I've got an idea that's been languishing for awhile on a few powers that make their realm in the cyber plane (or even a set of them). Just letting folks know I'm working on it - check back to this post for updates.
Prospective diety list so far:
Glitch (CN) - what do you *think* he's a god of? 
uh...I only know that 'glitch' in slang is error that happens over and over again, so maybe he is god of endless error that appers in cyber plan....or he's god of 'thinking' errors ? 
Both. Glitches are bugs that are being particularly hard to track down, and/or seemingly random - persistant but hard to replicate in testing. He'd be a god of buggy code basicly. Best to be placated by a programmer with suitable sacrifice to avoid recieving any *more* of his attention.
Certainly! 
I'd imagine that there would be a lot of Demi-powers, due to the sheer diversity of what is out on the internet.
Yeah, given the overwhelming level of exotic content of the net and cyberspace there has gotta be a god called Heffner or something 
Given the sheer volume of space such material consumes he has to be rivalling Toril's Ao on the power scale
Im trying to think of more sensible powers and ideas...sorry for the outburst
I'm sure many of the powers will have tried to move into taking advantage of the internet as a means of contacting worshippers. There will probably only be a few who's portfolios become so involved with the cyberrealm that they actually make their *kip* there though.
I was thinking of creating a neutral align Internet god named Datalus. He would be worshiped not only by geeks and hackers, but just about anyone who would use the Net or computers. He would also have realms in the Outlands, Logos/Mechancus and in Cyberspace.
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
Hmm...the name "Datalus" sounds enough like latin that he could be added to the Greco-Roman pantheon...mabye if Vulcan and Venus break up, and Vulcan remarries to Minerva, Datalus could be their offspring (just speculating). I think his portfolio is too encompassing to make as a generic cyber-power.
Under this premise, he would have realms in Mount Olympus and Cyberspace.
Latin dictionary states "indicium" as the word meaning "data, information, evidence". Hmm, the great Indicium :twisted:
Hey, that's pretty good. I can a use that instead of Datalus?
I don't know. You'd have to ask someone who owns a copyright to latin language 
I'm with Indicium myself. Not only is it related to the topic at hanbd - it's obscure enough that it doesn't sound like we're making a bad Star Trek reference. It doesn't enduce in me a bad urge to snicker under my breath.
Good point about the "Star Trek" reference-and if we put him with the Olympians, it wouldn't help that his father would be Vulcan.
... ok. It's no longer an urge to snicker *under* my breath. Good god (pardon the pun) that's just *bad*.
I don't like the idea of gods living in cyberspace.
Why? It doesn't really exist. It's all data and virtual reality. There's nowhere for the gods to live.
I do, but then again, read some Neuromancer or other William Gibson works, and American Gods and things become a bit more palatable in that respect. In the books Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive, which are the 2nd and 3rd books in the Neuromancer trilogy, there are definitely what appear to be god-like beings in the 'net. What it really is will be obvious to someone who knows the entire trilogy, but the presence of gods of the 'net is a belief that the hackers of the world/time during the second two books of that trilogy take for granted. It is not an unusual idea by any means, so I don't see any particular reason to not include it, actually. It's been explored as a fantasy idea many times in media such as books, TV shows, and even in a couple of movies, so I believe it would have enough 'critical mass of belief' to perhaps be something present in the Planes of UPS. Even informed computer users often act as if computers have a mystical aspect to them, and the average person seems to do so almost automatically.
Granted, my version of UPS would be informed by a lot of cyberpunk, sci-fi, urban dark fantasy, and light horror, so I'm perhaps coming at it from a perspective that might not be shared by all here. However, most 'modern' RPG settings do go those routes, and Urban Arcana has aspects of those within it.
Famously, virtual reality was called "a consensual hallucination" formed out of common belief and a framework for understanding data flow by Gibson in Neuromancer and so, I feel that a semi-mystical aspect to cyberspace in UPS might not be out of place.
Why? It doesn't really exist. It's all data and virtual reality. There's nowhere for the gods to live.
In a game of fantasy and fiction THIS is what doesnt make sense to you?
Speaking in-game the whole point of planescape, be it modern or classic, is that belief has the power to move reality. Whatever can be imagined can become real. Hell, we all know what happens to gods without worshippers. Whats to say all those prayers for something not to crash out or the lone geek on Mechanus hoping his hack works arent heard and bring into existence a whole new creation...I think this is the concept which would best reflect the matter at hand in creating a plane of cyberspace.
But then I may be wrong
It's no worse that 1st ed. D&D... or a bunch of 'classic' D&D monsters. Considering that WotC had to put out an article talking about the lack of humor present in 3.0 and 3.5 rulebooks compared to 1st and 2nd ed books, I'd say it's par for the course, comparatively. (Though, the example of an in-game joke they used involving a kobold at the bottom of a pit trying to complete a crossword but unable to figure out a valid 5 letter word for a magical construct created to perform a task as an iron golem drops onto him, crushing him and killing him instantly still cracks me up)
While there might well be very powerful beings in cyberspace (and gods could well log on), I don't think that there should be proper, spell-granting gods there.
There's no magic. No astral conduits. No way to grant spells, no way to cast them. The Plane (if it could truly be considerred as such) doesn't give a damn about what you beleive; it just does what your code says to do.
So there are two components to "real" cyberspace. One is the physical hardware on which calculations are performed and communications initiated. The other is the user's experience of being immersed in a virtual reality, which is the result of those calculations. A cyberspace god would, to me, interact with his portfolio in a manner similar to a god of rainbows(which exist: see Iris from the Greeks, several primitive deities, the Christian flood myth, and most impressively, Bifrost with the Norse). There's no rainbow there, up close -- it only exists from the distance, in the aggregate, as reflections off of raindrops. But that's quite sufficient to inspire belief capable of powering a deity.
The realm of a cyberspace god would act for visitors as if they had uploaded an icon to a cyberspace realm on real servers; it simply wouldn't have any servers. (Or perhaps Mechanus is its server. Or perhaps the god is the server, and/or the realm, and visitors are in communion with him at a very shielded level. Lots of options.) Visitors could enter physically, by stepping in, if the god so chose, and their bodies would become icon equivalents (starting out at default until they learned the laws of the place and set preferences). Or perhaps it might close off its real borders and exist in a null space somewhere, accessible only by real networks: there could be plenty of very tiny astral conduits to the realm, each of which connects to a pre-existing datalink somewhere in the physical world.
A god named Indicium would doubtless be concerned not only with collecting data but with indexing it, that is to say, organizing it. He would probably be as knowledgeable as Boccob but more responsive to requests for information; for that matter, he might even make it mechanically easier for his priest to cast divination spells such as Commune or be eager to respond to spells like Contact Other Plane, since he's all about the exchange of information.
Glitch would probably be a chaotic evil god; the manifestation of people's belief in the apparently arbitrary nature of frustrating computer errors.
The lawful evil god would, hmm, be a manifestation of people's notions of the daunting complexity of computers. They work, they follow rules, but those rules are so hard, oh no, call the compter geek! Can't think of a name for him, but his portfolio would definitely be computer wizards, black magic programming, and deep voodoo adminning. (Love how the appropriate terms are already there. %^) )
Neutral evil: Spam spam lovely spam! Type, my pretties, type type type type, this data isn't going to enter itself! Infinite loops, inane advertisements and pointless repetitive work -- the blossoming potential of beautiful cyberspace crushed under the heel of the simple desire for profit and the lack of any restraining ethics. Is the company's mainframe is dedicated to spewing millions of junk mail ads while the graphic artist is shackled to a glorified typewriter? You can thank IT (sometimes pronounced "eye-tee", sometimes pronounced "it").
Chaotic neutral: representing the uncontrollable growth of the 'Net and the boggling array of minutely subdivided niches present, Niche would have a thousand faces. Otaku of an obscure anime one day, cat fancier the next, SCA reenactor tomorrow, his priests know a little about everything and have access to powerful magic of regeneration and growth. ("The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.") Oh, and they're fanatic free-software distributors and run pirate servers for everything from art to cracked pro software. You know, if he hasn't been co-opted already this could make a fine role for Olidammara.
Lawful neutral: ... heck, the lawful neutral computer god probably *is* Primus. Although Cyberspace itself might be such a god, with its stable and discoverable laws.
The true neutral god would care about net neutrality, and seeing that all users had access. Suddenly Fharlanghn seems to make sense... I can't decide whether he or the LN god would make the better "mod" for Cyberspace. The former would care about keeping order, and probably be more vigilant kicking out trolls; however, the true neutral god would probably be more tolerant of unusual but not destructive behavior.
A LG god of the 'Net would harness its power to connect and organize far-flung groups of people toward specific purposes. No ideas on specifics, ony the negative that "flash mobs" seem too chaotic. He would probably also be concerned with the propagation of protocols and standards that make communication easier, although that's something he might delegate to an associated demi-god.
NG: The creative chaos of many minds is channeled and formed by the consensual agreement on the patterns of the Net. They merge to form a new and greater whole. The cycle repeats itself with limitless potential to the glorification of every individual in the community.
*theme to Stand-Alone Complex starts playing in the background*
CG: The god Emergent arises from the group in unexpected ways and manifests at moments of transient beauty. Fads, flash memes, and new trends are her portfolio, and she's always moving on to the next new thing. No one can predict her or catch her, but you know she'll be there in the crowd at the next hot happening.
The lawful evil god would, hmm, be a manifestation of people's notions of the daunting complexity of computers. They work, they follow rules, but those rules are so hard, oh no, call the compter geek! Can't think of a name for him, but his portfolio would definitely be computer wizards, black magic programming, and deep voodoo adminning. (Love how the appropriate terms are already there. %^) )
Neutral evil: Spam spam lovely spam! Type, my pretties, type type type type, this data isn't going to enter itself! Infinite loops, inane advertisements and pointless repetitive work -- the blossoming potential of beautiful cyberspace crushed under the heel of the simple desire for profit and the lack of any restraining ethics. Is the company's mainframe is dedicated to spewing millions of junk mail ads while the graphic artist is shackled to a glorified typewriter? You can thank IT (sometimes pronounced "eye-tee", sometimes pronounced "it").
Chaotic neutral: representing the uncontrollable growth of the 'Net and the boggling array of minutely subdivided niches present, Niche would have a thousand faces. Otaku of an obscure anime one day, cat fancier the next, SCA reenactor tomorrow, his priests know a little about everything and have access to powerful magic of regeneration and growth. ("The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.") Oh, and they're fanatic free-software distributors and run pirate servers for everything from art to cracked pro software. You know, if he hasn't been co-opted already this could make a fine role for Olidammara.
Lawful neutral: ... heck, the lawful neutral computer god probably *is* Primus. Although Cyberspace itself might be such a god, with its stable and discoverable laws.
The true neutral god would care about net neutrality, and seeing that all users had access. Suddenly Fharlanghn seems to make sense... I can't decide whether he or the LN god would make the better "mod" for Cyberspace. The former would care about keeping order, and probably be more vigilant kicking out trolls; however, the true neutral god would probably be more tolerant of unusual but not destructive behavior.
A LG god of the 'Net would harness its power to connect and organize far-flung groups of people toward specific purposes. No ideas on specifics, ony the negative that "flash mobs" seem too chaotic. He would probably also be concerned with the propagation of protocols and standards that make communication easier, although that's something he might delegate to an associated demi-god.
NG: The creative chaos of many minds is channeled and formed by the consensual agreement on the patterns of the Net. They merge to form a new and greater whole. The cycle repeats itself with limitless potential to the glorification of every individual in the community.
*theme to Stand-Alone Complex starts playing in the background*
CG: The god Emergent arises from the group in unexpected ways and manifests at moments of transient beauty. Fads, flash memes, and new trends are her portfolio, and she's always moving on to the next new thing. No one can predict her or catch her, but you know she'll be there in the crowd at the next hot happening.
I actually like the idea of current gods 'updating' their portfolios to become the biggest gods of the 'Net too. Especially the single-Prime gods, since they stand the most to gain, really. I do love the god ideas you've created.
A couple of ideas:
Would a cyber god need to have "worship"? Obviously, they aren't typical gods, and they rely on logic and circuitry rather than "belief". I'm going to make a leap and say that Cyberspace works differently from the rest of the planes, that belief *isn't* power, what *is* power are networks, connections, and instructions users and programs go through.
What I'm proposing is making cyber "gods" into cyber "entities", whose power increases not with worship, but by manipulating the causeways of information into their own idea of cyberspace. Glitch doesn't gain power by some hacker making a sacrifice and chanting some phrases to Glitch, Glitch gets power by making glitches! Each time glitch propagates glitches, he is furthering what he sees as his vision of Cyberspace, and thus furthers his powers. Indicium would further organize the internet, and further his power.
Thus, people who worship or work for these entities probably can't cast divine spells. Their job isn't to go convert people, it's to propagate their image of the net by actively hacking, programming, etc. They're crusaders, not priests. What they can do is have access to special prestige classes, as well as have their own special protection and "blessings" from their entity.
Surely an aspect of Gond would have a presence here?