THE DAEVAS (India):
Skyfather: Brahma (Creation)
Others: Ganesha (Intellect & Wisdom), Kali (Destruction), Indra (War & Weather), Maya (Illusions), Ratri (Night), Shiva (Destruction & Transformation), Vishu (Heaven & Preservation), Yama (Death)
-Still worshipped by nearly a billion Indians, these guys raise some odd questions in the Marvel Universe as one of the few currently-worshipped Pantheons out there. Use of highly-respected Indian characters as pop-culture fodder is HIGHLY controversial, and the sheer size of the Indian diaspora means you'll definitely get some blowback if you try it.
Monster In My Pocket was banned in England for a time after the very large English Hindu population freaked out when beings like Shiva & Ganesha appeared alongside Witch and The Mummy in the collectible plastic toyline. The TV series
Clone High got such a berating over the Ghandi character (Ghandi is basically worshipped in a cult of personality) that it helped the show get cancelled, too. So Marvel typically only tries it rarely- their appearances are short. They appear in some background scenes, judging stuff and observing Thor or whatever. Kali is once seen empowering an assassin, and Yama joined other Death Gods in being attacked by The Demogorge after forging an alliance.
-I've tried to learn stuff about these guys, but the religion is really hard to get into, as each God seems to have Male & Female aspects (some of whom are married to them, I think), and there's lots of assorted weirdness here- it's like if someone let Grant Morrison design a pantheon. But they do have Garuda, a giant super-awesome Bird Mount. Kenmadragon explains it as the idea that Gods are the means by which we have to understand the Divine, which is beyond understanding- many Gods have multiple forms, aspects and Avatars, which can include changing appearance or even gender.
HINDU GOD TEMPLATE
PL 10 (135)
STRENGTH 11
STAMINA 11
AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 8
DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 3
AWARENESS 3
PRESENCE 4
Skills:
Close Combat (Unarmed) 1 (+9)
Expertise (God) 6 (+9)
Expertise (History) 2 (+5)
Insight 4 (+7)
Intimidation 4 (+8)
Perception 3 (+6)
Advantages:
Benefit (Status- God), Diehard, Great Endurance, Ranged Attack 6
Powers:
"Immortal God"
Regeneration 2 (Feats: Regrowth) [3]
Immunity 9 (Aging, Drowning, Suffocation, Starvation & Thirst, Heat, Cold, Pressure, Poison, Disease) [9]
Speed 2 (8 mph) [2]
Leaping 1 (15 feet) [1]
Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+11 Damage, DC 26)
Initiative +3
Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +9 (DC 19), Toughness +11, Fortitude +10, Will +7
Complications:
Responsibility (Respective Pantheons)
Total: Abilities: 90 / Skills: 20--10 / Advantages: 9 / Powers: 15 / Defenses: 11 (135)
Notable Members:
* Note: Thanks to Kenmadragon for providing so much of this info. A lot of this is direct quotes, so credit him instead of me.
BRAHMA, VISHNU & SHIVA: Three brothers who formed the world. Vishnu is a God of Mercy & Light, Shiva is the Destroyer (which often gets him equated with evil in Western stuff) and Brahma is the Creator (with four faces), though Shiva is the mightiest. Shiva was beaten by Thor in an old issue of his comic, but was retconned into being Indra after some Hindus got annoyed at Marvel for having Thor beat one of their major Godly figures. Brahma is often treated as the "Skyfather" equivalent, though the others are as likely to appear- he himself isn't overly worshipped these days, and has fallen out of favor a bit.
* Brahma is the Creator God. And unlike many other mythologies, Brahma has experience as a Creator God, on account of having done it He's also lord of Wisdom and a whole host of other things. In the Mythology, he's rather passive though, despite being ludicrously powerful. I honestly don't know all that much about him, mostly because he's not very active like the others. His consort is Saraswati, who is Goddess of Knowledge, Wisdom, Education, Learning, Literature, and a host of related domains.
* Shiva is also of major importance. He's the Destroyer of Everything. Mostly people focus on the "destroying evils" thing, but he's also fully capable of ending reality if he chose to do so. He's got plenty of methods to do so. Shiva is also Nataraja, and thus the Lord of Dance. He's also got a bunch of other names and faces under which Shiva is the god of all wilderness and all animals, as well as the Keeper of the Cosmic Sounds, and the Ascetic of the Gods. He's also somewhat antisocial and moody, which contrastingly makes him easy to appease when it comes to asking for boons.
* Rudra is actually another name for Shiva, these days. They share the same domain, though Rudra is the face of Shiva when Shiva is angry. Note that the name "Rudra" is a simplification of the deity's original name which means "The Howler". Rudra is the lord of the Maruts, who are storm gods and very violent ones at that. Drawing the wrath of Shiva has never been a good thing in the mythology - it always ends badly.
* Vishnu is the one with a lot of myths to his name, just like Shiva. And given he's got Ten Avatars, each with their own stories and myths... he gets around a lot in the stories. Of course, all of those Avatars are essentially Vishnu taking a face and downgrading it to the level of a demi-god in order to act on the mortal plane. Simply because gods like Vishnu and the others at/near his caliber are simply far too powerful to be anywhere near mortals. There's a scene in the Mahabharata during the Bhagavad Gita scenes where Arjuna basically asks Krishna to show him his true form. Krishna acquiesces and Arjuna, a demi-god himself, is completely overwhelmed by this revelation, and if not for Krishna guiding him through it, probably would have shattered completely for trying to comprehend all that Krishna was.
Would bang.
KALI: The God of Destruction once empowered the assassin "Deathtoll" after being pleased by her murderous ways. Kenma: Its not wholly accurate to call Kali the consort of Shiva. She is, but the title isn't that of "Shiva's Wife" - that's Parvati's title. But Parvati and Kali are kind of the same person? But not really? It really depends on who you're asking, because the stories differ widely. Nevertheless, she's absolutely terrifying, vastly powerful, and usually can only be tamed by Shiva (who himself is tamed by Parvati, who may or may not also be Kali as well as Gauri... theirs is an interesting relationship).
YAMA: The God of Death joined Marvel's other Death Gods in a power-grab, but were eaten by The Demogorge for their crimes.
GANESHA: The famed Elephant-Headed God, formed when his father Shiva decapitated him in a case of mistaken identity, then slapped on the head of the closest thing he could find. Ganesha, who is Lord of Openings and Beginnings, as well as being credited as the scribe of the Mahabharata. Ganesha is SUPER important because no undertaking can begin without his approval, and thus prayers to Ganesha precede every ritual. In Marvel, he is apparently the patron God of Behemoth (formerly the Man-Elephant).
INDRA: He's Lord of Thunder and Lightning, God of the Sky, Storms and Rainfall, King of Heaven, Ruler of the Devas. That last one is an important distinction - he rules over Heaven and the Devas, and while all devas are gods, not all gods are devas. Indra's fairly powerful and skillful, and owner of Vajra (the Thunderbolt) and the Vasavi Shakti, which was a weapon of exceptional power that was a major plot-point during the Mahabharata and the Kurukshetra War. Indra's essentially the same as Zeus in terms of power and domain, only he's not a complete douche, and actually has superiors he answers to.
AGNI: Agni is the God of Fire. First I'm hearing of lightning though (that's usually Indra's thing), but given how ancient Hindus viewed Lightning as a kind of Fire, I suppose that fits. He's also of exceptional import because a lot of Religious Rites involve fire - like, virtually all of them involve fire in some fashion. And as one of the Five Elements, he's part of the building blocks of reality.
LAKSHMI: Lakshmi is also Vishnu's consort, and not only a goddess of fortune, but also prosperity and good luck. By contrast, know that whatever she can give (wealth, luck, a prosperous household and family), she can also take away just as easily (and has done so in quite a few stories).
OTHERS: There are literally thousands of Gods, so summing them up is largely impossible. "Surya and Ushas are solar deities (though Surya is THE sun god, and all others are just other faces of his, or consorts of some sort), Tvashtri is goddess of artisans of all sorts (and patron of the Sciences, but that's more Saraswati's domain). Garuda is more of a demi-god, and Yama used to be a demi-god, but is now mostly all god."