RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
|
Ok, I remember the 'a god's power is proportionate to her followers number and fevor' thing from pre-blown up* Realms, doesn't apply to Golarion.
Do we know why the gods bother to meddle in the affairs of mortals? I mean the ascended few, it makes sense, they were human, so they would have a vested interest in humanity, but why the others? What do they get for their efforts?
*
Creative Director
|
We have not yet revealed why the gods care at all about mortal affairs. We're actually keeping that sort of mysterious on purpose—they DO care, whether its to support or to meddle. A deity doesn't "die" or vanish if no one worships it, but being able to grant spells and otherwise have a religion following your words DOES have some sort of benefit. Even if it's only a super-high-level version of Leadership.
In any event... it'll be a while before we say for sure... if we EVER say.
|
Well, you could think of it in a couple of ways.
It's not that "the gods" care, it's that these gods care. One could just as easily imagine another all-powerful being that doesn't bother to have worshippers or meddle in the affairs of Golarion. That being is quickly forgotten by Golarion because it doesn't matter at all. By some interpretations of the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods ways of looking at Golarion, there may be plenty of such beings.
Also, reasons might be different between gods. For example, Sarenrae sees humans as the true front lines of the battle between good and evil, needing whatever support she can muster. Pharasma, on the other hand, worked out a nice deal with Abadar, and is able to, essentially, front-run the multiverse by investing in souls. Rovagug truly doesn't care, but is big and nasty and doesn't care to shut off the siphoning of divine power for worshippers. Desna just thinks we're cute.
One of the possibilities why gods collect worshippers: souls of worshippers claimed by their patron deities won't feed daemons, Abyss or Maelstrom. Or other planar forces that aren't exactly divine.
Or one could just chalk it up to being one of the great unanswerable mysteries of the universe, I suppose.
Or one could just chalk it up to being one of the great unanswerable mysteries of the universe, I suppose.
Try to understand them, but can you? Nope! They're mysteries!
|
We have not yet revealed why the gods care at all about mortal affairs. We're actually keeping that sort of mysterious on purpose—they DO care, whether its to support or to meddle. A deity doesn't "die" or vanish if no one worships it, but being able to grant spells and otherwise have a religion following your words DOES have some sort of benefit. Even if it's only a super-high-level version of Leadership.
In any event... it'll be a while before we say for sure... if we EVER say.
That is one thing that I truly like about Golarion -- we may never have all the answers. This gives individual GMs some freedom to decide why some things work in their campaigns.
I've always liked to think of it as the whole "one little helper in my pocket is one not in yours".
Perhaps they're also trying to keep the mortals more interested on them than allowing them to attain divinity themselves. After all, what good is a world if EVERYONE suddenly ascended? I'm certain they don't want some several (million?) Irori's or Caelians running around. Things would get messy real quick.
My pet theory is that you can't become a god without wanting something bigger than yourself-- bigger even than divinity itself-- and even a deity can't achieve something worthy of a deity's aspirations without a tremendous amount of support. Of course, I now that I've read this thread... I like Vino's theory even better. It isn't that all the gods care, it's that all the gods we've heard of are the ones that do.
I've always decided that the Gods genuinely DO care about their followers (or at least, their portfolios on the world) the thought of a good aligned deity doing the deity thing for some other reason than genuinely caring about their followers has always seemed... off to me.
I like to think of all outsiders as just being able to commit more to a pursuit than mortals can. Kind of like how an outsider will detect as its alignment while most mortals don't.
At some point, the outsiders get powerful enough to bestow power on other people who are committed to promoting their "object of dedication."
Fer instance, Abadar cares more about hoarding things than any mortal creature could even imagine caring about it. Anybody on Golarion with sufficient dedication to the act of hoarding things can get Abadar's attention and a little power boost to help them achieve their comparatively feeble efforts to hoard wealth.
Per this premise, the major gods of Golarion are just the ones with sufficient power to make a difference and a common enough goal to interest followers. The Mighty Shagron, Lord of Nice Carpeting, for example, doesn't get too many mortals willing to dedicate their lives to laying down nice piles.
|
|
I like to believe that the gods don't grant spells; divine magic is sympathetic magic. A cleric's (or other divine caster) abilities come from emulating a deity's behavior, from attuning themselves to their god's desires and character, until the cosmos "sees" the priest as a tiny version of the god and consequently gives the priest a tiny version of the god's powers. Do something that is unlike the god, fail to act in accordance with the "right" way of doing something, and that sympathetic link is broken, and the cleric loses their powers.