It is a default assumption of D&D that gods exist and supervise the world in some capacity, but neither of these sections ever suggests that the power of a deity is in any way constrained by its number of mortal followers or that a given deity needs to have followers at all - this idea is almost completely absent! The first chapter of the Dungeon Master's Guide, A World of Your Own, details the Core Assumptions of the game and has the section Gods of Your World, about the different kinds of pantheon and belief system you can use. This gave them influence over a broader area at the cost of concentrated influence on one plane.The idea that the power of a god is derived from the belief placed in the god by its worshippers is a common one in fantasy, but it is not universally true in the genre generally or in D&D specifically. Those who wanted to spread their strength on several planes did so. A pantheon that wanted to concentrate its strength did likewise. Blood-related pantheon members had a strong tendency to stick together and form a big divine realm on one plane. Where the base of operations of a pantheon was depended on the objective of the pantheon. Base of Operations ĭeities usually lived on the Outer Planes. When Lolth and Vhaeraun tried to overthrow Corellon, Corellon eventually solved the conflict by banishing the two. A particularly crass example of conflict resolution was done by the Seldarine. Whatever the reason, if the head had any interest in keeping face, he or she had to reign these conflicts in. This could be because the members tried to improve their station or because a member represented an aspect of a culture or people that was at odds with the rest. Pantheons suffered from time to time from internal strife. In fact, without this service, pantheon members did not have a reason to stay in their pantheons. As mentioned above, this was the barest minimum of intra-pantheon cooperation. Every weaker member of the pantheon gave what they had in information and intelligence to the head god who combined these and gave a holistic understanding of what was happening in their world and beyond back to the entire pantheon. However, every pantheon cooperated on one field, the field of information. They mostly consisted of individuals and groups who bickered among themselves and had no overarching purpose. There were pantheons who did not do that like the Faerûnian pantheon. The above-mentioned activities were only possible if a pantheon was one that worked together in some fashion. Some were working towards strengthening their organization, others' entire purpose was to increase the standing of their leaders, others were about promoting ideals, and so on. For example, the Faerûnian pantheon was ruled by the Circle of Greater Powers instead of one single deity like in the Seldarine. Įvery pantheon nominated a head who led the pantheon. Their faith came from one defined group of mortals and each member was an exemplar of traits this group had. A pantheon was an organization whose membership consisted of deities.
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