Gods, Are There More of Them?

[jtjr26]

I have been reading over various source material about various gods and pantheons in the megaverse. Virtually all of them are based on human mythology. In the three galaxies and the larger megaverse there are literally untold trillions of sentient beings from a multitude of species. Surely there are pantheons of gods that exist or manifested due the the shear numbers of beings believing in them. Just sticking with the three galaxies I envision noro, wolven, seljuk, silhouette and others each having their own spirituality and mythology that may have spawned some kind of higher power at some point.

Take the Silhouette for example. Their home world has a direct connection to a shadow dimension and shadow beasts come through from time to time. This is fact and not something that can be ignored or forgotten over time. There has to me some sort of mythology and according to established lore belief can manifest in something if there is enough of it. I picture an pantheon or even multiple pantheons of dark colored gods occupying this shadow realm in harmony or perhaps not with the various shadow elemental entities.

Just a few though on gods. What do you think?

Cheers

[taalismn]

I've created a few. In the EShemarrian thread I've hinted at the emergence, through belief, of EShemarrian goddesses born from magic and technology.

There's also the non-human gods featured in the PFRPG book 'Gardens of the Gods', though the Palladium World gods may be localized(a fun campaign idea might be the Palladiumite gods looking to expand their 'franchises' and followings off-world and dealing with such things as technological mass media, rival local gods, and alien intelligences staking out turf.

Cronus and Apsu are good examples of Alien Intelligences that could appeal to non-human beings(it's just that their pantheons are known mainly to humans because Humans are effectively the rats of the megaverse and are easily persuaded/recruited/harvested.

[Grazzik]

Gods change their appearance to match the expectations of their worshipers. So you can reuse the pantheons ... they just don't have to let the PCs know that behind the image they present is an old friend/nemesis. Such is their mystery.

Also the megaverse is so expansive that there may be millions of gods. So make up your own to meet the needs of your players. Get creative... Palloc, the Larmac god of couch potatoes that thwarts the efforts of do-good PCs who should instead be chillin' with a six-pack of psi-cola...

[taalismn]

Palloc, the Larmac god of couch potatoes that thwarts the efforts of do-good PCs who should instead be chillin' with a six-pack of psi-cola...

"The Tao of Sloth----Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...In fact, Don't Sweat ANY of the Stuff."


Hey, I have an alien race whose god apparently likes to randomly blow them up for stress relief and **** and giggles. That species would REALY like to have a few words with that god.
There's also a few alien gods of my creation in he Network Omni News threat(Blood God decides he wants to go Good....)

[Plane]

Gods change their appearance to match the expectations of their worshipers. So you can reuse the pantheons ... they just don't have to let the PCs know that behind the image they present is an old friend/nemesis. Such is their mystery.

yeah it's kinda the Galactus approach

and also, even if a lot of the gods aer based on our myths, in-universe that doesn't mean our myths created them - THEY created our myths, and may have done so in thousands of alternate dimensions

[taalismn]

and also, even if a lot of the gods aer based on our myths, in-universe that doesn't mean our myths created them - THEY created our myths, and may have done so in thousands of alternate dimensions

Worshippers simply embellish them or, in the worst cases, give the gods IDEAS.

[Nekira Sudacne]

Palladium's settings are pretty unabashedly human-centric. Given estimates are that 100% of Palladium customers are human, this is likely a marketing ploy to pander it's core demographic.

More seriously, I'm sure there *are* alien gods out there so if you want to stat them, knock yourself out.

But as was mentioned, it's established that Gods can appear as whatever race they want, so it's likely that at least some "Alien" pantheons are in fact the same deities by different names and avatars.

[taalismn]

So, don't ask a god to pull out their wallet and produce some photo ID...
You might be standing there for -eons- waiting to see a card that matches their appearance..

[Warshield73]

Palladium's settings are pretty unabashedly human-centric. Given estimates are that 100% of Palladium customers are human, this is likely a marketing ploy to pander it's core demographic.

Not sure about that. I have played in a few groups with chimps, or I am assuming they were chimps the way they were throwing their feces about.

More seriously, I'm sure there *are* alien gods out there so if you want to stat them, knock yourself out.

What I have found useful with Pantheons, Dragons and Gods and now Garden of the Gods is that it gives a template to follow for creating gods that feel like palladium.

You start with elders that are basically alien intelligences, then you get actual gods that look like the species in question. You can model your gods on a given one or mix and match between the different gods that represent the same thing. You can even have gods who are mythologically part of those pantheons but aren't in the books show up on distant worlds.

There are also a lot of story ideas that can be explored by giving these other groups their own pantheons separate from those of Earth. Example: What happened to the gods of the kreeghor when the splugorth conquered them? Are any still around now trying to usurp control from the Dweller? The gods of the Noro would probably be more focused on psionics than other pantheons and given what we see from the Seljuk what happened to their gods when they closed off magic on their world? In the three galaxies I think you would also see some groups worshipping elder races as opposed to true gods. You see a good example of this in Mass Effect with different species worshipping the Protheans, some without really understanding it.

I think having Earth pantheons can pop up on other worlds can be fun but if you want another world/dimension to feel alien, it would probably be more effective to create new pantheons.

But as was mentioned, it's established that Gods can appear as whatever race they want, so it's likely that at least some "Alien" pantheons are in fact the same deities by different names and avatars.

If you read the stories around the gods in Pantheons this absolutely appears to be the case. You can absolutely have Greek gods that look like Seljuk if you want, but I think you are more likely to find them around species that are closer to human, like Catyr. In fact we see this already with Amaterasu. We can't be sure that this is the same god worshipped by humans in Japan and the Oni of the Thundercloud but it seems likely.

Now while I think they might change their appearance for a given species I think they are likely to keep their symbols/icons and probably even their names. There is a lot of power around names when it comes to belief so you probably want all your believers to be channeling that power to the same address.

[Incriptus]

I think you got it backwards. I know it's popular for the "gods are creations of mortals" but [unless they changed something in books like Dragons & gods] that is not the case in Palladium. Most of them are explicitly dimensional travelers or Creations of Alien Intelligences, and even those that appear to be created on earth to interact with earthlings, they have spread to the greater mega-verse since the fall of Earth's magic level. While many of them are very human looking, there are still a good number that are only human in the sense of 2 arms 2 legs a head and a torso ... and still a few more that don't even do that [the more Alien Intelligence looking or Dragon looking ones]. So I think they'd be very disappointed in you if you referred to them as earth gods. . .

All that said, are there Gods [either creations of alien intelligences or dimensional travelers] that never made it to earth, almost certainly. There is also no problem with them looking like the natives of the planet they're currently hanging out on [or their native animals, like all our animal headed gods]. While they'd be empowered by the worship I would still avoid the trap of calling them creations of those cultures, those cultures were shaped by the gods.

[Warshield73]

The thing is that we know gods have limits to their ability to shape change and that they do have 'true' forms that are basically human. Most of them have to use magic like metamorphosis to shape change and the Norse god Hel has to go thro0ugh this massive ritual to change her form into a nonhumanoid so she can become the goddess of the Mechanoids. They clearly have limits just not sure what those are.

[taalismn]

Could be a matter of focus; maybe you can be amorphic, but. your powers are relatively weak and scattershot, because you have to devout some of your concentration to keep your energy/bodily integrity-
OR
-You can have a fixed form that you default to, that allows you to concentrate your power better and gives you the leeway to focus your energy/magic on other things, rather than just keeping yourself from spreading out all over the place and dissipating.

[Grazzik]

The thing is that we know gods have ... 'true' forms that are basically human.

Point of clarification... D&G pg 85 says under the Primal Manifestation section that...

While most gods take standard humanoid forms, ... there is no reason why a god can't manifest itself as a perfect sphere, or a pool of water, or anything else that the mind can imagine

A bipedal humanoid does not on the balance equate with human, as Kydians, In'Valians, Seljuk and Kreeghor are humanoid, though definitely not human.

Otherwise, agree with your comment.