History AGodAmI / Literature

* Done unintentionally by Leia during the Thrawn Crisis during several ''StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' novels. After Grand Admiral Thrawn ordered Noghri commandos to kidnap Leia as part of a plot to convert her and her brother, they were at first unsuccessful, but eventually, they recognized her by scent. As it turned out, the Noghri had previously worshipped Darth Vader (Thrawn's predecessor, more or less) as a god after seeing a display of his powers, and after scent-identification made them realize Leia was his daughter, switched their alliance to her and her family, believing her to be divine as well (even so much as giving her the title "Lady Vader".) Leia never actually claimed that she was a goddess, but having the Noghri as allies to the New Republic was too much of a benefit to pass up.

** Played straight, however, with Sauron and his predecessor and former master, Morgoth. Both of them made themselves out as gods to their orcish and human followers such as the Haradrim. Tolkien himself referred to their reigns as "evil theocracies". Morgoth was somewhat justified, as he was one of the Valar, beings similar to the Greek gods except they did not want to be worshiped, as that was Eru's right to be worshipped alone. Sauron encouraged and enforced worship of Morgoth via human sacrifice on both Numenor, Mordor, and the southern lands.
** Morgoth also wanted to be God, to the point he weaved his own soul into Arda at the beginning of time. He claims to Hurin that he actually ''is'' God. [[ShutUpHannibal Hurin calls him on his bullshit]].

* [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings "In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen... All shall love me and despair!"]] Averted, since she refuses the [[ArtifactOfDoom Ring]].

* In Fiona Patton's ''Tales of the Branion Realm'' series, the royal family of a fantasy England is physically possessed by a fire god, making the sovereign something of a Christ-figure. Not only does she have divine right, she can prove it. She can set things on fire with a thought, and her family has blazing eyes. Most of the books center on the oddities of religion under such a system: What do you do when God is your mother (and is being abusive)? What do you do when God is a five-year-old child? What do you do when God converts to the worship of a different God? (The answer to the latter is that you seduce God and raise his kid up in the correct religion.)

* In one of DavidDrake's ''Lord Of The Isles'' books, Sharina inadvertently travels through time and ends up on an island with a man who claims to be related to the god of storms. His parades are accompanied by thunder created by sheets of tin under the wheels of his chariots.

* In ''ANightmareOnElmStreetProtege'' Freddy tells Jerome that, while he may be limited in the real world, in the dream world he's essentially God. Cue Freddy briefly making himself gigantic and causing the sky to change into a swirling black vortex of thunder and lightning.

* Caine in the ''Literature/Gone'' series. By the end of Plague, Caine expects everyone to refer to him as king, and appoints himself supreme ruler of Perdido Beach.

* Aaron, in Patrick Ness's ''[[ChaosWalking The Knife of Never Letting Go]]''. He actually believes that he is a saint, and says so in the waterfall-shrouded church right before [[spoiler: Viola stabs him through the neck]].
* In the StarShardsChronicles, the protagonists struggle with their godlike Star Shard powers, especially Dillon, who is the most powerful. A large part of the second book of the trilogy deals with their "We are gods walking the earth and you should worship us" phase.

* Done unintentionally by Leia during the Thrawn Crisis during several ExpandedUniverse novels. After Grand Admiral Thrawn ordered Noghri commandos to kidnap Leia as part of a plot to convert her and her brother, they were at first unsuccessful, but eventually, they recognized her by scent. As it turned out, the Noghri had previously worshipped Darth Vader (Thrawn's predecessor, more or less) as a god after seeing a display of his powers, and after scent-identification made them realize Leia was his daughter, switched their alliance to her and her family, believing her to be divine as well (even so much as giving her the title "Lady Vader".) Leia never actually admitted that she was a goddess, but having the Noghri as allies to the New Republic was too much of a benefit to pass up.

* Jacen and Jaina Solo in the ''StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' take on personas of two Yuuzhan Vong gods. Jacen also has GodMode later, but WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity.

* Vanjit from ''TheLongPriceQuartet'' after [[spoiler:binding her Andat, Clarity-of-Vision.]]

* The Authority in ''HisDarkMaterials'', who is actually the oldest angel.
* [[spoiler:Virlomi]], of OrsonScottCard's ''EndersGame'' saga, [[spoiler:believed that she could communicate with the gods, and that she was divinely ordained]] to save India. [[spoiler:All of India worshipped her as the Goddess of the Bridge.]]

* Frank Herbert's ''{{Dune}}'', the protagonist, Paul Atreides becomes the [[MessianicArchetype Kwisatz Haderach]], the universe's [[{{Ubermensch}} super being]]. His consciousness can be in many places at once and can see things before they happen. He is worshipped as a messiah and god.

** Played straight, however, with Sauron and his predecessor and former master, Morgoth. Both of them made themselves out as gods to their orcish and human followers such as the Haradrim. Tolkien himself referred to their reigns as "evil theocracies". Morgoth was somewhat justified, as he was one of the Valar, beings similar to the Greek gods except they did not want to be worshipped, as that was Eru's right to be worshipped alone. Sauron encouraged and enforced worship of Morgoth via human sacrifice on both Numenor, Mordor, and the southern lands.

** Or Fistandantilus, who came up with the whole "become a god" plan that [[spoiler:Raistlin]] hijacked. In fact, he was [[TheManBehindTheMan the man behind the Kingpriest]] as well. And from ''The Legend of Huma'' there was Galan Dracos, whose plan to steal the Dark Queen's powers wasn't as well thought out as the others, though to be fair it took place chronologically first, so they might have been able to learn from his mistakes. Really, this one crops up a lot with {{Evil Sorcerer}}s in ''{{Dragonlance}}'', or any ''[[DungeonsAndDragons DnD]]'' world.

* Inverted in PiersAnthony's ''{{Incarnations of Immortality}}'' series. [[spoiler:Since the original God is too caught up in this trope's attitude to bother with Earthly affairs, another more humble individual must be manipulated into becoming God]].

* David Eddings' ''TheMalloreon'' has the mad disciple Urvon declare himself a god, we then get a rather awesome scene of [[BigBad Child of the Dark]] Zandramas putting him down:

* This trope appears in another main series of DavidEddings as well. [[spoiler:The main protagonist of [[TheElenium Elenium and Tamuli]], Sir Sparhawk, is "Anakha", the man without destiny. In the end of the last book it is revealed that instead of just being able to use [[MacGuffin Bhelliom's]] powers, he himself is in fact at least as capable as the Bhellion. It's also suggested that it was actually him all along instead of Bhelliom's powers. For comparison, Bhelliom and it's counterpart Klael (which are more or less analogous to the two Destinies appearing in ''The [[TheBelgariad Belgarion/Malloreon]]'' as the Orb and Sardion) have powers beyond any of the deities mentioned in the series.]]

* ''{{Pendragon}}'': [[BigBad Saint Dane]], [[spoiler:and he's probably right, to an extent]].

* BrandonSanderson loves this trope - all of his major works feature mortals with godlike power who are worshipped as divine. [[spoiler:The real gods of his multiverse, though, are called Shards and are incarnate forces of nature (Preservation and Ruin being two named examples), far above anything else in the novels. Some Shards do have mortal intelligences attached to them, however.]] Book by book, we have:
** ''{{Elantris}}'': The Elantrians, a race of quasi-immortal magic users worshipped as divine, though it's unclear if they bought into it themselves.
** ''{{Mistborn}}'': The Lord Ruler, [[EvilOverlord King and God]] of TheEmpire, who is actually [[spoiler: just a human with a particularly powerful combination of natural abilities]]. This trope is also invoked by [[RebelLeader Kelsier]] who deliberately positions himself as a god to give the masses something else to believe in, so they'll rebel. [[spoiler: And in the end of the trilogy, Vin and then Sazed are mortals who become the real deal]].
** ''{{Warbreaker}}'': The Returned are people who died in some notable fashion and then return to life; opinions as to what exactly they are varies across the world, but in Hallandred, where most of the action takes place, they are seen as gods and they (and their priests) run the secular government as well.

* Occurs in DavidWeber's ''{{Literature/Safehold}}'' series. The survivors of humanity are transported to a new world to escape the aliens that destroyed them and to avoid detection, must enter a MedievalStasis. Langhorne and Bédard, the two in charge of the project, brainwash the survivors into [[GodGuise thinking they were the creations of God, with those leading the project being angels and Archangels]]. They justify this as a necessity, claiming it will avoid the complications of enforcing MedievalStasis and prevent them from re-reaching space flight level to soon. The truth is Langhorne and Bédard are megalomaniacs who like being Archangels and may well [[BelievingTheirOwnLies believe their own schtick]]. Unsurprisingly, the woman who stands up to this and rebels is labeled the [[CrystalDragonJesus Crystal Dragon Satan]] in the religion.

* Aurilelde, from the ''YoungWizards'' novel ''A Wizard of Mars'' has [[spoiler: the kernel of Mars implanted in her]] and effectively [[spoiler: becomes Mars itself, and as she tries to kill Nita she gets angrier and angrier, unintentionally almost ripping Mars apart in her rage.]]

* SimonRGreen's ''{{Deathstalker}}'' series, in many cases - though the most notable one involves a StableTimeLoop combined with a HUGE AssPull at the very end of the Owen-centric series.

* Subverted when ''{{Conan}}'s'' girlfriend Muriela, who specialises in impersonating gods, emerges from behind an idol of a goddess glowing purple and giving a different A God Am I speech than the one they had rehearsed. When the worshippers are all off doing her bidding Conan sneaks over and suggests that they leave, at which point she tells him not to be so presumptuous and to clear off before she remembers that he intended to con people in her name. It is strongly implied that the girl lives happily ever after in exchange for periodically renting her physical form to the goddess, who thought the girl was far more fetching than her idol.

* In ''{{A Nightmare on Elm Street}}: Protege'' Freddy tells Jerome that, while he may be limited in the real world, in the dream world he's essentially God. Cue Freddy briefly making himself gigantic and causing the sky to change into a swirling black vortex of thunder and lightning.

* {{Patricia A McKillip}}'s ''[[TheRiddleMasterOfHed Riddle of the Stars]]'' trilogy features the Earthmasters, arrogant and powerful once-human beings [[spoiler:and chronicles the transformation of a withdrawn young scholar into his world's god]].

* In VernorVinge's novella, "Literature/TrueNames", when Mr. Slippery and Erythrina forcibly multiplex their consciousness, it gives them the power to take over more machines almost without thinking. Repeat until they (and the BigBad) have total control over and knowledge of anything connected to any computer ever. The BigBad detonates several nukes in their silos ''to make a point in discussion'', and it's not a big deal to any of them. At one point, Mr. Slippery is frustrating and rerouting the soldiers sent to kill his real body as a side process while concentrating on something different.

* ''InDeath'' series: ''Chaos In Death'' has Eve Dallas confront Dr. Chaos, who actually declares "I'm not a man. I am a god!"

** Another interesting point is Satan, who is, according to Archangel Gabriel is one of the most effective Incarnations of Evil precisely because Satan does NOT follow this trope, and hence did not become DrunkWithPower.