No love for the Egyptians?  I find the Egyptian pantheon seems to stand apart from the others mentioned because it's extra confusing and not open to interpretation.  Is that a common view?

Quote from: RPGPundit;350838For starters, in almost any culture with a variety of deities, you didn't have these clear-cut deities that were only about "one thing", or even about related multiple things in any way that made sense.
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 But you pretty much worshipped ALL the gods, whenever necessary.
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There are thousands of gods, though many of them are pretty much considered to be different names for the same dude, and there are lots of regional variations. And you worshipped all these shitloads, at different times, even if there were some that you kept coming back to more often than others.

[Citation needed]
[Well, wanted]

Quote from: Werekoala;350808Multi-armed Saints in flying cars dropping nuclear bombs?

Or a pope with an elephant head.

Quote from: Hairfoot;350928Or a pope with an elephant head.

Sign me up.

Quote from: bouletI have a hard time imagining what the hybrid would be like. What would you keep from Hinduism and Catholicism?

I'd keep all the Hindu deities and give them living mortal avatars. I'd pair that with a strong centralized Brahmanic organization based out of Benares with an elephant-headed 'Sri Ganesha' - the current avatar of Ganesh. I'd break off the Bengali Kali cult into a blood sacrificing version of Protestantism. And yeah, I'd throw in a ton of dreadlocked saddhu 'saints'. And it's all in Sanskrit.

Don't forget the flying cars and nukes.

Quote

QuoteThere are thousands of gods, though many of them are pretty much considered to be different names for the same dude, and there are lots of regional variations. And you worshipped all these shitloads, at different times, even if there were some that you kept coming back to more often than others.

[Citation needed]
[Well, wanted]

since i recognize the whole [citation needed] from wikipedia, i will use wikipedia as my source:

Hermes Agoraeus, of the agora
Hermes Acacesius, of Acacus
Hermes Charidotes, giver of charm
Hermes Criophorus, ram-bearer
Hermes Cyllenius, born on Mount Cyllene
Hermes Diaktoros, the messenger
Hermes Dolios, the schemer
Hermes Enagonios, lord of contests
Hermes Enodios, on the road
Hermes Epimelius, keeper of flocks
Hermes Eriounios, luck bringer
Hermes Polygius
Hermes Psychopompos, conveyor of souls

In many civilizations, pantheons tended to grow over time. Deities first worshipped as the patrons of cities or places came to be collected together as empires extended over larger territories. Conquests could lead to the subordination of the elder culture's pantheon to a newer one, as in the Greek Titanomachia, and possibly also the case of the Æsir and Vanir in the Norse mythos. Cultural exchange could lead to "the same" deity being renowned in two places under different names, as with the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans, and also to the introduction of elements of a "foreign" religion into a local cult, as with Egyptian Osiris worship brought to ancient Greece.

Quote from: Werekoala;351015Don't forget the flying cars and nukes.

More popes!

Quote from: Hairfoot;351035More popes!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_schism

For a professional release use Islam vs Christianity, preferably in a setting where homosexuality is the norm.
The publicity alone would make it worth while. If you could piss enough people off they would be buying copies of your book just to burn it in town squares from Mecca to Austin.

Of course you would need to publish under a pseudonym and chances are there woudl be a fatwa out against you for the next 200 years, but if it introduces a few more folks to the hobby ...

Quote from: jibbajibba;351063If you could piss enough people off they would be buying copies of your book just to burn it in town squares from Mecca to Austin.

Methinks you don't know much about Austin.

Quote from: Werekoala;351064Methinks you don't know much about Austin.

True just tried to pick a town in Texas

Quote from: jibbajibba;351065True just tried to pick a town in Texas

All major metropolitan areas in Texas are reliably liberal, you'll no doubt be relieved to know - especially Austin. Hell, Houston elected an openly lesbian mayor a couple of weeks back. So yeah, its not all bible thumpin' and shotguns, despite what people would have you think.

Quote from: IMLegend;350776Well, general consensus would be Odin (or whatever variation of his name you choose) with Thor a close second. I suppose a case could be made for Balder, but most would agree on Odin. Really though any ancient pantheon is going to be a mess. They've all been added to, and combined with, so many times with the interaction of cultures over the years, that they start to overlap quite a bit.

It's more of a contest between Odin and Thor. While the Eddas and other contemporary works, from which most of our information comes, identify Odin as the chief deity, older altars and religious representations show Thor as above Odin. Some scholar attribute this to the later writers playing favorites.

Quote from: The Worid;351071It's more of a contest between Odin and Thor. While the Eddas and other contemporary works, from which most of our information comes, identify Odin as the chief deity, older altars and religious representations show Thor as above Odin. Some scholar attribute this to the later writers playing favorites.

Yeah, the Norse really is a mess, so much of it being an oral tradition as opposed to written. There are even some stories linking Odin and Loki as being two aspects of the same deity. Again, the evolution and combination of different pantheons as cultures rose, fell, and intermingled.

I've got a lot of love for the Egyptian gods as well.

Here is an excellent addition to any Roman Pantheon/personality cult:

Egyptian for me would be first, especially if I could base the magic system around the different parts of the Egyptian soul.

Norse would be second, probably tied with Celtic.

Classical Greek would be third.

Roman mishmash fourth.