>From: "Roderick and Ellen Robertson" <rjremr_at_...>
>Capital-H Heroes and Capital-S Superheroes can be thought of as "demigods
>in training", and the final step of that training is making the transition
>from a Middle-world being to a Otherside being.
Actually I like this explanation a lot. I think it makes sense, of course, for Jar-Eel to be a Natha worshipper but...
Well here's how I'm seeing the whole process of development for "post-mortals." As they get into the 4 mastery range with abilities that are starting to become magical themselves without being magic from another being, what's going on is that they're starting to create their own magic. If a being starts at this point to collect followers who want to know how to do the things he does well, and they start to emulate him, this seems like the founding of a Hero Cult. If the being passes in this state, then it seems to me that people may then pass down the feats that the character accomplished under the Aegis of the god in question. I'm assuming this is where Jar-Eel was a while back.
But she's not dead yet, and getting more powerful still. At this point it seems like what she'll leave behind is a hero cult, but she's transitioning to more. At this point, yeah, sure she's technically a worshipper of Natha, and sure, she's probably getting a lot of power from that. And yeah, she can't be disrespectful to the much more powerful Natha. But it seems to me that part of this stage of the process must be moving out from underneath the god you worship in a substantive way. Again, not in a disrespectful, "Ha, I'm better than you" way, but in a process where the being is becoming their own divinity with their own area of worship.
If/when the cult suddenly "outgrows" the god that the new potential divinity worships, if there is a ritual to do so, that seems like the point where apotheosis occurs. At that point instead of a Hero Cult, what the followers pass down is the knowledge of how to obtain the full powers of the otherworld being. A full set of Aspects and feats (as opposed to the sub-set that heroe's have).
The point here being that I think a cool way to run Jar-Eel is with that, dare I say it, hubris, of getting out from under Natha, and starting to look forward to becoming her own goddess. Oh, it might not be any time soon. But to say that she worships Natha, might be incorrect at this point. Natha might still be the source of much of Jar-Eel's power, but on a more and more equal level where Jar-Eel is almost demanding (might be too strong a word, but you get the drift) the respect of the goddess.
I don't think you can get very far thumbing your nose at the gods of the pantheon of which you'd like to become a part. But at some point I think the hero goes from worship to something a bit more transcendant than that. A closing with the gods that is what's making them divine.
Make sense? Or are there big holes in the idea?
Mike
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