'WithoutNationality' wrote:
The gods were always my least favorite part of Planescape. The sheer number of them and the fact they were all significant players. Reading about them is like being in Myth class back in college and remembering all those names... I prefer mortals and spirits much more.
Pettiness aside, you've done a good job. I'm pretty happy that most of them are dead so I don't have to worry about them.
(note: itallics added by me for emphasis)
Contrary to what WN said, there are actually many more deities that were not put in the Dead Book as a result of the Pantheon War. He did, however, bring up a possibility that I initially dismissed-killing off a majority of gods that have been included in Planescape, rather than merely a significant minority.
When I was deciding which Powers went for an Astral Swim following the Pantheon War, I actually held back from adding too many major powers. Of the heads of the six significant Pantheons, only Corellon got scragged. This was done to re-emphasize the seriousness of the conflict, not out of any malice towards His Elfness. A major aspect of Planescape, as presented, is exploring the realms of deities and becoming intimately involved in their affairs, and I was worried that killing off too many would adversely affect this part of the setting.
Nevertheless, there are an awful lot of deities that inhabit Planescape. Paring them down to something more manageable is something I would like to do.
What are your thoughts on this?
Personally, I favor leaving most of the gods weakened, but alive at the end of the Ragnarok War/Pantheon War. Gods can be viewed as personified belief, which means that as long as their followers believe, it's very possible they will come back, even from apparent death. I'm personally Ok with leaving a few major Powers in the Dead Book, but on the whole, I feel that at the end of it, only a few of the major powers should have died. (However, much of the Norse pantheon should be gone, if we are to interpret the Pantheon War as the Norse's Gotterdammerung, leaving Baldr and a few others as survivors.)
I'm also not big on too heavily damaging most of the godly realms as a result, too. In the Lower Planes, I can certainly see that any losers would get taken over; such is life in the fiendish regions. Not as much in the Upper planes, though.
I could see some enterprising deities using neutrality in the War to become heads of single-god religions, so that they don't have to share belief, though. This means some pantheons may undergo some degree of civil war, and other gods may just take what they can.
What I suggest doing to pare down work as well as allowing the number of deities to be more easily adjusted is essentially saying "We're not going to describe all of the major pantheons' deities in detail. We'll update certain ones, describe newly powerful pantheons, and provide lists showing who belongs to what pantheon, if there have been changes and additions. Other than that, use pre-existing material for descriptions of the gods and what their portfolios are." This way, you pare down the number you have to those who need updating/addition. You also can in the process describe which pantheons have suffered losses without describing all of the lost deities. (This leaves the decision to the numbers of up to individual GMs without creating a gap between 'official' UPS vs. individual games necessarily)
Give info on the important stuff, leave the rest out. Have a few Powers die to restate the destructiveness of the war, but be careful to not do too much damage; part of the reason the Blood War happens is that the side of Good happens to be powerful enough to largely rebuff fiendish advancements into their territory. If you are too destructive, it would upset the balance of power, and that would mean figuring out just HOW the probable fiendish incursions would be stopped.