▼

Monday, November 29, 2010

So...Have you ever killed a God?

As you know I am gearing up for my Dragon Slayer's campaign end game.  One of the goals of the Dragon Slayers has always been to kill Tiamat on her own plane.

This could have some fairly epic effects.
If this were the last game then no big deal, but we are moving to 4e after this and will using the "kids" of the characters  that are retiring.  I have already decided that the kids can have a magic item each given their famous and powerful parents.  But what of Tiamat?  And the idea of the 4e modules is to kill Orcus and maybe even others.

Will she still be "dead"?  What does that mean to all the evil dragons?
While talking with Jason Vey today he says that in his world that unless every worshiper is dead then the god can't die.  I like that idea myself.  But what does that mean the Dragon Slayers did?

Tiamat is at least a bit easier.  She can have a daughter, Takhisis who will become the new Dragon Queen in time.  Didn't Marduk kill Tiamat once too?

Orcus is also not a big deal.  He is a demon, demons can be replaced.  Plus I could put my own demon lord or put Vecna in as God of the Undead (though he doesn't seem like a good fit to me).

What if I continue my plan to have Orcus as nothing more than a blunt tool and have Asmodeus as the Big Bad?  What if the characters kill him?

So what have you all done?
Have you killed a God before?  What happened afterwards?
at

5 comments:

  1. TreyNovember 29, 2010 at 4:33 PM

    Hmmm...not a god in the sense of one in the fullness of their power and with an active cult, no.

    I'm not so sure gods can't die if their cult lives. Maybe gods are banished to some underworld, where they still receive worship, but can't really effect the world? Maybe "death' is just a different state of beings for gods, and now a somewhat diminished by still puissant undead Tiamat wants revenge?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Grey ElfNovember 29, 2010 at 4:37 PM

    Actually, I didn't say unless every worshipper is dead. What I said was even more difficult--the deity must be completely forgotten, at which point it is wiped from existence. But this means that every single being on the planet must have no knowledge whatsoever that the god existed.

    Also, I'd argue that Orcus doesn't count as a true god. Demon and Devil Lords are fair game for death, though they might be difficult to kill.

    ReplyDelete
  3. PorkyNovember 29, 2010 at 5:28 PM

    Have you read Small Gods by Terry Pratchett? Wikipedia has a summary of the concept:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_gods#Small_gods

    I have the impression the god Om could die a physical death, but I may be wrong and I don't recall the consequences if he did.

    Not much help I know, but if you can find a die-hard Pratchett fan...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rhonin84November 29, 2010 at 6:43 PM

    Tim,

    I did this once and only one player lived through the session but she was blown into another world, and was stripped of the memory of what happened, essentially becoming re-born.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Timothy S. BrannanNovember 30, 2010 at 9:35 AM

    Thanks all! I'll follow up on this with some thoughts in a bit.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for your comment. Due to high levels of spam I have comment moderation turned on. Your post will appear after it has been approved.