Faith and worship is the fuel that provides a deity with its power and nourishment. The more worshippers a deity has, the more powerful it will become. In the beginning, a deity created humanity in its image for this very purpose, demanding that his creations worship him as the one true god with no others as equals. In time, humanity grew sinful and disobedient, leading the god to punish his creations with disasters, plagues, and other misfortunes on several occasions. A being known as the Demiurge sees this as an opportunity to hijack the religion and subvert the deity's position within the pantheon. This would allow him to grow in power at his rival's expense, as its followers would be fooled into worshipping him instead. It would take a lot of mental gymnastics for the deity's followers to simply accept that the demiurge is the real thing, disregarding everything that the religion and its history has taught them. Therefore, the imposter has posed himself as the son of the deity sent to save humanity, providing a link to the god and maintaining some continuity to the original faith to make the story more palatable. This 'son' would be born of a virgin through an immaculate conception and spend his short time on earth gathering converts to spread his message, unknowingly passing on misinformation to the masses. Eventually, this imposter allow himself to die as a martyr in a dramatic and symbolic fashion, sparing humanity the wrath of the deity and absolving it of its sins.
This story allows for the creation of a trinity of gods, with the false messiah taking the third spot within a pantheon below his 'father'. The ultimate goal of this dark messiah is to monetize faith as a trojan horse, steering adulation and belief meant for the original god in his direction. In the short term, this necessitates patience, requiring it to remain subservient to the deity and empower it while it empowers itself. In time, the religion would change its focus to the dark messiah entirely. This would eventually starve the god of nourishment and allow the Demiurge to supplant him, killing him off in the process and fully take his place. This comes with risk, as a switcharoo of this magnitude leads to accusation of heresy, leading to schisms. This should be avoided as it leads to unnecessary wars between factions that thin the herd and damages worship, hurting the imposter's goals in the long term. How can a religion successfully accomplish this convincingly after thousands of years of doctrine without raising suspicion among the masses?
This story allows for the creation of a trinity of gods, with the false messiah taking the third spot within a pantheon below his 'father'. The ultimate goal of this dark messiah is to monetize faith as a trojan horse, steering adulation and belief meant for the original god in his direction. In the short term, this necessitates patience, requiring it to remain subservient to the deity and empower it while it empowers itself. In time, the religion would change its focus to the dark messiah entirely. This would eventually starve the god of nourishment and allow the Demiurge to supplant him, killing him off in the process and fully take his place. This comes with risk, as a switcharoo of this magnitude leads to accusation of heresy, leading to schisms. This should be avoided as it leads to unnecessary wars between factions that thin the herd and damages worship, hurting the imposter's goals in the long term. How can a religion successfully accomplish this convincingly after thousands of years of doctrine without raising suspicion among the masses?
Last edited: