Discussion: Pantheon

[brainface]

What exactly should I picture when you say "death" is a totem god?

a swarm of fiendish crows? :)

[Numinous]

I was just thinking, and maybe the goddess of insanity deified herself and then demanded worship?

EDIT: Anybody think I should stop now?  Maybe I should wait until the empire is done before defining it's religion...

[Túrin]

Please continue spewing ideas at us as long as you have any (and then some). That's what these discussion threads are for.

[Soup Nazi]

The saints of the empire should not all be various emperors...that's too narrow. Some could have been great generals or champions, others could have been teachers or sages, while some could have been powerful wizards or cunning tricksters.

If the saints are various people (maybe even great adventurers) who ascended to divinity at various points during the reign of the old empire, they may even be pushing their priesthood to restore the empire. If they come from diverse backgrounds then many more people within the new empire will support this push to rebuild; the movement will have a much better chance of success if they draw from all walks of life, and promote the fact that the saints themselves were once mortal, so they have the interests of the mortals themselves in mind in their objectives; they would most likely think of the totem gods as archaic entities that serve their own impulses, rather than the good of mankind.

This line of thought enables us to make a diverse pantheon which appeals to all people, portfolios, ideals, alignments, etc. The fundimental difference between the imperial saints and the totem gods is a conflict of new vs. old, civilization vs. barbarism, and mankind vs. totem beasts.

For the totem gods and their followers, they probably view the imperial saints as upstarts who do not have the wisdom or experience to understand how the world should be. They probably had terrible wars with the old empire, before they were either imprisoned, banished, or forgotten by the people of the old imperial regime; there is a score to settle, and fear that should the new empire grow too powerful, they will suffer the same fate as before. For them it is a matter of survival, and the imperium is seen as a terrible plague sweeping through and destroying the things they hold dear. As mankind encroaches into the wilderness, and clears forests, the lands that once belonged to the totem gods are stolen by the empire; they worked hard to reclaim what they could from the ruins of the old empire, and do not want to lose them again.

-Nasty-

[Numinous]

Nasty, that was beautiful.  I think that is a fine way to do the gods for this world.

[Soup Nazi]

Thanks d20. I do my best. :priest:

-Nasty-

[daggerhart]

that actuallys works really well as a world-summary, and mini-history..

you should work that into the history thread :-)

[Soup Nazi]

I've been avoiding that one actually, because history is very subjective depending upon who's telling the story. History is also something that takes an intimate understanding of all the elements of a setting to tell effectively.

I may jump into that thread after we've established which things are actually going to make it into the world. I prefer to tell a history that ties things together, but i need to knwo what those "things" are before I can compose one.

If I do get involved over there I'd proabaly propose two histories. The imperial version and the totem version...no doubt they have completely differently opinions, out-looks, and events upon which they focus. A single history would be unable to fully capture the division inherent within this setting.

-Nasty-

[daggerhart]

I've been avoiding that one actually, because history is very subjective depending upon who's telling the story. History is also something that takes an intimate understanding of all the elements of a setting to tell effectively.

thats understandable.

we're just working out a very basic time-line right now... and could use some more well-thought-out opinions, such as this.

[Túrin]

Note to everyone: if we use nastynate's suggestions that means the old empire did not worship the totem gods (which I think is different from what was suggested earlier). Perhaps this is a point of discussion: what did the old empire worship?

[Soup Nazi]

Note to everyone: if we use nastynate's suggestions that means the old empire did not worship the totem gods (which I think is different from what was suggested earlier). Perhaps this is a point of discussion: what did the old empire worship?

Not necessarily true. The old empire may have originally worshipped the totem gods, but gradually shifted away from them to worship their own champions...this religious division may in fact have been the root cause that led to the fall of the old empire...

-Nasty-

[Túrin]

Fair enough. I still think it might be interesting to get a little deeper into the religion (slash spiritual development) of the old empire, though the history thread might be better suited.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

I think there's a good possibility that the "History" thread and the "Pantheon" thread should be tied in together.  It seems that we're basing one off the other more often than note - which is not at all a bad thing - and obviously in our campaign world, gods play an important role, going so far as to define and shape history (such as the totem gods possibly turning on the empire).  Maybe we should combine these two threads so that all the concentration can stay localized?  I'm having a bit of a problem following everything in 2 separate threads that are completely related to each other.  Just my .02

[daggerhart]

i think the Pantheon thread is more for the 'current pantheons & totems'..
the history doesnt necessarily depend on that. (the history can have an entirely diff pantheon, full of now-dead totems or whatever..)

the threads may be parallel, but they aren't the same, imo.

[Soup Nazi]

I think the history thread will have ties to many other threads. Magic, religion, psionics, geography...all these things will have an impact on history. I don't think we can really get too in depth with the history until we decide on these other facets of the setting.

We can rough out a couple of ideas, but not much more than that.

-Nasty-