Divine Rebellion

Idea: Main Character

Genre: Fantasy

Pitch: After thousands of years of civilization, humanity still swoons over the legends and myths of ancient divine stories. Greek gods of the Pantheon, the Norse gods of Asgard, Egyptian gods of Nut, etc, etc. These gods tamper with humanity, often through a chosen hero, and pettily meddle in each other’s goals. They are often helpful hands to their favorite mortal, or they’re a quest giver or a reluctant assistant. But because of their power, they often are unable to take main roles, and are restricted as side characters. After all, a superpowered, knowledgeable, orderly protagonists could easily overcome any opposition and thus wouldn’t be interesting to readers. So, in order to give the divinities a challenge and take a more protagonist role, authors make them mortal.

Incarnated deities aren’t new. Even before the Bible, there were stories of gods taking on human form, like the Chinese myth of Chang’e and Houyi, Disney’s Heracles, and more. But usually these characters retain at least some of their mystical powers to separate them from the mortals and protect themselves when things get out of hand. That could be changed. A fallen divine, completely trapped in a mortal body. This character would be spoiled rotten and completely naïve and nonunderstanding of the struggles of worldly life, and would have to learn from the ground up.

This premise is linked with another question — how and why would it happen? Deities often follow some pattern of order, so a fallen one must have broken some rule in order to be cast out. Which begs the question, is this character in the wrong, or is it the system? Did the character abuse their celestial powers and disturb the balance of things? Or are the other divinities corrupt and indifferent, and this one dared to oppose them? And how will this character interact with the mortals? How would their personality change with their sudden lack of power?

Of course, the character’s main goal would almost certainly be to return to their former glory. No matter where their morals stand, they would not want to remain in such a ‘lowly’ form, practically helpless and guaranteed to die eventually. Anything that could save them would lead them on a new quest. But, as they experience the joys and pains of mortal life in their travels, they would become better at empathizing and compassion. They would gain friends, and their eyes would be opened to the arrogance of their own previous attitudes. With this new understanding and their eventual return to immortality (perhaps), they could change the realms of both humans and gods.