Difference between revisions of "Pantheons (5E)"

Revision as of 22:57, 20 August 2018

The table below details a number of pantheons, including those of established D&D worlds, various non-human racial pantheons, and fantasy adapted historical pantheons. The DM can adopt one of these pantheons for their campaign, or pick and choose deities and ideas from them as they please. As far as the game’s rules are concerned, it doesn’t matter if the world has hundreds of deities or a church devoted to a single god. In rules terms, clerics choose domains, not deities, so the world can associate domains with deities in any way the DM chooses.

Pantheons table

Dawn War

^{Dungeon Master’s Guide (5th Ed.), pp.10–11}

The pantheon of the Dawn War is an example of a pantheon assembled from mostly preexisting elements to suit the needs of a particular campaign. This is the default pantheon in the fourth edition Player’s Handbook (2008).

This pantheon draws in several nonhuman deities and establishes them as universal gods. These gods include Bahamut, Corellon, Gruumsh, Lolth, Moradin, Sehanine, and Tiamat. Humans worship Moradin and Corellon as gods of their respective portfolios, rather than as racial deities. The pantheon also includes the archdevil Asmodeus as god of domination and tyranny.

Several of the gods are drawn from other pantheons, sometimes with new names for the gods. Bane comes from Faerûn. From Oerth come Kord, Pelor, Tharizdun, and Vecna. From the Greek pantheon come Athena (renamed Erathis) and Tyche (renamed Avandra), though both are altered. Set (renamed Zehir) comes from the Egyptian pantheon. The Raven Queen is akin to the Norse pantheon’s Hel and Oerth’s Wee Jas. That leaves three gods created from scratch: Ioun, Melora, and Torog.

Forces and philosophies

Not all divine power derives from deities. In some cases, believers hold enough conviction in their philosophy that they gain magical power from that conviction. In other cases, impersonal forces of nature or magic may replace gods by granting power to mortals attuned to them. Just as druids and rangers can gain their spell ability from the force of nature rather than from a specific nature deity, some clerics devote themselves to ideals rather than to a god. Paladins might serve a philosophy of justice and chivalry rather than a specific deity.

Forces and philosophies aren’t worshiped; they aren’t beings that can hear and respond to prayers or accept sacrifices. Devotion to a philosophy or a force isn’t necessarily exclusive of service to a deity. A person can be devoted to the philosophy of good and offer worship to various good deities, or revere the force of nature and also pay homage to the gods of nature, who might be seen as personal manifestations of an impersonal force. In a world that includes deities with demonstrable power (through their clerics), it’s unusual for a philosophy to deny the existence of deities, although a common philosophical belief states that the deities are more like mortals than they would have mortals believe. According to such philosophies, the gods aren’t truly immortal (just very long-lived), and mortals can attain divinity. In fact, ascending to godhood is the ultimate goal of some philosophies.

The power of a philosophy stems from the belief that mortals invest in it. A philosophy that only one person believes in isn’t strong enough to bestow magical power on that person.

Humanoids and the gods

When it comes to the gods, humans exhibit a far wider range of beliefs and institutions than other races do. In many D&D settings, orcs, elves, dwarves, goblins, and other humanoids have tight pantheons. It is expected that an orc will worship Gruumsh or one of a handful of subordinate deities. In comparison, humanity embraces a staggering variety of deities. Each human culture might have its own array of gods.

In most D&D settings, there is no single god that can claim to have created humanity. Thus, the human proclivity for building institutions extends to religion. A single charismatic prophet can convert an entire kingdom to the worship of a new god. With that prophet’s death, the religion might wax or wane, or the prophet’s followers might turn against one another and found several competing religions.

In comparison, religion in dwarven society is set in stone. The dwarves of the Forgotten Realms identify Moradin as their creator. While individual dwarves might follow other gods, as a culture the dwarves are pledged to Moradin and the pantheon he leads. His teachings and magic are so thoroughly ingrained in dwarven culture that it would take a cataclysmic shift to replace him.

With that in mind, consider the role of the gods in your world and their ties to different humanoid races. Does each race have a creator god? How does that god shape that race’s culture? Are other folk free of such divine ties and free to worship as they wish? Has a race turned against the god that created it? Has a new race appeared, created by a god within the past few years?

A deity might also have ties to a kingdom, noble line, or other cultural institution. With the death of the emperor, a new ruler might be selected by divine portents sent by the deity who protected the empire in its earliest days. In such a land, the worship of other gods might be outlawed or tightly controlled.

Finally, consider the difference between gods who are tied to specific humanoid races and gods with more diverse followers. Do the races with their own pantheons enjoy a place of privilege in your world, with their gods taking an active role in their affairs? Are the other races ignored by the gods, or are those races the deciding factor that can tilt the balance of power in favor of one god or another?