Goblin Pantheon Revisited

I started work on a goblin pantheon a while ago, but stalled out when I realized I wasn’t satisfied with the direction it was going. I decided to take another run at it.

Destruction is still a major focus, and I’m keeping some of the relationships in order to support the Jhesiri. I’m revising the Hilljacks somewhat, and a third tribe that is something of a contradiction to the others.

Creating a New Goblin Pantheon

The polyhedral pantheon process can be summarized quite simply.

1. Choose a polyhedron.
2. Assign a domain to each point and face.
3. Group domains for each god.
4. Determine the ‘chosen weapon’ of each god.

This provides all the information needed to use the gods in play. There is no setting-specific information here, but it is enough for a cleric to choose her god and domains.

Step 1: Choose a Polyhedron

I’m still going with a d10 (pentagonal trapezohedron), which has 22 sites for me to place domains on and to draw deities from.

Step 2: Assign Domains to Each Point and Face

I’m running with a generally darker set of domains this time. Still no Healing or Good domains, and I’m dropping Protection and Glory (which would need to be reskinned to really fit).

This leaves me with the following domains assigned to each face.

1. Chaos
2. Rune
3. Evil
4. Luck
5. Travel
6. Animal
7. Weather
8. Madness
9. War
10. Law

I have the following domains assigned to each point.

1. Destruction
2. Strength
3. Trickery
4. Fire
5. Air
6. Death
7. Darkness
8. Earth
9. Water
10. Community
11. Knowledge
12. Magic

I dropped Protection, Glory, and Plant from the old pantheon. They are replaced by Knowledge (associated with Madness, oh yes), Community (for reasons that will become apparent later), and Weather.

Step 3: Group Domains for Each God

At this point alignment is determined primarily by domain assignment. Each god’s primary domain is in bold text, ‘domain-based’ alignments are (in parentheses).

1. (CN) Chaos, Destruction, Strength, Trickery, Darkness
2. (TN) Rune, Fire, Earth, Community, Magic
3. (NE) Evil, Destruction, Air, Death, Knowledge
4. (TN) Luck, Trickery, Darkness, Water, Magic
5. (TN) Travel, Destruction, Fire, Death, Community
6. (TN) Animal, Strength, Darkness, Earth, Magic
7. (TN) Weather, Destruction, Trickery, Air, Water
8. (TN) Madness, Death, Community, Knowledge, Magic
9. (TN) War, Destruction, Strength, Fire, Earth
10. (LN) Law, Air, Water, Knowledge, Magic

A lot of neutrality up there. Let’s see what happens on the point gods, though.

1. (CE) Destruction, Chaos, Evil, Travel, Weather, War
2. (CN) Strength, Chaos, Animal, War
3. (CN) Trickery, Chaos, Luck, Weather
4. (TN) Fire, Rune, Travel, War
5. (LE) Air, Evil, Weather, Law
6. (NE) Death, Evil, Travel, Madness
7. (CN) Darkness, Chaos, Luck, Animal
8. (TN) Earth, Rune, Animal, War
9. (LN) Water, Luck, Weather, Law
10. (TN) Community, Rune, Travel, Madness
11. (LE) Knowledge, Evil, Madness, Law
12. (LN) Magic, Rune, Luck, Animal, Madness, Law

On just the alignment domain assignments I have the following distribution:

	Lawful	Neutral	Chaotic
Good	0	0	0
Neutral	3	10	4
Evil	2	2	1

More neutrality than I expected. I might look into finding more associated alignments (where the alignment domain is not present in a site but it is present in a neighbor or adjacent site)… but perhaps not, since the pantheon as a whole still has quite a negative weight. The Jhesiri might be the visible representation of the goblin race, while the Hilljacks and the third tribe are not as noticed and tend toward neutrality.

Step 4: Determine the ‘Chosen Weapon’ for each God

I’m going to hold off on this, if only because I need to split the deities up by the tribes that worship them. I’ll do that another night, but soon. I have ‘H’ day tomorrow and that could be a good time to tackle the Hilljacks, the Jhesiri are planned for ‘J’ day on Friday, and the third tribe may well start with ‘I’ — I don’t have an article planned for that day quite yet.

Closing Comments

First steps taken in revising the goblin pantheon. I think this one has better potential to go where I want it to.