Need ideas, what killed the gods?

[flamewolf393]

In the game Im running, the gods were killed 3000 years ago, now the planet is dying because magic is no longer being refreshed by divine power. The goal is that the player is discovering how to become a new god to save the world.

Question is, Im not sure what killed the gods. The player will soon start encountering the minion creatures of these BBEGs and I want ideas on what I should use. I want something kind of exotic and unusual without just going for the usual selection of evil outsiders (demons, etc). It needs to be something with a semi-consistent theme that can grow in power and threat as the player grows in mythic ranks.

[Karl Aegis]

It was a dragon. Preferably a Crystal Dragon named Jesus.

[Keral]

I was going to suggest dragons, until you said exotic. You've lost me there :(

[MaxiDuRaritry]

There's an app Elder Evil for that: Pandorym. Could be a good reason for psionics to make a major appearance in the game.

Dark Sun, maybe?

[Segev]

The now-fallen Empire, which ruled the world at the time of the gods' fall, was a magical land of immense power. They achieved things with magic that are now impossible thanks to the death of the gods.

The dark secret is that the mages of that empire killed the gods to HARVEST their magic. Much like killing the goose that laid the golden egg to get at the gold inside, they took a short-term payoff at the expense of long-term gain.

Unlike the goose, however, they found their gold. The magical power they stockpiled was the secret to their empire's success. History says the empire was that powerful for a long time, and that they were avenging the gods (who had blessed them) with their expanded conquests. The truth is that they were a modestly-powerful mageocracy that had a cabal of their ruling class perform the deicide to obtain the power to take over their empire from within, and expand it without with wars of propaganda and conquest.

They extended their reign by half a millennium even after the magic would have failed by having a young hero discover the gods' now-drained power and ascend as a deity, himself. The nature of a new god is such that magic was recycled almost immediately, though not in quite such abundance. They slew him as he took his first divine breath, and harvested the refreshed power.

They fell before they could find another sacrifice. But the power still lies somewhere in their ruins, waiting to be found. Fragments of it have become mighty artifacts, some of which function at near full power despite the dying of the world's magic.

So the hero can find it. He can ascend to godhood and set right what was wrong. But he'd best be wary of those who guide him. Do they really want a new god...or a new sacrifice with which to restore their empire?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

The now-fallen Empire, which ruled the world at the time of the gods' fall, was a magical land of immense power. They achieved things with magic that are now impossible thanks to the death of the gods.

The dark secret is that the mages of that empire killed the gods to HARVEST their magic. Much like killing the goose that laid the golden egg to get at the gold inside, they took a short-term payoff at the expense of long-term gain.

Unlike the goose, however, they found their gold. The magical power they stockpiled was the secret to their empire's success. History says the empire was that powerful for a long time, and that they were avenging the gods (who had blessed them) with their expanded conquests. The truth is that they were a modestly-powerful mageocracy that had a cabal of their ruling class perform the deicide to obtain the power to take over their empire from within, and expand it without with wars of propaganda and conquest.

They extended their reign by half a millennium even after the magic would have failed by having a young hero discover the gods' now-drained power and ascend as a deity, himself. The nature of a new god is such that magic was recycled almost immediately, though not in quite such abundance. They slew him as he took his first divine breath, and harvested the refreshed power.

They fell before they could find another sacrifice. But the power still lies somewhere in their ruins, waiting to be found. Fragments of it have become mighty artifacts, some of which function at near full power despite the dying of the world's magic.

So the hero can find it. He can ascend to godhood and set right what was wrong. But he'd best be wary of those who guide him. Do they really want a new god...or a new sacrifice with which to restore their empire?*Gasp!* It's Bakura's magical gaydar Millennium Ring!

http://www.kokorononaka.net/Image/Bakura/MRing1s.jpg

[Jay R]

Lack of belief. Magic had gotten so powerful that people stopped believing in gods.

This means that the PCs must make the whole world believe in them on that level, so any ever-increasing powers and threats will do.

[Vizzerdrix]

Hepatitus Z.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Hepatitus Z.Is that an STD you get from dragon balls?

[Flickerdart]

The gods killed themselves - they became too busy fighting each other to perform their duties that maintain the world. Perhaps they still exist and still fight, but they are using all their magic to kill each other, and not to help the world.
Similar to the above: The gods are still alive, but have descended into decadence, or simply retired.
The gods were found to be unworthy by an overdeity, and cast down. In the past 3000 years, no mortals were considered worthy enough to ascend and take their place.
The gods have outsourced their duties to a bureaucracy, and over the past 3000 years it has become so obstructive that nothing can get done.
The gods were slain by alien gods from another planet crystal sphere. That crystal sphere is now getting all the magic.
Constructs! They do not need a living planet, and are frequently too dumb to know what they are doing anyway.

[Segev]

*Gasp!* It's Bakura's magical gaydar Millennium Ring!

http://www.kokorononaka.net/Image/Bakura/MRing1s.jpg

Wait, seriously? That's what's going on with the Millenium Thief? (I never did finish that series.)

[Serafina]

The Angels and other servants of the gods. They finally rebelled against the gods, who always competed over followers rather than (running the world properly) (fighting the war against the demons like they should) (uniting against some cosmic threat). United, they were able to take down one god after the other in a swift campaign, and can now go about their business.
(Alternatively, they may want new gods, but put every potential one through harsh tests, and so far everyone failed).

They Fey. The gods have never been kind to nature, changing it in ever-so-many ways from it's original unbound ways. Even the gods of nature had their own designs on it, restricting it too much for the liking of the Fey. Hence, they started a war and used ancient magics to kill off the gods. Now they refuse to admit to their mistake, even with the world dying.

"Urpriests", or some other variant of spellcasters who discovered how to cast divine spells without involving the gods. The most powerful ones of these cut off the gods connection to the world, feeding off the remaining divine magic of these now-dead connections and handing it out to their followers. Near-Immortal God-Kings capable of miracles even the most powerful arcane casters can barely replicate - but even all the worship they receive can not refill their vanishing power, for they are not true gods. But a group of people on their way to becoming gods - those might just fill some of those emptying reservoirs.

The Aboleth, or other aberations. Which is actually perfectly in line with them, so that works just fine.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Wait, seriously? That's what's going on with the Millenium Thief? (I never did finish that series.)No idea. I've watched LittleKuriboh's brilliant Yu Gi Oh! The Abridged Series (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-32NGYLqwAQ&list=PLTagxffHmpfT765IfQj68dMmfFs3W7s1f), and that's it.

[Calthropstu]

Well, there's always the Titans.

If this is a pathfinder game, there are a series of powerful Titan warriors published, who could easily have giant minions. If this is a 3.5 Game, I believe there are some evil Titans floating around.

It could be devils or demons. Someone emerged victorious in the Blood War, and then decided to wipe out the gods with sheer numbers.

I kind of like the idea of the Proteans in pathfinder finding some method of wiping them out.

It could also be the gods are trapped at the null magic god meeting place on limbo by a new mechanical genius who doesn't need magic to make his machines work.

A massive Qlippoth incursion (also pathfinder) requires all the gods' attention to stop.

The gods were eaten by the tarrasque as they slept.

The gods had their brains eaten by mind flayers.

Cthulhu.

There's any number of things that could pull off a god elimination.

[atemu1234]

Samuel Colt

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Samuel ColtChuck Norris.

Or if it's an Oriental Adventures campaign, Segata Sanshiro.

[TheFamilarRaven]

The player was the one who vanquished the god's at the behest of the BBEG, believing they were liberating the cosmos from decadent overlords.

[Buufreak]

Chuck Norris.

Or if it's an Oriental Adventures campaign, Segata Sanshiro.

I found the guy who watches Death Battle!

[Thinker]

You could dial up the tension between nature and magic and have sentient plants be their foes. Their ranks include druids, ents, shambling mounds, etc.

[Jack_McSnatch]

Thoon. Nobody actually knows what Thoon is, but there's a whole bunch of nasty and unique mind flayers that worship it, so you could make it Cthulu. MMV.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

I found the guy who watches Death Battle!Alas, I did some research and I also agree with the outcome of Kirby vs Majin Buu, except for the fact that given the kinds of things Kirby regularly deals with, the fight would've been over WAY sooner. Possibly within the first few hits.

That tends to tick a lot of DBZ fans off.

Kirby is terrifying.

[the_david]

The non-evil outsiders maybe?
As far as I understand the Great Beyond/Great Wheel cosmology, Your soul originates on the Positive Energy Plane, transcends to the Material Plane so it can inhabit a mortal body, dies and transcends again to the outer planes where they become pawns in a neverending war between gods.
You see, the gods need worshipers to replenish their armies. Good isn't any better than Evil and Law doesn't make any more sense than chaos. The gods are all tyrants playing an eternal chessgame until someone finally put a stop to it.
So yeah, I guess that would mean that all of the outsiders rebelled against the gods. That's an intriguing thought. Now you'd just have to pick the leaders of the rebellion.
One problem is that if the players decide to take up the mantle of the gods, they might just start the cycle all over again unless you take the opportunity to remodel the multiverse.

[Aeturo]

Most of my ideas were already taken so I'll second Titans, Elder Evils, infighting and Tarrasque. As for non evil outsiders there's always inevitables and if the gods had broken cosmic laws they'd swoop in. Slaadi may have tried to kill the gods just for the lols. Or as someone else already said the good aligned outsiders rebelling either because they thought the gods unnecessary or because they believed the gods to be corrupt. Side question, if the gods are dead in your world what's keeping stuff like Orcus or Demogorgon down? Or are they just a non-issue? Out of curiosity.

[Arutema]

In the game Im running, the gods were killed 3000 years ago, now the planet is dying because magic is no longer being refreshed by divine power. The goal is that the player is discovering how to become a new god to save the world.

Question is, Im not sure what killed the gods. The player will soon start encountering the minion creatures of these BBEGs and I want ideas on what I should use. I want something kind of exotic and unusual without just going for the usual selection of evil outsiders (demons, etc). It needs to be something with a semi-consistent theme that can grow in power and threat as the player grows in mythic ranks.

The gods destroyed the Source of all life and magic themselves, rather than risk it becoming corrupted by a mythic BBEG who threatened even their existence (maybe one of the nastier undead with 20 class levels and 10 mythic ranks. :xykon:) . They knew that they would die without the Source, but didn't realize quite how much it held the world together.

The objective is not just to defeat the BBEG and his ever-growing cult, but to become powerful enough, in whatever way you choose, to recreate the Source of all life and magic.

[ZamielVanWeber]

The Vasharrans actually succeeded. No one remembers them since they died out having lost their entire cultural base on the night of their greatest victory. However, there are hold outs who are determined to see another god never rises.

It is exotic mechanically, not so much visually. They can easily operate in human dominated lands due to appearing human allowing them to easily work against the party without the party noticing.

[unseenmage]

I cannot speak for the rest but I think we all know what killed the Radio Star god...

[Knaight]

A few options, and some notes on source material:

Void Horrors: There's a class of strange ethereal beings native to a different plane of existence (the astral plane would work if this is D&D). Their attention is drawn to their own presence elsewhere, along with a handful of magical phenomena, and they materialize from nowhere and attack all they see, favoring things marked by their presence. Worse, even if one survives their attack they end up marked, and as this accumulates they draw the attention of worse and worse horrors. At the very peak of this (as far as is known) are a handful of harbingers of doom that have killed several gods each.

These are based on the Horrors in the Dominions 3 videogame, which is a surprisingly good source for inspiration as it's made by an actual Ph.D professor of mythology and is deeply tied into interesting real myth and literature. The horrors have a distinctive style that really works, and they're obscure enough to be easily poachable. The key underlying traits are that they're ethereal, they leave their prescence and are drawn to it, and that they're generally relatively fragile by god killing horror standards and manage to not get killed by draining the life and power of their enemies with astounding rapidity.

Aliens: There are multiple life supporting planets, and on one far away was an intelligent species that got there first and developed far further in technology than the known world has ever seen. They travel among the stars and their warrior class kills the gods that support planets and let the planets die, leaving a token force of aliens and autonomous robots to watch over them - then once the planets are all but dead they come back and revive them with part of their great hive mind, assimilating what life is left. This token force will mobilize against new ascending gods, and more than that they'll call in allies from space. Fortunately the most dangerous among them are thinly dispersed and likely to be further away.

The aliens which assimilate lots of species and pick up a bunch of variety are all over the place. You've got the Borg and the Zerg as the two big examples, although neither of them are actually meaningful inspiration here. Still, the Zerg in particular work as an example of an ever escalating threat, so there's something to base it off of. I'd recommend avoiding conventional sci-fi technology and instead go with super tech that is effectively magic but doesn't interact with magic affecting effects. Alien biology that displays things like magical regeneration could also work.

Sea Dwellers: Long ago there was no sea, and in the valleys of what are now the ocean were the base of a great civilization. The mightiest of that civilizations mages rose to the power of minor gods, and fearing a threat to their power the minor gods attempted to strike them down. Some fell. Some got more motivated. Eventually it escalated until the minor gods were all dead, and that's when the big gods took notice. They unleashed an apocalyptic flood and created the oceans. Most of the mages decided to take a parting shot and retaliated with all they had, killing the major gods as well. One gave her life to transform the nearby people so that they could survive living on the bottom of the ocean. The mountain tribes of old saw the sudden ocean as a gift. The sea dwellers consider themselves betrayed, and are still furious. Signs of new gods ascending are not seen as a good thing, and so some of them are willing to surface to put them down. Much like the gods of old the mightiest of the sea dwellers are currently paying no attention, and much like the gods of old it is those among the comparatively minor mages who plan to initiate hostilities.

[ZamielVanWeber]

I forgot, Ma-Yuan is a monstrous creature that is trapped in a Well of Darkness in the Abyss that is certainly capable of massacring entire pantheon if not stopped.

[Telonius]

Mechanus. One of the Maruts went a bit overboard with enforcing the "all things must die" bit. He enlisted the help of a few deicidal maniacs (assorted Ur Priests and Binders) on the material plane. Baator may have been involved as well, since souls not going to the Lawful Evil deities' planes would make the Archdevils more powerful. (Also, the Pact Primeval has a clause that upon the death of the signatories, all restrictions on Asmodeus will be null and void).

[The Glyphstone]

The Ice Age!

Wait. No, that's the dinosaurs.

All the good ideas were already taken, it looks like.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

A single, level 21, properly optimized wizard, or a psion/thrallherd with a StP erudite thrall, who the canon D&D gods decided needed to be taken down before he became more powerful than they were. Unfortunately, he already was and managed to kill them all when they attacked him all at once.

Honestly, it wouldn't take much.

[SorenKnight]

A lot of great ideas, the only one I can think of that hasn't already been said is fae. Not friendly pixies or gnomes, but terrifyingly alien entities with powerful magic and the ability to command reality itself within their domain.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

A lot of great ideas, the only one I can think of that hasn't already been said is fae. Not friendly pixies or gnomes, but terrifyingly alien entities with powerful magic and the ability to command reality itself within their domain.It was spelled 'fey,' but yes, it was brought up earlier in the thread.

[Calthropstu]

Wait, I know what killed them.

The IRS. Pissed off that D&D gold was not taxable, the IRS killed the D&D gods in order to force people to lose their magic, thus making the game not fun anymore so they would do things that would generate tax revenue.

[SorenKnight]

It was spelled 'fey,' but yes, it was brought up earlier in the thread.

My bad.

Still they were talking about defender of nature type of fae, so even if the name's the same I'm talking about a very different type of creature. Less elf, more eldritch.

[Serafina]

Wait, I know what killed them.

The IRS. Pissed off that D&D gold was not taxable, the IRS killed the D&D gods in order to force people to lose their magic, thus making the game not fun anymore so they would do things that would generate tax revenue.Don't be silly, income in any form is taxable.

And yes, I did mention Fae earlier. I spelled it Fey because Pathfinder spells it that way. And really because it means the same thing.
If you want to stick closer to Pathfinders planar cosmology, you can also simply go with the version that the Fey deliberately wanted to kill of the Material Plane, because their own First World (http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/First_World) would not be affected by it. And since the Material Plane is, in a way, a copy of the First World, they could see it as "and nothing of value was lost". And since the gods don't actually pay much attention to the First World, it could be possible to hatch a long-term plot there for which they would be unprepared.

[Eisfalken]

What about the titans? Based on a Dragon article from back-when, Chronos is apparently capable of slaying gods, and actually did so before he was tricked into imprisonment in the plane of Carceri. He's not exactly a god, not exactly one of the "anathemic" elder evils, but fits somewhere in that upper echelon of god-killing folks.

You could come up with some interesting metaphysics based on that. For example, the story could go that Chronos also freed the other epic/elder beings (other titans, abominations from ELH, etc.) from their extraplanar prisons, and after they finally slew the gods... they all turned on each other, with Chronos being the first one destroyed (probably backstabbed by some other beings after he spent his wad killing deities). When Chronos died, his Chaos-infused power exploded into the multiverse, and is now a source of power for warlocks (especially those who use eldritch glaive, which is an "echo" of the god-slaying weapon Chronos himself used). There are a few abominations and titans and other things out there, but they are few in number and wary of exposing themselves to other enemies.

As for bringing back the gods, you can use the above story further. After killing the gods, Chronos intended to become the only god in existence, until he was betrayed and butchered into a bunch of pieces. The power he had been collecting is now up for grabs, and various planar entities jealously guard and greedily seek such power (which could take various forms, or whatever). Various planar powers collected smaller or greater divine remnants, based on their capability and desires. For example, you can say that the reason the demon princes of the Abyss fight each other so doggedly isn't just the influence of Chaos, they are trying to seize the divine energy their rivals own, while Asmodeus has quietly acquired a vast reserve of it and kept it hidden down in Nessus, while the Celestial Paragons of BOED guard a large portion of that power awaiting the fulfillment of a prophecy where new gods of the Upper Planes will come to acquire the power that is theirs by right.

[flamewolf393]

A lot of amazing ideas guys! Thank you. A little more on the campaign since its already in progress and not subject to retcon, the gods all fell to the earth in one huge cataclysmic event that killed off like 90% of the worlds population and irreparably changed the tectonics of the planet. 3000 years later most of the population has recovered, but over the last 10 years we have seen the first signs of ecological collapse: severe droughts that are making agriculture highly difficult, and the dragons have all gone into semi-permanent hibernation.

Funny thing is, the gods of knowledge and fate forsaw this event coming but none of the gods believed they could be destroyed so easily and ignored them. So knowledge scattered time-stopped places about the globe containing the knowledge for

This situation limits some of the ideas presented, but so far I like combining three of them, here is the idea: All subtly orchestrated by asmodeus to escape his prison, he corrupted the "programming" of mechanus itself to want to destroy all forms of chaos (ie all life) so they went to change the source to absorb life rather than spreading it. The gods discovering the plot too late destroyed the Source knowing they could make a new one if they worked together. But asmodeus had this covered too and had mechanus introduce a hidden flaw that caused a divine backlash at the Source's destruction, instantly killing all the gods. Ironically enough Asmodeus's imprisoned body still counts as a god even after all this time so he might die too.... or perhaps his non-divine persona guides the new hero to becoming a god so asmodeus can take over his body? Then he could artificially introduce one of the other threats mentioned here, I like the crystal or void ideas, in order to give the hero fake challenges to level up his power on...

What do you guys think?

[Gruftzwerg]

well do the God need to be "killed"?

Maybe after eons of playing around with the mortals on your planet they got board of em and just left? ( for a new more interesting planet to toy and fight around? )

Or the mortals did insult the gods somehow in the past and they left the pathetic mortals on their own miserable life?

Or maybe it just a "404 Bad Gateway" connection error^^? Somehow the connection between the gods and the mortals got broke/corrupted. A natural catastrophe between the planes or an evil being disrupting it (with DDoS attacks?^^).

There are plenty of option other than "rock falls, everything dies" for the past gods.

[Mordaedil]

My go-to for deity slaughter is always going to be the Old Ones*™.

Nothing like a little bit of HP Lovecraft to make some mystery in your setting and the simplest explaination for why deities go missing is a perfect "they looked delicious".

It also allows you to put more mindflayers into your game and everybody loves mindflayers so much they even made a spell to ensure that you are always at risk for having your brains eaten.

[Echch]

I think the only thing actually capable of killing ALL D&D-Deities (for longer than a few days, I mean) without going out of your way to make weird excuses for it is Pandorym, because his true form is unstatted.

I think tippy had a post on that topic too where he detailed a plan, but I'm not 100% on this and it would only extend to up to greater deities.

[Stealth Marmot]

Global Warming.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Global Warming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6r1GXv2BO0

[Stealth Marmot]

Don't be silly, income in any form is taxable.

They kept using religious exemption by taking all their money and donating it to themselves.

[Stealth Marmot]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6r1GXv2BO0

Yes, I thought of this while I was typing it.

Have a cookie.

[Segev]

If you're going with Asmodean plots, I would actually suggest that he doesn't have any intention of taking over the body of the newly-arisen god. No, he plans to corrupt the pure-hearted soul into being a Knight Templar that eventually realizes either a) that he's become evil, so let him be evil (and take up his seat as apprentice to the master of Evil's throne, possibly using Mephistopheles as a foil, Count Duku style), or b) he determines that good is impossible and creates a false dichotomy of perfection being required or you're absolutely evil. Asmodeus should love (b) because it allows him to agree with "the good god" and convince people they have no hope of being good, and that evil is the preferable state.

Now, of course, corruption can fail. But a corrupted good god is one which will eventually fall, as the gods before him did, and Asmodeus will need another and another and another to keep propping up the divine energies. If the corruption doesn't fail, Asmodeus has his rival and his opposite, and that will be the target for all deicides, as well as the sustaining support for magic that Asmodeus needs for his own power.

And, finally, if this would-be god realizes there's a deity-slaying force out there, maybe he removes that. Even then, Asmodeus wins: he can reclaim his own hidden body and have godhood at his own leisure.

[flappeercraft]

Simple, Pun Pun

[BWR]

Draedens (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draeden)(or their proginators).

Suicide.
They realized there was something fundamentally flawed their divinity that would end up destroying the world and the only way to end it was to kill themselves and free their essence to permeate the world. Things didn't go quite as planned, so magic is not replenishing.

To steal the main concept of Birthright: Apocalyptic battle against eveil gods, all gods die in a horrendous explosion but their powers are spread amongst many mortal beings, granting them certain powers. Some can ascend to godhood.

[Deophaun]

Pity.

The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters.

[Flickerdart]

They realized there was something fundamentally flawed their divinity that would end up destroying the world and the only way to end it was to kill themselves and free their essence to permeate the world. Things didn't go quite as planned, so magic is not replenishing.

Maybe things did go as planned. The death of this planet was yet another sacrifice for some greater good, perhaps maintaining the stability of the planes. Thus, PCs ascending to godhood won't just get a comfy retirement - they'll need to figure out how to solve the "having gods breaks the universe" problem. Or they make peace with the fact that they too will eventually have to destroy themselves and the planet they once fought to save.

[Stealth Marmot]

*10 seconds earlier*

Zeus: "BACCHUS! HOLD MY WINE AND WATCH THIS!"

[atemu1234]

*10 seconds earlier*

Zeus: "BACCHUS! HOLD MY WINE AND WATCH THIS!"

This is possibly the best thing ever.

[MilleniaAntares]

Warcraft has a good one in the form of Sargeras. Basically a warrior god tasked with defending the universe from a neverending malevolent threat while his peers went off and created neat things.... he eventually snapped from the Sisyphean task and decided the best way to defeat the threat is to unmake the universe and remake it without the flaw that allowed the threat to exist in the first place.

[Stryyke]

Why not take a page from Lunar? Stories abound about what "evil" killed the gods, but upon reaching some location that is mystically charged, you learn that the gods stepped down and became mortals. You have no idea who they are, but you can start them on a new quest to find the gods among the populace. Then the BBEG and his minions are doing the same, so the entire campaign becomes a race to find these gods; and convince at least one of them to resume their throne. You can even have the BBEG kill most of the gods now, if you are a fan of irony. Then the very last confrontation can pit not just you vs BBEG, but you have to protect BBGG from BBEG during combat.


Or maybe a disease killed the gods, and you have to find the cure before all the magic dissipates, and the old gods' protection over humanity disappears, killing all of humankind.

[icefractal]

Ethergaunts.

"The situation was just intolerable. These beings claiming to be 'gods', using some nonsensical kind of power that shouldn't even work, were hoarding all the magic, keeping far too much of it locked up in the material plane. Some of their agents had even started messing around in the shallow ethereal, disturbing the borders of our lands. So we removed them. And things are so much more harmonious now. The magic can flow to the deep ethereal, where it belongs, and soon we won't have unwanted visitors mucking things up."

[Arcane_Secrets]

In the game Im running, the gods were killed 3000 years ago, now the planet is dying because magic is no longer being refreshed by divine power. The goal is that the player is discovering how to become a new god to save the world.

Question is, Im not sure what killed the gods. The player will soon start encountering the minion creatures of these BBEGs and I want ideas on what I should use. I want something kind of exotic and unusual without just going for the usual selection of evil outsiders (demons, etc). It needs to be something with a semi-consistent theme that can grow in power and threat as the player grows in mythic ranks.

Their own quest for true immortality did them in.

The way that the gods existed was that although vastly powerful, as with certain pantheons they were in fact still capable of being mortally(?) wounded under the right circumstances. When they died, their deaths released the stored magic into the world so in that way new gods would be created from it. Where the system broke down is that the gods figured out how to protect themselves from dying in this way. Perhaps only one god figured it out at first, and in order to prevent a deicidal arms race amongst their kind all of them eventually adopted similar protections.

However, the underlying mechanics of the 'system' still protected itself so instead of the gods getting stronger and stronger by taking more and more magic into themselves, the divine energies instead became dispersed throughout existence. Initially, it just looked like there would be days in which the gods were incapable of granting spells; their avatars grew thinner and wraithlike; their proxies weakened. Now there are barely traces of the divine anywhere except in lore, the written word, and those schools of divine magic that don't require the gods in order to empower worshipers.

[dhasenan]

This is tough mainly because of the constraint that the thing that killed the gods is also the BBEG. Remove that and it becomes much easier. So I'm going with that.

Natural humanoids began creating constructs. Eventually they developed constructs with souls. Artificial souls, but still souls. And some of those constructs began to worship. As knowledge of how to create them spread, constructs were created in every culture, corresponding to every race. And a lot of them worshipped whoever their creators worshipped.

But constructs are not natural, and their worship is not natural. To the gods, it felt better. It gave them more power -- but it poisoned them at the same time. It took centuries for them to realize that, longer for them to die, but die they did.

This did not go unnoticed. There are multiple societies and a few lone sorcerers trying to resurrect gods or become gods themselves. To make that happen, though, they must either hide these would-be gods from all constructs, or destroy all constructs and all knowledge of how to create them.

[Bucky]

The gods, jointly, began a divine magic ritual to bring life to the moon. However, the ritual was flawed; a single miscalculation meant they didn't supply enough divine power, and a further mistake spent their lives to complete the ritual.

[Catarang]

The gods were found to be unworthy by an overdeity, and cast down. In the past 3000 years, no mortals were considered worthy enough to ascend and take their place.


When they were cast down, they did not die but simply became mortal. In exchange for their lives, they are cursed to never be able to convince beings to follow their respective banners, and the only thing that remained of their powers was their mundane skill at arms/magic, their wits, and their long lives. They now roam this huskworld, watching their temples crumble and magic fade. Their followers kill each other over whose god is more at fault while the actual gods watch on in mute horror, powerless to stop them. Some scheme against the over-diety, in their hubris. Others seek to redeem themselves in it's eyes. Some have faded into the backdrop, claiming their own lives rather than live as mortals or even killing each other, carrying out their once divine grudges.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

The overdeity in charge of the world decided that he wanted a fun scenario for his mortal meat puppets, and thus cast down or killed the lesser gods in order to restrict magic and make their lives more difficult for his amusement.

[stanprollyright]

The PCs killed them, in the future. Gods transcend individual timelines; kill them in one, they die in all of them.

The gods aren't really dead (yet), but they've been forced to become mortal.

They got bored and left to create a new universe.

They "literally just went to the bathroom. OMG chill out, mortals"

[Cirtona Pox]

One Campaign world that I created had a limited pantheon. The gods are not all gone but they are either dead or busy. I used celestial body names from real world to name some of the key players but you could change them of course.

The battle that ended the world:
In the beginning there was only Ceres. Ceres bore five children out of her thoughts.

Iti, the first born, destroyer of worlds, quickly grew weary during this time before creation, and slept. There was nothing to destroy.

Phobos and Deimos (the twins) were next so Ceres then created the world for them.

Phobos and Deimos fought over the barren desert constantly, reveling in the wasteland and plotting to take control of each other's half. Tired of their fighting Ceres took their world and gave it to her youngest children, Tharsis and Callisto.

Tharsis appeared on the land and created Ogres. Callisto stayed in the heavens and created Men, Elves, and Halflings to live with the Ogres.

Tharsis and Callisto then created two "sons", Ams and Serrs.

Ams and Serrs began to breath life into the land itself.

Ams strengthened the world from within.

Serrs painted the sky and protected the world with his mighty shield.

Phobos and Deimos plotted to usurp Ams and Serrs and destroy Tharsis. They combined their wills to wake Iti.

Phobos and Deimos battle Ams and Tharsis but are no match for the hammer and shield. They manage to bind Tharsis to the land and wound Serrs badly but are cast down in the process. While cast down, they run rampant, destroying what they can before Ams imprisons them in the very rock of the world.

Iti awakens and begins consuming existence. Ceres, neither wishing to destroy her own child nor let the world end, sacrifices herself to imprison Iti in her body.

Ams tries to save her but can only watch as she fell from the heavens. She now holds Iti at bay within her womb.

Ams began re-forging the world again out of the shattered remains.

Serrs (The full moon) comes back once per month to prevent Deimos and Phobos from returning but rests his wounds the rest of the time.

The people were reshaped to live in the new lands.

Callisto watched and waited until the world was ready and she created Elves, Men, and Halflings again. Now she watches.

[atemu1234]

Ooh, I know, it was Professor Plum, in the hallway, with the candlestick!

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Ooh, I know, it was Professor Plum, in the hallway, with the candlestick!You sunk my battleship!

[Stealth Marmot]

you sunk my battleship!
Connect Four!

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Connect Four!Queen to F5. Checkmate!

It's like Calvinball, but with less violence. Or more. It's hard to tell.

[digiman619]

Ooh, I know, it was Professor Plum, in the hallway, with the candlestick!


You sunk my battleship!

Uno! Extra text!

[Professor Chimp]

Or if it's an Oriental Adventures campaign, Segata Sanshiro.If anybody oriental would be killing gods, it would be Emperor Norio Wakamoto.

[Stealth Marmot]

The PCs killed them, in the future. Gods transcend individual timelines; kill them in one, they die in all of them.

The gods aren't really dead (yet), but they've been forced to become mortal.

They got bored and left to create a new universe.

They "literally just went to the bathroom. OMG chill out, mortals"

Isn't this literally the story behind the Dragonlance novels?

[LordOfCain]

They "literally just went to the bathroom. OMG chill out, mortals"

I'm fairly certain this has won the thread.

[unseenmage]

I'm fairly certain this has won the thread.

Makes me wonder...
If the gods take so long in the there they have to double flush or whatever...
What, exactly, did they flush?!

[Jack_McSnatch]

Makes me wonder...
If the gods take so long in the there they have to double flush or whatever...
What, exactly, did they flush?!

Easy. Holy Crap.

[Stealth Marmot]

Easy. Holy Crap.

He set it up and you SPIKED it.

[Mordaedil]

Not into the toilet bowl I hope.

[unseenmage]

Easy. Holy Crap.

:smallbiggrin:
Beautiful.

[Hunterx]

Go the way of the Titans and the Gods. The Titans killed the gods after they imprisoned them for something. When they escaped they went for vengeance and picked off all the gods one by one. Now the Titans are sucking the life out of the planet and the players need to kill the Titans to free the divine power they odsorbed when they killed the gods. One the power is released it can no longer return to it post host so it finds the next most excepting creature to become the God.

Have different Titans with different divine powers like one for death, another for life, and so on and so on to how ever many gods you want.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Go the way of the Titans and the Gods. The Titans killed the gods after they imprisoned them for something. When they escaped they went for vengeance and picked off all the gods one by one. Now the Titans are sucking the life out of the planet and the players need to kill the Titans to free the divine power they odsorbed when they killed the gods. One the power is released it can no longer return to it post host so it finds the next most excepting creature to become the God.

Have different Titans with different divine powers like one for death, another for life, and so on and so on to how ever many gods you want.Don't forget that just because the titans were anti-god doesn't mean they're all anti-life or anti-mortal. Gaia is, ultimately, the mother of all life, and I'm sure that she's one that would assist the PCs during the campaign in a limited fashion (limited inasmuch as she doesn't want to get caught doing it, and she's not anti-titan, either; she just feels that the titans need to be reigned in, rather than destroyed, but they won't listen to her).

[Sheogoroth]

Well there's always...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qQRWfxkCdU4