TEXT: Pantheon Building 
  A Guide to Constructing a Fantasy Pantheon for Games or Fiction 
   
   
   
   
  Written by Julie Ann Dawson 
  ©2008 Bards and Sages 
  http://www.bardsandsages.com 
   
  Illustrations courtesy Oldbookillustrations.com 
  http://www.oldbookillustrations.com 
   
   
   
   
  
   
  One of the most important parts of building 
  your own fantasy setting is building a consistent, 
  functional pantheon.  In most fantasy settings, 
  the gods are real entities that often directly 
  interfere in the affairs of mortal.  But even if 
  your gods and goddesses are more myth than 
  reality, crafting a pantheon that fits into your 
  worldview will help provide a sense of place and 
  purpose in your setting. 
  Unfortunately, often when people sit down 
  to design pantheons, they tend to think of them 
  in terms of how they relate to player classes and 
  skills.  World designers come into the process 
  attempting to reverse engineer gods to fit some 
  pre-conceived notions of what types of gods are 
  needed to meet the needs of the players or 
  characters.  This leads to a stilted, often 
  fragmented pantheon of unrelated gods and 
  goddesses with little cohesiveness. 
  Pantheon Building is designed to provide a 
  way of thinking about designing your pantheon.  
  Use the information in this product to get a 
  better understanding in order to develop a more 
  organic feeling pantheon for your game world.  
  This information can be used by both game 
  designers looking to bring variety to their 
  campaign settings, or by writers hoping to 
  develop a believable pantheon for their fantasy 
  fiction. 
   
   
   
   
  Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs 
   
   
  In order to determine the nature of the gods 
  that will populate your pantheon, you need to 
  have a firm understanding of the needs of the 
  people in your setting.  The gods of a culture 
  reflect what is most important to the culture, and 
  what is most important to the culture depends on 
  how far up the pyramid of needs the culture has 
  evolved. 
  In 1943, Abraham Maslow published his 
  book A Theory of Human Motivation, in which 
  he stated the Hierarchy of Needs.  Though 
  considered a bit oversimplified by modern 
  scholars, the concepts provide a good working 
  basis for understanding cultural development.  
  While all needs have importance to people, the 
  dominant needs are those that must be met first 
  in order for the person to focus energy on other 
  needs.  When these dominate needs are the 
  primary focus of the culture, they will impact the 
  types of gods that are worshiped.   
   
  Physiological needs:   
  These are the most basic needs of food, 
  water, air, and other bodily needs.  Raw survival 
  is the dominant goal of someone at this level of 
  the pyramid.  The fight for food is the primary 
  focus of the individual.  What little culture exists 
  is in the form of small hunting parties, which 
  work together to bring down game and find 
  other sustenance.   
   
  Security Needs:   
  Closely associated with the physiological 
  needs are the security needs, and they often go 
  hand in hand.  Humans, at their most basic level, 
  desire order and stability.  Because order and 
  stability ensures that the physiological needs are 
  met.  A person at this level on the pyramid is 
  concerned with protection from the elements, 
  safety from the wilds, and general security.  
  
  Roaming hunting groups begin to stake out 
  territories that they patrol frequently to ensure 
  security.  Over time, the group has come to 
  recognize the travel patterns of the herds they 
  hunt, and they develop their territories in order 
  to take advantage of this pattern.   
   
  Social Needs:   
  Social needs refer to a sense of belonging.  
  Humans develop friendships and form family 
  units.  The hunting group has become a tribe, 
  with each person clearly understanding his place 
  in the social order.  This order provides 
  members with a sense of belonging, while also 
  ensuring the needs of the physiological and 
  security levels.  Social standing in the tribe is 
  determined by ones ability to maintain the 
  security and physiological needs of the group.    
  Here, the strong rule, whether that strength is in 
  physical strength of magical power.   
   
  Esteem Needs:   
  Over time, the individuals in a society begin 
  to develop their esteem needs.  It is at this point 
  that the notion of civilization begins to take 
  form.  Often, at this point the tribe has ceased to 
  be nomadic, taking to developing agriculture and 
  raising livestock instead of constantly hunting 
  and gathering.  The ability to secure the culture 
  no longer rests on the most physically powerful, 
  but the most resourceful.  Individuals begin to 
  develop a sense of self-esteem outside the most 
  basic brute strength or might.  People begin to 
  desire respect, and develop respect for others.  
  As civilization becomes more complex, people 
  find new niches to fill that help society.  And 
  these niches provide venues to demonstrate 
  accomplishment beyond merely providing food 
  and water and shelter. 
   
  Self-actualization:   
  At the pinnacle of a culture, true self-
  actualization takes hold.  Education, fine arts, 
  ethics, creativity, and philosophy become 
  important concepts to the people.  Having 
  developed an intricate system by which to 
  ensure the more basic needs, the members of the 
  culture now have the leisure to pursue individual 
  goals and desires. 
   
  Evolution of a God 
   
   
  The Physiological God 
  The gods of a people still at the most basic 
  level of the pyramid reflect the most primitive 
  needs.  The most ancient people did not pray to 
  human-looking metaphysical beings, but very 
  real creatures around them.  When the hunting 
  party downs a deer, they pray to the spirit of the 
  deer, offering thanks that it sacrificed itself so 
  that the hunters can survive.  Over time, the deer 
  itself becomes revered for its life-giving flesh.   
   
  The Security God 
  Over time, the people begin to develop a 
  more uniform group.  They have begun to notice 
  how the deer move through the woods, and more 
  importantly, how the stags will move to protect 
  their mates or fight over mates.  The people 
  begin to gain a new respect for the animal, 
  recognizing the strength of the dear to fight.  
  The deer no longer represents just food, but the 
  hunter aspect itself.  The cult of the spirit begins 
  
  to stop thinking of the deer as a spirit itself, but 
  as a gift from a hunter-god to protect the people.  
  The people begin to think of the stag as a sacred 
  animal to the hunter god, and begin to revere the 
  god. 
   
  The Social God 
  At this point, the social structure of the tribe 
  becomes important.  The Potnia Theron, The 
  Mistress of Animals or the Great Huntress, 
  blesses the tribe (and particularly, the Chieftain).  
  The Chieftain in such cultures is often viewed as 
  a mortal consort of the goddess, blessed by her 
  to oversee the tribe.  In this manner, the worship 
  of the deity evolves to not only encompass the 
  act of hunting, but also to promote the social 
  order by offering divine backing to the ruler.  
  When the tribe prepares for war, the goddess is 
  invoked to bless the tribe in battle.  In this 
  aspect, she also becomes a war deity. 
   
  The Esteem God 
  At this point, the Great Huntress has become 
  Artemis, goddess of the hunt.  But she is no 
  longer revered as a benevolent goddess that 
  brings game to the tribe.  Now, she comes to 
  represent the competitive spirit of the hunt.  Her 
  myths often involve contests between mortals 
  vying to demonstrate their superior skills.  She 
  becomes more dangerous, punishing those that 
  fail…as well as those that succeed and become 
  too boastful over it.  In many ways, she becomes 
  an embodiment of the dangers of becoming 
  overly concerned with personal esteem, possibly 
  as a way for the established rulers to protect 
  their own interests.   
   
  The Self-Actualization God 
  Artemis becomes a patron to young women 
  that wish to be free of the confines of what has 
  become a patriarchal culture.  Her worshippers 
  view 
  her 
  as 
  the 
  embodiment 
  of 
  self-
  actualization.  Her virginity becomes important 
  because it is a personal choice, at a point in the 
  culture when young women are often seen as 
  commodities used as trade goods in arranged 
  marriages that deny them their own self-
  actualization.  Her cult spreads as the Cult of 
  Diana throughout Europe even as Christianity 
  takes hold, due to a rebellion against what is 
  viewed as a denial of self-actualization. 
  Government Structures 
   
   
  Another 
  important 
  consideration 
  when 
  developing a pantheon is the type of government 
  structure the people employ.  The nature of the 
  government does have an impact on how people 
  perceive themselves, and by extension their 
  place in the greater universe and by further 
  extension their relationship with the divine.   
  This list is by no means exhaustive, but it 
  does touch briefly on the major forms of 
  government that one would expect to find in a 
  fantasy setting.  While the explanations may be 
  oversimplified, they are meant to merely give a 
  framework, not a full history lesson. 
   
  Democracy 
  A government structure in which all citizens 
  have an opportunity to impact the government.  
  Generally, democracies only develop when a 
  culture 
  has 
  reached 
  the 
  level 
  of 
  self-
  actualization.  While a democratic society may 
  have a dominant religion, it can support a wide 
  variety of faiths, many which may even seem to 
  oppose or contradict each other. 
   
  
  Matriarchy 
  A government structure in which the mother 
  figure has the power.  Unlike a monarchy in 
  which the ruler happens to be female, a 
  matriarchy holds that women are the ones who 
  have the right to hold power.  Most 
  anthropologists agree that the existence of a true 
  matriarchy has never been proven.  If it did ever 
  exist in human culture, it would have been at the 
  physiological and security levels, at a point 
  when the process of giving birth was still 
  considered a mystical act and women therefore 
  were viewed as possessing some power over 
  life.  In a matriarchy, religions will focus on the 
  feminine aspects. 
   
  Matrifocal 
  A government structure in which the mother 
  figure is given priority, but not necessarily 
  power, in the culture.  Many tribal cultures are 
  both patriarchal and matrifocal, whereas the 
  males are considered the proper rulers of the 
  tribe, but the women are to be treated in a certain 
  manner out of respect for their role as mothers 
  and nurturers of the next generation.  In such 
  cultures, feminine gods that served as mothers 
  and nurturers would be revered, though still 
  subservient to the male gods of strength and war. 
   
  Monarchy 
  A government structure in which one person 
  has absolute authority.  Generally, rule is handed 
  down from father to son.  Strict hierarchies 
  develop, with a person’s “place” in the hierarchy 
  determining his personal worth.    
  In a monarchy, you will generally find a 
  “state sanctioned” religion, with only those 
  faiths accepted by the monarch being granted the 
  right to exist.  Monarchies generally develop as 
  a culture moves out of the Social level and into 
  the esteem level.  Most of the gods will focus on 
  respect for and development of authority, 
  acceptance of one’s place, and the development 
  of crafts.  The pantheons of a monarchy are 
  often rather limited, with “official” deities being 
  afforded large temples, while “unofficial” deities 
  become vilified or treated as evil demons. 
   
  Patriarchy 
  A government structure in which the father 
  figure or males have the power.  Patriarchies are 
  common in tribal cultures, where raw strength is 
  valued above all else.   Many monarchies are 
  also patriarchies. 
   
  Republic 
  A government structure in which at least a 
  portion of the population has a say in matter of 
  government.  Republics generally do not 
  develop until a culture has neared the level of 
  self-actualization, in which the desires of 
  individuals begin to become more important.   
  Historically, the primary reason for the rise of a 
  republic was to allow more freedom of religion.  
  By negating the power of a monarch, a republic 
  could allow individuals more freedom to 
  worship as they wished.  Pantheons are 
  portrayed as more cooperative, or at least with 
  having the semblance of cooperation.   
   
  The Role of the Environment 
   
   
  Along the coast, where people depend on the 
  ocean to survive, storms would be a disastrous 
  event.  Here, a Gods of Storms would be feared, 
  and sacrifices would be made to appease the evil 
  deity to prevent storms.  In the desert, where 
  sources of water are limited and the people 
  
  depend on the flooding of the nearby river to 
  fertilize the soil for farming, the God of Storms 
  would be respected, and offerings would be 
  make to welcome the benevolent deity that 
  brings the rain that floods the river. 
  The environment of the setting has a huge 
  impact on how people perceive their gods, as 
  well as the type of gods that would be found.  A 
  people that live in a frozen tundra will revere 
  fire deities as benevolent beings that bring life-
  saving fire to protect against the cold.  Whereas 
  a people the live in a temperate forest may 
  consider a fire deity evil, because fire can so 
  quickly level the woods.  How people relate to 
  their environment will impact the types of gods 
  found in it.  A people that live in the mountains 
  will have little use for a god of the oceans, even 
  if they do occasionally fish in the nearby river.  
  A culture that is dependent on the sea might not 
  have much use for a god of mining, even if they 
  do possess a few blacksmiths in their land. 
   
  Bringing it all together 
   
   
  The biggest mistake many world designers 
  make is to try and create one giant “catch-all” 
  pantheon in which all of the gods are part of one 
  massive divine family.  But the fact is that, if 
  one is to seriously develop a functional and 
  believable set of gods, it is better to design 
  multiple smaller pantheons instead.  The 
  barbarian tribes of the plains are not going to 
  recognize the gods of a cosmopolitan republic.  
  At best, they will view them as previously 
  unknown aspects of their own gods.  At worst, 
  they will consider them abominations.  More 
  often, they will be indifferent.  To think that the 
  barbarian god of war is related to the republic’s 
  goddess of merchants may be a common easy 
  out in some settings, but it is not really credible.   
  Of course, in fantasy settings where the gods 
  are real entities, these gods may in fact know 
  each other.  But they would have separate 
  pantheons and rarely interact with each other 
  unless the followers of one pantheon were 
  harassing, attacking, or trying to convert the 
  followers of another. 
   
  Questions to Ask: 
   
  What is the environment of the setting? 
   
  Where is the culture on the Hierarchy of Needs? 
   
  What type of government is prevalent? 
   
  How do the different races interact? 
  If your world has multiple different races (and 
  most fantasy settings do), it is important to 
  understand how these races interact.  In settings 
  where races are isolated from each other, the 
  races will rarely share gods.  In settings where 
  the races have cooperative relationships, they 
  may share gods. 
   
  How Many Gods? 
  Generally, the lower a culture is on the 
  Hierarchy of Needs, the fewer gods they will 
  have.  Gods will be very generalized.  The 
  higher up the pyramid, the more gods the culture 
  will have.  These gods may fill very specific 
  niches and be very specialized.  A culture high 
  on the pyramid may have a specific god of 
  bards.  A culture low on the pyramid would have 
  no need for such a deity.  While the culture 
  might have people who fill the role of a bard, 
  generally the culture will not have a god 
  dedicated specifically to them.   
  
  Notes: 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
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SOURCE: textdata/thevault/_GM Books/Worldbuilding/Pantheon Building.pdf