Designing a Pantheon: Enhanced Weight Calculations

In my first run at building factions in this pantheon I ended up with a strongly polarized division. The two factions really had no direct interactions. They could well interact because they’re in the same pantheon, but the members of the factions have no overlapping portfolios.

In this post I’ll break that up. I’ve got two factions right now. I’m going to change my calculations so I have four some more focal points, and some more direct interactions.

  • Faction 1 adds weight to Air, Artifice, Darkness, and Liberation.
  • Faction 2 adds weight to Fire, Luck, Sun, and War.

Now I’ll add four more.

  • Faction 3 adds weight to Trickery, Chaos, Death, Rune.
  • Faction 4 adds weight to Water, Knowledge, Plant, Magic.
  • Faction 5 adds weight to Evil, Protection, Community, Earth.
  • Faction 6 adds weight to Law, Good, Healing, Charm

Each faction has two primary forces and two mortal interests. No faction has more than one element, but I got caught short and have one faction with two alignments. Ah well, while I was being somewhat consistent in how I assigned them I wasn’t really aiming for strict symmetry. Let’s see how they measure up.

DeityFace/PointOppositeAlignmentF1F2F3F4F5F6Primary DomainSecondary Domains
Unnamed120NE113ProtectionFire, Water, Evil
Unnamed219CN311LiberationMagic, Chaos, Darkness
Unnamed318LN111DestructionFire, Law, Death
Unnamed417N41ArtificeEarth, Air, Darkness
Unnamed516N41PlantWater, Earth, Magic
Unnamed615LG14HealingLaw, Air, Good
Unnamed714N21StrengthFire, Water, Sun
Unnamed813CG41TrickeryDeath, Chaos, Good
Unnamed912LE111MadnessEvil, Law, Air
Unnamed1011CN12WeatherSun, Death, Chaos
Unnamed1110NE14CommunityEvil, Earth, Air
Unnamed129CN111ReposeSun, Magic, Chaos
Unnamed138NE32KnowledgeWater, Evil, Earth
Unnamed147NG21NobilityAir, Good, Darkness
Unnamed156N12GloryWater, Sun, Magic
Unnamed165LG14CharmLaw, Death, Good
Unnamed174N41LuckFire, Sun, Death
Unnamed183N111TravelEarth, Magic, Darkness
Unnamed192LE311WarFire, Evil, Law
Unnamed201CG131RuneChaos, Good, Darkness
UnnamedALN41FireProtection, Destruction, Strength, Luck, War
UnnamedBKN41WaterProtection, Plant, Strength, Knowledge, Glory
UnnamedCJNE114EvilProtection, Madness, Community, Knowledge, War
UnnamedDIN3SunStrength, Weather, Repose, Glory, Luck
UnnamedEHLN14LawDestruction, Healing, Madness, Charm, War
UnnamedFGN131DeathDestruction, Trickery, Weather, Charm, Luck
UnnamedGFN123EarthArtifice, Plant, Community, Knowledge, Travel
UnnamedHEN13MagicLiberation, Plant, Repose, Glory, Travel
UnnamedIDN311AirArtifice, Healing, Madness, Community, Nobility
UnnamedJCCN14ChaosLiberation, Trickery, Weather, Repose, Rune
UnnamedKBNG24GoodHealing, Trickery, Nobility, Charm, Rune
UnnamedLAN41DarknessLiberation, Artifice, Nobility, Travel, Rune

If the weight indicates the connection a deity has with the faction, and assume that a weight of 3 or 4 indicates membership or close connection to the faction, I see:

  • Faction 1: Liberation (Magic, Chaos, Darkness), Artifice (Earth, Air, Darkness), Air (Artifice, Healing, Madness, Community, Nobility), Darkness (Liberation, Artifice, Nobility, Travel, Rune)
  • Faction 2: Luck (Fire, Sun, Death), War (Fire, Evil, Law), Fire (Protection, Destruction, Strength, Luck, War), Sun (Strength, Weather, Repose, Glory, Luck)
  • Faction 3: Trickery (Death, Chaos, Good), Rune (Chaos, Good, Darkness), Death (Destruction, Trickery, Weather, Charm, Luck), Chaos (Liberation, Trickery, Weather, Repose, Rune)
  • Faction 4: Plant (Water, Earth, Magic), Knowledge (Weather, Evil, Earth), Water (Protection, Plant, Strength, Knowledge, Glory), Magic (Liberation, Plant, Repose, Glory, Travel)
  • Faction 5: Protection (Fire, Water, Evil), Community (Evil, Earth, Air), Evil (Protection, Madness, Community, Knowledge, War), Earth (Artifice, Plant, Community, Knowledge, Travel)
  • Faction 6: Healing (Law, Air, Good), Charm (Law, Death, Good), Law (Destruction, Healing, Madness, Charm, War), Good (Healing, Trickery, Nobility, Charm, Rune)

This accounts for 24 of the 32 deities, leaving 8 with no strong connection to any faction.

It can get a little more interesting with only a bit more work. Almost every deity (Sun being the only exception… totally an accident!) is connected to at least two factions. Let’s say a deity with connections to three factions is not wholly committed to the primary faction, and a deity with a connection of weight 2 to a second faction is actually compromised.

Deities in bold have connections to 3 factions, deities in italics have a strong connection to a second faction. Right now each faction has 4 deities, but if I remove those with weakened or compromised connections I could reduce each to a core of 2 or 3 deities, with others associated.

  • Faction 1: Liberation (Magic, Chaos, Darkness), Artifice (Earth, Air, Darkness), Air (Artifice, Healing, Madness, Community, Nobility), Darkness (Liberation, Artifice, Nobility, Travel, Rune)
  • Faction 2: Luck (Fire, Sun, Death), War (Fire, Evil, Law), Fire (Protection, Destruction, Strength, Luck, War), Sun (Strength, Weather, Repose, Glory, Luck)
  • Faction 3: Trickery (Death, Chaos, Good), Rune (Chaos, Good, Darkness), Death (Destruction, Trickery, Weather, Charm, Luck), Chaos (Liberation, Trickery, Weather, Repose, Rune)
  • Faction 4: Plant (Water, Earth, Magic), Knowledge (Weather, Evil, Earth), Water (Protection, Plant, Strength, Knowledge, Glory), Magic (Liberation, Plant, Repose, Glory, Travel)
  • Faction 5: Protection (Fire, Water, Evil), Community (Evil, Earth, Air), Evil (Protection, Madness, Community, Knowledge, War), Earth (Artifice, Plant, Community, Knowledge, Travel)
  • Faction 6: Healing (Law, Air, Good), Charm (Law, Death, Good), Law (Destruction, Healing, Madness, Charm, War), Good (Healing, Trickery, Nobility, Charm, Rune)

This took much longer to write up than it took to work out (the workbook I use has the weight logic built in; I assign weights and read the values).

I don’t yet know exactly what this all means, but it looks like I have a lot to work with.

Tomorrow’s post! Tomorrow’s post will explore in greater detail what this factional landscape might look like.

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