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Given that this thread reiterated that the official answer will never be revealed, let's come up with a list of (tongue in cheek) ways Aroden died.
1. Lost initiative to a dual wield Gunslinger.
2. Tried to stop a crit from Asmodeus only to find out his Jingasa was used up.
3. Had extracted oaths from all creatures not to harm him except songbirds... I mean how could they be dangerous?
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4. He's not actually dead, just on a very long term vacation in the Bahamas.
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8 - Tried to initiate a grapple on a succubus.
9 - He forgot to look both ways before crossing the street.
10 - There are limits to how much alcohol even a god can store in their body. Aroden learnt that the hard way at an Axiom frat party, and why Cayden now advertises drinking in moderation.
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11. In a bid to impress Shelyn, Aroden tried to wrestle Rovagug, after asking Cayden to hold his ale stein.
12. In a sparring match, Gorum got too enthusiastic, and Aroden couldn't remember how Crane Wing was supposed to work now in time to block the attack.
13. Turns out the Starstone only gives loaner powers, and Aroden's borrowing time was up.
15. Aroden saw what Cheliax was like, confirmed that it'd be even more of the worst parts of ruling a nation (all the expectations! Very few people to delegate things to!) and thus committed suicide-by-Rovagug.
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16. He's not dead. He said something Merisiel didn't like and now he's trying to avoid getting stabbed.
Incidentally number 13 is actually my running theory on what happened to Aroden with the additional qualification that his time was shortened by too many tapping the well.
19) Pharasma caught him at one of Urgothoa's orgy
19) Pharasma caught him at one of Urgothoa's orgy
20) Luckily she only gave him a light slap on the wrist. Didn´t save Aroden from falling that Fortitude save during the orgy though...
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21) he was petitioning for a soul in the boneyard when he tripped and fell on a banana skin Zyphus had left there 'accidentally'
22) Zon-kuthon hugged him before he could get a tetanus jab.
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23. He's been aroden away.
24. Publicly turned down sex with Calistria, got ganked in revenge.
25. Mythic Toe Fungus.
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26. Pharasma showed him the future. A future where vampires sparkle in the sunlight and zombies rebel against eating brains and a cabal of Don Bluthian Mice can control a moldy pumpkin in an expensive suit to the presidency.
This was obviously not a world he wanted to live in.
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27.) People were getting too close to figuring out that he was also Norgober and he had to throw them off the scent.
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28. Some freelancer wrote stats for him. A party of munchkins jumped the opportunity to kill a god.
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Norgorber being Aroden incognito is my new headcanon.
By the way, a brief correction to the OP: There is no official explanation for what killed Aroden. Like what caused the Day of Mourning, it's intended to be a mystery to all. Paizo isn't just sitting on the secret vault containing the cause of death. The secret is open for all GMs to invent and pick at.
29. He's not really dead. He's off with Elvis, Tupac, and Andy Kaufman.
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33. A newly evolved strain of cure disease-resistant syphilis.
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Not true, Cleaver. Jacobs said that they do actually know why Aroden died and they keep it so that everything they publish about it will make sense if it somehow ever gets leaked/revealed, but that he believes there arent nearly enough clues to actually make any reasonable guess as to why in anything presently published.
So they claim. Conveniently there's no way to prove it either way so long as they refuse to give details.
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Not true, Cleaver. Jacobs said that they do actually know why Aroden died and they keep it so that everything they publish about it will make sense if it somehow ever gets leaked/revealed, but that he believes there arent nearly enough clues to actually make any reasonable guess as to why in anything presently published.
*pretentious literary critic mode*
That's an absurd authorial indulgence. Paizo doesn't get to have its own private "one true canon"—such a claim betrays the most fundamental premise of the Death of the Author. Simply put, if you don't actually officiate an idea, it's not official. It's just a very well-constructed theory, and quite entirely on par with everyone else's. Like Tolkien's belief that Frodo would have eventually shaken free of the Ring and thrown it into the fire without Gollum's intervention, James Jacobs's idea about the "truth" is an author's headcanon. Nothing more.
Paizo should have the conviction in their work to allow a mystery to be a mystery. They shouldn't need to be "right" about their own personal answer.
*/pretentious literary critic mode*
:)
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I never thought I'd hear a call for death of the author about James Jacobs, he seems like an affable guy. :P
37. Aroden encountered some protean babies, and made the wrong decision about what to do with them, falling from divinity as a result.
38. Aroden had used spell-like abilities to early enter a Prestige Class, and was thus unraveled when the universe shifted to eliminate that possibility.
39. At one of Cayden's parties, Aroden ended up being chosen for "seven minutes in heaven". The other individual chosen? Zon-kuthon. Mistakes were made.
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43) Iomadae fell, and he caught her.
I never thought I'd hear a call for death of the author about James Jacobs, he seems like an affable guy. :P
44. Scythia killed Aroden because they are just that evil.
45) Assassinated by Norgorber before Aroden could reveal a prophecy that would render the "Where is Golarion" mystery moot for Starfinder.
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14. He failed the DC to jump a 10' pit.
Oh, he rolled below an 11?
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That's an absurd authorial indulgence. Paizo doesn't get to have its own private "one true canon"—such a claim betrays the most fundamental premise of the Death of the Author. Simply put, if you don't actually officiate an idea, it's not official. It's just a very well-constructed theory, and quite entirely on par with everyone else's. Like Tolkien's belief that Frodo would have eventually shaken free of the Ring and thrown it into the fire without Gollum's intervention, James Jacobs's idea about the "truth" is an author's headcanon. Nothing more.
I think that's ridiculous. The creator's The Creator - what they have in mind is of course the ultimately true answer.
I'm glad to hear that about Frodo, too!
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I think that's ridiculous. The creator's The Creator - what they have in mind is of course the ultimately true answer.
I'm glad to hear that about Frodo, too!
Only if they actually bother to create it and insert it into the canon at some point.
As of right now, Mr. Jacob's unexplained theory holds no more weight on the canon then any other theory and until it's made official, that is going to continue to be the case.
I think it's more ridiculous to have a secret the powers that be never plan on sharing. Sure one can argue "but it takes away the mystique to know!"
Knowing the secret will never be revealed only makes me not care about it.
I think a better option would be to slowly reveal things all the while making new mysteries, lest the world building become stagnant.
47. He fell of his horse and accidentally stapped himself 47 times times in his armpit with his own dagger.
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48. Blame Cosmo
49. Narlarthalnothep has him hidden in Kadath with the other forgotten gods of men.
50. Died in a battle with a supremely strong Veild Master who was taking the Test of the Starstone to achieve godhood. Soon "Aroden" will return with sleight shifts in his dogma...
But of course, Kobold. What else would one expect from the Chained Heart and Goddess of Slavery?
53. Aroden learned too late the difference between invulnerable immortality and merely ageless immortality when the Starstone rolled ontop of him pinning him with it's semi-cosmic weight.
54. Aroden was suffocated beneath a massive tsunami of cards upon which warriors had written complaints about being outclassed by magic users.
55. Aroden "retired in order to spend more time with his family".
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Paizo doesn't get to have its own private "one true canon"—such a claim betrays the most fundamental premise of the Death of the Author. Simply put, if you don't actually officiate an idea, it's not official. It's just a very well-constructed theory, and quite entirely on par with everyone else's. Like Tolkien's belief that Frodo would have eventually shaken free of the Ring and thrown it into the fire without Gollum's intervention, James Jacobs's idea about the "truth" is an author's headcanon. Nothing more.
Additionally, if Paizo has no intention of ever revealing what happened to Aroden, but internally has a private notion of what did happen and are trying to keep things consistent with that in case they change their minds on "never revealing it", it's not that they cannot just as easily change their minds on "what actually happened". I mean, James Jacobs could come up with an idea for "what happened to Aroden" that he likes more, and is also consistent with the hints they've dropped. So the "thing they 'know' but won't tell us" can't even be considered the "true" answer in any meaningful sense.
People writing serials often have an intended ending from some early point, but that ending can change dramatically before we actually get there because writers are entitled to change their minds, and narrative developments are arrived at "what is interesting" or "what seems right" rather than "exhaustion of all of the possibilities".
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54. Not dead. He got bored, took human form, and got an entry level position at Paizo because it amused him. One night after too many Jell-O shots he let slip something about his true form. The next morning one of the writers wrote that he lost his powers and now he's stuck with them.
55. He cast a divination spell to learn how and if he would die… and the spell backlashed, because some things are simply not meant to be known.
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That's an absurd authorial indulgence. Paizo doesn't get to have its own private "one true canon"—such a claim betrays the most fundamental premise of the Death of the Author. Simply put, if you don't actually officiate an idea, it's not official. It's just a very well-constructed theory, and quite entirely on par with everyone else's. Like Tolkien's belief that Frodo would have eventually shaken free of the Ring and thrown it into the fire without Gollum's intervention, James Jacobs's idea about the "truth" is an author's headcanon. Nothing more.
I think that's ridiculous. The creator's The Creator - what they have in mind is of course the ultimately true answer.
I'm glad to hear that about Frodo, too!
The Author's just a very enthusiastic reader. The Work is something they made, but it's not theirs.
As of right now, Mr. Jacob's unexplained theory holds no more weight on the canon then any other theory and until it's made official, that is going to continue to be the case.
Bingo! It's Schrodinger's Secret: It both is and is not canon until the author makes a definitive decision to include it or not include it.
56. He's fine! He's fine. He just went off to a, uh, butterfly farm upstate. You know, the same place Uncle Ray went. He's really happy there. Lots of room to run around. We'll take you there to see him one day.
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54. Not dead. He got bored, took human form, and got an entry level position at Paizo because it amused him. One night after too many Jell-O shots he let slip something about his true form. The next morning one of the writers wrote that he lost his powers and now he's stuck with them.
Oh my... Aroden is COSMO!
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57. Rocks fell, Aroden died.
That's an absurd authorial indulgence. Paizo doesn't get to have its own private "one true canon"—such a claim betrays the most fundamental premise of the Death of the Author. Simply put, if you don't actually officiate an idea, it's not official. It's just a very well-constructed theory, and quite entirely on par with everyone else's. Like Tolkien's belief that Frodo would have eventually shaken free of the Ring and thrown it into the fire without Gollum's intervention, James Jacobs's idea about the "truth" is an author's headcanon. Nothing more.
I think that's ridiculous. The creator's The Creator - what they have in mind is of course the ultimately true answer.
I'm glad to hear that about Frodo, too!
I'm of two minds about it. It sounds much like Rowlings coming out later saying that Hermione should have shacked up with Harry Potter instead of the boy she married. It's a case of Tolkien contradicting himself, because if Frodo would have been able to throw off the One Ring by himself, there would have been no need for Gandalf's far-sighted statements concerning Gollum. Statements that kept several people from offing him when they had clean opportunity to do so, thus having him there to do the one absolutely right thing THAT NEEDED TO BE DONE... even if for the wrong reason.
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58. He said he was going out for cigarettes but never came back.