This Could Get Dicey

I (Becky) have always loved messing around with deities and gods within Dungeons and Dragons. As humans, deities have played a very important part in our culture and history for thousands of years. Their influence has inspired humans to create grand monuments and beautiful paintings, but also start terrible wars. All powerful, all-knowing, petty, evil – however you want to create them they are perfect devices for storytelling. 

When creating the pantheon I liked the idea of there being two groups, benevolent and malevolent. Benevolent gods are creators, protectors, and givers, while malevolent gods are those that are destroyers and great equalizers. There are six main named deities within Dreugala, with more to come; I can guarantee that. When picking gods, there were certain domains I knew I wanted to have based on the world I was creating. So here are the six gods that represent the domains I wanted to start the pantheon with. 

Dotathal – The goddess of death and love Dotathal is a benevolent being who is considered rather neutral in the world of gods. Her goal is to ensure that people are welcomed into the afterlife with warmth and love. She is known as The Deathweaver, for it is said that when one dies they are wrapped in a blanket of their time alive, woven by Dotathal herself. The symbol for Dotathal is that of a spindle instead of a wreath of twisting yarn.

Syloria – The goddess of nature, abundance, and harvest. As a benevolent god, Syloria represents what nourishment can be found in nature as well as the peacefulness within it. Often she is prayed to by farmers and hunters for strong harvests and plentiful hunts. Druids frequently follow Syloria as she provides guidance in the druidic ways and power for nature-driven magic. Her symbol is a golden, gnarly tree branch growing vertically with flowers and fruits sprouting from it. 

Themiska – The goddess of justice, war, and lawfulness. She represents order within the world and urges her followers to strive for balance within the world. Many pray to her before wars, and her symbol hangs in the halls and barracks of town guards. Paladins are probably often followers of Themiska, using her guidance to ensure evil does not go unchecked! Her symbol is three silver swords. 

Lumixen – I wanted to take a bit of a twist on a god of light, who is often represented by the sun or the moon. They’re seen as pure, holy, and just. Instead, I created Lumixen to represent light and trickery. Lumixen is definitely more dancing lights than the sun or moon. Pixies and fairies follow them, and the wild magic seen in the air of Eistrune is often attributed to Lumixen. Some say they’ve seen Lumixen as flickering lights in the forest, others say they’ve been visited by a glowing fairy. 

Vulpanis – A fox dashing through the woods, a symbol of good luck to the people of Dreugala, a sign that Vulpanis has blessed them. Vulpanis represents parties, joy, luck, wine, and beer. People pray to Vulpanis by celebrating and in return hope to get more good fortune given to them. Vulpanis appreciates being praised and in return prevents the small pitfalls in life that can plague a human. Vulpanis is a benevolent god who just wants to see humans enjoy life. 

Ninoxious – The demon god of the night. This greasy black humanoid bird creature is malevolent in nature, wishing to trick humans constantly into deals and bargains. The gods are very powerful and humans are just little toys placed upon Dreugala for them to mess with, and mess with them he does. It’s often too easy to strike a deal with Ninoxious, who is always looking for more followers. They use demons and warlocks to spread chaos and keep people on their toes. 

These are the six main gods of the campaign that have been named and revealed. You’ll notice there was only one malevolent god named, but that will change soon. Hope you enjoyed this deep dive into the gods of Dreugala so far and hope to reveal more of the pantheon soon.