d20 Bards and Sages Publishing Pantheon Building.pdf

Pantheon Building

A Guide to Constructing a Fantasy Pantheon for Games or Fiction

Written by Julie Ann Dawson

http://www.bardsandsages.com

Illustrations courtesy Oldbookillustrations.com

http://www.oldbookillustrations.com

One of the most important parts of building

your own fantasy setting is building a consistent,

functional pantheon. In most fantasy settings,

the gods are real entities that often directly

interfere in the affairs of mortal. But even if

your gods and goddesses are more myth than

reality, crafting a pantheon that fits into your

worldview will help provide a sense of place and

purpose in your setting.

Unfortunately, often when people sit down

to design pantheons, they tend to think of them

in terms of how they relate to player classes and

skills. World designers come into the process

attempting to reverse engineer gods to fit some

pre-conceived notions of what types of gods are

needed to meet the needs of the players or

characters. This leads to a stilted, often

fragmented pantheon of unrelated gods and

goddesses with little cohesiveness.

Pantheon Building is designed to provide a

way of thinking about designing your pantheon.

Use the information in this product to get a

better understanding in order to develop a more

organic feeling pantheon for your game world.

This information can be used by both game

designers looking to bring variety to their

campaign settings, or by writers hoping to

develop a believable pantheon for their fantasy

fiction.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

In order to determine the nature of the gods

that will populate your pantheon, you need to

have a firm understanding of the needs of the

people in your setting. The gods of a culture

reflect what is most important to the culture, and

what is most important to the culture depends on

how far up the pyramid of needs the culture has

evolved.

In 1943, Abraham Maslow published his

book A Theory of Human Motivation , in which

he stated the Hierarchy of Needs. Though

considered a bit oversimplified by modern

scholars, the concepts provide a good working

basis for understanding cultural development.

While all needs have importance to people, the

dominant needs are those that must be met first

in order for the person to focus energy on other

needs. When these dominate needs are the

primary focus of the culture, they will impact the

types of gods that are worshiped.

Physiological needs:

These are the most basic needs of food,

water, air, and other bodily needs. Raw survival

is the dominant goal of someone at this level of

the pyramid. The fight for food is the primary

focus of the individual. What little culture exists

is in the form of small hunting parties, which

work together to bring down game and find

other sustenance.

Security Needs:

Closely associated with the physiological

needs are the security needs, and they often go

hand in hand. Humans, at their most basic level,

desire order and stability. Because order and

stability ensures that the physiological needs are

met. A person at this level on the pyramid is

concerned with protection from the elements,

safety from the wilds, and general security.

Roaming hunting groups begin to stake out

territories that they patrol frequently to ensure

security. Over time, the group has come to

recognize the travel patterns of the herds they

hunt, and they develop their territories in order

to take advantage of this pattern.

Evolution of a God

Social Needs:

Social needs refer to a sense of belonging.

Humans develop friendships and form family

units. The hunting group has become a tribe,

with each person clearly understanding his place

in the social order. This order provides

members with a sense of belonging, while also

ensuring the needs of the physiological and

security levels. Social standing in the tribe is

determined by ones ability to maintain the

security and physiological needs of the group.

Here, the strong rule, whether that strength is in

physical strength of magical power.

Esteem Needs:

Over time, the individuals in a society begin

to develop their esteem needs. It is at this point

that the notion of civilization begins to take

form. Often, at this point the tribe has ceased to

be nomadic, taking to developing agriculture and

raising livestock instead of constantly hunting

and gathering. The ability to secure the culture

no longer rests on the most physically powerful,

but the most resourceful. Individuals begin to

develop a sense of self-esteem outside the most

basic brute strength or might. People begin to

desire respect, and develop respect for others.

As civilization becomes more complex, people

find new niches to fill that help society. And

these niches provide venues to demonstrate

accomplishment beyond merely providing food

and water and shelter.

The Physiological God

The gods of a people still at the most basic

level of the pyramid reflect the most primitive

needs. The most ancient people did not pray to

human-looking metaphysical beings, but very

real creatures around them. When the hunting

party downs a deer, they pray to the spirit of the

deer, offering thanks that it sacrificed itself so

that the hunters can survive. Over time, the deer

itself becomes revered for its life-giving flesh.

Self-actualization:

At the pinnacle of a culture, true self-

actualization takes hold. Education, fine arts,

ethics, creativity, and philosophy become

important concepts to the people. Having

developed an intricate system by which to

ensure the more basic needs, the members of the

culture now have the leisure to pursue individual

goals and desires.

The Security God

Over time, the people begin to develop a

more uniform group. They have begun to notice

how the deer move through the woods, and more

importantly, how the stags will move to protect

their mates or fight over mates. The people

begin to gain a new respect for the animal,

recognizing the strength of the dear to fight.

The deer no longer represents just food, but the

hunter aspect itself. The cult of the spirit begins

to stop thinking of the deer as a spirit itself, but

as a gift from a hunter-god to protect the people.

The people begin to think of the stag as a sacred

animal to the hunter god, and begin to revere the

god.

Government Structures

The Social God

At this point, the social structure of the tribe

becomes important. The Potnia Theron, The

Mistress of Animals or the Great Huntress,

blesses the tribe (and particularly, the Chieftain).

The Chieftain in such cultures is often viewed as

a mortal consort of the goddess, blessed by her

to oversee the tribe. In this manner, the worship

of the deity evolves to not only encompass the

act of hunting, but also to promote the social

order by offering divine backing to the ruler.

When the tribe prepares for war, the goddess is

invoked to bless the tribe in battle. In this

aspect, she also becomes a war deity.

The Esteem God

At this point, the Great Huntress has become

Artemis, goddess of the hunt. But she is no

longer revered as a benevolent goddess that

brings game to the tribe. Now, she comes to

represent the competitive spirit of the hunt. Her

myths often involve contests between mortals

vying to demonstrate their superior skills. She

becomes more dangerous, punishing those that

fail…as well as those that succeed and become

too boastful over it. In many ways, she becomes

an embodiment of the dangers of becoming

overly concerned with personal esteem, possibly

as a way for the established rulers to protect

their own interests.

Another important consideration when

developing a pantheon is the type of government

structure the people employ. The nature of the

government does have an impact on how people

perceive themselves, and by extension their

place in the greater universe and by further

extension their relationship with the divine.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it

does touch briefly on the major forms of

government that one would expect to find in a

fantasy setting. While the explanations may be

oversimplified, they are meant to merely give a

framework, not a full history lesson.

The Self-Actualization God

Artemis becomes a patron to young women

that wish to be free of the confines of what has

become a patriarchal culture. Her worshippers

view her as the embodiment of self-

actualization. Her virginity becomes important

because it is a personal choice, at a point in the

culture when young women are often seen as

commodities used as trade goods in arranged

marriages that deny them their own self-

actualization. Her cult spreads as the Cult of

Diana throughout Europe even as Christianity

takes hold, due to a rebellion against what is

viewed as a denial of self-actualization.

Democracy

A government structure in which all citizens

have an opportunity to impact the government.

Generally, democracies only develop when a

culture has reached the level of self-

actualization. While a democratic society may

have a dominant religion, it can support a wide

variety of faiths, many which may even seem to

oppose or contradict each other.

Matriarchy

A government structure in which the mother

figure has the power. Unlike a monarchy in

which the ruler happens to be female, a

matriarchy holds that women are the ones who

have the right to hold power. Most

anthropologists agree that the existence of a true

matriarchy has never been proven. If it did ever

exist in human culture, it would have been at the

physiological and security levels, at a point

when the process of giving birth was still

considered a mystical act and women therefore

were viewed as possessing some power over

life. In a matriarchy, religions will focus on the

feminine aspects.

common in tribal cultures, where raw strength is

valued above all else. Many monarchies are

also patriarchies.

Republic

A government structure in which at least a

portion of the population has a say in matter of

government. Republics generally do not

develop until a culture has neared the level of

self-actualization, in which the desires of

individuals begin to become more important.

Historically, the primary reason for the rise of a

republic was to allow more freedom of religion.

By negating the power of a monarch, a republic

could allow individuals more freedom to

worship as they wished. Pantheons are

portrayed as more cooperative, or at least with

having the semblance of cooperation.

Matrifocal

A government structure in which the mother

figure is given priority, but not necessarily

power, in the culture. Many tribal cultures are

both patriarchal and matrifocal, whereas the

males are considered the proper rulers of the

tribe, but the women are to be treated in a certain

manner out of respect for their role as mothers

and nurturers of the next generation. In such

cultures, feminine gods that served as mothers

and nurturers would be revered, though still

subservient to the male gods of strength and war.

The Role of the Environment

Monarchy

A government structure in which one person

has absolute authority. Generally, rule is handed

down from father to son. Strict hierarchies

develop, with a person’s “place” in the hierarchy

determining his personal worth.

In a monarchy, you will generally find a

“state sanctioned” religion, with only those

faiths accepted by the monarch being granted the

right to exist. Monarchies generally develop as

a culture moves out of the Social level and into

the esteem level. Most of the gods will focus on

respect for and development of authority,

acceptance of one’s place, and the development

of crafts. The pantheons of a monarchy are

often rather limited, with “official” deities being

afforded large temples, while “unofficial” deities

become vilified or treated as evil demons.

Along the coast, where people depend on the

ocean to survive, storms would be a disastrous

event. Here, a Gods of Storms would be feared,

and sacrifices would be made to appease the evil

deity to prevent storms. In the desert, where

sources of water are limited and the people

Patriarchy

A government structure in which the father

figure or males have the power. Patriarchies are

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