The Apotheosis

Aliens? Aliens? This article is about a subject that is from official sources but is not considered canon.

“	The Apotheosis has begun Geoffrey. (…) It's the process of being elevated to a divine state. New gods for a new age are being born Geoffrey, but only one of us will survive to become permanent. We fight one-on-one to the death with the victor absorbing the power of the vanquished. The more battles we win, the more strength we acquire, until finally only the two most powerful remain. And whoever wins that battle claims the power of all the gods born during the Apotheosis and gains the ultimate prize: immortality.	”
	— Adamantine explains the Apotheosis to her priest Geoffrey Ramsey.

The Apotheosis is an event where new gods are born and fight to determine who will be the victor and achieve true godhood.

Description

The Apotheosis begins with the Mythmaker, a human born with the ability to create gods out of their imagination, creating new gods one by one. The gods are created to fill various archetypes and take forms appropriate to the era in which they are created. Dozens of gods are created during this process which can take days.

Once created, the gods seek out worshippers who the gods Bind to them, in effect creating a link between the god and their worshippers from which the god can draw their life force to make themselves stronger and heal serious injuries during battle. Furthermore, the worshippers can willingly lend their gods some of their strength by praying to them. The more worshippers a god has, the stronger the power they can draw on. Worshippers can switch from one god to another at will, particularly if their god has been defeated and killed in battle. As the Apotheosis goes on, a god might grant their followers enhanced abilities to aid in combating rival gods and their worshippers.

When two gods meet, they usually perform a ritual where they introduce themselves and then end it by stating that "in the end, there shall be One." This is not always done and appears to be a matter of personal choice. Sometimes, the words simply being spoken even if they are not heard is enough to qualify. The gods challenge each other in fights to the death in which the gods can only be killed with their own weapons, though the weapons of other gods are capable of hurting them. When killed, a god's body and weapon transform into a sphere of white light that contracts into about the size of a soccer ball. This heals the victorious god's injuries and grants them all of the defeated god's power. No trace of the defeated god is left behind, not even their blood that has been spilled. A victorious god is capable of stopping the defeated god's weapon from being consumed and can claim it for themselves to use in battle.

At the end of the Apotheosis, the two gods that have won all of their challenges will meet in battle with the victor gaining the power of all the gods born and killed during the Apotheosis and achieving true immortality. The final step of the Apotheosis is for the final god to kill the Mythmaker and to absorb their power. The final battle is not a fight of physical combat, but the two strongest gods pitting all of the raw power they have against each other while drawing on their worshippers life forces for more energy.

Hunter Sam Winchester theorizes that the Apotheosis is a method of reproduction for the species occurring when the species is endangered and facing extinction.

Appearances

• Supernatural: Mythmaker