A God Named Gorgon

[Whalejudge@aol.co]

In Blood Enemies, the Gorgon is noted to be jealous of the power of Benilik
and Kreisha. IMO, the Gorgon is wants to become a god. How should he go
about becoming one? For that matter, would blooded characters be able to
achieve godhood on their own, without divine intercession?

[Gary V. Foss]

Whalejudge@aol.com wrote:

> In Blood Enemies, the Gorgon is noted to be jealous of the power of Benilik
> and Kreisha. IMO, the Gorgon is wants to become a god. How should he go
> about becoming one? For that matter, would blooded characters be able to
> achieve godhood on their own, without divine intercession?

The Legends and Lore text has the following information about Divine Ascension:

As mentioned in the previous section, [that section was about demi-gods] it is
possible for a hero to become a demigod. In order for this to happen, the
following conditions must be met:
The hero must have advanced to an experience level at least twice as high as
the average experience level in the campaign. No matter what the average
experience level is in a campaign, however, the hero must be at least 15th
level.
The hero must have at least one Attribute score that has been raised to 19 or
above.
The hero must have a charisma of 18, with a body of at least two hundred
followers that regard him as virtually a deity already.
The hero must be a true and faithful follower of his alignment, having
committed no more than one incongruous act during his lifetime.
If all of these conditions are met, the DM may, at his option, elect to invest
the character with demigod status. Characters granted such status become part
of the culture’s pantheon. If they are player characters, they are removed from
play and treated as a demigod from that point on.

Personally, I don't agree with all of these conditions. The 18 charisma part
seems like bunk. A character who was to become a demi-god of disease, for
instance, seems unlikely to have an 18 charisma, but the body of followers part
makes perfect sense. Even with that requirement, however, the Gorgon has all
that stuff down. Getting 200 followers to worship him as a god should be no
problem for him. He might have that many people worshiping him right now, and
he hasn't even threatened to kill them yet.

It seems to me that someone who wanted to become a god should also pick out
some sort of natural force or human concept which he is going to embody. That
is, the powers have to be powers OF something. Strength, law, hate, gambling,
birds, lakes, volcanoes, music, lies, wine, whatever. The Gorgon can't just
become the demi-god of Gorgonishness. He has to pick something that he
represents.

There are also hints in The Dead Gods module that a creature who becomes a god
has to forego his physical body at least once. That is, his body "dies" and
his soul leaves it behind, evolving into something else. Maybe the Gorgon's
body will turn to stone and crumble into pieces, each of which will be a holy
relic to those who worship him?

Wasn't there some sort of divine ascension game that came out about ten years
ago? Some sort of D&D expansion rules in which one played one of the gods and
sought to become more powerful, going up the ranks from demi- to greater god?
I don't know much about it except what I gleaned from a Sage's Advice column a
few years back, so if someone has some idea what I'm talking about (because
clearly I don't myself) I think that might help.

Gary

[Whalejudge@aol.co]

One of my points about the Gorgon becoming a new god is that he ALREADY has a
great deal of divine power. Just how much more would he need?

[Ryan Freire]

Ive always played out that after a certain amount of bloodpower, you
would become a demigod, after all that seems to be how the new gods got
their godhood, absorbed enough divine essence. That could be why the
gorgon is so intent on bloodtheft, if he gets enough, and then starts
gathering worshippers, he could become a god

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[Pieter Sleijpen]

The D&D immortals differ fundamentaly from the AD&D deities and that
boxed set (the newest was called "Wrath of Immortals") is not very
usefull for AD&D. Though the quests needed to become an immortal can
always be used as guidelines. Having said that, I do agree with Ryan
Freire that certain level of bloodpower will help becoming a demi-god.
But it will not be enough, afterall a deity still needs worshippers and
as Gary stated: a portofolio. I do think the bloodline will remove the
need of a deity sponser, the divine power is after all allready in the
person. There are enough portofolios that belonged to Azrai originaly
that are not represented in Belinik or Krieshna, so that will not be a
problem. I do not think you can force someone to truely worship a deity
and see this as one of the reasons why creatures as the Gorgon or the
Serpent are not deities yet. Maybe there is also the real risk of being
destroyed in the process, the fear for this might prevent these
creatures to take the last step unless they are absolutely sure it will
work.

The Serpent for instance is working to be a deity, one of the main
reasons according to me that he has never tried to conquer the Khinasi,
while he certainly is powerfull enough. He probably will take over the
charismatic, intrigue loving, betraying part of Azrai. Some portofolio
suggestions will be welcome, because I planning to use this plot for
some adventures in my campaign. In my campaign the Magian will try to
conquer his neighboors who hardly stand a chance, due to some actions on
the Magian side (involving some of the plot suggestions in the "Time and
Magic session). The Serpent will oppose this and offers his help, which
will give him the nessecary worship impulse and the rituals to become a
deity. This will involve some tough choices on the PC's side, because
they need the help of an evil hated creature and then they will also
find out it will help this creature attaining godhood. Who knows, in the
end they might desturb the rituals and sacrifice their lifes for it
(they are kind of players who are good enough roleplayers to do that).

Coming back to the Gorgon, I always thought that he decided to stay a
mortal to take more active revenge on his half-brothers and their
legecy: the Anuirean Empire.


Ryan Freire wrote:
>
> Ive always played out that after a certain amount of bloodpower, you
> would become a demigod, after all that seems to be how the new gods got
> their godhood, absorbed enough divine essence. That could be why the
> gorgon is so intent on bloodtheft, if he gets enough, and then starts
> gathering worshippers, he could become a god
>

[Gary V. Foss]

Shaun Hodgson wrote:

> >The information that you seem to remember came from Basic D&D, and was called
> >the Immortals Set (and was later included in the Hard Cover). It described
> >various
> >methods to become an Immortal (a Basic D&D god). But in order to start on
> >the
> >path to immortality you had to be maximum level (36th in Basic).
> >
> >Hope this helps.

Thanks, Shaun. I knew that came from someplace....

Gary

[DKEvermore@aol.co]

In a message dated 10-27-1998 3:21:54 AM Central Standard Time,
matty_freire@hotmail.com writes:

> Ive always played out that after a certain amount of bloodpower, you
> would become a demigod, after all that seems to be how the new gods got
> their godhood, absorbed enough divine essence. That could be why the
> gorgon is so intent on bloodtheft, if he gets enough, and then starts
> gathering worshippers, he could become a god
>
Say this case were true, and the Gorgon will become a god. What do you all
think his portfolio might be?

I'm thinking Cerilia needs a god of Beasts and Death...

- -DKE

[Gary V. Foss]

DKEvermore@aol.com wrote:

> I'm thinking Cerilia needs a god of Beasts and Death...

The Gorgon's gaze is pretty good evidence for the Death aspect, but why beasts?

I think the Gorgon should be the god of Death, Revenge and Hatred.

Some part of his stony aspect should get thrown in. He can turn people to
stone with his gaze and is also slowly hardening himself.... Cerilia's
relationship to the Shadow World seems to tie it closely with the elemental
planes, so maybe some relationship to the Elemental Plane of Earth is in
order? He has managed to corrupt the dwarves of Mur-Kilad. Maybe he could
become an aspect of evil in their pantheon as well?

Gary

[James Knevitt]

- ---DKEvermore@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 10-27-1998 3:21:54 AM Central Standard Time,
> matty_freire@hotmail.com writes:
>
> > Ive always played out that after a certain amount of bloodpower,
you
> > would become a demigod, after all that seems to be how the new
gods got
> > their godhood, absorbed enough divine essence. That could be why
the
> > gorgon is so intent on bloodtheft, if he gets enough, and then
starts
> > gathering worshippers, he could become a god
> >

Sure he might need a lot of bloodpower, but exactly how much ? I tend
to think that to become a god (even a demigod for that matter) you'd
need a massive amount of bloodpower. We're talking hundreds of points,
maybe even a thousand or two. Any thoughts ?

James Knevitt
Critical Mass Studios
(Makers of the Soothsayer multi-genre RPG)
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