History Main / AgodAmI

* In the ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' match between ComicBook/LexLuthor and ComicBook/DoctorDoom, Doom absorbs the power from Lex's [[ComicBook/NewGods Motherbox]] tech, and, after using it to eviscerate Lex, Doom muses on the godlike nature of its power, and ''dismisses it as being unworthy of him''.
-->'''Doom:''' This power... It's like that of the gods... '''''beneath me'''''.

* ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'': Marisha as Keyleth declares that the group are basically gods at this point, right before she jumps off the side of a thousand foot rocky cliff because she was too lazy to take the long way to get down to the ocean. [[spoiler:She fails the athletics check, which is compounded when she morphs into a goldfish instead of a bird, assuming that it would be attracted to the water. She then crushes her body on the rocks below that she was warned about, immediately leading to her death and resurrection.]] It is debatable whether or not this proves her point.

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

%% One quote, please; quotes page can hold the extras

** The TropeNamer comes from the Literature/BookOfEzekiel, in reference to the Prince of Tyre.

When a villain, often the BigBad, gains superhuman abilities or [[AmbitionIsEvil achieves their dearest dream]], one can expect them to gain delusions of godhood.

They will often give an [[EvilIsHammy over-the-top speech]] emphasizing just how far beyond ordinary humanity [[GoalOrientedEvolution they have evolved]], and how [[WhatMeasureIsANonSuper lowly they are compared with him.]] Cue the villain becoming a megalomaniacal {{Narcissist}} who is DrunkOnTheDarkSide and/or declaring that they will TakeOverTheWorld.

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 definitely screwed]].

Ancient sovereigns liked this trope; see also GodEmperor for those examples. See also OneWingedAngel, SmugSuper, DarkMessiah. Very common with the SatanicArchetype. [[AIIsACrapshoot Artificial intelligences]], especially of TheSingularity type, also have a nasty tendency to do this; see also DeusEstMachina for those examples. Also see LikeAGodToMe, which is when a character declares someone else godlike but only out of flattery, not as a statement of serious worship. Not to be confused with GodGuise, where a character merely pretends to be a god as part of a con. A StrawNihilist may also have megalomaniacal delusions and believe themselves to be immortal, but never claims to be a god and in fact insists that gods don't exist.

-->-- '''[[Literature/BookOfEzekiel Ezekiel 28:2]]''', Literature/TheBible

Ancient sovereigns liked this trope; see also GodEmperor for those examples. See also OneWingedAngel, SmugSuper, DarkMessiah. Very common with the SatanicArchetype. [[AIIsACrapshoot Artificial intelligences]] also have a nasty tendency to do this; see also DeusEstMachina for those examples. Also see LikeAGodToMe, which is when a character declares someone else godlike but only out of flattery, not as a statement of serious worship. Not to be confused with GodGuise, where a character merely pretends to be a god as part of a con. A StrawNihilist may also have megalomaniacal delusions and believe themselves to be immortal, but never claims to be a god and in fact insists that gods don't exist.

Ancient sovereigns liked this trope; see also GodEmperor for those examples. See also OneWingedAngel, SmugSuper, DarkMessiah. Very common with the SatanicArchetype. Also see LikeAGodToMe, which is when a character declares someone else godlike but only out of flattery, not as a statement of serious worship. Not to be confused with GodGuise, where a character merely pretends to be a god as part of a con. DeusEstMachina is the AIIsACrapshoot equivalent. A StrawNihilist may also have megalomaniacal delusions and believe themselves to be immortal, but never claims to be a god and in fact insists that gods don't exist.

Ancient sovereigns liked this trope; see also GodEmperor for those examples. See also OneWingedAngel, SmugSuper, DarkMessiah. Very common with the SatanicArchetype. Also see LikeAGodToMe, which is when a character declares someone else godlike but only out of flattery, not as a statement of serious worship. Not to be confused with GodGuise, where a character merely pretends to be a god as part of a con. A StrawNihilist may also have megalomaniacal delusions and believe themselves to be immortal, but never claims to be a god and in fact insists that gods don't exist.

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. DeusEstMachina is the AIIsACrapshoot equivalent. 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).

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).

* "In Wrestling/{{ECW}} boys become men. In ECW men become heroes. But in the Wrestling/WorldWrestlingFederation heroes become legends and legends become gods. And if God was a {{heel}}, he'd be the Wrestling/{{The Dudley Boy|s}}z!" This one got a CallBack about a decade and a half later. In the 10/24/2013 edition of ''[[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]] Impact'', Bully Ray (the former Bubba Ray Dudley) calls Wrestling/AJStyles a boy, and then calls himself a god. He continues with "If God was a bully, he'd be me!"

** This was unintentionally done by Easan the Mad the Darklord of Vechor in the ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' campaign setting. The citizens of Vechor worship him as a god, despite the fact that this is one of the few things he has never actually claimed. (Although he hasn't denied it either, and he certainly does have powers that seem godlike to them.) Oddly enough, they also know that he's [[AxeCrazy completely insane]], although worshipping a mad god doesn't seem to be a problem to them.

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

* Buddhism teaches that Devas (what most cultures call gods) are actually other form of life like humans, animals and demons. As devas can die (despite having very long lifespans) probably everyone has been a deva once and can be it in the future (as animal, demon, pretta, asura, etc. the only status that is irreversible is that of Boddhisatva). Technically you probably can try to rebirth as deva by different methods but at least from the Buddhist perspective is unwise as devas live such luxurious and pleasant lives that they normally do not work in attaining Enlightenment and also most of their good karma is burn thus probably ending in hell (for a while) after their lives end. That said, some devas are said to be actual Buddhists like Indra and Ganesha (from the Buddhist perspective of course). Then is, of course, Enlightenment itself that will turn you into an omnipotent, omnisentient and all powerful being able to understand the Cosmos in its entirety and know everything that happened in the past and future of existence. Which is obviously being god-like, these are the true Buddhist deities (Buddhas, Boddhisatvas and Arhats) with the difference that such status was never original and they attained it at some point. Several Buddhist schools consider that everyone is already a Buddha, is just most people haven’t realized that yet.
* Taoism has a similar concept known as Immortals (Chinese, Xian), which is basically the same concept as the Buddha or Boddhisatva of Buddhism. It's unknown if the concept is original from Taoism or if it was adapted after Buddhist influence on it.

* 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 it true Self (whether 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.
* Atheistic Satanism like that of Anton Lavey on the other hand do not believe in any form of survival of the Self after death, but they do regard the individual as the only true "god" a Satanist should worship, in other worlds, for every Satanist they themselves are their god. This is why in Laveyan Satanism the person's birthday is the most important holiday.
* In Myth/NorseMythology, gods are not immortal like the ones of other mythologies, they remain immortal due to the magical apple that goddess Iduna gives them every day. This inspired some Esoteric interpretations that Nordic gods are similar to the Shinto Kamis, Chinese Xian and Buddhist Boddhisatvas in that they attain the status of gods from self-sacrifice, wisdom and realization (for example how Odin had to hang for nine days and gave his eye to drink from the fountain of wisdom). Another theory is that the Norse gods are based on real life heroes, kings and warriors who were deified after death.

* 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]]

* ''Roleplay/BlackthornCorporation'': [[spoiler: General Alan Jericho and Jean-Baptiste, respectively the messiah and a high priest of a demonic cult.]]

** Augustus Giovanni, who wants so desperately to become this. After the Giovanni became the new masters of necromancy in Kindred society, Augustus set into motion plans for the Ritual of the Endless Night, wherein the clan seeks to tear down the Shroud that separates the living from the dead so they can rule as gods. This requires gathering 100,000,000 souls-- at one point, members of the clan planned to get half of these by acquiring the Fetters of wraiths, and the other half by triggering a global thermonuclear exchange.

** PlayedWith regarding the Emperor of the Imperium of Man. He explicitly tells his subjects that he isn't a god; but [[PhysicalGod his immense power]], tremendous knowledge, and apparent immortality lead to cults regarding him as a god anyways. They started popping up towards the closing days of the early Imperium. After the Literature/HorusHeresy, in which the Emperor was critically injured fighting his favoured son, the Emperor was interred in the Golden Throne and hasn't physically spoken since, so he couldn't voice his objections as the Imperium became a theocracy that worshiped him as a god. [[note]] This effectively makes him one, due to how the Immaterium works. Not counting the one thousand Psykers sacrificed daily to keep the Astronomican lit/the Emperor alive, he is slowly gaining more and more power as people believe in him and die in his name -- hence, his position as the up-and-coming Fifth God of Chaos, the "God of Mankind". Then again, seeing as how he stopped a great fleet during the Age of Apostasy by creating a Warp Storm which is still raging five millennia later... [[/note]] Note that the Emperor's lack of belief in his own divinity was not a sign of ''humility''. To the contrary: the Emperor was a thundering egomaniac, most notable for his absolute conviction that people he spoke to would instantly abandon their most deeply held beliefs because he told them that they should. He just didn't actually demand that they pray to him in the process. The Emperor's hatred of being worshiped is because of his hatred of religion and gods in general. If anything, he considers himself to be ''better'' than Gods.

* ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'': Marisha as Keyleth declares that the group are basically gods at this point, right before she jumps off the side of a thousand foot rocky cliff because she was too lazy to take the long way to get down to the ocean. [[spoiler: She fails the athletics check, which is compounded when she morphs into a goldfish instead of a bird, assuming that it would be attracted to the water. She then crushes her body on the rocks below that she was warned about, immediately leading to her death and resurrection.]] It is debatable whether or not this proves her point.

[[quoteright:281:[[Manga/DeathNote https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/god_yagami.png]]]]

* Several Esoteric groups most commonly of the Left Hand Path variety do believe that a person can attain literal godness 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 it true Self (whether 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.

* ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'': Marisha as Keyleth declares that the group are basically gods at this point, right before she jumps off the side of a cliff because she was too lazy to take the long way to get down to the ocean. [[spoiler: She fails the athletics check, which is compounded when she morphs into a goldfish instead of a bird, assuming that it would be attracted to the water. This immediately leads to her death and resurrection.]] It is debatable whether or not this proves her point.

** Chaos worshippers who win the Gods' favours and turn into Daemon Princes are, according to the fluff, pretty damn powerful in and of themselves, but are still not gods.

* In Myth/GreekMythology:

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

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]]. 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).

%%* Theatre/{{Nerds}}: Steve Jobs, of all people.

*** Cyric goes this one step further. After becoming a deity, he creates a book, called the Cyrinishad, which will make anyone who reads it believe that Cyric is the most important being in the universe. He then [[WhatAnIdiot reads it himself]]. He now believes that he is the most important being in the universe, and that (for example) if someone thwarts his plans, he is simply letting them do so. It's worth noting to people that don't quite get the impact of this example that Cyric inherited the portfolios of three former greater deities in his ascension, and the Cyrinishad was ''still'' able to do this to him. It is also able to corrupt another deity, Mask, before the book and its author are sent into exile by the deity of knowledge. That's without even mentioning the fact that Cyric is obviously evil and thus the book is made with pages of human skin.

** The TropeNamer comes from the Literature/BookOfEzekiel.

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

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': As his power grew, the first necromancer, Nagash (who was never the most humble of men to begin with), became progressively drunk on his abilities, to the point where he essentially declared himself the new god of death. Granted, as time rolls on, his power becomes so great that it becomes rather understandable. When TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt roll around, [[spoiler:he consumes one of the setting's gods of death, and becomes exactly that]].