IamTheTest
First Post
Start DMing. Done.
An Ordinary Human Into A God
- Thread starter Bartmanhomer
- Start date
kigmatzomat
Legend
IMC there are gods (those who have linked their soul with a demiplane) and spirits (those whose souls are the embodiment of a universal truth). Both are divine. You can become a god but you have to find an unoccupied demiplane and bind it to your soul (a process taking a few millenia). If you can kill another god you can try to take their demiplane but it keeps trying to resurrect them and it still takes a few millenia. A god's death tends to weaken the clergy quite significantly since the demiplane is busy trying to rebuild the god and not answer any piddly requests for divine intervention.
You can't intentionally become a spirit, it just happens. If a spirit dies, the first being who sufficiently typifies the concept naturally becomes the spirit. (Often a priest of the concept but not always) Killing a spirit doesn't nerf the priests since they follow the concept, not the mortal embodiment. There's only one spirit of a given concept for each prime plane.
IMC, which is DL based, Raistlin tried to become a god and would have succeded at the cost of destroying Krynn. What he didn't realize was that he was the spirit of magic and thus a diety in his own right. Could any mere mage manage to destroy gods whose domains included magic? No, but the spirit of magic will win every magical duel.
Of course inter-spirit combat tends to get nasty since each spirit has near infinite power in regards to their domain and opposition domains are equally balanced. The spirit of death could easily put Raistlin down unless the spirit of life was defending him. Despite having virtually no offensive or defensive abilities beyond the bare minimum, the spirit of plans and schemes is the most dangerous in the long term.
You can't intentionally become a spirit, it just happens. If a spirit dies, the first being who sufficiently typifies the concept naturally becomes the spirit. (Often a priest of the concept but not always) Killing a spirit doesn't nerf the priests since they follow the concept, not the mortal embodiment. There's only one spirit of a given concept for each prime plane.
IMC, which is DL based, Raistlin tried to become a god and would have succeded at the cost of destroying Krynn. What he didn't realize was that he was the spirit of magic and thus a diety in his own right. Could any mere mage manage to destroy gods whose domains included magic? No, but the spirit of magic will win every magical duel.
Of course inter-spirit combat tends to get nasty since each spirit has near infinite power in regards to their domain and opposition domains are equally balanced. The spirit of death could easily put Raistlin down unless the spirit of life was defending him. Despite having virtually no offensive or defensive abilities beyond the bare minimum, the spirit of plans and schemes is the most dangerous in the long term.
Bartmanhomer
First Post
the Jester said:
Thank You Jester!
Patryn of Elvenshae
First Post
kigmatzomat said:
What a great ... thing. Idea? Write-up? All of the above?
Yes. All of the above!
Zenodotus of Ephesus
First Post
It helps to have followers. And a temple is always nice. Oh, and a commanding presence goes a long way. And flyers! Lots of flyers!
Kae'Yoss
First Post
As has been said: It depends on the game world:
In the Forgotten Realms, there is something above the gods - Ao the Overpower (which in turn has a superior who oversees all the realities). He has to approve of any candidate. He could theoretically obliterate any diety just like that, but he has taken a very passive role, and one of absolute balance. The only incident where he got active (apart from creating Realmspace in the first place) was the Time of Troubles incident.
There have been cases where a mortal slew a god and assumed his portfolio or parts thereof (like the mortal Finder Wyvernspur, who killed Moander the Darkbringer), even a case where a diety gave up most of his power to others (Jergal giving his power to Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul), and of course, mortals who were elevated by Ao himself (Cyric and the current Mystra). But all these incidents had the silent agreement of Ao, he could as well have denied any of them their power.
Another Example: Rokugan. It has the Celestial Order, with the greater Kami, lesser Kami, the Elemental Dragons, and all that. The Emperor is also part of that Order. At the very top were Lady Sun and Lord Moon, but they were replaced in the recent past by mortals, and now there's a new Lord Son and Lady moon.
Also, the Emperor can declare mortals to be deities, and the Celestial Order has to accept this. Now, Emperor Hentai XVI was a real bastard, and he elevated many people that annoyed him to godhood. So one was the God of Dung, the other God of Stupidity, and similar insults. Since the word of the Emperor is Celestial Law, these poor souls found themselves put into a very humiliating position for all eternity.
In the Forgotten Realms, there is something above the gods - Ao the Overpower (which in turn has a superior who oversees all the realities). He has to approve of any candidate. He could theoretically obliterate any diety just like that, but he has taken a very passive role, and one of absolute balance. The only incident where he got active (apart from creating Realmspace in the first place) was the Time of Troubles incident.
There have been cases where a mortal slew a god and assumed his portfolio or parts thereof (like the mortal Finder Wyvernspur, who killed Moander the Darkbringer), even a case where a diety gave up most of his power to others (Jergal giving his power to Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul), and of course, mortals who were elevated by Ao himself (Cyric and the current Mystra). But all these incidents had the silent agreement of Ao, he could as well have denied any of them their power.
Another Example: Rokugan. It has the Celestial Order, with the greater Kami, lesser Kami, the Elemental Dragons, and all that. The Emperor is also part of that Order. At the very top were Lady Sun and Lord Moon, but they were replaced in the recent past by mortals, and now there's a new Lord Son and Lady moon.
Also, the Emperor can declare mortals to be deities, and the Celestial Order has to accept this. Now, Emperor Hentai XVI was a real bastard, and he elevated many people that annoyed him to godhood. So one was the God of Dung, the other God of Stupidity, and similar insults. Since the word of the Emperor is Celestial Law, these poor souls found themselves put into a very humiliating position for all eternity.
HellHound
ENnies winner and NOT Scrappy Doo
lonesoldier said:
I have issues with this, as it ends up making it so that only evil characters will be attaining godhood regularly, for who would kill the good gods to take their place?
I prefer that you can have multiple gods with the same portfolios, and their fortunes wax and wane like some of the old polytheistic pantheons of old - in this manner, a deity can slide out of favor as less and less peopel worship him or her, moving on to a new deity in his or her place.
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