Reviving Deities?

[Schattenbach]

What ways are there for deities to come back to life (or, in some cases, unlife) after they've been destroyed?

Sure, once they reach Divine Rank 11, they get access to that self-revival Salient Ability ... but what else is there for them as option to come back? The Gift of Life and such Salient Abilities only affect mortals, if I don't misremember things (though one of them could also work on deities, too), so other deities reviving them when even "mortal magic fails" might not necessarily work and its slightly dubious if Alter Reality does the trick in such cases, too, as it might still be mortal magic that is being replicated here. If there isn't anything in particular utterly destroying the deity in such a way that it's completely gone for good (or at least to the degree of being outside the reach of mortal magic), is there any reason why True Rescurrection and such (as contigent spell or whatever else) or some contigent epic spell (or pretty much anything that could be used to bring Outsiders back to life) wouldn't be able to bring the deity back?

[MisterKaws]

Nope. If you really want to have a Deity dead, you have to completely obliterate their soul, otherwise they will just come back with their Alter Reality-based Contingent True Resurrections, Astral Seeds, and even epic-tier resurrections if needed.

[Caelestion]

Killing all their worshippers is the fastest way to kill a power, the caveat being that receiving new worshippers might be enough to eventually wake them up again.

[khadgar567]

thus creating legend were pcs working for you becoming herald of particular deity you want to resurrect will at least give them a foot hold back to reality were you can resurrect them as normal rules

[Caelestion]

According to the Planescape setting, the last physical remnants of dead gods are essentially objects, floating like shipwrecks in the Astral sea. Normal rules are unlikely to apply. :)

[MisterKaws]

Killing all their worshippers is the fastest way to kill a power, the caveat being that receiving new worshippers might be enough to eventually wake them up again.

That only works in some campaigns. In Greyhawk, that'd be at most an annoyance.

Should've been posted around 5 hours ago, but I clicked preview my mistake.

[Buufreak]

How do Orcus and Vecna keep weaseling their way back?

[Kelb_Panthera]

How do Orcus and Vecna keep weaseling their way back?

Orcus was brought back from death, sans divine rank, by his followers performing standard res magic. He's just a (particularly powerful) outsider after all.

To the best of my knowledge Vecna only died as he became a lich and hasn't died since his ascension.


I'm not -super- familiar with either but I think that's right.

[Lormador]

How do Orcus and Vecna keep weaseling their way back?

Pure deus ex machina, that's how, and the Rule of Cool.

There should be some way for deities to die, otherwise the Astral would be a lot less interesting a place to adventure.

My favorite way to bring back a dead deity is to start a heresy involving it. Get enough folks to sign on and suddenly Aupensar is looking more legit!

[Schattenbach]

Thanks for the answers ... so assuming it's one of the higher ranking deities (Divine Rank 11+, so they have their revival Salient Ability that brings them back in pretty much most cases), unless the deity was either killed (and its soul obliberated) by some equal or higher ranked deity or their divine power is (somehow ... by killing enough of their worshippers or whatever ... if their divine rank is based on worship, that is, and not on things like "being recognized by the world as deity" or something like that) depleted so much that their divine rank decreases below 11 and then it was killed by something that utterly destroyed it (or at least its soul) or someone finds some way of damaging their very existence, reviving deities is pretty trivial, isn't it?

So to actually any plausible plot involving some deity, the deity would've to be destroyed past the point it could've revived itself (though that still leaves the option of some kind of ritual left behind by the deity itself) on its own and past the point of other deities either being willing or capable of reviving the deity ... which would then mean leaving the task to pesky mortals and such?

[ShurikVch]

In the Dead Gods (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Gods), Quah-Namog resurrected Orcus by going into Astral Plane to the astral body of Orcus and performing ritual which included Wand of Orcus, scroll of resurrection (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/resurrection.htm), and sacrifices of three elves, and five Good magic items (including the Book of Exalted Deeds!)

[Buufreak]

Pure deus ex machina, that's how, and the Rule of Cool.

I swear, that is not a literary element I hate more than deus ex machina.


Orcus was brought back from death, sans divine rank, by his followers performing standard res magic. He's just a (particularly powerful) outsider after all.

To the best of my knowledge Vecna only died as he became a lich and hasn't died since his ascension.


I'm not -super- familiar with either but I think that's right.

Well, I remember over the years there was Vecna must die, Vecna lives, and a few others. Not sure if they were modules or novels, but it covered his life, death, undeath, godhood, and a few other things.

[Ashtagon]

I swear, that is not a literary element I hate more than deus ex machina.

Deus ex machina seems quite appropriate for Deusy ex mortis.

[Inevitability]

A follower can use Teleport Through Time to return to when the deity still lived and somehow convince them to travel to the future with them.

To avoid paradoxes, the deity could Alter Reality up an ice assassin of itself before 'porting away. This would be the creature its future slayer would actually have killed.

[Coidzor]

IIRC, Tenebrous, Orcus's... undeadish godly self hijacked the Primus of the Modrons' pool and used its power and some items that the modrons acquired for it to bring Orcus back, making Tenebrous suffer existence failure and that's the explanation for why Tenebrous is a Vestige.