Mortal heroes becoming gods

Hi teegee, beseech thy wisdom

I need more ideas on how mortal heroes can eventually become gods that is other than
>kill enough enemies to level up
>cast a spell
>find a Mcguffin (like eat ambrosia)
>existing gods saying "mmm,kay come on up here!"

The problem is that while the setting in particular has gods in it but they are not like an established pantheon like say in Greek mythology, they are fewer and more isolated and plotting against each other so they will not just allow mortals to mess with their shit.

Pic tangentially related...

They must kill a rebellious god that seeks to kill other worshippers out of spite.
*Insert God Of War theme*

That movie was great.

Slay god, and take on their aspect.

Unknown armies style, when a mortal embodies an archetype better than any other mortal they ascend to godhood.

Example: party hard enough for long enough and you become the god of revels, even kicking out the old god if he cant keep up, though gods have advantages over mortals that makes it very hard to dethrone them.

Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality had an interesting way of handling this... Each Incarnation had a different method depending on what abstract concept they were incarnating.

I had a player (Bard) roll so well, so often, the god of luck came down to butch slap him. GOL crit failed, PC crited and stole the power of luck. He still shows up every now and then.

We accidentally summons an edrich being from our dwarf (curse, when dropped to 0 goes eldritch mode). My sorc, having his own plot on hand, managed to kill a boss just as this was happening and went to go help the inured team mate. So many tentacles. Thing is, his plot involved his brother's phylactery (a black pearl pendant) with his soul being trapped in it. The high level wizard that knows lots of spells. When the tentacles inevitably started devouring us, my sorc used the last of his magic to open the pearl and merge his consciousness with it, and the eldritch monster forming. Ended up being able to cast spells, cast giant form 2. regen saved the day. When the dwarf calmed down she became a mask thing, with three eyes, one gree (dorf) one red(sorc) and one Black (wiz). Putting it on makes bad things happen and the gm will text us to see what the poor bastard does.

Once i beat Tzeentch in a battle of wills while in the warp (a lot of bad rolls on the GMs part, i was trying to die), stole some of his power, and became a human god of chaos. She hangs ut with the golden throne every now and then singing lullaby's.

Gain enough people to believe in your divinity - not just accept it, but truly believe with a fiery and consumptive passion. You become a god by becoming a god.

Mantle a god. By acting as that god, you become that god.

Create a world. Every detail from beginning to end. Be it's God. Believe it will manifest simply because the vastness of the universe allows for every possibility.

>Hmm... I don't like you. I think you're a heretic. And so you will die a heretic's death

Also, I wanted to post this

As it turns out mortals in your setting can ascend to become deities by spiritually and physically merging in an ancient ritual. No single mortal can contain such power, and all the existing gods and goddesses are alreay results of such fusion. The truth of this is poorly understood outside of the pantheon, who for obvious reasons want to keep it a secret.

Misposted this as a new thread.

>Slay god, and take on their aspect.

You're a big, beefy barbarian guy and you slew the goddess of love and fertility. Are you really sure you want to try that?

I was overjoyed when I first met the Thalmor, since they give you legitimate reason to want to kill them.

And then you kill them. Alot.

>Gragor the barbarian warrior slays goddess of love and fertility, forced to take on her aspect
>doesn't actually change his personality at all
>grumbles about it to the rest of the pantheon
>"hey man, you should have known what you were getting yourself into."
>decides to take his own approach to the idea
>finds some couple
>"THE GOD OF LOVE AND FERTILITY COMMANDS YOU TO FUCK ALREADY OR I'LL CUT OFF YOUR HEAD AND DRINK FROM YOUR SKULL"
>"c-can we at least have some privacy?"
>Gragor says nothing as he hefts his battleaxe and glares at them sternly.
>they consummate their relationship under the angry glare of Gragor. When they finish, he nods and leaves, his job here complete.

Thus begins the story of Gragor, God of Love and Fertility.

More like

>Gragor slays the goddess of love and fertility, forced to take on her aspect
>is now dainty, curvy goddess
>doesn't actually change personality at all
>comes to pantheon meetings hung over
>sits down wide-legged, burps and scratches her crotch
>other gods stare
>"What are you looking at you bunch of faggots?"

Why not have just one god that has all of the domains but isn't strong enough to hold them all at once, giving mortals a chance to steal domains from said god.

>Pic semi-related.

Players get sent to the dawn of time and get to reshape the universe as they see fit.

...I'm sorry, are you doubting the last testament of Our Lord and Savior Fabio's apotheosis?

High Cha Barbarians are the best.

By being a hero of such renown that people believe you are divine, through their unified belief you become one.

That's probably my favorite way of doing it.

That movie was utter piece of garbage. And it killed traditional animation for good with being both shit and a box office bomb.

The hero gains the trust of a god that wants to die. They eventually both come to the agreement that they would switch places, where the god would live out the rest of his days in a mortal body, and the hero would take over the duties of a god.

Not taken for anywhere no sir.

The common way to become a god is to steal power from a god. You take their divine power and become its host.

The lesser-known path is to steal power from mortals. When a power has been taken from all other mortals, the final host of that power will be called divine.

In ancient times, men could speak to animals and command them. But this power was stolen, and the thief became the god of beasts.

this Call it "beatification through badassery". Mortal hero saves city/nation. In habitants erect statues in his honor, and appoint a feast day to celebrate his victory. Parents begin naming their children after him, and tell their sons to be brave, noble, and strong like him. He eventually falls in battle, but others rise to continue the fight against evil in his name. Soon he begins to appear to those who honored him. A traveller attacked by bandits reports the hero saves him. A young maiden kidnapped by a villain is found safe in the villain's lair, she reports the hero slew the villain. Etc.

Heroic feats leads to worshippers. Worshippers associate the hero with archetypal traits. This transforms the hero into a god embodying those traits.

Hero of Kvatch--->sheogorath transformation seems interrsting

Have the hero be one that was a really famous one that is worshiped all across the land. He then sacrifices himself to stop the BBEG or whatever. The act of sacrifice, plus all the worship and love from the people catapult his spirit into the realm of godhood.

He could be like a self-made nouveau riche god of the people, while the others are more old money ones of classic aspects.

>achieve enlightenment

The Thalmor are so fucking annoying.

>be Thalmor
>currently being attacked by a dragon
>why do I get all the shit assignments I fucking swear
>dragonbreath freezes one of my arms solid
>that was my dismissive pointing hand you faggot
>suddenly
>out of the corner of my eye
>a nondescript orc armored in fur and weilding a legion issue bow
>I better kill her

I WAS TRYING TO BE NICE THIS ONE TIME. Fucking wizard assholes.

The gods are just that; lower capital g, gods. Like mortals they have to adhere to the rules of the universe, even if they are vastly different. Where do they get their powers from? Existence I guess. The creator is more of a force than an actor. As their powers come from their relation to that force it stands to reason that a mortal with enough understanding can gain the power that is needed can usurp a god - but never God.

In my setting, energy from the gods comes from the sun, which is a portal to the divine realm. The elves thousands of years ago had a desperate ritual that ascended one of their members to divinity. It caused a lot of destruction and only worked because the majority of gods were desperate for help in dealing with one of their own.

Yeah that is cool but how do you do that?

By shattering the illusion of reality and shedding the lie of the self.

What doth life?

The throne was empty and if someone doesn't sit on it, the world will collapse.

truthfully, they end up in a garbage disposal of other throne holders to be consumed by the elder gods

Kill another god. Steal their godly essence.

Mortals ascend through godhood through ancient artifacts that were used in the creation of the world itself.

Either a mortal kills an existing god with one of the artifacts, or they spend enough time around one.

In my setting, the god of the sun is technically a demigod, in that his mother was a mortal. This gives him the ability to share a portion of his divine power with mortals, making them gods. As part of this process, he's been 'reincarnated' into a human cleric (ironically of one of the gods he acts as a power spigot to) who is effectively epic level due to the fact that he's actually a damn deity.
He doesn't know this, partially because if he found out, all of his power would snap back to him instinctively. Part of the reason none of his enemies have killed him yet is because if he ever died, the same thing would happen.

Did anyone get this reference?

Played in a setting where it was a thing. If enough people noticed you and your achievements you will become more powerful and even get immortality.

For all the humor and light tone game was pretty dark. Especially when characters could be stuck in a self-feeding loop where power of belief didn't allow them to deviate from their "public face". One of the characters tried to change his ways and got an evil twin that was embracing all that said character left behind. That character also lost a lot of power in transition and soon died.

>mortal heroes becoming gods
I have grown to furiously hate this idea over the years because I've never seen it done well, and usually the most undeserving or poorly fit for the job idiots are the ones that become gods.

You need some lessons from Tiber Septim.

The Mutherfuckin' Axis Mundi, man. The Holy Mutherfuckin' Mountain.
You want to be a god? Climb up the Mountain and you can join us at the top.
But the mountain is covered in dangerous terrain, only getting stranger the higher you climb. Shit starts getting weird as you encounter divine puzzles, creatures created as guards, labyrinth cities and the jealous remains of those who failed the climb.

The Mountain will cleanse you or it will break you.

Examples?

Formerly dead gods overwrite powerful mortals who unknowingly possessed similar beliefs and methods of said god, and then call themselves by a different name. The mortal technically became a new god, but it's really just the old gods recycling themselves over and over through their enduring beliefs and concepts in man.

I'm sorry, Vegeta, did you say something? Thought I heard a sound, almost like someone ramming a shovel into the ground over and over.

go home hortator youre drunk again

It's funny because an avatar of lorkhan became the hole that was created by the removal of lorkhan's heart

vice versa

why wasn't pic related put together before c0da

that was already down before c0da I think, it's just somehow no one figured that lorkhan was inside akatosh's heart.
Or was it the other way around?
I forget, read the thing back when it came out

>c0da
a what?

Your tastes are shit and so are Disney's.

>Hero sacrifices everything (personality, friendship, possessions, family, memories of his mortal days) and becomes the embodiment of a god on the pantheon.
>A god grows bored with being immortal and trades the power to die as a mortal: by growing old with a family and children. He/She gives the power away to a random person, without them knowing.
>A God grows curious with a hero and gives them little bits of their power, just to see what they would do with it. Like a kid playing with a toy, making up stories for why they do what they do.
>A God wants to test Humanity and grants differing powers to a group of humans of varying alignments and skills, they are tasked with proving humanity's worth of existence in one year. Every one of them has a different idea on how to do it.

A combination of mantling and unknown armies style.

The pantheon is pre-defined, new seats are added, seats fade away, but by and large there are a set number of gods.

You become a god by playing the role of that god so hard that the world can no longer tell the difference between you and the seat which you now represent.

SITHIS IS NOT A GOD REEEEEEEEEE

Fuck you Bhaal.

What about starting as butt naked god spawn and at the end usurp his throne/claim your heritage.

This is the most reasonable, but maybe not the most fun.

Sithis, like Anueil, is an idea that permeates all levels of existence. Lorkhan is a personification of Sithis at best.

...

Have it so a hero can become a god by developing a following/worshippers whatever, and then completing their apotheosis by enacting some ritual/traveling to some place/completing something. However, there should be a downside. Maybe being a god makes you lose yourself as you become more and more distant from the world. One of my favorite settings had a group of people who'd become immortal, essentially, but never took the last step to godhood, because gods lose their humanity in the process.

We're currently playing a game like that, where each of the characters are in some way or other a demi-god or equivalent to that, like they have a god parent or accomplished some feat, and they're all trying to find some method to ascend to proper godhood.

So far it looks like we'll have to be more creative than just something like leveling up or being granted divinity. One of the players is considering the idea of killing a god to usurp them, another is trying to gain followers and worship to ascend that way, another is doing the more classical approach and looking to complete some fabled legendary deeds.

Check out the rules for immortals in Basic D&D. The immortals were divided into five spheres and becoming an immortal of one of the spheres demanded you get the backing of one of the immortals and fulfill a check list of fairly difficult quests.

I came here to post this. The defining campaign of my ill spent youth involved one the players in the group questing for Immortality. He followed the Path of the Dynast and became a new Immortal of the Sphere of Time. My character was his sage and chronicler, the observer and unknowing mouthpiece of his sponsor, who fed me lore to keep the proto-Immortal on the right track.

You mimic a God in every way possible until the universe goes cross-eyed and accidently MAKES you into them.

Mantling is a hell of a drug.

>52444420
>44420
>420
Ayyyyyy lmao.

My n'wah

But how does a mantleing work?

It doesn't