History Main / GodsNeedPrayerBadly

* In ''Film/FreddyVsJason'', Freddy needs people to fear him to be able to infiltrate their dreams, so he became powerless when the inhabitants of Springwood systematically eradicated any trace of his existence. He uses Jason as a pawn to reinvigorate the locals' belief in him so he can return.

* The entire premise of ''Anime/KaminakiSekaiNoKamisamaKatsudou'' aka [=KamiKatsu=]: Working for God in a Godless World. The protagonist is transported into a world without the concept of Gods, along with his deity, and the power of the deity is proportional to the number of followers she attracts. Rival "gods" later joins in the fray.

* The entire premise of ''Anime/KaminakiSekaiNoKamisamaKatsudou'' aka KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World. The protagonist is transported into a world without the concept of Gods, along with his deity, and the power of the deity is proportional to the number of followers she attracts. Rival "gods" later joins in the fray.

* The entire premise of ''Anime/KaminakiSekaiNoKamisamaKatsudou'' aka ''KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World''. The protagonist is transported into a world without the concept of Gods, along with his deity, and the power of the deity is proportional to the number of followers she attracts. Rival "gods" later joins in the fray.

* That is the entire premise of Kaminaki Sekai no Kamisama Katsudou aka KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World. The protaganist is transported into a world without the concept of Gods, along with his deity, and the power of the deity is proportional to the number of followers she attracts. Rival "gods" later joins in the fray.

* That is the entire premise of Kaminaki Sekai no Kamisama Katsudou aka KamiKatsu. The protaganist is transported into a world without the concept of Gods, along with his deity, and the power of the deity is proportional to the number of followers she attracts. Rival "gods" later joins in the fray.

* In the ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' world, the dragon gods gain strength from praise and worship, which is in contrast to the opposing Mazoku who feed on human suffering. This plays a role in a war between one of the gods and the Mazoku race that occurs a thousand years in the past from Lina's time. The Mazoku crippled the Water Dragon King by killing all the worshipers and destroying all the temples dedicated to the latter.

* Gods don't ''need'' followers to survive in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'', but it certainly helps. The old pantheons consist of very powerful individuals, but without faithful to carry out their will on a strategic scale, there's not much they can do. Especially since most of the world is some variant of Abrahamic, and all Abrahamic religions actually refer to the same (physically extant) heaven and holy figures, meaning the Angel faction is a ''juggernaut''. [[spoiler:[[GodIsDead God being dead]] and the angels' powers being reliant on a rickety system that requires blind faith that would be compromised by active leadership, along with a manpower shortage after the GreatOffscreenWar]] are needed to balance what would otherwise be a [[StoryBreakerPower story-breaking advantage]].

* ''LightNovel/KonoSuba'': Gods gain power from their faithful. Aqua and her subordinate Eris are about equal in power, because while Eris has far more followers, Aqua's are just so damn ''passionate'' (read: completely insane) that she gets more bang for her buck. In the season 2 finale, they unknowingly power her up for the final battle by chanting her divine commandments. The fact that those commandments are random pseudo-philosophical drivel about avoiding responsibility explains why the cult is so bizarre.

* In ''LightNovel/GodComplex'' it's established that mankind is extinct early on, and many of the elder gods are scrambling to find alternative power sources. Gods proportionate power and rank amongst one another was determined by their real world worship counterparts, with Christianity having taken power once intended for other pantheons.

** The Heroic Spirits (not outright gods but at least a few levels of spiritualism above humans) mostly exist due to - and are partially sustained and empowered by - the belief they've inspired in humanity. Their strength appears based partly on their actual power and partly on pure PopularityPower. As Rin explains in the game prologue, even fictional characters count, what matters is the image created by the minds of the people. The game features two major explorations of this - [[spoiler:Assassin is a nameless samurai called forth to play the role of UsefulNotes/SasakiKojiro, an opponent of UsefulNotes/MiyamotoMusashi]], who is entirely fictional in the Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}. In other words, the pure belief that humanity has in the existence of said hero is so strong that it allows him to exist, [[spoiler:albeit through summoning a nameless spirit to take on his name and fill his role]]. On the flip side, [[spoiler:Archer (EMIYA) is a hero from the future]]; nobody knows of his existence and he therefore owes neither his existence nor any of his powers from belief, persisting as a Heroic Spirit only through the connection all Heroic Spirits have with the earth itself. [[TheBerserker Heracles]], naturally, gets top billing either way you look at it. [[Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh Gilgamesh]] (the very first Heroic Spirit) and Myth/KingArthur also rank highly, as does [[UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat Iskander]] in ''LightNovel/FateZero''.
** To clarify a bit, if a person gains enough acknowledgement in the minds of humanity at large - be it as a Hero, Villian, or Anti-Hero - , real or imagined, they go to the afterlife known as the Throne of Heroes, rather than what happens to normal souls. Once there, they become pseudo-deific spirits of enormous power known as Heroic Spirits. As the Throne exists outside of time, all Heroic Spirits, past, present, and future, dwell there, even after being completely forgotten. That said, a Heroic Spirit's power(as well as their specific Noble Phantasms. Such as, King Arthur's Excalibur is the most famous part of his legend. So naturally it is more powerful than another, such as Rhongomyniad, another weapon of his, yet a far more obscure one) increases the most people know about it. So while being forgotten won't kill or destroy them, being remembered makes them stronger. It even happens on a local level. Hercules is a famous Heroic Spirit worldwide, so when he is summoned as Berserker in Japan, he retains a far greater portion of his powers than Cú Chulainn - Lancer - who would normally be capable of going head-to-head with him, but is so obscure in Japan that he holds only a fraction of his normal strength. This has lead to him being dubbed by fans as "the Most Useless Servant in the War". For a bit of context, when Vlad the Impaler is summoned in ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'', he is at about 60% power outside of Transylvania, and he's famous worldwide for inspiring the Legend of Dracula. Cú Chulainn, on the other hand, is so obscenely obscure outside of Northern Europe that it's unlikely that people from anywhere else had even heard of him before watching this.

* In ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'', the gods, demons, and spirits feed on a substance called Magnetite or Magatsuhi - which is human belief and emotion and works as the setting's mana source. In ''[[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne Nocturne]]'', when humanity was wiped out, demons had to abuse {{Artificial Human}}s to produce Magatsuhi to stay alive. In ''[[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV IV]]'', one of the factions produces Red Pills, foodstuffs the demons find delectable. [[spoiler: The Pills, naturally, are made of materials extracted from conditioned brain matter harvested from the faction's captured enemies, implying they're largely the same as Magnetite or Magatsuhi.]]
** For as long as a single person believes in [[GodIsEvil YHVH]] as his or her god, He will return, again and again. Unfortunately, it seems the [=MegaTen=] universe works on the same principle as ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' - Humanity's own inner darkness and desire for a God [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters that accurately represents them]] has horrifically twisted Him into a bitter, unsympathetic tyrant with nothing but contempt for humans.
** This trope is exploited in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'' if the player sides with Dagda at the game's second of two alignment locks. [[spoiler:Dagda's plan to destroy all gods is to ''kill every human who believes in them.'']]
** Another route in the same game goes in a different direction: [[spoiler: by having ''every person'' in the game publicly denounce YHVH, he loses his divinity and becomes a mere demon. For some extra karma, this is how he threw out all of the other former gods in the franchise's backstory.]]
** This trope is also true for the ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' universe, where [[VideoGame/{{Persona 2}} Philemon, Nyarlathotep]], [[VideoGame/{{Persona 3}} Erebus]], [[VideoGame/{{Persona 4}} Izanami]], and [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/Persona5 Yaldabaoth]]]] are all personifications of various aspects of human mind within the Collective Unconscious.

The opposite is also true: as a deity's power base of worshippers shrinks, their divine strength fades and if all worship of them ceases, they may completely fade out of existence. The tragedy here is that worshippers who leave the god because [[ReligiousRussianRoulette he/she didn't grant their miracle]] will continuously weaken the god until they can't grant ''any'' miracles. It's kind of like a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_run bank run]] on a god.

* In the world of ''Literature/TheSagaOfBilly'', this is the case for the lesser gods, like [[{{Pun}} Bit'hum]], protector of Roads and Pathways. However, the greater gods are actually recognized as such if they are self-sufficient. These major deities' powers are fueled by the simple actions of mortals, which are now akin to worship: for instance, the god of Craftsmanship is sustained by the fact there are craftsmen in the world, and the goddess of Motherhood is inconsciously worshipped with every birth.

** Ignis the [[MeaningfulName Dying Flame]], a god of fire whose worshipers have all left it long ago. Ignis is obscure enough that you can't even choose to follow it in the usual way; you can start the game worshiping Ignis as a Cinder Acolyte, or a faded altar might turn out to be dedicated to Ignis, but otherwise you'll never see any sign of it. Those who ''do'' find Ignis will be granted what little power it has left all at once -- you'll have access to a few potent fiery abilities, but they have limited uses and don't scale well past the early game. Use up all your piety with Ignis and you'll be stuck with a useless husk of a god; at that point, it's often better to abandon it for a new god, despite Ignis subsequently [[TakingYouWithMe burning itself completely out in an attempt to kill you for the betrayal]].

* ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'': All ayakashi, from the smallest to the largest, gain power from humans believing in them. For spirits of wind or storms or even art, losing belief isn't a huge deal as they'll never lose so much belief as to die (and there are other power sources anyway)--but the OddJobGods such as the spirit that rattles beans at people have a lot to worry about. On the other hand, humans believing in an ayakashi give it a huge power boost... even if the humans don't know it's an ayakashi. [[spoiler:Garaku Utagawa was originally just the spirit of an ink brush, but gained enough power to maintain a human form that normal humans could interact with. He then proceeded to become a world-famous artist, making him one of the most powerful ayakashi around]].

** ComicBook/{{Loki}} on the other hand quite confident on claiming that gods ''don't'' need belief... but they do need something from people and that's [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality stories]]. On one hand believing Loki is not a smart idea on the other they ''did'' demonstrate the ability to affect change by mucking with myths. (To date Loki successfully rewrote Cul, wrote ComicBook/{{Hela}} into existence, and retold Loki.)

** For as long as a single person believes in YHVH as his or her god, He will return, again and again. Unfortunately, it seems the [=MegaTen=] universe works on the same principle as ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' - Humanity's own inner darkness and desire for a God [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters that accurately represents them]] has horrifically twisted Him into a bitter, unsympathetic tyrant with nothing but contempt for humans.

* ''VideoGame/BlackAndWhite'''s gameplay is built on this trope. Each god is called into existence by a single pure prayer and gains power by convincing villages to believe in it above all other gods; a god who loses all its followers vanishes in a PuffOfLogic. Additionally, villagers who actively worship at temples and altars generate {{Mana}} for their god, which enables it to cast Miracles.

This trope is related to EmotionEater, but doesn't imply evil, vampirism, or negative emotions unless the god is tied in with those by nature. In belief systems of this kind, the empowered god often gives power back to his worshipers. Gods in such a system should be very worried indeed if they find out that they're down to TheOnlyBeliever. [[ModernizedGod Some gods may choose to update themselves to stay relevant.]] If the story is about the process of one set of gods dying out this way to make room for another, it's DeathOfTheOldGods. Contrast StopWorshippingMe, for when the god hates the worship they get. [[ICannotSelfTerminate Unless the god wants to die and can't because of all the worship...]] If the empowering prayer is directed at one's ancestral spirits, see AncestorVeneration instead.

* ''Literature/SpecialCircumstances''L The more people who worship a deity (even by proxy), the stronger their mortal servants are. That's because the deities with more worshipers have more power to lend to their priests/priestesses.
* ''Literature/StarTrekNewFrontier'' brought us the Greek gods (who were also the Roman gods, the Norse gods, etc.,) known as The Beings, who were kin to Apollo in the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries original series]] episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?" They eventually get all powerful thanks to the worship of the Danteri... and the fear of the ''Excalibur'' and the ''Trident''. [[spoiler:They're beaten by said crews becoming quite literally fearless, along with the help of Mark [=McHenry=] (the descendant of Apollo and Carolyn Palamas)... and Woden/Zeus/Santa Claus, god of all gods.]]

* Subverted in Creator/JohnRingo's ''Literature/SpecialCircumstances'' series. The more people who worship a deity (even by proxy), the stronger their mortal servants are. That's because the deities with more worshipers have more power to lend to their priests/priestesses.

The deity could have been originally conceived and shaped by the needs and desires of one small group, but like any good UsefulNotes/{{meme|tics}}, this "idea" grows with each new person who responds, then spreads the word of this great new "god on the block". Soon, the deity has enough collective belief behind their 'name brand' that they come into existence, and use that power to fulfill the needs of their worshippers. In this sense, a god is a form of {{Tulpa}}, a thoughtform, made completely out of their worshippers' belief and faith in them.

The opposite is also true: As a deity's power base of worshippers shrinks, their divine strength fades and if all worship of them ceases, they may completely fade out of existence. The tragedy here is that worshippers who leave the god because [[ReligiousRussianRoulette he/she didn't grant their miracle]] will continuously weaken the god until they can't grant ''any'' miracles. It's kind of like a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_run bank run]] on a god.

* In ''VideoGame/DungeonCrawl,'' the gods are powered by worship. This doesn't come up very much, because they have plenty of worshipers, but there are a couple exceptions:

** Used for evil by [[spoiler:the Church of St. Eva, where half the priests are demons in disguise trying to power-up the BigBad, who is in fact ''[[BeamMeUpScotty not]]'' a god but an evil dragon with an OmnicidalManiac agenda]].
** Subverted by Ladon the dragon god, who's a bit grumpy that nobody believes in him anymore but nonetheless continues to exist.

* In ''VideoGame/DungeonCrawl,'' the gods are powered by worship. This doesn't come up very much, because they have plenty of worshipers... except for Jiyva the Shapeless, god of slimes. There's only one slime smart enough to worship him, and if you kill it, the god ceases to exist ([[DevelopersForesight unless you took it upon yourself to worship him beforehand]], in which case he calls you out on it).

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'':

* In ''Webcomic/TheGamer'' ch97 it is revealed that gods are born from people's shared belief.

* In ''VideoGame/DungeonCrawl,'' the gods are powered by worship. This doesn't come up very much, because they have plenty of worshipers... except for Jiyva the Shapeless, god of slimes. There's only one slime smart enough to worship it, and if you kill it, the god ceases to exist ([[DevelopersForesight unless you took it upon yourself to worship him beforehand]], in which case he calls you out on it).