Gary:
> It`s fine to go with this sort of thing and base your play on
> it. The campaign setting, however, isn`t quite so extreme.
> The current gods, of course, were extremely high level humans
> before Deismaar who transcended. Granted, there was
> something of a shortcut in the divinity route, but
> nonetheless they are transcendent mortals. The major BR gods
> are certainly more powerful than mortals, but I think that`s
> rather missing the point being made. It`s not whether
> mortals can take on those gods, but whether mortals after
> accomplishing great deeds can eventually take on a divine
> creature at the lower end of that scale and become divine himself.

I believe that the only reason that the followers of the gods became the
new gods was because the old gods wanted them too. They each receieved
something additional to the power of a blood-line and it was this - the
conscious transfer of authority and power from old gods to new gods -
that permitted them to transcend their mortality and ascend to godhood.

I would say that a mortal cannot become a god under his own steam, as it
were. However it is conceivable (although not at all likely in my
opinion) that a god might grant the gift of god-hood to a deserving
mortal. They then immediately cease to be mortal and become a god.
Without this conscious grant from a god, the mortal will never ascend.

> Using the bloodline system of BR also inherently interferes
> with the distinction between mortals and humans. BR scions
> have divine power already and the means to improve their
> divine power. That`s more than other campaign settings (or
> real life mythology) presupposes.

I disagree.
Mortals with bloodlines are powerful mortals. They are blessed by the
gods, like Abraham was. However no-one thinks that Abraham WAS a god.
Likewise, I cannot see how people could argue that even powerful scions
are truly like unto gods.

--
John Machin
(trithemius@paradise.net.nz)
-----------------------------------
"Nothing is more beautiful than to know the All."
Athanasius Kircher, Ars Magna Sciendi.

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