History AGodAmI / Literature

* Creator/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:
** ''Literature/{{Elantris}}'': The Elantrians, a race of quasi-immortal magic users worshipped as divine, though it's unclear if they bought into it themselves.
** ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'': 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]].
** ''Literature/{{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.
** ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': The ten Heralds of the Almighty are apparently (we don't know much about their background yet) humans imbued with a portion of God's power for a specific purpose. During the time the series takes place in, they've mostly [[ShroudedInMyth passed into legend]]; Vorinism, the planet's dominant religion, treats them more like angels or saints than gods, but there are other religions that center around the worship of one or more Heralds.
*** Also PlayedForLaughs when Sylphrena points out (correctly) that she ''is'' a god... or at least a little tiny piece of one. [[spoiler: Incidentally, this is true. She is a Splinter of the Shard Honor, Shards are the closest things to Gods currently extant in the Cosmere.]]

* 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, [[NiceJobFixingItVillain 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.

*** Also PlayedForLaughs when Sylphrena points out (correctly) that she ''is'' a god... or at least a little tiny piece of one. [[spoiler: Incidentally, this is true. She is a sliver of the Shard Honor, the closest thing to a God currently extant in the Cosmere.]]

* The Sobornost Founders in ''TheQuantumThief''-trilogy claim to have OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions, but that doesn't prevent them from having God-complexes the size of the Solar System, especially Matjek Chen, who seeks to recreate reality itself in his own image because he got angry at death as a child. They impose sensation called ''xiao'' on all their trillions of subjects that makes them feel religious awe towards them. Joséphine Pellegrini even has temples in her name and millions of pilgrims travel to the Fast Cities of Venus to sacrifice themselves for her. Even those who don't follow the Founders call them the Gods of the Inner System.

* LindseyDavis' novel ''Master and God'' charts the slide into insanity and delusion of the Roman Emperor Domitian, last of the Flavian dynasty and son of the very down to earth and sensible Emperor Vespasian. The sheer burden of responsibility drives Domitian insane and, like other emperors before him, he becomes megalomaniac and insists on his own divinity.

** It's hinted that the BigBad of Star Wars: FateOfTheJedi, Abeloth's main goal is to become a god.

* In Creator/MichaelMoorcock's ''The Chronicles of {{Corum}},'' the ambitious sorcerer Shool is convinced he has already become a god and is aiming for Supreme God, enlisting Corum for the purpose. In the end it turns out he was merely a puppet of the Chaos Lords, and is left a hollow, dying shell after he has [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived his usefulness]].

* Overlord of the ''Literature/HIVESeries'' believes he is this.

* In one of DavidDrake's ''Literature/TheLordOfTheIsles'' 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.

* Akasha of ''TheVampireChronicles'' was worshiped as a goddess for centuries, and came to believe it.

** Karsus from ancient pre-history was the only man who acquired divine status through spellcasting. Well, [[TooMuchForManToHandle for a minute or so]], anyway. Just long enough to see [[{{Gotterdammerung}} how much]] it GoneHorriblyWrong -- he did it to save [[TheMagocracy Netheril]] and ended up almost completely [[NiceJobBreakingItHero destroying it]].

* [[spoiler:Virlomi]], of Creator/OrsonScottCard's ''Literature/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.]]

** Also in the ''EndersGame'' saga, the "God Spoken" on the planet of Path are believed to be spoken to by the gods. This is the reasoning behind their extreme intelligence and the reason they have to "purify" themselves through rituals such as tracing wood grains, counting steps, and being extremely sanitary. [[spoiler:In the end they discover that the "God Spoken" have merely been genetically engineered to be smarter, and were also engineered to have an extreme form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in order to prevent them from being a threat to the government.]]

* Creator/OrsonScottCard's ''Homecoming'' series: The Keeper of Earth is never outright stated to be God (or even Gaia), but with the stunts She (as The Keeper is usually called) pulls off (sending an image of Nafai's face to a Digger girl 1,000 years before he was born, chasing the bulk of humanity off with a spontaneous Ice Age), She might as well be.

* OrsonScottCard's ''Homecoming'' series: The Keeper of Earth is never outright stated to be God (or even Gaia), but with the stunts She (as The Keeper is usually called) pulls off (sending an image of Nafai's face to a Digger girl 1,000 years before he was born, chasing the bulk of humanity off with a spontaneous Ice Age), She might as well be.

* A classic short story, "Answer", written by FredricBrown in 1954, has every single computer in the galaxy linked together to answer a single question: "Is there a God?" The computer responds: "There is now."

* [[spoiler:Virlomi]], of Creator/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.]]

- The Star Child in ''TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''

* Creator/DavidEddings' ''[[Literature/{{Belgariad}} The Malloreon]]'' 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:
--> "And if you are a god, then I now call the Godslayer!"

* This trope appears in another main series of Creator/DavidEddings as well. [[spoiler:The main protagonist of [[Literature/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 [[Literature/{{Belgariad}} Belgarion/Malloreon]]'' as the Orb and Sardion) have powers beyond any of the deities mentioned in the series.]]

* ''TheSwordOfTruth'': This may be a little unfair, but Richard Rahl does maintain and encourage the tradition of everyone regularly bowing down and chanting, "Master Rahl guide us... In your light we thrive...Our lives are yours," for four hours a day. Eventually there was a point to keeping this up, but not initially.

** 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 ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'', or any ''[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons DnD]]'' world.

* In Fiona Patton's ''TalesOfTheBranionRealm'' 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.)

* [[spoiler:Satan]] in ''TheSalvationWar: Armageddon'' thinks of himself as a god. Considering who he is, not too surprising... [[spoiler:Thing is, this also applies to Yahweh!]]

* Inverted in PiersAnthony's ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'' 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]].

*** Now, [[spoiler:his ''son'',]] on the other hand... well, there's a reason the fourth book is called ''God-Emperor of Dune''. [[spoiler:Paul could have become an actual godlike being (by merging with sandtrout to become a [[HalfHumanHybrid human-sandworm hybrid]])), but he could not bring himself to so fully sacrifice his humanity. But Leto II (who shares his father's abilities) sees that for mankind's future, he must.]]
*** Unlikely that Paul could have achieved the transformation. Remember, [[spoiler:Leto was born with the spice in his blood, whereas Paul merely awakened after ingesting it.]]
*** Leto II and Paul have the conversation with Paul in Children (I think (or maybe it was Leto II talking to someone else later)) where it's pointed out that Paul could have put humanity on the Golden Path but didn't have the chutzpah to give up his humanity in the process. Leto II just saw the inevitability and surrendered to destiny.
** Also, late books imply that [[spoiler: Paul wasn't the Kwisatz Haderach. Duncan Idaho is.]]

** 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 Númenor, Mordor, and the southern lands.

** Don't forget the Kingpriest of Istar who went as far as demanding the gods serve him. What brought about the cataclysm was his demand that the gods make him a god himself.