Gods of Dungeons & Dragons

Within all roleplaying games (outside of Warhammer 40k's Dark Heresy, where thinking outside the box is Heresy) there are deities. Whether they are good or bad, they exist.

This list will more or less contain the versions of the deities from 3.5 to the latest edition, and how they can be used to portray characters in your settings.

Infobox

What the god is called.
What special marking worshippers use to signal their faith.
Aliases	Other names and titles the god is known by.
Alignment	Does this need explaining?
Divine Rank	How the god ranks amongst its own kind.
Pantheon	What group(s) of gods this god belongs to.
Portfolio	What this god is responsible for.
Domains	What Cleric Domains it bestows.
Home Plane	Place of residence in the multiverse.
Worshippers	Who actually worships this god.
Favoured Weapon	What faithful worshippers consider best to protect themselves with.

The information box that should eventually grace each god's page, summing up their information in a nutshell.

Types of Religions

These are how religions are categorized in D&D.

Loose & Tight Pantheons

Loose pantheons are the default for D&D. A bunch of gods with their own portfolio exist, have varying relationships with other deities, their own myths and doctrines, and each deity tries to advance their own portfolio and doctrine in the world.

Tight pantheons differ in that the gods usually have either a ruler among them, or some other body of myths, doctrine, or rituals common with them, with an aberrant deity or two whose worship is frowned upon. Most people in either of them are either polytheistic or henotheistic, acknowledge the other gods but only worship one or some of them.

Mystery Cults

Cults of a single deity, or at most a handful of deities, where the personal relationship with the deity is emphasized. Largely based on a ritual of initiation where the person is mystically identified with the deity in question, and are taught their own unique myths. Often associated with gods of nature, and a part of other religious systems. Dennari's faith is an example of deity with a mystery cult.

Monotheism

You probably know what monotheism means, and if you don't look it up ya dingus! In D&D, monotheistic deities have aspects who the regular people worship. Taiia is an example of a monotheistic D&D deity.

Dualism

Here, you two opposing forces (Law vs. Chaos, Good Vs. Evil, etc.) fighting each other, and the whole world is the stage for their conflict. Most believe that one is good and the other is evil, but some say that the two must remain at balance for the best result. Elishar and Toldoth are examples of a dualistic religion and its deities.

Animism

Spirits are everywhere here, and I mean literally everywhere, a tree has its spirit, as does everyone of its leaves, and so does the mountain, the sun and moon, the river, your computer, and that pebble over there. Most people here tend give praise and sacrifices to a specific spirit depending on the occasion and situation, whiles a cleric worships a handful of them as his or her patrons.

An undetermined/unexplored form of Animism is the presumed default religion of the Druids, which is literally why that class exists as a separate thing to the Nature God Clerics. In Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, this desire to give druids a deeper meaning led to the creation of the Primal Spirits as the animistic religion of the World Axis cosmology.

Forces & Philosophies

Of course, some gain their powers from their devotion and beliefs of some ideal or philosophy (honor, freedom, wealth, power, etc.) or simply worship forces of either nature or magic, with deities being just personal manifestations of impersonal forces and philosophies. They don't deny the existance of deities, they just think them as too much like the mortals who worship them.

Divine Ranks

In D&D, deities have a rank, ranging from quasi-deity to greater deity. All it really means is that the greater deities rank the more powerful they are, more generalized their portfolio's are, and, depending on the setting, how many worshippers they have. The ranks shown here are the ones used in 3.5, and from bottom to top they are:

• Quasi-Deity: Not quite gods but still immortal and powerful beings. Planar powers (Archdevils, Animal Lords, the Hebdomad, etc.), Elder Evils (Though some of them such as Pandorym are much stronger than gods), and Vestiges go here.
• Hero-Deity: Ascended mortals, often sponsored by other gods, and descendants of mortals and deities go here. Often have very specialized portfolios.
• Demigod: Here be gods proper. From here on they can have their own realms in the Outer Planes, and grant spells to their worshippers depending on the setting.
• Lesser Deity: More powerful than demigods and more widely worshipped.
• Intermediate Deity: More powerful than lesser deities and more widely worshipped.
• Greater Deity: The leaders of pantheons, usually, and gods of common nouns, concepts, and universal forces (magic, sun, nature, etc.) go here.
• Overdeity: Gods in charge of other gods, often the ones who decide whether or not someone becomes a god. Don't grant spells and have no worshippers, being beyond the need for them. Examples include Ao and possibly Lady of Pain.

There are also two unique divine ranks that are tied to cosmologies outside of the Great Wheel...

• Mystaran Immortals are named as such because they are tied to the nameless cosmology of Mystara, which due to its basis in Sword & Sorcery meets Science Fantasy "Pulp Fantasy" uses a complex system of dimensions rather than planes. Immortals are former mortals who have attuned themselves to one of the five Spheres that make up the pillars of reality - Thought, Matter, Energy, Time and Entropy - by following one of four archetypal Paths (Dynast, Hero, Paragon, Polymath) to ascend into a multi-dimensional higher entity. They're gods, but they don't work the same way as the gods of Great Wheel do.
• Exarchs hail from the World Axis, and the term basically means "any powerful, unique, and immortal servant of a full-fledged god". In essence, the World Axis uses "God" to refer "Greater Deity" and "Exarch" to refer to "any divine entity below that in power".

Historical Deities

Whilst D&D has never shied away from creating gods of its own division for its various campaign settings, Gygax and his buddies were big mythology and history fans, so they eagerly explored the idea of using various "Pagan" religions as being real things in the D&D multiverse. This led to the Deities & Demigods splatbook. Whether or not people actually like this idea of "defictionalizing" real-world mythologies, which people can get rather touchy about... well...

Whatever the stance on actually using them in game is, they're well known and public domain so they do serve well as examples of how to make a D&D type deity without attaching a particular setting to the example.

Dragonlance

The gods of Dragonlance each have a constellation in the night sky or one of the three moons. When a god walks in the world among mortals, that constellation is absent from the sky, which is a dead giveaway to the other gods.

Gods of Good

• Branchala (the harp), music, inspiration, bards
• Habbakuk (the phoenix), persistence, animals, rangers
• Kiri-Jolith (the bison's head), unity, strength, fighters
• Majere (the rose), discipline, dreams, monks
• Mishakal (the figure-eight), restoration, motherhood, healers
• Paladine (the platinum dragon), majesty, aspirations, leaders
• Solinari (the silver moon), magic used for good, wizards

Gods of Neutrality

• Chislev (a wandering star (planet)), instinct, natural world
• Gilean (the book), knowledge, librarians, scholars
• Lunitari (the red moon), magic used for neutrality, wizards
• Reorx (a red star), creation, craftsmen, dwarves and gnomes
• Shinare (a wandering star (planet)), interaction, agreements, merchants
• Sirrion (a wandering star (planet)), transformation, fire, artists and alchemists
• Zivilyn (a wandering star (planet)), wisdom, awareness, completely impartial

Gods of Evil

• Chemosh (the goat skull), fatalism, despair, undead
• Hiddukel (the broken scale), exploitation, selfishness, thieves
• Morgion (the diseased hood), decay, disease, suffering
• Nuitari (the black (invisible) moon), magic used for evil, wizards
• Sargonnas (the condor), wrath, revenge, minotaurs
• Takhisis (the five-headed dragon), control, conquest, tyrants
• Zeboim (the dragon-turtle), strife, mood-swings, bane of sailors

Eberron

Religion here is more like actual religion than normal D&D. There's evidence for and against the gods existing, and divine magic is fueled by faith, rather than the actual god. Some atheist/agnostic clerics or fanatical believers in a state or charismatic individual can also access spells for this reason, and there are no alignment restrictions on priesthood. The Silver Flame has the worst kind of evil hypocrites, deluded into thinking they're doing the right thing, the Blood of Vol has decent, innocent people taken in by its cultish lies, and everything on a spectrum in between, and so long as their faith holds, their spells come out right.

• The Sovereign Host: Traditional "good" gods.
• The Dark Six: Traditional "evil" gods.
• The Silver Flame: Similar to Medival Catholicism
• The Dragon Below: Demon worship.
• The Lord of Blades: A warforged-supremacist preaching the death or enslavement of all the fleshies. Not actually a god, but his followers are such mad fanatics that they can manifest divine magic anyway.
• The Blood of Vol: Humanism with some Undeath mixed in. Most members don’t know about the evil cult running things from behind the scenes..
• The Path of Light: Kalashtar religion opposing the Quori.
• The Path of Inspiration: Quori-founded religion that looks like a peaceful religion but is actually helping them come into the world.
• The Becoming God: A bunch of warforged trying to build their own god. Probably not actually the Lord of Blades, though he certainly wants to be, and there's some overlap with his followers.

Ghostwalk

The Deities of Ghostwalk
	Lawful	Neutral	Chaotic
Good	Durann	Aluvan • Eanius	Soggelos • Wyst
Neutral	Chaniud • Dracanish • Uhanam	Galaedros • Nessek	Tephaneron
Evil	Phaant	Khostren	Orcus

Greyhawk

To make things more complicated, the gods that appear in the Flanaess originated from a number of ethnic groups appearing in the setting. The Oerdian, Baklunish, Flan and Suloise peoples all have their own gods, some of them overlapping. Some gods are revered by multiple groups and have no direct origin, while others are worshipped in only one region. Below are listed a number of these deities.

Greater Deities

• Beory, the Earth mother
• Boccob, god of magic, arcane knowledge, balance and foresight.
• Incabulos, god of plague, famine, disease and disaster.
• Istus, goddess of of fate, destiny and the future.
• Nerull, god of death, darkness, murder and the underworld.
• Pelor, god of sun, light, strength and healing. More humans worship Pelor than any other deity.
• Rao, god of peace and reason.

Intermediate Deities

• Celestian, god of the stars, wanderers and space.
• Ehlonna, goddess of forests, woodlands, flora & fauna, and fertility.
• Erythnul, god of hate, envy, malice, panic, ugliness, and slaughter.
• Fharlanghn, god of horizons, distance, travel, and roads.
• Heironeous, god of chivalry, justice, honor, war, daring, and valor.
• Hextor, god of war, discord, massacres, conflict, fitness, and tyranny.
• Kord, god of athletics, sports, brawling, strength, and courage.
• Lendor, god of time, patience and study.
• Obad-Hai, god of nature, freedom, hunting, and beasts.
• Olidammara, god of music, revels, wine, rogues, humor, and tricks. Tends to fuck with the other gods for the hell of it.
• Pholtus, god of law, order, light, the sun and the moons.
• Procan, god of the seas, sea life and navigation.
• Ralishaz, god of chance, misfortune and insanity.
• Saint Cuthbert, god of common sense, wisdom, zeal, honesty, truth, and discipline. Needless to say, he's all but dead in the future.
• Tharizdun, god of entropy, insanity and darkness.
• Ulaa, goddess of mountains, mining and gemstones.
• Wee Jas, goddess of magic, death, vanity, and law.
• Zilchus, god of trade and money.

Lesser Deities

• Vecna god of secrets.
• Xan Yae

Demi-Gods

• Wastri
• Ye'Cind, Chaotic elven deity of music, enchantment, and magick.
• Zagyg, deification of Gygax himself.
• Zuoken

Mystara

In Mystara, instead of Gods you have the Immortals, mortal beings who reached divinity through their actions in life and sponsorship by other Immortals. The Immortals are ranked by power (Initiates being the recently ascended and the weakest, with Hierarchs being the oldest and strongest), and divided based on which of the five Spheres they belong to.

• Sphere of Matter is mainly Lawful, concerned with stability and order.
• Sphere of Energy is mainly Chaotic, concerned with change and transformation.
• Sphere of Time is mainly Neutral, concerned with balance, growth, and rebirth.
• Sphere of Thought is mainly Good, concerned with understanding and enlightnement.
• Sphere of Entrophy is mainly Evil, concerned with destruction and opposing all of the above Spheres and itself.

Above the Immortals are the Old Ones (No, not those ones), who are to Immortals, what Immortals are to mortals.

It's also possible for PCs to become Immortals (of any Sphere except Entropy), and even Old Ones (provided they can reach the highest level in their Sphere, level 40, twice).

Nentir Vale (Dawn War Pantheon)

The default setting for D&D 4E.

Planescape

Too many gods to count, some less potent than a 20th level player character. You can use gods from any of the other campaign settings, even multiple settings. Planescape adventures are usually based in the city of Sigil which no god may enter, not even when Orcus was acting as the BBEG of the entire AD&D 2nd edition.

Pantheons that have been mentioned in Planescape include:

D&D

• Birthright
• Dragonlance
• Forgotten Realms
• Greyhawk

Real life

• Babylonian
• Celtic
• Chinese
• Egyptian
• Finnish
• Greek
• Indian
• Japanese
• Native American
• Norse
• Sumerian

The Lady of Pain isn't here because she is not a god.

Racial

These deities appear in several campaign settings (including Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk) as part of their racial pantheons. Except when they're dead.

• Annam, god of giants.
• Bahamut, god of good dragons.
• Blibdoolpoolp, god of kuo-toas.
• Corellon Larethian, god of elves, magic, music, and arts.
• Garl Glittergold, god of gnomes, humor, and gemcutting.
• Gruumsh, god of orcs.
• Kurtulmak god of kobolds.
• Lolth, goddess of Drow and spiders.
• Moradin, god of dwarves.
• Tiamat, goddess of evil dragons.
• Yondalla, goddess of halflings.

Ravenloft

Many of the gods of Ravenloft are confirmed to be or are likely not real, but people who worship them can gain spells anyway because the Dark Powers grant divine magic in their place. The Dark Powers may actually be granting the spells of all divine casters in Ravenloft no matter what deity they actually worship. So the Dark Powers may be the only gods or otherwise godlike beings that have any influence even if nobody actually worship them. Several of the gods worshiped in Ravenloft are #Historical_Deities, or may be gods from other settings under different names.

Third Party Settings

Dragonmech

Most people stopped believing in the gods after the moon got closer and clerics stopped getting spells properly. They do exist but are under siege from the lunar gods, who are also trying to steal their followers, which limits their capabilities. Along with that, some old and forgotten gods are coming back, a new god, Dotrak, is being born from peoples faith in machines, and some people are gaining divine spells from their faith in ideas and philosophies.

Dragonstar

The Unification Church maintains that there are 12 "deitypes", or true gods, who created everything and from which all the other deities are derived, with some being combinations of two or more deitypes. Along with that you also have the Dualist Heresy who say that there are only two true gods.

Humblewood

The birdfolk and humblefolk both worship a pantheon known as the Amaranthine, a collection of nature deities who each take responsibility for a specific aspect of nature. There are twelve Amaranthine in total; one spiritual patron for each of the beastfolk races of the setting, plus a duotheistic pair of pantheon leaders who, whilst depicted as birds, are regarded as above such a divide and thusly are connected to all races equally.

The Deities of Humblewood
The Creator Gods	Ardea • Tyton
The Birdfolk Gods	Altus • Clhuran • Gesme • Hanera • Reya
The Humblefolk Gods	Cairith • Gaspard • Hath • Henwin • Kren

Ptolus

In Ptolus, most people follow Lothian, who is Jesus and whose church is the Roman Catholic Church. The said church went about oppressing all the other faiths until just 200 years ago when they lost enough power, and became a bit more tolerant, to allow other faiths to gain momentum again. You also have things like the Temple of Excellence, whose halfling cleric has divine spells simply because he believes in himself hard enough, and the cults of chaos who worship various gribbly things.

Scarred Lands

The world underwent a fantasy Titanomachy, i.e. mortal-friendly gods took over things from the less-friendly titans. There's the eight main gods, and a host of minor demigods, and titan-worshippers are hiding in the shadows, well except for the followers of Denev. In other places you have the Ushada, the animistic spirits of everything, and the Agency of the Emperor in the Dragon Lands.

The deities and faiths of the Scarred Lands
The Gods & Demigods
Belsameth - Chardun - Corean - Enkili - Hedrada - Madriel - Tanil - Vangal
Ashumas - Aspharal - The Beastlords - D'shan - Drendari - Elámash - Erias The Flayed God - Fraelhia - Gamgal - Goran - Hwyrdd - Imal Wheatsheaf Immatuk - Idra - Jandaveos - Kadeshu - Katashama - Laathsaal - Luchanig Manawe - Nalthalos - Nemorga - Otossal - Sarhari - Sethris - Subastas Syhana - Tamul - Trelu - Tukulti - Volskalka
The Titans
Chern - Denev - Gaurak - Golthagga - Golthain - Gormoth - Gulaben Hrinruuk - Kadum - Lethene - Mesos - Mormo - Spiragos - Thulkas
Other Faiths of Scarn
Agency of the Emperor - Ushadani

Gallery

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  Priests of Pholtus, Al'Akbar, Saint Cuthbert, Heironeous, and Hextor

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  Priests of Lendor, Istus, Boccob, Celestian, and Fharlaghn

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  Priests of Iuz, Nerull, Tharizdun, Vecna, and Wastri

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  Priests of Sehanine Moonbow, Mouqol, Rao, Zuoken, and Xan Yae

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  Priests of Kurell, Trithereon, Wenta, Ralishaz, and Kord