How do I make a god sickly?

[Siege Tower]

I'm working on a campaign and I'm having some trouble with a major plot point. A fertility god within the story needs to become deathly ill. Teeth and hair falling out, blurred vision, fever, rotten breath, sweating, the works. I don't know how to make a god sick though. It could be a rival god, vengeful mortals or even natural causes (as natural as it gets for a god at least) it's not too important what caused it.

Anyone know a specific way to make a god sick?

[Giarc]

Probably your best bet would be a god of disease placing a curse or inflicting some terrible infected wound.

[Loki_42]

Are you the one actually running the game? If so, I don't see why you need that specific of a reason. You can just make something campaign specific. If you're just looking for ideas, here are some I can think of, and maybe a few plot-points with them:

Some kind of Divine Poison, with the possibility of an antidote?
Gods still have some kind of natural lifespan, it's just greatly increased, and the goddess's is running out?
Gods require worship to live, and a massive loss of worshipers of the goddess from an earthly plague or genocide is destroying her slowly?

[Siege Tower]

Are you the one actually running the game? If so, I don't see why you need that specific of a reason. You can just make something campaign specific. If you're just looking for ideas, here are some I can think of, and maybe a few plot-points with them:

Some kind of Divine Poison, with the possibility of an antidote?
Gods still have some kind of natural lifespan, it's just greatly increased, and the goddess's is running out?
Gods require worship to live, and a massive loss of worshipers of the goddess from an earthly plague or genocide is destroying her slowly?

I've liked the idea of a poison before but I'm not sure what it could be made of or the cure.

[kieza]

Assuming your gods are actually omnipotent (and not, say, sufficiently advanced aliens or ascended beings), it doesn't have to be "made" out of anything. A god of poison or disease could just have created a substance with the inherent, irreproducible property of poisoning or sickening another god. (Interesting side note: if the party got hold of a sample, it could look, smell, taste, etc. just like pure water. Since, presumably, they aren't also gods, it might not even harm them.)

The cure is simple: get the god who made the poison to recall the portion of power he invested in it. Your plot could revolve around finding some way to make killing the afflicted god not in the other god's best interests any more, or obtaining some sort of leverage over him, e.g. "We have a cure for the most virulent poison/disease that afflicts mortals. Cure your fellow god, or we freely distribute the recipe to every doctor we can find."

[Hiro Protagonest]

I've liked the idea of a poison before but I'm not sure what it could be made of or the cure.

The poison is made of Plot. The antidote is made of Plot.

So they need to get a weapon made of the legendary and possibly non-existent material known as "metaphysical adamantine", which can break the "4th wall", whatever that is, which is the barrier standing between them and Plot.

[INDYSTAR188]

It could be that an insidious plot to make fertility impossible (or unlikely) has come to fruition and this has caused the god to grow sickly and weak. Maybe some foul ritual that keeps a whole species or continent or country from being able to have children (or grow crops if you're going with fertile in that sense).

[awa]

are you asking for a mechanical way? if so you should probably specify system.

If your just looking for ideas

1) If the god gains power from their followers, a heresy could be contaminating the power being sent to the god.

2) elder thing from beyond time and space where even gods fear to tread, doing things man was not meant to known ect.

3) its a cycle birth and death are linked something needs to die for something new to take it's place and this is true even for gods. the fertility god needs to die so that a new god may take it's place. but even gods may fear death and the god of fertility has held out long past his time and this is taking it's toll on the god.

4) the god did battle with a deity of fungus and rot and while the fertility god believes it won the battle, the dark gods weapon was infused with its very essence and has turned the fertility gods own power of fertility against him using it to feed the fungal corruption coursing through his divine body as the fertility god grows weaker and the fungus in his body grows ever stronger if its not stopped the fertility god will soon be a mere husk controlled by the dark gods corrupting essence.

[Siege Tower]

It could be that an insidious plot to make fertility impossible (or unlikely) has come to fruition and this has caused the god to grow sickly and weak. Maybe some foul ritual that keeps a whole species or continent or country from being able to have children (or grow crops if you're going with fertile in that sense).

I was thinking something along the lines like the god's rotten teeth fall to the ground and a huge area around the tooth makes the land barren and causes endless undead to rise at night. Other parts like hair would fall and burst into swarms of locusts and an exhausted breath from the ill god would make anyone who inhaled that air to become permanently sterile. People would have to get the fertility god killed because she now causes more harm than good or get her cured.

I suppose this could make the god of disease be more worshiped because of weird culty fellows. So he could be the main villain or possible the new favored god if everyone decides being a champion of nurgle ain't all that bad. I suppose how the specific poison was made by the disease god doesn't ever have to come up but making a cure seems like it needs more of an explanation. If the party has to go find ingredients there has to be a reason they know about it and the disease god didn't or couldn't get rid of it.

[Eleven]

I suppose how the specific poison was made by the disease god doesn't ever have to come up but making a cure seems like it needs more of an explanation. If the party has to go find ingredients there has to be a reason they know about it and the disease god didn't or couldn't get rid of it.

Not necessarily. Rather than seeking out a specific cure for the disease god's wily tricks, have the party search out long-forgotten texts on an elixir of life/universal panacea.

You know the deal: go to the deepest regions of the land of dreams, pluck a fruit from the great tree Amrita; travel to the mountain of immortals, steal Jamshid's quicksilver chalace; solve Ma Gu's last koan & then pluck the golden sparkle from the White Hare's eye. Add some Ambrosia, some Living Water, a little god's blood and some good intentions. Mix well. Serves one.

[Belril Duskwalk]

I suppose this could make the god of disease be more worshiped because of weird culty fellows. So he could be the main villain or possible the new favored god if everyone decides being a champion of nurgle ain't all that bad.

It's not unheard of for evil gods to gain a considerable portion of their influence from terrified mortals making sacrifices as a means of begging to be spared the horrors of their portfolio. So, if the god of fertility starts failing and rot begins to take hold of the mortal realm it is foreseeable that the god of plagues and disease might well gain strength as a result.

I suppose how the specific poison was made by the disease god doesn't ever have to come up but making a cure seems like it needs more of an explanation. If the party has to go find ingredients there has to be a reason they know about it and the disease god didn't or couldn't get rid of it.

One possible option might be to place the major components of the cure in the influence of other deities. SO:
To cure the goddess of fertility you need to pluck a flower never before seen by human eyes. The flower grows deep in the groves of the god of wild nature. He of course, has hedged his favored groves in his own magics to ward off the threat of the pestilence, which may hinder the party but also has preserved the flower safe from the disaster. That flower then needs to be ground and dissolved in a vial of pure water drawn from a sacred spring of the goddess of rivers and lakes. The goddess likewise has clerics protecting her holiest of sites, maybe the party can reason with them? And so, the party gets the necessary components, finds the goddess and there you go. Goddess cured, natural order preserved, world saved. Add as much inexact terminology and questionably accurate mythology as seems appropriate, possibly even a few more components and it could be quite a story.

EDIT: The point is, the god of plagues might know a cure is possible, he might even know how it could be made. He can't directly assault the gods that oversee the components because if he did the gods would see his plan, band together and defeat him. Instead, he makes the goddess sick. The other gods can't figure out why so they react defensively, trying to protect their own areas of influence. That very defensiveness is what the god of plagues is banking on making it all work. If the gods protect the various components from all comers, they prevent the components from ever being assembled. And so, the gods seal the fate of the fertility goddess without the god of disease doing a thing beyond the initial poisoning. It was all such a perfect plan... until the adventurers came along.

[erikun]

If we aren't tied to a specific system or mythology, there could be as many reasons for a god being sick as you could imagine. Gods are not bothered by such material concerns as the laws of physics or biology, so requiring a pathogen to enter their body is not necessary.

The god could be sick because the god of disease poisoned them. The god could be sick because people are moving away from an agricultural society and thus their power is waning. The god could be sick because pieces of their body are causing plague, and people worshing it due to spreading plague is slowly turning the god into one of plague. The god could be sick because they could potentially become a god of plague in the future, and that potential-future god is going back in time and poisoning its past self.

[Vknight]

God's cna have many ways to bring about death upon one another.

Maybe the fellow god was saving the fertility goddess as without her there is no famine or pestilence(things need to grow first) so he poisoned her so another gods attempt on her life could not be made. And now s/he cannot tell others for fear they destroy him.

Something similar to Ra's trip across the sky with the poison god striking the entity trying to kill the fertility goddess with his poisons the assassin dies but the poison was to strong and burned the goddess of fertility.

Maybe she took interest in a male and the other god is also female and she had taken interest. Perhaps a farmer who only prayed to one until they both appeared one night and the angry goddess poisoned the man so as to get revenge upon the goddess for taking him. Sadly the poison also took to the goddess thanks to her temporary human form

[Reluctance]

I'm a fan of either far realm nastiness, or having a major artifact/center of worship fall into the hands of enemies and have to be recovered. I guess it depends on how you ideally want things to pan out; holy items/places can always be recovered, while the only real "cure" for a fundamental corruption would be a mercy killing and a passing on of the powers.

If it's easier, don't bother answering the question now. You can just say that she's sick, and leave it to the players to look for the reason why. This means you can tailor the solution to how they act, and if one of them has a brilliant idea, you can steal it.

[Nero24200]

An idea could be for a rival god to brew a concoction that causes another god to lose their immortality. The disease could have been caught afterwards. Though in this case attempting to cure the god would mean finding a way to grant her immortality again.

[Jay R]

In the Prose Edda, the Norse gods were made sickly by stealing the golden apples of Idunn, which they use to preserve their immortality.

[NichG]

In my Planescape campaign, someone used the venom of Jormungandr to poison the god of Death at one point - it didn't kill him, but it rendered him unable to perform his duties. It was basically an Athar plot. One PC ended up learning the secrets of death from Arawn of celtic myth and became an interim replacement.

[Incom]

Are we talking agricultural fertility or... erm, the other kind?

Because if it's the former kind, you basically have your standard Green Aesop plot practically written for you. Some city started dumping stuff in the river which is screwing up large amounts of farmland which is hurting the diety.

[Jay R]

Are we talking agricultural fertility or... erm, the other kind?

Actually, you're drawing a distinction that doesn't exist. They are both the same kind, meaning procreation of the species.

Demeter is the Greek goddess of the harvest, and also presides over marriage. (Aphrodite has nothing to do with fertility, except as an accident.)

[ClockShock]

To build on the above, give the Goddess strong ties to a particular area, maybe even something as small as a sacred circle of trees.
If that physical tie becomes diseased and sickly, then it may filter through to the Goddess herself.

[Shalist]

Fertility goddess? I suppose the most obvious route would be the introduction of STDs into your campaign world, some of which physically deform (visible sores, etc), and others that bring sterility. Those who pay homage to a fertility goddess may find themselves more susceptible to an illness that spreads in such a fashion, and soon mortals would come to associate her followers--and perhaps even the mere mention of her name--with sterility and sickness.

(And since deities are shaped by mortals' beliefs, this contradiction would be particularly devastating to a goddess that once represented life, renewal, etc).

[urkthegurk]

The greek fertility goddess Demeter called down a plague upon the land when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped by Hades, the god of the underworld (Tartarus). Demeter searched for her daughter endlessly, and without her tending the seasons ground to a halt and living things ceased their growth, then began to wither. While SHE didn't become sickly, exactly, her mourning and anger was the cause of the curse. I don't imagine a mother in this degree of distress would appear in the best of health.

Compounding the issue was Zeus, the king of the god's, refusal to interfere. Because Hades was his brother, and he had divided up the cosmos into three (Heavens, Oceans, and Underworld, with Poseidon presiding over the oceans) Persephone was being held outside of his realm, and outside of his jurisdiction.

The whole situation resolved when, faced with the extinction of all life on earth, Zeus sends Hermes to the underworld to ask for her return. Hades agreed to release her if she had eaten nothing while in his realm; but the starving Persephone had eaten three seeds from a pomegranate. This bound her to Tartarus for the three months of the Greek winter, to be Hades' wife.

Hows that for a plot hook?

[awa]

theirs a lot of version of that myth (as is true of all greek myths)
in many zeus give Persephone to Hades with out telling her mother.
representing a parallel to the real world where the father would marry off his daughter to a usually much older man with neither the mother or daughter having any say in the matter