It’s funny how I keep stumbling across deities to add to my project. Just recently, I discovered a single line in Dungeon #2 (in Nigel Findley’s adventure Caermor) referring to an evil dwarven god of revenge (even to undeath) called Cador, so into my project he goes! Also, Dungeon #5 has an adventure surrounding followers of the ascended tanar’ri Shami-Amourae, the goddess of debased eros and so-called Queen of Succubi. Seems fitting considering the other demon princes in the project already.
I seem to have this incessant need to find MOAR GODS to add to the project. I’ve already added Grond Peaksmasher, a giantish demigod of firbolgs from the Moonshaes in the Forgotten Realms, Refnara the gnollish god of fear from Dungeon #48, Krocaa, an aarakocra god from one issue of Dragon (can’t recall which offhand), and of course the large expansion of draconic and centaur gods. Now I’m also considering a number of others. Anguileusis, the Anguillian god from Sea Devils Monstrous Arcana book, is one I’ll probably take on, even though I do not particularly like the god or the monsters who worship him; however, they are canonically in FR’s underdark. Then you’ve got the deities worshipped by grippli and grung; adding them could form the basis of a remnant amphibian/batrachian pantheon along with Ramenos. Of course, I’d have to come up with names for them, histories, relationships, etc. Then there is the deity worshipped by the squirrel-like kercpa, which is another god I’d need to name, and even Orcus himself. My fear with that last one is treading on toes or canon, since he has long been one of the popular great evils (and is mentioned in many products) in D&D history. There are a few others I’m considering, such as the Wise Queen of the K’r’r’r, an arachnid race from Spelljammer, the thri-kreen Mantis God of the Eternal Lotus, and the Vedic god of Rakshasas, Ravanna. Some pantheons have been mentioned but undetailed, which I am considering working on as well, such as the Neogi pantheon, the Dracon pantheon, and the Grommam pantheon. One problem with the latter two pantheons is that we know they exist, but that’s it; no individual gods are specified. Finally, there are a small number of 3rd edition gods I might add to the project, such as the drow god Keptolo and some of the new Elven gods from Races of the Wild; I’ve pretty much ruled out the gnomish gods, the halfling gods, and most of the dwarvish gods for various reasons such as unnecessary similarity to existing gods and unimaginative and/or apocryphal nature.
I’m interested in what others think of these gods, and if there’s been any other work done to expand some of these deities (the few I’ve searched for don’t seem to have had much published).
I may have mentioned this before, but I’d recommend using the Gods List over at Planewalker for finding references (toggle the list at the bottom) – the list itself is essentially a big index, so it’s somewhat useful. There are a lot of first-party (and second-party) sources out there that are very easily overlooked (e.g. White Dwarf).
In regards to the specific deities and pantheons mentioned here, there are some I’m more eager to see than others. Shami-Amourae is interesting, but her back-story was significantly expanded upon in one of the very last issues of (print) Dungeon magazine.
Orcus would be great, but even limiting yourself to Second Edition and earlier would leave you with a monstrous set of materials to dig through. If you do, I strongly recommend looking up my old Brief History of Orcus file (though it has some errors in it that I’m embarrassed about now). Notwithstanding the aforementioned errors, it pretty well encapsulates most (though not all; the Bloodstone series are the biggest omissions) of his 1E and 2E references.
Ravanna would be interesting to see, as he’s been mentioned a scant number of times, mostly in the magazines. The neogi pantheon would be likewise interesting, though none of the other spelljammer racial gods interest me that much (though I’d love to see more about the gods from Vodanispace, from Under the Dark Fist – really, that entire module should have been a boxed set).
Also, maybe something about Aoskar, the greater god of portals that the Lady of Pain slew?
Of course, what I’d like to see most of all are F&A-style “updates” for the “gods” of Ravenloft – that is, Ezra, Hala, and Bane (the latter being Ravenloft’s Bane (mostly) unconnected from the FR god of the same name). There are other religions in Ravenloft, but those three are the only ones that aren’t outlander gods, and have theoretically “real” gods behind them (as opposed to, say, the worship of Zakhata, or the Cult of the Morninglord).
I’ve looked over the list before, but haven’t really added any deities to the list from it. Mostly the deities are campaign or world specific (I’m not going to be doing Newhon, Pelinore, or Cthulhu deities, for example), and most of the gods I’m working on can be inserted into Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, or custom campaigns. A lot of the non-human gods from White Dwarf are for races that were never updated to 2nd ed to my knowledge (frost men, lava children) or races that currently have gods (fire newts, bullywugs, aarakocra, xvarts); and I’ll be honest, I think the names sound kinda terrible. I’ve never actually read any of their information, and I’m a little leery of going beyond TSR/WotC sources and my own ideas.
Thanks for that Orcus document, I’ll look it over. It should help me decide exactly what I want to do with regards to him. I’ve also had a thought about working on the Vodoni pantheon, but that would be a while and probably not be included in this project since they’re humans.
I don’t know if I’ll ever do anything with the Ravenloft deities, due in large part to not knowing the setting well enough, and they don’t really fit into a project like this one. I really don’t want to step on the toes of Ravenloft fans, and this is the same reason I am not likely to do anything with Greyhawk gods (I’d considered including, for example, Ye’Cind and Ehlonna), as I don’t know the settings and I would feel rather intrusive if I worked on them without at least working in conjunction with a knowledgeable fan of the settings. I know Spelljammer extremely well and the Forgotten Realms extremely well, so I am less concerned there, and since the planes are infinite, there’s really no problem with me creating realms for deities that do not currently have them. As for Aoskar, I’ve thought about working on him, but I don’t know what I’d really do with him. I’m not even sure who originally worshipped him.
Thanks for continuing to read the write-ups I create, and thanks for the always-thoughtful comments you post. I really appreciate it!
There is a decent 1E attempt at a Druid (with good alignment) based on the Seelie Court’s Rhiannon in Dragon Magazine 155.
I was planning to make Rhiannon an alias of Titania, and incorporate anything relevant in that article into my writeup. I’d forgotten it had a druid, though. Thanks!
As far as coming up with names…don’t sweat it. The name may be unpronouncible (like an illithid or pseudo-dragon telepathic name), a “lost” name (like Angeilleuses), or a name that simply doesn’t translate well into common except as “the All-father-of-Kerpca-and-maybe-Ratatosk-who-cavorts-in-world-trees” and hence is simply called the Squirrel God (there is no reason not to combine it/him with the ratatsok, and Yggdrisil), or just a deity worshipped under several names by different tribes but with many of the same portfolios and legends (Wotan,Wodin, Odin, Wode, etc.).
The neogi pantheon are discussed in Dragon #184 and #214 and the deities mentioned (in 214: Thrig’pi, P’kk, T’zen’kil, Kr’tx, and Kil’lix) have names that are considered sacrilidge to utter out loud.
Dragon Magazine #141 also lists some shaman and witchdoctor level limmits for some other 1E monsters.
A suggestion: give priests of Psilofyr access to plant sphere so they can use fungi-based spells.
Actually, the kercpa worship an earth goddess who is often portrayed as an oak tree. My initial thought was to make that goddess Verenestra, but I think she is much too vain for that, so I’m planning to create a new minor demipower associated with both the elves and the Seelie Court. They have a myth about a hero named Rititisk; it could be that the Norse Ratatoskr is their patron, or they are an offshoot/relation of the Planescape creatures called Ratatosk. I’ll be exploring all of those possibilities when I get around to the sylvan deities.
Regarding the Neogi deities, it’s not sacrilegious to speak their names, it’s sacrilegious to mispronounce them, which is quite common for non-neogi. I will definitely be making a point about that when I work on the entries. :)
As for the oak tree deity of the kercpa, maybe you could use an existing deity, even if a male one. The entries on elven deities say they usually manifest at this or that gender, but that they all are known to appear in the other form. Besides, in the Forgotten Realms there is Shiallia, maybe it could be the deity you are looking for, or she could be a reference for the creation of this brand new deity.
I could use an existing deity, but none really jumped out at me as matching the character of the kercpa. Since there are already so many gods, and so many gods for specific races, I see no reason why a race like the kercpa couldn’t have a god of their very own. :)
Much the same with the grung and the grippli, except making individual gods also allows for the remnants of an ancient amphibian pantheon (with Ramenos and maybe Laogzed), sort of like Gorellik and Refnara are the remnants of an ancient gnoll pantheon.
Fair enough, I was just throwing some ideas based on your own previous musings…
I recently found this reference on a 2e version of Orcus (not as a deity, though): https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2021/12/monstrous-monday-demon-prince-orcus-fo.html?m=1
I actually think there are some limits on this conversion, and in fact re-made it to my likings. But anyway, I’d like to see you version of Orcus/Tenebrous as a deity.
Thanks! I do plan to do Orcus at some point, but I haven’t decided on any of the details yet. :)