The One Hour Pantheon
Fighting my tendency to invest way too much time into world-building before actual play, I set myself a beautiful constraint: Create a functional pantheon within one hour. For this, I had the following design drivers in mind:
- Come up with a good amount of gods; somewhere between 8 - 12.
- Be guided by some randomness to come up with a bit more unusual mix of domains. If that results in a more unbalanced pantheon where some gods might have similar domains and other staple houses of fantasy faiths are missing, so be it.
- Make it easy to slot in some gods from previous world-building that became quite popular with my players.
- Don’t go too deep into describing each deity. Some basics around domains and how the gods are connected will do.
I realized I’d need a good list of faith domains to draw random results from. I found a good list from Pathfinder that includes Paizo’s extensive list of domains and some unusual options from 3rd party publishers. It took me ten minutes to create one big random table out of this (most time spend on curating it a bit, leaving out monster or lineage-specific domains like “drow”). Here’s the list:
|1 |- Air Domain |
|2 |- Cloud |
|3 |- Lightning |
|4 |- Wind |
|5 |- Animal Domain |
|6 |- Feather |
|7 |- Fur |
|8 |- Insect |
|9 |- Artifice Domain |
|10 |- Alchemy |
|11 |- Construct |
|12 |- Industry |
|13 |- Toil |
|14 |- Trap |
|15 |- Chaos Domain |
|16 |- Demon |
|17 |- Entropy |
|18 |- Revelry |
|19 |- Riot |
|20 |- Whimsy |
|21 |- Charm Domain |
|22 |- Captivation |
|23 |- Love |
|24 |- Lust |
|25 |- Community Domain |
|26 |- Cooperation |
|27 |- Education |
|28 |- Family |
|29 |- Home |
|30 |- Darkness Domain |
|31 |- Loss |
|32 |- Moon |
|33 |- Night |
|34 |- Death Domain |
|35 |- Murder |
|36 |- Plague |
|37 |- Psychopomp |
|38 |- Undead |
|39 |- Destruction Domain |
|40 |- Catastrophe |
|41 |- Hatred |
|42 |- Rage |
|43 |- Torture |
|44 |- Earth Domain |
|45 |- Caves |
|46 |- Metal |
|47 |- Petrification |
|48 |- Radiation |
|49 |- Erosion Domain |
|50 |- Evil Domain |
|51 |- Cannibalism |
|52 |- Corruption |
|53 |- Daemon |
|54 |- Demodand |
|55 |- Demon |
|56 |- Devil |
|57 |- Fear |
|58 |- Kyton |
|59 |- Plague |
|60 |- Fire Domain |
|61 |- Arson |
|62 |- Ash |
|63 |- Smoke |
|64 |- Glory Domain |
|65 |- Heroism |
|66 |- Honor |
|67 |- Hubris |
|68 |- Legend |
|69 |- Good Domain |
|70 |- Agathion |
|71 |- Archon |
|72 |- Azata |
|73 |- Friendship |
|74 |- Redemption |
|75 |- Healing Domain |
|76 |- Medicine |
|77 |- Restoration |
|78 |- Resurrection |
|79 |- Knowledge Domain |
|80 |- Aeon |
|81 |- Education |
|82 |- Espionage |
|83 |- Memory |
|84 |- Thought |
|85 |- Law Domain |
|86 |- Archon |
|87 |- Devil |
|88 |- Inevitable |
|89 |- Judgment |
|90 |- Kyton |
|91 |- Legislation |
|92 |- Loyalty |
|93 |- Slavery |
|94 |- Tyranny |
|95 |- Liberation Domain |
|96 |- Freedom |
|97 |- Revolution |
|98 |- Self-Realization |
|99 |- Luck Domain |
|100|- Curse |
|101|- Fate |
|102|- Imagination |
|103|- Madness Domain |
|104|- Insanity |
|105|- Nightmare |
|106|- Truth |
|107|- Magic Domain |
|108|- Alchemy |
|109|- Arcane |
|110|- Divine |
|111|- Rites |
|112|- Nobility Domain |
|113|- Aristocracy |
|114|- Hubris |
|115|- Leadership |
|116|- Martyr |
|117|- Plant Domain |
|118|- Leshy |
|119|- Decay |
|120|- Growth |
|121|- Thorns |
|122|- Protection Domain |
|123|- Defense |
|124|- Fortifications |
|125|- Purity |
|126|- Solitude |
|127|- Repose Domain |
|128|- Ancestors |
|129|- Psychopomp |
|130|- Souls |
|131|- Ruins Domain |
|132|- Rune Domain |
|133|- Language |
|134|- Legislation |
|135|- Wards |
|136|- Scalykind Domain |
|137|- Dragon |
|138|- Saurian |
|139|- Venom |
|140|- Strength Domain |
|141|- Competition |
|142|- Ferocity |
|143|- Fist |
|144|- Resolve |
|145|- Self-Realization |
|146|- Sun Domain |
|147|- Day |
|148|- Light |
|149|- Revelation |
|150|- Thirst |
|151|- Travel Domain |
|152|- Exploration |
|153|- Portal |
|154|- Trade |
|155|- Trickery Domain |
|156|- Ambush |
|157|- Deception |
|158|- Espionage |
|159|- Greed |
|160|- Innuendo |
|161|- Thievery |
|162|- Vermin Domain |
|163|- Vermin Domain (UW) |
|164|- Void Domain |
|165|- Dark Tapestry |
|166|- Isolation |
|167|- Stars |
|168|- War Domain |
|169|- Blood |
|170|- Duels |
|171|- Tactics |
|172|- Water Domain |
|173|- Flotsam |
|174|- Flowing |
|175|- Ice |
|176|- Oceans |
|177|- Rivers |
|178|- Weather Domain |
|179|- Monsoon |
|180|- Seasons |
|181|- Storms |
|182|- Dream Domain |
|183|- Dwarf Domain |
|184|- Elf Domain |
|185|- Fate Domain |
|186|- Gnome Domain |
|187|- Halfling Domain |
|188|- Ocean Domain |
|189|- Orc Domain |
|190|- Pleasure Domain |
|191|- Renewal Domain |
|192|- Retribution Domain |
|193|- Song Domain |
|194|- Time domain |
|195|- Preservation Domain |
|196|- Famine Domain |
|197|- Agriculture |
|198|- Gambling Subdomain (Luck Subdomain)|
|199|- Serpent Domain |
|200|- Beltane (Sun) |
|201|- Dolmen (Earth) |
|202|- Ostara (Healing) |
|203|- Rainbow (Weather) |
|204|- Samhain (Death) |
|205|- Shadow (Darkness) |
|206|- Summer (Fire) |
|207|- Yule (Darkness) |
|208|- Island Domain |
|209|- Mirage Domain |
|210|- Prophecy Domain |
|211|- Volcano Domain |
|212|- Cold |
|213|- Creation |
|214|- Amorality |
|215|- Cold |
|216|- Time |
|217|- Vengeance |
|218|- Art Domain |
|219|- Time Domain |
|220|- Radiance House - Domains |
|221|- Occult Domain |
|222|- Cold Iron Domain |
|223|- Ice Domain |
|224|- Wind Domain
I might clean up the list some more in the future, but restricted myself to not investing more time now. Good enough.
Next, I decided to go for three domains per god, with the option to skip one if I disliked the result. Again, I wanted to use the random input to push my creativity a bit. Here are the six sets created (using this handy random number generator that allows you to create a number within a selected range):
- 24, 157, 10 = Lust, Deception, Alchemy
- 188, 181, 121 = Sea, Storm, Thorns
- 33, 125, 139 = Night, Purity, Venom
- 13, 219, 3 = Toil, Time, Lightning
- 101, 113, 122 = Fate, Aristocracy, Protection
- 159,168, 147 = Greed, War, Day
In order to interpret these results, I looked at what I already got for my setting “Oshury, Land of the Stone Queens”:
- An ancient land that for many centuries no longer housed a great civilization. I think of elements of Celtic culture, unforgiving wilderness, with a rather cool, temperate climate.
- Close to the coast, changeable weather determines the life of the people, who live from fishing, sheep breeding, and fur trade. Deep forests and bogs surround what little arable and pasture land has been wrested from the wilderness.
- The locals honor the ancient gods of the land, but the state religion of the tsar, who recently counted the land as part of his empire, is also taking root.
- Belonging to the old gods (and the gods I want to reuse here) is Morrigú, the goddess of death, battle, and fate. The second is Cailleach, goddess of the change of life and death. She is worshipped by pregnant women as well as called upon by the dying for assistance. She is also the change of seasons. Lastly, there is Cromm Cruach, god of bloody battle, sacrifice, and gaining possession.
From this came the idea to use the concept of a clan to create the pantheon. In my head, Morrigú and Cailleach formed a pair of elder gods I called The Wanderers of Yesterday, Now and Tomorrow. Looking at my six sets rolled, I thought it might be interesting to have three sisters and three brothers, making Cromm Cruach into one of the brothers. Reshuffling the sets to fit this structure resulted in:
Three sisters:
- 24, 157, 10 = Lust, Deception, Alchemy
- 33, 125, 139 = Night, Purity, Venom
- 101, 113, 122 = Fate, Aristocracy, Protection
Three brothers:
- 13, 219, 3 = Toil, Time, Lightning
- 188, 181, 121 = Sea, Storm, Thorns
- 159,168, 147 = Greed, War, Day
Next, I worked on some of the domains. I knew I wanted a god for the wilderness and “Thorns” came closest. Also, “Day” didn’t feel right for Cromm Cruach, so I deleted it from his set.
At this point, I realized I was 30 min into the process and needed to speed up. So I fired up the fantasynamegenerators, browsed through some names (Norse, raven names, elves, and some random ones), and wrote down the first names that resonated with me, shortening and adjusting some of them. Looking at their domains, I added a title to each (spending 10 minutes in a rabbit hole to understand the difference between a nickname, moniker, and cognomen). And while at it, I also ideated a symbol or idol for each:
Three sisters:
Sjrrda, The Dazzling Princess, goddess of lust, deception, and alchemy. Her symbol is the mirror.
Spilla, The Stone-cheeked One, goddess of night, purity, and poison. Her symbol is a polished white stone egg.
Asya, The Rooting Willow, goddess of fate, nobility, and protection. Her symbol is the rooting willow.
Looking at the three sisters I felt an urge to define their relations a bit:
The youngest, the mercurial Sjrrda. The middle one, the unapproachable Spilla. The oldest, the dependable Asya.
Now I realized that I didn’t want to give them a strict alignment as they felt more neutral to me, containing both good and evil. This spawned the idea to create an evil alter ego for each (it’s always helpful to have some clear evil entities in fantasy gaming, right?). So, three demons got created and integrated with a bit of cosmology:
Three demons sprang from the head of the sisters: Sjrrda-Gal, the deceiver. Spilla-Gal, the poisoner. Asya-Gal, the despot.
This looked nice, so I applied the same pattern to the three brothers as well:
The Three Brothers: the youngest, the restless Hagi. The middle one is the fervent Cromm Cruach. The eldest, the unyielding Marannan.
Hagi, the restless one, god of effort, time, and storm. His symbol is the plow.
Cromm Cruach is the god of bloody battle, sacrifice, and obtaining property. His symbol is a fist engulfed in fire.
Marannan, god of the sea, the storm, and the wilderness. His symbol is a whirlpool of water.
From the arms of the three brothers sprang three demons: Hagi-Gol, the headless destroyer. Cromm Cruach-Gol, the bloodthirsty murderer. Marannan-Gol, the hunger-bringer.
By then time was almost up, but I felt the need to create two more gods that represented even older, non-gendered beings. Quick rolls on the random table gave me:
79, 98, 55 = Knowledge, Self-Realization, Demon
29, 205, 149 = Home, Shadow(Darkness), Revelation
I tweaked the results quite a bit: transforming “Knowledge” into “Wisdom” and “Self-Realization” into “Reconciliation” (can’t tell why just following an itch). Also deleted the “Demon” domain as it felt redundant.
For the second set, I decided on “Darkness” rather than “Shadow” and turned “Revelation” into “Prophecies”. The result:
The Eternals: Hivtr and Doanh.
Hivtr, the Ohngestalt (German for “without a gestalt”), deity of the home, darkness, and prophecies. The symbol of the deity is a bowl with ashes.
Doanh is the deity of wisdom and reconciliation (neutral gender), is worshipped at the Abbey of Fluth. (I had the idea of a reclusive abbey in my world before and used this opportunity here). The symbol of Doanh is a chalice with sweetened sheep’s milk.
By then I had spent a bit more than one hour on the pantheon. But a final piece from my world-building notes was still missing:
The locals honor the ancient gods of the land, but the state religion of the tsar, who recently counted the land as part of his empire, is also taking root.
I knew that I wanted this state deity to be associated with the sun domain, but curious to see what else could be there I rolled up 3 more random results:
32, 95, 214 = Moon, Liberation, Amorality
Interesting! All sounded cool, so I decided to use them all.
Ygtras, the Glaring Goddess of the Sun, moon, liberation, and amorality. The goddess and her followers see themselves as enlightened and beyond any mortal morality. Her symbol is a broken sun with the moon behind it.
Thinking about how this fits into the old religion and how the locals might react to this intruding, mighty faith led to: The locals call her Mütterchen Ygtras, the clan elder (“Mütterchen” is the German diminutive of “mother”). Thus they give her the central place in the pantheon. At the same time, however, every local knows that “Mütterchen” alludes to Mütterchen Igda. A good-natured, toothless old woman with whimsical ideas who appears in the old stories.
Finally, here’s the whole pantheon.
Pantheon of Oshury, Land of the Stone Queens
The Three Sisters
The youngest, the mercurial Sjrrda. The middle one, the unapproachable Spilla. The oldest, the dependable Asya.
Sjrrda, The Dazzling Princess, goddess of lust, deception, and alchemy. Her symbol is the mirror.
Spilla, The Stone-cheeked One, goddess of night, purity, and poison. Her symbol is a polished white stone egg.
Asya, The Rooting Willow, goddess of fate, nobility, and protection. Her symbol is the rooting willow.
Three Demons sprang from the head of the sisters: Sjrrda-Gal, the deceiver. Spilla-Gal, the poisoner. Asya-Gal, the despot.
The Three Brothers
The youngest, the restless Hagi. The middle one, the fervent Cromm Cruach. The eldest, the unyielding Marannan.
Hagi, the restless one, god of effort, time, and storm. His symbol is the plow.
Cromm Cruach is the god of bloody battle, sacrifice, and obtaining property. His symbol is a fist engulfed in fire.
Marannan, god of the sea, the storm, and the wilderness. His symbol is a whirlpool of water.
The Eternals: Hivtr and Doanh.
Hivtr, the Ohngestalt (German for “without a gestalt”), deity of the home, darkness, and prophecies. The symbol of the deity is a bowl with ashes.
Doanh is the deity of wisdom and reconciliation (neutral gender), worshipped at the Abbey of Fluth. (I had the idea of a reclusive abbey in my world before and used this opportunity here). The symbol of Doanh is a chalice with sweetened sheep’s milk.
The Wanderers of Yesterday, Now and Tomorrow: Morrigú and Cailleach
Morrigú, the goddess of death, battle, and fate.
Cailleach, goddess of the change of life and death. She is worshipped by pregnant women as well as called upon by the dying for assistance. She is also the change of seasons.
The intruding state religion: Ygtras
Ygtras, the Glaring Goddess of the Sun, moon, liberation, and amorality. The goddess and her followers see themselves as enlightened and beyond any mortal morality. Her symbol is a broken sun with the moon behind it.