Where does everyone get their inspiration for their characters and their moves from? Myths? Real world religions? Cults? Films? Novels?
Although I love all the old Greek and Roman myths, and know quite a bit Norse, and most of the Celtic legends, I don't find they help much!
The initial idea for Brid came from a fantasy-novel interpretation of the celtic goddess Brigit (I think it was one of the Kenneth Flint 'Sidhe' books), where she was a goddess of the forge. I can't explain how that idea morphed into Brid, though!
Just before Christmas, I spotted a book in a local store 'Cults: Secret Sects and Radical religions' that I asked gf to buy for me, thinking it would give me some ideas. It just depressed me though, that RL is full of so many nutters, and was of no help at all in the game!
Maybe as P3 is still going on, you won't want to share everything just yet - but what about P1 & P2? Where did your ideas for characters and moves come from, if they came from anything other than Pantheon itself?
Aglithophile and conniptionist and spectacular moonbow beholder 16Jul11
Solus didn't start out as anything more than a god of gamblers. A few turns with that not working out much, and I went for a more Poseidon-ish angle.
Simjen was a cross between Vulcan and Odin.
Aarklar's influences are mostly Taoist and Buddhist.
"It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past. Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.”
-George Steiner
I got the idea for a entity that didnt acknowledge its own existence from Terry Pratchett actually. The beings known as the Auditors, that run the universe and die if they think of themselves as individuals. That was the initial inspiration of the god of nothing. The rest I just cooked up in my brain.
But for me, its the people that follow me that inspire me. Ive looked at the various parts of the map and decided how my followers in those areas would look, act etc. Example, my people on Enstorm are based on ottoman turks and the Persian empire. Just that Mediterranean meets middle east vibe.
As for my people on Shaldir i was torn between a Saxon image or a roman one. I decided that The shattered lands resembled Europe more so left that for the Saxon look and decided that Shaldir shall have a new enlightened roman like race Thus Arcurius was born.
for me, its writing the story about the peoples that makes this game so fun. Ive fleshed out the mere mortals alot more than my god or my prophet. Im too huge a fan of Low fantasy.
Don't forget ... you left Shaldir ... or at least Sa'Deva
As for me - P2 was an amalgam of DC and Marvel comic cosmic beings re: Order and Chaos.
P3 - was a selection of Life as the Domain. Devaguhya is actually Sanskrit for Divine Secret - or some such. (I was thinking of being the god of Secrets and Knowledge) When I changed domains I kept the name I really have no specific model I am following for him.
Now ... my next deity ... will have a VERY good model for me to base HIS actions on!
He/She who dies with the most toys wins! Wait a minute ... I can't die!!!
Part of the inspiration for Eztlicoatl really needs no elaboration. The Aztecs have always fascinated me, so I took the conception of Aztec and Mayan Sun Cults, and made that part of the faith's basis. The nomenclature is a mixture of Nahuatl (Aztec) and Mayan language. However, I also took Akhenatun's conception of the Atun as a monotheism, and applied that to the concept in equal measure. Blood sacrifice, obviously being more prevalent in Meso-American myths, is nonetheless basically evident in some form in almost every religion which has graced the world.
Everything else, much of which I can't mention, comes from my own imagination.
"For the love of God, Montresor!"
"Yes," I said, "for the love of God!" - Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado.
Well, Movahl was partly inspired by the Judeo-Christian God, Norn was a bit of a cross between the Forgotten Realms character Mystra and the Norns (or Fates) of Norse myth (but incidentally named after a character in a PS2 game I was playing at the time), and Anaya owes a lot of herself to Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen.
You do not hear, and so you cannot be redeemed.
In the name of their ancient pride and humiliation, they had made commitments with no possible outcome except bereavement.
He knew only that they had never striven to reject the boundaries of themselves.
Japanese folk-lore.
I have very little information on it that I got from The History of the Dragon...
The Japanese also believe that there is a white dragon that takes the form of an O-gon-cho every fifty years. O-gon-cho are golden-plumed songbird. This create sings a song that brings great sadness. The sound is described like that of a wolf's howl. If one was to hear this terrible song, it would bring about terrible pestalince and many will die.
*snip*
O-gon-cho Type/Species: Eastern Dragon Origin: Japan
History: O-gon-cho lives in the pool of Ukisima. Every fifty years, this dragon is said to appear in the form of a golden bird. If he should cry, his cry would be the omen of a great famine to come.
Symbolism: They are the sign of a coming famine. Perhaps even a symbol of pestalince as well.
Physical Description: Unknown form of Eastern Dragon.
From that, I composed my initial reveal for the game. The idea that she is the unusual offspring of the unusual mating of a wild phoenix and an o-gon-cho of traditional description is all my own invention. Her inability to speak, and her communication via golden birdsong heard only within the mind was also inspired to me from the above.
Everything else about her and her beloved dragons in the Second Age was derivitive of Pern. I've, uh, been kind of forced away from that by the dragons, except for cho's prophet, being unavailable in the current Age. At least, they have been so far...
I enjoy her, and am glad I chose to bring her back for the current Age of Pantheon.
Adomorn started out as a name from a random DnD generator I use for NPCs. Lord Adomorn seemed like a good fit for a paladin, though I changed how I wanted to play him at least three times that game.
Tawhiri-matea I straight up stole. He seemed like a cool one to play, and only two or three people caught my theft, so I went with it.
Avatar wrote:But then, the answers provided by your imagination are not only sometimes best, but have the added advantage of being unable to be wrong.
Maeror, as Lord of Tragedy, was taken mostly from the Malazan Book of the Fallen series--the god of Tragedy in that is Dessembrae. In that series, though, Dessembrae has a dual nature--he is male, but often is represetned as a male half (Vengeance) and a female half (Tragedy). That, in part, was what inspired the twin god nature of Maeror in the second game, as well as just liking the idea of the two conflicting personalities. The domain changes weren't inspired by anything in particular, other than being descended partially from the domains Maeror had in P1. The name I just grabbed from an online latin dictionary (like most of the names I used during P1 and P2)--it means Grief.
For Bel, the idea didn't really come from any particular source. I wanted to play a monotheistic god, which led me to think about basing it on the judeo-christian god, though I was going to make him very aggressive. The idea developed over time and I changed it to accomodate how I'd interact with the other players. I didn't think I could hold up the monotheism angle, especially after the Courts were introduced. So I ended up dropping other parts of it and going for a deity of Peace, which was something I didn't think I'd seen before (at least not used this way) and would be interesting to play. At that point I needed to come up with some way to present him, and I decided to go back a bit further than Yahweh and dig into the old Mesopotamian gods, the ones that the judeo-christian God developed from. Hence Bel, which means simply Lord, and is related to names like Baal, Belal, Belial, Beelzebub (Baal'zebub), and so on. I also used the sun-disk symbol that was widely used and associated with a lot of the more powerful deities in those cultures (nearly every city had its Bel, back then. Curiously, Dagon was one of them. Though Dagon was a god of grain, not water, heh).
The names I've been using this time round are taken from an online Akkadian dictionary: Nehutu means tranquility, calm; Salimu means peace/amity; and I've given the translations of a couple of others when I first mentioned them.
Really, mine are a mish-mash of all sorts of ideas put together in a way that seemed, to me, mostly original.
This is the first time I've really used an inspiration for pantheon. Although all the names For Vadhaka and his assassins in P2 came from Sanskrit, I never really made a culture.
This time round, I'm basing my culture on the Zulu Empire in southern Africa during the 1800's. All my names and "foreign" language usage if from isiZulu, as is a great deal of the culture of my worshippers.
All Things Begin and End in Strife.
------------------------------------ Msasi Haogopi Mwiba. The Hunter Does Not Fear Thorns
I don't really get inspiration from anywhere. I do a little research before the game or when I am running out of ideas, but for the most part, I wing it.
I would like to develop more of a culture with my followers but not this group. for some reason, I hold no affection for this deity so I am not interested in developing a culture for her.
Its strange, really, that I find Calasi so hateful.
Jove was also not inspired but I liked her much better once I became comfortable playing the game. Only her name was taken from a roman god.
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. There is no fear in love; for perfect love cast out fear.
I originally wrote Keev as a goddess of sensuality but do to some things best left undiscussed she morphed into the goddess of Pain and she is all inspired by my imagination. Cyndi probably has some great stories of me going off on tangents and writing my charactors outloud to her.
Now if I could just find a way to wear live bees as jewelry all the time.....
Thus Arcurius was born. 
I really have no specific model I am following for him.
