Reviewing the Elemental Tetratheon

The Elemental Tetratheon is a deliberately polarized pantheon focusing primarily on the hermetic elements. While I like how most of the deities in this pantheon turned out, and the individual subpantheons show merit, I decided to take a closer look to see how they fit together as a whole.

Final List of Deities

Below is the list of all deities in the Elemental Tetratheon.

Each subpantheon is pretty coherent, in that each is built around a theme and there are many pairs of shared domains. Later examination will demonstrate that most domains are in fact largely associated with a single elemental subpantheon. For instance, the Artifice domain is largely associated with the fire deities, with only one other (Stvari, an earth deity) also granting access to it.

Each subpantheon has seven deities of six alignments (there are two neutral deities in each subpantheon), but it is possible for clerics of any alignment to follow gods in each subpantheon.

	Deity	Sex	Alignment	Domains	Chosen Weapon
Fire Deities
	Spaljivan	M	Neutral	Fire, Sun, Knowledge, Nobility	Battle Axe
	Sjajan	F	Neutral Good	Sun, Fire, Glory, Artifice, Good, Luck	Pistol
	Syvetlos	A	Lawful Neutral	Knowledge, Fire, Law, Artifice, Healing, Rune	Staff
	Gespedi	M	Chaotic Neutral	Nobility, Fire, Chaos, Magic, Healing, Luck	Light Mace
	Vestina	F	Lawful Good	Artifice, Sun, Knowledge, Animal	Longbow
	Ravneza	F	Neutral	Healing, Knowledge, Nobility, Death	Spear
	Namaran	M	Chaotic Good	Luck, Sun, Nobility, Trickery	Rapier
Earth Deities
	Povratak	F	Neutral	Earth, Animal, Plant, Destruction	Greatclub
	Stvari	F	Neutral Good	Animal, Artifice, Community, Earth, Rune, Good	Hammer
	Saranti	M	Lawful Neutral	Plant, Strength, Law, Earth, Rune, Repose	Heavy Mace
	Buntovnik	M	Neutral Evil	Destruction, Strength, War, Community, Earth, Evil	Heavy Flail
	Glavni	F	Lawful Evil	Strength, Plant, Destruction, Madness	Major
	Gajivak	M	Neutral	Community, Animal, Protection, Destruction	Lance
	Valjida	M	Lawful Good	Rune, Knowledge, Animal, Plant	Staff
Water Deities
	Vodenjak	F	Neutral	Water, Trickery, Protection, Darkness	Spear
	Izvodac	M	Chaotic Neutral	Trickery, Glory, Weather, Chaos, Water, Luck	Rapier
	Staratel	A	Neutral Good	Protection, Glory, War, Community, Water, Good	Trident
	Ponoc	F	Neutral Evil	Darkness, Weather, War, Travel, Water, Evil	Cutlass and Pistol
	Valican	M	Chaotic Good	Glory, Sun, Trickery, Protection	Longsword
	Jurisati	F	Chaotic Evil	Weather, Trickery, Liberation, Darkness	Shortsword
	Ubojni	F	Neutral	War, Protection, Destruction, Darkness	Battleaxe
Air Deities
	Povjetara	F	Neutral	Air, Death, Liberation, Madness	Heavy Mace
	Promjena	M	Lawful Neutral	Death, Air, Law, Magic, Healing, Repose	Dagger
	Nesmetan	M	Chaotic Neutral	Liberation, Air, Weather, Chaos, Magic, Travel	Staff
	Razuma	A	Neutral Evil	Madness, Strength, Air, Travel, Repose, Evil	Flail
	Charolija	M	Chaotic Neutral	Magic, Nobility, Death, Liberation	Longsword
	Putovanja	A	Chaotic Evil	Travel, Liberation, Darkness, Madness	Hammer
	Pokonici	F	Lawful Evil	Repose, Death, Plant, Madness	Sickle

Domain Examination

I’ll be looking primarily at the domains and their allocation. First I’ll look at the domain access by subpantheon, then by alignment.

Domain Access by Subpantheon

I created a table with all thirty-three domains from the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, and a column for each elemental subpantheon. For each domain and element, I listed the deities granting access to that domain.

Domain	Fire	Earth	Air	Water
Air			Povjetara, Promijena, Nesmetan, Razuma
Animal	Vestina	Povratak, Stvari, Gajivak, Valjida
Artifice	Sjajan, Syvetlos, Vestina	Stvari
Chaos	Gespedi		Nesmetan	Izvodac
Charm
Community		Stvari, Buntovnik, Gajivak		Staratel
Darkness			Putovanja	Vodenjak, Osvajac, Jurisati, Ubojni
Death	Ravneza		Povjetara, Promijena, Charolija, Pokonici
Destruction		Povratak, Buntovnik, Glavni, Gajivak		Ubojni
Earth		Povratak, Stvari, Saranti, Buntovnik
Evil		Buntovnik	Razuma	Osvajac
Fire	Spaljivan, Sjajan, Syvetlos, Gespedi
Glory	Sjajan			Izvodac, Staratel, Velican
Good	Sjajan	Stvari		Staratel
Healing	Syvetlos, Gespedi, Ravneza		Promijena
Knowledge	Spaljivan, Syvetlos, Vestina, Ravneza	Valjida
Law	Syvetlos	Saranti
Liberation			Povjetara, Nesmetan, Charolija, Putovanja	Jurisati
Luck	Sjajan, Gespedi, Namaran			Izvodac
Madness		Glavni	Povjetara, Razuma, Putovanja, Pokonici
Magic	Gespedi		Promijena, Nesmetan, Charolija
Nobility	Spaljivan, Gespedi, Ravneza, Namaran		Charolija
Plant		Povratak, Saranti, Glavni, Valjida	Pokonici
Protection		Gajivak		Vodenjak, Staratel, Velican, Ubojni
Repose		Saranti	Promijena, Razuma, Pokonici
Rune	Syvetlos	Stvari, Saranti, Valjida
Strength		Saranti, Buntovnik, Glavni	Razuma
Sun	Spaljivan, Sjajan, Vestina, Namaran			Velican
Travel			Nesmetan, Razuma, Putovanja	Osvajac
Trickery	Namaran			Vodenjak, Izvodac, Staratel, Velican, Jurisati
War		Buntovnik		Staratel, Osvajac, Ubojni
Water				Vodenjak, Izvodac, Osvajac
Weather			Nesmetan	Izvodac, Osvajac, Jurisati

From this I see:

• Elemental domains are accessible by only one subpantheon, and it’s only to be expected.
• Alignment domains are each accessible by a single deity in each subpantheon. Again, this was to be expected because the alignment domains were deliberately placed on points where three alignment subpantheons ‘touch’.
• All other domains present are accessed by deities of only two pantheons. I should have expected this because the ‘alignment deities’ (of which I have none, see below) are the only ones on points accessible by more than one pantheon.

I think I like this, to be honest. Each elemental domain is solidly associated with a single subpantheon, the alignment domains have the broadest but ‘lightest’ touch within each subpantheon, and the domains present in two subpantheons are pretty heavily weighted toward one over the other. This tells me the culture associated with the pantheon sets less store on alignment than element, and that most other divine interests (domains) have strong association with one element and a lesser association with one more. It feels like I should be able to determine other aspects of the culture based on this.

Domain Access by Alignment

The structure of this pantheon causes it to be a bit different from most. Initial examination reveals:

• All alignments are present, with symmetric frequencies. There are two deities of each of the non-neutral (LG, CE, etc.), three of each partially neutral alignment, and eight neutral deities.
• Each subpantheon has a bias away from one alignment. There are no evil Fire deities, no good Air deities, no chaotic Earth deities, and no lawful Water deities.
• No non-neutral deity has an alignment domain. That is, only a partially-neutral deity has an alignment domain. I might adjust things so the non-neutral deities have all alignment domains appropriate to their alignment (deviating from normal practice), but for now I’m going to keep it like this. I like how it looks.

With each pantheon having a bias away from one alignment, and each non-alignment domain accessible by only two elemental subpantheons, the domains available by alignment may be too restricted. I think (because I’ve already done the work) that they are not.

The table below shows how many deities of each alignment grant access to each domain. The table looks a little sparse, but workable.

Domain	LG	NG	CG	LN	N	CN	LE	NE	CE
Air				1	1	1		1
Animal	2	1			2
Artifice	1	2		1
Chaos						3
Charm
Community		2			1			1
Darkness					2			1	2
Death				1	3		1
Destruction					3		1	1
Earth		1		1	1			1
Evil								3
Fire		1		1	1	1
Glory		2	1			1
Good		3
Healing				2	1	1
Knowledge	2			1	2
Law				3
Liberation					2	1			2
Luck		1	1			2
Madness					1		2	1	1
Magic				1	1	2
Nobility			1		3	1
Plant	1			1	1		2
Protection		1	1		3
Repose				2			1	1
Rune	1	1		2
Strength				1			1	2
Sun	1	1	2		1
Travel						1		2	1
Trickery			2		1	1			1
War		1			1			2
Water		1			1	1		1
Weather						2		1	1

However, the table above does not take into account the rule that a cleric may follow any deity as long as the cleric’s alignment is within one step of the deity’s (there used to be a rule that neutral clerics had to follow neutral deities only, but it looks like that no longer applies). The only other restriction is that a cleric may only take an alignment domain if the cleric has that alignment.

This changes things.

Domain	LG	NG	CG	LN	N	CN	LE	NE	CE
Air	*	*	*	1	1	1	*	1	*
Animal	2	1	*	*	2	*		*
Artifice	1	2	*	1	*		*
Chaos			*			3			*
Charm
Community	*	2	*	*	1	*	*	1	*
Darkness		*		*	2	*	*	1	2
Death	*	*		1	3	*	1	*
Destruction		*		*	3	*	1	1	*
Earth	*	1	*	1	1	*	*	1	*
Evil							*	3	*
Fire	*	1	*	1	1	1	*	*	*
Glory	*	2	1		*	1			*
Good	*	3	*
Healing	*	*	*	2	1	1	*	*	*
Knowledge	2	*	*	1	2	*	*	*
Law	*			3			*
Liberation		*	*	*	2	1		*	2
Luck	*	1	1		*	2			*
Madness		*		*	1	*	2	1	1
Magic	*	*	*	1	1	2	*	*	*
Nobility		*	1	*	3	1		*	*
Plant	1	*		1	1	*	2	*
Protection	*	1	1	*	3	*		*
Repose	*			2	*	*	1	1	*
Rune	1	1	*	2	*		*
Strength	*			1	*		1	2	*
Sun	1	1	2	*	1	*		*
Travel			*		*	1	*	2	1
Trickery		*	2	*	1	1		*	1
War	*	1	*	*	1	*	*	2	*
Water	*	1	*	*	1	1	*	1	*
Weather			*		*	2	*	1	1

(Domain, Alignment) cells marked with an asterisk (“*”) are available because of the rules regarding alignment adjacency. Despite there being no deity with that alignment granting the domain, a cleric of the adjacent alignment can follow that deity and gain access to the domain.

This works out so that all ‘neutral domains’ (that is, domains associated with deities that are neutral) are access to clerics of all alignments. While there are no evil fire deities, Syvetlos is lawful neutral, Gespedi is chaotic neutral, and Ravneza and Spaljivan are both neutral. You won’t see a cleric with the Evil domain worshiping a deity of the fire subpantheon, but you can find clerics with an evil alignment.

The following domains are available to clerics of all alignments: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Community, Healing, Magic, War.

Closing Comments

Each cleric gets to pick two domains. In the Elemental Tetratheon this is limited by elemental subpantheon you subscribe to and your alignment. Each subpantheon has deities granting access to a total of sixteen domains, half the total used, and each alignment grants access to between 2/3 and 3/4 of all the domains used. Each subpantheon can have clerics of any alignment. The combinations become stricter when considering pairs of domains (clerics pick two, after all), but the selection for any given cleric alignment is quite broad.

I think this hits a good balance between freedom of choice and the constraints needed to provide framework and structure.