Galactic Gods - questions/comments

[Khisanth the Ancient]

Cool article. I like how a single deity of an entire universe works out to be a Time Lord.

What is a 'skyfather'? I had thought Ascension defines it as a male pantheon head, but the Galactic Gods article mentions multiple skyfathers in one pantheon. Does it just mean Greater Deity?

Also, a nitpick: "# Demiurge Stage I requires 100 quodrillion worshippers
# Demiurge Stage I requires ...
# Demiurge Stage I requires ..."

presumably should say "Demiurge Stage I ... II ... III".

 

[Alzrius]

Cool article. I like how a single deity of an entire universe works out to be a Time Lord.

It does seem very apropos that if the entire population of the universe worships a single deity, that deity would be the pantheistic representation of that entire universe.

...of course, I say "worships a single deity," but the numbers for worshippers over 1 billion seem to be scaled to polytheistic worship, not monotheistic. Which is fairly ironic since, at the top of the scale, if the entire universe worships a deity, it's monotheistic by definition.

More personally, I liked how this article made it possible to calculate how powerful the god of an entire galaxy would be. I'm always reminded of Master Vile (from the third season of the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers), the ruler of the M51 galaxy - being the emperor of an entire freakin' galaxy, I always figured he must have unbelievable power (to conquer it all, and hold it together afterwards) and supreme resources, which made his appearance on the show rather underwhelming.

Of course, Palpatine was emperor of a galaxy, and he wasn't exactly an Old One either, so maybe it all works out somehow.

What is a 'skyfather'? I had thought Ascension defines it as a male pantheon head, but the Galactic Gods article mentions multiple skyfathers in one pantheon. Does it just mean Greater Deity?

I think U_K is making room for the idea that you can have one singular ruler or a small coterie of rulers. The Glossary in Ascension says "male ruler (or rulers)" of a pantheon.

Also, a nitpick: "# Demiurge Stage I requires 100 quodrillion worshippers
# Demiurge Stage I requires ...
# Demiurge Stage I requires ..."

presumably should say "Demiurge Stage I ... II ... III".

Also, the initial notes state that (for polytheistic pantheons) you need 1 billion worshippers for a greater god. It then says that above that level, you need 100 worshippers for every ten-fold increase (that is, an increase in divine status). So in other words, to make the jump from greater god to elder god would need 100 billion worshippers...and then the following table lists it as 10 billion.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hiya mate!

Cool article. I like how a single deity of an entire universe works out to be a Time Lord.

Thanks.

What is a 'skyfather'? I had thought Ascension defines it as a male pantheon head, but the Galactic Gods article mentions multiple skyfathers in one pantheon. Does it just mean Greater Deity?

Some Pantheons have multiple Skyfathers:

Persian - Ahriman & Ormazd
Hindu - Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva)
etc.

Also, a nitpick: "# Demiurge Stage I requires 100 quodrillion worshippers
# Demiurge Stage I requires ...
# Demiurge Stage I requires ..."

presumably should say "Demiurge Stage I ... II ... III".

Yes - apologies for the mistake.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hiya mate!

It does seem very apropos that if the entire population of the universe worships a single deity, that deity would be the pantheistic representation of that entire universe.

...of course, I say "worships a single deity," but the numbers for worshippers over 1 billion seem to be scaled to polytheistic worship, not monotheistic. Which is fairly ironic since, at the top of the scale, if the entire universe worships a deity, it's monotheistic by definition.

Yep.

More personally, I liked how this article made it possible to calculate how powerful the god of an entire galaxy would be. I'm always reminded of Master Vile (from the third season of the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers), the ruler of the M51 galaxy - being the emperor of an entire freakin' galaxy, I always figured he must have unbelievable power (to conquer it all, and hold it together afterwards) and supreme resources, which made his appearance on the show rather underwhelming.

We can always rebuild him and do him justice...same thing with the Dragonball cast and that Tengen Toppen...whatever its called.

Of course, Palpatine was emperor of a galaxy, and he wasn't exactly an Old One either, so maybe it all works out somehow.

He wasn't worshipped though.

As an aside, he did command a Death Star and a fleet of ships capable of reducing planets to molten slag. Wasn't one of the Sith Lords credited with single handedly destroying a Star or something like that...?

Also, the initial notes state that (for polytheistic pantheons) you need 1 billion worshippers for a greater god. It then says that above that level, you need 100 worshippers for every ten-fold increase (that is, an increase in divine status). So in other words, to make the jump from greater god to elder god would need 100 billion worshippers...and then the following table lists it as 10 billion.

Thanks for the spot amigo. I will change that when I update the website tomorrow.

 

[Alzrius]

We can always rebuild him and do him justice...same thing with the Dragonball cast and that Tengen Toppen...whatever its called.

Booyeah! I look forward to seeing that.

Thanks for the spot amigo. I will change that when I update the website tomorrow.

I noticed that you implemented the fixes, but now there are some other problems with the math in the article.

In large part, I think the error is coming from trying to configure monotheist/polytheist divine strata in from the same number of worshippers...that works fine until you get into how sidereals require ten-fold as many worshippers to advance one divine strata than gods do. For example:

A typical pantheon is assumed to have around 1 billion worshippers. This nets the pantheon:

• 1-4 Skyfathers
• 9 Intermediate Gods (typically one of each alignment)

So, one billion worshippers is enough to result in at least one greater deity. But then further down:

Most powerful single deity based on number of worshippers for 3rd Edition.

• 10 billion = Elder God (monotheism); Greater God (polytheism)
• 100 million = Greater God (mono); Intermediate God (poly)

So now, for a pantheon (which is inherently polytheistic) there's not enough worshippers to have even a single greater deity.

It's clear that you recalculated the numbers so that an elder deity in a monotheistic system would match with greater number of worshippers necessary to become a sidereal. However, paralleling monotheism as one divine rank above a polytheistic deity with equal worshippers creates this disparity - now that greater deity is subject to the ten-fold increase to maintain his divine rank as well.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey Alzrius mate!

Yes I noticed that, not immediately sure what I'll do about it, I may make the math changes after Elder God...but I'll need to mull that over.