A (Much) More Detailed Deity Questionnaire (for #ClericWeek ):
To create your deity…
• A *potent name* and/or honorific: Helferth // Sucellus // Zorica // Krugon // Balashi // Ekurzakir // Ubalnu // Ku-Aya // Gemekaa // Nikanuur // Val-Tarash // Zeromon // Lidanur // Inosas-Azzelel // Asenthia // Omorthan // Salrynn // Califraxis // Bleak // Mighty // Father // Mother // Black // Bloody // All // Unnamed // Unseen // Holy // Radiant // Evergreen // All-Seeing // ____slayer
• A domain: the life-giving sun // that which lies below // redemption // storms // knowledge // home & hearth // the passage into death // forbidden love // secrets // bloody warfare // skill in battle // governance // craft & artifice
• What is anathema to them: the perversion of nature // ruin & chaos // tyranny & oppression // greed, gluttony, & lust // treachery, cowardice & oath-breaking // kin-slaying // despoiling purity & beauty // dead flesh // a specific race, nation, or culture // followers of __ // the murder or harm of (pick) women/children/innocents/a minority
• The deity is (pick one): widely worshipped // publically reviled // all but forgotten // well-known but little-worshipped // obscure & misunderstood
• Pick 1-3 mysteries: but one aspect of different god(s) // an ascended or enlighted mortal // sustained by prayer & sacrifice // imprisoned for all time // is dead // walks the world in mortal guise // was once killed/destroyed but reborn // sprung fully-formed into world from _ // is always present in some mundane thing // stole it’s power from another god
• Choose a precept of your deity and its commensurate petition: pain and abasement of the flesh is enlightening (petition: suffering) // __ must be destroyed or conquered (petition: defeating said enemies) // sacrificial rites please & empower your god (petition: offerings) // the faith must be spread (petition: converts) // monuments glorify your deity (petition: erect, restore, or protect a lasting monument) // certain places are holy (petition: pilgrimage) // there are specific, proper ways to worship (petition: elaborite ceremony) // a certain type of beast or plant is holy (petition: care for said beast/plant) // your glory glorifies your god (petition: victory in battle)
• Pick a stricture, that which is forbidden by your deity: contact with anything anathema // revealing yourself as a priest // speaking or writing your deity’s name // suffering something anathema to live // mingling with a particular race/caste/gender // carnal pleasures
Very nice for those clerics that love lists to pick from.
Great work! Must present this to my cleric player
Okay let’s try this:
Mother Ku-Anya, patron Deity bloody Warfare.
Anathema to her a cowardice and oath breaking.
The diety is wildly worshiped by the orc clans from the southern plains.
She walks the land in mortal guise but part of her being is always present when an orc wades into battle. She is in the gleam of their weapon and the fire in their eyes.
Battlefields of great importance are holy to her and her Warpreachers travel to them to collect the remnants of her presence.
Speaking her name or trying to find her is forbidden. However, every challenge offered to one of her followers must be accepted less you will be seen as a coward. Dying to her challenge is seen as a great pleasure.
More! I hunger for your gods!
(converted seamlessly into this layout from an old campaign)
Urinor the Unseen god of sewers that lie beneith the streets of the city.
Anathema to him is ruin and chaos among his holy pipes and passages.
He is publicly reviled, for few like the thought of him, although all take advantage of his domain.
He sprung fully-formed into the world from the drunken imaginings of a mad dwarf.
To petition him, creatures that infest sewers must be destroyed
Jeremy Strandberg, the All-Reading Proofer, the criticizer of content, the hungerer of gods. Well-known but little worshiped, he is always present in the Dungeon World Tavern, and sustained by draft works. To petition him one must offer up unpolished game content, and beseech him for wisdom.
If somebody asks you if you are a god, you say “yes.”
David Guyll WHO DARES TO SUMMON ME?
Very nice & adding a few thoughts to this.
Good source of inspiration, look at the fun Hercules/Xena shows for inspiration on how certain deities might be fighting for the cleric/paladin (or other non-divine classes) to get their help on some task or switching sides to serve another deity. So look at the other ones out there that might be wanting to employ your cleric/paladin for some extra work that could be permanently changing their character’s path.
Why it’s good to ask about the pantheon too (I.e. do they interact much with life on the world or is that the temple’s job, what are the other deity temples/life like for those people, are the deities fighting for power or like Loki, is there a trickster causing problems). Another good one to look in on is what happens when a character changes or loses their deity favor, would the cleric or paladin become another class during this time or something worse?
(might just need a separate post for items/life when not adventuring)
Another thing is what’s life in the temple like or what kind of magic items/relics are there? Well it’s holy to someone but which temple is it from & who used it? They are made or given to somebody for a particular task. There could be certain branches of the temple which are the outcasts & does the cleric associate with them? With the magic items/relics, are they profound items that take out cities or something that every temple has as more of a joke that they can’t get rid of them?