So a god/goddess dies, what happens?

[the Jester]

I also heartily recommend Requiem for a God- it's got tons of good stuff in it.

 

[Chimera]

IMCS;

A very large battle devastated a section of the world and "killed" four Gods. One of these, the Human demi-god of Magic, was destroyed outright. The other three, being of greater power, were only reduced to a deathless sleep state for a couple of hundred years. During this time, their clerics cannot recieve higher than 4th level spells (no Raise Dead, Hallow and the like).

One of these was returned after a period of only a couple of years by the concerted effort of many high level followers to obtain and use "The Blood of the Earth", a ritual that killed all of the participants, but brought back the god.

The other two will be out for much longer. I have it written in my notes that the greater god will return after 314 years, the lesser after close to 800. Since the greater is a racial god of people who are on the losing end of a multi-millenia long war, they're likely to be in bad shape by the time he returns. I'm sure that at that time, he and his followers will be running amok with serious True Ressurrection spells to bring back his most powerful servants!

The lesser god will likely be reduced to a very minor cult by the time of her return.

 

[kigmatzomat]

What would happen in your game?
What would be the ramification of the death of a god/goddess in your campiagn? Would faith crumble, would there be riots in the street, would there be an movement to other gods/goddess, would crops fail and animals run wild?

There are 2 forms of divinity in my game: Spirits (a mortal who embodies a concept) and Gods (beings whose souls are tied to a demiplane).

Death of a spirit, though rare, has only social impact on the world as the worshippers follow the still-intact concept. Faith continues, though the church changes to focus on the "eventual arrival of our new Spirit." How the spirit dies may cause some turmoil ("your spirit murdered our spirit!") but it's transient in general.

Gods are dang hard to kill as IMC the demiplane will try to regenerate them. If a diety just loses all its avatars it's life as usual for the month or so it takes the plane to generate a new one. Should someone be actively fighting for control of the plane, the followers lose virtually all magic while god's soul exerts all its energy to survive. This shouldn't affect the functioning of the world as a whole but divine artifacts could lose power and evil gods may call to their clerics to perform sacrifices to provide energy.
Since gods are followed as individuals, the religion will fade if the god goes too long without reappearing. Riots are possible (think "Rodney King" on a godly level).

Would the worshippers even known? How about the demi-gods?

The laity won't know unless the clerics tell them. Clerics and Adepts will be able to sense the "unfocused" nature of their religion in the case of a spirit. Priests of gods won't notice the death of avatars but will feel something unpleasant if the god is being supplanted.

What would be the effects on the other gods and goddess, would they fight for the worshippers, would they elevate a demi-god, would there be elections or fighting?

Spirits may or may not care, it depends on the politics. Spirits really don't oppose each other as much as the gods do. They can't elevate someone or create a new spirit, they have to wait for someone to naturally assume the role.

A minor godswar will break out while the victims' allies do their best to free them before final death arrives. Control of the followers may be important, though most would either rally them to provide support to their god or attempt to demoralize them and hasten the death.

Elevation of another may occur but it involves one (or more) gods giving up a share of their power so it's not high on the list.

 

[WmRAllen67]

The Great God Pan is dead-- or is he?

IMC I built off the idea in the Skull and Bones entry for the djab Lel-Za-Bol, which was formerly one of the Aztec's "Night dieties", but with the passing of the Aztec culture has become a weaker spirit-- dieties never really die, but slowly fade from the world in prominence, power and influence as their worshippers decrease.

I also envision dieties akin to "theological diamonds"-- a spirit has many faces, many facets, and depending upon the direction you look upon them (theologically-wise), you see a different thing. So Lel-Za-Bol is an aspect of Apep, serpent of Chaos, or also Kali, and so forth and so on...

And even that's not entirely accurate, but the spirit world is almost impossible to define-- or else where would be the mystery?

 

[loki44]

I favor the idea that a God is only as strong as the number of worshippers he/she/it has. A God only dies when there are no more worshippers at which point he/she/it simply becomes a myth.

 

[diaglo]

I favor the idea that a God is only as strong as the number of worshippers he/she/it has. A God only dies when there are no more worshippers at which point he/she/it simply becomes a myth.

strange you should mention this....

see ya Sunday.

 

[loki44]

strange you should mention this....

Hmmm.....can't imagine what you're hinting at. Sounds ominous.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Another reccomendation for Requiem for a God here.

 

[freebfrost]

I deal with this fairly often in my games, actually. I enjoy running epic level games, and there's always some meddling god getting killed by another god or even the PCs.

I follow the "standard" rules for the death of dieties - their physical forms become islands in the astral, and their spirits go "elsewhere." They can come back (a la Bane and Orcus), but their portfolios are subsumed by others upon their deaths, whether temporary or not. Much as in the Planescape series, if one of my gods comes back from death, they have to try to beg, borrow, or steal their portfolios and worshippers back.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Consider hunting around for the long OOP "Primal Order" book by WotC. Some of the coarsest notions of TPO made it into D&Dg but as a whole TPO is far, far superior. It provides an assortment of divine cosmologies and points out their consequences to the setting. It's a bit math heavy as many games from the early 90s were but you can easily ignore the tables and absorb knowledge from the well-written text.

To give you an idea of how I rate it, TPO is the divine equivalent of Expeditious Press' MMS:WE.