211) Aroden picked a fight with some mad Scientist named Rick. Due to unforeseen circumstances Aroden sadly died during the fight.
For several years now I've been under the assumption that Aroden chose to commit ritual suicide on the day he was suppose to return -- in order to illustrate to mankind that they don't need to rely on him to create prophesy and direct them in his image.
This is actually a great answer to that mystery and it reminds me of the Dune universe and acts of Leto II. If any GM wants a good answer for himself regarding Aroden that has a LOT of depth and is not just a meme - read God Emperor of Dune as an inspiration and you will be satisfied :) Basically the promised Golden Age of Aroden is similar to the Golden Path of Dune and Aroden is God of Prophecy which is similar to prescience of Dune, so we actually might have hit a nail on its head here :)
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212) Aroden discovered time travel and attempted to prevent a disaster that he had foreseen. But this created a paradox which caused Aroden to simply stop existing.
Pharasma had him killed because Aroden figured out what shenanigans Pharasma was up to and wouldn't keep his mouth shut, even though "doing nothing" would have been to the benefit of everyone.
Basically it's the end of Watchmen (the comic) with Aroden as Rorschach, Pharasma as Ozymandias, and Achaekek as Dr. Manhattan (whose "never kill a god" mandate was "mysteriously" suspended, something no one was aware Pharasma is able to do.)
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For several years now I've been under the assumption that Aroden chose to commit ritual suicide on the day he was suppose to return -- in order to illustrate to mankind that they don't need to rely on him to create prophesy and direct them in his image.This is actually a great answer to that mystery and it reminds me of the Dune universe and acts of Leto II. If any GM wants a good answer for himself regarding Aroden that has a LOT of depth and is not just a meme - read God Emperor of Dune as an inspiration and you will be satisfied :) Basically the promised Golden Age of Aroden is similar to the Golden Path of Dune and Aroden is God of Prophecy which is similar to prescience of Dune, so we actually might have hit a nail on its head here :)
Personally, I would love if he had foreseen some great catastrophic event and realized that in order to avert it he would have to break prophecy itself, and himself by extension.
Maybe faith in prophecy makes it stronger so he needed people to doubt it hard so the really bad future could be averted.Humbly,
Yawar
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Due to a truly powerful ritual regarding his return gone horrifically wrong, he accidentally divided his divine essence up amongst not just his worshippers but ALL of humanity. Human adventurers with certain human related feats have perhaps a scoetch more of this essence than the average human, a sorcerer of divine heritage would have considerably more. Aroden himself occasionally manifests as a decidedly non-magical reincarnation every age or so, and most of them live their whole, mundane and often boring lives without ever knowing their past life beyond the occasional extremely confusing nightmare.
His avatar in this age? Razmiran, who is one of the few avatars of Aroden who is aware of his past life and divinity, but can access it no more than previous avatars were able to. Not that it stops him from trying...
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so the last few posts did not continue the numbering, so I think the next number is...
215) Aroden and Cayden started to have a friendly debate about the conflict between Prophecy and Free Will. During the debate they had a few drinks, and a few more, which eventually turned into a drunken bender. When Cayden woke up Aroden was nowhere to be seen and has been missing since.
216) Aroden isn't dead, he just decided to step down and allow Iomedae to lead humanity into its new Golden Age.
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217) Aroden got ran over by a boulder and got Isekai'ed into Earth as a normal Japanese Teenager.
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While we had nothing to do with the death, we'd very interesting in getting our hands on the remains...
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218) The thread wasn't dead. Like Aroden, it faked its death to claim the insurance.
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218) The thread wasn't dead. Like Aroden, it faked its death to claim the insurance.
But if either was dead, it'd be completely reasonable to do a respectful necro.
220) It was the Spanish Cheliax Inquisition
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206) Aroden isn't dead, he is simply in quarantine for a few thousand years.192) COVID-19
What? Too soon?
221) Aroden refused to get vaccinated, got infected, an died.
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222) We got it all wrong, Aroden never died and the Age of Glory is actually what is currently happening across Golarion (including his decision to stop granting any more divine magic). The prophecy was fulfilled, it's just that our interpretation of the term "glory" is vastly different than Aroden's. But hey, deities work in mysterious ways.
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For several years now I've been under the assumption that Aroden chose to commit ritual suicide on the day he was suppose to return -- in order to illustrate to mankind that they don't need to rely on him to create prophesy and direct them in his image.
.
This is actually a great answer to that mystery and it reminds me of the Dune universe .... so we actually might have hit a nail on its head here.
.
Personally, I would love if he had foreseen some great catastrophic event and realized that in order to avert it he would have to break prophecy itself, and himself by extension.
Maybe faith in prophecy makes it stronger so he needed people to doubt it hard so the really bad future could be averted.
.
It was back in the day, but I was just using Metagame logic to come up with my theory (in which I'm convinced is accurate). The creative invention of an 'Aroden' as the god of humanity, prophesy and civilization was a trope Mona and Jacobs had to have -- but also wanted to give it a little creative change-up. More importantly, they wanted their Setting to explicitly spell out that it would be the PCs -- hero adventurers -- YOUR Game -- that would move the setting forward, as opposed to prophesy (or humanity / civilization to a lesser extent). Aroden was thus a created gimmick, essentially just a MacGuffin to get our campaigns started, with the PCs as the center of it all rather than a deity.
Anyway, it was at a Game Store in Miami in 2009 where I was introducing Pathfinder to some other gamers when I declared that in Paizo's setting they have this spoken, Metagame element where the PCs are the driving force of the whole setting, since their god is gone -- probably from Ritual Suicide -- to show them that they are the heroes and adventurers of the world going forward.
224) Slept in, forgot to attend the ceremony. Breaking the prophecy killed him.
225) Murdered to create the Worldwound.
226: He fell down the stairs. This hasn't killed him, yet, but he's still falling; there are a lot of stairs.
That Infinite Staircase is murder on the knees....
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My personal theory, which I'm probably gonna use if I ever have reason to do an adventure that focuses on such matters: Aroden spent his entire career ****ing Around with the laws of reality, and Finding Out, with increasingly severe consequences (Tar-Baphon being a warning that Aroden ignored). By the time of his death, he was tired, he was feeling guilty over Arazni, probably knew he wasn't a great dude all around, and knew that he was fighting a losing battle. The prophecies are clear: Aroden returns, his final ****ing Around, and a thousand years of glory later, he Finds Out and the entirety of Golarion is destroyed.
And Aroden can't stop thinking about that, because even though he's a god, half the reason he keeps ****ing Around is that he's still a person at heart and feels every single life he watches die. And he's exhausted, and guilty, and wants to do one last unambigously good thing in his life. Something that, even if it doesn't make it all worth it, can at least make a difference for the better, for everyone.
Then Iomedae dies in the Starstone cathedral. A trap left by Norgorber? Failed at the last step? Who knows or cares. But he sees it, and he thinks of how he failed Arazni, and how he will inevitably fail all of his people and every other thinking creature on Golarion if he goes on the path he's on.
The day is coming. Aroden's failed Arazni. He failed Iomedae. The ancient abominations that destroyed his people are going to destroy his adopted people and every other people on Golarion.
So, knowing that it'll really shake things up, knowing that it'll kill him, Aroden ****s Around and Finds Out one last time, by altering reality to make it so that Iomedae succeeded. He retroactively resurrects Iomedae and transfers his divine spark to her.
The backlash unmakes Aroden in an instant like balefire from Wheel of Time. Iomedae knows only that she got a momentary sense of deja vu and then she was a god, not quite knowing how exactly it happened, and Pharasma...
Ok, now THAT is some good head cannon!
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228. He made the mistake of saying: “If you strike me down I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”
229. It turns out he is only mostly dead. You see he got caught up on a quest for true love with a giant and a Spaniard who is not left handed and…
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230. Aroden travelled through the Dark Tapestry all the way to the centre of the universe, and, well, I’m not sure how to put this delicately. Azathoth has a lot of mouths to feed.
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231. Are you sure you want to know? Well alright then.
232. Aroden had plans within plans, but forgot that the spice must flow.
233. Aroden isn’t dead. He took a sabbatical to form a rock band.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5NoQg8LdDk&pp=ygUUcGxheWluZyBnb2QgcG9seX BoaWE%3D