If you ascended as good God...

[Morgoth]

what are your possibilities to actually survive?

The cinematic in the end is of course positive, no matter if you choose good or evil. But I was wondering what you thought. And I’ve never understood all the issues about portfolio having to be made “positive” even if it’s “murder” if you choose the good path.

This is my personal idea: if you ascended as a good God, the best way for you to survive is

1- listening to the solar
2- becoming the chosen of one of the good Gods. I wonder if Tyr would allow you to do so.

I can actually envision the Good gods refusing you out of principle and the stigma actually making you turn evil. But you can never be so sure this is what is going to happen.

[DiesIrae]

I think it would depend on how you conducted yourself during the game. A devout priest of tyr or paladin would likely be welcomed as a lesser God in his realm.

Reckon Cyric would have more issues with the spawn of the god he killed to get his position may be especially peeved 

[moggadeet]

I don't necessarily think that the good gods would automatically freeze someone out, honestly. Most of them are limited in their ability to actively work against each other, relying on mortal agents instead - I mean, if Ilmater could shut down Loviatar, he would, yeah? The gods are kind of deadlocked, and it's the ones who try to disrupt that state of affairs (Kelemvor and Midnight/Mystra initially, then later Cyric) who wind up in trouble. I'd think that most non-evil deities would at the least not be opposed to "oh hey, at least the new one's sane." Really, after Cyric, anything would be an improvement.

There is perhaps some difficulty in the question of what a good-aligned god of murder might stand for. Finder Wyvernspur suggests that a new god's portfolio doesn't have to relate to the portfolio of the god from whom they gained their power, but I guess to me the idea of "oh, you can choose anything" seems a tad unsatisfying?

But in general my sense is that a lot of good-aligned deities would probably be okay with a new deity who was at least more stable than the one they're replacing.

[jmerry]

The way I see it, a lot of portfolios are intrinsically aligned. Murder is one of those; it's intrinsically evil. If you separate out some sort of non-evil killing - hunting down and executing offenders, for example - that's not murder anymore. If you're a non-evil character ascending, you have to reject Murder and align with a different portfolio (which will, of course, depend on your role-playing choices). The last time I did this was in my "Kill It With Fire" run; that protagonist became a chaotic neutral god of Fire. Of course, I had to write that epilogue myself.

And at that point, you're not competing with Cyric anymore - he gets to keep his hold on Murder. He might cause trouble for you, but he won't have it out for you specifically.

[Thacobell]

I consider Bhaal's portfolio being "murder" was an interpretational thing on his part. I can easily see a good charname adopting it as, "the transition between life and death." A god of passings, or passings denied. Things like comfort for the dying, even the saving of a life from said passing. Its still the same thing, that process of death, just through a different lens.

[jmerry]

27 minutes ago, Thacobell said:

A god of passings, or passings denied. Things like comfort for the dying, even the saving of a life from said passing.

So now you're competing with Kelemvor.

[DavidW]

Quote

As <CHARNAME> embraced the last of Bhaal's essence and ascended to godhood, the Lord of Murder fell back into his dark sleep. That which was meant to revive him was claimed by another, and for a time the prophecy of Alaundo was thwarted.

Yet the Solar had spoken true: a mortal playing with stolen energies is no true god. Bhaal knew in his black heart that <PRO_HESHE> who rose to godhood by absorbing all that Bhaal was, would be Bhaal in truth, and that the thoughts, and feelings, and memories of <CHARNAME> were but the thinnest of masks, that would soon crack and fall away.

This tale does not tell how long <CHARNAME> resisted the dark taint. <PRO_HISHER> virtuous soul burned bright, and for a time held the Lord of Murder at bay, and <CHARNAME>'s heroic deeds in that brief time left their mark on the Realms forever. But soon enough, that which was <CHARNAME> was consumed, and Bhaal's prophecied rebirth came to pass.

 

[Morgoth]

9 hours ago, DavidW said:

 

I don't agree with this ending at all. I will get a little philosophical on the why.

First, I guess that the ending you propose asssumes that the “essence” is being, and not “purpose”.

Being = the essence thinks on his own, would gladly impart her own will on you.

Purpose = the essence simply wants to propagate the reason it was born for.

I don’t think that the game shows you the essence about BEING; the Bhaalspawn seems to have some modicum of free will, that is simply hard to maintain the more essence you have.

A good Bhaalspawn twarts the essence in itself. It can resist it, and the purpose it was born for can be simply denied. Balthazar is another example of that.

If you ascended as a Good God, you simply denied the purpose itself of the essence and now it is yours to be molded. You are not at a risk on using it, simply because you have become the essence and you can print it with your own will. No more temptation or risk.

[Thacobell]

22 hours ago, jmerry said:

So now you're competing with Kelemvor.

Well, no. Kelemvor would have ascended after charname. Depending on the timing, and how this would change things, charname might be the one to inhereit the death portfolio in this case. Or, and  I think this is the most likely scenario, Kelemvor's whole thing would still go off without a hitch and he'd be the god of the dead as in 3e. Charname would hold the space between life and death, and Kelemvor the dead. The same way that Bhaal and Myrkul did.

[moggadeet]

Kelemvor ascends in late 1368. By the time of ToB (lateish 1369), he's already a deity, although the trial and so forth has yet to happen.

[Thacobell]

23 hours ago, moggadeet said:

Kelemvor ascends in late 1368. By the time of ToB (lateish 1369), he's already a deity, although the trial and so forth has yet to happen.

Thanks for the clarification.