How do you like deities that were once mortals?

[Slife]

RangerWickett recently ran a campaign which ended up with his players ascending. It was pretty kewl (from what he's said about it, at least.)

 

[Voadam]

With as many deities and other divine beings as there are in Toril, there ought to be more half-celestials/infernals or aasimar and tieflings running around.

Wait, you think the Realms are lacking in half outsiders, planetouched, and genasi? I thought they were fairly prevalent as a setting element and reflected in lots of written up NPCs, bad guy organizations, and monster entries what with the demonic orcs, house of demonic elves, etc.

 

[Tarek]

I think in FR there are really a lot of deities that started as mortals: Mystra (the current one), Kelemvor, Cyric, Bane, Azuth, and a bunch of lesser/demi gods.

Personally I think the idea is ok, but it's been overdone too much. Four greater deities in the same setting that ascended from mortals (three of which basically at the same time) in my opinion makes the whole process too normal...

The implication in Forgotten Realms is that, apart from the racial deities (Corellon, Gruumsh, Clangeddin, etc) and the refugees from Earth (Tyr, Auril (finnish mythos?), Amon-Ra, etc.), EVERY god was actually a mortal who ascended.

Because, you see, the Forgotten Realms is supposed to be very much like Earth in that it's the "forgotten realms of the imagination" of Earth humans.

That's why it's such a screwed up, inconsistent, bland setting.

I mean, the transition from 2nd edition to 3rd edition took place in a series of novels that were, in my opinion, thinly disguised stories about corporate politics at TSR ("you gods are now only are as powerful as the product lines you sel... sorry, the number of worshippers you have.")

 

[Rhun]

I have a couple of ascended mortals who are gods in my homebrew setting, but only one of any real significance.

 

[Dross]

IIRC, Lathander is not an ascended mortal, but I'm not sure where he's supposed to have come from.

Lost Empires of Faerun has Lathander being a "reincarnated" Athalantor (probably spelt wrong), at least in theory. There is a PrC class based on this theory.

Others that come to mind:
The Red Knight was elevated by Tempus to cover strategy since Tempus is primarily interested in "just" fighting.
Uthgar elevated by his tribes worship?

Mind you, there have been others that have failed in their quest to obtain godhood (although only Karsus, who brought down Netherel comes to mind).

So more than a few have been elevated to godhood, but the reasons and methods are varied whech to me is more important than any actual number (YMMV though).

 

[Ahnehnois]

I always thought the term "god" was used rather liberally in D&D. If gods have game statistics and interact with mortals, then mortals, I think, ought to be able to become deities.

I supposed I'm biased, given that in my homebrew, all deities are ascended mortals. Ancient dragons gave a few mortals divine power basically to save themselves the trouble of watching over that whole life/death cycle thing.

I even have an old PC as a lesser deity.

So I like it a lot, actually. Not for all settings though. "Divine" means something different in every setting, depending on the philosophy of its creator.

 

[Piratecat]

It's not for me. I don't want mortals ascending unless they're partially divine already.

 

[billd91]

How do I like them? They're jerks. A little bit of godhood and suddenly they're too good to pick up the bar tab. Fie on them, I say! Fie!

 

[Odhanan]

I like the idea of mortals becoming deities. It's very "D&D, 36th level" to me. It's part of the D&D I love.

Now, I may or may not like particular treatments. It depends on the NPC.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

But how do you like the idea? I think that in greek mythology it didn't happen that often: I remember only Hercules being admitted to Olympus, and not exactly turned into a god (and then he was son of a god and a mortal since the start IIRC). Having the option there is ok for me - at least seems to me the players always want it open for themselves - but if it becomes too common, then it feels quite bleah :\

Look up the cult of the Emperor and Roman imperial history - it was assumed that the emperor ascended upon death and joined the gods. And since you use the Latinate rather than Hellenic versions of the gods and Olympus this is something that should be considered. Some of the Egyptian religions worked the same way. Apotheosis upon death was not as uncommon as all that.

And then there is Finnish mythology (Kalevala) , where some of the heroes could beat the gods two falls out of three. Depending on the religion apotheosis is not all that uncommon.

My personal dodge is that belief creates gods, and that the being created by said belief may be shaped by a mortal person, but that the deity so created is a separate entity from said mortal. So when Bob dies, if there are enough true believers in Bobism then there will ascend the deity Bob, who is shaped more by the believers views of Bob than by the Historical figure. If his believers know that Bob never told lies then the deity Bob will be unable to lie, even if mortal Bob was actually an expert lier, who never got caught.

The Auld Grump. tired, go bed now.