Aestereon Pantheon

The Aestereon Pantheon are two sets of deities, one based on characters previously created by other players in the various games that our Tabletop RPG group have played in the past, and some homebrewed deities created by myself.

Each deity created from a previously established character will be tweaked ever-so-slightly so they aren't exact one-to-one copies of the characters they represent, instead being alternate, idealised versions who have succeeded in their plans and lived their lives.

The homebrewed deities are native to this new world, with very little known about them.

### Aestereon Pantheon

#### **Belmanas, Deity of Stone and Darkness, First Goddess of Aestereon**

**Titles:** The Mother of Monsters, Our Lady of Perpetual Darkness, The Misunderstood Goddess, The Personification of Calamity

**Domains:** Community, Destruction (Catastrophe), Earth, Magic, Strength (Resolve)

**Allies:** The Pillar of Aestereon (organisation), Irigast (nominally)

**Enemies:** Those who purposely slaughter her people without just cause.

**Notes:**

Belmanas is the embodiment of the planet of Aestereon given deific form. She was created when the Starfall struck Aestereon, bringing magic and utter catastrophe upon the world. Her birth was brought about during the ensuing Age of Darkness.

Unlike the other homebrewed deities of Aestereon, Belmanas was born alone with only the wishes of pain, darkness and suffering to keep her company. After a millenium of trying to assuage the people of Aestereon without avail, the Age of Darkness ended and the Deities of the Divine Sky were born soon after. Aelmanas could not interact with the other deities, isolated through some unnatural means.

### War Is Hell Pantheon

#### **Paranoid Bushybeard, Deity of Safe Passage and Chance, God of Gnomes**

**Titles:** Ascended Herald, The Saint of Randul

**Domains:** Healing (Resurrection), Good, Luck, Magic (Divine), Travel (Portal)​​​​

**Allies:** His Herald Julius Jensen (Cavalier), his first follower from when they were both still mortal

**Enemies:** Crump

Link to full profile here

#### **Jasper Fel**

**Domains:** Knowledge, Trickery (Thievery), Magic (Arcane)

#### **Shataakh**

**Domains:** Earth, Fire, Law (Tyranny), War

#### **Bolphungar**

**Domains:** Air (Lightning), Glory, Liberation (Freedom), Strength (Competition)

#### **Crump**

**Titles: Prince of Sweetness and Light, Helper of Small Children**

**Domains:** Artifice (Alchemy), Nobility (Hubris), Trickery (Espionage), Community (Cooperation)

#### **Angur McRagemongler**

**Domains:** Community, Destruction (Rage), Law, Strength (Ferocity)

#### **Uduros and Nesryn, Twin Messiahs of the Orc Races**

**Domains:** Community (Home), Liberation, Strength (Resolve), Madness

#### **Anastacia**

**Domains:** Animal (Feather), Chaos (Whimsy), Darkness (Night), Trickery (Thievery),

#### **Grot**

**Domains:** Air, Artifice (Construct), Good (Friendship), Magic (Rites)

#### **Cuvus**

**Domains:** Darkness, Death (Murder), Trickery (Deception)

### **The Unturning Legion**

**Domains:** Artifice (Construct), Glory (Heroism), Good, Law (Judgment), War (Tactics)

#### **Astraeus**

**Domains:** Death (Undead), Magic (Arcane), Repose, Rune (Language)

### The God Squad

#### Arun Blackstone

**Domains:** Animal, Community (Home), Magic (Divine), Sun

### Template for Deity sheets(additional details)

**Name**: Obviously, what
your deity's name will be. I personally like to use puns and foreign words to
give my deities exotic-sounding names, but ones that savvy people can identify.
I also always include the name's pronunciation.

**Titles**: These are the
sobriquets that worshippers of the deity give them. Usually, they allude to the
deity's function or are a superlative praising them.

**Divine**
rank**: For the purposes of this guide, I limit myself to four of the divine**
ranks: Demigod, Lesser God, Intermediate God and Greater God. This is because
these are the ranks at which a deity is able to grant divine power to
followers, i.e. can grant Divine spells through Cleric Domains. I do not cover
Quasi-deities, because they do not have the capacity to empower mortals, nor
Overdeities, because their affairs are beyond even the gods, let alone mortals.
The ranks, by D&D cosmology standards entail the following:

·
*Demigod*: Demigods are the
lowest of the true god ranks, and they tend to be ascended mortal heroes,
offspring or servants of greater deities. Demigods are very rarely worshipped
on their own, and if they are, their worshippers number in the hundreds to
low-thousands. Their portfolio is usually limited to minor and few concepts. In
5th Edition D&D, demigods are no longer among the divine ranks, being a
powerful playable race instead.

·
*Lesser God*: A Lesser God is
the lowest rank that is a true independent god with their own portfolio and
organized religion. Their worshippers number in the thousands to tens of
thousands, and they represent concepts that are minor yet significant to
mortals or fills a specific niche. For example, Lolth is a Lesser Goddess, and
she is the main god of Evil drow. Although her worshippers are not many in
number (since drow themselves are not many in number, compared to the main elf
race), she has a place of importance within her pantheon as the patron of her
race. Azuth is another Lesser God, with few devout worshippers but representing
a pretty powerful concept in the advancement of magic. Followers of lesser gods
tend to congregate in small groups, and their temples tend to be small chapels
in most urban areas, while bigger in major centers of their worship. If your
deity represents a minor mortal concept and has few worshippers across the
world or a rather sizable local population, they are probably a lesser god.

·
*Intermediate God*: Intermediate Gods
have followings numbering up to the hundreds of thousands, and represent more
important, everyday concepts of mortal concern. They tend to have larger
temples, and congregations of their faithful are numerous and large groups within
their communities. Ilmater is an example of an intermediate god, with numerous
worshippers and representing the virtues of endurance, compassion and the
relief of suffering. Saint Cuthbert is another intermediate god, representing
obedience of the law and retribution, which gives him a privileged position in
urban centers. If your deity represents an important mortal concept and has a
large following worldwide or a major following locally, they're probably an
intermediate god.

·
*Greater God*: Greater Gods are
the highest rank of god that still participates in mortal affairs. Their
followers tend to number in the millions, and they can be the main god of an
entire pantheon or the patron god of an entire major race or nation. However,
greater gods tend to not even need worshippers, for they usually represent
concepts of cosmic importance, so massive in scope and importance to creation
that they exist independent of mortals and merely need to exist to hold the
position. Pelor and Lathander, the Gods of the Sun, are both examples of
greater gods, who have huge numbers of worshippers and represent the most
important of heavenly bodies. Kelemvor is also a greater god, representing
Death, arguably the most important and universal cosmic concept of all. If your
deity represents a concept integral to the universe, has a global presence of
worshippers and a majority of the worshippers of a major population center,
they're probably a greater god.

·
*Demon Lord/Infernal Duke*: Demon Lords and
Infernal Dukes are not part of the main divine ranks, but they can also empower
mortals and represent concepts that affect them. They are, obviously, Evil
fiends that reside in the Abyss or servants of Asmodeus that reside in Hell,
respectively.

**Position**: This is the most
important part of creating your deity: what they are deity of. This will
determine many of the characteristics of this template: it will determine your
deity's rank, their alignment, their portfolio, their cleric alignments, their
domains and their relationship with other deities in your game. D&D already
has a ton of different deities for a myriad of concepts you can use, so if
you're creating a new one, you should come up with a deity that fills a niche
you can't find an already existing god for.

**Holy**
**symbol:** Worshippers of a deity tend to wear their deity's holy symbol, as well
as use it to decorate centers of worship and artifacts affiliated with them.
Make your deity's symbol something symbolic of your deity's role. A god of
knowledge, for example, can be symbolized by an all-seeing eye or a flame of
knowledge, a god of protection might be symbolized by a shield, or a god of
death symbolized by a scythe or skull, and so forth.

**Alignment**: I'm not going to
explain alignment cause that'd be about twice the size of this entire piece,
but suffice it to say that a god's position determines their alignment. As a
rule of thumb, gods that participate heavily in mortal affairs are the ones who
usually are Good or Evil, Lawful gods tend to represent institutions or cosmic
order and Chaotic gods are more concerned with individuals and creative and
destructive processes. Gods who are Neutral in either or both axes of the
alignment scale tend to represent the more universal concepts.

**Cleric**
**alignments:** Cleric alignments represent what alignment a worshipper of your deity
must ascribe to to be empowered by your deity. As a rule of thumb, clerics tend
to be, at most, one step removed from their deity's alignment, but this is not
universal. For example, a Chaotic Neutral deity who sneers at altruism would
probably not allow a Chaotic Good cleric to worship them, even if their
alignment is only one step removed from their own, while a True Neutral deity
of a universal concept might very well accept clerics of any alignment.

**Portfolio**: Your deity's
portfolio is a breakdown of the concepts that your deity represents according
to their title. Think of it as the bullet points below your deity's main point.
For example, Pelor, as God of The Sun, has the Sun itself as his main portfolio
concept, but he also represents light, strength, healing, fertility (as
sunlight is necessary for the growth of crops) and the destruction of the
undead (as sunlight is the purest form of Positive Energy, which is anathema to
the undead).

**Domains**: Your deity's domains
are the concepts that your deity has Divine power over, and through which they
can empower mortals who belong to the Divine character classes (Clerics,
paladins, etc.). I personally give my deities between four and six domains, but
you can giver your deity as few or as many as you like, though for consistency
you should give higher ranked deities more domains than those under them.

**Allies**: Allies are other
deities in the D&D pantheon that have favorable relations with your deity.
They usually represent concepts that share relevance or complement your
deity's, or they might simply like each other because they share a similar
outlook or philosophy. Worshippers of deities allied to your deity would
consider you a friend and be willing to help you out, or they might even
worship your deity along with theirs.

**Enemies**: Enemies are
deities that disapprove of your deity. They usually represent an opposite or
incompatible concept to your deity's, or they might disagree on outlook or
philosophy. Worshippers of deities inimical to your deity will treat you with
distrust at best and outright hostility at worst.

**Mixed**
**relations:** This is an optional entry I generally use when a deity has a
relationship with another deity that is significant but not specifically
friendly or inimical. If you can describe the relatinship between both deities
as "it's complicated", the other deity goes here.

**Favored**
**weapon:** Your deity's favored weapon is the weapon that worshippers of that
deity favor, and they tend to have proficiencies and feats related to that
weapon. Any weapon can be favored by your deity, but it's a fun idea to reason
why a deity might favor a particular weapon. A god of nature, for example,
might favor the quarterstaff or the club, as their god would shun metallic weapons,
or a dwarven god might favor the warhammer, as it's the classic weapon of the
dwarves.

**Appearance**: This is where you
describe what your deity looks like. Have fun with it, but think of how your
deity's appearance can be a reflection of what concept theyy represent. For
example, Pelor is decribed as having blonde radiating hair, dressing in golden
robes and having an aura of light, making it obvious he's a sun god. As a rule
of thumb, the lower in the divine ranks a deity is, the more they tend to look
humanoid, as their concept tends to be more linked to mortal concerns, while
the greater gods tend to have forms that are inhuman or even unfathomable by
mortals, and the form they use to manifest might be one of many that they use
so that mortals have something recognizable to interact with.

**Realm**: I tend to use
this entry as optional. Your deity's realm is their home, the subplane where
they reside and have absolute power in. There are many documented realms in
D&D cosmology your deity can make their home in, but you might also want to
detail your deity's realm if you think your party might visit it at some moment
or another. Demon Lords and Infernal Dukes are the deities I personally prefer
to write a realm for, but you can create any realm you deem appropriate for
your deity.

**Backstory**: This is your
deity's background: what they're about, where they came from and how the
achieved their position. This can be as sparse or as detailed as you want to
make it: a god that represents a cosmic concept can bbe explained simply as
"they've always been around", while a god that is an ascended mortal
might have a whole backstory of their mortal life and what events led to their
ascension. This part is a fun way to flesh out your deity and give them personality.
A deity's backstory might very well be a part of their church's doctrine and
holy texts.

**Dogma,**
**clergy and temples:** This entry describes your deity's influence in the mortal realm. In
here, you describe what virtues your deity espouses, the main teachings of
their religion, what their church and worshippers look and act like, and what
their goals for mortals are. You also describe here what clerics and/or
paladins or anti-paladins of your deity wear and how they act.

**Tenets**: Your deity's
tenets are the commandments they demand of worshippers. They are the moral and
philosophical rules that define their religion, and all worshippers of your
deity are expected to follow them.

**Deity's**
**Paladins/Anti-Paladins Code:** This is the code that Paladins and/or
Anti-Paladins of your deity follow. Think of them as additional commandments
and standrads of behavior they obey as elite followers of your deity.

**Sects**
**and Cults:** In here, you describe institutions, holy texts, rituals and
individuals that follow your deity or are defined by them. Particular
philosophies, magical rituals, favored heroes, historial events and other such
concepts can be written here to flesh out and give your deity depth. You can
even describe individuls or institutions that directly oppose your deity, as
long as that opposition defines them. An institution that opposes your deity
because it opposes other deities with similar outlook would not belong here,
but an institution composed of people who have been directly and specifically
slighted by your deity certainly would.

**Allies**
**and enemies:** This entry goes in-depth into your deity's relationships with the
other D&D deities. In the initial blurb for the template, you wrote which
deities have relationships with your deity and what kind, while in here you
describe WHY those deities have those relationships. This entry adds some good
fluff to give you an idea of how to roleplay worshippers of those deities in
relation with each other.