On Immortal Beings in general and Gods in particular.

By: Kit
June 14, 2003

A God is a living being, projected beyond the material plane by energy, commonly referred to as “core belief” of his or her worshippers. This level of core belief is hard to achieve in a society lacking some sort of structure or culture, which is the main reason that most Gods are conceived by humans (or organized beings) . Some fully un-human Gods are known to exist, although they are an exception to the rule and are more likely to represent the alpha individual of a specie, rather than an aspect of specie’s behavior, which is the case with humans.
It is known that the world exists on many planes, some of which interlope with others during particular time spans, others-circling around each other for eternity. One can assume that plane of “Immortal-hood” is one of the latter, non-existing in our reality unless invoked by some specific factor. Even when invoked, most of the Godly images are just illusions, for light waves take the least effort to carry through. Any truly material happening requires a huge amount of effort from God’s side, thus being impractical. Material happenings, (moving and manipulating physical objects), are most often employed by the Immortal when he or she has already crossed over into the material plane. This crossing suggests that, while performing any material miracle, the God h/h-self becomes vulnerable. Hurting a being wrapped in a cloak of material belief still poses a problem, but it can be done.
Here, we can assume that a God can move from one plane to another at least at some point of h/h existence. One might compare the life of a God with that of virus. When a God is first born, most often, in the mind of that same being destined to become the God’s chief supporter, and often h/s gets a ‘boost start’ from level of belief directed at this particular person, who might display leadership or creative nature to unconsciously gain followers. Once a level, necessary for God’s materialization in another plane beyond the minds of worshippers is reached, the now-unneeded body of originator is either cast off or turned into a priest or organizer of this particular religion. Most often, it is up to that priest to shape the religion into the most appealing form and recruit more followers: at this point, God is nothing but a mildly conscious ball of energy, which can be manipulated by its originator, after some practice. That does not stay that way for very long. Originator is likely to die for whatever reason, and the religion takes off, now shaped by the minds of simple people. Every blessing or curse muttered in the God’s name helps mold h/h face into a locally accepted image. People basically put a face on the deity. For what may be hundreds of years, this ball of general-memory sustained consciousness may idle, until a major event in lives of the worshippers cause it to hatch: or, to suddenly and violently react to change by applying the common image to itself and acquiring consciousness. This process is commonly triggered by war, major plague or a presence of other immortal competition. This is also the process that leads to God’s abilities to perform miracles, unaided by his servants/priests.
Hatching of a God is a confusing process, especially to h/h-self. First days or even weeks of it will often render h/h helpless and confused, more often than not stuck wandering around in the local caves or forests in an image of h/h originator. This phase of the process carries the heaviest casualties for Immortal population, since worshippers are as likely as not to die out or stop believing, and any other fully conscious God might just have some time on their holy hands and actively looking for competition to slay.
In the rare cases when originator of the deity survives to that point, chances of God’s surviving also rocket, often resulting in a strong bond between God and his avatar. It might be also worth mentioning that, as an immortal is slain, the victor gains a substantial part of the newly reformed energy, stored by the dead for the finishing of h/h metamorphosis. This energy, otherwise, goes into establishing a full image on whatever spiritual plane h/s exists on, and developing a full consciousness. This consciousness does not usually varies much from that of any individual of God’s species; its nearly impossible to find a fully abstract God that can maintain a good base of followers over a long period of time.
Which brings us to the point of sustainability of a God past this change. In human cultures, such ‘mature’ Gods may exist for thousands of years, gaining enormous base-belief and whatever economic power comes with it. Eventually, most either fade away (and/or continue wondering the world, often forgetting their original purpose), change names, eventually splitting into dozens of unrelated deities with one common mother essence, or are slain by more successful newcomers.
As God exists for a prolonged periods of time, some of h/h base belief settles and ‘solidifies’ into an aura of sorts, which then is able to help the God survive on a relatively low base of believers and high self-confidence for longer periods of time. (Although, in the long run, such existence severely limits his or her powers, ultimately leading to self-destruction, when the smaller group finally gets sick of (limited) amount of miracles and ceases to believe; this aura also makes them truly “Immortal”, unable to dissolve into other materials). It is known, that above the usual rabble, competing and killing for bits of belief, there is a group of elites, who were around from the beginning of human days, with amount of aura/influence that puts them way beyond the young ones’ reach.
It is important to point out that not all Gods are Immortals and not all Immortals are Gods. When talking about a God, one is generally talking about a cultural symbol that represents something and has some influence over a group of individuals. A God does not need to be Immortal to be a God. Immortals are creatures that, basically, cannot die of old age. Some races can be considered immortal, as well as freak accidents, cursed ones, and god knows what else.
In conclusion, I’d like to say that Gods are a truly fascinating set of creatures, which are, unfortunately, hard to study due to our own prejudices on the subject.