Well, today, kids, we're going to discuss forming your own religion, gaining status as a god (note that in this forum, demi, lesser, and greater god refers to power, not rank), and godly powers.

Kickstarting Your Religion (Without a Miracle or Two)

All religions must have followers. Well, all successful religions, anyways. There are three types of followers:

Followers - Yes, it's an echo. Followers are the nameless flock of synchophants that pray to the deity for deliverance. Think of the attitude of an average church crowd and you have the idea. Followers add 1/2 EP to the Worship Pool, which is discussed later.

Worshippers - More devout, and often of the PC variety. They structure their lives around their deity, and tend to ask for more. Each worshipper adds 1 EP to the Worship Pool.

Clerics - The most devoted followers. These fellows gain power from their deity, to the point of gaining 3d automatically. They pay for it with massive amounts of praise, sacrifice, and hard work; what this means depends on the religion. Clerics are vital for starting and maintaining your religion, and they add 2 EP to the Worship Pool. If at all possible, get a few of them as soon as possible. They take much more to be impressed, though - a simple annihilation of a dragon won't make a cleric for you. Clerics are discussed later below.

The Worship Pool is a pool of additional energy that the deity can tap into to power his high and mighty magics. (Trust us, there's a good use for it - see the Godly Powers section.) The more followers you have, the more energy you have and the greater the things you can perform. This pool of energy is refreshed on a weekly basis, which is why most miracles are performed on one day of the week in most religions.

Hmm... that's great. Now where do I buy a cleric?

Clerics are never simply bought; you have to get them yourself. You have to make someone believe in you with all his heart, which is no easy feat. Some can be converted from other religions, others simply want to serve you. However, clerics are the ones to which bad things most often happen (or at least, that you hear about most often.)

Clerics help you to recruit followers and worshipers. At first, at the dawn of a new religion, clerics cannot recruit many - after all, most people haven't even heard of this religion yet. As your reputation, fame, power, and flock grow, more will come to seek your aid, which means more problems and more power.

Aside from earning them directly (via active roleplaying), your fame and prosperity may bring you more, or your infamy may drive your current followers away. This is a sample guideline, though the GM's word is mandate, and common sense rules over all:

Roll 1d101.

To this roll, modify by:

General Bonuses/Penalties
+/- 1 to 20: Local racial bias/favor towards the deity. In Rhydin, this is usually zero or negative, though some rare deities pick a sphere of influence that gain them a bonus.
+/- 1 to 20: Current popularity. (Hmm... maybe make this a statistic? Ehhh, I'll consider it.) What have you done recently? Have you slain an evil menace? Cured an epidemic? Smited one of your priests? Current events can have a significant effect on your followers.
+5: Clerics actively promoting you. See, told you they had a use.
-5: Clerics not actively promoting you. Heh...
-20: No clerics. It's really hard to attract more followers when they have nobody to turn to but you.

Structure Bonus
-5: No official places of worship. (People love rituals, silly things that they are.)
+0: Shrine built in your honor.
+5: Large shrine built in your honor.
+10: Temple built in your honor.
+15: Active religion with many temples.
+20: An entire city is dedicated to your worship.
+25: You are the only patron deity of the area.

Competition Bonus
+20: You are the only deity... yeah, right. Not likely, unless you created the planet and made the followers.
+10: You are one of the few deities, and there's plenty of followers to go around.
+0: There are enough gods that you aren't being flooded with worshippers.
-10: There are many gods, and you're not one of the popular ones.
-20: Your name doesn't come up in theological conversations between old philosophers, but others do.
-30: You are completely unheard of, and many religions are already established. (This is why gods make their own realms...)

-51: Final modifier. If no other modifiers are existent, this makes the roll 1d101 - 51, which gives a number between -50 and 50.

Great... so... what does that mean?

Well, kids, this roll determines the ebb and flow of your followers. Any roll below zero doesn't gain any followers, and usually costs you a follower, or 5% of your following, per -10. Rolls above zero gain you a follower, or followers equal to 5% of your following, per +10. Any roll between -9 to 9 means no change in your following.

NPC worshippers usually make up about 5% of your active following, and NPC clerics make up about 1% of the flock, on an average - though previous clerics must exist in order for new clerics or worshippers to arrive.

Followers, worshippers, and clerics may also leave or join because of a direct consequence of your actions - if you smite a temple that you suspect is planning to destroy you, and it had 200 followers and a cleric in there... well... you just lost 200 followers and a cleric, whether they deserved it or not.

The road from simple immortality to actual deitification takes two things - energy and experience.

New gods are "demigods" regardless of where they fit in the pantheon. To gain power either requires a lot of time, or attainment of enough followers to effect the change, or blessings from higher-ups.

Demigods/godesses do not have large followings or temples, or permanently established religions. Some actually are part of the religions of other gods.

Lesser deities tend to have small (in comparison) religions, with the occasional cleric and holy temple.

Greater deities tend to have well-established religions and have a lot of experience.

Deitific spells can be found in the Grimoire, as well as other spells that deities just do best.