Apotheosis

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Apotheosis is the ascension of a mortal to genuine godhood — usually without having to die first.

The subject of an apotheosis doesn't always gain phenomenal cosmic power -- they may find that they are a very minor god -- but they are now undeniably divine, probably immortal and possibly able to gain power and/or sustenance from the worship of mortals.

Elevation to godhood is not without its drawbacks -- the new god almost always has responsibilities that they must then tend to: whatever they are now god of -- variously called a sphere of influence, a domain, a portfolio, or a Word, among other terms -- was probably in desperate need of someone to take care of it, otherwise they would not have been elevated into a position to do so. New gods rarely find themselves without something that needs their immediate (and sometimes total) attention. A newly ascended god may also find that he's acquired enemies who themselves are usually gods or god-level -- possibly even the very being(s) who are responsible for there being an opening for him to be ascended into in the first place.

This trope is specifically about the transformation of a mortal into a god. It doesn't cover avatars, in which a mortal becomes a vessel through which a supernatural being may manifest or act, but isn't otherwise altered. It should also be noted that "god" here is used for any supremely powerful celestial being regardless of moral compass -- a person who is transformed into a demon prince, for example, has also undergone apotheosis.

Depending on the setting, this trope may be inextricably intertwined with either or both Gods Need Prayer Badly and Clap Your Hands If You Believe, to the point that simply sufficient belief and/or worship may be enough to elevate a mortal to genuine godhood. (And lack of same may be enough to bring him right back down again.)

See also God for a Day, in which a mortal is temporarily and briefly granted the power of a god, usually as some manner of moral lesson. Contrast A God Am I, when a mortal claims godhood either out of madness, hubris or from being drunk on power. Also contrast Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence, which may seem superficially similar. Compare Abstract Apotheosis, in which a mortal becomes the embodiment of an abstract concept such as Love or Pain.

Examples of Apotheosis include:

Anime and Manga

  • Fourteen-year-old schoolgirl Yurie Hitotsubashi's unexpected elevation to godhood kicks off the story in Kamichu!
  • In the Backstory of Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, the Juraian goddess Tsunami merged with Princess Sasami when the girl was critically injured in a fall; the result is a fusion where Sasami is the dominant personality, and will eventually become Tsunami when she grows up.
    • Averted with Tenchi Masaki himself, who appears to undergo an apotheosis late in the OVA series. It turns out, though, that he unknowingly was a god -- in fact, the god -- all along, and all that happened was a temporary awakening of his true self.
  • Masami Eiri attempts to engineer an apotheosis for himself in Serial Experiments Lain by running the Gods Need Prayer Badly trope backwards in a form of Clap Your Hands If You Believe -- if a sufficient number of people believe he is a god, he will be. Sadly, he didn't count on Lain.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Madoka makes her wish to erase Witches before they are even born. By doing this, she becomes a goddess who prevents Magical Girls from turning into Witches in the past, present, and future.
  • Bleach‍'‍s Aizen planned to become a being like the Soul King by using the Hogyoku to recreate the world as he saw fit.
  • Inverted with the Nasuverse when the Age of the Gods was coming to an end. The Gods were changed into Divine Spirits, the highest form of Nature Spirits. There's also how people reborn as gods became closer to humans, though they still became beings of worship.
  • In Records of Ragnarok, Alcides was a human who stood up to the Gods when they would punish humanity with Ares and his army. He called them out on their self-righteous nature and wagered his life to oppose them by drinking ambrosia. After drinking the entire jar, he was put through immense pain but survived and became a demigod. He wiped out the divine army and fought Ares to a standstill but was stopped by Zeus. Zeus then offered Alcides godhood. The demigod accepts if the gods promise they will never harm humanity again. Zeus then says he will accept if Alcides leads humanity towards righteousness. The demigod agreed, and he protected humankind. After he died, he had to complete 12 labors and become a god. During Alcides' ascension ceremony, Zeus gave him the name Heracles after his wife, Hera.
    • Gautama Siddhartha was a prince of Nepal who was prophesized that he would become a great and respected leader who would become the greatest among humanity, destined to rule the world. He met his distant relative, King Jataka, who ruled his nation to prosperity but became bedridden with a terminal illness. The prince expressed how Jataka was fortunate to have led an extraordinary life. However, Jataka disagreed because he had yet to see the vast outside world. During the king's funeral, Siddhartha recalled his conversation and began questioning his life. Siddhartha realized his life was like Jataka, where his will and fate were dictated by others since his birth. This realization leads to him attaining enlightenment and abstaining from his royal life. He traveled alone, where he opposed harmful religions and gathered followers, where he found his own religion, Buddhism. He became known as the Buddha, continuing to ease people's suffering and guiding them to enlightenment while becoming a God.
  • In Future Diary, twelve people are selected for a Battle Royale to the death that will decide who will become the next God of Time and Space due to Deus dying soon, which means the end of the universe. Yukiteru becomes the winner and becomes the victor. Yuno becomes Deus' successor in an alternate universe but by choice rather than the battle royale.
  • Space☆Dandy: In the final episode, when reality is being destroyed, Dandy is given the opportunity by the narrator, AKA the current god, to become a god to prevent the destruction due to his omnipresence in multiple universes. Dandy refuses, then everything reset back to the first episode, except Dandy talks about how he likes butts rather than boobs.
  • In RahXephon, Ayato Kamina fuses with the titular mecha/entity and he becomes a being that can alter reality such that Mu never even existed in the first place.

Art

  • Invoked figuratively in The Apotheosis of Washington, a massive fresco on the ceiling of the Rotunda of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. It depicts George Washington, draped in purple with a rainbow arch at his feet, surrounded by figures from from Classical Mythology, ascending to Heaven to become a god. To his left is the goddess Victoria, draped in green and bearing a horn; to his right is the goddess of Liberty in blue, wearing a red liberty cap.

Comic Books

  • Zig-zagged with Thor in Marvel Comics. In the earliest version of Thor's origin story, ordinary human Dr. Donald Blake discovered Mjolnir, the possession and use of which let him turn into Thor, Norse god of thunder. (The story is written such that the reader might conclude that the original Thor no longer exists for some reason, and Blake has become a "new" Thor to replace him — which might also explain why he's blond and clean-shaven when Norse myth describes Thor as a bearded redhead.) Later expansions and Retcons subverted the trope when they revealed that Blake had been Thor all along, reduced to merely human and stripped of his divine identity by Odin as a punishment for arrogance.
    • Played straight with other mortal beings who have been endowed with Thor's power, including Beta Ray Bill, Eric Masterson (aka Thunderstrike), and Jane Foster.
  • Happens in the campaign in Knights of the Dinner Table: After Bob's character Knuckles III dies, his next character (Knuckles IV) manages to get Knuckles III promoted to gawdhood. The promotion appears genuine, and temples to Knu-Kyle-Ra are now a recurring feature in the comic.
  • In the Harry Kipling series published in 2000 AD, being regarded as a god by his sort-of clone Klux actually elevates Kipling to godhood, or at least to a level where he gains the ability to kill (other) gods.
  • In Lucifer, the Prescene abdicates his throne, leaving his granddaughter, Elain Belloc, his only heir, to take the throne. After Fenris attacked the Silver City, she absorbed his power, thus making her the new God.

Fan Works

  • In the 1996-2004 Ah! My Goddess Self-Insert Fic Oh! My Brother!, Author Avatar Christopher Angel becomes the God of Moments and older brother to the Norns when, while talking with Skuld after she offers him a wish, he absently wishes that he had a little sister just like her.
  • Predating Oh! My Brother! (and a possible inspiration for it) was Brett Handy's 1996 Ah! My Goddess fic Oh My God?. In it, Handy's self-insert avatar blurts out a wish to have a job just like Urd's; he is promptly turned into a god and given a job delivering wishes. Oh, and gets to become involved with Urd.
  • Jared Ornstead's self-insert character "Interdimensional superspy/adventurer" Skysaber was elevated to literal godhood as a side effect of the events of the late 1990s fanfic cycle The Bet. Exactly what he was god of was never made clear, but in several stories he was able grant wishes like the deities of Ah! My Goddess, although occasionally he had to call Heaven for approval or the necessary power, sometimes after the fact.
    • Similarly, versions of Kasumi and Nabiki Tendo (from different timelines) were elevated to minor divine spirits during the course of The Bet.
  • Played with in Gregg "Metroanime" Sharp's "Grey", another Self-Insert character from 1990s anime fanfiction. Transformed into a neutralish celestial being not unlike a daemon from Greek myth, he ended up something of a Cosmic Butt Monkey, stuck in a dead-end job in a third-rate divine intervention agency, and almost never allowed true success or happiness in anything he did. Although Grey also took part in The Bet, the character existed well before it.
  • In the Symphony of the Sword storyline of Undocumented Features, after Akio Ohtori is killed by Utena Tenjou, he is elevated by Surtur from damned soul to demon prince and set on the task of destroying the mortal forces that derailed the Ragnarok. Touga and Nanami Kiryuu, killed in the same incident, are also raised from damned souls to a demon and a succubus respectively, to serve as his assistants minions.
    • In the same storyline, Corwin Ravenhair -- son of Skuld Ravenhair and the (mortal) Midgard-Knight Ben Hutchins -- must undergo a Trial of Ascension before he can claim his mother's divine heritage and become a god. This he does when he becomes the Pillar of Cephiro to keep the not-yet-dead Akio Ohtori from seizing its power:

 "I am Corwin Ravenhair of the Aesir," he announced, "son of the Midgard-Knight and of She Who Builds Tomorrow; Watcher O'er the World-Engine, Cavalier of Three Worlds, Chooser of the Slain. I am the Rune Knight of Iron. I am the Pillar of the Tenth World. All that Cephiro is, I am."

  • Averted with Corwin's cousin Hiroshi, son of Keiichi and Belldandy Morisato, who declines an ascension that he likewise qualifies for, preferring to live as a mortal.

Film

  • One can argue that this is what happens to David Bowman when he becomes the Starchild in the psychedelic climax to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Literature

  • This happens -- on a temporary basis! -- to mortals chosen to take up the various offices of the Incarnations in Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series -- especially in the case of God (Good) and Devil (Evil).
  • The late Duchess of Borogravia is elevated to a minor deity by the prayers made to her instead of to Borogravia's "official" god Nuggan in the Discworld book Monstrous Regiment.
  • A Certain Magical Index has Magic Gods, people who have mastered magic to the point where they can bend reality without exception through it. To obtain such godhood, a magician needs to master a path (such as a theology based in Shinto, Voodoo, Hindu, Buddhism, Norse, Greek, etc.) to the end and perform a special ritual. There is also the possibility of becoming an impure Magic god due to a magician's stopping their growth.
    • On the Science Side, Level 6 Espers are comparable to Magic Gods, which is why Academy City was created. They are trying to achieve this to gain knowledge about the world's truth, which even the Magic Side has been trying to gain. Many experiments have involved getting Espers to level up, especially with the Level 5s. There has been success, but only temporarily.
  • Explored as part of the story in Roger Zelazny's novel Lord of Light, although whether the "gods" really are gods is a matter of some contention. Regardless, the process of becoming one is simple in concept, though quite difficult in execution:

Godhood is more than a name. It is a condition of being.... Being a god is the quality of being able to be yourself to such an extent that your passions correspond with the forces of the universe, so that those who look upon you know this without hearing your name spoken.... One rules through one's ruling passion. Those who look upon gods then say, without even knowing their names, "He is Fire. She is Dance. He is Destruction. She is Love."

Live-Action TV

  • Mayor Richard Wilkins from Buffy the Vampire Slayer followed a century-long plan to ascend into a True Demon — and succeeded for about ten minutes, until the Scoobies blew him up.
  • In a borderline case on Angel, Cordelia eventually ascends on (or just before) her death to become some manner of celestial being.

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

  • Christian Fanon frequently declares or assumes that humans become angels -- which by definition are lesser divine creatures -- when they die and go to Heaven. This is not only never stated anywhere in the Bible or other definitive sources, but some sources make it clear that becoming an angel would be a step down for a human soul. For instance, 2 Peter 1:4 declares that one of Christ's goals was to make it possible for humans to partake of the nature of God. These same sources also never state that in doing so human souls become gods, making mainstream Christianity an aversion despite its accumulated folklore. Meanwhile, Christ himself is an inversion, being an incarnation of the existing Creator, rather than a mortal who attained divinity.
    • The patriarch Enoch, father of Methuselah, is an odd case. According to Genesis 5:24, "...Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." This is interpreted in many Christian and Jewish traditions to mean that he physically ascended into Heaven without dying, but in no formal scripture is anything more said about him or his post-ascension status. The Apocrypha called the Book of Enoch, 2 Enoch and 3 Enoch allege that Enoch was transformed into an angel and appointed guardian of all the celestial treasures, made chief of the archangels, and became the immediate attendant on the Throne of God; 3 Enoch explicitly says he became the Metatron, the voice of God. It should be noted that none of the books of Enoch are considered canonical scripture by the vast majority of Jewish or Christian bodies, although the Ethiopian Jewish community Beta Israel and the Christian Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church both consider them part of their biblical canon.
  • Mormonism includes among its tenets a belief called "exaltation", in which the faithful will ascend to heaven and eventually become lesser gods subordinate to God while dwelling with Him through eternity. They believe that one purpose for Christ's mission and atonement was to allow the deification of mortal men, which will (eventually) happen in the afterlife to those who properly embraced Mormon beliefs before the final judgment.
    • Mormonism also averts the above comment about angels - they do see angels as humans who have died (or, in a few historical cases, not yet been born) and become sufficiently advanced to be sent (back) to Earth as messengers. Genuine angels are always closer to God than us mortals, and therefore worth listening to - but still not worthy of worship because they are not God. The Doctrine and Covenants actually advises people to shake hands with any angel they meet.
  • Unlike the subjects of most of the "hero cults" of Ancient Greece (which resembled ancestor worship more than anything else), Heracles and Asclepius were (at least sometimes) venerated as mortals who had ascended to become true gods.
    • Dionysus was the son of Zeus and a mortal woman. Depending on the version, he became a god by being born as one or rebirth. One version was him being the unborn son of Semele, who was killed by Hero while being pregnant with him. Zeus saved him by sewing him into his thigh until he was fully grown and born as the god of wine (which also follows with his name meaning "twice born"). Another version had him being the son of the mortal Persephone. Hera tried her hands at sabotage until she enlisted the help of Titans to rip the newborn apart. Zeus fought the Titans, but the child was already eaten except for his heart, which was saved by a goddess, and Dionysus was reborn.
  • While different branches of Taoism often venerate entirely different pantheons of gods, most include historical figures who are believed to have become immortals and thus are worthy of worship and reverence.

Tabletop Games

  • Built into the premise of The Whispering Vault: all player characters are former mortals who have become Stalkers, quasi-divine beings charged with pursuing rogue demiurges (referred to as the Unbidden) damaging reality with their presence, capturing them, and imprisoning them in the titular vault.
  • In the original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set, the Powers That Be were referred to as Immortals, and the Master Set included a detailed procedure (which included tithes, research, meditation rituals) for an epic-Level hero to petition to join their ranks, which if accepted required a series of trials and tasks to prove their worth. The later Immortal Rules was a setting for those who had succeeded.
  • The Primal Order -- a system-agnostic set of rules for running gods as something more than merely monsters with very high hit points in virtually any roleplaying game, published by a pre-Magic: The Gathering Wizards of the Coast -- addresses the subject of mortals becoming gods in some detail, providing suggestions to the game master and laying out complications and implications which may impact his campaign .

Video Games

  • The reward for completing Melbourne House's Starion is (in-universe) godhood: the plot involves repairing temporal paradoxes while on a one-way trip backwards in time. Once they're all fixed, Starion arrives at a point before the beginning of the universe and, as the only thing that exists, must by default assume the title of Creator of all that follows. Which definitely won't create any more paradoxes, now will it?
  • Characters from City of Heroes and City of Villains who continue on into the endgame Incarnate System after reaching maximum level are by definition (and description) undergoing a slow apotheosis, in which they gather scraps of divine power to themselves and use them to forge new abilities that set them apart even from other superhumans.
    • Strictly speaking, given the Mass Empowering Event in its Backstory, all supers in the City of X games are to one degree or another extremely minor divinities whether they realize it or not, with their apotheoses being their personal origin stories.
  • Mortal Kombat
    • Several characters are granted godhood in their endings to Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, including Sheeva and Bo'Rai Cho.
    • In the good ending to the DLC of Mortal Kombat 11, Liu Kang gains godhood, though Raiden relinquishes it. In the bad ending, Shang Tsung does.
      • And in the relaunch, it turns out both endings are true, as Kronika's defeat has split reality into two simultaneous timelines.
  • In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the transformation of an unnamed Breton student at the College of Winterhold into the glowing ball of sapient magical energy known as the Augur of Dunlain has been described as an apotheosis, although the Augur has little in common with the divine and infernal beings of the Elder Scrolls universe. If it is indeed a god, one must wonder why it lets itself be shut away in the College's Midden.
  • Shin Megami Tensei:
    • In Shin Megami Tensei I, Stephen was a computer programmer, the leading architect for a teleportation system, and the creator of the Demon Summoning Program. He becomes a higher being after coming into contact with the Axiom.
    • In Digital Devil Saga 2, Seraph (the fusion of Sera and Serph) becomes one with Brahman, where they achieve Nirvana. However, Sera and Serph don't achieve enlightenment and thus are reincarnated.
    • Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker‍'‍s Human Administrator ending has the protagonist become the Administrator with control over the universe and access to the Akashic Records.
  • In The Guided Fate Paradox, Renya Kagurazaka was your Unlucky Everydude who won the position of God through a street raffle. With his new position, he has the duty of answering prayers from all beings in the universe, including animals, humans, and aliens. He does this through the Fate Revolution Circuit. This divine machine manifests prayers that need to be fulfilled, and Renya must defeat the obstacles to make them be answered. If he fails or refuses, then he will be "consumed".
    • The Awakened Fate Ultimatum: Shin Kamikaze gets attacked by devils and left near death. He wakes up in a lab and is greeted by Jupiel Soraumi and the devil, Ariael Agarie, to find out he has been brought back to life by being implanted with the Fate Awakening Crystal, which means he has become God and has to aid the angels in defeating the devils before they are eliminated.

Web Original

  • The Chinese web novel Apotheosis - Elevation to the status of a God (百炼成神), written by "Free of Favours" (恩赐解脱), tells the story of Luo Zheng, the only son of the late former leader of the Luo clan, now treated as a slave by other branches of the family who have taken over in the wake of his father's death. In a moment of despair he attempted to destroy a book from his father, only for a sheet of golden paper to emerge from the ashes and empower him with the indecipherable words upon it. Thus he begins a inexorable upward climb in power and skill until he reaches a point where he is literally a god, able to manipulate time, space and chaos.

Western Animation

  • Ōban Star-Racers: The prize of the Great Race is becoming the Avatar, a god-like being whose duty is to be the guardian of the galaxy for 10,000 years, though they are limited.
  • Amphibia: In the finale, Anne is given the opportunity for this, the Guardian wanting her to be its successor. Anne, however, refuses, claiming her successes have been marred by numerous mistakes, and she doesn’t want them to mar up all of existence. The Guardian sees her point, but implies it will make the offer again in 78 years.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Princess Yue sacrifices her life to revive the Moon Spirit since it gave her a portion of its life. When the Moon Spirit was vivified, she became the new Moon Spirit.
  • Adventure Time:
    • In the season 6 finale, the Catalyst Comet offers Finn ascension but refuses to live his life on Ooo. Martin, Finn's deadbeat dad, takes the offer, and it's implied he has committed crimes enough to be on the list of a god actuator in Fionna and Cake.
    • Betty fuses with GOLB in the series finale to prevent Ooo's destruction.
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks:
    • "In Moist Vessels", O'Connor lies about reaching enlightenment but achieves it when they commit a selfless act that causes him to ascend while burning and scream in pain as he turns into energy while obtaining cosmic knowledge, such as knowing how the universe is balanced on the back of a cosmic Koala.
    • "In A Few Badgeys More", Badgey expands himself throughout the universe by using the Federation's subspace relay for revenge against Ruther. By doing this, he gained cosmic awareness, where he sees the pointlessness of revenge and decides to travel to other universes or even create his own.
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