Pantheons.

[Pyan]

How about a God or Goddess of Communication?

 

[Saolta Oiche]

Could be cool Pyan.

 

[chrispenycate]

Typical things that require gods looking after them (not doing a particularly good job in general, but it's better than having a committee)
Oceans
The sun
Volcanoes
Storms
Sex
Love (in so far as this is different from above)
Warfare
Judgement/Life after death
Fertility
Creation

Atypical things that sometimes get gods
Wisdom
Floods
Forests
Death
Chance (Luck)
Time(age)
Chaos
The Hunt
Medecine

Things that are generally left to subordinates
Seasons
Animals/birds
Fresh water (rain, springs and rivers)
Culture
Justice/Punishment before death

Furthermore, a fair number of demons are demoted gods, so
Flies
Diseases
Deserts
Avalanches/Landslides
Earthquakes
Drought
Have all had their deities.

What definitely doesn't seem to get a look in is peaceful co-operation, tolerance, Humane and rational conduct. Perhaps I ought to go for a god of cynicism.

 

[Lenny]

That would make an interesting full length or short story - a world just formed, and the Gods sit down at a table in Godland, and try and decide who does what job. After hours of arguing, one small God pipes up, "Well why don't we all do every job as a committee?" And so they try it and start off to a good start, but things begin to go badly, and they make a complete hash of it, and this is demonstrated throughout the story. The ending can be them back around a table discussing everything.

The idea's free to anyone who wants to use it - I've cut off that possibility with the Gods of my worlds all but destroying themselves in the making of the Cosmos.

So... free to whoever dibs it first!

 

[Saolta Oiche]

Nice one Mr C, I shall look at that list in greater detail and have a deep ponder on it.

I have one for the Sun, Oceons, Storms, Nature (plants), War, Death. Got a small pantheon at the moment.

Whilst you dishing out useful answers Mr C here is something for you to contemplate.

Our world has so many different Gods, now you could say that such diversity is because no god exists. If they truly existed and showed themselves then we would all worship them. Some gods of coarse are so similar that they could be one and the same which leads me to my second point...

Take a world with gods that ARE real and that do show themselves clearly all over the world, then you would have the same gods just seen differently by differing cultures. This sounds the same as my other point except that with this world things are more certain.

And so I guess in such a world you can not have a god dedicated to one race.

This post may not seem very much like a question, it is kind of me getting my thoughts out, if that makes sense.

You get my point Mr C? lol, maybe not.

 

[chrispenycate]

Some gods can have localised responsibilities; one who specialises in volcanoes on an island chain might not need more than a nodding aquaintance with his mainland equivalent, but gods of oceans? You'd just about have to have one, going by different names in different coastal regions "Territorial waters", boundries moving with naval victories? Those aren't gods, they're barely more than nature spirits. And when some ocean gods have secondary roles in earthquake production (Posidon, the earthshaker - no, I think we'll have to insist, one god, one job) Storms can be quite localised, but any self-respecting storm god will insist on getting hurricanes, too, not to mention sandstorms and blizzards, which are not over respectful of national borders ("You offended your weather god and he sent out a force five typhoon, which killed a hundred thousand of our citizens, and did twenty thousand silver pigs' worth of damage; if you don't pay up in two seasons our fertility goddess will organise a locust wave at harvest")
Some, like creation, really need to be unique ("My bit's going to be a spheric section""Don't be sily, it's obviously flat""Look, you create your mountains from dad's genitals, I've got a great new idea, called gravity"
"The sun goes east to west over your bit? I thought up and down would make a nice change"
So, all in all, it'd be easier to split responsibilities by task rather than region; simplifes the paperwork.

 

[Saolta Oiche]

Indeed, an easier method is always the best.

 

[Kitera]

*Mutters* But I like coffee....

*runs AwaY*

 

[chrispenycate]

I don't think we can have a god of coffee. A subcommittee for beverages (Baccus - a god of inebriation is a standard - being chairohdearitsfallenoverI'lljustsitonthefloorthenperson) and including representatives from the chocolates and associated sweetmeats subcommittee. You could co-opt a few nymphs and similar second rank immortals (except when you concrete over their springs)
Subcommittees were rife in the greek system, with responsibilities carefully defined by their superiors; muses, graces, furies, for aesthetics and other non-critical functions (how come only females leap to mind?)
Many of these might have been goddesses in their own limited regions, but, with the takeovers involved with spreading civilisations, accepted subordinate posts in the new deocracy - and even if the furies are a bit underemployed now, the muses are still recruiting for a wider spread of arts. (who's the girl who got "pornographic videos"? She's doing all right for herself, even if her immortality might not be assured, and the muse of epig fantasy? I pour a libation)

 

[Pyan]

I don't think we can have a god of coffee. A subcommittee for beverages (Baccus - a god of inebriation is a standard - being chairohdearitsfallenoverI'lljustsitonthefloorthenperson) and including representatives from the chocolates and associated sweetmeats subcommittee. You could co-opt a few nymphs and similar second rank immortals (except when you concrete over their springs)
Subcommittees were rife in the greek system, with responsibilities carefully defined by their superiors; muses, graces, furies, for aesthetics and other non-critical functions (how come only females leap to mind?)
Many of these might have been goddesses in their own limited regions, but, with the takeovers involved with spreading civilisations, accepted subordinate posts in the new deocracy - and even if the furies are a bit underemployed now, the muses are still recruiting for a wider spread of arts. (who's the girl who got "pornographic videos"? She's doing all right for herself, even if her immortality might not be assured, and the muse of epig fantasy? I pour a libation)

And it makes so much more sense than one omniscient, omnipresent, omnipowerful deity. I'm beginning to wonder if that came about to save time. (Who's the god of Finding Lost Keys, Ethel? Don't know! Ok then, I'll just hope the all-powerful one at the top of the pile helps me find them!)
Personally, I would prefer to think of things having their own Muse, or other pantheistic guardian. Certainly, when I've been deep in the woods, far from the traffic noise and ramblers with Labradors, I'd like to think I've heard the faintest sound of pan-pipes, just on the threshold of hearing.

 

[Nesacat]

The Hindu pantheon has Gods for all the Cardinal points and 9 gods of Fate who are all stellar bodies. The God of Death is also the Dharma or the law that governs the universe and the conduct of man. The Gods are also subject to the laws of Fate excluding two ... Hanuman and Ganesha.

And then of course there is Great Cthulhu.

 

[Faceless Woman]

No God of love? Grr! Everyone always forgets Eros. Also, Cupid wasn't always a baby. Once, he was just a babe.

Oh, Hoopy already covered Eros. He was the father of the muses, I think, and less of love than erotisism, but meh.

One day I had an odd idea which turned into a woman, nick-named the 'Gods mother', who had about twelve children, all of them named after gods. There were the twins, Artemis and Diana, Brigit, Phoebe, Iris and I can't begin to remember how many others. Would have been cool. Shame I didn't have a story to go with it.