Unifying theory of Divinity

[kamikazzijoe]

I feel this idea strings together a lot of mythology well in the palladium megaverse. Let me know what you think:

In order to become a god you need two things: 1) the knowledge and 2) the power to create and control a soul repository (aka afterlife). That's it. Its the extraction of energy from the souls that gives the gods their power before the souls eventually move on to the next step. Imagine the after being like a company, the better run it is the more energy it produces. This is why gods don't take every soul into their prime domain. You don't want the equivalent of Family guy's Stewie in your harmonious multicultured family. So the favorable souls are in the deities heaven and the less favorable are in the hell.
This is what makes pantheons so important. First, each god can optimize their part of the afterlife (thor with warriors, loki with rogues etc). Second, it divides the labor requirements (soul collection for gods of the dead, organizing the defenses for the warrior, exploration of new soul sources) Demon and devil gods act the same, but it more an abusive slave holder relationship. Their willingness to extract energy now from the souls at the expense of the soul's success later is why demons are comparable in power to the regular gods despite having fewer souls and having to pay more out in favors for worshipers.

Lets look at the classical ways to become a god:
Killing a god: you banish his prime avatar and then steal control of his soul repository before he can reform. This gives you a large existing power source and it has defenses already set up.
Getting accepted into your pantheon: This requires diluting the energy for everyone else which is why its so rare
Getting promoted by another god: This is hard because the sponsor either has to weaken themselves by giving up part of their domain or setting one up in an unknown part of the megaverse. (most gods have worlds their watching to ripen).
Self promotion: The reason this almost never works is because if you're discovered too soon another god will come and steal your souls, so you either need a new world or the protection of a current god.


Trying to lay claim to a soul. The following factors help a god lay claim to a soul at death:
1) Strength of worship
2) Strength of belief (you believe strongly in the existence of your god's enemies gives them a chance to steal you away)
3) Dying prayers/ postmortem prayers by priest
4) proximity to holy sites/people
5) god's prime avatar is actively collecting souls (back to pantheons having a dedicated god of death)
6) god's attention focused on the individual at the time of death
7) god kills the individual (hooray for earth quakes!)
So if you're a paladin of Rurga getting sacrificed on the alter of Azmodeus, you better hope she's got her eye on you.

God's as statues: If a god loses his active faithful, he still has the power from his afterlife. This is why they can go into statues and remain for approximately 10k years. After that time, if they haven't got a new influx of worshipers, enough souls have aged our of their afterlife that the power isn't enough to self sustain and the afterlife dissipates.

[csbioborg]

well many of the PF gods are the combined manifestation of peoples desires
ie humans came first and their combined will created the gods in many instances.

[Lord Z]

Yeah, but the Old Ones in Palladium Fantasy are clearly gods who predated humans and probably all mortals. It gets muddy.

There are already rules for achieving godhood in the Gods and Dragons sourcebook, but I see nothing wrong with introducing an alternate system.

Joe, I have two questions. First, is this idea going to be worked into a Rifter submission? ...because it's here in the Rifter section. Religion is always a really touchy subject with the Palladium crew. I don't see a problem with your system, but it is something I suggest you run by Wayne first.

Second, have you heard of SenZar RPG? ...because this system is almost exactly the same as one of the three paths to immortality in that game.

Overall, I like the idea. I like the point-based aspect. It seems to me that it could be the basis of a very fun campaign about establishing a new pantheon of player-characters.

[kamikazzijoe]

Yeah, but the Old Ones in Palladium Fantasy are clearly gods who predated humans and probably all mortals. It gets muddy.

There are already rules for achieving godhood in the Gods and Dragons sourcebook, but I see nothing wrong with introducing an alternate system.

Joe, I have two questions. First, is this idea going to be worked into a Rifter submission? ...because it's here in the Rifter section. Religion is always a really touchy subject with the Palladium crew. I don't see a problem with your system, but it is something I suggest you run by Wayne first.

Second, have you heard of SenZar RPG? ...because this system is almost exactly the same as one of the three paths to immortality in that game.

Overall, I like the idea. I like the point-based aspect. It seems to me that it could be the basis of a very fun campaign about establishing a new pantheon of player-characters.

No, i haven't heard of Senzar.
Yes i'm thinking of fleshing this out for a rifter submission. I've always felt palladium had left the afterlife aspect underutilized for the deities and their motivations when in common mythology its a driving factor for their behavior.
And yes this came about because 3 level 15 characters reached godhood.

The further expansion i was thinking of was how each level of exp (aka flock size) the characters would gain additional aspects/ conscience/ avatars.

[Lord Z]

Have fun with it!