#mephet’ran the deceiver

[cthoseris]

new fic idea

never getting over this for as long as i live

[zalmoxis-the-great]

About Orikan, Divinity, Divine Sparks and Speculations

C.W. Spoilers from TITD, T.W. mentions of death

A more technical aspect of Orikan's ascension can be explained in the D&D universe. There are a lot of real world religions that touch the subject of divinity, but I found a pretty satisfying explanation about reaching Godhood from role playing games, and by consulting forums online, as well as a well-made homebrew guide which clarified the information. I am sharing my understanding of what I read, as well as my own speculations.

In Dungeons and Dragons (the source I am using for this is The Extensive Guide to Godhood/ The Path to Godhood V1.2, which is homebrew, but the forums I consulted used the same concept from the 3.5E up to the 5E, and are very similar, but less organized), there are multiple methods to becoming a god, but all of them require the divine spark. A divine spark is what transforms a normal being into a divine entity. “To behold a divine spark, in the flesh, is akin to staring into a star”.  That is something that the divine has but mortals lack.

“If the soul is a flame, the divine spark is a star”. Depending on where you look, some will say that a few normal people are born with a bit of a divine spark in them, or that only a few special someones have some divine spark. But the facts are: it can be taken, gathered, accumulated, and after all that, if somehow, someone manages to absorb one, they get to go under Apotheotic Ascension, where “their bodies attempt to cope with the fluctuation of raw power inside of them, at the end of which their form will try it’s best to maintain that power without perishing”. That change is only the beginning of the transformation into godhood. Huh, that is an interesting and familiar concept. (Extensive Guide)

The issue is that many who dare try, fail to hold that power, those who succeed "will walk away with something more". In the book, Orikan didn’t explode nor die when absorbing the spark, therefor he succeeded his roll in absorbing it, otherwise, the only other outcome would have been complete and utter death and destruction of his being.

A way to acquire such a spark would be to simply slay a god and take their diviner spark(s) (dnd5e), other way would be to be worshiped by followers (“A deity’s divinity is measured by how much sparks they have”), another way mentioned in the guide is by harvesting the rare divinity of others within a week’s time, so pretty much mindless slaughter (the chaos gods growing fat with power from the divinity harvested by their worshipers), a less bloody way would be receiving it as a gift from another divinity, at the cost of theirs, them (the donor) growing weaker to birth a new god.

The eleven race, the equivalent of Aeldari, used Mythallas, magic items with a lot of power, that could manipulate the fabric of reality itself, drawing their energy from the weave (Dndbeyond 5E). Sometimes the essence of those Mythallas would contain the essence of the collection of hundreds or thousands of souls – that can form a divine spark. Sounds familiar? (Extensive Guide)

That is one way, the other way Orikan could get his divine spark is by using Mephet’ran.

We can assume that the Deceiver is a divine being, a star god. The more divine sparks you have, the greater the divine being you become, or are. Unfortunately for him, (the diviner) Orikan, cannibalized him at the end of the book. Since in the Warhammer universe, it is impossible to kill Star Gods without actually changing the natural order, since they are the embodiment of the laws of the universe, and killing them alternates the fabric of the reality, we can speculate he lost some of his divine ranking, by losing some of his divine sparks, consumed by the newly ascended god.

Based on the events in the book, I think Orikan has two divine sparks: one from the aeldari gem (which concentrated thousands of souls, and not any old regular souls, but aeldari souls, so long-lived and powerful), and another one from consuming the Deceiver.

Orikan right now seems to be a Quasi-deity, “he has enough divinity to be spectacularly powerful, but lacks worshipers, or power, has no clerics, no one to pray to him”. He is, I presume, an Ascended Being ( I liked how the Guide describes it, even if it is homebrew, “divinity being absorbed by him, able to walk among the material world unhindered, still bound by their “mortal shacks””).

So I think that Orikan might just become a deity of the Time Domain if he keeps on growing his powers, hopefully turning that divine spark into a fully fledge Godspark. (Extensive Guide)

~Z.

[cursed-40k-thoughts]

So hold on: if the Deceiver liked having the Necrontyr be wide in certain places, then which of the C'tan made the Necrons skeletal? Was there not a consensus in the C'tan Art Department?

There was probably a discussion, but the Deceiver was physically one of the weaker C’tan, and when your much larger jock reaper brother says he wants tiny skeleton people that look like him or he’ll eat both of your arms, you kind of have to acquiesce.

If Mephet’ran had gotten his way, the Necrons would all be thicc as hell.