Got a question for you regarding runequest pantheon

[Hopeless]

Been looking at running a game but a little put off by what I've read about Glorantha.
It doesn't help that the person who got me interested in runequest runs Glorantha with a mixture of 2nd and 3rd edition runequest using glorantha that I'm disinclined to try running using that campaign setting since I'm no where near as conversant and thats even though he used the 3rd age and MRQ uses the 2nd age!

Well my idea is based around having the Players run characters in what will they'll eventually realise is Earth of several centureis from now following an unexplained cataclysm.

Using the 3rd edition info on cults I was looking for a reasonable name for the various gods of the pantheons and came up with the following;

Demeter as the Agricultural Goddess
Gaia as the Earth Goddess
Artemis as the Huntress Goddess
Diana as the Moon Goddess
Hecate as the Night Goddess
Odin as the Ruling Deity
Poseidon as the Sea God
Thor as the Storm God
Apollo as the Sun God
Loki as the Trickster God
Hades as the Underworld God
Having trouble with a name for the Mother of Light perhaps Zeus's wife?
Kronos as the Father of Darkness maybe?
Thinking of having 2 gods of war one being Athena for women and Ares for men

Anyway what do you think?

Any other options you can think that might work better.

The explanation for the pantheon is that these are the survivors of the Gods whilst Odin is indicated as the Ruling deity, Gaia as I see it is the most powerful but it still needs work so your thoughts on this would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Richard]

Curious mix of Nordic and Grecian pantheons. If you're mixing them up and looking for more ideas why not mine some other religions and myths Ancient Egyptian, Celtic etc Maybe even Christian/Islamic and other contemporary religions given it's centuries in the future?

 

[Mixster]

I suggest using Amun-Ra as the god of Light. He is the egyptian deity of the sun, and created himself, he is pretty awesome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amun

You could also consider Baldur, who is the nordic god of light. He's pretty much like Jesus, and was probably introduced to the nordic pantheon when they heard stories of Jesus.

When mixing up your gods, you should take care which mythology you use. There are a few questions that all religions attempt to answer, such as what created the world and what happens when you die, and if you want your religion to seem well rounded, you should create varying myths for this. The myths could off course be different in different branches off the religion, but most of them should answer the base questions.

I like your idea of mixing the gods together, so these are off course just some ideas you can think about.
Please let me know what you decide, I'm also in the process of creating a pantheon for a game world, and would love all the insight I could get.

 

[Runefang]

You also might try familiar, but not quite right names as the language would probably change in the event of a disaster.

Lok, for Loki, Od for Odin, Us for say Zeus, or even more different. That would really change the feel from earth to make it more of a suprise when they do find out.

Is it going to be a magically caused disaster? Will there be any tech at all? Sounds interesting. Let us know more.

I know the 2nd to 3rd edition changes can be tough, especially doing different ages of Glorantha, but give it a shot, there are many more sources of info out there for 3rd age stuff, so it is easier for some who have been Gloranthaphiles awhile to use.

 

[Nez]

Mother of Light? Isis?

 

[Hopeless]

I suggest using Amun-Ra as the god of Light. He is the egyptian deity of the sun, and created himself, he is pretty awesome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amun

You could also consider Baldur, who is the nordic god of light. He's pretty much like Jesus, and was probably introduced to the nordic pantheon when they heard stories of Jesus.

I considered Balder but then decided against him, interesting idea regarding Amun-Ra but I was thinking of renaming the Mother of Light as simply the Light ala Lightbearers but this particular cult is all but extinct since its based on a series of legendary heroes who appeared when they were desperately needed and disappeared just as suddenly once they had completed their task.

Thanks to Primeval and Stargate I figure the unknown cataclysm created a means of travelling to and from the future but was limited in that time still carried on in both eras so if someone travelled to the campaign world and stayed there for 5 years when they returned they would find the same time had passed in the past.

So the first traveller came from the future and arrived just prior to the second world war. He eventually figured out what was really going on and upon settling down and raising a family he taught his children the means of surviving both in the present and his own time.

However the way I see it the portal was created by means of a number of runes bound into an archway, the first traveller was a god who used the portal to render himself mortal meaning all of his descendants could travel to and from the future when they absolutely needed to which i see as a means of escape.

The portal however was found by various less than benevolent people who thought it allowed travel to another world instead of the future.

The descendants tried to prevent the influx of technology but all they could do was seal the portal which meant it could only be reopened by either one of the descendants or the entire family line died out which is a possible cause of the cataclysm since the portals power is entirely dervied from that family line.

Sorry going a little too far there but this would allow for some unusual technology being present, at most I figure plumbing, hot and cold running water, ships, zeppelins (Yes I do like that!), very limited firearms since I see that as being extremely rare due to the only people who could make or maintain them have died out since the portal closed to regular travellers.

When mixing up your gods, you should take care which mythology you use. There are a few questions that all religions attempt to answer, such as what created the world and what happens when you die, and if you want your religion to seem well rounded, you should create varying myths for this. The myths could off course be different in different branches off the religion, but most of them should answer the base questions.
I like your idea of mixing the gods together, so these are off course just some ideas you can think about.
Please let me know what you decide, I'm also in the process of creating a pantheon for a game world, and would love all the insight I could get

Gaia being the mother of the gods, Kronos as the Father who was imprisoned by Zeus and was freed by some unknown force began slaying the various pantheons to regain his status, the greeks were almost wiped out but the survivors allied with the Norse Gods who managed to defeat Kronos but were unable to imprison him until an as yet unnamed god sacrificed his immortality and power succeeding in sealing Kronos away however that still left a shattered world that has been slow to recover.

I picture Kronos as being responsible for the chaos taint that created the Broo and of course warped some others including creating his most bitter enemies the Durulz who I see as ducks who have been warped into some human-like form rather than the other way round!

Apollo is the weakest of the gods, Odin rules since he is the surviving leader of the various pantheons of course thats only because Gaia isn't interested, I see Demeter being actually her daughter Persephone who took up her late mother's name and power having survived thanks to her husband Hades.

Athena and Ares hate each other but Ares only joined because Loki tricked him into thinking Kronos was intent on killing him, I see Loki allying with Thor and Odin mostly because he was smart enough to see that was the best option, it also helped he got to pull some major schticks on Kronos and some of his supporters during the god war which has gone a long way to redeem his reputation with the norse gods!

Artemis and Athena are allies, Diana I see as being another goddess who assumed the title following the originals death and see her as being more European in origin but haven't decided whether its simply due to a more Roman origin rather than completely different from her historical origin.

Hecate is an ally of Kronos and responsible for killing Loki's daughter Hel and the reason why Hades is the Underworld God, Poseidon is the one god who is more or less neutral towards everyone even Kronos thought twice about going after the God of the Sea I picture pretty much as Aquaman from the brave and the bold version riding Cthulhu sounds about right!

Hmm need more thought on this obviously!

 

[soltakss]

I wouldn't use real-world deity names, personally, as they carry too much baggage.

 

[Hopeless]

I wouldn't use real-world deity names, personally, as they carry too much baggage.

Yes I agree it also gives away too much as noted in a previous post, but I needed to get the pantheon's identity sorted out before even thinking of renaming them.

Odin, Wotan: perhaps Ota?
Thor: simply the Storm King?
Demeter since this is Persephone maybe the Summer Queen?
Hades, Pluto: hmm Lucius or maybe Hato?
Apollo: Sunchaser?
Gaia: I see no change is necessary with this one
Poseidon: Lord Kraken I'm hardly going to call him Percy or Percival after all!
Hmm needs more thought!

 

[Hopeless]

Mother of Light? Isis?

She would fit the bill but I saw her being taken down after Set aided Kronos in defeating the Egyptian pantheon.

Now Set is a lackey of Kronos, Osiris has been torn into pieces and Isis imprisoned in a certain necklace...

Well it was one idea from Smallville that I thought sounded interesting!

Still thanks for the suggestion I wonder if she could be more used as a good counterpart for Hecate?

 

[Richard]

Soltakss probably has the most helpful idea. Create you own gods. If you want you can cherry pick features you like from existing mythst and mould them into your own story. It's worked well in my RQ campaign for decades. Pseudo-Celtic/Viking/Persian-Roman/Christian societies and matching pantheons without the pressure of any need to stick to history. If you want a historical game and setting there are some crackers out there such as Ars Magica ot the Rome BRP setting and plenty for GURPs that is generally useable system wise.