...Gods are NOT characters, ya'll. They're Gods. Hence the God-Modding rules.
As for my input...
I have a number of conspiracies that I will bring to the table.
First in foremost, in the regards to 'powering down'. Think of it like this; what if the Elder Gods, when they power down... Are actually doing something along the lines of cellular division? Keeping a 'Parent-Cell' alive and hidden away as they divide themselves into many many individual gods. In doing so, they actually create a 'rampancy' effect sort of along the lines of what happened to Cortana in Halo 4. Each split gains its own views, own outlooks.
The Host, or 'Parent-Cell' God, who split apart into all these little individual gods to begin with, meanwhile stays quiet and hidden away, contemplating its return.
2: another possibility, and one that's much more reasonable in ya'lls opinions, is that the Elder Gods traveled FAR beneath the world in Gielinor... Father than the Tzhaar, or that Daemonheim, goes. There, they took a form of 'stasis'-sleep, drifting deep into a slumber that the Tzhaar and other creatures could not awaken them from. This would give The World Wakes video's beginning a bit more sense.
3: A third option... and one that's already been mentioned... Is they 'drop' their power levels, but contrary to ya'lls ideas, they actually retain full immortality... However, they hold much less power than their original forms, and are 'hidden' in a manner of speaking. Sort of like Mahjarrat shapeshifting, where Mahjarrat take the form of certain individual races. That being said... Yeah, Hans could be an Elder God. I wouldn't put it past him.
Their only difference is that they are outright immortal, though they can feign their death in their certain forms. Through this, if one of you jerks decided to kill Hans.... and Hans was actually an Elder God... He'd just make it appear as though he died when the Elder God behind the image of Hans is actually laughing his/her ass off because everyone around you is now going 'dude wth is your problem?!' and attacking you.
Just a few ideas on the 'powering down'. That being said, I'll move along to a different subject:
Breaching a certain threshold of power to attain godhood being the way of 'attaining' Godhood, could it be said that if a being had gained enough power throughout the countless years, they could ascend to godhood without the use of an Elder Artefact? If so... It'd explain how a lot of these Demons we see amidst the Elder Category can level towns, etc.
That being said, Lord Pyromaniac is CLEARLY a God by now... The Stone of Jas-Sword must've given him godhood status while he was using it in Falador bar many many months ago.
No, but on a serious note... Could it not be within the realm possibility that Zaros isn't a God; He's just a Demonic Lord/Ancient Demon. Or rather, A demon with even MORE power than an Elder Demon. This would explain why him getting stabbed with the staff of armadyl didn't kill him. In truth, he actually just got sent back to pandemonium, Or however you call it, to re-manifest. And with his level of power, it'd take MANY, MANY years to even have the option of returning to Gielinor, and have a chance at resummoning. Also worth noting, that if this were all true, it would take nothing less than a newly ascended God to resummons Zaros. *ahem* I'm referring to Sliske, mind you.
conspiracies, conspiracies, conspiracies. I could go on all day, but I won't. Fact of the matter is, we don't know until Jagex makes up their mind on the subject.
Cysan (talk) 13:25, January 19, 2014 (UTC)