Olympian pantheon

The Olympian pantheon was a tight pantheon of gods residing chiefly in the divine realm of Olympus on the first layer of Arborea in the Outer Planes. They were sometimes called the Greek pantheon, as that was the name of a collection of city-states on another world where they were worshiped. The members of this pantheon were little known in the Realms, but had some degree of influence or power to grant spells in Realmspace.

"For all their vaunted talk of freedom, they sure make a lot of rules!"

- An Olympian petitioner about to descend to the Gray Waste

Description
The members of this pantheon largely resembled humans, albeit more beautiful, and displayed many of the same behavioral traits as humans,  in regards to emotions and reasoning. They tended to be very proud, argumentative, lustful, frequent partiers, highly jealous, envious, petty, and had short tempers.

The Olympians were largely uninterested in innovation, with the exception of some members like Hephaestus, as they chose to focus on emotional and spiritual matters rather than the technological.

Though they were a tight pantheon, and not as chaotic as the Norse pantheon and Seldarine, they were still not very cohesive due to some of the more chaotic aspects of their personalities. It was not uncommon for them to cause mishaps for their fellow members' followers. They were also rather insular, being neither open nor welcoming of new deities, preferring to display their pantheon's might by crushing new deities under their heel before bringing them into the fold.

Base of Operations
The members of this pantheon chiefly resided upon Mount Olympus, the slopes of which were rooted in the first layer of Arborea. Some thought the Olympians all lived atop the mountain's snowy heights, but in actuality their homes were scattered across it and five of its members lived elsewhere entirely. It was only Zeus who lived atop the mountain, within a great citadel of gold and marble.

The deity Poseidon resided within Ossa, Arborea's second layer, though maintained a seaside shrine near Mount Olympus. Both Hades and Hecate, had divine realms in the plane of Hades, which was connected to Mount Olympus by the latter's twisting caverns. Hades lived in the third layer of the plane that shared his name, while Hecate had a divine realm in both the third layer of Hades and within the third layer of the Nine Hells.

Within a location on the mountain known as the Vast Temple they kept a book of their pantheon's history. Bound in the bones of mythical creatures and fallen heroes, the Great Theogony recounted the emergence of the multiverse from their perspective.

Notable Members

 * Athena: An Olympian goddess of war and wisdom, whom some speculated was also the the goddess Sune or at least similar to her.
 * Demeter: The Olympian goddess of agriculture and the wife of Zeus prior to Hera.
 * Hera: The wife of Zeus.
 * Hades: The Olympian god of the dead.
 * Hecate: The Olympian goddess of magic.
 * Hephaestus: The Olympian god of crafting and smithing and the sole child of Hera.
 * Poseidon: The Olympian god of the ocean, who had a small following in Impiltur.
 * Priapus: An Olympian god of fertility that was worshiped by primitive human tribes on the Isle of Firando.
 * Prometheus: A Greater Titan who aided the Olympians in their battle of usurpation and was later granted a station of lesser godhood within the pantheon.
 * Tyche: The Olympian goddess of fortune.
 * Zeus: The Olympian god of lightning and the head of the pantheon.

Servants
Almost all members of the Olympian pantheon worked through proxies. Some allowed these to ascend, but others like Zeus were very reluctant to grant such power out of fear of being usurped. The extensive number of lesser proxies they entrusted with minor tasks included such creatures as ashiras, dryads, satyrs, and sirines.

History
Many of the members of this pantheon descended from a group of beings known as the Greater Titans. The leader of the Greater Titans, Cronus, would devour each of his first five children as they were born, for his mother Gaea laid a curse on him proclaiming that one day his children would usurp him. These first five children were Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, and Poseidon. On their sixth child, Cronus's wife Rhea tricked him into instead swallowing a stone, allowing Gaea to smuggle away one who would later be known as Zeus. When he reached adulthood this child disguised himself as a cupbearer of Cronus and gave him a potion that induced him into vomiting up his five children.

In the history of this pantheon its squabbling members had gathered together on a common front primarily on two occasions. The first was to usurp the Greater Titans, who they cast the majority of into Carceri. Those who were spared this fate were Rhea and Prometheus, who had allied themselves with the Olympians. The second time they came together on a common front was the construction of Mount Olympus.

The legitimacy of that second act was questionable though, as some claimed that the mountain had existed since before the titans had even ruled Olympus and some stories said that the Olympians used their combined might to shatter the mountain's connection to Tarterus in order to trap the titans. Others told of them taking credit simply for fashioning it into a continuous conduit through the Astral plane and into Hades, connecting along the way to all places on the Prime where they had followers. though some claimed this too had existed prior to them.

Over the course of a few thousands years following their founding, the Olympians grew to be among the most influential pantheons on the Outer Planes. To the point that many people on the Prime Material referred to their home plane as Olympus, though not the inhabitants of Realmspace. Though they also garnered many enemies, such as when they appropriated aspects from what would later be known as the Mulhorandi pantheon, blatantly drawing from their rivals to gain ever more worshippers.

During the days of the Netherese Empire, a minor goddess within this pantheon known as Tyche was worshiped in the Netherese people's pantheon until the Dawn Cataclysm.

Relationships
They got along well with the Seldarine, as they never competed for land or followers. And the celestial eladrin in general were on good terms with them. The Celtic pantheon were considered their primary rivals.

Some individuals in this pantheon had relations with deities of other pantheons that were worshipped on Toril. For instance, Hephaestus was one of the closest allies of the dwarven deity Dumathoin and was supplied by him with adamantine ore. And throughout their time knowing each other, the goddess Demeter had always gotten on well with the Faerûnian goddess Chauntea.

Worshippers
The original worshippers of this pantheon were largely humans.

Upon the Rock of Bral in Realmspace, there existed a temple known as the Planar Church of Olympus that venerated almost all members of this pantheon.

In Greatspace, the good-aligned Olympians were worshipped. Some people in that crystal sphere believed that the evil members of this pantheon, such as Hades and Hecate, didn't exist and were just rumors started centuries ago.