Editing Deities (section)

===Origins===
The first gods emerged crude and loose in form as each telling and culture that outlined them varied.<ref name=":8">The background noise of internet and online communication allows for the natural emergence of accidental rituals.  Repetition, default or common responses and collective imagination allow for a kind of false worship to take place.  Much as the first gods emerged, crude and loose in form as each telling and culture that outlined them varied, the digital avatar is a force akin to a god that arises from the spirit world, often linked to a phenomenon and then crystallized by the public consciousness.  As figures of a more spiritual and divine stripe, what one often sees is often the tip of the iceberg for a larger effect.<br><br>Lesser gods spawned by a public consciousness, Nex Machina stem from the digital, not from dreams, other worlds, or reality. <br><br>[...]<br><br>In some ways, the Nex Machina has the same vulnerabilities as a god and spirit both.  They are reliant on ‘worship’ and through no fault of their own can fade from relevance, and as a worshiped entity, the well of power they draw on works much as any prayer or divine system does, with power gained or fostered and then spent in hopes of an investment paying off. - [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cwFiwUBPuDm4wV5THrv_dRfM7PuPHW6mCDxnPLvffV0/edit Beastiary - Nex Machina]</ref> 

[[Blake]] and [[Faysal]] speculated that the gods may come from some primal font of creation, the opposite of the destruction that is the [[Abyss]].<ref>I pulled my hands from my pockets and spread my arms.  Look at me. Entropy wins.  I’ve been to the Drains, but I haven’t come across anything suggesting that there’s a force of ''creation'' that’s working just as hard.”<br><br>“There are two possible answers,” Faysal Anwar told me.  “The first is that such a place exists, but creation spews forth, it does not take in.”<br><br>“Maybe,” I said.  “Gods come from somewhere, don’t they?”<br><br>“Maybe,” he echoed me. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/08/26 Excerpt] from [[Mala Fide 10.5]]</ref>

Attaining godhood seems to be a possibility for lesser beings, that supposedly enough worship can make a god.<ref name=":14">“Twist bloodlines enough, and you get subhumans.  I’ve met three of these groups.  A little island close to Greenland, the population center small.  Toothless, wide-eyed devout worshipers of an opportunist Other they were unwittingly elevating to godhood. This is remarkably common, mind.  They are often Aware, which can be fascinating, and they may resemble early practitioners.  In this case, it was early worship.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/07 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.4]]</ref> It has been claimed that godhood is a possibility for [[Heroics|Heroes]],<ref>“Are you gods?  ''Were'' you gods?” I asked.<br><br>“We were men,” Cranaus said.  “The sorts who were brief-lived legends, to the point that godhood was a ''possibility.'' Nothing more.  We subsist now by a long existence of being familiars for one master after another.  Chronomancers like to draw the greater legends from history for such a thing.” - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/09/11 Excerpt] from [[Malfeasance 11.3]]</ref> although whether this means literal godhood or just being worshipped is unclear. The [[Wraith]] of [[Molly Walker]] claimed that "in the right time or place, an idea can become a spirit, and a spirit can become a god", and hinted that she might be evolving into one.<ref>“Sometimes, in the right time or place, an idea can become a spirit, and a spirit can become a god [...]  I’m not saying I’m becoming a god.  It’s… only an idea.” - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/11/06 Excerpt] from [[Execution 13.2]]</ref> The powerful [[Spirit of Montreal]] is said to have become a lesser god, among other things.<ref>The Spirit of Montréal was a spirit of trade, then a spirit of the city, then a lesser god, among other things.  An ever-changing spirit that has settled down for now. - [[Mile End]]: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/14jc7V-O3VsFPxWrwjTB5-uAFk9-JPobq2P1rXFpCxtg/edit# Awakening]</ref>

In some cases, it is known that complex confluences of power can come together to birth a god with little or no human influence. See "Glitch Gods", below.