Worldbuilding | Pantheons and Deities

[@MedievalAngryDude]

I think it's also important to present the relationship of gods and people in an interesting way. Literally tossing a couple of powerful creatures into the world to hang around like a bunch of high level players is boring. It may seem obvious, but guys, start reading history and philosophy books to enrich your worlds. Maybe it's just me, but almost all the DMs or worldbuilders that I met somehow forgot about the historicism of consciousness and psychology, religious traditions. because of this, their gods with a lot of details and deep characters looked more like cosplayers

[@Broomer52]

This isn’t really about any Tabletop game but I had an idea for a setting and pantheon. Essentially a Multiverse exists but each Universe is ran by different Gods and some are shared Between some Gods occasionally theirs a universe that’s a joint effort by all of them. These are typically your High Fantasy Worlds, since their filled with a lot of different stuff with strange and complicated rules. For example our Universe has a singular God, the God of Law. It enforces strict mathematical design and function to the world and it’s creatures. Everything is calculable in our universe because of Law. Their is also the God of Death who is not exactly a villain but is certainly not a protagonist. Death is more fixated on the decay and conflict of a system, things made by death are either hostile in some way, or otherwise volatile. The world I want is one where all Gods played a part but Life has taken over a little too much. The world is deeply prosperous and utopian due to a clever use of magic and technology. Due to the quirks of this universe as designed by others it functions on Reincarnation and the World is so prosperous that people are being born faster than they die. This creates Husks, bodies without souls, no empathy, conscience they just are and it will destabilize the entire balance. Death works to solve the problem in the only way Death knows how, if the problem is “too much life” then the answer is simple. However Gods are not allowed to directly interfere so decides to draft someone else to solve the problem. Someone so self righteous, so prideful and arrogant that the attention of a God and the declaration of a Divine duty will be enough to spur him on.

[@ToonedMinecraft]

@@Broomer52 I have a similar thing where true Gods have shaped universes. Some are so weakened they have to consume other gods to be able to fulfill their designs, others are deeply dissatisfied with what they created, some do something entirely different.

[@MedievalAngryDude]

For example the ancient Romans practiced the evocatio ritual. During the war, the Romans turned to the gods of the enemy, offering to join their side. The Romans promised to build a temple, then they sacrificed a sheep and performed divination on its organs. The Romans also feared that their enemies would be able to lure away their gods (especially the patron gods of cities), so they kept their true names a secret. But what is even more interesting is that this very mystery of the names of the patron gods during the time of Pliny the Elder was associated with a separate deity. Then, the Romans often “sacrificed” besieged cities and their populations to their gods, including “positive ones” in our pop culture.

[@b1bbscraz3y]

@@Broomer52 it's not a fact that our universe has a singular god, or any god

[@Broomer52]

@@b1bbscraz3y I hope you what I said was ENTIRELY fictional. I made it up because we’re on a video discussing world building with Gods.

[@FoldingScreenMonkey]

I've had parts of a pantheon kicking around in my head for a while. The rules I've given myself for designing it are that a) gods must pertain to mundane aspects of life moreso than arbitrary fantasy elements like fire, magic, chaos, etc; b) gods must have overlap or ambiguity in their domains because that opens up boundless potential for conflict and storytelling; and c) gods must have unconventional domains. I have a god of passageways (specifically passageways, not passage), whose followers hang old keys above doorframes and on bridges, and is worshipped equally by thieves and the people they steal from. There is a merchant god whose followers see haggling as a form of prayer, and must buy their names. I also have less developed gods of words and art. There's contention over transportation and whether it falls under the purview of the merchant god or the passageway god.

[@sydc3667]

Maybe if the overlap persists for a while, the gods will merge together. Happened all the time around the Mediterranean, iirc.

[@MedievalAngryDude]

@@sydc3667 The ancient Romans practiced the “evocatio” ritual. During the war, the Romans turned to the gods of the enemy, offering to join their side. The Romans promised to build a temple, then they sacrificed a sheep and performed divination on its organs. The Romans also feared that their enemies would be able to lure away their gods (especially the patron gods of cities), so they kept their true names a secret. But what is even more interesting is that this very mystery of the names of the patron gods during the time of Pliny the Elder was associated with a separate deity. Then, the Romans often “sacrificed” besieged cities and their populations to their gods, including “positive ones” in our pop culture.

[@itisALWAYSR.A.]

I think this touches on a good point. People use pantheon in service to their characters but don't think on the Why. Your druid worships Gjeof, god of the Harvest. Cool, but WHY is the harvest Gjeof's domain? Typically there might be stories of how the deity had to weather great challenges, or how they cultured the First Seed or how they sacrificed something to make soil fertile or brokered a deal with another god to make the stones edible. Like if one looks at other gods (eg Greek), they're not just so in a vacuum, they're part of their own rich ecosystem, and mere humans would call after the individual best suited to the need.

[@Broomer52]

The way I have the Gods set up is they are multiversal Gods, each of them independently create their own universes and they always reflect the personality and reasoning of their respective God. For example our Universe is made by the God of Law, he follows strict rationing and uniformity. It’s why everything can be solved mathematically, It’s a complex code of persistent thought. Just as the universe is structured he’s stoic, unbiased, strict and compulsive. Sometimes different combinations of other Gods will work together on different Universes and typically a Universe formed by all of them tends to be High Fantasy. With few exceptions most universes made by other Gods is so alien we would barely comprehend their function at best and be horrified at worst. Like Death who is fascinated with Decay, violence and Rot. Worlds made by her tend to be Volatile and Unpredictable. In the main setting of my Story Death is a guiding character though not a protagonist, her star creation is The Orc. An Abomination of Life and Magic in equal measures, they reproduce by the swamps and bogs of their lands consuming the bodies of other races, whenever they die if left to decay their bodies will corrupt the land and turn it into more of the same land they live in. Their a blight and pestilence on the Land, corrupting the converted minds into living machines of destruction. The Orcs refer to her as Orkitus but they have no true name outside of what they are and care little for what names others give them (if their creations acknowledge them at all)

[@b1bbscraz3y]

this is what I had in mind thinking of my story. a pantheon of gods with authority over 6 elements (typical 4 plus lightning and shadow), they all interact with one another and have relationships among themselves and the humans that worship them. they deliver the manipulation of the elements to certain people in history to pave the way for other people to use the elements (like bending in avatar combined with vocal spellcasting/scrolls like the Naruto world). Phaeben the god of fire is the god of fire of the world the story exists in, because his home planet of all fire-manipulating beings was destroyed; he arrived on the planet and eventually taught the ability to a certain human he connected with. the god of fire and the goddess of water are intimately involved, but their followers hate each other and are destined to fight, after one killed the family of the other as an attempt to appease his god

[@nonana5563]

"and i don't think i'm allowed to kill something because i am frightened" has stuck with me ever since i first read it and hearing it come up here was amazing. love it! love the vision. beautiful art.

[@emilysmith2965]

Our society is so out of touch. “Gay panic” is NOT and will never be an acceptable defense for murder. When even the highest judges in the land fail us in their humanity this badly, what does that say about ordinary people?

[@nicklarocco4178]

I think I'm going to use that spider poem as the first prayer said to lolth in my game, who I have taken the idea of and changed her more into a trickster goddess, and a protector of the outcasts. It's perfect.

[@emilysmith2965]

That’s dope

[@kjj26k]

An "Evil God" that is actually the patron deity of the Ostracized is something I am surprised I have not seen more of.

[@sugarette_burn]

Two things, first is that the "all flame" made me cry, the second is that I felt exactly like that after killing a spider five days ago. It's weird to find some moments of connection in videos, but this was one of those, thank you for your creativiy and work

[@igrek4035]

I love whenever people mention Dunsany his writing is so powerful and mythical, I especially love his short stories.

[@VirusVisal]

I love your style so much and this many faced god is top tier, omg such an incredible design!!

[@zel7396]

Yh it looks kinda Dark Soulsy to me

[@mapcrow]

Thank you so much!!

[@LoganCrazyBoy]

Great video! Whenever Kyle mentioned the bible in other videos I went "alright... any second now we're getting one about gods" The idea about creating little poems and anecdotes for the gods is really good. Dolmenwood kinda does something like that. It doesn't elaborate on the God themself, but it tells a little story about each of the many saints of the Dolmenwood, and how they used each miracle in the spell list. Aside from that, the Nikki Giovanni poem is so effective. It reminds me of the Japanese saying that "Even the prayers of an ant reaches the Kami", which is a really effective way to convey how Shinto (and, to a degree, Zen Buddhism in general) sees the world as this place where everything is living.

[@mapcrow]

Oh dang!! I love that koan about the ant!! Wow!! Yeah, Dolmenwood is amazing!!

[@InkyTheHooloovoo]

I really like the idea of using snippets of fiction and poems as religious chants or passages from holy texts to set the mood for deity. Such a great suggestion and right as the group I'm DMing is about to visit the a monastery

[@NumbSkull2602]

I've really struggled with gods in D&D. I've always used existing pantheons, and worked from there, but I've never built my own. I'm not sure what my problem is, because I can create NPCs all day long; and I write a lot about religion, and myth and belief and what it means to people for good and ill.

[@Min-ke6zc]

You may find Monarchsfactory's video on building deities and pantheons useful. You don't need a huge, sprawling collection of gods, you just need four archetypes, and one good story. The rest of the mythos can sprout from there!

[@emilysmith2965]

Sounds like maybe the issue is this monotheistic focus on what is good and evil? Surely ancient peoples also had these thoughts, but their pantheons were more about what made the world and understanding where things in the world came from.

[@SeeleSO02]

I'm currently in the process of doing some worldbuilding, and I'm still thinking about my pantheon. This has given me a lot to think about. Thanks!

[@jacobfromohio5347]

"... filthy limericks and drinking songs." Ah yes, the pantheon of bards and dwarves. Great video btw!

[@void-creature]

I AM A DWARF AND I'M DIGGING A HOLE!

[@Lordsofplural]

My way of designing deities goes through the same process the rest of the world goes through. There is an overall theme of the story, for this example let’s say it’s loss, and each deity has its hand in history and the reason the world is what it is. Tying them into the overal story gives them a amazing feeling of breathing living things and they all have goals and such especially when large events happen, which are typically the basis of campaigns.

[@jhorn2855]

Another insightful video! That was a good point you made about how important it is for deities to represent emotional truths just as much as they represent natural laws, it really ties back into that concept of characters being some of the most powerful worldbuilding devices at a storyteller's disposal

[@hogwarner9008]

This is an absolutely fantastic video, and it opened my eyes to the fact that I really wasn't putting enough thought into my gods and pantheons. Mythology was created as a way to understand the world, and I really needed to be reminded that that's exactly how they should be used in world-building. I was never too interested in gods in fantasy realms, and I now know that it's because they're not often done in meaningful fashions. Really great video! Also, the poem at the end was very thought-provoking and it's a brilliant idea to make gods/deities that represent addages and stories that are thought provoking at a philosophical and spiritual level. Again, thank you for making this video! Was really eye-opening!

[@soulrenvods]

5:50 I really like the third sketch there, it inspired me for a deity of flame and joy: Long before shadows deepend with meaning, and we huddled around what little light we could summon from twig and rock for saftey, the children were quiet. As adult hunted and foraged and made, the children watched mutely and learned. For it was a dangerous place out there, and things that held greater power wished us harm. We killed and found and built and killed and found and built, but each time we rose we collapsed from within. City walls soon became empty, circles of elders fell still as their knowledge was as exhausted as their bones, and no one could say as to why. Until in one village, in a place where the nights were long and cold and the adults worked as the children watched and sat like stones, two sat before a fire. As they watched the flame, their minds became warmed with their bodies. In the darting oranges, one saw the tendrils of fire briefly twist into the shape of two dogs. They moved and danced with the flame, caught in the imagination and now reality of the warmth. The fire was not large, nor were they, and so they did not have far to move. In time, one bumped into another, knocking it over onto it's back, paws raised and flailing indignantly. But it sprang back up, just as warm and full of firey life as before. It knocked into the other, and it too fell and sprang up again. Back and forth they went, the fire crackling in time with their antics. The watching child nudged their friend, who toppled. All the child's life it had seen others fall, to disease and wild beast and darkness alike, and none had returned to their feet. But he did. He rose, and stared at the other child, fire dancing in his eyes. And he pushed the other child over. The child landed too without harm, and rose again. The flame outside crackled on, and a feeling like flame within them both rose, and a sound not unlike it as well burst forth from them, stopping and starting and rising in intensity. The twin dogs in the flame rolled and played and laughed along with them, and the fire of joy spread into song and dance and joke and joy, bringing light to our people.

[@Gibbons3457]

This was so useful. Within 10 mins of watching it twice, once to listen; once to see your awesome art taking shape, I bought the pamphlet of pantheons. Guess I know what I'm doing in my downtime over this week.

[@ludwigknoche8962]

i absolutely adore your videos and , at least for me, fresh takes, ideas and generally the sources of inspiration you present, like that little zine.

[@thecaveofthedead]

Superb. Really got me thinking. Loved that spider poem. I was very moved. The trick seems to be - as so often - don't confuse the map with the territory. Don't reduce your world to a series of practical mechanics. "We need a life god to offer these bonuses."

[@mythicalmik7411]

i latch onto EACH and every one of these videos, thank you so much :)

[@mapcrow]

Thank you so much! That encouragement means a lot to me!!

[@gstaff1234]

Thank you for the tip. Planning a new campaign this summer and a fresh pantheon will help make things flavorful

[@Quarataia]

I needed this right now, my working on god like beings that inhabitant my world, but I haven't gotten into the actual gods, though I still have an more minimalistic way of representing them, being more localized than overarching.

[@xaosbob]

Your gorgeous artwork BEGS to have these beings in the world, accessible to players and their characters. My current campaign is something of an experiment, forgoing traditional D&D Powers/clerics/paladins for something that is inspired by a cross between Shinto and grungy, pagan Celt imagery. Local gods, just everywhere, with limited territories but great power within those territories. Gods that sometimes visit you, or you them, but mostly keep to themselves unless they're angry (and they get angry when people ignore or forget about them for too long). Images like these would be great for gods of that more limited scope, gods that could be summoned or sought out, served or destroyed. Thank you for sharing the zine with us, too! It's always so cool to find new authors and designers.

[@doramasherrera5065]

I love how you draw and give those textures

[@radcanadian7365]

Your videos have really helped me design a whole bunch of things that I like, thanks!

[@AmpleGames]

I absolutely love your art style and video style. The whole "talk about something while I draw something related" is so good for this sort of thing. I only found you recently but I'm trying to make a setting for a DnD game and your videos have been hugely helpful and enjoyable! Thanks and keep it up! :D

[@mapcrow]

I'm so glad! I like talking almost as much as I like drawing! Cheers!!

[@kijuma7520]

These were some amazing deities you drew

[@Dotexclamationmark]

Truly inspirational

[@Ghoulif]

All of your insight really sparked creativity for my own homebrew campaign setting. I also really love you art style!

[@friendlychesspiece]

Hey thanks for talking about using poems as a way to introduce players to the deities you’ve made. I’ve really been struggling with how to do that without literally boring them to death with words, a poem honestly never occurred to me so uh thanks!

[@jacobbaise6140]

Your videos are a great man keep up the good work!

[@Greideren]

One thing I like to do with my deities is to make them deities of multiple things in ways that make sense. For example: the God of Health became the God of Cleanliness and Medicine as well since those are very important to remain healthy. So far so good, then the city he inhabited in and the people that lived in it became famous for being beautiful, since you know, being clean does wonders for someone's appearance; so he became the God of beauty as well. Then finally, such beauty attracted artist and musicians from all around the world, many of which ended up living in the city; so now he's also the God of the fine arts. So a simple God passed from being the deity of health to be the patron of Health, Cleanliness, Medicine, Beauty and the fine arts.

[@struanroberts]

That such I great idea, might have to steal that for a campaign that I’ll never DM lol

[@phoenixtempleeviltruth8074]

I love the deity designs you made. Each gives off a level of intensity and significance in their own way. The many masks seem strange, a hulking mass hidden away, keeping information no one else knows. The geometrical hell god seems rigid, off putting, and very dark. The goat grandma seems very kind but obviously weird and fantastical. Still clearly beyond the pale. Great work.

[@mechanussunrise]

Awesome art and world building! I'm inspired

[@Chadventure_Animated]

I've got this game I'm planning to run after we finish our current campaign that we've been running for about a year now. These videos, including the factions video, just helps so much man. This channel is like the best content out there for D&D

[@PlusOneExp]

Become all flame is one of my favorite quotes/stories.

[@mapcrow]

Heck yeah!! Love that story!!

[@Jose-ur7jz]

Im getting done a lot of work after watching your videos

[@amehak762]

Nice timing, I needed this

[@cedeelbe]

1:17 I personally don't really care about having a physical copy of a book. Saves paper keeping it on your phone imo

[@TheIoPC]

I love thinking about these kind of things when playing/running games. ~ Adam

[@warriorprincess3972]

the poems are beautiful. thank you for sharing. the last one really stuck with me.

[@digidragon1]

I could watch a series of videos of you just coming up with gods. Man that would be way too good.

[@mapcrow]

DANG! I hadn't even thought of that! That'd be fun!!

[@nicholasranegie]

Great video and great art! You put out alot of great videos and have rly found a cool niche within the rpg youtube content section. Thanks!

[@yo5tan]

This is such a cool idea, I definitely want to make my own pantheon now!

[@matthewnicklas9944]

Loved this video. You have opened my eyes as to why my pantheons fall flat. Thank you!

[@jaflood0378]

This was so well timed. The foggy idea I had of the dark primordial god slumbering beneath the tropical island where my players are shipwrecked needs to start taking form. After watching this and picking up the pamphlet I now know she is the goddess of endless hunger. Time to get started on the rest of the pantheon!

[@isaiahkerstetter3142]

"The Lord of Spirits" podcast has many many great tips for world building in this department.

[@lythnookwemin]

When I ST/GM/DM my one main rule is: the information used must have a physical copy, that all players can use if desired. So I print the pdf's I use. I love making hypothetical pantheons, but I must admit pulling small bits from poems never crossed my mind. Thanks for this inspiration, I have two old poem books I bought just because they where old.

[@freddypowell7292]

It'd be really cool to see a building better gnolls episode. I know it's been a while since you've done anything like that, but I really love them and they've been pretty consistently misdone.

[@tangomango2353]

Those drawings are so cool! I especially love the Goat Lady One.

[@imperfectimp]

One tip I have is that bigger isn't better. Sure, you can make 20 gods with intricate backstories, but your players aren't gonna remember them, and they'll get reduced to 1dimensional figures. Don't go beyond 3-5 gods, and they'll be much more memorable.

[@garryame4008]

I ALWAYS love a new podcast. BTW, are there any other monsters you'd like to reimagine? I love those videos

[@VerbenaComfrey]

My main pantheon for the area is based on the wet and dry seasons, and the balance between the two. mlthere are many minor gods who may be seen as aspects of the big three or members of their "courts"

[@o-zizzle]

I've been building a new setting for my players and creating the pantheon of gods has been a very interesting process. I had looked at my gaggle of deities as beings of purpose, almost like tools created by an even greater being or beings, and this suits my setting but the idea of the gods being reflections of some of the harder truths of humanity is a fascinating concept that I took from your video. Thank you for the inspiration and for the lovely art you create :)

[@zel7396]

I guess rp aspects change things for me. Cus I sometimes focus on the origins of the deities in my worlds, since you may actually meet them. As opposed to the fables & stories that are solely legend in reality. Great video tho!

[@florenceflo1258]

I love the idea of poems! It gives a good and creative concept of the diety it is assigned to. :)

[@weckar]

Currently running a game indirectly about discovering the origins of a pantheon that, in real-world equivalent, was only shaped in the early 1900s. Real interesting implications on what drives people, and what they put their faith in.

[@TheMichaellathrop]

So I really liked the third poem as a fun role play prompt, it reminds me of a healer I made for what turned out to be a one-shot DnD adventure, I didn't do a single point of damage in the three or four encounters we had, instead I relighted on the sanctuary spell to protect myself and wind gust to keep my companions safe by using forced movement to remove them from danger, and then healing spells if that failed. I think it was a fun play experience and I could imagine your life goddess as encouraging pacifism towards anything with intellect and maybe demanding it from her priesthood or maybe that being one of a few vows that her player character clerics would need to choose between.

[@blehbushka9940]

The best pantheon is clearly the pantheon of hollownest.

[@rookhobbes9055]

Thanks for your insight, I think I got some good ideas

[@dgg1224]

Ahh men, I missed the upload! A great video as always. Also, do you have any tips to get more precise, pencil drawings? I find it very hard to get small and light strokes to be small and consistent.

[@bigbadwolfstudios1]

I love your interpretations of these different takes on parts of DND! So glad I found this channel. If you ever do another building better monsters, would you ever do a new take on lycanthropes? I'd be very interested to see your take on a werebeast.

[@dinbabwa452]

Wow this was really inspiring

[@donwebster9292]

Dunsany reference! If I wasn't subscribed already, that would have pushed me over.

[@mapcrow]

We are Dunsany enjoyers in this house. Haha! Cheers!!

[@fidgetelftree9432]

This is pretty long, just a heads up I used Pamphlet of Pantheons just to get a feel for it, mostly out of curiosity. It actually turned out way cooler then I expected. I used a random number generator between 1-16 to decide my deity archetypes, then rolled for their complications. I ended up making 7 deities. He also suggested to make some deities with secondary archetypes, so I used the random number generator again for four of them and gave the rest some Roles. Here’s the list of Archetypes I rolled plus their complications. *Divine Physician+Hierarch of Hell.* _Keeper of the secrets of both Disease and Healing. Propitiated to keep plague away. + Accumulating an army of dead heroes for some future purpose._ *Fire Bringer+ Keeper of Mysteries.* _Taught mortals not only good but also Evil Arts. Some known, some still to be found. + Has a Rational face and a obscured, mythical one. Patron of Seers and Oracles._ *Fruitful Earth, with Divine Messenger Role.* _Has a martial aspect, granting strength to those who defend the soil of home._ *Force of Nature, with Lawgiver Role* _Worshippers can command or avert disasters using secret sacrificial rites._ *Worker of Evil+Light of Heaven. Also has the Crown of Heaven Role(leader of the Pantheon.)* _Propitiated by all, but worshipped in secret by Evil or misunderstood followers. + Sacred embodiment of the passage of time and cosmic regularity, smiting whoever interferes with time with cosmic fire._ *Outsider, with Averter of Curses Role.* _The figure in the edge of the firelight. Connected to Lycanthropes and Beast-folk._ *Second Force of Nature+Wild Card* _A trapped monster or demon elevated to divine status. + Beloved by clerics as proof that the gods don’t always reflect human desires and interests._ As you can see, I got a pretty neat bundle of archetypes. I also spotted a strong pattern of Order vs Chaos. Just for spice, I made my Divine Physician and my Fire Bringer sibling Gods of Knowledge, and I had my Fruitful Earth and my first Force of Nature be a married couple, to help add drama and outline the divide in the pantheon respectively. In the Order group is the Divine Physician, the Fruitful Earth, and the first Force of Nature. In the Chaos group is the Outsider, the Fire Bringer, and the second Force of Nature. The Worker of Evil is something we’ll get into in a second, because that’s a little complicated. We also have a split between three different kinds of worshippers. We have the accepted worship in Nobility and Peasants, shunned worship of the Wilderness, and hidden worship of the Unknown. So first off, we have the Divine Physician who tends to the living AND the dead. The body and the soul. This deity has secret goals, hidden agendas, and a tight grip on Knowledge. He hordes secrets. He uses knowledge as power over Mortals. This deity presents himself as firm but fair, and is the most widely worshiped deity in the pantheon. People of higher social standing especially follow this deity, and have limited the place of worship to large courtyards and established Temples. Basically there’s no village shrine to this god, if you want to pray to him you’ll have to go to a larger town. He’s actually gathering dead heroes to try and kill his sister, the Fire Bringer, but we’ll get into the how later. As for the why, well Fire Bringer makes a big deal of sharing knowledge. The same thing that Divine Physician keeps close to his chest and uses to stay the most worshipped deity in the pantheon. On the flip side, Fruitful Earth and Force of Nature 1 are the people’s deities. Farmers pray to both of them for the well-being of farm animals, a good harvest, and ideal crop weather. Festivals that honor these gods include things like a real marriage ceremony with the two people representing the marriage of the deities. They work hand in hand to keep their people protected and happy. Force of Nature 1 is especially authoritarian, strict about following rules and laws. All seasons and weather are planned to a tee. He hates Force of Nature 2, who’s basically his exact opposite. The Fire Bringer is shunned by the Order gods for revealing divine secrets. Her brother, the Divine Physician, is especially unhappy with her sharing knowledge. She deals with mortals directly more often than any other god, often disguising herself to walk among them face to face. This isn’t out of a concern or care for mortals, though. She just loves to watch people figure out her puzzles. In fact to even gain entry as a follower, you have to solve a riddle to gain your initiation. Cryptic and often mysterious, she visits Seers and Oracles in their dreams to give bits and pieces of knowledge. Now the Outsider is the most notably different of the older members of the pantheon. She was brought in by the Divine Physician pretty far back to cause a little more instability for whatever scheme he’d thought up. She has clashed with other deities, especially the Force of Nature 1, chafing under his inflexible rules. Her followers are not farmers or knights or scribes, but nomads who live solely off the land. Being the Averter of Curses, she is ritualistic and knows forgotten natural cures for many curses. She is almost entirely instinct oriented. Interestingly, since her followers are nomads, she doesn’t have permanent Temple. To worship Outsider, you must build a bonfire with the intent to Worship her. Complex dances and the pelts of sacrifices are both accepted offerings. After enough time under the strict law of Force of Nature 1, The Outsider uplifted a Demon into Force of Nature 2, bringing an element of Wild Nature into the pantheon. Force of Nature 2 is the opposite of Force of Nature 1 in every way. Previously a demon, she is Chaos incarnate. Cold snaps and Heat waves? Monsoons and floods? A hot Summer, a late Spring... all her. She is mischievous and callous, sometimes to the point of cruelty, along with being wild and free. She will go far for entertainment. Both Force of Nature 2 and Outsider are feral and untamed, so they get along well. She is often unpredictable to seers and oracles, being so erratic. Since Force of Nature 1 is enemies with Outsider, anyone who worships her is left to the whims of Force of Nature 2. Now on to our Pantheon Ruler, Worker of Evil who has a Light of Heaven archetype. Should be contradicting, but the complications made this one super interesting. Especially the ‘smiting whoever interferes with time with cosmic fire’ part. I went with misunderstood as wicked, instead of legitimately Evil. If the whims of this deity is misunderstood, and the response is always Time Fire... yeah, people are going to freak out. In reality, Worker of Evil is neutral to everyone as long as they follow the rules. Humorless, creating balance in the world and planes of existence. They like conflicting Deities that counteract each other, never pulling or pushing enough to destabilize the Heavens. The Worker of Evil is the oldest being in existence. They watch over Time, making sure it flows well. Doesn’t care about Good or Bad, just balance. This deity presents as male to balance out the Pantheon and be more understandable to mortals but is genderless, the least connected to Mortals. More of an eldritch being, honestly. Ancient and omnipresent, any worshippers they have are near insane with hidden knowledge. I decided all the gods(except Worker of Evil, who exists as long as Time does) are built off of worship. If they have no followers, they fade out of existence. That is the only way to truly kill a god. The views the Worshippers have on the gods sometimes alter their being if the belief is strong enough. This process is as gradual as social change. For example, maybe Divine Physician wasn’t always secretly evil, but as his worshippers began to see illness and death as something cruel and sneaky, he slowly became that over however many thousands of years. Coming back to the Divine Physicians plans to kill Fire Bringer, he’s trying the only way a god can Die: a lack of worshippers. So it all comes down to an Undead army vs a Cult of Deep Knowledge. A God with domain of Life & Death that could be a twist villain who is the most worshiped deity by people in high social positions. A married pair of deities who are more the common-man’s patrons. A bored goddess who tells people how to make Ultimate Pain spells for fun. And two feral beings, one who’s literally a patron for Beast-People and one who’s new to the whole Divine Powers thing and gleefully drops the temperature down into the negatives after a week of pleasant weather. Toss in the eldritch abomination that is Worker of Evil, and you’ve got one heck of a starting point to build off of. All from some random dice rolls and a zine to pull from. And that’s not even mentioning Minor gods, or the Treasures of the gods, or all the festivals and rituals and temples connected to it all. Pamphlet of Pantheons is great, to sum it up. It’s good to get your gears turning.

[@emanuelesangregorio8943]

hey I loved this episode! and I love the depth you put in your wanderings, i must say. everytime I discover a podcast, a book or something else and I thank you for that! I have a question though. where do you find the time to do that? are you a full time artist?

[@mapcrow]

Thank you! I’m so glad to hear that!! I am a illustration professor as well as an illustrator. I find that my work is at its best when I am at my most curious, so I try to always look around for something else to learn from! It’s a habit, or a compulsion maybe, Haha!!

[@DemonaruMusic]

Something I've always kept in mind when it came to pantheon building. In the real world, god's don't just appear. In the real world, stories are told, and from these tales, deities spew forth into the zeitgeist. Stories are the origins of every god. For how else is a god, or anyone, remembered, if not for their actions?

[@maggintons]

People don't print PDF's because there bedroom's are already full of Books they never read

[@Pengalen]

I think you're probably the only youtuber I've ever heard mention Lord Dunsany. I particularly liked The King of Elfland's Daughter.

[@lucaricciardi8253]

Great art!

[@richardcurtis7581]

Insta subbed, desert fathers, prayers from a Coptic Orthodox Christian!

[@CasualVideoGamer]

When I DM'd for a while, I really wanted to implement some religious aspects of the world around my players. I created a list of 15 deities. Each had a different "job" they controlled in the mortal realm. Life, Death, War, etc. mostly inspired by Greek or Japanese mythos. I even built relations amongst them such as the Earth, Sea, and Sky deities were siblings that often fought one another. All this lead to a 16th, more ancient, deity that controlled over Chaos and was a driving force of most of the drama in my story. The unfortunate thing is that my players didn't really care about those aspects. I don't know if it's because they felt weird having their characters get involved with religious stories and it conflicted with their personal beliefs or if they just wanted to meme the entire time. Either way, I love building religions in a dnd setting - either making one up or borrow from real world counterparts.

[@TheCAL-dx4tr]

two of the deities i created for my fictional world are Luck and Fate, the twin gods of fortune. luck takes the form of a young woman, and enjoys blessing and cursing mortals on a whim. she values bravery and decisiveness (fortune favors the bold), and her domain is making little things go right or wrong. she is the patron of gambling and luck. Fate on the other hand is a young man, with a fiery temper and a tendency toward pettiness. when mortals are confident about the outcome of a situation he often interferes for the worse, punishing them for their complacency. this has lead to mortals avoiding judgement statements about their circumstances, calling such statements challenging Fate, and many say "Fate never backs down from a challenge". he values the ability to adapt, independence, and bravado, provided it doesn't cross the line into arrogance. while his sister is small scale fortune, he controls events that can drastically alter circumstance, like enemy reinforcements appearing during a crucial moment, a guard raising an alarm after the point of no return, or a fatal misstep during a duel. he is the patron of everyone who require fortune to succeed, such as military officers, assassins and thieves.

[@kanseidorifto2430]

Having a lot of enjoyment for my own ability to craft works I very much care about how my pantheons work. Though I'll always have them based around some things that are extremely unnecessary to the overall story I'm rolling with, the idea as to how they're there and why is a good way to portray how the actual order of the world operates and the reason the gods are existing to begin with. Such a form that gives way to having themes expressed in their wholeness, their purity. And how much they collide with each other pending on not merely the individual god's ambitions, but the reasoning behind those ambitions and the drive they exude using the god as a tool

[@bpblitz]

My god your hatching is beautiful.

[@mapcrow]

Thank you! I have a video all about crosshatching, if you'd like to hear more thoughts on it.

[@marcosvinicius-jk5bn]

I dont know if you ever heard of Tormenta 20 but I love the Phantheon of that RPG

[@mosescosme8629]

The last thing I expected to hear on a worldbuilding video was a story from the desert Fathers. Definitely had to check to see if I didn't accidentally click on a different video.

[@mapcrow]

I think about that story all the time. I am planning another project about it right now! Haha!

[@ferret8001]

When you're Orthodox and browsing writing videos and get blindsided by a rad Desert Fathers quote

[@curtisneff853]

Epic!

[@Regongma]

this reminds me heavily of pinwheel from ds1!

[@mapcrow]

Ha! Now I can’t unsee it!!

[@AedorDM]

This is so sick

[@mapcrow]

Ha! For a second I throughout said it MAKES you sick! Haha

[@emilysmith2965]

Map Crow: says a lot of profound and terrifying stuff about the god of knowledge and “becoming all flame” My dumb nerd brain: omg this is a Mimikyu

[@michaelalbrigo7479]

Dang a Desert Fathers reference!! IC-XC

[@darksev.6468]

My current pantheon feels a bit bland, but this might be what I need to give it a little push. I've been trying to keep my godlist small but inclusive, but also I like messing around with dualities. For example, the god of merchants and taverns is also the god of bandits. The god of nature is both the god of woodsmen and hunters but also animals and trees. Kind of inspired by how Sedna was the goddess of sea animals, so hunters had to pray for her so she'd allow them to hunt her beasts. But even then, my gods felt a little too bland and too... _out there_. No element of mystery or otherworldliness to them. I really like your take on the god of knowledge and might do something similar. A god with many hands, each hand representing a different aspect. Currently, my god of knowledge is called Alvath. They're the god of knowledge, arts, crafts, the forge, fire, magic, and innovation. They're the god of dwarves and gnomes, indirectly. They sculpted the dwarves out of stone and created Mekhanes, a machine god who was meant to protect the world from extraplanar threats but was dismantled when he turned on the other gods. Mehanes made gnomes out of gemstones, before abandoning them as they were not perfect, just like all of his other creations. Mekhanes is now long-forgotten and the creation of gnomes has been attributed to Alvath. My other favourite god is Venari, the god of nature, animals, plants, hunters, shepherds, farmers, and therianthropes. But Venari is _so_ messy and unfocused, because while I want to portray them as a beastly sort of being, I also want to portray the fact that progression is part of nature. There are different schools of thought that worship the same gods and can often even go to war with each other, but I don't know if I should stick to that or if I should define my gods a bit more instead of having them be so self-contradictory.

[@basic204]

Have you checked out the New Gods of Mankind System? Its one were you create and play a god or gods with other players and lead groups of humans. You build myths and more but it has a really deep god creation system to help players create a god founding

[@ByronicGamer]

That saddle stitch stapler looks pretty neat! What make and model is it?

[@guilhermebenossi9752]

I really liked your style and i wound like to learn to do something similar, are there some references i can follow? Like the name of your style or another video of sorts

[@mynewsletter4206]

Would you be able to show your process of digital line art please?

[@mapcrow]

I don’t often work digitally, but I have some videos in mind about digital drawing coming up soon!!

[@mynewsletter4206]

@@mapcrow Radical.

[@nickhoward7419]

Hey Kyle you don't have to answer this if you don't want too, but are you Eastern Orthodox? I just assume because you mentioned the Saying of The Desert Father's and you said you talked to a novice monk. I think it's really cool if you are. Eastern Christianity is so different than the Catholic/Protestant Christianity you see in the western world. I'm Orthodox myself and I always get excited when I see others online. Regardless thank you for the video!

[@mapcrow]

I am not, actually. I just have had the joy of talking to many wonderful folks!

[@alexvb5274]

I just want to say that I love all of your designs, you are so talented! But usually your designs seem to be very 'oval like' this is not a complaint at all but I'm just interested in your designs of more 'fluid' characters. I would like to see more of these videos where you fix or give your opinion about specific topics! (again not complaining just suggesting :)

[@mapcrow]

Ha! I think with these gods, I wanted them to be larger than life, to take up some room. Thank you for the comments and encouragement!!

[@maizen1335]

Any tips or places for finding interesting poems?

[@johnharrison2086]

The problem with most homebrew Pantheons is too many gods. Four or Five deities with a great story ( that involves a story Purpose, Authority, Treachery & Harbour for example) is far more impactful then giving an info dump on a dozen or more!

[@mapcrow]

Yup! Completely agree!!

[@antonipiat5474]

i love you so much

[@valasdarkholme6255]

Just wanted to say - I would love to set your various isometric maps you've done as wallpapers to go into my wallpaper / screensaver rotation - if you shared the ones you're done with.

[@The-skeleton-king-i9v]

well you just found a new subscriber

[@DuskyPredator]

The idea I have been working on is a world where people came from different worlds with their would be own pantheons. The ruling church itself has 10 chief made from several of the pantheons. The nature deity is specifically the Sea elf god, even though all the elf gods have connection to nature, it was the sea elf god whi helped free the others from the elf slavery society. The sun god and night goddess are husband and wife in their pantheon, so their children are sort of secondary deities for acceptable worship.

[@quantumslime7265]

Bro. How do you draw like that? I love it.

[@bluesitedoc]

Your art like a berserk

[@Laurishala79]

Omg these designs are AMAZING!!! I wish i could draw like this :( Do you have any royalty free art anywhere (or affordable art anywhere?…sorry if i sound like a douche for asking)

[@mapcrow]

If you check my itch page link in the video description, you'll see my creative commons works! Mostly maps at this point!