Rising to a God

Rising to a god is a taboo and near impossible thing. Only one person has ever accomplished becoming a god, Shraenire, who started out as just a construct turned demon but rose to the status of a god. To rise to a god, millions of souls had to be sacrificed by his followers. Shraenire himself had to take the very power of the Asmodeus in order to reach god status, a feat attempted and failed by thousands before him. Reaching Asmodeus in the first place to make the initial pact was difficult enough, Shraenire and the rest of his party fought through each of the nine hells in order to reach Asmodeus.

Demigods

Demigods are near god-like beings characterized by a lack of aging and great power. Becoming a demigod is still extremely difficult but does not require as much killing and demon pacts as becoming a true god. There used to be multiple demigods on Laeriss, but since The Creeping Shadow decimated the demigod-filled city of Casrea, nearly every single one has died out.

History

In the late year of 5530 Shraenire was transformed into a demon by the devil Asmodeus. Over the course of the next two years, Shraenire gained a massive following of people who made pacts with him who dubbed themselves the The shadow legion. They made mass sacrifices, summoned monsters, and plagued an entire kingdom to give him the power to turn into a god. In order to become a god, one first has to be willing to massacre millions.

Execution

The execution of the "becoming a god" ritual is a long and difficult task.
1. Be transformed into a demon by the current arch-devil after proving your power
2. Make lots of pacts with people on other planes to give them powers
3. Have them kill lots, and lots, and lots of people
4. Escape hell and ascend to a god using the souls of millions
This is currently the only known way to become a god as only one person has ever successfully done it.

Participants

Participants to execute this ritual include:

Cult members to do your bidding
- Millions upon millions of sacrifices, Shraenire needed the sacrifices of an approximate one-hundred million people before he ascended

You to become a god! (:

An arch-devil to turn you into a demon

Ways of Demigod Ascendance

There are many recorded ways that beings have ascended to the status of a demigod in the past:

The Holy Method

One way to become a demigod is through extreme favor with a true god. The most famous example of this is Alusche, former king of Casrea. Alusche was the high priest of Vallusios who, though his kindness, strength, and honor, rose above even what is considered the highest level of power for a cleric and became a demigod. Alusche fought in hundreds of battles while defending his kingdom, so Vallusios gave him the gift of never aging, so that he would be able to defend his kingdom until the day he could die a noble death. Other examples of famous demigods who have ascended this way are Kalaethex Mournsinger, a powerful cult leader of Narstes who struck fear into the world for centuries, Taneris was a great high priest of Lenesel who is credited for creating the Sacred River and, including the creation of the river, survived two epic magic rituals before dying on the third.

The Arcane Pilgrimage

Another way that beings have become demigods is through something called the arcane pilgrimage. By siphoning and using extreme amounts of magic from many sources, one can become a demigod. Those who attempt the arcane pilgrimage travel across the world doing a siphoning ritual when they reach a place of power, when they find a magical artifact, when they come across powerful magical beings. Sometimes more evil beings attempting the pilgrimage will siphon power from sorcerers, dragons, or other sentient magical beings; like in the case of Gildetune Heartfriend, a demigod gnome who lured sorcerers into his home for a cup of tea before killing them and siphoning their power. The High Skull Lich was an extremely famous and important lich who, after already becoming a lich, did the pilgrimage to become even more powerful.

The Massacre Route

The third and darkest way to become a demigod, is through mass murder. By properly collecting thousands of souls, one can become a demigod. This was the case with the famous demigod vampire, The Blood King, who drank the blood of hundreds of thousands of people from the shadows for over an entire millennia.