The Mesopotamian Pantheon

Wait, Gilgamesh is a god in PS? I really think that diminishes his myth.

Lahmu & Lahamu (the Lahama)
(The Wraithworms)
Demipowers of Arborea, N
Portfolio: Words, Number, Guardianship
Realm: Pelion/Amun-thys
Symbol: Two intertwined serpents

The firstborn of Tiamat and Apsu, Lahmu and Lahamu are serpentine creatures, parents of all the gods of Babylon. Older than the titans of Olympus, older than Gaea and Uranus, almost unimaginably old in one of the most ancient assemblages of divinities known, they were the first creatures of comparative order to exist in their pantheon; it was their perception that caused Tiamat, Apsu, and Mummu to separate into independent entities capable of being imprisoned or destroyed.

Although they were allies of their descendents Marduk and Ea during the war against their mother Tiamat, they felt they had little place in the new order the gods created. They bowed gracefully out and volunteered to protect the True Words that they believed they had been the first to perceive. To aid them they created beasts in their own image, the wraithworms, descendents of whom are still found in the Beastlands and beyond. The first wraithworms, however, remain with their parents beneath the sands of Amun-thys.

Unfortunately, as the eons stretched on, as their realm crumbled to nothing, as the entire layer turned to waste, as the first eladrins spawned from snow and dust, the Lahama began to dwindle and fade. Without worship to sustain them they began to forget themselves, and to forget the purpose for which they had come to this place so long ago. As their power declined from the rank of greater gods to mere demigods, they fell into a deep sleep. Their children have not yet been able to wake them up. Most likely it is only the power of the True Words that sustains them at all.

Druaga
(Ruler of the Devil World)
Greater Power of the Nine Hells, LE
Portfolio: Baatezu, evil, darkness, sterility
Domains: Law, Evil, Diabolic
Aliases: Ahriman, Ahrimanes, Aryaman, Angra Mainyu, Ako Mainyu, Drauga
Realm: Baator/Nessus/The Tenebrous Abysm
Superior: None
Allies: Anu, Ea, Dispater, Mammon, Mephistopheles, Asmodeus
Foes: Ahura Mazda, Girru
Symbol: Ruby mace

Druaga was originally Aryaman, a son of the Vedic goddess Aditi. It was his role to bring sacrifices to fruition. When his brother Varuna inspired the prophet Zarathustra to create a faith honoring Varuna alone, Aryaman and the other Vedic gods - particularly Indra - were furious. Among the Dravidian pantheons they were assimilating they spread the idea that Varuna was a master of demons, not fit to be worshipped. Only Mitra sided with his brother Varuna, and as a result was rewarded with a favorable mention in the new holy texts. Varuna - now known as Ahura Mazda by his chosen people - retaliated by teaching his prophet that Aryaman was a personifications of utter evil. A war of words followed, but the end result was that Varuna lost his preeminent place among the Vedic gods, the asuras who followed him were banished to the inner planes, and a new god was created: Ahriman, also known as Druaga, every bit as evil as the Zoroastrians believed him to be. A new aspect of Indra was reduced to the status of one of Ahriman’s many fiendish servitors.

Trapped within the constraints of his myth, Druaga, born from Aryaman, warred endlessly against his brother. It was horribly tedious and futile. When Ea son of Anu arrived with a proposition - help us keep Ahura Mazda away from our worshippers and we’ll make you a member of our own pantheon - Druaga found it irresistibly tempting. At last, an opportunity to write his own myth once again! Freedom from Zarathustra and his crumbling scrolls! Perhaps, one day, even redemption.

In the meantime, the cult of Druaga is vile and ugly, characterized by human sacrifice and the summoning of baatezu. The Lords of the Nine are delighted with this development, and do what they can to encourage Druaga’s new worshippers to follow their path. Worshippers of the Babylonian pantheon are taught that Druaga was a creation of Tiamat’s who sided with the gods. Druaga actually has no particular animosity toward Tiamat, but he plays along.

Girru
(Lord of the Flame)

Lesser Power of the Seven Heavens, LG
Portfolio: Fire, Light, Civilization
Domains: Fire, Law, Good, Glory
Aliases: Girra
Realm: Mercuria/The Undying Flame
Superior: Anu
Allies: Marduk, Ea, Ishtar, Ramman, Shemesh,
Foes: Druaga, Anshar, The Lords of the Nine, Princes of the Abyss, Yugoloth rulers
Symbol: Axe wrapped in fire

Girru is the son of Anu and his sister-wife Antu, making him the brother of Ea. He is a crusader of righteousness and the messenger of the gods. He didn’t take it well when his pantheon allowed the tattered remnants of the Zoroastrian pantheon to join them; to him, the unholy bargain with Druaga was an unacceptable compromise, going far beyond any perceived need for “balance.” Because his father has forbidden him from attacking Druaga directly, he works against the diabolic lords Druaga is allied with, hoping to undermine the so-called “Lord of the Devil World” by reducing the number of minions he has access to. Girru hopes that if Druaga is caught short, Anu will be obliged to end their pact. Therefore, Girru sends the astral devas in his service to disrupt the baatezu roads and supply lines leading to Druaga’s realm.

Girru is served by many mortal paladins.

Anshar
(The Night)

Lesser Power of Pandemonium, CE
Portfolio: Darkness, Night
Domains: Darkness, Chaos, Evil
Aliases: Ashur
Realm: Pandesmos/The City of Eternal Darkness
Superior: None
Allies: Kishar (dead), Eloéle, Nergal, Astraeüs, Phoebe, Pallas, Coeus
Foes: Tiamat, the Sumerian pantheon
Symbol: Winged sphere of darkness

Anshar has fallen far since the days when he was king of heaven, king of all the gods. He is the oldest of their number, the first true god to be born from the children of Tiamat and Bahamut, the offspring of Io. Always violent by nature, he urged his grandson Ea to kill his grandmother Tiamat at a time when Ea favored diplomacy.

When Anshar’s dominion as lord of the sky was taken from him by his son Anu, he retreated to Pandemonium and founded his City of Eternal Darkness, there to honor the infinite night before the birth of Shemesh the sun during Anu’s reign.

Over time, Anshar has shrank in power and influence, dwindling from a greater god to a lesser one. Kishar, his sister and wife, has disappeared entirely, existing only as an astral corpse. Anshar, however, is not one to merely mourn his fate and accept it. He created his own pantheon, the Assyrian, where as Ashur he became the primary god of the sky and war, with Ishtar as his consort. Those were grand days, but the Assyrian pantheon was weakened by the rise of the Zoroastrian gods. Ishtar, always one to go wherever the wind was most favorable, left him for new lovers.

Out of pure spite, he conspired with the god Nergal to slay the Sumerian god Enki. Unlike many gods known in Babylon, Anshar had no Sumerian counterpart, but Enki was one of the most ancient and powerful Sumerian gods still alive. They lured him into the Abyss and ambushed him, hungrily drinking the divine ambrosia of his blood in the hope it might prolong their own miserable existences.

Out of loneliness and fear he has invited a goddess from a foreign pantheon - Eloéle, a goddess of night - to dwell with him in his stygian abode. Other members of his pantheon suspect her of gold-digging, fearing the rising goddess might wrest control of the City of Eternal Darkness from its creator. Those who know Anshar better - and few outside his realm do - notice Eloéle’s memory and personality seem to be fading. Night after night in the endless night, she becomes more pliable to Anshar’s will. It seems likely that the ancient god is somehow devouring her mind from within, and ultimately Eloéle will become merely another aspect of Anshar.

A few similar elder gods from the Olympian pantheon - the titans Astraeüs, Phoebe, Pallas, and Coeus - have cultivated relationships with Anshar from their Tarterian exile. With a similar affinity toward darkness and resentment, the titans hope to find out how Anshar is managing his trick of assimilating a younger god. Perhaps that could be their ticket out of their cage. Anshar actually has more in common with Uranus, the titans’ father, but he is willing to take what help he can get at this point.

Anshar has attempted cultivating an alliance with the goblinkin deity Stalker, an elder god of hate, death, darkness and cold. Thus far, all of Anshar’s messengers have been killed. Anshar does not mind much - the messengers were picked because of their disposability - but he has given up on the idea for now. In any case, Stalker hasn’t been seen in the planes for some time.

Despite the fact that he is only two generations removed from the Draconic pantheon, Anshar has no connections with it. He hates dragons with at least as much passion as his great-grandson, Marduk, but the dragon gods mostly consider him to be beneath notice.

Anshar is worshipped by a few in the worlds where the Assyrian culture once held sway, but his cult has mostly been driven underground. Thieves, assassins, and other denizens of the night hold him in the highest regard. Anshar has embraced this aspect of his worship, and has taken to encouraging illicit acts through his clerics and proxies.

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The Sumerian pantheon was born from Nammu, the primordial waters. From Nammu was born An the sky and Ki the earth. From An and Ki was born Enlil, Lord of the Winds, and Ninhursag, Lady of the Mountain. Then, dreaming in the waters of Nammu was born Enki, Lord of the Earth and Sea, awakened at last by Ninhursag, Lady of the Mountain, goddess of birth.

Enlil and his wife Ninlil begat Nanna-Sin. Inanna, Ereshkigal, and Utu were children of Nanna-Sin and Ningal.

=================================
The Babylonian pantheon was born from the Sumerian one, though it has grown more complex, more concerned with matters of order and law. In Babylonian myth the first sentient beings were Apsu, fresh water personified, and Tiamat the salt water. Together they created Mummu, the waves, and two younger beings, the first dragons: Lahmu and Lahamu. In the beginning Apsu, Tiamat, and Mummu were one, pure chaos with nothing to differentiate one from the other. Lahmu and Lahamu were the first to know Words, and Number, and with that power they separated their parents and their brother, giving them draconic forms like their own.

They who were born of Chaos did not thank the newcomers for this favor.

Lahmu and Lahamu then stared into the primal void and, with the power of Words and Number, they created two new things: Kishar and Anshar, who would become rulers of the earth and the sky. Anshar and Kishar begat Anu, Antu, and Ki.

On his sister Antu, Anu begat Ea and Damkina. On his sister Ki, Anu begat Enlil and Ninlil.

The descendents of Lahmu and Lahamu were the gods. With the power of word and number they began to order the universe according to their individual bents.

This was physically painful for the eldest born of Chaos. Apsu in particular raged at the constraints and boundaries his grandchildren were creating. In the old days he could do anything, be anything. Now with each moment the gods wove their logocentric web he grew weaker, more limited, less himself.

In rage fueled by desperation, Apsu conferred with his watery, mercurial kind. The new gods, he argued, must be destroyed before they changed their ancestors’ very being forever. Mummu agreed, but Tiamat was not so sure. Up to this point, nothing had been destroyed. They had only ever created and transformed. Destruction seemed a form of limitation; wouldn’t it be another form of the very crime they sought to prevent?

Anshar, meanwhile, was trying to persuade his children of this very eventuality.

Mummu argued no - destruction could actually be a form of creation. Perhaps it was even the truest form. Apsu found this convincing. Soon, he assured his favored offspring. Soon we will strike.

It was not to be. Ea the all-knowing heard their speech through the waters. Ea the greatest of magi used the power of word and number to entangle the elder gods in sleep. Ea the binder of demons created a magic circle from word and number to hold them fast forever, fixing them in a single static form. Ea the slayer of demons killed Apsu and made his skull into his throne. Mummu was imprisoned in a demiplane of Ea’s creation, a circular prison intended to last until the end of time.

Now the deed was done. Destruction had happened. Death had happened. Tiamat grew twisted with rage and grief. Perhaps, she thought, destruction really was the only beauty left to her. She began to spawn twisted abominations, things that had been wild imaginings in the time before creation and now were hard reality, fixed and grim like herself: the first dragons, manticores, chimeras, sphinxes, wemics, dragonnes, basilisks, giants, death dogs, centaurs, bariaurs, lamias, scorpion-folk. Fiends.

You must slay her too, counseled Anshar, oldest of the gods. Anshar, lord of sky, lord of night.

That didn’t go too well last time, Ea pointed out. I’m thinking it should be a last resort. What if Tiamat and her new spawn were our allies?

During the time Ea was stalling, he was also creating a child of his own: Marduk. Ea used his powers to enhance Marduk’s senses and abilities. He trained his son personally, and when he was ready Marduk girded on the magical arms his father had made him, and summoned wind elementals to aid him against Tiamat’s hordes.

It’s dragon season, said Marduk son of Ea.

According to the myths, Marduk killed Tiamat that day, splitting her in two from the inside. Yet it is also true that Tiamat survived in her aspect as a member of the draconic pantheon, and continued to harass her foe from time to time.

For a long time after that, the Babylonian pantheon was more or less stable. Lahmu and Lahamu retreated to the desert waste of Arborea’s fourth layer, there to guard the True Words with their serpent brood until the end of time. Ea taught his son further, and from the blood and body of Tiamat’s general Kingu, Marduk created the race of humans to empower them with their worship and sacrifices. New gods and spirits were born, and others (like Tammuz, consort of Ishtar) died.

Then came the Zoroastrian pantheon. Why Ahura Mazda and his celestial hosts decided to gun for the same lands held by worshippers of the Babylonian gods is clear: they simply sprang from similar climes.

The Zoroastrian faith proved extremely, insidiously popular, catching fire in the Babylonian lands so quickly that the pantheon found their worshippers disappearing much faster than they could recruit more. Dependent on mortals as they had become, they feared they would soon face extinction.

Ea, as ever, had a plan. He approached Druaga, Ahura Mazda’s archnemesis, and offered to make a deal: if Druaga would agree to ally his diabolic hosts with the children of Anu, Druaga could become an official member of their pantheon, granted worship equal to that of any other god. A chance to humiliate Ahura Mazda and to achieve the respectability and open worship he craved: how could Druaga say no?

Today Druaga works hand in hand with the Babylonians, helping to fend off the celestials of Ahura Mazda in return for a place of honor in every temple. Many of the other gods are infuriated by this: Girru, in particular, doesn’t take the baatezu walking openly through the realms of his fellow gods well. The human sacrifices to Druaga haven’t done anything positive for the mortal cultures either. Anu has decreed that it be so, though, and so it is.

Ellil
(Ruler of Heaven, Lord Wind, Sky Bull)
Intermediate Power of Mechanus, LN
Portfolio: Air, law, order
Domains: Air, Weather, Law
Aliases: Enlil, Kur-Gal
Realm: Nippur
Superior: None
Allies: Anu, Ninlil, Girru, Sin, Ramman, Gilgeam (dead)
Foes: Enlil, Ea
Symbol:] Pick-axe

Ellil was born from the Sumerian god Enlil. As Enlil’s worshippers became more urbanized and concerned with laws, the Babylonian pantheon was born from the Sumerian, and so Ellil was separated from his older aspect, becoming a completely separate entity. The Sumerian Enlil had been neutral good, mostly concerned with wind and war, but this new deity was more concerned with order than anything else.

In Babylonian/Akkadian myth, Ellil was born from the exhausted breath of Anu and the earth goddess Urash, shortly after their sexual union. Born from breath, he was wind itself, the firmament, the force that separated Earth from Heaven.

By his wife Ninlil, Ellil is the father of the moon-god Sin and the thunder-god Ramman. The fire-god Girru is his half-brother, the full brother of Ea, but Ellil does not hold this against him and Girru has no problem with Ellil.

It is commonly held, in some circles, that Ellil is the real leader of the Babylonian pantheon, that old Anu is merely a ceremonial figure at this point and everyone takes direction from his son. This has some truth to it, though few would ignore the advice of clever Ea. If Ellil is the power behind the throne, Ea is the power behind that power.

Ellil and Ea, however, are great rivals. Ea believes he should have been given rulership of the sky, since his mother Antu is older than her sister Urash. When Ellil sent a flood to wipe out mortals (disliking their violation of his laws), Ea saved some of them in an ark. When Ishtar defied the laws of the gods by entering the Underworld, Ea rescued her. When the pantheon allied itself with Druaga, Ea didn’t give Ellil any credit for the idea (not that he deserved any). Ellil thinks of Ea as a law-scoffing nuisance, while Ea thinks of Ellil as a usurper. Ea’s son Marduk, well-respected among the gods as the defeater of Tiamat, tends to side with his father, something that irks Ellil to no end. His grandaughter Ishtar, too, treats Enlil as the more favored of her two grandfathers. Despite Ellil’s efforts, Ea’s place as the power behind the power seems assured.

As their holdings elsewhere were being devoured by the Zoroastrian pantheon, Ellil was among those who sought worshippers on the world of Toril, where some of his faithful had been enslaved. Known by the older name Enlil there, Ellil managed to get an avatar passed the barrier mortals had made against his kind. The avatar ruled as a god-king, head of the pantheon called the Untherian by the locals, and even sired a semi-divine offspring, one Gilgeam. Though many of the other avatars were killed by members of the Orcish pantheon, Ellil survived. Ultimately, though, Ellil made the calculated decision that the cost of maintaining an avatar was using more of his divine power than he was gaining from the paltry few worshippers the nation of Unther had to offer. In a typically pragmatic move he abandoned the world, leaving Gilgeam to rule in his stead.

The older Enlil is infuriated by his inadvertent creation, so cold, so mechanical, and so willing to steal Enlil‘s own worshippers. More warlike than his Babylonian equivalent, Enlil seeks to destroy Ellil’s proxies whenever he can. Normally, he works through agents; he isn’t ready for a godswar. At least, not quite yet.

Ellil's realm in Mechanus is a ziggurat on top of a mountainous cog. This cog adjoins Anu's; it is of equal size, and the two wheels turn at the same rate.

Yeah, I think Druaga had a ruby mace, even. Probably that was the intention in 1e, before Planescape gave him a realm in Dis instead of Nessus, and before Guide to Hell made Ahriman a greater deity. I liked tying him into Indo-Aryan myth, though.

Sure. I think any of the non-prominent panthenons (i.e. any beside the Greek and Norse) are worth more of a spotlight.
While this is not based on the established mythic lore, one aspect of the standard DnD lore that I always thought would have been interesting to explore is the tie between the githyanki and red dragons under Tiamat. To me the idea of the githyanki assisting Tiamat's dragons in their missions to weaken the rest of the the Mesopotamean pantheon and their followers as a form of repayment for the service the red dragons give to the githyanki. Perhaps other worlds with Babylonian cultures have legends of gaunt figures that arrived from nowhere upon the backs of the dragons to raze their ziggaraths to the ground

In the earlier iterations of DnD (I don't know where it stands in the later versions), the githyanki queen and Tiamat made a pact of some sort and one of the results was that the githyanki would be provided with red dragon to serve as aerial mounts.
It always bugged in that I saw what the githyanki got out of the pact but I never saw any indication of what Tiamat or the evil dragons gained from it. Thus my weak effort to suggest a Tiamat/githyanki effort to wipe out centers of Babylonian worship (thus weakening Tiamat's traditional enemies like Marduk)

To start the ball rolling, I have a question.

Why does no one seem to disagree with the idea that Anshar/Ashur degenerates into a bitter or evil god? In my opinion, I simply see him and Kishar splitting the scene long ago.

Why not? They could find some primitive tribal people in other lands and easily become Father Sky and Mother Earth to them. I also envision this duo being able to persuade a few others to join them!

New Pantheon:

• Anshar (Ashur, Arusar)
• Kishar (Kishara, Ki)
• Ishkur
• Ishum (Hendursanga)
• Ninsar
• Ninkurra (Ninkur)

Ishkur

God appointed to be in charge of the winds by Enki. He is in charge of "the silver lock of the 'heart' of heaven". When Enki distributed the destinies, he also made Ishkur inspector of the cosmos.
The Sumerian Ishkur appears in the list of gods but was of far less importance than the Akkadian Adad, his counterpart, later became, probably partly because storms and rain are scarce in Sumerian lands and agriculture there depends on irrigation instead. Also, the gods Enlil and Ninurta also had storm god features which decreased Ishkur's distinctiveness.

If Anshar promised Ishkur an opportunity to be the only storm god in a pantheon, I think Ishkur would accept.

Gibil: He is the Sumerian god of fire, Anatum's son.

Nusku was the name of the light and fire-god in Babylonia and Assyria, who is hardly to be distinguished, from a certain time on, from a god Girru - formerly read Gibil. Nusku-Girru is the symbol of the heavenly as well as of the terrestrial fire.

Ishum seems to be to be the odd man out here. Since the Babylonian pantheon already has another (more popular) fire god, Ishum would probably be open to other opportunities. As Ashur, Anshar was a divinity of Sky and War could offer the position of god of fire and warriors to Ishum.

Since Ninsar and Ninkurra are obscure goddesses, I will relate their myth:

Enki had a penchant for beer and a string of incestuous affairs. In the epic Enki and Ninhursag, he and his consort Ninhursag had a daughter Ninsar. When Ninhursag left him he came upon and then had intercourse with Ninsar (Lady Greenery) who gave birth to Ninkur or Ninkurra / Nindurra (Lady Fruitfulness or Lady Pasture). A second time, he had intercourse with Ninkurra, who gave birth to Uttu, the spider, the one who maintains interconnectedness of all with all. (Wikipedia)

I find this myth distasteful but I see potential in Ninsar and Ninkurra. I see them taking aspects from both ancestors' portfolios.

I envision Ninsar (from Nin = Lady or Queen, Sar = Green(ery)) as the goddess of agriculture (which involves freshwater, soil and plants). Maybe she could become the goddess of animal husbandry as well.

For Ninkur/Ninkurra (from Nin = Lady or Queen, Kur = underground freshwater ocean), I see her as becoming a goddess of freshwater plants and, by extension, freshwater animals. As her worship grows, she would eventually become the goddess of freshwater lakes and rivers.

If approached by Kishar, I don't see either of them having a problem leaving the Sumerian pantheon.

Maybe some more refugees from the Vedic pantheon (like Druaga) may wish to join also. Any suggestions?

Enki

Enki is the son of Nammu, the primeval sea. Contrary to the translation of his name, Enki is not the lord of the earth, but of the abzu (the watery abyss and also semen) and of wisdom. He maybe was once known as En-kur, lord of the underworld, which either contained or was contained in the Abzu.

The abzu ( Akkadian: apsû ) from the Sumerian ab 'ocean' and zu 'wisdom' or 'deep' was the name for fresh water from underground aquifers that was given a religious quality in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. Lakes, springs, rivers, wells, and other sources of fresh water were thought to draw their water from the abzu.

Palomides,

This is a good interpretation. Kishar is alreadly the earth goddess; Ninkur would have freshwater in her portfolio as daughter/granddaughter of Enki.

I needed a water goddess; although Ninsar and Ninkur could switch roles.

You know, I once did the same thing, with Marduk(as Lawful/Good) as the head of the pantheon;I wrote Druaga off, however,letting in Tiamat(C/E) instead, as the chief evil deity.However, the myth says Nergal is stronger than Ereskigal, as he single-handly conquered her kingdom.