Gods of the Yellow City

The Yellow City is famous for its many cults, religions, and spiritual movements. The shrines and temples associated with these groups line the God River as it runs through the city, clustering along its banks as if tapping into some sort of holy source. Nobody has ever counted or surveyed the gods worshiped in the city in their entirety, and in any case the number continually fluctuates as the little religions rise and fall. But the number certainly runs into the thousands.

Priest characters from the Yellow City are free to create any deity they like. Alternatively, they can randomly generate a patron god for their character using the following set of tables.

1. Determine God's Aspect

Most gods in the Yellow City take on an animal or plant form. Roll a d30 to determine this.

1. Rhino 2. Elephant 3. Crane 4. Mantis 5. Beetle 6. Monkey 7. River Dolphin 8. Octopus 9. Tree 10. Turtle 11. Tortoise 12. Spider 13. Scorpion 14. Snake 15. Dog 16. Crocodile 17. Hawk 18. Shark 19. Dragon 20. Frog 21. Venus Flytrap 22. Poppy 23. Orchid 24. Lilly 25. Hog 26. Dhole 27. Lizard 28-30. Hybrid (roll twice).

Determine God's Alignment

Roll d3 twice to determine alignment (1. Law 2. Neutral 3. Chaos; 1. Good 2. Neutral 3. Evil).

Determine Spheres of Influence [If using 2nd edition, Priest spell spheres should be based on this.]

Roll a d3 to determine the number of spheres, then roll a d20 to determine the nature of those spheres:

1. Rivers 2. Death 3. Pain 4. Pleasure 5. Creativity 6. Healing 7. Dreams 8. Magic 9. Love 10. Sex 11. Men 12. Women 13. Children 14. Food 15. Disease 16. Famine 17. Harvest 18. Oceans 19. Trickery 20. Weather

Determine Sacrificial Rites

Roll a d6 to determine the nature of sacrifices the devotees offer:

1. Human 2. Amphibian 3. Mammal 4. Bird 5. Reptile 6. Invertebrate

Determine Holy Colour

Roll a d10 to determine the god's holy colour, worn by its acolytes:

1. Yellow 2. Red 3. Blue 4. Purple 5. Green 6. Orange 7. Black 8. White 9. Pink 10. Brown

Finally, Determine Sex

Roll a d100. 1-49. Male 50-98. Female 99. Hermaphrodite 00. Asexual

An example:

Gulhaa, the Source

Gulhaa, the Source takes on the ferocious aspect of a gargantuan, warty frog with the head of a bull elephant. His statues, usually of bronze, are always gold-leafed on his long, powerful tusks. His eyes are usually embedded rubies.

Gulhaa is a benevolent deity [lawful good]. He presides over the two most vital elements of life itself: Death and Sex. The act of copulation is believed to be a form of worship by his followers, as is the act of mourning; funerals at his temples are riotous affairs which often descend into orgy. As Gulhaa takes the soul of the dead person into his great maw, so he oversees the creation of souls anew.

Gulhaa's servants wear purple, and offer mammalian sacrifices - typically monkeys, cattle or capybara - on their holy days.

Demigods

One of my favourite D&D tropes is the idea that if an individual being gains a group of worshipers, it can attain divinity. This makes religion a very chaotic, ad hoc, and above all tangible thing; unlike in the monotheistic religions of our world where Gods stand aloof, D&D powers' fate is inextricably bound up in the fortunes and vagaries of their followers. It also means the interplay between believer and deity is balanced, with neither having the ultimate power; okay, so High Blierophlat the God of Death can squish any follower he so chooses, but if he does that too often he'll eventually find his disciples running off to some more amiable deity like Jethro the Gardener. Unless of course he's willing to offer some serious compensating benefits.

This approach allows for a much more localised, cultish and fertile religious climate, something akin to how I imagine a trawl through pagan Europe would have been: each group of villages has its own local deity, each cave its shrine to the mountain spirit, each river its sprite, and each boulder its guardian - the major difference being that in a D&D world, those things are real, which is infinitely better. The local village deity really will provide summer rains - if the populace are willing to sacrifice a first born. The mountain spirit will kill travellers with an avalanche unless he is properly placated. The river sprite needs just a few more believers before she can attain demi-goddess hood. The boulder is really a galeb duhr who has had divinity thrust upon him by unwanted worship; all he wishes is that his devoted disciples would just leave him be.

A long while ago I wrote a little entry about a crayfish demigod living in a lake, which I think encompasses what I mean quite nicely. I'll be doing a little series of similar articles this week, in celebration of this month's blogger carnival.