In the Land Down Under

Question: In your fiction, Geoff and his band seemed to have spent a significant amount of time in Australia. Any possibility you could shed some light on what gods you'd include in an Aboriginal pantheon?

Well, we did do quite a lot of reading and general ST-notes-style planning when the PCs were in Australia, but we haven't done a real, thorough research-and-plan approach to building an Australian pantheon just yet. Trying to do so has a lot of the same problems that trying to come up with African or Native American pantheons does - there are a lot of different indigenous tribes in Australia, and not all of them share the same religious figures. I think they're a better candidate for eventually being a coherent pantheon, though, because they do share quite a few deities and culture heroes that "travel" between the myths of various tribes, so there's a greater case to be made for pulling them all together into a whole.

But, anyway! In no particular order, Australian figures we've played with and used in games include:

Birrahgnooloo, the Kamilaroi goddess of floods, fields and the bounty of the earth. There's not a lot of information on her out there, but we presented her as very beautiful and sexual, as most fertility goddesses tend to be to represent their connection to the creation of life, and with something of a temper and a tendency to create odd animal-plant hybrids that run amok all over the continent.

Mamaragan, the Yapa thunder-god. We portrayed him as loud, blustery, but also charismatic and commanding, with a powerful ability to lay low his foes but not a lot of common sense to go along with it. Much to the amusement of the PCs, he favored AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" as his Theme Music.

Gnowee, the Murri sun-goddess, who crosses the sky each day with a huge flaming torch searching for her lost son. She was portrayed as grieving and noble; the PCs helped her out by realizing via Death Senses that her dead son had been following and calling after her all along, and once they were able to find a way to make her see him quieted her endless wanderings.

Altjira/Alchera, the Aranda god of dreams, illusion and creation, who was portrayed as a disconnected, semi-cosmic force who didn't much care for humans and was very irritated by PCs intruding on his territory and making demands. He played hockey with Geoff's brain until they decided not to bother him anymore, and also once folded Goze up and put him in a box that he left on the curb.

Bunjil and Bellin-Bellin, the eagle- and crow-gods of the Bunurong people, who are constantly feuding and have a bit of an Odin/Loki relationship. Bunjil was more noble and approachable, a lawmaker and friend of humanity, while Bellin-Bellin, as the god of winds, gales and sandstorms, was more of a troublemaker and terrorizer of the populace.

Mangar, the lizard-god and creator of humanity from Arrernte myth. While he was generally good-natured and just wanted to be left alone to continue his creations in peace, he unfortunately also had a tendency to overpopulate the nearby landscape and to become quickly territorial and hostile to other creator or nature gods that encroached on his territory.

Yulunggul and Wollunkua, the rainbow snakes, which we portrayed as unfettered forces of creation and chaos, changing the landscape behind them wherever they went. They were very large, very cosmic forces that Australia really couldn't handle running around everywhere, and the PCs ended up getting into some very disastrous fights with them. (Nobody wins when the rainbow snakes start rolling around all over the unsuspecting landscape and populace.)

We discovered, during the time that we were using them, that indigenous Australian gods tend a lot more toward the Titan model than the godly one; they tend to be larger-than-life cosmic and primordial creator gods, shaping the world with a thought and easily destroying it a few minutes later without any apparent remorse (or, indeed, even noticing in many cases). Which makes sense; these are creatures of the Dreamtime, the long-ago and far-away of Australian myth which humanity no longer inhabits. They're from a different world, and would wreak havoc on the modern world if they happened to be around, simply because that's kind of what they do.

Which is actually an interesting model for a pantheon, really, as there's a lot less heroic saving of the mortals and a lot more accidentally blowing up mountain ranges or creating new elements in fits of anger. Whether you use them as gods or Titans, though, indigenous Australian deities are definitely powerful and potent sources for stories and fun.