From normie to godhood, how to make the bloody skip.

[NotaNuffian]

So I have relapsed again, think about wanting to write again, like a crack whore who just can't quit even though he knows nothing good will come out of it.

Thus far I had looked at all the systems that I had stolen from other works, like Supreme Magus' Core system, the typical chinese cultivation and more.

I had struck a wall once more though and this time it is in the middle.

There are three main stages of the cultivation system that I want to make; namely Mortal Stage, ??? and last is Godhood.

The first stage, Mortal stage is quite simple, the usual body tempering, meditation to refine ki and excite the soul.

The third and last stage Godhood is similar, make a Inner World with your ideology as its core, turn your inner world inside out and let it scorch the Physical World and for finale, imprint your essense onto the Physical World or its Dao so that you have a spawn point forever in the Physical World.

It is the second and middle stage that I am having some issue to write out as words. Normally in this portion in the chinese novels, this place is all about the Will (意 Yi), one would project their will onto the world like Air Gear's Infinity Atmosphere/ JJK's Domain Expansion. But I don't think it actually fits into what I want in my system.

All three stages is about refining, the Mortal stage to turn a normal human into a Superhuman. The Godhood is to make a Sanctuary/ Shrine for the Superhuman and make him a god.

So yes, very stuck at the middle stage.

Please halp.

 

[K5Rakitan]

Carefully

 

[NotaNuffian]

Carefully

Thank you.

It has been a while.

 

[ParticleOfSand]

Soul/essence refinement. Better define one's being in preparation for godhood. If you really want another level in between, demi-god: the transition from extraordinary to semi-godhood. Not as immortal as god, but has some traits.

 

[Omnii]

I've not thought of a whole system yet, nor am I a writer. But instead of having the second stage project will. Instead have the users develop their will, and create an ideology that they use in Godhood. Rather than projecting this, they internalize it and gain powers or abilities that represent ideologies... instead of being projected be either physical, part of the user, or for more elemental abilities need to come from the user as opposed to from their imprinted will?

 

[NotaNuffian]

Soul/essence refinement. Better define one's being in preparation for godhood. If you really want another level in between, demi-god: the transition from extraordinary to semi-godhood. Not as immortal as god, but has some traits.

I've not thought of a whole system yet, nor am I a writer. But instead of having the second stage project will. Instead have the users develop their will, and create an ideology that they use in Godhood. Rather than projecting this, they internalize it and gain powers or abilities that represent ideologies... instead of being projected be either physical, part of the user, or for more elemental abilities need to come from the user as opposed to from their imprinted will?

Due to some stupid petty reason I am leaving it as vague as it is.

The middle portion I did have plans to do soul refinement in the forms of making it into a constellation/ stamp in the body, like a fetus in the womb or a seed in the soil. The soul and the will is roll into a ball and nurtured by the body intaking energy from the outside.

 

[Omnii]

The middle portion I did have plans to do soul refinement in the forms of making it into a constellation/ stamp in the body, like a fetus in the womb or a seed in the soil. The soul and the will is roll into a ball and nurtured by the body intaking energy from the outside

Please consider making this gross, creepy or scary it sounds like it could be rather horror adjacent. Horror is often underused in cultivation novels, and you have the opportunity... or don't, I'd just enjoy reading something like that.

 

[QuercusMalus]

Demonhood- the focus is on cultivating and overcoming vices and the mortal urges in addition to strengthening and refinin energy harnessing techniques.

 

[Omnii]

The third and last stage Godhood is similar, make a Inner World with your ideology as its core, turn your inner world inside out and let it scorch the Physical World and for finale, imprint your essense onto the Physical World or its Dao so that you have a spawn point forever in the Physical World

Will worship be relevant in the story and be used to empower gods and allow them to imprint their essence? Along with that, if you're sharing, will sacrifices and rituals also have an influence... If that is the case, how does it impact the common person, how is conversion handled, do gods impart power or attempt to aid those reaching for godhood?

Do gods interact on the same plain as mortals... do gods interact? Do the gods go to war with eachother, and if so, what makes it worth it?... I've got a few too many questions for the setting

 

[NotaNuffian]

Will worship be relevant in the story and be used to empower gods and allow them to imprint their essence? Along with that, if you're sharing, will sacrifices and rituals also have an influence... If that is the case, how does it impact the common person, how is conversion handled, do gods impart power or attempt to aid those reaching for godhood?

Do gods interact on the same plain as mortals... do gods interact? Do the gods go to war with eachother, and if so, what makes it worth it?... I've got a few too many questions for the setting

... I have not got that far into planning yet.

But just know a couple of things.

1. Worship works for gods.
2. Currently there is only a handful of gods because the world is actually very small.
3. There are the Born gods (old gods) and the Made gods (new gods)
4. Ever since the ability to evolve humans into godhood, there has been... only one new god been Made. The rest of the gods are born and had already ate their brethren. It is a small world.
5. So far there is no war, only small skirmishes to cull the humans and reduce the chance of new gods been born.

So yeah, for my system, I only plan to have the first two stages out first, with the last stage completely lost.

I might take the idea of Domain Expansion as a misguided second stage, with all the humans blindly releasing their Will to the world when they fight and slowly their Will getting bite off bit by bit by the world to sustain the gods.

The gods, like the humans, are stuck in this small world as well and are just trying everything to live forever.

Ps. I might make body horror, but don't count on it.

 

[ChronicSleeper]

If the Mortal stage is turning a mortal into a Superhuman, and Godhood is turning the superhuman into a God, then the Superhuman stage should be perfecting the body/soul/mind to make oneself into a "Godhood" candidate.

There's two ways I'm thinking of this right now, the first way would be:
Mortal realm, where one goes against the world and cultivates, achieving strength, power, and lifespan far beyond a typical mortal. The "Superhuman" realm where one will realize that in order to become a "Godhood" candidate, they would first need to stop resisting against the world. This could be anything from willingly removing their exceedingly large lifespans while also cultivating, focusing themselves on one particular element/dao so much that they literally become it, giving up and returning to the cycles of reincarnation several times, or just endless meditation in search of an answer (99.9% of all who are stuck in this stage). Those who stray from this path can be deviants, or power seekers, having the Domain expansion at the Superhuman stage even though it should be a power of the Godhood stage. Finally, Godhood will be creating, which is up to you.
(TLDR: Mortal is refining, Superhuman is discarding, and Godhood is creating. Discard the flesh at Superhuman, and embrace the sanctity of Godhood.)

Number 2:
Mortal is accepting the energies of the world, while Godhood is rejecting the energies of the world and supplanting it with one's own. Superhuman will be the space between, where one has to tread carefully between both in order to maintain a perfect balance. If one side gets stronger than the other, it causes an exponential reaction that if not reversed ultimately collapses into failed Gods (ones with the Domain expansions), who are either stronger in Flesh arts (mortal) or in magic (divine). This part is where 99.9% of all Superhumans and Godhood candidates should fail. If the Superhuman is successful in doing this through however many stages of Superhuman there is, they can use the perfected energies they have managed to maintain and balance and warp it into their own (you can put another transitionary realm here) and then bam, a new god. (It would be cool that with each new God created, an entire section of the world is so warped by the Newborn that it is permanently twisted to look like the Newborn's desires/elements, like floating islands, burning forests, etc. Go wild here ;3)

Number 3:
Have the mc say fuck the rules. :>

Damn I spent way too long on this

 

[TremendousHuman]

I am not sure what you want. Is mortal -> superman -> a god not good enough?

 

[Omnii]

That second option sounds really good especially if there are other characters that either become gods first or have destructive failures. Also should be good for creating both interesting environments and adding more plot.

Could have conflict between gods who are for and against having new dieties. Some arguing that if they guide the humans they can mitigate the second stage risks. Others that only want mortals to stay mortal, be it for sanctity, fear for failed awakening or in order to maintain worship...

It'd be nice to see some failed deities to have powers to the point it risks the gods, some want to harness it, but it comes with the risk of... whatever you feel like, but most standard, madness. You could have the MC figure out aspects of what grants these failed awakening the power they have even though they are so different from the old gods, or other made gods... or something? It'd be cool to see how different ideologies and powers shape the landscape or corrupt and what aspects of power and such corrupted, especially if it includes horror, just to make it all the more impactful.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Number 2:
Mortal is accepting the energies of the world, while Godhood is rejecting the energies of the world and supplanting it with one's own. Superhuman will be the space between, where one has to tread carefully between both in order to maintain a perfect balance. If one side gets stronger than the other, it causes an exponential reaction that if not reversed ultimately collapses into failed Gods (ones with the Domain expansions), who are either stronger in Flesh arts (mortal) or in magic (divine). This part is where 99.9% of all Superhumans and Godhood candidates should fail. If the Superhuman is successful in doing this through however many stages of Superhuman there is, they can use the perfected energies they have managed to maintain and balance and warp it into their own (you can put another transitionary realm here) and then bam, a new god. (It would be cool that with each new God created, an entire section of the world is so warped by the Newborn that it is permanently twisted to look like the Newborn's desires/elements, like floating islands, burning forests, etc. Go wild here ;3)

That second option sounds really good especially if there are other characters that either become gods first or have destructive failures. Also should be good for creating both interesting environments and adding more plot.

Could have conflict between gods who are for and against having new dieties. Some arguing that if they guide the humans they can mitigate the second stage risks. Others that only want mortals to stay mortal, be it for sanctity, fear for failed awakening or in order to maintain worship...

It'd be nice to see some failed deities to have powers to the point it risks the gods, some want to harness it, but it comes with the risk of... whatever you feel like, but most standard, madness. You could have the MC figure out aspects of what grants these failed awakening the power they have even though they are so different from the old gods, or other made gods... or something? It'd be cool to see how different ideologies and powers shape the landscape or corrupt and what aspects of power and such corrupted, especially if it includes horror, just to make it all the more impactful.

So I did what @ChronicSleeper had advised. I even made up the true method of middle stage to weaken the user (not to the point of Mortal stage but it has its own tribulations) while the false method has no such weaknesses or tribulations and instead continues to attune the false method users onto the World's dao. And in the end they will get fully assimilated into the Heavenly Dao or torn into pieces and malformed as food for gods instead of making a shrine like what the true middle stage is supposed to do.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

My main story has similar theme, from normie to godhood, though it's not cultivation and has no system per se. I based my 'godhood' process on my Christian roots, thus I've no ideas about complicated Chinese tropes.

Still, I feel like I'm being called out.