about who should claim them they decided that each of them should rule three months out of every year. Their names then became the names for the seasons, Spring with her Staff of Oak (goddess of Fertility and Wilderness), Autumn with her Shield of Stone (goddess of Wisdom and Knowledge), Winter with her Sword of Silver (goddess of the Underworld and Judgement), and Summer with her Spear of Gold (goddess of Storms and the Sky).
Similar, its possible it misses a few of those elements though.
This story's got everything: creation story, self fulfilling prophecies, explanations for why things in the world are as such, and hints at artifacts the players may or may not encounter.
That's a great story!
Wow that’s a beautiful story.
Thank you, all of you. I very much appreciate that you guys like it.
uhhh when did corona fall asleep? asking for a friend
(im a friend)
One of the best pantheons I've seen is in the Magnus Archives podcast series, where SPOILERS the "gods" are eldritch nightmares that embody fear. Throughout the series, characters theorise on the nature of these entities and how they came to be and how they overlap. One of the analogies used for them is colour: they aren't truly separate beings but really all just aspects of one massive spectrum of fear, distinct as red is distinct from orange, but also connected in a way that you can't really define the point where one becomes the other. An example of this is The Stranger (fear of the unknown, the uncanny, things that are almost human but not quite and masks) and The Spiral (fear of madness, delusion, lies, that your reality is wrong). At what point does the mask of The Stranger become the deception of The Spiral?
Me: cobbling together a Scion campaign.
Dael: I have thoughts about gods.
Me: Yes please. Thank you thank you thank you.
Out of curiosity, which edition of Scion are you using?
@@sheetedkid I was a fan of 1st Edition, but the ridiculous power creep kept me from committing. Then I heard 2nd Edition dropped and I like the redesign so far!
Same! Working on a Homebrew 5e setting, and this kinda... put words to the ideas I've been bashing fruitlessly together
@@sonjaquan5775 Is it called Scion 2nd Edition?
"Contrary" may substitute for "Treachery" in a story where malice isn't involved.
"Opposition" could be a good word
Uhh excuse me, I came here for an informative video about gods
Not to be scared by a spooky skeleton
0/10, 2 spooky for me
8:55 *looks at my excel pantheon spreadsheet*
idk what you talkin about
I totally misread this as "Designing Goods From Scratch" and was so excited for a video on worldbuilding weird and wonderful trade goods 😅
I need a gif of "Apparently I have OPINIONS on the topic"
I quite enjoyed the more academic feel of this video. I'd definitely be interested in more lecture-esque type videos like this in the future.
seconded! I love some learning with my tips for fun ways to roll dice.
In the words of Carl Sagan.
If you want to make a pie from scratch first you have to create the universe.
So I guess if you want to make a god from scratch just bake a pie from scratch, it'll make you a god.
Bein' able to make a good pie does make one fairly godlike
th-cam.com/video/zSgiXGELjbc/w-d-xo.html
@@MonarchsFactory Now why'd you have to go make me cry. Treachery!
You're not wrong.
The whole thing about man being made in God's image is about man's ability to create something from nothing. Like, baking a pie.
Well that and probably having a sense of morality.
When I created my own pantheon for Tholl, I wanted the Gods to have multiple names each. An ancient name (known by scholars and other experts), a common nickname (known by peasants, tribesmen, travelers, etc.) and some sort of aspect that would give each one control or interest into more than one thing. That way several cultures or species might be worshiping the same god, but by different names and for different things.
An example might be Verdriette. The Maiden of Sorrow. She Walks Between. The Whisper of Death. To gladiators in the coloseums of the Juvian Order, she is the quick death, and the chooser of the slain. To the Elves of Northern Eolas, she is the end of grief (the reason it becomes easier to deal with loss over time, as it is believed that she takes on the burden of loss as you learn to cope.) Priests might invoke her for funerals, while healers might invoke her to end pain when administering balms and herbs. She is both the reason you cry and the reason you stop. She is both loss and mercy, dark and benevolent in her way, and thoroughly misunderstood. No one, not even the other gods, would take on her portfolio. None could bear the grief she witnesses each day.
When designing gods I pondered; what for cultural impact would it have if the main god of the dwarves was female? Would more women attend the forge then men? Would the women be like; "I crafted this beautiful hammer with the likeness of my pa, I crafted this baby for nine whole months and now I am back at the forge to craft a sword to smite some goblins!"
The Light domain is more than just light, though. It's also fire. You get a lot of fire spells. That ties it into blacksmith gods (who, yes, are also Forge domain, don't @ me). It ties into figures like Prometheus, who stole fire and gave it to humans. It ties into gods of destruction, and of cleansing. Even Hestia, goddess of the hearth, might count as a Light domain goddess, because of the associations with hearthfire.
Even just light itself ties into any solar, lunar, and star deities. Apollo, Ra, Amaterasu, Quetzalcoatl, etc. Any culture that values agriculture - which is most cultures that become powerful to form major nation states - will put stock in two kinds of deities: Solar deities and Harvest deities.
Speaking of harvest, that's why you have the Nature domain, and not just the Wilderness domain. "Wilderness" is more specific than is useful for a Cleric class meant to model believers in all sorts of divinity. Pan would certainly be a Nature domain god, but so would Demeter, and even Dionysis (god of the vine). Agriculture is Nature that has been tamed and bent to "civilized" ends.
Most of the domains you say it ties into are already their own domain. Destruction, Fire, Protection (hearthfire), even the Sun domain.
Yes ma'am, this post. This post is the one to end all posts.
In my games I've tried to run Light less as just the Light spell or Daylight or the sun or fire, and more like revealing something's true nature or making something right. In this way, it ties in with justice and good more than it does law or divinity. Kicking a usurper off the throne, sparing a few gold for the peasants, telling the truth even when it doesn't benefit you because the person hearing it deserves the truth, bringing secrets to light, (Pun intended). So by these guidelines Prometheus would be a servant of the light, not because he brings fire to the Humans, but because he risked his life and reputation and later accepted terrible punishment by disobeying an apathetic authority because he believed it was the right thing to do and he believed Humans deserved a fighting chance.
@@theStormWeaver You must be referring to different editions of the game. 5e doesn't have those. It has Light, Knowledge, Life, War, Tempest, Nature, Trickery, Death, Forge, Grave, and Order (the last three coming from supplements).
Everything is a part of “nature.” That’s the issue. It’s too broad
Wow the Authority, harbour, treachery and purpose is the best explanation of pantheon origin stories
Old Norse specialist Dr. Jackson Crawford has made the same or similar perspective on the Norse pantheon. They were personalities first with an anthropological history, and then aspects and elementalism were tacked on later, partly by comparison with the Roman functionalist ideas.
Also, if you can get hold of a copy of "Lord of Light" by Roger Zelazny, the novel is a telling of this process in personal forms. The gods are actual people with real people personalities, and their aspects and attributes are acquisitions evolved from their own personal tendencies after the fact. It's bloody brilliant, ironical, funny, romantic, mystical, and all the good things that Zelazny could do to you. It's grownup sci-fi/fantasy.
@@DaDunge You’re probably right but I’m a little confused because i’ve read something else, do you have the sources for Frey and Freya coming from Frö, and for Odin and Baldr being imported?
I am the God of finding highly enjoyable videos years after they were posted, and I endorse this content.
"The Cleric section is so long there's like 7 domains, you don't need 7!"
In Pathfinder there's 30+ domains, and dozens more subdomains. And for Good/Evil/Law/Chaos there are dozens of minor to major gods dead and living that share the domain. Call it bloat if you want but I wouldn't have it any other way.
I like your mention of horizons as a numinous. It's one of those things that I've had experimenting in my head place for a minute. The whole idea of adventure and death are wrapped up in the uncertainty of what is beyond the Western horizon. It's the direction of the Hesperides, where Odysseus went on his final voyage, and where the Egyptians believed the land of the dead was. A very vague and provocative direction.
Zeus as a god of justice is kind of dark when considering all the messed up things he did.
I loved that secular description of the numinous btw. Interesting to phrase it that way.
I know what the text says about Light but I've always head-canoned it as Power/Judgement. This cleric gets sent in when wrath has been stoked and the god wants to send a message to the blasphemers or to demonstrate the sheer magnitude of the god's divinity. Even the Warding Flare feature leans into this as a defensive measure against those who would strike against the god's messenger or their allies.
Another important thing to remember is that a realistic mythology, like a realistic culture, has a history. Their present forms likely did not spring fully formed out of Zeus' head (unless, of course, you decide that they did). The present form of a culture will have hints of different substrates, from all its previous forms and interactions with other cultures. This is reflected in their mythology.
If you want a good example of how this looks and feels, a good sense of a people's changing interactions with their gods, I can't recommend Mary Renault highly enough, starting with The King Must Die. It's set in a highly speculative and romanticized Bronze Age Greece, perfect fantasy inspiration. The rest of her novels track the development of the Greek World, through the Archaic and into the Classical eras, finally culminating with the campaigns of Alexander. It's a great study in a culture, as well as a number of fascinating characters. Very good reading.
"Their present forms likely did not spring fully formed out of Zeus' head" Isn't that exactly what Athena did? :p
Being serious though, I totally agree. I actually have a lot of different pantheons in my own world based on the same gods seen by different cultures. Some are incredibly similar, while others are wildly different interpretations.
I feel like you're right on the money when it comes to the modern perspective easily becomes very "elemental." I never thought about it that way.
If one wanted to do a more "elemental" pantheon, which is in many ways apt for D&D considering how the world itself is structured, I think one could easily just do both. Vulcan was the god of blacksmiths and the forge, but _also_ of fire and volcanoes. Thor is the god of strength and protection (among many other things), but he's _also_ the thunderer. Gods of "light" could also be gods of the arts or the sun or justice. Deities that people could realistically venerate (not just to get cool magic spells).
Fantastic advice about "the one good story" too! Thank you! Definitely using that.
More C. S. Lewis quotes! And from his greatest work, too!
There is just something awesome about Lewis quotes in a DnD video.
I love playing with the epithets for gods and I feel like when you're wanting to add to that pantheon then it can be a great way of adding some depth to the culture of a place pretty simply. Especially with localised cults, for example the Delphic oracle's unique reverence of Apollo as the aspect of Apollo Delphinius, it can be a good opportunity to develop cultural aspects of an area that, as you say, reflect the values of that society in the unique way they worship their aspect of the god. Also they always just feel really cool to say.
"Apparently I have OPINIONs on the topic" the hannah gadsby... she jumped out
8:25 for my future reference - had to watch it twice. :D
The upside of listening to your videos on the drive home is that it makes it fun. The downside is that then I am stuck in my car with a million ideas I need to write down and no chance to do so!
Man alive, I could listen to you talking mythology all day. That passion!
I haven't known about you for very long, Dael. Maybe a few weeks. In that time, my respect and admiration for you has doubled time and time and time and yet another time again. You are quite obviously well read, and it shows that you think critically about everything you read. I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF YOUR VIDEOS!!!!!
Not only do you have great information to share that comes from a very intelligent, imaginative, and intensely interesting (the three I's? with a fourth i to help drive the point home more for the third i) base, but you do so in a profoundly entertaining way. Simply put, I love your brain, and how you use it.
I've played DnD for a long time; I'm currently in two games, with two great DM's. And still, I wish I lived in Australia and had the good fortune to be one of your players. No only do I wish I was your buddy, but I can tell what a great DM you must be - and with everything else stripped aside - just the sheer amount of research and work you do; your devotion to learning and EMPLOYING what you have learned is amazing. And you just seem like a really awesome person to spend time with. And if you ever find yourself to need/want to marry a complete stranger from America who isn't an asshole (I swear, they exist) I'm totally down to help you out. :)
I just wanted to throw some good words your way because of all the enjoyment I've been getting from watching your videos lately. And when I choose to DM again, I will definitely be using some of your advice. The word you did on poisons and medicine is, quite frankly, brilliant. Have a wonderful day, week, month and year, and stay safe - or as you say, STAFE - and I hope you and yours stay unaffected with this pandemic.
Thanks for everything!
I studied Religion in college, and in my opinion the best theologian to describe the Numinous is Schleiermacher.
Also you should check out The Invention of World Religions by Tomoko Masuzawa and also The Meaning and End of Religion by Wilfred Cantwell Smith. Both are very detailed studies of the way the TERMS we use to describe religion come from, all of which are influenced by 19th century euro-supremacy and translational revisionism.
Have always enjoyed your videos. Thanks
As soon as you started talking about nominous, my first thought was "I wonder if she's read Lewis on this." Not disappointed in the least.
I'm currently making a monotheistic religion for my D&D setting, and I'm having SO much fun coming up with prophets and aspects for that one god, this is such a nice video to just circle back to whenever I find myself in need of inspiration.
As someone who loves literature and writing in general, this is brilliant. Idk why, but I never thought of writing stories to flesh out my world's lore; and you outlined such a comprehensive guide for writing a pantheon's story. I love origin stories like this because they're universal; it makes for an easy fit for DnD. Just extrapolate the main points and it doesn't feel like a rip off but a believable story. Thanks for this video!
This video is beautiful.
Amazing reflexions. I just love when it starts at the game and goes beyond, and then when you look to the game it has such depth.
Amazing!
Great video Dael. Been playing since the AD&D days and find I still learn things from your videos, young Lady. Keep making these? :-)
Such good timing, actually working on this very thing right now. And this helped alot!
Very well spoken and read! Thank you, I needed this!
I have come back to this video so many times!!! Legit the most useful video on the all of the youtubes
Top class video! Exactly what I needed in the run-up to my second campaign!
You’re videos have been some of the most immensely helpful in making an immersive world and home rules that give dnd a more real and exciting feel. Thank you for you’re thorough and flavorful help, you’re fantastic
Aside from the ideas and their elegant presentation, I am massively impressed with the editing.
Thank you. I appreciate you are condensing someone else’s work, but it is research and ideas I would not be aware of without your styling.
I greatly appreciate the diversity of ideas you bring before me 👍
Thank you so much. Harbour, purpose, treachery, authority. It's great to have a reference point when letting your madness become beauty.
This is exactly what I am looking for, very interesting and well worded!
Great video and awesome showmanship as always.
Best video yet Dael! And that’s saying something. Love this take on theology.
My grandson shared your video with me. You are inspirational!
Story, archtype, domain, aspect. I love it. Fantastic video.
It's funny, in reflection about my pantheon I recognise that the deities my players gravitated towards were the ones with more tangible and impactful stories. I hadn't quite worked out why they went towards the Gods they did, but it makes sense now.
This was brilliant! And so inspiring! As an avid philosophy and mythology student (and DM) this was right up my alley and exactly what I needed to kickstart a hurricane of ideas and intellectual thoughts about my own campaign's structure of deities. Really really enjoyed this video, it was a lot more academic (and as such felt much more substantial) than other D&D videos on this topic that I've seen. Thank you and you've got a new subscriber!
I keep coming back to this video of yours. Great lecture. Would you consider doing another one on this topic for us? (BTW: Loved your MCDM interview with Matt Colville).
I’ve been thinking in Triton civilizations today and this got me thinking how I might develop their pantheon, creation story, etc. Great vid, as always ☺️☺️☺️
I just opened this video for hombrew research, never seen any of your videos, but after 10 minutes you gained a follower. Love the work!
My friend just sent me your video about collecting materials from the wild and I've fallen down the rabbit hole and I love this channel already
What a great video! Thank you for sharing your insights!
Hello Dael, love your videos so much!
Your video inspired me to do some DM prep that I think my players will love.
I wrote a story of treachery from 4 different points of view and will give each to a player and let them see a different view of the story each. And the paladin who swore fielty to asmodeus and regret it is gonna read the events from Asmodeus' view, making him out to not be so bad a guy. I am sure you will have been the inspiration for an awesome moment at our table. Thank you!
Not only do I now know how to make a pantheon for my world but you also gave me an idea for the plot of a story I’ve been struggling to figure out. Thanks for the vid! I shall follow your PATH
yaaaaaaaaay, another d&d content creator i can fux with!! i feel pretty picky with what content inspires me as an aspiring gm
I just stumbled across your channel during my writer's research on mythology tips (Irish & Scottish celtic & norse mythology) and found myself being 2 minutes into continously nodding at you on my screen as if sitting in class instead of my bed! 😳🤭 I love how you immediately point out the various aspects one deity can actually have! In my research so far it was the regional differences and mythological overlappings that helped me establishing it into my story. 😊
This work is so thoughtful and subtle - it is so helpful to try and minimize cultural connotations and not fall into the good/evil dichotomy. Kingsmill's labels really help in that regard.
I think this is very very good advice. I have come up with slightly different names for these categories that work for me but it's all your idea.
When developing a pantheon for my D&D games, I took inspiration from gamers within an MMORPG space, and made a three sided structure: Command, Collaboration and Chaos.
Command = want to be in control of everything that happens in the narrative of the world
Collaboration = want to experience the flow and journey of the narrative of the world
Chaos = only interested in mucking around and having fun with the world
Your hair is simply majestic in this video, Dael!
Also, it's always nice to see how your face brightens up when you talk about mythology.
This showed up in my recommended like a month or two ago but I've finally watched it only now. This was quite informative and just a good time overall. Definitely a like and possibly a subscribe in the future :)
Damn. I really liked this. There's few things more enjoyable to listen to than genuinely passionate people who also happen to be knowledgable about their field
Dang, Dael, you have so much more thought and knowledge put into this stuff than all the other sources I see on pantheons. I mean, you quote Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis on building a fantasy pantheon. Seriously.
Your energy makes me happy! Woot, pantheons, let's go!
Thank you for this. I love you. The night after I watched this video, twice, I created my own worlds creation story. A bit more complex and more characters, but guided by the advice in this video. Thanks!
I have a Pantheon I've been working with for over a decade now. Tweaking here and there but mostly remaining as my standard homebrew setting deities. It's great to hear how others do it!
Prometheus was punished by the gods for giving the gift of knowledge to man he was chained to a rock and pecked by birds
There is a possible cognate myth in Ireland, but it seems it preserves a much more ancient theology.
There Áed (fire) son of Dagda r*pes the wife of Corrgend. When Corrgend finds out of this, he kills Áed. Dagda eventually finds the murderer of his son, and after crying tears of blood, he forces to tie Áed's corpse to a rock and then Corrgend has to carry both the stone and his dead son in his back. Corrgend dies later of exhaustion and there where the stone and Áed are placed becomes his tomb, and this is how fire is given to mankind.
Dael,
I wanna start playing with these concepts right away. Thank you!
You are brilliant, keep up the great work.
4 years later..... I appreciate the hell out of this video. Currently running a monotheistic campaign where the players along with some fallen angels, who fall into the 4 archetypes, attempt to overthrow and kill the one god. Then expanding the world into a full blown pantheon from there with the angels and PCs, giving the players a chance to immortalize their first characters in my world. So I would hope in future campaigns they would feel connected to the gods as players instead of just casually picking one with no meaning behind it.
Thoughtful and brilliant!
Wow, thanks for this. It's something I've been struggling with for some time.
What is worth noting about this system is that who is considered the 'good guy' in the core myth determines what qualities a society respects. Prometheus is considered good, or a hero, because he's a trickster - an admirable quality in Ancient Greece. Even Zeus, the being most capable of winning through brute force, solves problems with trickery. He deceives Cronos into drinking poison and so vomiting up the siblings, he's constantly trying to trick Hera about his infidelity (now, rightfully, considered a deplorable action, but considered laudable in Ancient Greece) and he resolves his problem of being potentially overthrown by his future son by tricking Methis into a shape-shifting contest and then swallowing her. It's also visible with their heroes. Heracles, Jason, Theseus and more are applauded for winning through trickery most often. The only anomalies are Odysseus and Achilles - the former gets a bad rep for being all trickery all the time and the latter was basically immortal.
Which, I suppose, begs the question of why Zeus is the king of the gods and not Hermes, but the that's best explained (I think) with the example of Heracles. He was Greece's most lauded hero because he had both trickery and power. Zeus is smart enough to get on top and powerful enough to stay there. He was worshipped because he is the king of the gods, Zeus Pan Hellenos, whose domain oversees all of Greece and whose wrath could be wrought on anyone. What is often more important (mythologically speaking) than a god's qualities is their relevance, and very little is more relevant than being god of the sky, under which we all live, and god of all Greece, in which they all lived. That is the reason he was worshipped (and another important factor in designing a D&D god).
I have only been here for 2 minutes and I already love your channel
The numenus really reminds me of a line from one of the MTG trailers for Theros (a roman/greek god plane dealio) "When does a heroes journey begin?... is it when you realize how small you are, compared to the vastness.. of what threatens to destroy you." I just love that line and how it's delivered
Fantastic!
And the best part of mythology is when the roles get switched around in later stories.
Even works for the Iron Kingdoms:
Authority: Menoth
Harbour: Dhunia
Purpose: Morrow
Treachery: Thamar
In my world i made the secret god of oblivion, the god of what happens when a god dies and is forgotten
Oooh, mysterious!
This was amazingly useful. Thank you!
Never thought I would ever hear the term "mysterium tremendum" in a D&D video. Dael, you are a magnificent nerd! Although, it only means the terrible aspect of the the holy. Its counterpart would be the "mysterium fascinosum".
This was so helpful! Thank you so much!!!!
Great video!
I could listen to Dael rant and talk about things for hours
Eeyyyyy, hell yeah! More Dungeons & Daels!
I really like the base creation of Purpose
, Authority, Treachery, Harbor.
But also really like linking Authority with Order; and replacing treachery with Chaos.
They're two contrasting ideals that are both not necessarily good or bad (depending on how they are structured).
We've seen many stories where dystopian authorities are bad, or chaotic forces are destructive.
But they also have good sides and I think that can offer some really interesting dynamics.
Loved the video, super helpful to think about!
This ought to be very helpful for one idea I've had bouncing around: a god of storms and trickery. I like how much it contrasts with Thor as a god of thunder. Basic inspiration: when things look strange and scary in the dark, then briefly illuminated by a flash of lightning. That mixture of disorientation and fear of the dark is what this god embodies.
After watching this video, Treachery is definitely the right archetype for him. That said, I like the idea of him being a troll - he laughs at people being scared when they don't have to be. So he could also play a role of crucible - a dark test that heroes must surpass. So perhaps a god of fear, but also of courage being surpassing fear, not lacking fear?
This is my favorite part of world building!! Great video!
Thanks I have quite a few fun pantheon in my world so this made me think of how to flavor them better thanks :)
As always, inspiring, comedic, knowledgeable, and practical - Dael Kingsmill everyone! (Roaring applause)
Hello fellow none human! I have loved your series so far! I 10000% agree Gods/Pantheons can be super diverse. Regardless of whether it is from our perspective, past mythology, or even brand new mythology, who knows what is real or if there is more or less than what we think there is!
I love your videos! With the advent of machinery I wonder what aspects should be important to cover in a world setting. Chemistry? Physics? etc. how deep should you go, how many disciplines does it take to add science into dnd.... video idea maybe? I just enjoy hearing you talk XD
This helped me a lot with fleshing out the religion of a project I'm worldbuilding. I had a fairly solid idea of who the 4 main gods were in function, but I didn't have any idea who they were as characters. While they are supposed to be fairly abstract, being the twisted remains of an ancient, half forgotten pantheon, I did still need some stories about them to provide depth.
What I'm currently thinking is that the death god represent authority, as they are the final authority on all matters. The storm/monsoon god is treachery, as he often claims souls meant for the death god, brings water that defies the desert god, and is the only force capable of disrupting the order presented by the wind god. The wind god is harbor, as he is the patron and symbol of the entire region, and provides diligence and order needed to survive the otherwise inhospitable land. And finally, the desert god is purpose. Where the wind god represents diligence and resilience, he represents the hardship that gives meaning to strength. He is the stakes behind every victory, and the struggle leading to every resolution. He may not be the ends to anything, but he is the means to everything.
First time viewer and newly subb'd! I play an Oath of the Ancients pally fighter of the god Fenryr. Your video has helped me hash out his lore. Cheers.
This. I needed this... thank you...