The Campaign Builder's Guild

Establishing (most of) the deities of my setting was the first thing I did. (I'm taking a very top-down approach.) I have deliberately avoided specifically racial deities, at least among those which are known throughout the majority of the game world. (I'm leaving plenty of empty room to fill in with more localized/specialized deities as needed.) Soon I'll upload my deity info into my Panisadore wiki. The majority of gods are perceived as taking the form of a particular race, and they tend to be most popular among the race so reflected. Still, followers my be found among virtually all the races. A few seem almost racial as they represent some value that is crucial to that races overall culture. e.g. Rimilnix, the god of Truth is so rigid in his absolute insistence upon the truth that his clerics are surrounded by a potent Zone of Truth and are utterly incapable of lying. (They have a very difficult time dissembling in any fashion such as saying no more than is absolutely necessary in answer to a question even when it is clearly vital that they do so.) He has very few non-dwarven followers. When still living in the Underdark this was a vital necessity in trade and other dealings with other races who could not be trusted as well as in binding the fabric of an isolated and crowded society. It remains a deeply ingrained cultural value.

Not all deities are what they appear to be - and accounts of some vary, even contradict each other, depending on who is describing them. Jessanak, a god of authority and social order, is believed by (most of) his followers to be LN. He is in fact a (very intelligent) LE god of tyranny; but hey, the coaches all run on time. He is officially the principal deity of the Mallenorian Empire and the Emperor, his high priest, is believed to be his avatar - his high altar and the throne are one and the same. As such, absolutely everything in the empire, including its citizens, explicitly belong to the Emperor as outright property. Given the high value Mallenorian culture places on orderly, structured society and the authority necessary for its function, the Mallenorians are essentially blind to the fact that they are, by definition, all slaves. This point however is far from lost upon their neighbors. . .

The over-deity is worshiped by a scattered few as the Goddess of Secrets, in spite of the fact that she has never, ever revealed herself to anyone, has no known name (being referred to as simply Who Cannot be Named,) grants no spells to clerics (though she is served by a few adepts, etc.) and when you get right down to it, there is really absolutely no evidence whatsoever that she even exists at all. Then again, if any of these things were not the case she would not be a very good keeper of secrets, would she? The actual secret which she keeps is the fundamental nature of all reality and those few who are privy to the secret are incapable of actually expressing or describing it. Unknown to all is that her avatar is a lesser deity, the Goddess of Insanity.

Rivalries between deities and conflicts of view regarding them are common place. As they are well aware of the direct connection between their own power and the devotion of their followers, most of the gods are very active, even if indirectly, in the worldly affairs affecting their worship base.

I'm also a big believer in ancestor veneration and local deities in a game setting.  Even a stone from your yard at home can be a 'lucky' talisman, a symbol of what is precious to you, or perhaps a reminder of what you fight for, etc.

But, how to create tension...?  In a tolerant, animistic world, it would be hard as 'my' deity and 'your' deity just don't have anything to do with each other.  In a pantheonic world setting, it is easy as one group of zealots can just get a bit domineering and tension is natural.  Figure out what is truly important to a civilization and create the deities (or animistic, communal consciousness, divinity  personifications (like the river that waters the crops for a civilization) and call it a deity) and their organizational structure and the tensions should take care of themselves.  It seems like in the O.P., the harmony created was inadvertent and the lack of tension made it all seem blah.  Is Law and order truly in service of Good and is that why there is no tension?  Does everybody have their place and are they happy about it?  What does Freedom mean?  Who dissents and why?  Who do they worship?  Could this dissent create factions within the 30 deity structure and how would it shake up?  Would it cause Inquisitons or something to struggle against to overcome?  Can it be fixed without starting over?

As far as planes go, if you decide on an animistic power scheme then having the prayers go 'out there somewhere' and get echoed back as divine spells or turning/rebuking undead falls flat in my mind.  It needs to echo off 'something', right?  Perhaps there are only 7 planes of existence... Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Positive, Negative and the one where all the leaks gather, the Material.  No deities, afterlife, Astral Projection, Shadow Walk, Etherealness, Dimension Door, on and on.  Here, 'divine' power could be a reflecting echo of one's connection with the elements.  Druids and Rangers could get their magic from their very own natures in harmony with the greater Nature of the elemental pool of the Material.  Paladins and Clerics could get their abilities from a different kind of connection to the elements... certainly more close to the Positive element with a Paladin or good Cleric.  Would Law and Chaos be elements in and of themselves or 'templates' overlaid on one of the others?  Talk about building from the ground up!

The answer is, of course, whatever floats the boat.  But once you have the answer and at least the framework for it, you then create the interface, as it were, for those living in the world.  How the divine reveals itself to the mortal is where the fun begins.  If 'the people' worship the life giving River, how do they pray?  Do they offer to it?  What rites (burial, marriage, coming of age, sacrements, etc) are associated with it?  A pain in the butt to do for 30 deities to be sure but if you know the holy days for them, then you've got yourself a genuine living world, complete with a calendar, holidays for all, factions with agendas that create social friction and voila!  Instant tension.    

The problem I've encountered in my own attempts at world building is that I just have a hard time with the web connecting it all.  The various races and the facets shown by each of the animistic deities to them has been complicated.  It may be that I'm over-complicating things just for the sake of having them written down but time and real life have gotten in the way too.  It all makes sense in my head but writing it down has been a cross referencing logistical drag.  Six days of creation and one of rest, my booty!

Good points Slapzilla. I currently don't have anything else to add, but I think this thread is going somewhere and deserves a bump.

Thanks, Kap'n.  I just hope it helps the original poster's need for tension and planar issues.

I think this thread deserves a bump or two, too.  It sure has helped clarify a few things for my own world building.

[blockquote=slapzilla]As far as planes go, if you decide on an animistic power scheme then having the prayers go 'out there somewhere' and get echoed back as divine spells or turning/rebuking undead falls flat in my mind. It needs to echo off 'something', right? Perhaps there are only 7 planes of existence... Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Positive, Negative and the one where all the leaks gather, the Material. No deities, afterlife, Astral Projection, Shadow Walk, Etherealness, Dimension Door, on and on. Here, 'divine' power could be a reflecting echo of one's connection with the elements. Druids and Rangers could get their magic from their very own natures in harmony with the greater Nature of the elemental pool of the Material. Paladins and Clerics could get their abilities from a different kind of connection to the elements... certainly more close to the Positive element with a Paladin or good Cleric. Would Law and Chaos be elements in and of themselves or 'templates' overlaid on one of the others? Talk about building from the ground up![/blockquote]
This is a lot closer to what I have going on in Celtricia...actually, very close.

I also have the afterlife being a lot closer to the surface, in that souls of the dead that are not properly shriven or that do not want to pass through to the Well of Death to the bosom of their own deity hang around the 'Waking Dream' that is Celtricia until some Necromancer helps them pass through (if it is a good necromancer) or binds them (in the case of an evil necromancer).  ALl people fear being bound, though many know it will be their lot.  One of the reasosn for the huge amount of faith and connection to the various churdes of Celtricia is the fear of what happens in the afterlife.  Faith, real faith that the folk of the world look at as more important than their waking life, makes a fantasy world run.

LordVreeg, how much real contact is made beyond spells and turning or rebuking is there with the people and the Deities?  Are there arcane necromancers too?

I think what you want out of gods can vary. While mystery is important, faith issues need not be of same kind we deal with IRL (where you don't have any solid evidence for what, if anything, is really out there). I personally am fond of the sort of issues that cropped up in mythology. Why does this being with such human-like behaviors deserve worship? Is it really a god? The Athar from Planescape are a fun example of philosophical conflict along these lines.

My world has gods a little like this, a little too comprehensible for complete comfort but still seeming beyond mere mortal pettiness. They compete for control of the world with spirits of nature (specifically Faerie Lords).

I think setting up a pantheon is like designing a house.  A good architect can draw up a mansion with perfect flow and unity with relative ease.  Get the structural engineers to sign off with as few changes as possible and you got yourself a design.  Now you've got to sell it.  When you do and measure out the lot, the lot is not wide enough by six feet and the front needs to be shortened by two feet to comply with city codes, because they've got a tree in the back yard the owners want to keep and they want to attach a garage.

"But that changes the roof lines and the rafter scheme and now I'll have to redo the whole thing!  Man, if I only knew beforehand..."  

Crap.  Back to the drawing board.

Never be afraid to adjust your system and retcon if you need to.