"Why is there a Domain of Light?" I feel pretty sure it's because the DevTeam want to get away from the way religion actually works. They *want* domains that don't bear any real association with the human experience. Basically, the way Blizzard does it. "How can we implement religion without offending anyone?" Well, you do it in the most meaningless, content-free way possible.

Those words also make a good acronym! Purpose Authority Treachery Harbor Walk the PATH and you'll have a Pantheon.

Lion King Pantheon: Mufasa- Authority Rafiki- Harbor Simba- Purpose Scar- Treachery

"If you just start listing off gods attached to domains, it's going to feel like a spreadsheet." _Me, looking up from the spreadsheet where I am writing about my gods:_ 😳

I've been following you for just under a year and I only just realized... King's Mill.... Monarch's Factory... brilliant.

"I'm so worldly" *waves her hair* I love this woman

Almost by coincidence I created a similar version of "the one good story" when I made my pantheon for my game a year ago. That story being that originally there were two gods, Corona and Cronotch, the goddess of light and creation and the god of darkness and time respectively. After the two of them created the universe Corona fell asleep forever (she was tired) and left Cronotch to rule everything, including their eight godly children, four sons, and four daughters. But being the god of time Cronotch knew of a prophecy that four of his children would rise up and destroy him, taking his throne for themselves. He assumed it would be his boisterous and rowdy sons so he invited them all to a party and when they were all very drunk he one by one lured his sons into a giant pestle and mortar and ground them up into dust, before them scattering that dust to the wind. The four sisters. mourning their brothers each traveled in different directions to collect the remains of their brothers, they placed each speck of dust in the sky to hang there forever (this is how the stars came to be). Along their journey each sister found or made a different weapon from a different materiel. A staff of Oak, A Shield of Stone, A sword of Silver, and A Spear of Gold. Using these weapons the sisters destroyed their father, thus bringing the prophecy to pass, and the four sisters divided up the world among themselves. Each taking their favorite places from their journey as their domain. But not only did that leave most of the earth neutral, they also noticed that wherever their father's blood hit something that something became a sentient creature (elves, dwarves, humans, all those guys). And so rather then fight about who should claim them they decided that each of them should rule three months out of every year. Their names then became the names for the seasons, Spring with her Staff of Oak (goddess of Fertility and Wilderness), Autumn with her Shield of Stone (goddess of Wisdom and Knowledge), Winter with her Sword of Silver (goddess of the Underworld and Judgement), and Summer with her Spear of Gold (goddess of Storms and the Sky). Similar, its possible it misses a few of those elements though.

Me: cobbling together a Scion campaign. Dael: I have thoughts about gods. Me: Yes please. Thank you thank you thank you.

One of the best pantheons I've seen is in the Magnus Archives podcast series, where SPOILERS the "gods" are eldritch nightmares that embody fear. Throughout the series, characters theorise on the nature of these entities and how they came to be and how they overlap. One of the analogies used for them is colour: they aren't truly separate beings but really all just aspects of one massive spectrum of fear, distinct as red is distinct from orange, but also connected in a way that you can't really define the point where one becomes the other. An example of this is The Stranger (fear of the unknown, the uncanny, things that are almost human but not quite and masks) and The Spiral (fear of madness, delusion, lies, that your reality is wrong). At what point does the mask of The Stranger become the deception of The Spiral?

Uhh excuse me, I came here for an informative video about gods Not to be scared by a spooky skeleton 0/10, 2 spooky for me

"Contrary" may substitute for "Treachery" in a story where malice isn't involved.

8:55 *looks at my excel pantheon spreadsheet* idk what you talkin about

In the words of Carl Sagan. If you want to make a pie from scratch first you have to create the universe. So I guess if you want to make a god from scratch just bake a pie from scratch, it'll make you a god.

I totally misread this as "Designing Goods From Scratch" and was so excited for a video on worldbuilding weird and wonderful trade goods 😅

When designing gods I pondered; what for cultural impact would it have if the main god of the dwarves was female? Would more women attend the forge then men? Would the women be like; "I crafted this beautiful hammer with the likeness of my pa, I crafted this baby for nine whole months and now I am back at the forge to craft a sword to smite some goblins!"

I quite enjoyed the more academic feel of this video. I'd definitely be interested in more lecture-esque type videos like this in the future.

I need a gif of "Apparently I have OPINIONS on the topic"

When I created my own pantheon for Tholl, I wanted the Gods to have multiple names each. An ancient name (known by scholars and other experts), a common nickname (known by peasants, tribesmen, travelers, etc.) and some sort of aspect that would give each one control or interest into more than one thing. That way several cultures or species might be worshiping the same god, but by different names and for different things. An example might be Verdriette. The Maiden of Sorrow. She Walks Between. The Whisper of Death. To gladiators in the coloseums of the Juvian Order, she is the quick death, and the chooser of the slain. To the Elves of Northern Eolas, she is the end of grief (the reason it becomes easier to deal with loss over time, as it is believed that she takes on the burden of loss as you learn to cope.) Priests might invoke her for funerals, while healers might invoke her to end pain when administering balms and herbs. She is both the reason you cry and the reason you stop. She is both loss and mercy, dark and benevolent in her way, and thoroughly misunderstood. No one, not even the other gods, would take on her portfolio. None could bear the grief she witnesses each day.

The Light domain is more than just light, though. It's also fire. You get a lot of fire spells. That ties it into blacksmith gods (who, yes, are also Forge domain, don't @ me). It ties into figures like Prometheus, who stole fire and gave it to humans. It ties into gods of destruction, and of cleansing. Even Hestia, goddess of the hearth, might count as a Light domain goddess, because of the associations with hearthfire. Even just light itself ties into any solar, lunar, and star deities. Apollo, Ra, Amaterasu, Quetzalcoatl, etc. Any culture that values agriculture - which is most cultures that become powerful to form major nation states - will put stock in two kinds of deities: Solar deities and Harvest deities. Speaking of harvest, that's why you have the Nature domain, and not just the Wilderness domain. "Wilderness" is more specific than is useful for a Cleric class meant to model believers in all sorts of divinity. Pan would certainly be a Nature domain god, but so would Demeter, and even Dionysis (god of the vine). Agriculture is Nature that has been tamed and bent to "civilized" ends.

"The Cleric section is so long there's like 7 domains, you don't need 7!" In Pathfinder there's 30+ domains, and dozens more subdomains. And for Good/Evil/Law/Chaos there are dozens of minor to major gods dead and living that share the domain. Call it bloat if you want but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Zeus as a god of justice is kind of dark when considering all the messed up things he did. I loved that secular description of the numinous btw. Interesting to phrase it that way.

Wow the Authority, harbour, treachery and purpose is the best explanation of pantheon origin stories

I know what the text says about Light but I've always head-canoned it as Power/Judgement. This cleric gets sent in when wrath has been stoked and the god wants to send a message to the blasphemers or to demonstrate the sheer magnitude of the god's divinity. Even the Warding Flare feature leans into this as a defensive measure against those who would strike against the god's messenger or their allies.

I am the God of finding highly enjoyable videos years after they were posted, and I endorse this content.

Old Norse specialist Dr. Jackson Crawford has made the same or similar perspective on the Norse pantheon. They were personalities first with an anthropological history, and then aspects and elementalism were tacked on later, partly by comparison with the Roman functionalist ideas. Also, if you can get hold of a copy of "Lord of Light" by Roger Zelazny, the novel is a telling of this process in personal forms. The gods are actual people with real people personalities, and their aspects and attributes are acquisitions evolved from their own personal tendencies after the fact. It's bloody brilliant, ironical, funny, romantic, mystical, and all the good things that Zelazny could do to you. It's grownup sci-fi/fantasy.

I like your mention of horizons as a numinous. It's one of those things that I've had experimenting in my head place for a minute. The whole idea of adventure and death are wrapped up in the uncertainty of what is beyond the Western horizon. It's the direction of the Hesperides, where Odysseus went on his final voyage, and where the Egyptians believed the land of the dead was. A very vague and provocative direction.

"Apparently I have OPINIONs on the topic" the hannah gadsby... she jumped out

I feel like you're right on the money when it comes to the modern perspective easily becomes very "elemental." I never thought about it that way. If one wanted to do a more "elemental" pantheon, which is in many ways apt for D&D considering how the world itself is structured, I think one could easily just do both. Vulcan was the god of blacksmiths and the forge, but _also_ of fire and volcanoes. Thor is the god of strength and protection (among many other things), but he's _also_ the thunderer. Gods of "light" could also be gods of the arts or the sun or justice. Deities that people could realistically venerate (not just to get cool magic spells). Fantastic advice about "the one good story" too! Thank you! Definitely using that.

Another important thing to remember is that a realistic mythology, like a realistic culture, has a history. Their present forms likely did not spring fully formed out of Zeus' head (unless, of course, you decide that they did). The present form of a culture will have hints of different substrates, from all its previous forms and interactions with other cultures. This is reflected in their mythology. If you want a good example of how this looks and feels, a good sense of a people's changing interactions with their gods, I can't recommend Mary Renault highly enough, starting with The King Must Die. It's set in a highly speculative and romanticized Bronze Age Greece, perfect fantasy inspiration. The rest of her novels track the development of the Greek World, through the Archaic and into the Classical eras, finally culminating with the campaigns of Alexander. It's a great study in a culture, as well as a number of fascinating characters. Very good reading.

I love playing with the epithets for gods and I feel like when you're wanting to add to that pantheon then it can be a great way of adding some depth to the culture of a place pretty simply. Especially with localised cults, for example the Delphic oracle's unique reverence of Apollo as the aspect of Apollo Delphinius, it can be a good opportunity to develop cultural aspects of an area that, as you say, reflect the values of that society in the unique way they worship their aspect of the god. Also they always just feel really cool to say.

More C. S. Lewis quotes! And from his greatest work, too! There is just something awesome about Lewis quotes in a DnD video.

In my world i made the secret god of oblivion, the god of what happens when a god dies and is forgotten

I’m a simple human, I see a D&Dael, I watch.

The upside of listening to your videos on the drive home is that it makes it fun. The downside is that then I am stuck in my car with a million ideas I need to write down and no chance to do so!

Man alive, I could listen to you talking mythology all day. That passion!

As soon as you started talking about nominous, my first thought was "I wonder if she's read Lewis on this." Not disappointed in the least.

Prometheus was punished by the gods for giving the gift of knowledge to man he was chained to a rock and pecked by birds

Hot take on Beowulf: Hrothgar: *Authority* Grendel: *Treachery* Beowulf: *Purpose* Grendel's Mother: *Harbour* In this instance, Momma offers harbour and protection to the treacherous Grendel.

I'm currently making a monotheistic religion for my D&D setting, and I'm having SO much fun coming up with prophets and aspects for that one god, this is such a nice video to just circle back to whenever I find myself in need of inspiration.

I haven't known about you for very long, Dael. Maybe a few weeks. In that time, my respect and admiration for you has doubled time and time and time and yet another time again. You are quite obviously well read, and it shows that you think critically about everything you read. I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF YOUR VIDEOS!!!!! Not only do you have great information to share that comes from a very intelligent, imaginative, and intensely interesting (the three I's? with a fourth i to help drive the point home more for the third i) base, but you do so in a profoundly entertaining way. Simply put, I love your brain, and how you use it. I've played DnD for a long time; I'm currently in two games, with two great DM's. And still, I wish I lived in Australia and had the good fortune to be one of your players. No only do I wish I was your buddy, but I can tell what a great DM you must be - and with everything else stripped aside - just the sheer amount of research and work you do; your devotion to learning and EMPLOYING what you have learned is amazing. And you just seem like a really awesome person to spend time with. And if you ever find yourself to need/want to marry a complete stranger from America who isn't an asshole (I swear, they exist) I'm totally down to help you out. :) I just wanted to throw some good words your way because of all the enjoyment I've been getting from watching your videos lately. And when I choose to DM again, I will definitely be using some of your advice. The word you did on poisons and medicine is, quite frankly, brilliant. Have a wonderful day, week, month and year, and stay safe - or as you say, STAFE - and I hope you and yours stay unaffected with this pandemic. Thanks for everything!

I studied Religion in college, and in my opinion the best theologian to describe the Numinous is Schleiermacher. Also you should check out The Invention of World Religions by Tomoko Masuzawa and also The Meaning and End of Religion by Wilfred Cantwell Smith. Both are very detailed studies of the way the TERMS we use to describe religion come from, all of which are influenced by 19th century euro-supremacy and translational revisionism. Have always enjoyed your videos. Thanks

As someone who loves literature and writing in general, this is brilliant. Idk why, but I never thought of writing stories to flesh out my world's lore; and you outlined such a comprehensive guide for writing a pantheon's story. I love origin stories like this because they're universal; it makes for an easy fit for DnD. Just extrapolate the main points and it doesn't feel like a rip off but a believable story. Thanks for this video!

Treachery could instead be trickery because it still makes sense of going behind their back and stuff but also isnt attached to evil

4 years later..... I appreciate the hell out of this video. Currently running a monotheistic campaign where the players along with some fallen angels, who fall into the 4 archetypes, attempt to overthrow and kill the one god. Then expanding the world into a full blown pantheon from there with the angels and PCs, giving the players a chance to immortalize their first characters in my world. So I would hope in future campaigns they would feel connected to the gods as players instead of just casually picking one with no meaning behind it.

Not only do I now know how to make a pantheon for my world but you also gave me an idea for the plot of a story I’ve been struggling to figure out. Thanks for the vid! I shall follow your PATH

Fantastic! And the best part of mythology is when the roles get switched around in later stories.

When developing a pantheon for my D&D games, I took inspiration from gamers within an MMORPG space, and made a three sided structure: Command, Collaboration and Chaos. Command = want to be in control of everything that happens in the narrative of the world Collaboration = want to experience the flow and journey of the narrative of the world Chaos = only interested in mucking around and having fun with the world

The numenus really reminds me of a line from one of the MTG trailers for Theros (a roman/greek god plane dealio) "When does a heroes journey begin?... is it when you realize how small you are, compared to the vastness.. of what threatens to destroy you." I just love that line and how it's delivered

I once made a halfling cleric of Sharess (Forgotten Realms minor goddess of lust/desire for those who don't know) with the light domain. He dressed like a miniature romance novel cover guy and focused on the light domain as hotness, beauty that draws people like moths to a flame, the warmth of touch, passion, looks that make one seem too hot to touch, and the fires (and acts) of creation. He was a lot of fun to play, though I do feel like the lack of a love/beauty/desire domain is a bit odd in D&D 5e

I just stumbled across your channel during my writer's research on mythology tips (Irish & Scottish celtic & norse mythology) and found myself being 2 minutes into continously nodding at you on my screen as if sitting in class instead of my bed! 😳🤭 I love how you immediately point out the various aspects one deity can actually have! In my research so far it was the regional differences and mythological overlappings that helped me establishing it into my story. 😊

Such good timing, actually working on this very thing right now. And this helped alot!

I like to make my gods by giving them a theme, and they would have many religions/views in religion. Like Equity is known for been fair, but also serves as a war God as well as a way of punishment. I have 15 gods, 1 doesn't really count though as she is the one the world is set in.

Great video and awesome showmanship as always.

You’re videos have been some of the most immensely helpful in making an immersive world and home rules that give dnd a more real and exciting feel. Thank you for you’re thorough and flavorful help, you’re fantastic

Hearing you say Zeus was a god of justice made me laugh out loud.

I have come back to this video so many times!!! Legit the most useful video on the all of the youtubes

Top class video! Exactly what I needed in the run-up to my second campaign!

I’ve been thinking in Triton civilizations today and this got me thinking how I might develop their pantheon, creation story, etc. Great vid, as always ☺️☺️☺️

Very well spoken and read! Thank you, I needed this!

Great video Dael. Been playing since the AD&D days and find I still learn things from your videos, young Lady. Keep making these? :-)

I really want to solve that Rubik's cube. It's been taunting me since I first noticed it. 😂😂

This video is beautiful. Amazing reflexions. I just love when it starts at the game and goes beyond, and then when you look to the game it has such depth. Amazing!

Aside from the ideas and their elegant presentation, I am massively impressed with the editing.

Thank you so much. Harbour, purpose, treachery, authority. It's great to have a reference point when letting your madness become beauty.

Never thought I would ever hear the term "mysterium tremendum" in a D&D video. Dael, you are a magnificent nerd! Although, it only means the terrible aspect of the the holy. Its counterpart would be the "mysterium fascinosum".

This is exactly what I am looking for, very interesting and well worded!

When making up a pantheon for my homebrew I looked at the PHB and SCAG, making a god for each divine domain. I made the god of Light the primary, but depending on where you are the belief in whom the god of Light was married to - in the Golden Planes the god of Light was married to the goddess of Nature, and the non-growing seasons was due to the god of Light being at the Capitol. At the Capitol he was considered to be pansexual, though was most often depicted with the goddess of Life.

What a great video! Thank you for sharing your insights!

Best video yet Dael! And that’s saying something. Love this take on theology.

Often what I do whene I flesh out the gods in my world is I start with a raw concept, or source of awe. Like the Light of the Sun, or the Dark Depths of the see. I look at the way different cultures viewed those things, and how I personally feel when I think about such things, and construct a character around that concept.

Thank you. I appreciate you are condensing someone else’s work, but it is research and ideas I would not be aware of without your styling. I greatly appreciate the diversity of ideas you bring before me 👍

This ought to be very helpful for one idea I've had bouncing around: a god of storms and trickery. I like how much it contrasts with Thor as a god of thunder. Basic inspiration: when things look strange and scary in the dark, then briefly illuminated by a flash of lightning. That mixture of disorientation and fear of the dark is what this god embodies. After watching this video, Treachery is definitely the right archetype for him. That said, I like the idea of him being a troll - he laughs at people being scared when they don't have to be. So he could also play a role of crucible - a dark test that heroes must surpass. So perhaps a god of fear, but also of courage being surpassing fear, not lacking fear?

My grandson shared your video with me. You are inspirational!

Story, archtype, domain, aspect. I love it. Fantastic video. It's funny, in reflection about my pantheon I recognise that the deities my players gravitated towards were the ones with more tangible and impactful stories. I hadn't quite worked out why they went towards the Gods they did, but it makes sense now.

This was brilliant! And so inspiring! As an avid philosophy and mythology student (and DM) this was right up my alley and exactly what I needed to kickstart a hurricane of ideas and intellectual thoughts about my own campaign's structure of deities. Really really enjoyed this video, it was a lot more academic (and as such felt much more substantial) than other D&D videos on this topic that I've seen. Thank you and you've got a new subscriber!

My friend just sent me your video about collecting materials from the wild and I've fallen down the rabbit hole and I love this channel already

So what I'm playing around with is the three ladies, basically the hags from the witcher 3. I like the idea of gods being akin to a pig farmer, giving us shelter and feeding us, but hags still need to feed off of misery and suffering, but they can't do it too much or they're gonna run their larders dry. So I think it's a pretty good metaphor for nature, gifts and danger. With Pelor and the gang impeding as a new foreign religion, they're not all good either, doing witch burnings and stuff. Pick your poison. This whole domain stuff is new to me though, haven't bought any 5e stuff for fear of them releasing a 6th edition, to my understanding it's mostly spell stuff and I run a low magic setting so I dunno how useful it is to me.

Damn. I really liked this. There's few things more enjoyable to listen to than genuinely passionate people who also happen to be knowledgable about their field

I have a Pantheon I've been working with for over a decade now. Tweaking here and there but mostly remaining as my standard homebrew setting deities. It's great to hear how others do it!

Hello Dael, love your videos so much! Your video inspired me to do some DM prep that I think my players will love. I wrote a story of treachery from 4 different points of view and will give each to a player and let them see a different view of the story each. And the paladin who swore fielty to asmodeus and regret it is gonna read the events from Asmodeus' view, making him out to not be so bad a guy. I am sure you will have been the inspiration for an awesome moment at our table. Thank you!

Thoughtful and brilliant!

Dael, I wanna start playing with these concepts right away. Thank you!

You are brilliant, keep up the great work.

Thank you for this. I love you. The night after I watched this video, twice, I created my own worlds creation story. A bit more complex and more characters, but guided by the advice in this video. Thanks!

You've just won yourself a subscriber.

I just opened this video for hombrew research, never seen any of your videos, but after 10 minutes you gained a follower. Love the work!

Wow, thanks for this. It's something I've been struggling with for some time.

This work is so thoughtful and subtle - it is so helpful to try and minimize cultural connotations and not fall into the good/evil dichotomy. Kingsmill's labels really help in that regard.

I think this is very very good advice. I have come up with slightly different names for these categories that work for me but it's all your idea.

Dang, Dael, you have so much more thought and knowledge put into this stuff than all the other sources I see on pantheons. I mean, you quote Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis on building a fantasy pantheon. Seriously.

Great video!

I started on a pantheon a long time ago that I've since abandoned. It was built around a basic idea of there being two queens. The sun goddess being associated with the evil side, burning and destroying crops with the moon being the good side, pleading with the sun for moderation, turning burning and destruction into warmth and growth. I'd gotten to the point of deciding on enough others to flesh out a collection representing a decent mix of deities for all the domains back in 3.5 D&D. Maybe I should go back to that and pick it up again and focus on a story to flesh out the mechanics I came up with.

Your energy makes me happy! Woot, pantheons, let's go!

I really want to see the unabridged (unedited) version of this video. It is so obvious that she cares deeply about it and I could loose an hour+ listening to it.

I keep coming back to this video of yours. Great lecture. Would you consider doing another one on this topic for us? (BTW: Loved your MCDM interview with Matt Colville).

This was amazingly useful. Thank you!

This showed up in my recommended like a month or two ago but I've finally watched it only now. This was quite informative and just a good time overall. Definitely a like and possibly a subscribe in the future :)

Someone probably already mentioned it, but the light domain is a nod to Middle Earth, where the prime god Eru Iluvatar is literally the embodiment of light. If you look at a light domain cleric closely, what you get is Gandalf.

yaaaaaaaaay, another d&d content creator i can fux with!! i feel pretty picky with what content inspires me as an aspiring gm

Every video of yours is awesome. I'd love to see you talk about Australian aboriginal myths.