Beyond Destination

A god is a being that far exceeds the normal power of its universe. Gods are often spiritual or immaterial, but not always. Immaterial means no solid body, not absent from the physical.

Primordials are tied to the most basic aspects of reality: cosmic, and closer to its highest laws. Not all are gods. They are not rulers — they are reference points the universe measures by.

A mantle is an office held in cosmic law. Mantles are not only for primordials: a being can carry the mantle of an angel, for example. The primordial seats have mantles too. Those seats are older than time, and most holders came later. When a new mantle opens, it takes shape from the first being who fills it.

To be a god is to be more tightly bound by law. Freedom peaks in the middle of the power scale. The weak have little power and little freedom; the mighty have too much demanding its share.

A god's death is dissolution: unable to hold its existence, its spiritual parts return to nature.

A cosmological status is a fact in law. The universe keeps queryable records of relationships, like who is the parent of whom — and that includes creators of artificial beings.

Exercising authority during an event makes you partly responsible for it, cosmically.

The question of power is the old one: if absolute power corrupts absolutely, what do you do with power? Every answer costs something.

• Refuse to use it. One answer is to be too blind, too deaf and too dull to be moved to act at all. Valid, if dubious.
• Keep your morals, lose your ability to act. Hold on to who you are, and pay with your freedom to do anything.
• Keep acting, lose your morals. Stay free to act, and pay with who you were. This one leans into the corruption.
• Wisdom instead of raw power. Some power is insight rather than force, which may be a way through.

There is no perfect answer. The better answers are really hard to keep up, and they eventually fail — because everything ends.