The Stages of Power
In order to make godhood the below stages (or tiers) need to be conquered by the Never King before the curse/blessing can become 'set'/(permanent):
Death, Soul, Land, Sky, and finally- conquering Life- to become a true immortal.
STOLEN SOULS- if your soul is stolen unwillingly, you only have 24 hours to get it back before it's permanently digested
WILLING SOULS- your soul is stuck inside him in his pool of power unless, HE decides to relinquish it... or his death comes, whichever happens first. However, your soul is lost forever in this process if he ever DOES achieve godhood because he then digests those souls and manifests himself into a 'god'
*The below tiers are subject to change - these are just the first draft! the land and sky tiers are likely to be edited as we move onward with the plot as I feel these are the least fleshed out aspects of the tiers- and could possibly end up just being merged, depending on story and circumstances
God tier- he will achieve 'immortality and godhood' but first has to go through the other tiers to achieve this! (More on this below)
First tier- (DEATH) he is awakened from the dead (I mean- conquering death itself IS impressive!) and can eat souls to survive and begin his 'pool of power'
Second tier- (SOUL) his second awakened tier allows him to tap into the first level of god powers, this also gives him access to his control of 'soulless' and can begin to tap into first tiered abilities. This also begins his own gestation of creating his 'god soul' needed to gain him the god power he desires
Third tier (LAND) this tier takes some time to gain- as he needs so many souls of the living to create enough power to begin to manipulate and lay claim over aspects of the lands around him- and they come and need conquered in no short order: Sand, Water, Earth, Plant-life (tbd)
Fourth tier (SKY) this tier takes just as much time to gain and allows him to lay claim over the following: insects, winds, storms, and stars (would be pretty gnarly if he could pull down an asteroid to smash things to bitty bits) or create other such phenomenon like perma-eclipses etc (tbd) Might even be cool if aspects of flying or what have you, come into play.
Fifth tier (LIFE) this tier is insane and takes some time to even get close to achieving-
in the end he has claim over the following and then is able to become 'immortal' and achieve godhood and digest all of his souls fully to achieve the final outcome. But on his way there he has to lay claim over the following: Objects of Man (he can breath power into inanimate objects men have created- such as clothing, ropes, buildings, etc),
Disease and Pestilence - lays claim over the diseases and plagues
Seed of an heir (right before he can become a god, he will obtain the ability to ensure a legacy by now begin able to sire children) and in fact, has to do so before he can move onto the final tier of immortality, which then earns him the next step God Hood.
God Tier- he has reached immortality and can do all of the previous abilities. Each ability takes some usage of the pool of souls he's obtained, and he only has so many uses before they have to 'recharge' and he can use them again. Now that he's come onto God Tier status, he can continue to gain souls to a point where this 'wait' period is more or less nonexistent and he can bend the world to his will. Also, at this tier- he no longer has to eat souls to live and it is nigh impossible to kill him.
The only way to fully be rid of the god king as he grows is to either:
1) remove all his souls
2) don't allow him to eat a soul for 24 hours so he can die
3) I'm sure there's some secret in the Scrolls of Anphis he won't share that with you! - might have to do with him eventually siring an 'heir'...
