History Main / AGodAmI

* The legend of King Canute and the Waves: Canute was a Norse king with a seat in England in the 10th century. The story goes that he had his throne brought to the seashore while the tide was out. He sat and commanded the tide not to insult its sovereign by flowing in and getting his feet wet. This command, naturally, was ignored, and Canute's name is nowadays used proverbially to indicate that someone is failing to grasp that their authority has limits. ''However'', the full original story is actually a subversion. With his feet wet, Canute retreated above the surf and proclaimed to his assembled courtiers that "kings" have [[AGodIAmNot no real power]], which belongs only to God, and he never wore his crown again.

** Played straight with Lucifer in pop culture. Created as one of the greatest of the angels, [[BlasphemousBoast he declared himself "above the Most High"]] and [[FaceHeelTurn attempted to make himself the ruler of all creation]]. Needless to say, that [[FallenAngel did not turn out well]]. There is a Biblical source for this in Isaiah 14:12, but on the surface at least it was referring to the "King of Babylon". This may be a literal king, though is often taken to be a code word for earthly rulers who oppressed the nation of Israel, and traditionally it has usually been understood in terms of a spiritual, angelic ruler (that is, the Devil). The term "Lucifer" is simply how the King James Version translated "morning star".

** And then there is Herod ([[OneSteveLimit Herod Agrippa]], the grandson of [[NiceJobBreakingItHerod Herod The Great]]) in Acts 12:19-23, who was struck down and eaten by worms for not praising the God, but instead proclaiming himself as one.

** A mortal man, King Salmoneus, fixed pots and pans to his chariot, [[TemptingFate claimed to be "Zeus the Thunderbearer"]]. He got his fool self struck with lightning for the effort. Yeah. Zeus has a temper.

[[caption-width-right:281:[[VisionaryVillain He's]] [[GotTheWholeWorldInMyHand got the whole world in his hand.]]]]

But you know what they say... {{Pride}} goes before the fall. [[BlasphemousBoast If they're declaring themselves as a god right in front of a real God]], [[TemptingFate then they’re]] [[DoNotTauntCthulhu definitely screwed]].

** On a smaller scale, [[TheStarscream Hakann and Thok]] pull off the "get superpowers and subsequently have delusions of godhood" deal after they steal Brutaka's power via improvised PowerCopying. Despite razing half of Voya Nui and [[CurbStompBattle effortlessly flattening the rest of the]] [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Piraka]] [[CurbStompBattle and the Toa Inika]] ''[[CurbStompBattle twice]]'', it doesn't last.

--> "[[ImpliedDeathThreat This right here is gonna put him away! You'll never see Sting again!]] [[ItsAllAboutMe I'm the man!]] [[PunctuatedForEmphasis I…AM…]]'''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis GOD!!!]]'''

* ''Theatre/{{Heathers}}'': J.D..

The character may declare that they have transcended morality as well, and is AboveGoodAndEvil, but the {{trope}}s do not have to coincide. Characters that are examples of this trope might also be called a ''[[https://the-dere-types.fandom.com/wiki/Kamidere kamidere]]'',

The character may declare that they have transcended morality as well, and is AboveGoodAndEvil, but the {{trope}}s do not have to coincide.

Compare DevilComplex, when a character proclaims to be {{Satan}} instead, a behaviour that is usually just as narcissistic but also combined with the sign that the character in question [[CardCarryingVillain values depravity, sadism and suffering]]; and DemiurgeArchetype, a character based on the Gnostic Demiurge who poses as, and may believe themselves to be, the true god. Contrast with AGodIAmNot (where a genuinely godlike being refuses the label to avoid the implications), StopWorshippingMe (where a deity doesn't want to be venerated as such), ProHumanTranshuman (where a post human remains sympathetic to humanity), AGodIsYou (where you are cast as a god, or your PlayerCharacter is a god) and UnwantedFalseFaith (where a human (or transhuman, or other sapient) who ''is'' worshiped as a god would rather not be).

->''"Because you are haughty of heart, you say, '[[TropeNamers A god am I]]! I occupy a godly throne in the heart of the sea!'"''

* According to the immense [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apotheosis_of_Washington fresco]] on the ceiling of UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates Capitol Building, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington became a god. No doubt if he was alive, he would have had something very negative to say.[[note]]In a nutshell, Washington was very spiritual but didn't believe in gods.[[/note]]

* OlderThanDirt, the concept of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apotheosis Apotheosis]] Apotheosis refers to the idea that a human being has been raised to the divine, becoming godlike or a god. References in history include Egyptian kings and Roman emperors.

* Several Esoteric groups most commonly of the Left Hand Path variety do believe that a person can attain literal godhood by reaching the highest extremes of Spiritual individuality, self-liberation and self-realization. This is mostly common among the variants of Theistic Luciferianism, Dragon Rouge, Temple of Set and some variants of Theistic Satanism, which is basically a re-interpretation of very old Gnostic, Rosicrucian, Alchimic, Buddhist, Taoist and Esoteric concepts mixed with some Jungian psychology (particularly the idea of Self and Individuation) and Crowleyan Thelema (which is what Crowley meant with "every man and every woman is a star" and "you should talk to your Holy Guardian Angel" (the Self). Basically what it says is that by using different Esoteric methods a person may liberated their true Self (whether that is the mind, consciousness, spirit, soul, monad, etc. depends on the writer) to attain complete liberation from the boundaries of the physical and causal world, becoming basically acausal and thus eternal. Similar, as mentioned before, to the concept of illumination from Buddhism, Taoism, Western Esotericism and Gnosticism with the difference that this doctrines generally see the process to attain illumination to be done by devotion, discipline, self-sacrifice and general goodness whilst LHP practitioners tend to be more selfish and conceited in their pursuit, disregarding things like good or evil, compassion or self-sacrifice apart from the needed for self-discipline. Others are just ChaoticNeutral.