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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jackcarter" data-source="post: 121718" data-attributes="member: 1651">A quick reflection before I go watch Soul taker.At what did in history did you get the now cliche of power-hungry wizard wanting to become god?  As far western literature goes, the only thing that comes to my mind is Raistlin in the Dragonlance Legends.  However, I just can't believe that Weis & co were that original; they weren't even that good of authors!  Anyone else with any ideas?I look back and I don't remember any wizard in pulp tales, i.e., Howard and Leiber, wanting to become one.  But it's been a while since I've read them, so I could be wrong.  Looking at the implication of such fantasy archetype, I believe that there are no traditional western wizard/priest/magus/druid types in literature before 19th century.  I just don't think that the Western mind  could grasp the concept of becoming a god.  There were gnostics and other, older Helenistic mystery religions dealing with becming gods, but I don't think there are any Helenistic/Roman/Alexandrian romances or stories about such person.  Maybe those were the closest we got to the concept of becoming a god, before 19th century?  I know that the Faust legend, whether Goethe or Mallowe, didn't deal with actually becoming a god per se.How about Simon Magus, pre Christian cooptation?  Was he supposed to have become a god?  Or Celtic MerlynMy rides here.</blockquote>