Lesser Deities

The power of souls can be shared, siphoned, stored, and otherwise used by people who didn't originate it... so what happens when someone gets the bright idea of becoming the focal point of donated (or 'donated') power?

Some examples are Athena, Thor, Mawu, and Coyote: Deities.

When someone engages in an act of worship (the specific act is irrelevant: The person doing it sinply needs to think of it an act of worship... and this works even if it's under duress), they send some of their soul power to the target of their worship. If it's accepted, the recipient can then do what they wish with the power, much as if it was their own. Enough donations make a person very powerful, even if the scattered sources are individually very weak. Even the dead can participate: A deity who has prepared an afterlife can capture worshippers' souls as they die, and slot them into the afterlife... where most of the energy produced by souls is siphoned off to maintain the afterlife, a small amount diverted to the deity.

However: Accepting such power is a form of suicide. Soul energy is imprinted with the feelings and thoughts of the source soul: A small amount of another's power will kust result in odd dreams, maybe some otherwise-unexplained mood swings. Consistent use of large amounts? The would-be deity is functionally overwritten with what amounts to a weighted average of the worshippers' beliefs about their deity. Real memories drown under the weight of collectively believed stories and become passing fancies at best. Whatever beliefs held, whatever personality the person had before: Crushed and molded to fit the aggregate belief of the congregation: Identity death.

Many who set out on that path died trying. Some 'succeeded', unaware of the problem, and became what they pretended to be. Some thought they could handle it, and were sorely mistaken.