>>43288774I've had ideas on how this could work, one of which I really liked; basically, you are given powers and blessings by your patron deity, and in return you do things to further their cause or religion in the world. That's how Gods gain power, and spread influence.
The only problem is that they would lose power if you were to become a god yourself: you would take religious worship and belief from them, and therefore weaken them. So the champions of the Gods are constantly given "Heroic tasks" that the Gods will no doubt benefit from, but are also hoping that their Champions are curtailed. They can always get new champions, or raise anyone from a lowly peasent to a noble knight to being a Champion for them, but they can't stop you after a certain point from gaining power. People will know of your deeds, and will believe in you.
I was hoping to eventually turn this into some grand plot twist where the Gods manipulate humanity and basically use us for their own power base, but that without them we wouldn't have anything beyond sticks and stones. The gods would constantly be fighting one another in a titantic power struggle on the other side of mortality and we are their fodder, but without them we wouldn't have civilization.