History Main / DeityofHumanOrigin

* ''WebOriginal/Brighthammer40000'': The [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 traitor Primarchs]], led by Horus Lupercal, became benevolent Princes of Order after [[HeroicSacrifice committing ritual suicide in order to ascend and counter the influence of the Lords of Order]], who were corrupted into tyrants by a mass influx of murdered souls during the Great Crusade.
* Lily, Penny, and presumably Sharkie in ''WebVideo/HellsBelles'' are humans who have given up their chance to reincarnate to stay in the Afterlife permanently. Much to their surprise this means that technically they are now minor deities, albeit ones without any worshipers or any specific powers (although apparently things that would destroy or damage a human soul in the Afterlife, like going skinny dipping in a lava pit, no longer affect them)

* The Nanny in ''Literature/TheNewNarnia'' was originally a human girl suffering from a [[TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed vague physical deformity]] who was nearly drowned in a well for suspicions of being a changeling. Down that well she [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence slipped into a realm of magic and dreams]], becoming one with it and "see[ing] the vast lightning blue ocean of ethereal possibility -- of dreams and desire..."

* In "Literature/TheLastQuestion", humanity builds a supercomputer of unparalleled processing power and keeps upgrading it over millions of years, asking the eponymous question ("How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?", that is, violate basic laws of physics and enter god territory) from time to time. The answer is always "There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer." This remains the answer even as the computer grows exponentially more powerful as the story progresses through the gradual death of the universe, and even when the Universe is completely dead and the computer was the only thing left in existence (its hardware had transcended matter and energy and been consigned to Hyperspace long before that point).[[spoiler:But then the computer realizes the answer to the question, and the story ends with "And [the computer said] 'Let there be LIGHT!' and there was light."]]

* In ''Literature/TheCosmere'', the [[TheVerse metaverse]] of most of Creator/BrandonSanderson's works, various people most of which seem to have been human, though at least one is confirmed to have been of a nonhuman race, apparently got hold of pieces of a god called Adonalsium which broke apart, and proceeded to become gods in their own right, creating all the various worlds Sanderson writes in (except [[Literature/AlcatrazSeries any]] [[Literature/TheRithmatist incarnation]] [[Literature/TheReckonersTrilogy of Earth]] and obviously the world of ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''). There are apparently 16 total Shards of Adonalsium, some of which have been broken up further since. There are also cases like ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy's'' Lord Ruler and ''Literature/{{Warbreaker}}'s'' Returned, where humans attain a state that is considered divine by various groups in-universe, though they're not gods in the cosmic sense (though the Returned are powered by Splinters of power from the Shard Endowment). The Lord Ruler even created three entirely new races, the Inquisitors, the Koloss [[spoiler: and the Kandra.]]

* [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}''. [[spoiler: The CosmicEntity that created the Calamity Gems offers [[Characters/AmphibiaAnneBoonchuy Anne Boonchuy]] the chance to replace it as the master of time and space. Anne gently turns the offer down because [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome she is only 13 years old and makes mistakes all the time so she is definitely not ready to have that kind of power.]] Though, it's implied she may ultimately take up the role after her death at age 91.]]

* It's specified that humans can't do it but the {{Beast M|an}}en from ''Anime/TheBoyAndTheBeast'' can reincarnate as gods after years of training.

* ''Anime/ChildOfKamiariMonth'': As a reward for [[spoiler:completing her quest, Kanna is temporarily granted godhood as a descendant of Idaten and adorned with celestial raiments, though the divine clothes disappear and she returns to being human after leaving the realm of the gods]].

* The elevation of Yurie, the title character of ''Anime/{{Kamichu}}'' to divine status in much the same way as listed in Myth below, kickstarts the plot, and her learning how to deal with her new status is a significant point in many episodes.

* In ''Literature/SoImASpiderSoWhat'' it's strongly implied that one of the hidden purposes of the System was to try to create another god of the same type as the creator of said System. This eventually occurs when [[spoiler:Kumoko herself]] raises an obscure skill with no clear use to level 10. Said skill, [[spoiler:Divine Realm Expansion]], is completely impossible to decipher since the description of it is ShapedLikeItself no matter how much you try to investigate, but it makes sense after figuring out what happens when you max it. It seems to be associated with the heavenly virtue and deadly sin skills, implying the Rulers of said skills are SemiDivine, but still completely mortal.

* The Exis from ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'', a result of humans trying to "build Gods". They are extremely powerful and cannot be interfered with in their sphere of influence. Currently, only one Exis of five is known and that is [[TheGhost Phantaminum]].

[[folder:Card Games]]
* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'':
** Planeswalkers begin their lives as mortals and, before the events of ''Future Sight'', became {{Physical God}}.
** In the ''Theros'' block, the satyr Xenagos ascends to become the fifteenth god of the Theros pantheon, the God of Revels.
** Also from Theros, [[{{Psychopomp}} Athreos]] ''might'' be one of these; one of the legends associated with him in the D&D campaign setting is that he was the first mortal to ever die; when the gods realized there would be a ''lot'' more after him, they saddled him with the job of guiding their souls to the afterlife [[TheGodsMustBeLazy so they wouldn't have to]]. It's left to the reader's interpretation if there's any truth to this story or not.
** And much later in ''Theros: Beyond Death'', [[TricksterGod Phenax, God of Deception]] has been confirmed one of these. His ascension to godhood came partially from being the first mortal to cheat death and become a [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Returned]], the reason why Phenax also uses the golden masks often associated with them.
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* The version of Maui portrayed in ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'' was made a demigod by the gods [[spoiler:after his human parents abandoned him.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/Klaus2019'' concludes with [[spoiler: Klaus returning each Christmas to deliver toys to the children of the world... and popping in to see the friend who'd encouraged him to do so while he was alive]].

* ''TabletopGame/IronKingdoms''

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''ChildOfKamiariMonth'': As a reward for [[spoiler:completing her quest, Kanna is temporarily granted godhood as a descendant of Idaten and adorned with celestial raiments, though the divine clothes disappear and she returns to being human after leaving the realm of the gods]].

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': In ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment'', the insanity of the Bororgravian god Nuggan, coupled with the Disc's ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve and GodsNeedPrayerBadly rules has resulted in [[spoiler: the Duchess of Borogravia becoming a minor deity, as everyone prays to her because there's no point praying to him. And she ''hates'' it because the nature of their belief--that she would hear her people's prayers and intercede with Nuggan on their behalf--leaves her hearing every single one of their pleas without being able to ''do'' anything to help them.]]

* [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek and Roman gods]] included some who were apotheosized from mortal origins, most famously Herakles (Hercules) who became a god upon his death, according to his worshippers. Also Ino, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, who became the sea-goddess Leucothea, and Psyche, a mortal girl who became a goddess when she married Cupid (Eros), as related by the poet Apuleius.

** Though, it is notable that the majority of deified mortals in Greco-Roman myth were the progeny of gods already.
* In general, [[UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire Roman Emperors]] were worshipped as gods after their deaths until the entrenchment of Christianity; pre-Christian emperors who were not deified were, by and large, ones who were regarded as horrible, and typically had been overthrown. The custom of deifying Roman emperors led to Emperor Vespasian's last words:

* A fourth-century BC Greek philosopher, Euhemerus, claimed in a book that all the Greek gods and goddesses were based on great kings and queens, warriors, and innovators. This idea that many if not all gods are distorted interpretations of historical figures, euhemerism, would have many fans, like the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann and the novelist and mythographer Robert Graves. However, very few mainstream mythographers and scholars of religion use such interpretations nowadays.

* Although UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}}, UsefulNotes/{{Jainism}} and UsefulNotes/{{Taoism}} are often called "the non-theistic" triad of religions, in that they do not believe there is a Creator nor that gods should be worshiped, the three do have what can be considered equivalent of divinities and often called deities. The difference is that all of them are former humans (or other mortal beings) who attain enlightenment. Buddhas and Boddhisattvas in Buddhism, Xian (or Immortals) in Taoism, and Thintakaras in Jainism which are roughly the same concept. The very popular Buddhist deity Tara, for example, became a female Boddhisatva on purpose to promote beauty and inspire women. Also from Buddhism, even the gods of other religions are of human origin, as for Buddhists the other religions worship Devas. The Devas are finite beings, very powerful but not omnipotent nor immortal and they all were at some point a human or animal before (yes, even the Big One, Jehova, who some Buddhists believe is what Buddhist scripture calls the Mahabrahma or King of Devas). Some Devas are also Buddhist deities but more in the sense that they are Buddhist themselves and declared protectors of practitioners, so more akin to guardian angels or saints.

* In the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, the character that best fits this trope is probably the ''High Evolutionary'': he creates an entire planet and [[HollywoodEvolution evolves]] animals into new humans to populate it, as well as spending large periods of time away from his creation and no longer having a human body underneath his armor. However, he's still depressed at times by the presence of {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s out there who are ''way'' more powerful than he is. A more common way is to have a human join an established Pantheon of gods -- Loki, for example, tried to make ComicBook/{{Storm}} the new Asgardian god of thunder at one point -- but these ascensions have a tendency to end up being temporary.

* [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}''. [[spoiler: The CosmicEntity that created the Calamity Gems offers Anne the chance to replace it as the master of time and space. Anne gently turns the offer down because [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome she is only 13 years old and makes mistakes all the time so she is definitely not ready to have that kind of power.]] Though, it's implied she may ultimately take up the role after her death at age 91.]]

* Happens briefly to ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', after [=SpongeBob=] pleases Neptune with the flavor and effort put into his Krabby Patties. [=SpongeBob=] uses his new power to bring himself back to Bikini Bottom (instead of going to Atlantis without Patrick), and to make Neptune a fry-cook at [[BurgerFool the Krusty Krab]].

* In ''Franchise/TouhouProject'', Sanae Kochiya is a {{Miko}} who is both a goddess and a human at the same time (this is known as an ''arahitogami'', which is what the emperor of Japan was once considered). Two reasons for this: Suwako (an actual [[PhysicalGod goddess]]) is her direct ancestor, meaning she has divine blood, and during her life in the outside world her resultant ability to create miracles gathered her a small number of worshippers. That said, her divine powers are pretty weak, as she doesn't have many worshippers and her magic abilities outshine her divine ones anyway. When she first meets Reimu, she talks about how {{Miko}} can become gods if they try, to which Reimu replies she has no interest in that. According to [[AllThereInTheManual side materials]], most gods started off as humans, though the only one we know for certain this is true for is Kanako (and Suwako is closer to being a GeniusLoci).

* In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'', a man named Klaus became this long ago when he [[spoiler:destroyed the universe while performing a scientific experiment to create a new one. He and one of his fellow researchers became the gods of the world they created, Zanza and Meyneth. Alvis reveals in the ending that he is also one, having been the AI administrator of the experiment to create the new universe and holds higher power than Zanza or Meyneth. The only problem is Alvis, as an AI, can't weild his power in big ways, so he manipulates the world at its level to uplift a human of that world, Shulk, into a God so Zanza can be stopped.]]

** In ''[[Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods Battle of the Gods]]'', it is revealed that Saiyans can do a temporary version of this: in times of crisis, five good-hearted Saiyans can combine their energies into a sixth and have him become the "Super Saiyan God". [[spoiler:Goku does this but somehow he has absorbed the Super Saiyan God powers after it was supposed to have worn off and Whis suggests that Goku could one day become the new God of Destruction (Goku declines).]] It is heavily implied that Gods of Destruction come from incredibly powerful mortals -- Whis agrees to train Vegeta on the condition that he become a God of Destruction one day.
** The ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' adaptation of ''Battle of the Gods'' explains things further by stating there is "Divine Energy" which mortals normally can't sense. The Saiyan ritual allows the recipient to tap into this divine energy, and once exposed to it the person can later learn to harness it themselves. Later it comes up that there's also "Destruction Energy" which the Gods of Destruction wield, and during the Tournament of Power [[spoiler: Toppo of Universe 11]] ascends to become a new God of Destruction.

Compare AngelicTransformation, DemonOfHumanOrigin, GodGuise. May overlap with AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence, but that trope doesn't require actual Godhood, and this trope doesn't require a higher plane. In many, although not all, cases, this character may have been a GodhoodSeeker beforehand.

* The Creator/PeterDavid version of ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' was an [[OurAngelsAreDifferent "Earth-born Angel".]]

** The angel Moroni was once a mortal man, and back then he was a prophet, warrior, and historian.