Divine Trappings: Look Again! Elves!

I made a dwarven pantheon in my last post by taking the new pantheon I’m building and assigning a weight to each domain. This let me calculate a value for each deity so I could determine the deity’s grade (demi-god, lesser, intermediate, greater).

It worked out pretty well, I think, despite the pantheon not being intended to be a dwarven pantheon.

And then I thought… what if we try the same process, but for elves?

Same process, but this time I’ll weight domains that might suit (stereotypical) elves: Magic, Plant, Animal, Knowledge, Repose, Trickery. I started the dwarves with six weighted domains, I’ll start the elves with six also, and keep the option of a seventh after I see what I get.

  • Deities 1..20 (4 domains, 0 point base)
    • Deity 1 (Sun, Chaos, Weather, Repose) 1 point
    • Deity 2 (War, Community, Luck, Knowledge) 1 point
    • Deity 3 (Magic, Chaos, Trickery, Water) 3 points
    • Deity 4 (Plant, Artifice, Liberation, Knowledge) 3 points
    • Deity 6 (Darkness, Trickery, Liberation, Good) 1 point
    • Deity 9 (Madness, Repose, Trickery, Liberation) 2 points
    • Deity 11 (Healing, Repose, Artifice, Liberation) 1 point
    • Deity 13 (Void, Weather, Repose, Artifice) 1 point
    • Deity 14 (Nobility, Liberation, Good, Knowledge) 1 point
    • Deity 16 (Animal, Trickery, Water, Good), 3 points
    • Deity 18 (Glory, Artifice, Community, Knowledge) 1 point
    • Deity 19 (Fire, Charm, Repose, Trickery) 1 point
    • Deity 20 (Air, Luck, Good, Knowledge) 1 point
  • Deities A..L (6 domains, 1 point base)
    • Deity A (Chaos, Sun, Magic, Evil, Earth, Fire) 2 points
    • Deity C (Repose, Sun, Madness, Healing, Void, Fire) 3 points
    • Deity E (Trickery, Magic, Darkness, Madness, Animal, Fire) 5 points
    • Deity F (Water, Magic, Protection, Death, Animal, Earth) 3 points
    • Deity G (Artifice, Plant, Travel, Strength, Rune, Glory) 2 points
    • Deity I (Liberation, Plant, Darkness, Madness, Healing, Nobility) 2 points
    • Deity K (Good, Darkness, Protection, Nobility, Animal, Air) 2 points
    • Deity L (Knowledge, War, Plant, Nobility, Glory, Air) 4 points

This feels a little different from the dwarf results, but let’s actually count them all.

  • One deity with 5 points
  • One deity with 4 points
  • Five deities with 3 points
  • Five deities with 2 points
  • Thirteen deities with 1 point
  • Seven deities with 0 points

I think I’d go with

  • Two greater deities (one 5-point and one 4-point)
    • Trickery, Magic, Darkness, Madness, Animal, Fire
    • Knowledge, War, Plant, Nobility, Glory, Air
  • Ten intermediate deities (five 3-point and five 2-point)
    • Magic, Chaos, Trickery, Water
    • Plant, Artifice, Liberation, Knowledge
    • Animal, Trickery, Water, Good
    • Repose, Sun, Madness, Healing, Void, Fire
    • Water, Magic, Protection, Death, Animal, Earth
    • Madness, Repose, Trickery, Liberation
    • Chaos, Sun, Magic, Evil, Earth, Fire
    • Artifice, Plant, Travel, Strength, Rune, Glory
    • Liberation, Plant, Darkness, Madness, Healing, Nobility
    • Good, Darkness, Protection, Nobility, Animal, Air
  • Thirteen lesser deities (all 1-point)
    • Sun, Chaos, Weather, Repose
    • War, Community, Luck, Knowledge
    • Darkness, Trickery, Liberation, Good
    • Healing, Repose, Artifice, Liberation
    • Void, Weather, Repose, Artifice
    • Nobility, Liberation, Good, Knowledge
    • Glory, Artifice, Community, Knowledge
    • Fire, Charm, Repose, Trickery
    • Air, Luck, Good, Knowledge
    • Weather, Sun, Travel, Evil, Void, Rune
    • Destruction, Evil, Death, Strength, Rune, Earth
    • Community, War, Travel, Strength, Rune, Glory
    • Luck, War, Protection, Death, Strength, Air
  • Seven demi-gods (all 0-point)
    • Travel, Weather, Artifice, Community
    • Evil, Chaos, Weather, Destruction
    • Protection, Water, Luck, Good
    • Death, Destruction, Water, Luck
    • Strength, Destruction, Community, Luck
    • Rune, Weather, Destruction, Community
    • Earth, Charm, Destruction, Water

The two greater deities complement each other (no shared domains), and unlike my facetious suggestion in the previous post, I can see these working as a couple (married or otherwise).

After that, I don’t see, or I don’t feel, the same sense of purpose as in the dwarven pantheon… and yet, I can’t say that’s a problem. The idea of a dwarven pantheon being focused and an elven pantheon being less focused actually seems pretty okay to me.

I am tempted to see what happens if I give Chaos a little more weight, though.

  • Three greater deities (one 5-point and two 4-point)
    • Trickery, Magic, Darkness, Madness, Animal, Fire
    • Knowledge, War, Plant, Nobility, Glory, Air
    • Magic, Chaos, Trickery, Water
  • Ten intermediate deities (five 3-point and five 2-point)
    • Plant, Artifice, Liberation, Knowledge
    • Animal, Trickery, Water, Good
    • Repose, Sun, Madness, Healing, Void, Fire
    • Water, Magic, Protection, Death, Animal, Earth
    • Chaos, Sun, Magic, Evil, Earth, Fire
    • Madness, Repose, Trickery, Liberation
    • Artifice, Plant, Travel, Strength, Rune, Glory
    • Liberation, Plant, Darkness, Madness, Healing, Nobility
    • Good, Darkness, Protection, Nobility, Animal, Air
    • Sun, Chaos, Weather, Repose
  • Thirteen lesser deities (all 1-point)
    • War, Community, Luck, Knowledge
    • Darkness, Trickery, Liberation, Good
    • Healing, Repose, Artifice, Liberation
    • Void, Weather, Repose, Artifice
    • Nobility, Liberation, Good, Knowledge
    • Glory, Artifice, Community, Knowledge
    • Fire, Charm, Repose, Trickery
    • Air, Luck, Good, Knowledge
    • Weather, Sun, Travel, Evil, Void, Rune
    • Destruction, Evil, Death, Strength, Rune, Earth
    • Community, War, Travel, Strength, Rune, Glory
    • Evil, Chaos, Weather, Destruction
    • Luck, War, Protection, Death, Strength, Air
  • Six demi-gods (all 0-point)
    • Travel, Weather, Artifice, Community
    • Protection, Water, Luck, Good
    • Death, Destruction, Water, Luck
    • Strength, Destruction, Community, Luck
    • Rune, Weather, Destruction, Community
    • Earth, Charm, Destruction, Water

Not as much difference as I might have thought. One deity from each of the demi-god, lesser deities, and intermediate deities got bumped a grade… I don’t know that I’d bother, but I do kind of like that triad at the top. Two of the three have Magic and Trickery… I could see them being connected in some fashion, with the other added to the mix.

Closing Comments

One of the greatest features of Polyhedral Pantheons is that it kicks me out of habitual design decisions. As seen above and in the previous post, it appears I can take an almost entirely random polyhedral pantheon and by assigning weights to the domains I can influence the interpretation of the domain. In this case I’ve cast exactly the same set of deities (defined by their domains) to suit two different cultures.

When it comes to the trappings, I expect I would certainly pick different trappings from the domain aspects. Despite the two deities having exactly the same domain sets I expect I could come up with strikingly different divine characters.

Of course, that depends on my getting the aspects and trappings defined.

Back to work.

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