Ascension

>>53938037
It is when a mortal has earned a rightful place amongst the gods.
Ascension is earned, not gained.

Fucking your mom

>>53938037
Trough divine struggle and inmense ammounts of willpower/individuality, any given mortal can separate themselves from the faceless masses of men and ascend to embody one of the 10008 pillars of creation.

Then they proceed to inmediately die, crushed by the weight of their own omnipotence. Their corpses become a new universe, inhabited by races and affected by forces influenced by the ideas and personality of its "creator".

I don't know man. I just miss Kirkbride.

>>53938037
A mortal may ascend to godhood through the Way of Throd, master of masters, conqueror of the firmament. The Way of Throd is to never refuse a challenge, and to never be defeated. In death, one who has followed the Way will be confronted by Throd himself and, facing one another as equals, they decide who will sit atop the Throne of Stars in combat. Nobility and achievement have no part in it. To rule is to dominate. To dominate is to be victorious in all things. Victory on the battlefield is greatest of all, and Throd holds dominion over all.

>>53938037

To answer that you first have to answer the question, "Ascend to what?".

Godhhod? OK, what *is* godhood?

>>53938037
I prefer really small-scale entities that are tied to natural terrain features, like a god of one particular river, or a great tree, or a mountain. The river ones might usually be amphibious animals or huge fish, while a mountain god could be a great bear or a dragon. Of course, those gods have actual full-time jobs to do -keeping their terrain feature well-maintained, preserving ecological balance, cursing humans who try to mess with it, etc.

Then a human could potentially take over one of their roles, whether by killing the old god or caring for the terrain feature for a really long time so the domain perceives them as the de-facto god. Then they kind of become the place's steward like a groundskeeping hermit. The gain in power is largely offset by both the responsibility of doing their jobs as gods, and the fact that a god weakens and will die if separated from its domain too long. If a god were to slack off or die, its domain would weaken and a new god might arise if the domain could still support one after such neglect.

>>53940046
What about mortally-constructed / "artificial" spaces like cities and roadways and the Great Wall?

>>53938037
In my main setting all the above can be considered possible. There really isn't a defined meaning for god outside of something someone worships. Which technically means there is mountains that are gods even though they are inanimate. The most powerful thing in the setting isn't even a known being so he technically wouldn't be considered a god. Then there is the differences in meaning between say a god who becomes that way with advanced machines vs just a really smart wizard from another world.

I prefer settings where 'gods' are just really powerful beings that anyone could become with enough experience and effort. You can certainly become super humanly strong, fast, tough, and magically potent with enough time and training and so on.

>>53940174
Maybe only really terrain features have gods?
Dolmens and things like that have gods but not a 30 years old bridge.

>>53938037
The only way to become a true god is to get a gigantic amount of spiritual power and awareness yet to succomb to the temptations of the world despite being so near of enlightenement.
Then you will get a great deal of wordly power and can easily remake yourself as a god but the ability to break the normal laws of reality will quickly be lost in all cases after failing of the path of enlightment.

>>53938037
Through Suffering.

Jesus on the cross.
Odin hanging from the world tree.
Osiris dismembered by the axe.
The list goes on and on.

The preponderance of myth is unanimous: Men are thrown to crucible, and reemerge return as something more refined.

>>53940458
That's boring.

Think about it, every city has a god. Some figure who has great power within the city, maybe the god knows everything within the city and can affect it. A city has lots of requirements like a natural feature. Think city-sim games, you need ot consider traffic flow, sanitation, employment... and cursing little shits who keep putting graffiti on everything.
The god likely isn't the mayor, and isn't necessarily well known. One city might have "Old Man Swordville" or whatever who helps keep the city running and answering questions, while another has no known god but is in fact a little old cleaning lady who just appears where needed and sorts problems out before they become bigger problems.
Invading cities usually involves a step where the local god is removed to prevent interference.

>>53938037
>by receiving divinity as a gift from a patronizing deity
>by slaying a god in their own home and taking their divinity for yourself
>by gathering countless mortal worshipers
>by sacrificing countless mortal souls in a vile ritual

In my setting there is a kinda warp-like dimension, where the thoughts of the mortals manifest themselves as higher beings.
So once enough People believe in the existence of a certain god, he will Pop into existence.
Which means, if enough people start worshipping someone he himself may not ascend, but a god made in his image will appear in the "warp".

>>53940046
If it's old geographically significant enough maybe?

I'd be happy with a city's ancient massive sewer system housing a rat-god or a river-god, or a thousand-year-old bridge that supports a miniature ecosystem could get a weak little bridge spirit, and perhaps certain kinds of shrines could get their own animal-gods. And then it could become folklore and people might leave offerings or otherwise show respect to the place's god as they pass by.

I think the rule-of-thumb is the extent to which nature has reclaimed the thing from humanity, and how much mystery and wonder its presence provokes.

>>53938037
Through the worship of other mortals. All gods are created and fueled by worship, and it's not out of the question that if a mortal does something worthy of legend others might start worshiping him too. But it's unclear if the resulting god is really the same person and personality as the mortal or if they're simply a (much more powerful) imitation.