Heroes and ascension to godhood

[Potjeh]

When you create a new character, you can choose to start him as a hero. Heroes can't inherit from dead characters, and they can't be inherited from.

When creating a hero, you choose his life goal. Slay a dragon, smith a q9001 sword, bang all the fair maidens in the kingdom, stuff like that. Upon achieving his goal, the hero immediately ascends into godhood, leaving some sacred relics where he stood. If he dies without achieving the goal, all the effort that went into him is lost. The new god's portfolio and power depend on the nature of the goal he had to achieve to ascend.

Relics can be placed in shrines. They can be stolen, but they can't be destroyed. Anyone can make sacrifices to a god at his shrine. It works like ancestor worship, except gods will tend to ask for items related to their portfolio. In return for sacrifices you can get divine inspiration (maybe even have it random as opposed to numen expenditure) which lets you craft a single item of increased quality, unlocks a new recipe or something like that.

Too Greek?

[sabinati]

i like the part about relics and shrines but idk about the hero part since there are no dragons and there's no way to craft a sword that high, and uh... yeah

[loftar]

I had actually consider an entirely different idea of character godhood; being, quite simply, that dead characters could be worshipped not only by their direct descendents, but also by altogether other characters (at the shrine built for him). Upon doing so, they would, obviously, gain numen points for that character, which could be used in various prayers, the strength of which would then not only be determined by the strength of the character alone, but also by the number of characters worshipping him and the amount of numen points they have gained with respect to him. Doing it that way would indirectly make a character a hero if he had made himself strong enough during his life to make it worthwhile for other people than his descendents to worship him.

In the end, we discarded the idea, though. I don't remember the exact reasons, but it might have been determined exploitable or boring in one way or another, or something.

We still more-or-less plan on adding more worshippable entities than just the ancestors, though. One option considered would be natural spirits that could be found here and there on the map; like the local river god, mountain spirit, or similar entities.

[kedrigh]

We still more-or-less plan on adding more worshippable entities than just the ancestors, though.

some ancient gods that require human or animal sacrifices including rituals that need more than a single hearthling present would be p. cool.

[Potjeh]

Well, I'm just using over-the-top examples to avoid getting into a debate about specifics. But my idea is in essence an achievements system. Yes, every game and it's mother has an achievements system. But just because something is popular doesn't mean it's bad.

Anyway, the main difference between this and what you considered, loftar, is that that this makes a bit more specialized gods, based on what quests they got. So this lets us have a god of smiths, a god of war, a god of beermakers etc., and patron gods of stuff is a staple of mythology. I can see it working well with the spirit worship. In fact, these ascended gods could work well as lesser gods, serving as liaisons between their people and the real gods.

For example, a deity of a sea wouldn't be reachable by the prayers of the fishermen fishing in that sea. A devout fishermen could then do some suitably epic quests for the deity (he gets visions in his dreams or something, to explain the one-way communication) and ascend to be the deity's servant. Then the fishermen from his village/tribe/whatever could pray to him for a good catch, and he'd forward their prayers to the sea deity. Another character would need to ascend to forward prayers of sailors for a calm sea, etc.

You're right, this stinks of the saints system in Catholicism. But it's still cool, and with sufficient fluffwork could fit well into the game's setting.

[Jackard]

I don't like the godhood angle, but paying tribute to legendary ancestors doesnt sound so bad.... like Heroes or Paragons.

players making their own myths

[Potjeh]

Well, the wording is just fluff. Not a native speaker, so I sometimes have a hard time coming up with appropriate nomenclature.

The general idea of having a holy war over St. Voodoodog's Holy 5th Vertebra is what it's all about.

[Jackard]

lol, the remains gaining power instead of the descendants

and then being used to craft legendary artifacts

[Chakravanti]

Actually that's not a bad idea. In the lore of many fantasy worlds I'm very fond of (Most specifically, David Edding's 'The Elenium' & 'The Tamuli' trilogies) the gods of the world received power based on the number of their followers. Ancient powers waxed as their followers were eliminated and conversion increased the power of the church-god. Fuck that is such an epic series....I think I need to go back and read it a fourth time.

It woudl be themeatic and concurrennt with the gameplay mechanics for the Gods to have increased potential based on the amount of resources devoted to them. As their Max grows so do the benefits they bestow on players. Benefits bestowed would cost the deity resources and bigger benefits would cost the deity more. Players would ahve to manage increasing their buff with actually using it.

Cults would form and could be based around a 'priest' who is a descendant of and 'avatar' (Heroic exemplar of the deity - determines buff based on avatar's stats). The priest would 'convert' or 'excommunicate' as a cult function much like village management should be (Not require you to be online for the act). Cults may or may not (or even optionally) be tied to a particular village depending on their deity and the charecter they are tied to and that Charecter's credo. Similar Credo's priests may adopt the same deity whereas the avatar is the focus of how much the the deity devotes/recieves from a paritcular cult. Cults can converge by subbing one avatar to another.

IOW, Avatars would function as gods themselves, bu tthe deities would determine if converging cults would be compatable for assimilatation, complementary for coexistence, or competitive.

Perhaps, through some system of ethereal competition, deities vie for power on the god realms based the resources their followers devote to them and the priests would have the option to beseech their god to vie for global aetheric roles which would give followers something worth politically contesting. You could A) Raid the folowers of a rival god. OR B) Buff your God to be able to contest theirs in the Aetheral Realms. Either way, some form of PvP and political intrigue would ensue in order to weaken the opposing deity's ability to regain or gain their foothold in Aetheral Realms.