Godhood
Gods are just mortals who became immortal by gaining full access to their souls. Sure, they are powerful but in the end, all were mortal once. Ape stays Ape, now she may be just a super-ape.Gods and Goddesses are people who archived ascension to godhood. They are extremely powerful beings who have great influence over their world, their chosen people, and history. There are no beings who are more powerful than those who achieve godhood.
This condition is extremely rare and there are very few gods in the universe. Depending on the Pink Mist infusion of the world and its cultures of it, the number of gods may differ heavily between different worlds. A strong-infused world like Bardor has several gods, while a low-infused world like Earth has only very few.
Causes
A Life-Soul that absorbs too much soul or Pink Mist energy may either be damaged or may be able to form a bond to their own core soul. The latter case is extremely rare and results in the condition that mortals call gods and goddesses. There are certain requirements that must be fulfilled for this rare event to happen. The Life-Soul must be very potent and powerful on its own already to even have a chance to access its core soul. This can be achieved by a very long life, in which the person must study the energies and grow them in their own mortal body to high potency. In magic-orientated worlds, we speak about archmages and leaders of high covens of witches. But even for most of them, reaching direct access to their core soul is extremely hard to achieve.
Another way is to already have a very strong and very ancient core soul. A soul can generate stronger life souls with each life cycle. A Life-Soul that is born from an already ancient core soul may be able to form the required link easier or even without wanting it. Events like a sudden and very heavy infusion with strong energies like these from the pink mist may result in forming the bond.
In either way, most gods and goddesses reach their condition without wanting it, and most who want it will never reach it. Even if all conditions are fulfilled, the Life-Soul would rather break than form the bond in most cases, resulting in heavy mental damage or even death.
Symptoms
Once the bond between the Life-Soul and its Core-Soul is formed, the symptoms will begin appearing. In most cases, the person will feel a sudden and permanent lift of all their abilities and powers, as well as new powers that manifest. A mage that formerly only was able to control small fireballs may suddenly find it natural to control a while wildfire without even breaking a sweat. Or a genie who formerly was only able to grant small wishes for their masters may now be able to freely grant wishes for themselves and alter the fabric of the universe around them.
From the first spike onward, the bond to the Core-Soul will grow thicker and thicker, resulting in easier access to the soul energies of the Core-Soul. In most fairy tails about the birth of gods, an event like the death of a loved person or a near-death experience with high concentrations of magic results in a rebirth of that person. From there onward, they learn to control their new powers and become more and more powerful. At first, they are praised as a hero, then a saint and in the end, the people realize that a true god is walking the same earth as them. Each god and each goddess are unique and so are the exact conditions of their symptoms as well as the time they require to strengthen the bond to their Core-Soul.
One thing that connects all is that once the bond is truly formed, the Life-Soul, meaning the person, begins having visions about their former lives more frequently and the wisdom, knowledge, and experiences of all their former iterations enrich the person. Most gods are not the same person that they were before their ascension. The reason for this is the bond and the personality changes that resulted from gaining access to their former lives. These changes may come slowly and over a long period of time, or all at once. Eventually, the bond will be so thick and strong, that the Core-Soul will not create new Life-Souls anymore and the god will gain access to all the soul energies that their Core-Soul has. At this point, they are powerful enough to create their own planes, their own pocked dimensions, their own realms of their godhood. One example of such a plane is the Balloon Void of the Goddess Larissa.
Treatment
There is no known case in which a god or a goddess was stripped fully of their godhood. You may be able to trap them or may be able to split their being into shards. but you can not destroy the bond to their Core-Soul. Once a person reaches godhood, they become eternal. Even death is only a temporary draw back for a god, as their Life-Soul remains on our physical plane and can regenerate due to the bond with their Core-Soul. Then they can either possess someone or something to gain a new body, or create a new body if they are powerful enough already.
History
Each god, each goddess, and most cultures have their own history of godhood. Most exact happenings and dates are lost in legends and fairy tales.
The very first goddess can be named thought. Gaia was an Angel who fought in the War in Heaven and was sucked into the soulrealm by an dimensional bomb. Instead of dying, the innumerable amount of lost souls, death, and fear that poisoned the soul realm and transformed it into the Pink Mist we know today possessed the lost angel and transformed her into the first true goddess.
Once she reached godhood, the used her powers to unite the angel race once again, ended the War in Heaven, and banished all who continued the war into the Tartarus. Our modern order of the universe is designed and created by her.
Cultural Reception
Most religions were formed around someone who reached godhood. Normally, they start as small cults around a newly reborn god or goddess and then grow in power over time before they become a fully-fledged religion. Such an example is the Church of Larissa.
In nearly all cultures, it is a time to celebrate when someone of their own reaches godhood. Legends and fairy tales are written and passed down over such events. Most gods and goddesses influence their people and become very powerful figures in their societies. While each god and each goddess are unique in their powers and their personality, most will try to help their chosen people, granting believers divine powers and supporting the development of their cultures.
In times of disaster, it is not uncommon that a god that was not seen for centuries, to appear and rescue their people from their doom. Others may end a long raging conflict and bring peace to their people. One example of this is Gaia who ended the longest war in history, the War in Heaven. But not all gods are merciful. Some, like the so-called dark goddess Lia, have more personal desires and a hunger for more power and influence over their world. Other powerful beings are often not allies but potential foes for such gods. The most devastating event where gods clashed was the War of the Gods on Bardor.
Type
Divine
Origin
Divine
Cycle
Chronic, Acquired
Rarity
Extremely Rare
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