Worldbuilding I, Creating a Pantheon, Culture First

Get an alert when the Kingdoms, Organizations, & Warfare Kickstarter goes live: www.mcdmproduc...
We have a Patreon!
/ mcdm
Strongholds & Followers, available (in PDF) now!
shop.mcdmprodu...
Watch MCDM Presents: The Chain Wednesdays at 7PM Pacific on Twitch!
/ mcdm
Follow us on Twitter!
MCDM - / hellomcdm
Matt - / mattcolville
Join the conversation on our Discord!
mcdm.gg/discord
#worldbuilding #thechain #mattcolville

[@mayonnaisewithbacon6099]

You know, believe it or not, this is one of my comfort series. Whenever I can't sleep, like now its 2:50am lol, or whenever I feel stressed or just wanna sink into my bed, this is what I put on. Not ambiance, not a podcast about gay wizards, just Matt, his very well done paintings and the weird ramblings of a fellow creative. Love it, thanks Matt

[@richardwalton7468]

This is my 3rd listen of this, I’ve been listening to this series over and over at work because you have such an easy casual way of explaining this stuff. Love your stuff, your videos help me create my world more than you can know! Thanks Matt!

[@zenith110]

I come back to this very often these days - I'm working on my planning for a campaign and this playlist has been a godsend.

[@Madhattersinjeans]

I appreciate the worldbuilding vids you upload, it's helpful seeing the process you go through. I recommend to anyone wanting a bit more inspiration to try out the dominions 5 game. It has a massive set of gods and nations in it's world that draw on various mythologies. With different time periods having a different starting point.

[@roticet]

These videos really helped. lol I was stuck building my current campaign and decided to rewatch these. I started using an excel spreadsheet, and holy crap, it has really helped organized my thoughts. Also, you gave me some inspiration. :)

[@NewMariah]

I love your videos! Most of the worldbuilding videos I find are about how to do worldbuilding, but you walking us through your process and giving examples really helps me! I like how you actually worldbuild in front of the audience and talk us through your world instead of just telling us how to do it, please stream more of you working. Thank you for capturing your thought process.

[@MikaelHakmi]

Thank you, Matt, to let us witness some of your (worldbuilding) creation process! I understand it should be a bit weird for you to do it in front of a camera, but I can assure you it is of great help to us all, aspiring DMs and worldbuilders out there! Thanks again!

[@StarlightDragon]

This has been very helpful. I always knew I wanted to build my gods out of the culture, so it is helpful to see how this is done as a model.

[@AryuRosengard]

Awesome video!^^ I only wanted to point out some historical inaccuracies in you inspiration for Rioja. If they were done on purpose or if you don't care about historical accuracy that's totally fine too!! However, please bare with me just for the same of some history-fun XD! 1-Rioja is a spanish-sounding name and not an Italian one 2-Caravaggio's painting is from the 1600 century. Not medieval 3-During the middle ages Italy was a super-Christian country (we got the Vatican) 4-Italy was indeed occupied by Spain in the 1600. So it seems to me you drew more inspiration from that period of Italian history rather than the Middle Ages. Sorry for my grammatical/syntactical mistakes, I'm not a native English speaker. Source: I'm Italian, the stuff I studied at schoolXD

[@Ogeidification]

Yeah medieval Italy is very different from what is illustrated here. But I think is more born out of confusion about where and when this baroque Spaitaly come from than anything.

[@cretan320j]

It seems that one born with a disability in Rioja would be seen as being set up by the god of Fate and Fortune to have the opportunity to be great

[@voxlknight2155]

The Discworld book Matt was thinking of is Men at Arms, btw. Great book

[@natskis]

Hurray it's now on KZbin!!!!

[@gengar1187]

Sooooooo much better than twitch, on a technical level

[@OMDxPopo]

I really like this because I can see through the cultures of both Vasloria and Rioja the inspiration from the way medieval english culture was and the way sort of renaissance italian culture was.

[@AryuRosengard]

The Forsworn King I saw more 1600 Italy-occupied-by-Spain inspiration than Italian Reinassance (1400-1500) Can't tell for English middle ages

[@WolfmanXD]

I love the idea of saints, or heroes. So you have a higher pantheon, each God representing multiple domains, and then each of those gods create something like demigods, each one representing a single domain in that gods portfolio. I love it, I think I'm gonna use it in my setting.

[@Micsma]

This is incredibly helpful and inspiring for me.

[@cowboy_dogg2124]

I like the culture-first way of worldbuilding and I think it makes cool analogues to the real world. However, in a setting where the gods are real would it make more sense to build the gods first and then build the culture of worship around them? I mean treating the gods as human constructs makes sense when compared to the real world (where they aren't real) but in a fantasy world mbe the gods don't spring out of a need to explain nature or fit human culture. Food for thought

[@noahblack914]

I'd say that sort of top-down approach lines up with how most pantheons in fiction seem to be made. I think Matt would say that if you want that approach, then make something that looks like that, or better yet just use one of the ones you like and tweak it. If you need to explain why there are powerful extra-planar beings around that work exactly how this organically evolved human culture thinks, I think there's an easy answer. It's not unusual for gods to be fueled, or even created by, faith. If the people worship it, it will become a god, whether it's an entity or an idea. In fact, that's maybe kinda what's happening with Ajax the Invincible. He's a mortal, but now there are priests that worship Saint Ajax.

[@noahblack914]

1:24:15 Matt: "Draw..." Me: Oh?! Matt: "... your sword, sir..." Me: oh. I guess Riojans are a bit more proper. Perhaps a Vaslorian calling for a duel would say...

[@Avalikia]

How to get your players to care about your gods: Tell them that spells like Revivify don't work unless the god they're praying to actually prefers them to be alive instead of dead. Suddenly they'll all want to know what to do and what not to do to keep their god reasonably pleased with them.

[@nickwilliams8302]

Alternatively, create a pantheon that doesn't suck balls. Or, to put that less confrontationally and more usefully, link the deities to themes that actually come up in the campaign and don't make the pantheon too goddamn big. theangrygm.com/conflicted-beliefs/

[@Avalikia]

@@nickwilliams8302 You're implying that if your pantheon is good enough your players will engage with it on their own initiative? That's like saying that if you just raise your kids right, they'll grow up to be good people. The best you can do is increase the odds by doing a good job - but the players may still decide that they just don't care even if your pantheon is the best ever.

[@nickwilliams8302]

@@Avalikia Okay. Some players just aren't into the particular aesthetics that an invented pantheon would provide. But they won't _start_ caring about your imaginary stuff just because you provide arbitrary punishments. They'll just learn where the boundaries of the box you've created are and play within it. Or deliberately select deities based on how big that box is. Moreover, you risk the same kinds of problems that earlier-edition paladins used to cause: everyone has to obey strictures chosen by only one player. Keep the pantheon small enough so that the players can easily remember it and make it _relevant_ to the campaign.

[@Avalikia]

@@nickwilliams8302 But it's not an arbitrary punishment, it's a realistic punishment. Why should a god care about you if you don't care about them? And whether or not keeping a god happy is a box with strict requirements depends on what kind of gods you have - they don't all have to be authoritarian. My nature god, for example, is pretty chill - he doesn't care what you do as long as you don't burn down the forests and slaughter wildlife for no reason, and don't support those who do. It also helps that you can choose which god they're asking. So if the cleric's god is mad at you, the cleric can ask your own god to bring you back instead. So no, everyone isn't tied down to the god chosen by one player.

[@MrJerajera]

Discord Pingspam refugee here

[@djgiermann8826]

So the notion of artistic ability is blessed by the gods so would the idea of super successful craftsman and artist gain the person prestige to the point they are essentially a cleric or something because it would assume the person's skills are not accounted for. That it was the will of the gods who channeled their will through the person?

[@brutusthecat6044]

What tools does Matt use to keep track of all his campaign notes?

[@lordofthenecrotyr]

excell

[@Poolio_10]

Has anyone gone and compiled all of the world building info? Asking befire i go off and do it myself

[@gengar1187]

it was Lars lol

[@ogreboy8843]

Thanks Matt! So cool. Riojan philosophy sounds a lot like Nietzsche's noble morality (but... you know... without the antisemitism).

[@gorkensgork]

I cant hear what other tool you mention after excel.. vamica pro?

[@Akiata]

File Maker Pro

[@pixiew93]

My second Daughter's middle name is Llewellyn 💙

[@JK8]

Ok?

[@zelbarnap]

Hard to read your spreadsheet

[@gengar1187]

The idea is to get you to use yer own spreadsheet

[@JustinHalliday]

I'm not sure if I prefer Roman or Arabic numerals, but I definitely HATE BOTH TOGETHER!

[@gengar1187]

Be easy, brother

[@helloMCDM]

They indicate the difference of edited videos and non-edited videos

[@JustinHalliday]

@@helloMCDM How is that distinction communicated to the viewer? And surely there's a better way to do that, like with words?

[@hive_indicator318]

@@JustinHalliday I'm pretty sure those were words in his reply.