Primal Conundrum

Antiquity - A Different Type of God Game

If our power grows enough, would we be able to forge a new afterlife destination for our followers?

It feels to me like being benevolent would likely be the safer and more rewarding long-term strategy, while taking sacrifices and being a bit more bloodthirsty would be a high-risk high-reward path that may have a weaker future ahead of it. Easier to grow the numbers of the faithful when you aren't killing them / forcing them to kill, after all.

With this in mind, I think I'm officially casting my vote for striving to be a benevolent deity.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but the way you were describing the world it sounds like it's a modern day parallel?

Antiquity - A Different Type of God Game

Personally I'm not in favor of a mercurial personality, I would rather maintain an attitude that is reliable through positive and negative events. Whether that attitude is good or evil is an entirely other discussion. I would, if given the choice, lean towards a more matriarchal tone, where the faithful are praised like obedient children and the dissenters are treated with sorrow and compassion and the hope that they will see the error of their ways. I just see it as a more effective way forwards, better for disarming our foes and adding numbers to those who follow us.

Antiquity - A Different Type of God Game

Again, I feel like we should have some thought put in to what direction we want to go into. If we wanted to be a motherly sun goddess for example (which has plenty of room for violence, think a mother bear protecting her cubs but with the force of a star) then we would want to adopt a warmer tone. Being apathetic and cold to our foes is one thing, but it could potentially win us many more converts if we face defeated enemies with forgiveness and compassion, an almost motherly figure who sees their retaliation as childish lashing out. With such a personality, resisting would feel almost like resisting a loving parent, and would make it more difficult.

A colder god could be more intimidating to their foes, but would likely result in less converts among them. I'm not saying that one is better than the other, simply that that's what the tradeoff would be.

Antiquity - A Different Type of God Game

This will be the first point where we'll have to put a personality on display. While we still don't really need to pick what we want to be a god of, we'll need to start making some decisions in regards to tone here. Do we want to be good? Evil? Stern? Forgiving? Aggressive? Motherly? These are choices we need to make. While we don't need to pick what we're a god of quite yet, it may be advantageous to us to explore what direction we want to go with for that, since that could help narrow down the tone we wish to take.

Antiquity - A Different Type of God Game

Good call. Anyway, I think we have enough of a consensus to select our form then? We all seem to mostly agree on this, at least enough for a majority.

Starships: The Infinity

Dude, this forum doesn't move that quickly, this isn't Gaia. If someone has commented on a thread within the past day, you don't need to bump it.

Antiquity - A Different Type of God Game

I'd suggest a flowy, semi-translucent long piece of clothing that could either be a robe or a dress.

Antiquity - A Different Type of God Game

If anything, indistinct features. This is not a form we will likely hold for an extended period of time. When we learn more about the world and choose what our place in it should be, then we will shed this form for one much more appropriate to the role we wish to assume. For now an indistinct, middle-of-the-road approach would likely serve us best. The minutiae of this form are as a result somewhat less important, and so it would probably be to our best interest if we settle on something indistinct, ethereal and hard for observers to describe in detail for the moment.

Antiquity - A Different Type of God Game

We have no need to further define ourselves. Within this, we are not individuals, we are a collective. The face we choose to wear as a God is the face we all choose to wear as aspects of that God. We operate by reaching consensus. Any distinction between ourselves is unnecessary here, it is our thoughts and inputs and opinions that matter, not how we present ourselves.

For those familiar with Mass Effect 2, we are basically Legion. Our identity is our collective.

Antiquity - A Different Type of God Game

So to summarize our situation, we have an androgynous character, tall with golden eyes. Covered with a veil(preferably a dark color), perhaps a hijab instead? To cover majority of our face while only letting the summoners see our prominent visible features, which will be our eyes. Making our character more interesting and a accent would go good with this kind of character if we decided to ho with it.

@Pie Flavor

Keep in mind that the appearance we take now is not planned to be the appearance we keep, simply a safe neutral point from which we can later deviate and specialize from.