It's Complicated.  Powerful beings who - this language doesn't have words - are then also emotionally related to in the right way by many many mortals, can sometimes rise to the status of being able to begin granting divine spells, or further increase in power if they already had that much status.  There's at least one case of, Iker is not necessarily personally attesting to the truth of this, he did not see it happen, there is allegedly a god on another continent, Lao Shu Po out of Tian Xia, who started as a rat and then ate the corpse of an ancient god.  This story would make more sense if gods were generally known to leave rat-edible corpses.  It's possibly metaphorical.  'It's possibly metaphorical' is something you end up saying a lot when you're reading about theology from other continents.

There's at least one way of becoming a god that, in Iker's own opinion, somebody else needs to make a judgment call about telling Merrin about, possibly not a call that should be made immediately.  Sorry, but she is a bit new to Golarion and not yet known that well.

(Testing the waters, here, Merrin's thought processes definitely suggest that she will take this sort of thing well.)

It's Complicated.  Powerful beings who - this language doesn't have words - are then also emotionally related-to in the right way by many mortals, can sometimes rise to the status of being able to begin granting divine spells, or further increase in power if they already had that much status.  There's at least one case of, Iker is not necessarily personally attesting to the truth of this, he did not see it happen, there is allegedly a god on another continent, Lao Shu Po out of Tian Xia, who started as a rat and then ate the corpse of an ancient god.  This story would make more sense if gods were generally known to leave rat-edible corpses.  It's possibly metaphorical.  'It's possibly metaphorical' is something you end up saying a lot when you're reading about theology from other continents.

There's at least one way of becoming a god that, in Iker's own opinion, somebody else needs to make a judgment call about telling Merrin about, possibly not a call that should be made immediately.  Sorry, but she is a bit new to Golarion and not yet known that well.

(Testing the waters, here, Merrin's thought processes definitely suggest that she will take this sort of thing well.)

It's Complicated.  Powerful beings who - this language doesn't have words - are then also emotionally related-to in the right way by many mortals, can sometimes rise to the status of being able to begin granting divine spells, or further increase in power if they already had that much status.  There's at least one case of, Iker is not necessarily personally attesting to the truth of this, he did not see it happen, there is allegedly a god on another continent, Lao Shu Po out of Tian Xia, who started as a rat and then ate the corpse of an ancient god.  This story would make more sense if gods were generally known to leave rat-edible corpses.  It's possibly metaphorical.  'It's possibly metaphorical' is something you end up saying a lot when you're reading about theology from other continents.

There's at least one way of becoming a god that, in Iker's own opinion, somebody else needs to make a judgment call about telling Merrin, possibly not a call that should be made immediately.  Sorry, but she is a bit new to Golarion and not yet known that well.

(Testing the waters, here, Merrin's thought processes definitely suggest that she will take this sort of thing well.)

It's Complicated.  Powerful beings who - this language doesn't have words - are then also emotionally related-to in the right way by many mortals, can sometimes rise to the status of being able to begin granting divine spells, or further increase in power if they already had that much status.  There's at least one case of, Iker is not necessarily personally attesting to the truth of this, he did not see it happen, there is allegedly a god on another continent, Lao Shu Po out of Tian Xia, who started as a rat and then ate the corpse of an ancient god.  This story would make more sense if gods were generally known to leave rat-edible corpses.  It's possibly metaphorical.  'It's possibly metaphorical' is something you end up saying a lot when you're reading about theology from other continents.

There's at least one way of becoming a god that, in Iker's own opinion, somebody else needs to make a judgment call about telling to Merrin, possibly not a call that should be made immediately.  Sorry, but she is a bit new to Golarion and not yet known that well.

(Testing the waters, here, Merrin's thought processes definitely suggest that she will take this sort of thing well.)