Pantheons and syncretism, old gods and new

D&D doesn't have a coherent theology. Fantasy gaming quickly runs into the problem of inventing new objects of worship on the fly, resulting in an incoherent theology that is devoid of the syncretism that simplifies real religions. Since the overwhelming majority of campaigns don't involve divine intervention, the precise nature of the gods isn't important.

In my settings, I intend to follow the model of Eberron when it comes to how gods work. That is, there isn't a fixed list of gods like there is in other settings. Worshipers invent their gods based on their social and economic needs. The "Eamonvale Pantheon" is an example of a generic human pantheon.

The way pantheons are constructed may be divided into a few major trends. I will be using real historical religions to inform my development process.

Different classes have different power sources (as first articulated in 4e), like druids and barbarians drawing from the "primal" or the clerics and oracles drawing from the "divine" (however diversely that manifests itself). These power sources exist independently of worship, but they inform how worshipers go about developing their pantheons. Gods being dangerous and unpredictable like natural forces is common in pre-Christian religion.

Although distinct in terms of rules, druids and clerics (ignoring the latter's origin as vampire hunters) heavily overlap thematically and it may be quite difficult (or easy) to distinguish them. One suggestion is that druids worship nature as a whole (i.e. animistic), whereas clerics devote themselves to specific slivers like a sun god (i.e. henotheistic). I don't know if I find that explanation very satisfying.

The Stormbringer mythos posits a conflict between the cosmic forces of order, chaos and balance. (D&D horribly distorts this, but that's neither here nor there.) Similar concepts exist in many historical religions, such as Egyptian, Norse and Greek. The gods of historical religions typically exist on a continuum between chaos and order, trying to enforce order while at the same time struggling with their own internal chaos.

In particular, the Stormbringer mythos divides its god into three allegiances: Lords of Chaos, Lords of Law, and the various neutral lords (Elemental Lords, Lords of Nature). I couldn't find a consistent terminology in the sources I consulted.

A recurring theme in pre- and post-Christian religions is the concept of generations of gods being overthrown by successors, typically order over chaos. In Indo-European mythology we see examples of this in the conflicts between the primordials versus titans, olympians versus titans and giants, aesir versus jotun and vanir, tuatha de dannan versus formorians and firbholg, and asura versus daeva. In Christianity, we see evidence of past religions in the form of fairies, which seem to be the deities of paganism demoted into a form palatable to the Church.

Settings designed for D&D sometimes bring their own takes on this:

• The setting Fumanor explicitly parallels the titans and gods with chaos and order, respectively. It introduces demons and devils as weapons in the cosmic conflict.
• The Kingdoms of Legend setting outright adopts the Greek primordials, titans and olympians. Druids worship the primordials, demikind clerics worship the titans, and human clerics worship the olympians. Since the titans were overthrown, their clerics are restricted to a handful of sites of power.
• In the Scarred Lands campaign setting, a titanomachy like that is responsible for the distinction between druids and clerics. Druids serve the amoral titans, while clerics serve the moral (good and evil) gods. (Quick reference: the titans are similar to D&D 4e's primordials.)

My ideas for theology are constantly growing and changing. I can't say anything right now and hope that it will stick.

I often find myself inventing deities on the fly for the flimsiest uses, like (currently) a bazillion beast lords for every beast species. I know I criticized D&D for doing that all the time. However, as I said already I'm not married to a particularly list of deities due to my setting's agnosticism. If my list gets too long or I lose track, then I know that it may be righted by assuming various deities are aliases for one deity.

Alternately, the divine is arranged into a bureaucracy a la Chinese folk religion. Multiple gods with identical portfolios would be working in the same department. Given how bureaucracies inevitably spiral out of control, this would go a long way to explaining the mess of theology in fantasy gaming.