Brainstorming Part 8: Greco-Roman Mythos

May 27, 2025

One of the largest pantheons with detailed information and mythology about the members is the Greek pantheon, but not all of the minor personified concepts would truly be gods in AD&D; some of the minor ones would just be near-powers and not have cults of their own, but I would need to do some research to determine who should have a cult in the game and who wouldn’t. In addition, Roman mythology imported a wide variety of Greek myth and concepts into their own (mostly unrelated at the beginning) religion; some of the deities with significant differences (like Mars) deserve their own entries while others would just be aliases. In addition, the Etruscans had a great deal of Hellenization as well, and they might be worth being included too. Further, the Titans would warrant their own pantheon of sorts, and many would function as the enemies of the Olympians. While in reality, most Titans likely never had cults or received actual worship, they could and should in the D&D game. In addition, the Greek Mystery Cults were a major element of their religion in the late pre-Christian eras, and I would need to try and capture that as well.

One significant thing missing from the AD&D material on the Olympians is the Gigantomachy, the war against the gigantes/giants. This should be an ancient, pre-historic thing and I should have integrated it into the Giant Pantheon writeups (I plan to rectify this), and none of the named members should be gods (at least one source indicates all but one of the Giants were slain), and the elven war against the giants should be connected to this too. I would have most of the Greek-facing part of the war focused against offspring of Annam and Gaia, as well as near-divine offspring of Grolantor and Karontor.

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Brainstorming Part 7: Finnish Mythos

May 23, 2025

Another pantheon I don’t know much about is the Finnish pantheon; most of what I know outside of Legends & Lore and On Hallowed Ground comes from the MST3K episode “The Day the Earth Froze.” And you can bet I would add in references to that episode in any writeups I do…

Most of what is known about these deities comes from the Kalevala, which was compiled from a variety of folk tales and then edited into a narrative; like much of the mythology of the Irish, Welsh, and Norse (through Snorri Sturluson) it is often unclear what’s actually originally myth and what is a creation of the compiler. Luckily for D&D purposes that doesn’t matter too much. Until I can get a copy of the Kalevala, I’m not too likely to work on this pantheon.

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Brainstorming Part 6: Egyptian Mythos

May 20, 2025

The Egyptian pantheon is high on my list of potential pantheons to work on; I’ve always been fascinated by them, and visiting Egypt not too long ago (geologically speaking, at least) really crystalized how wondrous it is from my point of view. It presents some interesting challenges, too, since Egypt’s long history means there have been many different interpretations of the gods and even sub-pantheons throughout the years, and figuring out how to incorporate that I hope will lead to some interesting gameplay options.

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Brainstorming Part 5: Chinese Mythos

May 18, 2025

Another mythos that I don’t know well enough to put high on my list of pantheons to work on is the Chinese pantheon of the Celestial Bureaucracy. I would want to try and incorporate the faith of Kara-Tur if possible, and the Path and the Way that originated there and is used in Spelljammer. I have also heard that some of these deities may have been invented/misunderstood, like Apshai and Druaga, but I don’t know which.

As with some others, I would need to get good sources before I worked on it.

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Brainstorming Part 4: Central American Mythos

May 16, 2025

Like the Native American mythos, this mythos merges Aztec and other Central American cultural mythologies into one in a way that should probably be separated; the 2nd Edition Legends & Lore book did just that, but I do not know enough about the various mythoi in question so I’m not as likely to pursue this set of deities as I am for some others. I would want to get some solid sources before I tackle these, so I’m interested if anyone has any recommendations. I will say one thing I do like about these deities is saying their names, though!

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Brainstorming Part 3: Celtic Mythos

May 14, 2025

Of the real-world mythoi that are in the D&D game, Celtic is one of the ones I’m more likely to work on. How to handle it is an open question, because the D&D game primarily merges a variety of Celtic cultural mythoi into one; considering how much of what we know comes from euhemerized tales of the gods and simple interpretatio romana inscriptions. There are a small set of Irish figures that we can reliably see as pre-Christian deities, and the same can be said of the Welsh tales. Contitnental Celtic mythology is mostly known from inscriptions and artwork. So what would be the best way to approach these different groups? Merge them as one, and use the continental names to expand it into a large pantheon, or split them into smaller ones? I’m not sure what’s the best approach. I have two good sources for Celtic mythology: The Lore of Ireland: An Encyclopedia of Myth, Legend and Romance by Daithi O hOgain and Dictionary of Celtic Religion and Culture by Bernhard Maier. I would like to get a good analysis of Welsh folklore, though.

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Brainstorming Part 2: New Pantheons

May 12, 2025

Another potential next phase of the project would be to start creating pantheons for races that should have them, or have a mention of a pantheon but with very little detail. Many of these races are from Spelljammer, of course.
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Brainstorming Part 1: Expanding Pantheons

May 10, 2025

Before I decide on my next Deity project, it’s helpful to do some brainstorming about the potential paths I might take. The first potential project is to expand some of the existing nonhuman pantheons that feel light on deities, starting with ideas from Monster Mythology.

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Sarula Iliene the Nixie Queen

April 1, 2025

The final deity for the project as it stands right now is the Nixie Queen, Sarula Iliene, a minor elven and faerie deity of fresh water. She is worshipped by both nixies and those elves who live in or near lakes and rivers and other fresh water sources.

As this is the final deity for now, I thought this would be a good time to talk about what my future plans are. I have no intention on stopping writing, but I do want to go through the deities complete and give them some editing passes. I do plan to compile them as well, with some additional material similar to what’s found in the Faiths & Avatars trilogy of books, and at a minimum they will be made available on my Patreon. I also have some deity and non-deity material that I will be submitting to the Wildspace Fanzine as well. In terms of what deities I plan to work on next, I’d like to start creating and expanding pantheons for races who should have full and vibrant pantheons of their own (such as loxoth, hurwaeti, grommams, dohwar, etc.) and work on some human pantheons (Greek, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, etc.). I’m not sure yet what I will focus on though. Anyway, stay tuned as I think about what’s coming next! Read the rest of this entry »


The Faceless God of the Yak-Men

February 1, 2025

The enigmatic yak-men of the Al-Qadim campaign are one of the more interesting “hidden threat” foes in AD&D. They can take over the bodies of humanoids and infiltrate their society in order to undermine and eventually dominate them. Their god is even stranger, for it has no known name but is the source of the ability of the yak-men to summon and control the genies of elemental earth, dao. Read the rest of this entry »