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Semi-Divine
aka: Semi Divinity

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Someone should invite the Olympians on The Maury Povich Show.
"Open your eyes, let's begin.
Yes, it's really me, it's Maui: breathe it in!
I know it's a lot: the hair, the bod!
When you're staring at a demigod!"
Maui, "You're Welcome", Moana

A character that's not a fully supernatural being (such as a god, angel, demon, spirit in general, abomination, etc.), but has a touch of it or more in them. The character may be the offspring/descendant of supernatural creatures and mortals, or is part of a race that's inherently part-supernatural or in between. For that matter, the character might have even become part-supernatural as a boon from the Powers That Be or their own personal attempt to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence. The reverse can also happen, as a fully supernatural being Descends from a Higher Plane of Existence and winds up with a "mere" fraction of their former supernatural touch.

These characters tend to exhibit several superpowers, and if they aren't outright immortal, they're almost guaranteed to be Long-Lived. They may or may not qualify as Humanoid Abominations (who themselves have a high chance of being this character type), and that's if they look humanoid in the first place.

Often the result of a Divine Date. Changelings are also frequently found to be some mix of human and faerie. Divine Parentage, being Touched by Vorlons and a Deal with the Devil are common origins for this type of character. Having a piece of a magical being in you may also count. The Antichrist is almost always an example.

One can think of these characters as beings that are partly Made of Magic (or spirit-like beings in general).

As can be derived from the title, part-divine characters are one of the (if not, the) most common examples, which is unsurprising, considering the fact that many gods in mythology have had rather promiscuous lifestyles, and this would naturally extend to modern-day fiction. It should be noted, however, that this trope applies to any mix or midway between "normal" and purely supernatural beings, so this isn't limited to the literal Semi-Divine.


Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • The Grim Reapers of Black Butler, described by Sebastian as intermediate "between Man and God".
  • A Certain Magical Index has Saints, powerful people on the Magic side who are born with a portion of the Son of God's power in them. There are less than 20 of them in the world.
  • All of the Claymores are half-human and half-youma except for Clare, who is only one-quarter youma. They're born human and become half-youma by taking youma flesh into their bodies. A fallen Claymore warrior is called an "Awakened One" and is far more powerful than a pure-blooded youma.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Goku and Vegeta as they can transform into Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan (aka "Super Saiyan Blue"), becoming literal Physical Gods.
      • Goku takes this a step further with Ultra Instinct, an achievement of power that leaves Beerus and the rest of the Gods of Destruction shaking in their boots for a while.
    • In Dragon Ball Super, Goku Black is another example, being Zamasu inside Goku's body, and can transform into Super Saiyan Rose, another godly form. Fusion Zamasu, having merged with the demi-god Goku Black, is also a demi-god by default.
  • Naruto: Anybody who gets the Rinnegan (and can use its powers) possess the Six Paths Technique that basically makes them a demigod. To elaborate, the first of the Six Paths allows the user to summon powerful creatures, and see through their vision. The second allows them to absorb chakra, allowing them to negate most ninjutsu. The third rips out people's souls through physical contact. The fourth mutates the user's body into essentially a cyborg with multiple abilities, including firing lasers and missiles. The fifth can summon a gigantic hellish head that can heal any injury by crunching people in its mouth. The sixth manipulates gravity, and can create mini-black holes. Despite its name, there's actually a seventh power that allows the user to create chakra transceivers that can control corpses, people, and Tailed-Beasts alike if stabbed to their bodies, and allows the user to channel the powers of one of the other Six Paths at the controlled puppets, and see through their eyes too. Oh, and the seventh Path can also resurrect people Back from the Dead. The only thing that keeps a user of the Six Paths Techinique from being a full-scale god is the fact that they still have mortal lifespan.
  • Sailor Moon: Sailor Pluto, who is the daughter of the god of time, "Chronos". King Endymion in Act 13, says: "The blood of the god of time, "Chronos", runs through her veins.", and the incantation to use the Space-Time Key has "the almighty god of time, the guardian of time's father, Chronos!", and Sailor Pluto is that guardian of time.

    Comic Books 
  • Captain Marvel: "I'm not a man ... I'm not a god ... but you, Billy: you're both."
  • Jesse Custer in Garth Ennis' Preacher series, who is Blessed with Suck by unwittingly becoming the host for Genesis, a spirit that is half-angel and half-demon. This gives Jessie a Compelling Voice superpower with almost no limits, and it also gives him more problems than he can count.
  • The Spectre qualifies, as he's a dead human who is the host of (the angel that represents) God's Wrath/Vengeance.
  • Wonder Woman was originally a clay statue blessed by Aphrodite, then by 5 female goddess and Hermes, with special gifts and powers. In the New 52, its retconned that she is actually a daughter of Zeus.
    • As in mythology Hippolyta is the daughter of Ares and the mortal woman who founded the Amazons and acted as their first queen.
    • Cassie Sandsmark, the second Wonder Girl, was the daughter of Zeus and a human mother.
    • In one of her many retconned origins, Donna Troy was a "Titan Seed", orphaned children rescued by the Titans of Greek Myth and granted superpowers by them.
    • Originally, the Amazons had superpowers as a result of a training method which taught them to channel psychic energy into their muscles. Following the DC reboot of the 1980s, the Amazons were reimagined as a race of superhuman women created by the goddesses of Olympus (and Hermes) using the souls of women who had been murdered by men across time.
  • Hellboy has the appearance of a Big Red Devil, but a flashback in a later story reveals he's the child of a human witch and a demon lord. And a slightly later story reveals that his right hand—an oversized stone appendage—came from a Hyperborean statue infused with the same magic that the Archons used to create the world. Which makes Hellboy part-human, part-devil, and part-angel.
  • Teen Titans
    • Raven is the daughter of a human woman named Arella and an inter-dimensional demon lord named Trigon. This often allows her father to take control of her.
    • Lilith Clay was revealed to be the daughter of Thia a Titan of Myth who plotted to overthrow the gods of Olympus. Following the first reboot of the DC universe this, origin was erased.

    Eastern Animation 

    Fan Works 
  • Child of the Storm has a few:
    • Harry Potter is depicted as a demigod. At first, this does exactly nothing, since it takes a while to really kick in (and then tends to be more of a hindrance than a help, given that the sudden jumps in Super-Strength leave him mortally afraid of accidentally breaking someone). Later, on the other hand...
    • Diana of Themyscira, daughter of Hercules and Hippolyta, also appears.
  • In Chosen One's Adventure with Legendaries, all Legendaries can shapeshift into humans thanks to Palkia. The results of a relationship with a human in this form are Legendborns, who while an example of this trope are otherwise normal humans. Such Legendborns include Sir Aaron, son of Ho-Oh, and more recently Ash Ketchum, son of Lugia. It's also implied that Cynthia may be Palkia's daughter.
  • In Codex Equus, demigods are mentioned, with many being heroes in various cultures, though a few of them have gotten prominent focus.
    • It turns out Party Ponies with strange abilities like Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich likely are this trope: Pakak had twin daughters, Katharsis and Arlequin, with his wife, Shady of G1, who in turn ascended to godhood and had children of their own and thus distant descendants, leading to similar powers to Pakak's Toon Physics powers showing up in a very diluted form. Though this would mean the divine blood is extremely diluted by now.
    • Every Royal Changeling is a demigod, due to Blackrose and Blackthorn having multiple flings with mortals from different races. This makes them more powerful than the Common Changeling, being stronger, smarter, tougher, and magically more powerful as well as possessing a natural aura that attracts Common Changelings to them. Unfortunately, their divine heritage also gives them an strong sense of entitlement, seeing themselves (and their Parents) as the rightful rulers of Changelingkind and treating their "rebellious" subjects as ungrateful, disobedient children for leaving their Court. Luminiferous notes that ironically, Thorax, a lowly drone, was the only one to break his Curse and Ascend into something far greater, something that Blackrose or even Blackthorn's children have never done, which is a sign that their grudge against Dragonkind is really holding them back.
    • Thorax is a strange example in that he was once a lowly drone of Chrysalis's hive who became a Royal Changeling by willingly sharing his love with his ex-Queen. Despite being the equivalent of an infant demigod, it's implied that he's incredibly strong, even sending Changeling King Zorpheus halfway across Avalon with a single arcane blast that would've killed normal Royal Changelings. If he were to go further on his potential, he would've become a god on the same level as Blackthorn and Blackrose.
    • Crystal Prism, once a unicorn colt named Page Wheel, is physically a teenage Alicorn after Ascending very early in his life thanks to unethical experiments and strange, traumatic circumstances. According to Twilight Sparkle, Crystal's stint as a magic-absorbing monster gave him so much magic that after he was killed by Luminiferous and the Equestrian Princesses, the magic reacted by reviving Page Wheel's dead body in a cocoon, Ascending him in the process. So he's quite young both in mortal and divine terms, especially the latter since he's the equivalent of an infant demigod. It's revealed that his current state is because he was intended to become the Alicorn god of Rebirth and Change so he'll symbolize a "new age" for Ponykind, but he was encouraged to forge his own path instead.
    • All nineteen sons of Golden Scepter, an antediluvian Alicorn Emperor, are demigods, having been sired with a mortal pegasus mare named "Blessed Skies". However, through gaining Character Development by doing positive things based on what they each embody individually, all of them would become demi-Alicorn gods, making them the equivalent of infant divines. A few of them are Prince Blazing Hoof, the oldest of Golden Scepter's sons, and Prince Crimson Star, a blind psychic prodigy, though as more entries are published, more sons are named such as Prince Fanged Paw, Prince Written Word, and Prince Steel Barricade.
    • The villainous Dark Illustration is the son of the Fallen goddess Ispita and a mortal Pony stallion. His entry calls him a "demi-draconequus" whose chimeric traits are based on circus animals, though it's noted that part of this is due to shapeshifting abilities that he possesses.
  • The Confectionary Chronicles;
    • While all of Loki’s children are slightly stronger than the average pagan god due to their father’s angelic state, Sleipnir is particularly powerful as Loki was so shocked to realise that ‘he’ had become pregnant that he briefly departed his vessel, with the result that Sleipnir’s foetus briefly transformed with him and retained some of that power after birth.
    • Also invoked in a less direct manner with the revelation that Remus Lupin’s grandfather was Loki/Gabriel’s son Fenris. However, at the time Fenris had temporarily shed his godly status to live as a normal man and his own son was adopted anyway, so although Lupin is technically part of Gabriel’s family it doesn’t give him any aspect of Loki’s powers.
  • The Dark Lady: In a case of Adaptational Species Change, Robin II's name is brought up as being nothing but a coincidence, instead of being named after Robin Hood. This is because Robin Hood is not her father, with mentioning that she is a Demi-god, implying her father to be Hades.
  • Endless Pantheon: The Goa'uld are pseudo-divine beings, creatures of flesh born from the blood of Jormungandr. With a special necromantic ritual they were able to transcend this state to become full minor gods, but after the Great Offscreen War the ritual and associated powers were taken from them. Those who were gods before the Terms still have some echoes of their godly powers, but greatly reduced.
  • In Fate of the Clans The Divinity skill is a measure of a Servant's Divine Spirit aptitude. The higher the rank, the closer the person is to godhood. EX indicates the person is a Divine Spirit. It's a double-edged sword. While a higher rank does increase the person's strength the higher the rank the more of an effect an Anti-Divine weapon will have on them.
    • Cú Chulainn is an Irish demigod, son of the sun god, Lugh. His B-rank Divinity is why he has a larger-than-average mana pool. His Divinity is boosted to A as an Alter.
    • By removing eight of her tails, Tamamo was able to reduce her Divinity to A.
    • Iskandar and Chiron have C-rank Divinity.
  • The Pony POV Series, there have been several examples.
    • The most prominent is Fluttercruel, who was born from Discord's Mind Rape of Fluttershy, who's Demi-Draconequus.
    • Cupid was the child of the Love Goddess Venus and her husband, a mortal pony named Mars. Cupid was also the Concept of Sharing Love and showcases a unique trait of a Demi-God: the ability to move freely between the mortal plain and the spirit realm, something Fluttercruel is unaware of (probably because unlike her, Cupid's mother was an active part of her life). Unfortunately, Cupid was killed using the Concept Killing Spear and erased from existence along with his Concept. Eventually a mortal named Lovestruck, who is his twice removed Reincarnation due to the Lost Age, merges with Cupid's Shadow of Existence, inheriting his Demi-God nature and reconstituting his Concept. Another benefit of Demi-Gods is also revealed here: they aren't as powerful as full deities, but can freely use their full power without being detected by those who can sense the divine because their mortal half shields their divine half.
    • Another one is know to exist but has not been touched upon in detail: Galaxia, Celestia's sister, sired a family during her time in the mortal world, which is where Blueblood and Cadence's bloodline comes from, which technically makes Blueblood this trope, albeit incredibly diluted.
    • In a sense all of life itself is this. Fauna Luster is called the Mother of All Things because She gives birth to all souls. One side story even has all mortal life referred to as the half siblings of the Alicorns for this reason. This may explain how mortals have the potential to become gods.
  • We Are All Pokémon Trainers:
    • Following Okamiquest, Ammy has been left with a slight divine spark due to her transformation into a divine Arcanine.
    • Hitodama, Tagg's Lampent, is the demigodess progeny of Satine the Chandelure and Lifealope, who happens to be a minor deity and Xerneas' brother.
  • Enlightenments: Wander is semi-divine, thanks to the whole "still has a large chunk of Dormin's soul in him" thing. His powers are mostly just enhanced strength and being categorically unable to die and stay dead, as well as having a constant telepathic connection with the god who accidentally made him semi-divine. The horned boys are much weaker semi-divine entities, with their horns caused by the equivalent of one of Dormin's breaths; they're still mostly human compared to Wander.
  • There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton:
    • It's implied in A Cold Day In Erebus that the wizards and witches of Harry Potter are descended from ancient demigod children of Hecate. In Thanatos Scowled, it's revealed that they are her descendants, as well as those of other deities of magic.
    • Also in Thanatos Scowled, Nico wonders if Sam Manson is descended from Iris or Aphrodite when he sees her violet eyes, as their children are much more likely to have the more exotic eye colors.
  • If I Had The Strength has Madame Lan secretly being a Heavenly Official, so her sons by her husband husband are technically demigods — emphasis on the technically because they are acknowledged as extremely beautiful and talented but on the human level.

    Films — Animation 
  • Genie in the Aladdin sequels and series. After being freed by Aladdin's final wish in the first film, he has gone from having "phenomenal cosmic powers" to "semi-phenomenal nearly-cosmic powers".
  • In Disney's Hercules, the title character is this trope. Unlike in Greek Mythology, he was born a full-fledged god to Zeus and Hera, then Hades's minions remove most of his godhood with a potion, just leaving him with Super-Strength (due to not drinking the last drop). In the series, he was regularly referred to as a demigod, and we met several others.
  • Maui in Moana is a Disney depiction of a mythic figure common in a vast number of real-life Polynesian mythologies. While real-life depictions range from mere human to full-on divinity, this movie's depiction settles for the middle of the road and explicitly calls Maui a demigod. In this version, he was not born Semi-Divine, but adopted and given powers by the gods after his birth parents threw him into the sea.

    Literature 
  • The White Court in The Dresden Files. Their souls are half demon due to a demonic symbiote that gives them superhuman abilities and incredibly good looks, but at the cost of a Hunger for human emotions. The Raith family is particularly noted to go after lust.
  • The Reveal in The Immortals quartet is that protagonist Daine is a demigoddess through a minor God of the Hunt. This explains both Daine's unprecedentedly strong wild magic and her incredible archery skills.
  • In the Old Kingdom books by Garth Nix, the world was created by nine spirits of Free Magic, but in order to protect the world and humanity, the Seven created the Charter and bound most of the Free Magic in the world. Four of them poured most of their power into mortal bloodlines; the Clayr, the Abhorsen, the royal family and the Wallmakers. Consequently, although not directly related to a deity, they all do have powers inherited from a god (or close enough).
  • Kushiel's Legacy establishes that the D'Angeline people are distantly descended from God's grandson and his angelic companions. It has some advantages: they have fewer infirmities in old age, women won't get pregnant until they pray to "open their wombs", and they tend to be very pretty.
    • The original Master of the Straits's mother was a direct child of Elua (or one of his companions) by a human while his father was the renegade angel Rahab, giving him "three parts ichor to one part blood". While his curse keeps him alive, his ancestry keeps him in good health for over 800 years.
  • Vishous from Black Dagger Brotherhood is another example; he is the son of the Scribe Virgin, the deity vampires pray to in his universe. He also has a twin sister named Payne....
  • The The Camp Half-Blood Series (Rick Riordan's Verse) has this as its central premise: the gods of many mythologies are still around, usually act more modern and won't stop having demigod kids with mortals. Percy Jackson and the Olympians is about a special camp for the children of Greek gods (Camp Half Blood), The Heroes of Olympus is the same thing for the children of Roman gods, and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard is roughly the children of Norse gods.
  • The Delphaes in The Shining Ones started as humans but now are slowly evolving into gods. As a result, they possess awesome powers, but they can also melt alive anyone who gets too close to them. Eventually, they fully evolve into gods and leave the earth forever.
  • In the Inheritance Trilogy, demons are the descendants of both god and mortal, and include Oree, the protagonist of the second book. Since demons are themselves mortal, but also partake of godhood, their blood is the only thing that can kill the genuinely-immortal gods.
  • The Lord Ruler of Mistborn presents himself as a Physical God but is actually a human who briefly held a portion of the power of the god Preservation a millenium ago. Though he no longer possesses that power directly, while holding it he gained enough divine insight to make him scarily good at all three of the trilogy's forms of Functional Magic, rendering him immortal and virtually invincible. Word of God calls people like this from across the overall cosmology of Sanderson's works "Slivers".
  • No Gods for Drowning: Various people on this world owe some ancestry to a god and this allows them the abilities of these gods, albeit to a lesser extent compared to the gods.
  • Subverted in The Wheel of Time with the Forsaken, who are basically considered minor evil deities under the power of the Dark One in-universe, but are really just very powerful, very evil humans (the gap between legend and reality being a major theme of the series). However, in the last two books Rand becomes this or something pretty close after fully coming into his Enlightenment Superpowers, and is even able to face the Dark One on fairly even footing at the end.
  • In the Discworld novel Soul Music, a contemporary of Susan Sto Helit at their exclusive boarding school boasts of the Great God Blind Io having visited her great-great-grandmother as a shower of something or other, her great-grandmother being the causal result. Which she reckons makes her a hemi-semi-demi-goddess. All good for school enrollment... Susan, who herself is coming to terms with her own interesting genetic make-up bequeathed by her Grandfather, is not impressed.
  • Journey to Chaos:
    • Kasile is a direct descendant of the fire goddess Fiol, but there's a lot of human blood between the two of them. She's basically mortal but has access to divine magic.
    • Elves in general fit this trope because they carry fragments of Chaos inside them. It makes them into beings that are halfway between humans and tricksters.
  • The Divine Cities
    • With a pantheon of squabbling gods reigning over the Continent, it's not a surprise that there were plenty of semi-divine beings around before the Kaj killed the Continent's Divinities. Those beings were called the Blessed and reality itself felt the urge to accomodate their wishes, warping itself around them and — to a lesser extent — around their descendants. Saypur's last Kaj and resident godslayer, upon conquering the Continent, dragged them and any other divine creatures he could find out into the streets and executed them all.
    • In an ironic turn of events, the Kaj himself was part Divine, though he didn't know this until the last Divinity told him. It was the only reason, in fact, why and how he managed to develop a weapon strong enough to kill the gods, as a non-Blessed human could not have accomplished that.
    • Played With in Shara, who initially is taken aback by the idea of all her achievements in life being due to her being a descendant of the Kaj, but she is then assured that she has not inherited enough of it for reality to warp itself around her.
    • Vinya Komayd, Shara's aunt and head of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, on the other hand, turns out to be Blessed, meaning her entire political career was not her own achiement. Her bitterness over that discovery is what kicks the plot of City of Stairs off by ordering the death of Dr. Efrem Pangyui, who made the discovery in the first place.
  • A Piece in the Game of Gods: As revealed in Part 37, Demi-god is a possible state for certain characters to be, and is slightly connected to being basically adopted by a god.
  • In the novella A Taste of Honey, most of the important characters turn out to have some divine blood:
    • Aqib is related with Adónane and Perfecta through his mother's line of descent, although it's been many generations and the blood is very thin. It still allows him to communicate with animals on a level non-divine people cannot.
    • Femysade, also distantly related with the Ashëans, turns out to be their prophesized scientific savant and her smidgen of divine blood allows her to use their gadgets.
    • Lucretia, being the daughter of Aqib and Femysade, develops telekinesis at the age of eight and her own son Qary has the strongest telekinetic talent seen in a very long time.
  • The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps:
    • Demane is a demigod, though that's a tenuous descriptor as he admits himself, considering he is seven and five generations removed from his truly divine aunt on his mother's and father's sides, respectively. Aunty claims he's nonetheless stronger than anyone she's seen in a couple generations, and his divine heritage allows him to work minor miracles. He also has Super-Strength, a superiour sense of smell, can see in the dark and can control his metabolism to an extent. All of this has earned him the moniker 'Sorcerer'.
    • Captain is, according to Demane, way closer to the divine than Demane himself. His Super-Strength is superior to Demane's, as is his Healing Factor. He has Hyper-Awareness as well, his voice is so beautiful he cannot speak but sings and his hair can drink sunlight, which is why he keeps it hidden.
  • The Mortal Instruments: The first Nephilim were created when humans drank from a cup in which the angel Raziel mixed his blood with human blood. Their descendants inherited their divine blood. the angel Raziel mixed his blood with the blood of humans into a cup. The Downworlder races are similar: vampires and werewolves are infections originally created by demons, warlocks are the offspring of demons with humans, and fairies are descended from angels and demons mating.
  • Dark Shores has two types. One is Magnius, scion of sea goddess Madoria and a huge sea serpent who communicates telepathically with the crew of the ship he is guarding. The second are people "marked" by the Seven gods who give them various abilities: Madoria allows her chosen to breathe under water, Hegeria (goddess of the body) gives them healing abilities and the Seventh god enables his chosen to steal other people's life force through touch.
  • Villains by Necessity:
    • Bhazo, nicknamed "The Mad Godling" was born to Rhinka, the goddess of wisdom, and Cwellyn, a human who'd been the patron saint of bards, representing knowledge. He didn't have any special abilities until being granted all knowledge by the gods, which drove him mad (hence his nickname), aside from immortality.
    • One of the Heroes, Tamarne, was miraculously conceived by Cror, god of thunder (apparently it somehow involved coming to his mother in the form of a white tiger, which seems similar to stories about Buddha). He could call down lightning like his father, fight like Cror and was immortal. However, he sacrificed his divinity later to save the other Heroes during the War from the Dark King.
  • Tolkien's Legendarium: Lúthien, an elf from before the First Age, was born to Melian, a Maia (the legendarium's equivalent of angels). Lúthien's granddaughter Elwing is the mother of Elros and Elrond, the former of whom became ancestor to the Númenorean kings and their descendants (including Aragorn), while the latter is the father of Arwen, whose ethereal beauty is attributed to her Maia ancestry.
  • Of Fire and Stars: Demigods were once common in Zumorda. They live much longer than normal humans, though they're unable to have children of their own (so most adopt orphans). Most have Affinities that relate to whatever divine parent they have, though it varies just like mortals'. It turns out that Zhari is one, and Tristan's a quarter.
  • The Burning Kingdoms: Malini and Chandra's family supposedly descend from Divyanski, a goddess who is worshipped among their people.
    • A priest notes that Malini's appearance is similar to hers.
    • Chandra believes being a descendant of Divyanski is why he's the emperor by right.
  • Inkmistress: Asra's father is a god. Being a demigod gives her multiple magical abilities, such as use of Blood Magic and her Supernatural Sensitivity. Also she'll live for centuries, unlike mortals, though at the cost of being unable to ever have children. She soon meets several more demigods too, who also have abilities due to their divine parent. However, it turns out she's mistaken about her specific parentage. It turns out that her mother is the shadow god, with her father having been a mortal.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The vampires of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They retain their (enhanced) bodies and their minds, but their formerly human soul is replaced with that of a demon.
    • Hell, most of the "demons" are an example. They're the product of countless generations of interbreeding between humans and true demons, who were more like Eldritch Abominations than their typical depictions.
    • An example of a mortal attaining semi-divine status happens in Angel. Cordelia was dying because her psychic visions were causing Power Degeneration. After refusing a divine offer to give up her powers and live a normal life in order to continue doing good, she was rewarded by being turned part demon. Being allied with the (generally) good Powers That Be, her demonhood had no cosmetic effects, gave her immunity to Power Degeneration, and healing abilities.
    • Also from Angel, the fifth season gives us Ilyria, an Old One, a pure demon. Her current shell is too weak to contain her power, so Team Angel siphons off some of her power. So now she's a semi-human Old One with a fraction of her former strength.
  • Castiel during the fifth season of Supernatural. After rebelling against heaven to help the Winchesters save the world from the upcoming apocalypse, he steadily loses his divine power until he's basically human by the end of the season.
    • Sam and the rest of the psychic children. Their powers originated from being fed Azazel's blood when they were infants.
  • In the Stargate-verse, any character on the path to ascension displays a plethora of Psychic Powers, which signifies how close they are to becoming the god-like ascended.
  • In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Benjamin Sisko is the son of a human man and one of the Prophets (possessing a human woman).
  • The titular Shadowhunters are effectively a human sub-species gifted with angelic blood and paranormal abilities for the purpose of Demon Slaying.

    Music 
  • Leontius from Sound Horizon's Moira is noted to be descended from the Thunder God from his mother's side. As his siblings, so are Elefseus and Artemisia.

    Mythology and Religion 
  • The original demigod, Gilgamesh himself, was actually two-thirds god, thanks to having three parents (two gods, one mortal; the Mesopotamians thought that multiple fathers could contribute to a child). Or it might just have been a poetic way of calling him "more god than man" without making him fully divine.
  • Dragons in eastern mythology are often part-godly in nature.
  • Classical Mythology had a ton of them:
    • Heracles: In a similar vein to Gilgamesh, Heracles is not only the son of Zeus and Alcmene, but he is also descended from Perseus (incidentally his half-brother) and, arguably, Tantalus (yet another half-brother). He actually has more of Zeus's blood in him than any other god on Olympus.
    • The swan's children, Helen (her half - sister Clytemnestra was daughter of Leda and her human husband, Tyndareos) and her twin brothers Castor and Pollux: children of Zeus and Leda.
    • Odysseus spent a few years on two different islands shacked up with two different minor goddesses (Circe and Calypso). The Odyssey doesn't mention any children, but there's no such thing as a divinity that isn't Super Fertile. Later myths explore the lives of their many, many, many children.
    • Frankly, Zeus and a few other gods deserve a special folder all their own. Those rapists were all up ins. And gods make babies. Always.
    • Aeneas's mother was Aphrodite. Dude founded the city and fathered the people that would go on to later found Rome.
    • There were whole races that were thought to be somewhere between the Olympians and mortals in terms of divinity, such as the nymphs.
  • Jesus Christ actually averts this. Instead, the majority of Christian denominations hold him to be both 100% divine and 100% human.
    • The Nephilim of Judeo-Christian mythology are thought to be the children of angels.
    • The Human Race is stated in Genesis to be "created in the image of God".
    • Played Straight according to the Ebionites, an extinct early Christian sect who believed Jesus was an incarnation of an angel and the adopted son of God, but not God himself.
  • Merlin is thought to be the child of a demon and mortal, although in the original myths he was depicted as something of a fey spirit, so half-fairy was more likely.
  • In Hindu Mythology, Ganesh was a boy who was appointed by the Goddess Parvati to stop anyone from entering her bathroom while taking her bath. When Ganesh stopped her husband Shiva from entering, Shiva cut his head off. After Parvati found out what happened, she became angry, and Shiva had to fix Ganesh by attaching an elephant's head to Ganesh. Some variations on the myth depict him as already being divine, however, especially when he's the son of Shiva and Parvati.
    • In the Mahabharata there are the sons of Kunti: Karna (son of Surya), Yudisthira (son of Dharma), Bhima (son of Vayu), and Arjuna (son of Indra). Also the sons of Madri: Nakula and Sahadeva, the sons of the Ashvin twin gods.
  • From Irish legend comes Cú Chulainn, the son of the mortal woman Deichtine and the sun god Lugh. Additionally, a good number of the members of the Red branch - namely, Conall Carnach, Fachtna Fáthach, the three sons of Uisliu, and again Cuchulainn) are descended from Aengus Og - Fachtna through his daughter, Maga, and the rest through his granddaughters.
  • In Japanese Mythology, the entirety of humankind (or maybe just the Japanese) itself is semi-divine, due to being descendants of the First Emperor, who in turn is a descendant of the Sun Goddess, who in turn is a descendant of one of the creator of the world.
    • Furthermore, some humans can increase their divinity-level by being worshipped while still alive, they are known as arahitogami, or living-god.
  • The demon Mara in Buddhism is the son of a Deva, in fact one of his names is Devaputra Mara which literally means son of a god. Buddhism acknowledges the existence of four "Maras", three of them merely psychological concepts and the fourth an objective devil-like living creature. Should be notice, though, that Devas in Buddhism are not objects of worship as all are mortal beings. However his status as a semi-deva gave Mara a series of special powers including a long life span. Amusingly the fact that Mara is often described as "son of a god" rose some eyebrows when the first Asian Buddhists heard that Jesus was the son of God.

    Newspaper Comics 
  • Phil, Prince of Insufficient Light in Dilbert.

    Podcasts 

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • "The planetouched" all descended from outsiders — Tieflings and Aasimar are descendants of fiends and celestials, respectively. The Planetouched are not much above mortals in terms of power — close enough that they can be player characters with a bit of adjustment for level. Half-fiends and half-celestials are more immediate descendants of outsiders, and they are relatively more powerful.
    • In D&D 3E, every sorcerer gets their powers from some kind of encounter with a magical force somewhere back in the family tree (either directly or indirectly). Some of them are divine, infernal, or even draconic.
    • D&D also has Divine Rank 0 entities (normal beings have no rank at all). Such an entity isn't a god for most purposes (they don't grant spells, with one very specific exception that requires special training and effort on the devotee's partnote ), but they have many of the mechanical benefits of being considered divine (immortality, max HP, a host of immunities, some DR against non Epic weapons, resistances).
    • Abominations are, as their name suggests, negative examples of semi-divine beings. These results of "misguided deific concourse" were sealed away by their ashamed progenitors, and as a result nurse a grudge against the rest of creation. Abominations have just enough of a divine spark to be damned hard to kill — they're ageless beings who don't need to eat or breathe, have a host of Contractual Boss Immunities, and generally require epic-level heroes to slay them.
    • Planescape introduced proxies — mortals turned into extensions of the divine will and power.
    • Forgotten Realms, with its endless tug-o-war between deities, got Chosen — mortals given a chunk of divine essence to carry and work with. Mystra is most known for keeping a bunch of these, because as the goddess of magic, she had to stash some power in mortals. They're "not quite mortals" — don't age or need to sleep, immune to any poisons, and so on. Unlike proxyhood, this can't be called off at will, and as such happens only when gods are quite sure they want to make this specific follower overpowered and near-immortal — though, of course, if a Chosen becomes enough of a problem, the respective deity is likely to send powerful and more loyal minions to take it from the renegade's dead body; this happened to The Rebel Chosen (killed by Elminster) and Sammaster after he went violently insane (killed by Khelben).
      • Ubtao protects his faithful using Bara. These also have untouched will, but this status is explicitly contractual and can be easily lost through improper behaviour. Bara get immortality and an overpowered random signature ability. Known gifts included commanding any water creatures, raising The Undead with unlimited control, power over plant growth, and telekinesis strong enough to crush the Tarrasque beyond regeneration.
  • Exalted:
    • The eponymous Exalted are mortals that are blessed as the divine champions of the most powerful gods and god-like beings in the setting by means of having an Exaltation, a shard of divine power, merge with their souls. As a consequence, they tend to have abilities that far exceed those of the "normal" gods and spirits, which is most obviously seen in the Solars and their derivatives (although, it should be noted, the average god in Exalted is not generally anywhere near as powerful as the title might imply).
    • God-Bloods are the children of mortals and supernatural beings. Most are the offspring of gods and elementals, hence the name, but they can also be the progeny of demons, The Fair Folk, ghosts and the Exalted themselves. They are nowhere near as powerful as the Exalted (although ones sired by very powerful entities can get close) but they still get perks such as a few extra decades of lifespan, better health and resistance to sickness and poison, and the universal ability to channel Essence. Beyond that, their specific powers and even their appearance can vary wildly based on their parents'. This process, notably, is not strictly limited to humans, and God-Blooded animals can and do exist — there's nothing really stopping an animal god from mating with its chosen species, or an elemental spirit or inhuman demon from fertilizing whichever meatbag strikes its fancy.
  • Godforsaken: Cambions, sometimes called helborn, are born of mortal and demonic unions. Most cambions give in to what everyone expects of them, and embrace evil.
  • In Nomine: By using the Songs of Fruition, it's possible for celestial beings — i.e., angels and demons — and for ethereal spirits — typically the more powerful ones, such as fey, embodied archetypes, or the pagan gods — to have children with mortals. The fruit of these unions have greater inherent spiritual power and affinity for the supernatural than regular humans do. However, they also have a chance of being born as monsters, warped in body and mind, and shunned and feared by celestials, ethereals and humans alike. These unfortunates are known as Nephallim when sired by celestials and gorgons when born of ethereals.
  • Leviathan: The Tempest: The titular Leviathans are part God of Evil, part Kaiju, and part human, the descendants of Eldritch Abominations that (according to the Tribe's own mythologies) once ruled the world in savagery and terror before the true Gods cast them down and raised humanity to civilization.
  • Pathfinder:
    • The Aasimar are beings descended from good-aligned Outsiders like angels or azatas and mortal humanoids (most often humans); they are often unearthly beautiful, ethereal, and are one of the longest-lived races in the game, and have a few innate good- and light-based powers.
    • The Celestial sorcerer bloodline is a sorcerer of any race who either has a good-aligned Outsider ancestor somewhere in their family tree, was blessed by a good-aligned deity at their birth, or something similar. They eventually gain powers like the ability to manifest and fly with feathery, angelic wings, as well as the ability to purge things with light.
  • RuneQuest: The children of gods are not automatically gods (although they can become so after their deaths if people care to worship them). They do have great powers and often long lives. For example, Ezkankekko the Only Old One, son to the troll trade god Argan Argar and the human earth goddess Esrola, could appear as troll or human at need, had vast magical powers, and lived for millennia before ultimately being killed by Belintar.
  • Scion: The Scions are the children of gods, and can ascend to godhood themselves.
  • Warhammer 40,000: The Primarchs and, to a lesser extent, the Space Marines. The Primarchs are the 20 "sons" of the God-Emperor, and while they aren't as powerful as him, they're nigh-godly unto themselves. The Space Marines are warriors who are biologically augmented with the geneseed of the Primarchs, and they're basically an army of individuals who can each slaughter a thousand men by themselves.

    Video Games 
  • The Demonspawn and Demigods of Dungeon Crawl. They can be created through magical experiments, breeding with demons and gods/angels, (un)holy pacts, or any number of other ways. The former are very versatile and have a wide range of (random, but usually powerful) abilities from their demonic mutations, but are weak against evil-smiting powers. The latter have the highest base attributes in the game, and have a lot of HP and mana pools, but they level slowly and can't worship a god, which is pretty bad, as a lot of powers and bonuses can only be gained through religion.
  • In the Baldur's Gate series, the Bhaalspawn are the children of Bhaal, the Lord of Murder. He sired them so they would kill each other until none remained, at which point his essence that was scattered among them would have accumulated, and his chosen follower, Amelyssan, would have performed rituals that would have brought him back. Neither Amelyssan nor the last Bhaalspawn (the protagonist) complied to these plans, however.
  • Dante and Vergil of Devil May Cry are both the sons of Sparda, a demon who made other demons look like wet tissue paper in comparison. Devil May Cry 4 introduces Nero, Vergil's son who has also inherited great power from his grandfather.
  • Faraway Story has Celestials, beings with both human and godly ancestry. Two of the party members, Ellevark and Marinet, are Celestials.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • The descendants of the 12 Crusaders in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, who got their divine powers from drinking the blood of the Dragon Gods, get these powers passed to them through blood inheritance.
    • Corrin and Kana from Fire Emblem Fates in particular are the children and grandchildren respectively of Anankos, the Silent Dragon and a Physical God in his own right. Part of the reason why they can transform into a dragon despite the First Dragons having left this world is because of their direct ancestry from one of the only remaining First Dragons left in the world Fates is set in.
    • Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Crest bearers are people born with blessings bestowed onto them by the goddess Sothis. These blessings can be superior strength or a high aptitude for magic.
  • In F.E.A.R, the unnamed child that was produced by Alma Wade raping Michael Becket (the protagonist of Project Origin) certainly counts. It's even described as a ghost in the flesh.
  • In Disgaea, Laharl is the son of the former overlord and a human.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • In Morrowind, anyone who uses of Lorkhan's Heart can become this, which is how Vivec, Almalexia, Sotha Sil, and Dagoth Ur acquired their immense powers. Those afflicted with the Corprus Disease (created by Dagoth Ur) also have a touch of the divine, given as... not exactly a boon, but seen as such by the gifter and his cultists. The Nerevarine gets infected over the course of the main quest but later gets cured of the downsides, making them functionally immortal.
    • The Septims in Oblivion are all descendants of the God-Emperor Talos, who himself was Dragonborn, meaning he was imbued with the divine soul of a dragon by the Top God Akatosh which he passed down to them. It's for this reason that they're hunted down and butchered by the Mythic Dawn as part of their plot to help Mehrunes Dagon destroy the world.
    • The Last Dragonborn of Skyrim, who like the Septims before him was born with the soul and blood of a dragon (who are otherwise known as aedric spirits), but has the body and mind of a mortal.
  • The Hito-Shura in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne is a curious case - the catalyst for his transformation into a half-demon was an artificial parasite forcefully implanted against his will. The implications are also notable; it is mentioned demons are wholly subservient to their nature in return to their immortality, and that humans are able to shape their own destinies, but are mortal in exchange, leaving the Hito-Shura as a truly interesting being with the best attributes of both races with none of the downsides - as lampshaded by a Loa near the entrance of the Labyrinth of Amala.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, it is eventually revealed that the Royal Family of Hyrule is descended from the goddess Hylia, as the first Zelda was her mortal reincarnation.
  • In Dark Souls, all humans have a touch of divinity since each carries a fragment of the Dark Soul, a Lord Soul that is fundamentally different from the Lord Souls wielded by the gods.
  • Likewise, Spiritual Successor Elden Ring makes the player character one of the Semi-Divine "Tarnished." Unlike most entries on this list, the Tarnished were born to low level divinity. The name comes from all those to whom it applied having committed some sort of transgression that caused the Greater Will to exile them, hiding its Grace from their eyes. The player's Tarnished is on a redemption arc, as the Greater Will has restored their ability to perceive its Grace.
    • Subverted by the "Demigods," of the Lands Between. The terms of "God," and "Demigod," here seem to refer to their generation, not their divinity. For example, Radagon was a mortal hero elevated to godhood who is referred to as a god, while his daughter with Marika, Top God of the Lands Between, is called a Demigod.
  • Tales of the Abyss Luke fon Fabre is proclaimed by the Score to inherit the power of Lorelei, the Pure Magic Being behind the Score, which makes him a lesser Reality Warper with the power to destroy the whole world if he was of the mind for it. That is, the real Luke, now known as Asch, is this. The Luke the audience meets first and is The Hero of the piece is the replica of the original and, by the verse's physics, actually a God in Human Form, being another Lorelei.
  • God of War: Before ascending as the new God of War, Kratos was revealed to have been one of the many demigod sons of Zeus. His true nature was heavily implied through the first two games by his impressive feats of physical strength and the ability to wield magic weapons and artifacts, and it was only outright confirmed at the very end of the second game and a unlockable extra ending in the first game that went on to be featured in the spin-off title Ghost of Sparta.
  • In Wildstar the Dominion was founded by a half-human half-Eldan hybrid known as Dominus. His most pure-blooded descendants, the Luminai, are deified.
  • In Mortal Kombat, the Edenians are stated to be descendants of the gods. This is the reason for their mystical abilities and incredibly long life cycles. Rain himself is revealed to be the son of the Edenian god, Argus, himself in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.
  • In Six Ages, the children of gods aren't automatically gods themselves, but tend to have powerful magic and long lifespans. Cenala, who claims to be the daughter of the Rider god Hyalor and the elf goddess Aldrya, is initially presented as simply a powerful and supernaturally long-lived priestess. As the game progresses she grants omens and even miracles to her followers, and if she shows up, she's drawn in the same style as the gods are. But unlike true gods, she seems to experience time normally, lives in a physical place, and can't stay away from her home too long lest she start aging normally. She can also be killed, but that's true of the gods as well. The game's lore also provides some more examples: your culture-founder Hyalor, the son of a minor god who led his people for generations as a seemingly immortal hero, and was deified after his eventual death; his counterpart among the Ram People, Vingkot; and Verlaro, a god who fell to this status when his people stopped worshipping him.
  • Radiant Arc: Linky is half-angel due to Irin being his mother. If he sustains near fatal damage and survives, he can regenerate and unlock more of his angelic power. This is a requirement to become the Radiant Arc, since angelic power is required to defeat Zardon. The previous Radiant Arc was a human who was granted angelic power.

    Visual Novels 
  • Divinity in Nasuverse is somewhat arbitrary and is ranked; the closer you are to the gods, the higher the rank. This results in heroes such as Gilgamesh, who is two-thirds divine (Rank A), but has his divinity reduced to Rank B since he himself dislikes the gods, and Medusa, who has had her divinity reduced severely despite being a goddess after being transformed into a demonic creature.
    • In Fate/stay night, this actually does have an impact on the plot because one of Gilgamesh's Noble Phantasms, Enkidu, gets stronger the higher the target's Divinity Ranking. To a normal person it's just a tough but relatively normal set of chains, but against Divinity it's a nigh-inescapable trap once caught. Too bad for Illya in the Unlimited Blade Works route when that target happens to be her Servant Herakles, not only a demigod who ascended to full godhood after his death but the one who, to quote the Myths and Legends folder on this page, had more of Zeus' blood in him than anybody else except for Zeus himself. In the Fate route, Cu Chulainn is ultimately restrained and executed by Gilgamesh after a long off-screen battle thanks to his Rank B Divinity, and in Fate/Zero, he once again uses the chains to restrict Iskandar, who has Divinity thanks to claiming to be a distant descendant of Zeus, and deal a killing blow.
    • Caster, Tamamo-no-Mae from Fate/EXTRA is depicted as this. As she is the aspect and mortal incarnation of the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, herself. In her past, she chose to be born as mortal and lost most of her power in the process but still retains some amount of her divinity. In order for her to be summoned as a Heroic Spirit or Servant, she must be willing to lower herself down from her former nine tails to just her original single tail in the process, just to make her on the same level as other Servants as she is technically considered way above the category as a Heroic Spirit and more of actually a Divine Spirit.
    • Fate/Grand Order introduces a slew of Servants with varying levels of Divinity based on being descended from gods, are gods or divine creatures (or fragments of one), possessing close ties to divine beings (such as Jesus or the Buddha), or having been artificially granted it through outside means (such as obtaining an Eldritch Abomination's power or merging with a Phantasmal Beast).

    Webcomics 
  • In Aurora (2019), Kendal is a vessel created by a god to facilitate interaction with mortals who gained a consciousness of his own after the god in question was forcibly extracted from the vessel. Several characters refer to him as a "demigod" or "godling". Since there is no precedent for someone like him existing, different gods Kendal encounters have different interpretations of how he fits into divine politics.
  • In El Goonish Shive, all elves are this, being offspring of Immortals and humans.
  • Gunnerkrigg Court has Antimony Carver, who's part fire-elemental.
  • Sluggy Freelance: "Mohkadun" features some "godlings" who are the descendants of the Top God of Mohkadun and a human. It's not so clear how they are different from the full gods.
  • Tower of God:
    • The Princesses of Jahad are imbued with some of the power of their adopted father, the God-Emperor of the Tower. They tend to be among the most powerful people in the Tower.
    • All Rankers might count — except when they are full Physical Gods — because they reportedly derive much of their great power from a contract with the Administrators. The details of this aren't very clear, though.

    Web Animation 

    Western Animation 
  • Danny Phantom, along with Vlad Masters and Danielle Phantom, are half ghost, though there was no breeding between ghosts and humans involved: the former two were both results of lab accidents, and the latter was cloned.
  • Maya and the Three: The very first episode reveals that Maya herself is one. She’s the daughter of a human, King Teca, and the Goddess of Death, Lady Micte. There is also Zatz, the Prince of Bats, who is the son of the God of Bats and a mortal woman.
  • Steven Universe is the son of a human musician and Rose Quartz, a magical alien gemstone. He inherited her gem along with her powers, and a good chunk of the show is about how he deals with the messes his mother left behind and learning how to use those powers. Then it turns out that Rose was actually Pink Diamond — Diamonds being revered as the next best things to goddesses by said magical alien gemstones.
  • Raven of Teen Titans (2003), daughter of the human woman Arella and the arch-demon Trigon, who inherited a degree of her father's vast magical powers. Destined to be the harbinger of the end of the world; spends most of her time trying to thwart her fate.
  • Wakfu:
    • While the exact powers of demigods vary depending on their godly parent, one constant seems to be being blessed with enhanced physical abilities and an extended lifespan, whether it be just being Long-Lived and/or some form of Reincarnation.
    • Eliatropes and their Dragon siblings are the first creations of the supreme gods Eliatrope and Great Dragon.
    • Goultard is the son of the god Iop and one of his mortal followers Cabotine.
    • Flopin and Elely are revealed to be this with the revelation that Sadlygrove is actually the reincarnated form of the god Iop, who is also slowly regaining his godly powers, though only the latter has actually manifested godly powers likely due to the fact she's a Iop as her divine father is.
    • The villains of the third season, the Brotherhood of the Forgotten, are a group composed entirely of demigod children of gods, united by a common disgust with their parent's apathy toward them and mortals in general. Also, the third season reveals Ruel Stroud was in fact a son of the god Enutrof all along.

Alternative Title(s): Semi Divinity, Quasi Divine, Semi Infernal, Part Abomination, Semi Spirit, Physical Demigod, Godling, Semi Supernatural

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