Campaign Help?

[Loremaster Howlin]

So I'm running a campaign, still in the early stages so i have a ton of wiggle room, and while i have most of the world itself done, i don't have a clear idea for a ending arc.

The most favorable idea i have so far is that the all the gods eventually die through battle or lack of believers but their essence remains. Now the fabric of reality would be undone if their were no gods at all, so an extremely powerful outsider named Proctor Kos finds new gods to imbue the collective souls of all the previous gods and cause those mortals to ascend. (Proctor Kos is often worshiped as the God of Knowledge due to it's incredible intellect and divination ability)

Now the Party would be this new vessels and would rise up to throw back the ever-onward expansion of the forces of the God of Un-creation (Lovecraftian Hydra God)

Thoughts? Advice? Insults?

[Dastis]

I do like the idea of the players being imbued with divine power and set to become future gods. Its flavorful, fun for the pcs, and gives plenty of options for the dm. Just avoid the railroad this kind of plot usually generates.

Misc Ideas/Questions
1. Do the players know they have been chosen? If so how much do they know?
2. Are the players bound to the portfolio of the deity they inherit or is their portfolio decided by how they live their mortal lives?
3. Plotline idea: Players try to further unlock their diefic powers by a manner you decide. BBEG spends the campaign trying to stop them either directly(murder) or indirectly(interfering with important stuff or causing mayhem to lure them away from their goal). OF course whenever the pcs complete a portion of the ritual advance them somehow. Mythic system or a custom staged template would do nicely
4. Will they have to fight other mortals with the divine spark? Perhaps there is a limited number of seats on Mt. Olympus. They could be lead astray or lied to about a limited number of seats
5. Do all the god sparks pass on individually or a bunch at once?
6. Do they have time limit to become gods?
7. How do gods die? Battling against the Uncreation god? Killing each other? Expiration dates? This seems a rather important detail when them all dying leads to end of the universe. Also do they all have to die or just most?
8. It should not be an uncreation god. Rather than defining it in absolute terms you can definitely go with the vague unknown descriptions rather than boundary defining words. Basically keeps the same thing with a more mysterious feel. EX: Cthulhu is much more threatening if you just read a description of him with no picture and no name. If you want to keep him a god give him a backstory as he was probably a mortal once as well
9. Do you want them to fight the BBEG? Before or after full divinity?

[Loremaster Howlin]

Thanks for the input, answers i have here:

1. The Players do not know they have been chosen or even the gods die at all (So far)
2. I do not have a specific plan for that, but maybe a mixture of both (as in some domains are set in stone, but the rest are dependent)
3. Great idea, would have to explain the advancement in only sparse, sparing details but that slightly conflicts with no. 4
4. The "Spark" isn't automatically funneled to the new gods, but instead they linger in the material plane for a time, giving Kos some room to groom the new gods for inheritance, but of course other beings can try to claim this power before the Pcs get access to them, so there is a real danger to an "Unworthy" being ascending to godhood
5. The sparks form individually
6. Yes, the time limit is about 20 years before each spark fades entirely, at this point the Pcs have about 3-5 years left to find out and find the sparks before they fade
7. The gods have one duty to sustain above all else, safeguard creation against "Sthun'alaz", there are a variety of ways to acomplish this for short times, the best way found so far is to simply hide Praeon from it's sight by letting the Kiln (The Sun) burn their bodies and collective godly powers to fuel it and drive off the "darkness"
8. Sthun'alaz was a god from before creation, but after reality was formed was twisted and driven mad, Sthun'alaz constantly grows and feeds on all things and only wishes the un-creation so it can be without sensation again, the best descriptor of Sthun is "It does not dwell within the darkness between stars, it is the darkness between stars"
9. Not fight Sthun, simply prevent it's children from erasing the world

And that's about all i got so far, mostly set in clay so it's still amorphous and mold-able in case better ideas crop up. That's all i have so far though.

[Loremaster Howlin]

Oh, i should probably list the party and the deities i have ideas for... so here they are.

Claudius R. - Human Paladin (Divine Hunter), average joe paladin without much weirdness going on about him

Goodwin - Elf Cleric/Rouge/Fighter, Traumatized Multi-personality disorder victim, switches personas during stressful situations.

Shi Hou - Vanaran Monk, a wandering monk form a destroyed monastery, looking for a reason in life

Talyn D. - Elf Magus (Spellblade), a walking cliche that has a penchant for hawks and curved swords

Webber S. G. - Aboleth Construct (Homebrewed) Gunslinger (Mysterious Stranger), a very unsucessful pirate, has recently lost both origianl hands.

Winveld - Human Cleric of Skinvel, constantly drinks and loves to tell stories of his time in the war, mentor to Goodwin, hears his god speak to him

and the gods/pseudo deities :

Hu'untar - creator deity, who stole the flame of good and evil from his home plane and brought it to the material plane, creating the universe and driving Sthun mad

Llune - Beast god of elves and the natural world, lord of animals, water and the moon

Proctor Kos - Psuedo Deity of knowledge and divination, geometric being looking like a triangle with a single eye. ensures the gods are reborn and keeps the universe in check

Skinvel - Minor deity of Medicine, crows, and plagues, very personal to his followers due to his lack of them.

Sthun'alaz - Unknowable God of Healing, madness, void, monsters, and un-creation. Does not think or plan as it came from before the creation of those concepts, eats stars on a regular basis and cannot die.

...

And thats all the gods i have so far, not much creativity in that regard i'm afraid

But i hope that helps one get a picture of what i have to work with

[Anonymous Visitor 163 576]

Go and find an old copy of the first edition rules. Not advanced, but the basic/expert/etc. series. Last one was immortals, if memory serves, and there will be lot of cool ideas in there.

You need to let at least one random dude find a spark. Watching Louis the Potter become an immortal god will make a great motivator, and what a tremendous RP opportunity.

[Loremaster Howlin]

Couldn't find a PDF of First edition immortals rules, will have to go see if my local Mr. Kays has one.

Did find a copy Deities and Demigods, and reading through that now, hopefully i'll get some more ideas.

Thanks for pointing me in that direction though!

[Loremaster Howlin]

Okay, updated list of gods after an hour of looking through the book.

Hu'untar - LG - Martial God of the Sun

Aae'reis - CN - Martial Goddess of War

Fanraen - NE - Martial God of the Hunt

Thae'fif - LN - Hidden Goddess of Planning

Fraedan - CN - Hidden God of Freedom

Alec Bran - N - Hidden God of Theft

Tomars - Arcane Goddess of Rituals

Proctor Kos - N - Geometric God of Knowledge

Writh'lyn - NE - Dragon God of Curses

Naturan - N - Plant God/dess of the Natural Order

Sthun'alaz - CE - Unknowable being of Un-creation and monsters

Skinvel - LN - Minor god of Medicine
Baress - CN - Minor goddess of Sailing
Roa't - N - God of Death