44: Answers and Avatars
People checked the Main Hall in the morning, and looked at the gems. A few more had been added.
Drenak got a sad look on his face and said loud enough for everyone to hear “They were killed to become Aspects of their killers. Those fools! Unless they had a following, there is no real gain for it!”
When Felinia came on stage, she surprised them all.
“I will not go straight into the lecture, but instead ask if there are any questions regarding Aspects from yesterday?”
Someone called out “You mentioned that Aspects can become physically separate from the Deity’s main body, and that they can be killed. What happens when this occurs?”
Felinia nodded. “Good question. Aspects having separate bodies like that is a lot like Avatars, but with some important differences. I will cover this in more detail latter, but I will quickly sum it up for now.
“The bodies are formed using the same principle as an Avatar, or a new Deity. When an Aspect like this is killed, you lose all the power you put into it, and you also lose all the worship sent via that Aspect. The same applies to Hosts and Incarnations. If you wish to regain it as an Aspect, you will have to redevelop it as such. It helps if people honor it as an Aspect of you, but if they just honor it primarily as its own, things are harder.”
“What if someone kills an Aspect and uses it as a Mask?”
Felinia smiled. “Nicely done. It is possible, if they get followers positioned there to establish it first.”
Some else called out “Is it possible to steal an Aspect?”
Felinia chuckled. “Yes. Convince people that it is actually one of your Aspects. Belief is a wonderful and scary thing. If you convince the people the Aspect is its own being, it mainly keeps the power for itself. If you convince the people that the Aspect belongs to you, the power sent to it is sent to you. If the people are split, like if someone is absorbed by another, then part of the power goes to the Subsumer, and part goes to the Subsumed. And if people believe that the Aspect belongs to different Deities, the power can be split, with the different ones starting to be able to influence it. This is a very tricky method, but it can work.”
The students were silent for now as they had to consider things.
Felinia waited a little bit and said “Now, for Avatars!”
She entered lecture mode and told them “Avatars in their basics are simple, and overlap with Aspects. In fact, some Avatars can become Aspects, and Aspects can have Avatars associated with them.
“To create an Avatar you use your essence and power to create an artificial body for it. The body will require your will to maintain it. It is effectively like a golem or doll you possess. And that is the very basics of an Avatar.”
There was stunned silence, for a few seconds, followed by a loud uproar as the students could not believe it!
Felinia just stood there and smiled, clearly enjoying their anger and frustration.
When they calmed down, she told them “I said it was the very basics. I did not say it was everything I was going to teach you.”
The silence was now that of embarrassment.
“The difference between an Aspect’s manifestation and an Avatar is that the Aspect has its own personality, awareness, and sometimes power. They also have Essence in them that is part of the main Essence, yet tinged as to reflect their personality. After all, your spiritual energy while calm or angry is different, even if is all the same energy. Avatars do not have such Essence in them. There may be parts from being effectively a host possessed by the Deity, but none of their own.”
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There interest in that.
She let that sink in.
“On a side note, it does not take a Deity to even Quasi-Deity to create an Avatar, or Aspect. Technically spells that make Spectral eyes or hands to see or work at distances make crude Avatars. Multiple Personality Disorder sometimes has the personalities manifesting different emotional traits, or serving different purposes.”
“Getting back on track. Aspects can create their own Avatars. That is simple. These are called Aspect Avatars. This is highly different from Aspectual Avatars.
“There are 2 ways an Avatar can become an Aspect.
“The first involves Divine Law. The Deities of one world are not allowed to interfere with the politics of another world. I have shown you how to by-pass it with a loophole for things like Clerics visiting other worlds. However, what happens if you get followers in another world. Enough followers to be considered a Deity there?
“You need to actually reach that world with your Essence. Often this is done by using their faith to create an Avatar of yourself. More precisely, the Aspect of you they worship. Remember, you will be starting out in that world as a Demi-Deity. That becomes your Prime Aspect for that world.
“Any questions there?”
“What happens if that Aspect gets killed? Can you just make another one?”
Felinia grinned. “No You have to go through all the bother of getting enough power there to remake it. This is one reason to store power when you can.”
Someone called out “So, if I was afraid of that magic Deity or another power deity that could fill a niche I can’t, Would I be able to limit their ability from the start on their arrival by encouraging it to be a minor and harmless Aspect to start with?”
Felinia chuckled. “It would work.”
Someone else called out “If the weak Aspect was killed, could it be replaced with an Avatar of a more powerful Aspect?”
Felinia thought for a bit and said “No, you could not just do that. You would have to have the other Avatar summoned in its own right. However, since all the worship for you would have been drained via the weak Aspect, and any stored power would be unconnected to other Aspects, you would have to get the power raised from scratch again. And you have to keep in mind other Deities would be trying to steal the Aspects that they can.”
There was a lot of thinking. It was very confusing.
Felinia continued “The other way to make an Avatar into an Aspect is if the Avatar focused on something within the Domains of the Deity, but in a way that seemed a bit different. For example, a Deity of music might have Domains that covers entertainment, knowledge, and Bardic Magic. They might make an Avatar that uses music to case spells, and people honor it as a focus for bardic magic, thus allowing it to become an Aspect of Bardic Magic.”
She looked around “Any questions?”
Someone, who was making an effort to disguise their voice, called out “Is there a minimum required number of followers to create an Aspect?”
Felinia paused. “I never considered that. Hmm, since this is the first group I am passing the ability to, it will be easy to deal with this. You will need the amount of belief of 300 dedicated followers to create and maintain an active Aspect that can operate separately from the main body, or turn an Avatar into an Aspect. That is 300 dedicated followers in the world that it is to be active in.”
There was a lot of swearing at that.
Someone called out “What do you mean by active?”
“Imagine an Aspect loses its followers, but people learn about it latter and start honoring it just in case it has an effect. While it has no followers, it is dormant. While it has followers, it is active. The thing it is will require 300 dedicated followers for it in order to create an external body for it. The same amount of faith needed for a Demi-Deity.
“Avatars do not need that limit, but still take power to create and maintain.”
Someone called out “How many people here are Aspects and Avatars of you or Gallen?”
Felinia was stunned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you and Gallen are twisted enough that I would not put it past you to create Aspects and Avatars to come here and act as students just to mess with our heads.”
Felinia burst out laughing. “I haven’t done it, but I like your paranoia. I don’t think Gallen has either. He told me he hasn’t. I checked. We’re waiting to see how this class goes before seeing if we will try it on the next class.”
“You mean you are not checking up on us?”
Felinia shook her head. “This entire world is part of my Domain. I know everything that happens here. I don’t need to do it. Gallen? He might be willing to do it for a laugh, and to teach, but we want to see how things go first. Besides, he doesn’t need to do that to join you and guide you. He would much rather join you as a fellow student on his own.”
Smiling wickedly, she added “Besides, why do you think he is the only such talented person I have working for me?”
With that mental bomb thrown among them she smiled and left.