Whats to Keep Me From Becoming a God

"I shall become a God! No one hither can terminate me!"

A Godhood Seeker is, quite evidently, a mortal or otherwise non-divine being who wants to be a god. The nigh obvious purpose for doing this is the ultimate quest for power — gods tend to exist the ultimate authorities and rulers in settings where they exist, making divinity the logical goal for someone driven by appetite and a want to rule. As well, someone concerned with personal rather than political ability (such as in the grade of magical might, or control over one's environment) may see godhood as the ultimate pinnacle of mastery over reality.

Alternatively, someone may seek godhood in social club to bring themselves on the same playing field as preexisting gods. For instance, a character may wish to confront a deity directly, or to unseat i and take their place. Relatedly, a graphic symbol may experience that the current gods are not doing a good job of running things and believe they could manage the universe more than efficiently or fairly than they are.

For successful Godhood Seekers, see Deity of Human Origin. Note that Deities of Man Origin may not necessarily seek godhood before they became divine beings. This may overlap with Transhuman Treachery if becoming a god makes the new divinity look downward on their one time fellow humans/what take y'all.

Compare Immortality Seeker, with which this may overlap. An immortality seeker "merely" wishes to live forever, without necessarily wanting other changes in their condition. A Godhood Seeker, by contrast, may only pursue eternal life as a secondary effect of their quest for divinity.

Compare with A God Am I, where a powerful but otherwise normal individual has delusions of already beingness a god. A Godhood Seeker is generally fully aware of their currently non-divine status.

---

Examples

    open/close all folders

    Anime and Manga

• In iii×3 Eyes, the trope is downplayed with the Big Bad Kaiyanwang: his plan to assemble all the fragments of the Great Light nowadays in flesh, then join it sounds like this trope, but the style he talks about it make it seems like information technology sees it simply equally a natural step forward, as the Lite seemingly wants to unite once more to travel the Cosmo in search for a new place to inhabit. played straight when he finally kickstarts Sanhara to merge with the gathered Calorie-free and starts gloating about he will exist the 1 and merely God of the galaxy, though he soons become horrified when he witness the Neat Darkness that is office of the Swell Lite and he never wanted to acknowledge. Implicitly, the Cracking Darkness is what is making Kaiyanwang acting evil and arrogant.
• Air Gear: Any donating intentions Sora Takeuchi might have concerning the 99%, deep downward, he simply cares about one thing, and that'due south making himself powerful enough to rule the world through the Sky Regalia. When he gets there, he immediately styles himself as some benevolent deity to uplift and rule over all of humanity.
• Attack on Titan: Kenny Ackerman's goal in the serial is to acquire the Founding Titan, which makes anyone who possesses it a god in all only name. A semi-benevolent example compared to others equally Kenny'southward motivation for coveting the Founding Titan is because he believes it will give him empathy. Unfortunately for him, only a member of the royal family tin use the Founding Titan to information technology'south fullest potential, something he is not happy to find out. It becomes fifty-fifty more tragic on his part when it's later shown in the penultimate chapter that Ackermans are allowed to Titanization, so even if Kenny had learned he could featherbed the purple blood restriction equally shown with Eren, he couldn't fifty-fifty become a regular Titan.
• Berserk: Griffith was dying to be worshiped, and got what he wanted by condign a god for real.
• Bleach: When Sosuke Aizen reveals he's a villain, he states he will make full the "unbearable vacancy on the throne in the sky". Afterward on, he intimdates that he won't simply ascension to the level of a god, he will become something even gods will serve. All his experiments over the decades have been geared towards breaking the purlieus between the mortal and the divine, and he loudly boasts when his spiritual pressure tin can no longer exist sensed by his enemies because he has "transcended" them. In his quest for godhood, Aizen impants the Hogykou - an object that sense the inner desires of those around information technology and brand them reality - into his chest. As the battle of Imitation Karakura Boondocks progresses, the Hoyoku causes Aizen to undergo several transformations until he finally becomes a Transcendent Being. The Bleach Cant Fear Your Ain Globe light novels reveal that he was trying to go a being capable of usurping the Soul King.
• Brynhildr in the Darkness: Chapter 151 finally reveals what "slay the gods" means, from the perspective of Vingulf. Director Takachiho wants to go a god himself, and thinks there's an actual Physical God in the way. And then killing god is a necessary pace in mankind'southward evolution.
• A Certain Magical Alphabetize:
  • The ultimate goal of the Science side is to accomplish Organisation (read "one who is not a god withal reaches the will of Heaven"), also known as "Level 6", a state in which an Esper achieves absolute comprehension of, and command over, the laws of physics. Accelerator is the world'south strongest Esper, with a Swiss-Army Superpower and Super Intelligence to friction match, making him the closest to achieving Arrangement. Being a Reluctant Psycho Tyke Flop, he's talked into participating in a "Level 6 Shift" experiment by scientists who convince him that once he'southward omnipotent, people won't exist afraid of him whatever more. After learning that the experiment was a sham and he's been killing people for no reason, he completely drops this goal in favour of "revenge on scientists who treat people similar tools"... ironically getting much closer to it in the process.
  • Some characters on the Magic side also seek to reach this state, which they refer to as "La Persona Superiore a Dio". In a strange coincidence, this term tin exist translated into Japanese every bit "Kami-jou", a homonym for the protagonist's surname. Becoming an actual "Magic God" is besides possible, simply information technology has enough downsides relative to a Kami-jou that some characters see it as not worth the attempt.
• Cyborg 009: Doctor Gaia can go a god with the energy stored in his reactor. Unfortunately for him, he gets shot by a very angry Apollo.
• Decease Note: When Calorie-free Yagami obtains the titular Death Note, it doesn't take him long until he seeks to become "the God of the New World" by killing criminals worldwide and turning himself into an object of worship with a cult of personality. When he hits his footstep, he starts believing he is one despite — equally Ryuk mockingly points out — him only existence a normal human being.
• DEVILMAN crybaby: In the past, Satan/Ryo Asuka tried to usurp God, but was defeated and consequently banished for his actions. While he plans to fight God once more in the present, he's largely dropped those ambitions.
• Dragon Ball Super has a variant in regards to Zamasu. While he is already a legitimate Physical God, he desired to become the Top God and then reenact his "Zero Mortals Program" to achieve his envisioned utopia for the multiverse. He does so by using the Super Dragon Balls to steal the body of Goku and condign Goku Black, earlier travelling to an Alternate Timeline where he teams up with his future cocky who they use the Super Dragon Balls to wish for immortality for this Zamasu. This Evil Duo then proceeds to lay waste to the universe. After on, the ii of them fuse together to form an Ultimate Lifeform.
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood: Father doesn't just want to be a god, he wants to usurp the throne and merge with God himself. He'south actually successful until Hohenheim's reverse transmutation circle strips him of his powers.
• In Fushigi Yuugi, Nakago wants Yui to utilise one of her wishes to brand him a god, and so he tin can accept revenge on the world.
• Impale la Kill: Ragyō Kiryūin is introduced as the sadistic chairwoman of the Kiryūin Conglomerate and CEO of the REVOCS Corporation, abusive mother to Satsuki Kiryūin. It later on transpires that she was in one case a human scientist whose family unit had worshipped the Life Fibers as a god. Seeking to transcend humanity, Ragyō began experimenting with imbuing humans with Life Fibers, succeeding with herself, her daughter Ryūko Matoi, and Nui Harime. By the end of the series, Ragyō creates an extremely powerful Kamui — Shinra-Kōketsu — and throws away whatsoever scraps remained of her humanity by assimilating the Primordial Life Fiber. After being defeated, stripped of her Kamui, and offered a chance at redemption by Ryūko, Ragyō scornfully refuses and commits suicide to ensure the Life Fibers comprising her torso tin can escape into the universe.
• Naruto:
  • Over the form of the series, information technology unfolds that recurring adversary Orochimaru'south ultimate goal is to obtain the deific power of the Sage of 6 Paths — which is the impetus backside him attempting to take Sasuke Uchiha as a host, and his experiments with Wood Release and Cursed Seals.
  • Madara Uchiha sought to attain godhood by condign the Jinchūriki of the Ten-Tailed Beast, and for a while he succeeded just to be taken over by Kaguya Ōtsutsuki and then perish once the Ten-Tails was extracted from him.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: The goal of SEELE'due south Homo Instrumentality Project — as revealed in the Neon Genesis Evangelion two game — is for the council members to ascend to godhood by merging their souls inside of an Evangelion Unit. However, they're foiled when Gendo Ikari attempts to hijack the plan for his ain purposes, ^note Reuniting with his dearest married woman, Yui Ikari, inside of Evangelion Unit-01. and so when Rei Ayanami goes rogue and gives command of the Third Bear on to Shinji Ikari — who is in the middle of a despair-induced mental breakdown.
• So I'thou a Spider, So What?: Upon learning of the existence of the Administrators of the System, Kumoko decides that she wants to surpass them in power and slay them — specially D. Upon achieving apotheosis and becoming the goddess Shiraori, however, she more than-or-less drops this goal in favor of saving the collapsing world by killing untold numbers of people.
• Soul Eater:
  • Many characters, minor or otherwise, covet the ability of a Kishin to accomplish godhood. Some try by eating every soul they can, giving in or empowering themselves with Madness, or making their ain Kishin or course of Madness.
  • Noah, the Idol of Greed, uniquely wants to go "God" by collecting everything in the world into the Book of Eibon.
• Sword Art Online: While Sugou Nobuyuki styled himself as a god in ALO and saw himself as such, being the one who created the game, he besides seeks to become one IRL by perfecting his Mind Control research.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX:
  • Kagemaru wants to harness the power of the Sacred Beasts to "get the God of the world" and restore his youth.
  • Amon Garam wants to become the god of all alternate dimensions.

    Comic Books

• Fauna Wars: In IDW Publishing'due south comics, Shokaract believes that he tin ascend to godhood by consuming enough Angolmois free energy to awaken his Anti-Matrix.
• Black Moon Chronicles: Haazheel Thorne, the main villain, is an uber-powerful Sorcerous Overlord who is already worshipped as a god past his personal Faith of Evil. However, in truth he's more Semi-Divine equally he's the son of Friction match. His ultimate goal in creating the conditions for Hell on World is so his male parent volition advantage him past ascending him to full godhood.
• The DCU:
  • The Sandman: Subverted in an event focusing on Augustus Caesar. One day, while disguised equally a beggar and accompanied by a dwarf actor assisting him, Caesar discusses his legacy of making Rome the most powerful empire on Earth, and says his destiny is to become a god after his decease. When the dwarf remarks that information technology'due south good to be a god, Augustus simply asks him "Is it?" After his death, the dwarf recounts how Augustus forbade expanding Rome further, eventually dooming it, and his ulterior motive for doing it may have been to undo his godhood.
  • Wonder Adult female: Warbringer: While Jason is primarily seeking immortality, his speechifying makes it clear he'd like to attain godhood in the ways of the "heroes" of old like Hercules who were raised to the pantheon for their slaughter afterwards dying.
• Marvel Universe:
  • Carnage: While he is usually a nihilistic serial killer whose only goal is to cause equally much expiry every bit possible, Carnage has on 3 separate occasions sought to apotheosize into a god of chaos and death — first past absorbing the Enigma Force in Minimum Carnage, then past freeing Chthon in Carnage Vol. 2, and finally by empowering the Night Carnage symbiote and freeing Knull in Accented Carnage.
  • Dr. Doom: Victor von Doom has an ego worthy of a god, but is aware that — while he may exist i of the well-nigh-powerful sorcerers in the world — he is yet only human. Nevertheless, he is more than than happy to steal the power of cosmic entities for himself whenever the opportunity presents itself.

    Fan Works

• Anti-Cliché and Mary-Sue Elimination Club: Willowe'south goal is to become a god in total.
• Apotheosis (MHA): After completing the Infinity Gauntlet and having his beginning sense of taste of its power, Izuku decides he wants to exist something greater than a hero — he wants to exist the most powerful person in the world, someone who shapes the world by blueprint. The proper noun of such a person- God.
• Kid of the Tempest has this as the goal of those seeking the Word of Kemmler, and the Ascension Rite inside.
• Children of an Elder God: Yui Ikari uses the Children'due south power stolen from the Angels to ascend to godhood and rewrite Earth into a paradise for humans according to her volition. It ultimately fails, as the power of the Great Old Ones is inherently corrupting, turning her paradise into a Simulated Utopia. And one time the Children realizes what's going on, they confront Yui and take back their stolen power, earlier wiping her out of existence.
• Citadel of the Heart: One time Roy realizes what his new Fusion Dance trunk can do, he proceeds to declare his original plans as tiresome and decides that killing all of the gods to take always existed, and then declare himself the i true god out of sheer contempt for the prior ones, is much more satisfying to him.
• Codex Equus:
  • Don'yoku to do this with a ritual involving a angelic conjunction and actually succeeded. Though he didn't survive long plenty to enjoy it.
  • Lord Waking Nightmare'due south ultimate plan is to become the "Emperor of Nightmares" over a Meridia that he would transform in his own paradigm by merging it with Meridia's Dream Realm and kick-starting a "New Dreamtime" which he would usurp. He succeeded, condign a Nightmare God, simply was thankfully destroyed by the Nightmare Breakers before he could finish remaking Meridia.
  • Invoked by the Church of the Stars. Unlike most examples, the Church building sees godhood as a manner for mortals to go the best they can mayhap be, and has Ascension preparation available for anyone who wants to get a deity. The only requirement for all Ascendants-in-training is they take to be selfless in their want for godhood and genuinely willing to help others better themselves. Anyone who seeks to Ascend for selfish reasons, like State of war Stone, are rejected.
• Dungeon Keeper Ami: Zarekos, an already quite powerful vampire, is attempting to ascend to godhood when Ami encounters him. Afterward, when Ami asks one of her own minions whether Zarekos idea he was a god, she'south answered that he wasn't that delusional — he was planning to become one, yes, but he was fully aware of his current limitations.
• Fallout: Equestria: Red Centre's ultimate goal is to do away with the Goddess and accept up her office.
• Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: Harry'southward ultimate goal is essentially to go a god. Or, as he words it, "To understand everything important there is to know well-nigh the universe, utilize that noesis to get omnipotent, and use that ability to rewrite reality because I have some objections to the way it works now." This statement is slightly Less Disturbing in Context, in the sense that Harry'due south a Well-Intentioned Extremist with a strong sense of correct and wrong, but many readers are of the stance that it would be better for the universe if he didn't pull this off.
• Infinity Crunch: Circe's ultimate goal is to ascend and replace the Olympian pantheon.
• Pokémon Reset Bloodlines: MissingNo tries (the cardinal word being tries) to achieve godhood by getting people to class a cult worshipping it. It instead ends up with them worshipping Omanyte and Omastar.
• Robb Returns: Chapter 158 expounds on the canonical agenda of Euron Greyjoy, which reveals that Euron Greyjoy intends to kill the Drowned God and take its place past consuming its power. He has allied with the Others to reach that goal since they as well want to wipe out humanity... and and so intends to kill the Others and take their power.

    Films — Animated

• Hercules: Heroic variant, as the titular Hercules, unlike his mythological inspiration, was born a god but was stripped of his divinity as part of an bump-off attempt, condign a mortal with nothing left of his godhood but his divine strength. He consequently spends well-nigh of the movie trying to become a truthful hero in social club to restore his godhood and render home to Mountain Olympus.
• Jiang Ziya:
  • Jiang Ziya, the titular protagonist, was a Taoist warrior who trained under the Heavenly Principal of Jingxu Hall — realm of the gods — in order to achieve godhood, only to be stripped of his divinity and cast into exile when he aghast at executing the Ix-Tailed Play a joke on-Devil, who informed him that doing and then would end the life of an innocent girl.
  • Towards the terminate of the motion-picture show, Nine-Tailed is revealed to accept been promised divinity by the Heavenly Principal in commutation for starting the Bully War, only later realizing she had been tricked and used as a pawn afterwards Jiang Ziya was sent to execute her.

    Films — Live-Action

• Dreamscape: The Overlord of Evil wishes for aught less than total command over reality.
• Scooby-Doo: Emile Mondavarious — aka Scrappy-Doo piloting a Mobile-Suit Human — intends to become a god by absorbing the souls of a bunch of vacationing college students using the Daemon Ritus to take revenge on Mystery Inc. for unceremoniously kick him to the curb due to his annoying airs.

    Literature

• Angelmaker: Shem Shem Tsien, the Opium Khan, was a historical supervillain who wanted to find out if God existed. His program to do and then was to emulate God and become His equal so he could meet Him contiguous. This was worrying because Shem Shem Tsien believed God Is Evil, and therefore that emulating Him required God-like levels of cruelty and atrocity, and also because he was Cambridge-educated, globally renowned, and the autocrat of a small but wealthy kingdom neighboring the British Raj, and had the resources and political/criminal connections that all implied. He's several decades expressionless by the nowadays day, merely he "survived" past brainwashing the series killer Vaughn Parry into a perfect mental copy of himself, and his concluding plan to achieve apotheosis is to do the aforementioned to everyone on Earth using a Clock Punk reality-warping engine.
• Arc of Fire: Kyrian's plan is to kill Vraxor and ascend to godhood in his place.
• Dragonlance: Raistlin Majere, already a powerful wizard, wants to kill Takhisis the goddess if evil and become the new god of evil instead. He very near suceeds, too, but stops as he notices that his ascension would kill all the other gods and all life on earth, making him the ruler of nothing but ashes.
• The Dresden Files: The arch-Necromancer Kemmler devised the Darkhallow Ritual, which transforms the pulley into a modest god by consuming all life, spirits, and magical energy within a mile. Fortunately for the world, he was killed mid-endeavour. In Dead Beat, Cowl attempts to perform the Darkhallow in Chicago, but Harry and the White Quango interrupt the ritual and run him off.
• The Flight Boy: Dr. Andy Paigne wants to collect plenty superpowers to become a god.
• Middlegame: Reed's century-long bid for divinity is to embody the Doctrine of Ethos, a universal force that can control reality through mathematics and language, in Bogus Human twins, and then subjugate them to his volition before their powers fully manifest.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • New Jedi Club: Onimi believes that if he kills anybody in the galaxy he'll get the ability he needs to become a god. Somewhat unusually, he also believes that Jacen and Jaina (and several other Jedi) are incarnate gods, and in his mind the whole serial is a conflict between the established pantheon and himself trying to usurp them, played out through the Republic and the Yuuzhan Vong.
  • The same idea of "impale everybody to become a truthful god" is played out nearly to the letter by Sith Emperor Tenebrae Vitiate in the events of the 2nd Not bad Galactic State of war.
  • Fate of the Jedi: It's hinted that the chief goal of Abeloth, the Eldritch Abomination Big Bad, is to go a god.
• Journeying to the Westward: Sun Wukong the Monkey King was a supernatural monkey built-in from a divine stone, and acquired immortality and godlike powers through mastering Taoism. After the Jade Emperor offers to deify him hoping he would settle down, Sun Wukong was outraged that his position in Heaven was finer a stableboy, stole multiple forms of immortality, and went on a rampage defeating every warrior in Heaven and attempting to usurp the Jade Emperor's throne. The Buddha stepped in and sealed him nether a mountain for five-hundred years, after which he was tricked into becoming a bodyguard for a Buddhist monk on a pilgrimage to call back the sutras. Later doing so and learning the tenants of Buddhism, Sun Wukong ultimately attains enlightenment and becomes the "Victorious Fighting Buddha".
• A Practical Guide To Evil: Masego, the Hierophant, wants to ascend to godhood - non for the power, but for the knowledge and understanding that would bring.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: Euron's goal, which he explains to Aeron while torturing him, is revealed to be to go a god. Euron commands his brother to worship him and become his priest, but he refuses to do so.

    Live-Activeness Tv set

• The Flash (2014):
  • Zoom wishes to be the only metahuman with super speed so that everyone volition fear him. He goes even further in the Season 2 finale, preparing to wipe out the unabridged multiverse just to continue a single world as his own personal domain.
  • Although in the present day Savitar already calls himself the "God of Speed", when his identity is revealed he explains in "Crusade and Effect" that he realized becoming a god would solve his bug and that he withal needs two more things before he reaches godhood.
• Babylon 5: Emperor Cartagia of the Centauri is convinced that the Shadows volition brand him a god even if it means that his home planet will be destroyed. When he'south assassinated past Vir, his final words are "I was to be a god."
• House of Anubis: In flavor ii, all of the characters are looking for an artifact called the Mask of Anubis. While Sibuna needs it to interruption a curse that had been placed on them and Victor only wants immortality, the villains Rufus and Senkhara are after it because it tin take the wearer to the Egyptian afterlife, where they'd rule as if they were Gods. This doesn't piece of work out for either of them; Senkhara is banished before she can possess Nina and use her body in the afterlife, and Rufus is Dragged Off to Hell for his impure heart.
• Supernatural: In Flavor 9, it's revealed that Metatron's program is to prepare himself up as the new God, having had this goal in listen since he manipulated Castiel into casting all the other angels out of Heaven, so that he could reveal the way to return them abode and be accepted by them as the new ruler of Heaven. By the end of Season ix, he also starts performing miracles on Earth so humans will worship him as God as well.
• Super Sentai: Quite a few different villains have this goal in heed. Empress Meadow or, in actuality, Vulgyre in Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman. Meadow, Zone's ruler, is out to destroy 1000 planets to gain eternal life, with Earth being the final. Meadow'south really an illusion created by the Genius Loci serving every bit Zone's Supervillain Lair, Vulgyre. It sought the life energy of k planets to go a god and assume its' Galactic Super Beast class. It achieves this in the final arc and goes on the rampage, before the Fiveman utilize their Sidon flowers, Vulgyre's simply weakness, to plunge inside Vulgyre'south body (uncovering the truthful Meadow in the process; she was a woman who'd rather impale herself than get Vulgyre's empress, and Vulgyre was too obsessed with her to allow her become); this weakens Vulgyre enough to finish information technology off with the Super V Robo, ending the threat of Zone forever.
• I, Claudius: Evil Dame Livia is a relatively mundane version of this trope. She believes that the but manner to avoid damnnation for a lifetime of atrocities and treachery is to exist deified past the Roman Emperor. When Caligula visits her at her deathbed and gloats that he'll never make her a goddess and she's going to burn in hell for eternity, it's portrayed equally a major Kicking the Dog moment.

    Manhwa

• Aflame Inferno: Pandemonium's ultimate goal is to find the Tedlar'south predecessors and "become a complete being in a higher place life and death."

    Music

• Kamelot: In Karma's three-office "Elizabeth", Elizabeth Báthory comes to believe she can attain immortality and divinity past bathing in virgin blood. By Part two, she'south deluded herself into imagining that her victims became immortal with her. By Office 3, she realizes she'due south damned herself for null.
• Alice Cooper has the song "I Just Desire to Be God" - unsprisingly, the singer is implied to exist Satan himself.

    Religion and Mythology

• The Bible: This is what caused the downfall of humanity and the Original Sin. Adam and Eve enjoyed their lives in Eden, but they were looking for a way to be like God and know both practiced and evil. Satan, disguised every bit a serpent, told them it would happen, and he was right... at to the lowest degree partially, as eating the Forbidden Fruit stole their innocence and separated them — and by extension the entire human being race — from God as well.
• The goal of some Left Mitt Path esoteric organizations is self-deification. The estimation on how to attain this varies and might imply from Jungian deep psychology to rehash concepts from Eastern, Gnostic and other ancient Esoteric sources but by and large look for individualization and self-realization.
• Depending on your interpretation, Buddhism, Jainism, and Taoism promote this, as their goal is your full enlightenment which would brand you god-like. Also there are some Buddhist techniques that allow you to programme yourself to be reborn a Deva, but this is often discouraged.

    Roleplay

• Atrocious Infirmary Roleplay Forum: Mauve Silverworth seeks to get a new primordial God.
• Cradle Of Gods: Everyone. Albeit understandably — the gods are all dead, and the world will be destroyed if a new pantheon doesn't take their place.
• Eclipse of the Gods: While this is common goal for Anarchy Lords, Ahriman takes it a step farther than about. He wants to become a fifth God of Anarchy, rather than merely another Daemon Prince.

    Tabletop Games

• Crimestrikers: The ultimate goal is of Big Bad Vance Coffin and his Dragon Walter Mastron is to turn themselves and their trusted allies into well-nigh immortal pseudo-gods by using a Impale Sat to harvest the Life Energy from about of the population of Creaturia.
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • In the BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia version of Archetype D&D, characters of at least 30th Character Level can undergo a quest to become an Immortal (the BECMI D&D equivalent of a god). There are iv paths to Immortality, each of which requires performing heroic deeds such every bit retrieving a powerful artifact, completing major tasks and creating a lasting testimonial to the candidate's greatness.
  • Socially, Vlaakith CLVII is already pretty much the goddess of the githyanki, but that'south not enough for her; she wants to go a full-fledged deity. This aspect became particularly prominent in 3rd Edition, when an entire take a chance — The Lich-Queen's Love — is devoted to her try to consummate a divine ascension, which the players have to end.
  • The Elder Evil Kyuss longs for godhood more than anything else. He has wanted it ever since he was a mortal, and fifty-fifty in his current state as an immortal Eldritch Abomination he is determined to achieve the glory of true divinity.
  • Yuan-ti rarely worship deities out of whatsoever true sense of reverence — their extremely dispassionate and emotionless natures aren't very conducive to this — simply rather seeks to emulate their deity, larn the secrets of their ascent or divine nature, and use this knowledge to become deities themselves and supercede their former patron.
  • Eberron: Underneath all the dour trappings, this is what the Blood of Vol faith ultimately is. They believe that, since there's no decent afterlife (information technology's a proven fact that souls go to i specific place and fade; other religions have faith that at that place are alternatives, only no actual proof), so mortals should seek to become divine themselves. They believe that blood contains the spark of the divine, and that with enough time that spark can ascend them to true divinity. In fact, many sects believe that bloodshed is a curse placed on the earth by jealous gods who didn't desire anyone to accept the fourth dimension to rising upward and claiming them. The religion'south supposed obsession with undead is only pragmatic; a corpse is worthless without the soul within it, so you may every bit well brand information technology get up and do chores. Intelligent undead who work with the cult are considered martyrs who gave upward their own chance at divinity to guide the living, while intelligent undead who don't work with the cult are hunted downward simply equally ruthlessly as any other major faith would practise so.
  • Forgotten Realms:
    • The cherry dragon Tchazzar sought to apotheosize into a deity and for a while actually managed to become a dragon ascendant demigod, but whether he retains his divinity as of 5th Edition is unknown.
    • Karsus, an ancient Netherese archmage, was a particularily devastating example. He originally tried to temporarily "borrow" the ability of a god in guild to salvage his homeland from a war, using the extremely advanced spell Karsus' Avatar to do so. Unfortunately, he picked the deity Mystryl, goddess of magic, every bit he reasoned she would be the most powerful and the all-time suited. What he didn't know was that Mystryl was always preoccupied maintaining the Weave of Magic, and, without her power, all magic in the world went haywire for a little while. Netheril was an empire congenital on magically floating islands, then you lot can gauge the issue.
  • Planescape: The Believers of the Source, as well chosen the Godsmen, believe that life is a series of tests and challenges that must exist overcome; successfully doing this allows one to move farther up the ladder of existence and eventually reach godhood. Their ultimate goal is to do just that, although most of them don't seriously hope to achieve it in this life simply hope that, by perfecting themselves as much every bit possible, they bring their adjacent reincarnation closer to the goal of divinity. Their previous factol, Curran, managed it, although some would argue this was because of the beliefs of his followers in the Godsmen and not a natural law of the universe.
• Games Workshop:
  • The finish goal for well-nigh, if not all, servants of Chaos in Warhammer, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 is to become a Daemon Prince, a quasi-Physical God with immense physical and magical power after existence ascended by one or all of the Chaos gods to wreak havoc on the galaxy for all eternity. Fortunately, the vast majority die (or worse) long before they can even get close to that goal.
  • Nagash the Undying had aspirations for godhood, but did not pursue Chaos to achieve this. Instead he invented necromancy and became a powerful liche, his Evil Program beingness to slaughter the unabridged globe and raise the dead as his loyal puppets, thus starving Chaos of worship and leaving him every bit the but supreme being around. During the Stop Times, he successfuly usurped command of the expressionless from Morr, the god of the dead, taking over the afterlife. This bound the magical Wind of Expiry to him, making him an Incarnate of that specific set of magic and gave him control of the afterlife. His victory was short lived withal as his own lieutenant, Mannfred, betrayed him and the rest of the Incarnates, allowing the four Anarchy Gods to undo reality and destroy the globe that was. He ultimately got his wish in Age of Sigmar when he schemed his way into beingness the merely Decease God around, but his plan to get Top God by killing all his competition is however on the agenda.
• Magic: The Gathering features a few characters of this type. Notably, several of them succeed. But in the world of Magic, beingness a god makes you harder to kill, non immortal:
  • Yawgmoth is i of the most famous Magic villains. He became a god by binding himself to the core of the earth of Phyrexia. He planned to utilise his godhood and army of Phyrexians to make everyone and every other world 'perfect'. He was eventually killed by the Legacy Weapon: a complicated magical device that took an entire story arc to complete.
  • Xenagos was the main antagonist in Theros, a globe based off Aboriginal Greece and Classical Mythology. On Theros, Clap Your Hands If You lot Believe is in full effect, and then he became a god after getting enough followers. He was eventually killed when he was stabbed with the Godsend, a magic spear forged by the gods.
• Pathfinder:
  • In general, the Starstone — a magical meteorite held within the city of Absalom — has the power to allow mortals to arise to godhood, if they tin pass the traps and tests surrounding it. Absalom is thus dwelling house to a constantly-replenishing series of hopefuls seeking to take the Exam of the Starstone and get divinities, although the vast majority neglect and perish — only three people successfully passed the Test in the five millennia or and so it'due south been around.
  • Tar-Baphon, the Whispering Tyrant, is a lich obsessed with both power and personal survival. He views his current status as an ageless undead and the most powerful necromancer to always live as a stopgap measure meant to give himself time to work towards his existent goal — conquering Absalom, draining every drop of divine power from the Starstone and condign a god.
  • Erum-Hel, the Lord of Mohrgs, is an undead servant of Tar-Baphon's who has spent the terminal several centuries obsessing over his defeat by the crusader hero Iomedae. As Iomedae eventually became a goddess, she is now far across any retribution, and Erum-Hel has thus been forced to strike at her church in her stead. He still obsesses over the gustatory modality of blood he had during their disharmonism, though, and desperately hungers for more. He has thus been giving serious thought to taking the Exam of the Starstone himself, becoming a god and against his former enemy on an fifty-fifty field once more.
  • Ane of the villains of the Wrath of the Righteous take a chance path, the worm that walks magician Xanthir Vang, believes that gods are only powerful creatures that have evolved beyond the constraints of the previous forms. To him, the gulf between mortal and deity is perfectly bridgeable through sufficient refinement of 1's magical power, and he aims to do merely that in lodge to become a demigod of vermin and portals.
  • The Large Bad of the Iron Gods adventure path, the A.I. known as Unity, is ane of these, seeking to ascend to divinity and educate the entire planet into worshipping them. Naturally, information technology'southward upwardly to the actor characters to terminate this from happening.
  • Nocticula, while already a demon lord and thus a lesser divinity herself, has long been rumored to exist seeking to go the 2nd demon lord to ascend to total godhood — something that makes the first such demon god, Lamashtu, more than a bit wary, as Nocticula's ascent to her already considerable power has been paved with the a number of slain rivals impressive even among demons. At the end of beginning edition Nocticula indeed ascends to godhood, although to considerable In-Universe surprise she does so as a Chaotic Neutral, rather than Chaotic Evil, deity — her desire for godhood was in large role driven by a desire to grow by the bonds of demonhood and the limited nature of about outsiders' wills.

    Video Games

• Historic period of Mythology: Gargarensis wish to go a full-fledged god, as he is a descendant of Poseidon through (nonconsensually) his nifty-grandmother Amymone. Rather than despising the god, he believes that Poseidon "owes" him something, like godhood.
• Ara Fell: Baramon seeks the Sunstone to become a godlike beingness, but his failed experiments acquired him to get the first vampire instead. According to the developer, this was considering the goddess who originally raised Ara Fell disappeared, so he believed the continent needed a new god to lead them.
• Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura: You may become this at the end of the patched game if yous side with Kerghan until the very last moment so declare godhood when he demands to know the reason for the betrayal.
• Assassin's Creed: Odyssey: Melite's personal goal is to utilise his research to somehow find a method to achieve godhood.
• Option of Games' Avatar of the Wolf: The protagonist can seek to usurp the power of the Wolf God, their patron deity.
• Azure Striker Gunvolt: When Copen asks the Oracle if she intends to become a god with the power of the Muse, she states that she'south "strongly because it".
• Baldur's Gate: Ii of the serial' Big Bads endeavor to get gods by arresting the essence of the dead god of murder while another antagonist has this as office of his backstory. The Player Character is the only one who tin actually succeed in becoming a god if they so choose at the cease of the series.
• Bloodborne: Several of the game'southward factions seek to transcend mortality and join the ranks of the gods, and the Actor Character can practice so if they meet the right weather.
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: In the final hours, it'due south revealed that Dominique has actually decided to Rage Against the Heavens and has renounced her faith in God, and plans to use the demons in order to make herself into a being college than God and and then kill Him.
• Devil May Cry: This is the goal of every human villain in the serial:
  • Devil May Cry 2: Arius is the Big Bad of this game and the beginning human villain in the series who has godhood as a goal. He sought to perform a ritual that would grant him the ability of a groovy demon named Argosax. Fortunately, Dante was able to prevent Arius's ascent by switching out one of the items for the ritual for his signature money.
  • Devil May Cry 3: Dante'due south Awakening: Arkham's entire plan is to obtain Sparda'due south ability in order to get a god. Previously, he had sacrificed his own wife in a ritual to that stop.
  • Devil May Weep four: Sanctus, the seemingly benevolent head of the Order of the Sword, is a Sinister Minister who seeks to claim the power of Sparda.
• Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth: Akemi Suedou'southward final programme is to hijack Mother Eater and use its power to remake the world. Interestingly, he doesn't want power for the sake of it — he just wants to be the ane to exercise it in accordance with his own vision.
• Divinity: Original Sin II: The Player Character and their companions seek out divinity at their ain patron gods' urging, both to defeat the Voidwoken and to fulfill their own visions for the future of the world. Trouble is, There Can Exist Only One new Divine, and the companions will plow against the PC if they tin't be accepted to endorse the PC'south bid for divinity. In the finale, the PC can cull whether to become Divine.
• Dominions: Some of the Pretenders who tin become your civilization'due south patron are powerful humans seeking to ascend to godhood by becoming the Pantokrator.
• DOOM (2016): This turns out to be Olivia Pierce's endgame, as she made her deal with Hell in a bid to go a god. She gets her wish, sort of, in the grade of her transformation into the Aranea Imperatrix, a.1000.a. the Spider Mastermind, who promptly gets killed past the Doom Slayer and his BFG.
• Dota 2: Deconstructed past Enigma, in one of its gambit in alluring power-hungry alchemists into becoming its Unwitting Pawn. Attaining godhood is not every bit simple as 'singing nursery rhymes and making chalk drawings on a floor'.
• Dragon Age: Inquisition: The Elder 1, the game'due south main villain, aims to be a god, and plans to fuse the material earth and the Fade to achieve this.
• Dragon: Marked for Death: Duchis Medius, the elderly and terminally-sick Divine King, seeks to transcend the shackles of mortality and become a god imbued with the Celestial Primatus' power. For this reason, he instigates a genocide against the Dragonblood Clan and has their Oracle, Amica, abducted. While he succeeds in sacrificing Amica, Primatus scornfully smites him instead, and farther strips the Divine Knights of their holy powers.
• The Elder Scrolls: Mannimarco, the showtime human being to go a lich, did so equally one footstep in his plan to eventually achieve Complete Immortality, with him desiring to truly become a god. He eventually did... sort of.
• Fate/Yard Order: The endgame of Brute III/R, a.k.a. Kiara Sessyoin, is being worshipped as a god, taking in the love, pleasure, and eventually lives of everyone else for her own sake.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Last Fantasy Half-dozen: Kefka Palazzo has the stardom of being the commencement (though hardly the last) Final Fantasy villain to seek out godhood, and one of the few to accomplish it when he absorbs the power of the Warring Triad.
  • Last Fantasy 7:
    • Sephiroth seeks to get a god by merging with Jenova and draining the Planet of The Lifestream, and nearly succeeds before being slain by Cloud. His soul endures within the Lifestream out of pure hatred, and he formulates a new programme that he puts into movement in Final Fantasy Seven: Advent Children earlier one time again being foiled by Deject.
    • Chant of Cerberus retcons Professor Hojo into having injected Jenova cells into himself in Seven to try and brand his body strong plenty to exist a vessel for Omega, and his plan in Dirge of Cerberus is to use Weiss' trunk for the same purpose. His goal is to become a cosmic being who will drain the planet completely of the Lifestream, this ending all life, leaving the planet a literal shattered husk afterwards and to travel the stars in search of another planet to continue the process.
  • Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates: Galdes' goal is to harness the power of the corrupted crystals to become the Moongod.
  • Final Fantasy Xiv: Thordan VII seeks to get a God-King by becoming a primal of Thordan I.
    • As of the stinger for Shadowbringers, Zenos yae Galvus becomes one, but not for the usual reasons; rather, upon learning that Hydaelyn and Zodiark are Primals, he decides he'll utilize his Resonant abilities to absorb the power of 1 of them, equally he did with Shinryu. Then, he'll force the Warrior of Calorie-free to absorb the power of the other, and then that together they may have the most legendary disharmonism the cosmos has ever seen.
  • Last Fantasy 15: Verstael's goal in transforming into Immortalis is to go an being "beyond divinity".
• Galerians: Dorothy, the AI in charge of a major city, went insane, but was brought back under control by being given religion: man serves God as His creations, thus she must serve homo as theirs. Unfortunately, she took it a step farther: anything she created would have to serve her. Thus she created the Galerians, humans with psychic powers, to replace humanity and rule over them equally a goddess.
• Golden Sun: This appears to be Alex'due south goal, though he doesn't phrase information technology equally such (the only mentions of organized religion in the game are either summons, bosses or generic "pray to the spirits"). Rather, he seeks to light the elemental beacons non to relieve the world from slowly decomposable into nothingness but absorb their combined power (one time activated as the titular Gilt Dominicus), giving him immortality and complete control over all the elements. He succeeds at this, or would have, if the Wise One hadn't sabotaged it by shunting i of the Elemental Stars's power into Isaac instead. He's still around for the third game, though how he intends to pursue this goal is unclear.
• Halo: The Prophet of Truth initially believes that the part of the Halo rings is to enable the worthy (in which category he naturally includes himself) to become gods. When he learns they're really superweapons designed to obliterate all life in the galaxy, he plans to burn down them anyway (having taken refuge outside the firing range with his most loyal followers), believing that doing and so will qualify him equally a god.
• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: Nazis Hans Ubermann and Klaus Kerner are after a massive automobile in the lost city of Atlantis designed to turn humans into gods. Although the machine horribly deformed scores of Atlanteans in the past, the Nazis assume information technology volition work on them due to their superior Aryan qualities. They find out the hard mode that they are wrong.
• The King of Fighters: Igniz in The King of Fighters 2001 has this as his entire motivation and volition do anything to obtain it, upwardly to and including manipulating everyone else in the NESTS organization including the CEO, his ain father, and then killing said father to formally usurp his position as leader. He'due south so obsessed with it that nearly every single line of dialogue he has mentions this in some course or another.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Ganondorf'southward main goal in the franchise is to become a living god with the power to remake Hyrule in his ain image. He commonly seeks out the Triforce, which can make wishes come true, and ofttimes succeeds in obtaining it. Of grade, when he does obtain that power, it transforms him into a demonic boar-like brute known every bit Ganon and he doesn't enjoy his newfound godhood for long equally Link and Zelda will always sally to defeat him.
  • Vaati from the The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, and The Fable of Zelda: Iv Swords Adventures was originally a Picori, only was corrupted by his desire for the limitless ability of the Lite Force. Draining a fraction of it from Princess Zelda transformed him into a 1-eyed demonic entity.
  • Yuga from The Fable of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds wishes to blot Ganon's essence (which contains the Triforce of Power) so that he tin obtain "true dazzler" every bit an all-powerful existence. At the climax of the game, he double-crosses Princess Hilda so he can steal her Triforce of Wisdom, and tries to steal Link's Triforce of Courage in order to "take [his] rightful place amongst the gods".
• Mega Man ZX Appearance: The Large Bad Albert's main plan is to be "at the evolution's extreme"; he thinks that the "Mega Man" (people with the power of Biometal) is the next step of humanity's class of development, and with the ability of the combined fragments of Biometal Model Westward, he aims to be the "Ultimate Mega Man" and utilize its ability to Restart the Earth, creating a new 1 where only the "Mega Men" will live. After he has attained said power, when Grayness/Ashe confronts him, he claims that he doesn't "remember" he'south a god - he is one.
• Ōkami: Orochi seeks to go a god of the underworld through all the maidens he'south been sacrificed.
• Poseidon: Master of Atlantis: The first entrada has king Atlas, a son of Poseidon and the player grapheme's father, visit Olympus and somewhen beg to live there. By the end of the entrada, he'southward ascended among the Olympians, and shows upwardly in later campaigns equally a worshipable god who helps out with monument building.
• Star Wars: The Old Commonwealth: This is stated to be the goal of Darth Vitiate, the Sith Emperor. Unfortunately for everyone, he's been building his power for centuries and is pretty much 3 quarters in that location already, including a "side project" Empire (other than the Sith-ruled one he's got already) who worship him as a God-Emperor.
• Sorcerer Male monarch: The titular Sorcerer Male monarch, ruling over a earth shattered by multiple magical apocalypses, figures that he might also flake it for parts. The player can accept advantage of his surprisingly deep gullibility, out-maneuver him, and stop him — or, in the expansion Sorcerer King Rivals, destroy and consume the earth himself.
• The Tiamat Sacrament: The Big Bad, Ry'jin, wants to use dragon Dna to go a god surpassing the setting's actual deity, Tiamat.
• TRON 2.0: Strongly Implied. The instant Thorne hits Cyberspace, he takes on all the trappings of A God Am I, including a cult of corrupted Programs (Z-lots), the championship of "Master User," and unleashing Zombie Apocalypse beyond the digital globe. Even so, he's an Unwitting Pawn of the true villains, who are a lilliputian more than subtle in expressing their greed but far more ambitious every bit they want to exploit "User" status to reign as deities over the Program globe and use that to control the homo i through control of information. Needless to say, the game'due south protagonist inverts this by wanting absolutely nothing to exercise with "User" status after seeing the kind of damage left behind.

    Visual Novels

• Fate/stay night: The games' Greater-Scope Villain, the Avenger-class Servant known equally Aŋra Mainiiu, was once an ordinary human who was ritualistically scapegoated and sacrificed as the incarnation of "All the World's Evils" — inspiring the Zoroastrian God of Evil. Summoned as a Retainer during the 3rd Holy Grail State of war, Avenger proved to exist pathetically weak and was killed immediately... but the Holy Grail registered the wish of the aboriginal Zoroastrians for an incarnation of "All the World'due south Evils" and turned Avenger into an embryonic Eldritch Abomination. Avenger, for his part, wants to be reborn as a god of destruction and destroy everything, and almost succeeds in the "Unlimited Blade Works" and "Heaven'southward Feel" routes.
• Higurashi: When They Cry: Miyo Takano, the Large Bad, wants to grant her adoptive granddad metaphorical godhood past making his scientific research on encephalon parasites widely recognized, in add-on to "becoming" Oyashiro-sama by carrying out a massacre of Hinamizawa and blaming it on the deity.
• Shinza Bansho Series: Despite being a series focused on powerful individuals attaining godhood, this trope is surprisingly rare in the serial with godhood often just being a side effect of whatever the characters are trying to exercise. That said, it does show up in Dies Irae with Rusalka who at the height of her madness fabricated information technology clear that she seeks godhood simply for it's sake and so that no one is in a higher place her.

    Webcomics

• Tower of God: Any Regular climbing the Tower to become a Ranker for the power or status is already a downplayed version, since Rankers are nicknamed "gods". Since there'south a really long line of Regulars and and so Rankers going upwardly way up in terms of power, in that location isn't actually whatsoever clear line for when someone becomes a real Physical God in that sense — immortality, incidentally, is obtained by anyone who becomes a Ranker. The Slayers of FUG are considered the gods of FUG, then anyone trying for that position counts more seriously. Jahad and (some of?) his original companions were some of the most ambitious Godhood Seekers, and Jahad did succeed in becoming God-Emperor of the Tower. At present, he could well be counted as having succeeded at becoming a Deity of Human Origin, but he continues to seek even more godlike power and absolute control.

    Web Original

• Critical Role: Godhood is Vecna'southward ultimate goal. He succeeds in becoming a god, but since Gods Demand Prayer Badly he lacks the followers to transcend his physical form and manifest a divine domain. Every bit Ioun puts information technology, the quickest style for him to accomplish this would be to create "a phenomenon of terror" horrifying and destructive enough to inspire worship out of sheer fright. This "miracle" turns out to be the destruction of Vasselheim — the oldest city in Exandria, seat of ability for most of the good-aligned religions, and a fortress that has stood strong for centuries against the forces of evil.
• In Magic, Metahumans, Martians and Mushroom Clouds: An Alternate Common cold War, the Cambodian genocide is part of a massive Human Sacrifice ritual intended to turn Saloth Sar (Pol Pot, who never changed his name in this timeline) into a god. He gets nuked out of existence, along with the residual of his government, before he tin can stop the process.

    Western Animation

• Final Space: The Lord Commander'south ultimate goal is to open the breach into Concluding Infinite, in the belief that the Titans will make him one of them and allow him be god over all dimensions. Turns out, he's mistaken.
• Guardians of the Milky way (2015): Thanos's ultimate goal is to gain the Catholic Seed and bend the Universe to his volition.
• Justice League: Lex Luthor seeks to become a god after being diagnosed with Kryptonite cancer and discovering the blueprints to Amazo's powers and immortality. He doesn't become the chance to upload his conscious into an Amazo android torso just after learning that Brainiac has been living within of him the whole fourth dimension, he decides to brand practice with the alien AI's powers instead. Later losing Brainiac in a battle with the Justice League, Luthor spends the concluding season trying to get him back because the taste of godhood was worth more than the billions he made as a criminal businessman.
• The Fable of Korra: Unalaq believes the only manner to bring humans and spirits together is to rule them over as the Avatar. All the same, since that position is already taken by his niece Korra, and she's non willing to keep with his plans, Unalaq decides to unleash Vaatu from his prison and merge with him to become the Dark Avatar. To solidify his status equally the new Avatar, he also seeks to destroy Raava, the Avatar Spirit, to deprive Korra of her powers and connections to her past lives.
• My Piffling Pony: Friendship Is Magic: While the evidence doesn't directly land it, this is more than or less what Tirek'south plan amounts to. In a world where ponies need magic to command the forces of nature, Tirek draining them would give him command over the rise and fall of the sun and moon and let him to dispense weather freely, and he'd be the only creature able to grow the crops the ponies demand to feed themselves.
• Star Wars Rebels: The reason why the Empire has been investing heavily in the Lothal organization is because the Emperor had learned of a portal to the World Between Worlds, a place that would give admission to all of space and time. Naturally, he wants to utilise it to dominate the entire universe from beginning to stop.

    Real Life

• The Greek philosopher Empedocles was supposedly this. One version of his decease holds that after the gods didn't invite him to bring together them, he committed suicide by jumping into mount Etna to go far seem as though he'd been raptured, merely the volcano threw upwardly his charred sandals to testify him incorrect.

---

cassityhatat1997.blogspot.com

Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GodhoodSeeker

Share this post