Mystaran Immortal equivalents of 4E Gods
by Joe Not CharlesOver the weekend I read the 4e adventures in Dragon 155 ("Heathen" and "Sleeper in the Tomb of Dreams") and I thought that both could work well in Mystara with a bit of tweaking - the advantage of a vaguely sketched-out campaign world. So far the 4e gods are sketchy enough that they're mainly symbolic - if somebody's a paladin of Pelor you know they're Good and Just, and if a cult is into generic evil they make it a cult of Bane.
So it would be useful to get a Mystaran equivalent of each god so that it's easy to convert new material.
Here's the complete list from the PHB, along with my suggestions. Some of them have multiple suggestions; you'd need to pick the most appropriate conversion for the role this god has in a given adventure or setting:
Avandra (Good; Change, luck, trade, travel) - Asterius (trade, travel), Tyche (change, luck)
Bahamut (Lawful good; Justice, honour, nobility, protection; good dragons) - Diamond (dragons), Maat (justice, paladins), Vanya (honour) - Diamond has all the same interests as Bahamut, but in Mystara it's far less likely to find non-Dragons worshipping him for these qualities
Corellon (Unaligned; Arcane magic, spring, beauty, the arts; elves and eldarin) - Ilsundal (elves, magic, nature), Alphatia (magic, the arts), Valerias (beauty, the arts), Rathanos (non-Alphatian magic)
Erathis (Unaligned; Civilisation, invention, laws) - Koryis
Ioun (Unaligned; Knowledge, prophecy, skill) - Odin
Kord (Unaligned; Storms, strength, battle) - Thor, Vanya
Melora (Unaligned; Wilderness, sea) - Proteus (sea), Ordana or Djaea (wilderness - I'm not really clear on the difference)
Moradin (Unaligned; Creation, artisans, family; dwarves) - Kagyar
Pelor (Good; Sun, summer, agriculture, time; often a generic "good" god) - Ixion (sun), Khoronus (time, good government), Frey (agriculture)
The Raven Queen (Unaligned; Death, fate, winter) - If in a benign role, Nyx (death) or Odin (fate, winter); if in a hostile role, Hel
Sehanine (Unaligned; Trickery, moon, love, autumn; elves) - Eiryndul (trickery, elves), Asterius (moon, trickery), Valerias (moon, love), Masauwu (more chaotic trickery)
Asmodeus (Evil; Power, domination, tyranny; demons) - Demogorgon (demons); ? for dominations and tyranny (Thanatos, I guess?)
Bane (Evil; War, conquest) - Karaash
Gruumsh (Chaotic evil; Turmoil, destruction; orcs) - Karaash, any of the other Humanoid gods, Orcus
Lolth (Chaotic evil; Spiders, shadows, lies; drow) - Arachne Prime (spiders, shadows), Atzanteotl (lies, dark elves)
Tiamet (Evil; Wealth, greed, vengeance; evil dragons) - Opal (evil dragons), Talitha (greed)
Torog (Evil; Underdark, imprisonment) - Azanteotl
Vecna (Evil; Undeath, secrets) - Nyx (undead, secrets, not as evil); Hel (undead), Loki (secrets)
Zehir (Evil, Darkness, poison, serpents) - Bachraeus, I guess, though I was hoping to stick with more prominent Immortals
The table I'm going from doesn't list all the racial connections (they're trying to downplay these in 4e, making Moradin more the god of artisans than of dwarves for instance) so I've filled in the ones I've aware of, but let me know any I missed.
The Codex Immortalis is pretty helpful for this, though I disagree with some of the choices (it has Nyx as evil, and I thought we just decided in the other thread that she wasn't).
You know, looking at the Codex, I think I'd invert the roles of Hel and Nyx IMC - I like the idea of Hel as a neutral-ish, uncaring but not actively malignant queen of death and winter, while Nyx as the patron of darkness and necromancy seems better as a patron of unnatural, malevolent undead. That would mean Hel == The Raven Queen and Nyx == Vecna works out pretty neatly.