Right, so this is important, since you’re probably playing a pretty devout worshipper of one of these. There are twelve major deities in the pantheon, along with a host of minor ones. I’m just going to list the major ones, because that’s all I’ve written up. You can feel free to just make up one of those minor ones if you don’t like the options before you.
It should also be noted that clerics and paladins in the service of the New Gods generally take on a new name after joining the church. These names traditionally take the form of Brother ___ or Sister ___, where the blank is something relevant to their faith; high-ranking members of the church are Mother ___ or Father ___ instead, while very recent members are Acolyte ___.
The Pantheon
Grandfather Kraken
As the top god in the pantheon, Grandfather Kraken gets first billing on this list. Rumor has it -- and by “rumor”, I mean the deep mysteries of the church and suchlike -- that Grandfather Kraken has been a god at least once before, but whatever civilization used to worship him vanished, and he was forgotten for many centuries before being rediscovered. He is the god of the sea, and of forgotten things. He is generally depicted as -- surprise -- a kraken.Alignment: True Neutral
Domains: Catastrophe, Defense, Destruction, Ferocity, Flotsam, Knowledge, Memory, Oceans, Protection, Defense, Solitude, Stars, Storms Strength, Void, Water, Weather.
Epithets: Eldest, Devourer of Leviathans, The Tentacles that Circle the World
Favored Animal: Squid
Favored Weapon: n/a
Arraou
In her mortal life, Arraou was a great heroine in some distant land. The details of that are very probably known to her priests, but I have not written them. Her church encourages the doing of great deeds and the accumulation of honor and dulce et decorum est pro patria mori -- generally all of the sorts of ideas that turn out paladins who smite evil first and ask questions later, then get themselves killed in tremendously stupid ways. She is the goddess of heroism and of the moon, and is generally depicted as a gnoll in shining armor.Alignment: Lawful Good
Domains: Ash, Darkness, Law, Good, Fire, Loyalty, Moon, Night, Protection, Purity, Redemption, Smoke.
Epithets: Hero of Heroes, She Who Howls At The Moon
Favored Animal: Hyena
Favored Weapon: Flindbar
Skøtta Blacktooth
Skøtta Blacktooth is the odd one out in the pantheon of new gods, and something of an adversarial figure. She does not have any established churches -- in fact, if someone did establish a church in her name, it would probably just annoy her. When her worshippers meet, they do so in groups of exactly three -- no less, no more -- and generally in the accepted configuration of “maiden, mother, and crone”. She is the patron goddess of witches. This patronage makes a lot of the nicer witches pretty uncomfortable, because she is also the goddess of madness, hatred, unforgivable deeds, and the end of the world. She is not openly worshipped anywhere, for fairly obvious reasons, but you will find covens who worship her in secret almost everywhere. Who she was in mortal life is unclear, but you probably wouldn’t have wanted to meet her. She is generally depicted as a night hag.Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Domains: Cannibalism, Chaos, Corruption, Destruction, Entropy, Evil, Hatred, Madness, Magic, Nightmare, Rage, Torture.
Epithets: The Hag, The Crone, The Witch Queen, Granny Doomsday, The Adversary
Favored Animal: Black cat
Favored Weapon: Flint knife
Qualmë
Qualmë is the new god of death, and the old gods of death do not like him. This is because Qualmë is, specifically, a god of peaceful death: he mandates respectful treatment of the dead, and guides souls to the afterlife in a fair and businesslike fashion. Wee Jas, the Old Goddess who is still popular in the Necrotic Bloc, is especially opposed to him because Qualmë’s dogma only allows necromancy if you get explicit permission from the dead. In his mortal life, Qualmë was a sea elf, an aquatic species constantly on the verge of getting wiped out by the sahuagin. He wasn’t a particularly special sea elf, either -- until he sacrificed his life to delay a raiding party of sahuagin and let his tribe escape. The reverence other sea elves place on such sacrifice was apparently enough to propel his spirit into divinity. Because of this, he is also recognized as the god of nobility of spirit, and patron of martyrs. He is generally depicted as a small, slim elf poring over an enormous book -- the Book of the Dead, where he finds the information he needs in order to fairly judge the spirits of the deceased.Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Domains: Ancestors, Darkness, Death, Fate, Law, Loss, Luck, Martyr, Nobility, Psychopomp, Repose, Souls.
Epithets: Death, The Bookkeeper, The Undertow
Favored Animal: Pufferfish
Favored Weapon: Trident
Jivmarana
Jivmarana, like Grandfather Kraken, was a god before. For him, however, it was much more recent -- sufficiently so that there are even surviving records. He was the cruel harvest-god of the fallen goblin nation of Vyutommourt; when Vyutommourt was destroyed, and his worshippers wiped out, he allowed himself to die and be reborn as a rakshasa -- a race of supernatural beings who practice reincarnation. For a millennium or two, he continued to be reborn over and over, moving up the ladder of incarnations, until he was blessed with a gift that only the greatest of rakshasa achieve -- the ability to remember all of his previous lives. He then gathered his followers, travelled thousands of miles to the north until he reached the spot in the Wastelands where Vyutommourt once stood, spent some time collecting ancient artifacts and building his strength, and finally reclaimed his divinity. The worship of Jivmarana requires the sacrifice of sapient beings; if they do so, his worshippers will be rewarded with a supernaturally bountiful harvest. Theologically, the justification has something to do with the circle of life, but let’s not get into that. Jivmarana is primarily a harvest god, but he also has aspects of death and healing. He is generally depicted as a goblin with backwards-facing hands and a vulture’s head.Alignment: Neutral Evil
Domains: Day, Decay, Death, Evil, Growth, Healing, Murder, Plant, Resurrection, Seasons, Sun, Weather.
Epithets: Lord of Life and Death, The Maharajah
Favored Animal: Vulture
Favored Weapon: Sickle
The Leper
The Leper is from some other plane of existence, and how he arrived here exactly is unclear. He started out as far less than a god -- some strange entity who appeared to madmen in their dreams -- but a few years after his presence was first reported, the weapon of mass destruction that created the Tainted was unleashed, and the Leper soon found his people. The Leper is now the god of outcasts, madmen, malcontents, and other people who simply don’t fit into society. He has declared the Tainted to be his chosen people, and the vast majority of them have accepted him as their patron god. There is no fixed image of the Leper -- he is considered to change shape constantly. Icons of him show him as a bizarre collision of limbs of different species, and no two icons are made to look the same.Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Domains: Blood, Chaos, Dark Tapestry, Freedom, Insanity, Isolation, Liberation, Madness, Revolution, Stars, Void, War.
Epithets: n/a
Favored Animal: Silverfish
Favored Weapon: Garrote
Maghestros
Maghestros’s ascension to divinity was the event that opened the floodgates and let the pantheon of new gods come into being. In life, he was one of the great merchant-lords of Vireion, and had access to many obscure books and forgotten powers. Maghestros is the god of greed, of commerce, and of scavengers. Many ghouls and other intelligent undead are among his worshippers, as well as traders and the nobility. His symbol is a maggot on top of a gold coin, and he is usually depicted as a hooded not-quite-human figure.Alignment: Neutral Evil
Domains: Aristocracy, Death, Deception, Evil, Greed, Innuendo, Leadership, Nobility, Travel, Trade, Trickery, Undead.
Epithets: The Scavenger King, The Plutocrat, The Golden One, The Ghoul Lord, The Maggot that Reigns
Favored Animal: Fly
Favored Weapon: Rapier
Weorlace
Weorlace was a legendary smith of the dwarves in centuries long gone by. For more than a thousand years, it has been dwarven custom to ask Weorlace for small favors when crafting something particularly difficult. It was only recently that she began to answer -- theologians suspect that the metaphysical disturbances caused by the other new gods’ apotheoses allowed her spirit to ascend from her home in the afterlife to a spot in the pantheon. Naturally, she is the god of smiths -- she also has dominion over the element of earth, and over runecraft.Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Domains: Artifice, Caves, Construct, Earth, Languages, Law, Magic, Metal, Rune, Toil, Trap, Wards.
Epithets: The Smith, The Civilized One, The Craftswoman, The Empire-Builder
Favored Animal: Mole
Favored Weapon: Warhammer
Vald
Vald is the incarnation of the fierce weathers of the Arctic -- and, by gradual extension, of storms pretty much everywhere. He encourages heroic behavior in his worshippers, but to him, heroism involves great feats of strength, the slaying of foul beasts, and the accumulation of honor. Vald would be a big fan of Conan or Beowulf or the Klingons, essentially. He is generally depicted as an enormous white wolf -- though some sects prefer to depict him as a hulking barbarian wearing the pelt of a wolf.Alignment: Chaotic Good
Domains: Air, Animal, Catastrophe, Chaos, Destruction, Fur, Good, Ice, Storms, Water, Weather, Wind.
Epithets: The Blizzard, The Giver of Honor, The Beast of the Battlefield
Favored Animal: Wolf
Favored Weapon: Greataxe
Saurivuntyr
A long time ago -- okay, a few centuries ago -- there was an artifact called the Robe of the Panoptic. It had been crafted by a creature called Jak, a kobold lich who was favored by the old goddess Tiamat, and allowed him to unite the tribes of the kobolds. The power of the robe was that it allowed the wearer to see for hundreds of miles around, in a thousand places at once -- which had the unfortunate side effect of driving the wearer slightly mad. There was also, thousands of miles to the south, a dragon of immense age by the name of Saurivuntyr who obsessively collected secrets. Saurivuntyr and Jak never met, but the adventuring party who finally slew Jak permanently had the bright idea, several months later, to trade the Robe of the Panoptic to Saurivuntyr for a particularly valuable secret from his hoard. With the power of the robe added to his already considerable power and knowledge, it didn’t take long for Saurivuntyr to discover a few more shortcuts to power. He is now the god of tyranny and judgment, and patron of all the reptilian races. He is depicted as a green dragon, often with a kobold in tow -- for Jak’s soul is bound to him in the afterlife.Alignment: Lawful Evil
Domains: Dragon, Evil, Fear, Judgment, Knowledge, Law, Saurian, Scalykind, Slavery, Thought, Tyranny, Venom.
Epithets: The All-Seeing, The All-Knowing, The Eye, The Judge
Favored Animal: Chameleon
Favored Weapon: Blowgun
Lewinna
Lewinna is the goddess of travel, exploration, and adventure, the lady of the river. Travellers everywhere call on her for protection. And she does protect, fiercely, as she is also the patron of brawlers, and grants strength in unarmed combat. Lewinna encourages her worshippers to, simply, travel and do good wherever they go. In contrast to the good-aligned gods previously mentioned, Lewinna does not care about flashy acts of heroism, as long as they do good -- which is why the truest and most noble heroes pray to her. She is usually depicted as a river giant.Alignment: Neutral Good
Domains: Exploration, Fist, Flowing, Good, Glory, Heroism, Honor, Resolve, Rivers, Strength, Travel, Water.
Epithets: Lady of the River, The Wanderer
Favored Animal: Crocodile
Favored Weapon: Spear
Byfona
Byfona tries to define herself as an approachable, friendly sort of divinity. If she were a teacher, she’d be the kind who insisted on her students calling her by her first name, with no “Mrs.” She is also not the sort to perform flashy miracles -- but those in her favor will often find her to be free with her advice. It is fairly common for her, or one of her servants, to show up in the dreams of particularly devout worshippers for a friendly fireside chat about whatever is bothering them. She is the goddess of love, luck, celebration, and fire; she is consistently depicted as an elderly goblin woman with a mischievous smile.Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Domains: Arson, Charm, Chaos, Curse, Fire, Love, Luck, Luck, Revelry, Thievery, Trickery, Whimsy.
Epithets: The Fool, Auntie, Lady Luck
Favored Animal: Rabbit
Favored Weapon: Sap
Tealeaf
Tealeaf is not a deity of adventurers. She is the goddess of the shire, of home and hearth, of kind gestures and simple pleasures. Her worshippers stay at home in small villages, and live good, simple lives. She is usually depicted as a rosy-cheeked halfling woman.Alignment: Neutral Good
Domains: Community, Cooperation, Family, Friendship, Good, Growth, Home, Imagination, Luck, Healing, Plant, Restoration.
Epithets: Just “Tealeaf” is fine, thanks all the same.
Favored Animal: Hedgehog
Favored Weapon: Sling
Katenakhte
The savage patron of hunters, from some distant and unmapped land, Katenakhte is god of the sky, the sun, and the hunt. His dogma stresses purifying oneself in the hunt, and his worshippers show their devotion by hunting the largest and most dangerous beasts they can find, using only equipment they have fashioned themselves. He is depicted as half-man, half-bird.Alignment: True Neutral
Domains: Air, Ambush, Animal, Cloud, Day, Feather, Light, Revelation, Sun, Tactics, Trickery, War.
Epithets: The Hunter, Rukh-Slayer, The Taloned, Lord of Birds
Favored Animal: Falcon
Favored Weapon: Javelin
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