The Deities thread made me think.
What makes a God, a God? Is it receiving and granting prayers or (in the way of clerics & some sorcerers) spells? Is it ultimate unswaying power? Flawlessness or omniscience? Is it being above mortal understanding, and residing in a heavenly realm? Or is it being a cog in an inconceivable machine, serving a purpose in the balance of reality?
Some Gods, such as the Christian/Hebrew/etc Yaweh are all seeing and all knowing, and others such as the Norse and Roman Gods are fallible, but incredibly potent and powerful.
In my current storyline, my character is working on becoming a God, by challenging the God of his tribe, but when he does so, he becomes an NPC or if he fails, it's permadeath.
What do you think?
What makes a God, a God? Is it receiving and granting prayers or (in the way of clerics & some sorcerers) spells? Is it ultimate unswaying power? Flawlessness or omniscience? Is it being above mortal understanding, and residing in a heavenly realm? Or is it being a cog in an inconceivable machine, serving a purpose in the balance of reality?
Some Gods, such as the Christian/Hebrew/etc Yaweh are all seeing and all knowing, and others such as the Norse and Roman Gods are fallible, but incredibly potent and powerful.
In my current storyline, my character is working on becoming a God, by challenging the God of his tribe, but when he does so, he becomes an NPC or if he fails, it's permadeath.
What do you think?
Ah, this lovely question that pores in my head over and over while world building...
What makes a god? Honestly, not only do I think it depends on story, or world... It also depends on your own beliefs to what a god should be, or if this god is based off of other established myths.
In my own eyes, I feel some gods should in a sense be neutral, maybe even tangible to maintain the sense of mortals having that sense of achieving the impossible/becoming as a god themselves, yet other gods be more... Omnipresent and/or set in their chosen side. Yet all of them have their parts in balancing the universe/multiverse, no matter how small or minute their part is.
For example, a god character I am working on is, let's be frank, a goddess of sex and creation (since sex in itself creates new energy, new feeling, new life, etc.). She is fallible like the Greek Gods, definitely, with her own motivations and reasoning. But her skills are bar none and her power is immense. She is by no means undefeatable, as her flaws and behavior can be taken advantage of, and more powerful or skilled gods of creation can easily outshine her. However, she has control over her own "sector of the universe," so she is a necessity.
However, this is in my own story. In another entirely, a god could simply be a superhuman, or a formless deity. There's too many variables that could begin to scratch the surface, really.
(Forgive my rambling, it's 3 a.m. here, and I felt the need to reply because the question has plagued me a bit as well.
I hope what I said makes some sense and stayed to the topic... 
)
What makes a god? Honestly, not only do I think it depends on story, or world... It also depends on your own beliefs to what a god should be, or if this god is based off of other established myths.
In my own eyes, I feel some gods should in a sense be neutral, maybe even tangible to maintain the sense of mortals having that sense of achieving the impossible/becoming as a god themselves, yet other gods be more... Omnipresent and/or set in their chosen side. Yet all of them have their parts in balancing the universe/multiverse, no matter how small or minute their part is.
For example, a god character I am working on is, let's be frank, a goddess of sex and creation (since sex in itself creates new energy, new feeling, new life, etc.). She is fallible like the Greek Gods, definitely, with her own motivations and reasoning. But her skills are bar none and her power is immense. She is by no means undefeatable, as her flaws and behavior can be taken advantage of, and more powerful or skilled gods of creation can easily outshine her. However, she has control over her own "sector of the universe," so she is a necessity.
However, this is in my own story. In another entirely, a god could simply be a superhuman, or a formless deity. There's too many variables that could begin to scratch the surface, really.
(Forgive my rambling, it's 3 a.m. here, and I felt the need to reply because the question has plagued me a bit as well.
I hope what I said makes some sense and stayed to the topic... )
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