Deity Portfolios

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Hello and welcome to my world building blog!

Today, I will be discussing Deity Portfolios and what they mean for the people of Azamar.  The sourcebook is Richard Baker's companion book to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: World Builder's Guidebook, published by TSR Ltd in 1996.

Last week we covered the size and organization of Azamar's pantheon, letting our generator decide it is a meddlesome, medium-sized, familial type of pantheon.  It has 3 Greater Powers, 4 Intermediate Powers, 5 Lesser Powers, and 5 Demi-Powers.

Now, the World Builder's Guidebook has notes on how many portfolios each category of power may have, and that a few of the portfolios can be broken down into further specialties.  The book mentions there are way too many portfolios to cover, but it does have a surprisingly large list in a table, of course.  It also states:

"...specific portfolios are represented by the deities involved, and the alignment of each particular deity.  By combining a portfolio with an alignment, you can create an excellent picture of a power.  For instance, love might seem like a naturally good portfolio...but imagine a chaotic evil power of love might be a goddess of jealousy or debauchery, while a lawful good goddess of love is probably concerned with marriage, the home, or even chaste love.  However, feel free to discard combinations that don't make sense to you."

We, of course, are not going to discard anything and keep it all.  We're also going to add whether the deity is male, female, or something else.

We will build the first two powers, one at a time, so that you understand the process.  The notes the Guidebook gives is Greater and intermediate powers have 1d3 portfolios; lesser powers have 1d2 portfolios; and demi-powers have only a single portfolio.

First up are the Greater Powers, and we have three of them.

Our first Greater Power only has one portfolio:  Fertility, has an alignment of chaotic neutral, and is something other than male or female.  We will give them a gender neutral name like Aznas.  This power of fertility values their own freedom above all else.  Aznas will not let any good or evil influence them and prefers to make their own way.  I feel like this deity is responsible for the emergence of the different races in Azamar.

Our second Greater Power has three portfolios:  Animals, which could be broken down to a specific animal; Messengers, and Marriage.  This god or goddess has an alignment of neutral good, and is male.  Atnos does what he can to help within the alignments of law or chaos, but ultimately prefers to make his own decisions on what to do.

I believe you get the gist of how the process works, so for the next powers, I'll list the portfolios and alignments of each.

Greater Power # 3:  has one portfolio:  Ades, Power of Earth, has an alignment of chaotic evil, and has a gender of other.

Intermediate Power # 1:  has one portfolio:  Nohotl, Power of War, true neutral, and other.

Intermediate Power # 2:  has one portfolio:  Dhimlios, God of the Sun, chaotic neutral, and male.

Intermediate Power # 3:  has two portfolios:  Dessin, Power of Messengers and Death, lawful good, and other.

Intermediate Power # 4:  has one portfolio:  Kularis, Goddess of Death, chaotic evil, and female.

Lesser Power # 1:  has one portfolio:  Vohris, Power of Seasons*, neutral good,  and other.

* May refer to specialties, such as one particular animal, season, etc.

Lesser Power # 2:  has one portfolio:  Nodsyn, Power of Justice, neutral good, and other.

Lesser Power # 3:  has one portfolio:  Zeses, Power of Weather, lawful evil, and other.

Lesser Power # 4:  has one portfolio:  Xokdia, Goddess of Thunder, chaotic good, and female.

Lesser Power # 5:  has one portfolio:  Thalir, Power of Strength, lawful neutral, and other.

And each of our five demi-powers only have one portfolio each.

Demi-Power # 1:  Rhamther, God of War, lawful good, and male.

Demi-Power # 2:  Bephine, Goddess of Prosperity, lawful good, and female.

Demi-Power # 3:  Cyndon, God of the Wind, lawful good, and male.

Demi-Power # 4:  Drontrix, Goddess of War, lawful evil, and female.

Demi-Power # 5:  Qheara, Goddess of Wisdom, lawful evil, and female.

Azamar has seventeen deities total, all in a family, all fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, and others, representing different aspects of the kingdom's beliefs.

It's interesting to see there are three powers of War:  Nohotl, Rhamther, and Drontrix.  Considering Nohotl is something other than male or female, it is easy to see that this deity magically spawned the male and female of War as demi-powers.

Now that we know Azamar's territory, subsistence systems, and religions, what about it's history?  What happened in Azamar's past that made it what it is today?

Next week, we'll cover Azamar's history and the events that shaped the frozen kingdom.

I hope you enjoyed the read, and until next time, thanks for reading.