Godlike? (major spoilers)

[anameforobsidian]

Are the Godlike the decayed bits of Gods?  We know that:

 

A.  The Gods were constructed by the Engwithans.

B.  In the animation showing their creation, it takes the souls of hundreds if not thousands of willing and unwilling people fed by the Engwithans.  These were spliced together somehow.

C.  Woedica wants to suck up the extra souls Thaos has been taking to gain more power.

 

So it's pretty clear the Gods are some sort of super-soul chimeras.  But:

D.  The game is very clear that souls disintegrate over time, and break into bits.  

E.  More powerful souls mostly resist this for longer, but the game is pretty clear that it's always inevitable.

F.  Soul energy can be used to change your body.  The two sects of druids in Twin Elms live forever by eating souls.

G.  Hylea gives no goddamn answer when asked why the Godlike exist.

 

 

I think you could reasonably take this to imply that the Gods are decaying and Godlike are their remnants.  Or they are constantly falling apart, but they're constantly eating souls to maintain integrity.

[Blades of Vanatar]

Wouldn't there be more godlike types?

[AndreaColombo]

You make an interesting point. Two, in fact: The gods might be decaying since they are amassed souls, and the godlike could be a byproduct of that decay.

 

Would be very interesting to delve deeper into this in a sequel. Although, of course, there is still a chance that the gods are NOT decaying. Isn't entropy a side effect of the cycle? The souls that made the gods were removed from the cycle, IIRC, so perhaps they are now immune to entropy.

 

That would make Berath and Rymrgand two rather hypocritical gods, come to think of it.

Edited December 3, 2015 by AndreaColombo

[anameforobsidian]

Wouldn't there be more godlike types?

 

I think it's safe to presume there are more.  Pallegina is an avian type, and that's inaccessible for normal player characters.

[White Phoenix]

We know there are such Godlike as Avian (Hylea) and Eothas one (Light/Dawn?). They are not in the game but exist in lore as Josh mentioned them on SA forums talking about faiths in Dyrwood.

 

Besides, there is early concept showing probably Godlike of Eothas, Magran and Ondra.

 

 

Maybe Eothas Godlike as PC character was cut or they changed their mind as some 'light elements' went to Moon/Ondra Godlike (her Godlike is more watery on early picture than ingame model).

 

Talking about theory, interesting thing, but I'm not sure if decaying of souls is natural thing like reincarnation or it is effect of Rymrgrand's power and was implemented by him in the cycle?

Edited December 3, 2015 by White Phoenix

[anameforobsidian]

Reincarnation:  Reincarnation is a natural feature of the world.  Thaos says "Without our Gods... only a Wheel, turning without mercy, grinding our spirits to dust."  So reincarnation and entropy existed before the Gods.

 

The nature of this comment itself implies one of three things about the PE universe:

A.  Thaos is wrong.  He seems to view the entire universe as a one way entropic slide.  The vegetarian druid seems to say that plants are constantly creating new bits of souls.  Souls are constantly being created as well as destroyed, and certain types of souls have a limited inherent ability to pick up soul fragments as well as lose them.  His powers, as well as the Ardra dragon would argue this for me.

 

B.  Thaos is right, but hints at a deep mystery.  If the universe is constantly splitting souls, that means that if you go back far enough all souls were unified into some pre-Big Bang style mass.  This could mean a fundamental numinous nature to the world.  This could be the case, and there's some evidence (druids in general), but not a ton.

 

C.  Thaos is right, but the universe was created very recently with a couple big souls that are constantly decaying.  Like all trickster God / no evolution scenarios, this possibility seems trivial at best.

 

 

 

About the other Godlike:  I would love to see a Wael influenced Godlike.  I bet they're horrific and awesome.  That could make a good race of monsters, shifters, slightly saner Malkavians, or something just plain strange.