Shorter "God" equivalent swear?

Not sure which category to post this in.

So, in my story, there are no gods. Instead, great and powerful people in history end up being worshipped and put on a pedestal. They're called 'Ascended'. However, 'ascended' is such a long word compared to 'god'. But since 'god' isn't a word in my story, I can't use 'god damnit' or 'gods damnit'. 'Ascended damnit' just sounds too long. I'm at a loss as to what other words or phrases I can use. Well, I guess I can just leave 'Ascended' out and just use 'fuck'. I can probably change what the ascended are called too. Or i can just come up with new phrases. Any ideas?

 

"Asdamnit"

 

But that's exactly what gods are in many cultures. Just call them "gods" I say.

As far as quick swear words, a lot of swears come out of abbreviating phrases. E.g., "God's wounds!" -> "Zounds"; "By our Lady" --> "Bloody". I guess if we take, for instance, "By Grapthar's hammer" from Galaxy Quest, we could get "Brammer!"

 

If one of your Ascended was Bonaparte, then a swear might be "Bonaparte's Balls!".

 

You probably need to provide more information to get the best suggestions. I know it sounds pedantic when I bring that up, but sometimes it makes a difference.

For example, do these ascended beings actually exist, or is it all farce? Or is it a myth people seriously believe? If so, what kind of powers do they think these Ascended beings have on their world?

Remember, 'God damn it' came from (I think) 'God Damn You' but this phrase would make no sense if the beings in question didn't actually have the ability to damn anyone, or if they were completely benevolent and never punished wrongdoing.

 

It's called swearing because it was an oath sworn by something.
(I swear) "By Thor's hammer I shall have my revenge!"
(I swear)"By the holy paw of St. Guinefort that was a close call!"

How about a terse "Dammit"? Or a scatological exclamation? They seem to be popular throughout history, and don't require theological debate. I mean we don't want to turn this thread into that "How many creatures believe in God" monstrosity.

 

Gk: κατακέκριται = he has been condemned > Lat: damnatus est. 18 occurrences in the New Testament.
The Greek word is also the source of our critique.

From the OP it seems to me that they probably wouldn't swear by the Ascended. There have been humans who became swears: Gordon Bennett (and that's more syllables than Ascended)
But Ascended seems like a nominal derived from an adjective - so it's risky for the language to make that a swear since it's not working exclusively as a name. It might have become exclusively a name in the storyworld - but it hasn't for the reader.
Ascended! - might be difficult to train the reader to read that as a curse

This is so far a subtractive storyworld (which is a good thing, I use those too) - removing gods from it isn't going to produce any particular new swearword. So it's a case of inventing one (which can be fun) or leaving as-is and taking the loss of "goddamnit" as a side-effect of the subtraction.
I find these side-effects of subtraction really interesting - I think there usually are some.

 

They do exist, or did. They were powerful or influential people in history whose ideas or teachings had a profound impact on society or people. It's like if Marx or Darwin or even Einstein became worshipped. (They're likely already worshipped by some but if it were a recognized religion.) I don't want to call them gods because they're not and I don't want the readers to think they are, even if some believe they do have such power.

Looks like I'll leave out "god" from common swears and come up with my own. Could be fun.

 

You'll have to decide what best fits your story, but maybe you can find some parallels in ancestor worship in some Asian cultures, but usually there is some spiritual component to that.

If venerating these deceased humans is the only type of worship in this society, then it's possible that for a person to be forgotten by future generations could be the ultimate punishment. So in a way, the simple 'Damn You' might be appropriate. In fact, there is a law or custom in antiquity called Damnatio Memoriae which means 'condemnation of memory'. So in your fictional society saying 'Damn You' could be the equivalent of saying 'May you be forgotten by all future generations' which could be a severe punishment depending on their belief system.

 

But again, that’s how gods are made in many cultures. What do you think a god is?Most of the popular gods in the Chinese pantheon- Guanyu, Mazu, Wenchang, Lu Dongbin- are humans who were deified. All of the earth gods worshiped in houses and other places are supposed to have once been virtuous humans. Ancestors are likewise deified. The Romans likewise had a habit of deifying their ancestors as well as their favorite emperors. Vespasian made a joke as he was dying from dysentery- “I think I’m becoming a god.” And indeed he was deified, along with his son.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apotheosis

 

To be fair, I'm mostly ignorant of most cultures and religions. I'm only really familiar with christianity. I do like the sound of word 'Ascended' and I'm gonna make it work. But I am intrigued by the origins of gods in other cultures.

 

I dig what others said about it depending more on particular Ascended, not just ascendancy in general.

John the Great will become John's boiled ass

It could also be related to rituals or traditions applied to Ascended. If paintings of their visage commonly line halls of reverence, then it's by the oiled bastards.

 

Fair enough. In Christianity, by the way, there is also a doctrine of deification, namely that the incarnation of Christ allows human beings to become "partakers of the divine nature." St. Athanasius summed it up famously: "The Son of God became man, that man might become god." So Christian saints can also be considered "gods by grace."

 

Is that doctrine part of mainstream Christianity? I'm only aware of something like that in Mormonism, and even the discourses that introduced it aren't widely known.

 

Saint Athanasius, the hero of Nicaea, is about as mainstream as it gets. It is more prominently mentioned in the Eastern churches but it's taught in the West too. For instance, it's right there in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully 'divinized' by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to 'be like God', but 'without God, before God, and not in accordance with God'.
...

The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness: 'Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.' 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.' On the mountain of the Transfiguration, the Father commands: 'Listen to him!' Jesus is the model for the Beatitudes and the norm of the new law: 'Love one another as I have loved you.' This love implies an effective offering of oneself, after his example. The Word became flesh to make us 'partakers of the divine nature': 'For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.' 'For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.' 'The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.
...

Through the power of the Holy Spirit we take part in Christ's Passion by dying to sin, and in his Resurrection by being born to a new life; we are members of his Body which is the Church, branches grafted onto the vine which is himself: '[God] gave himself to us through his Spirit. By the participation of the Spirit, we become communicants in the divine nature. ... For this reason, those in whom the Spirit dwells are divinized.' ... The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification: 'Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself.'

The Mormons are different, because in their theology there is no one, eternal God in the classical Christian sense; rather every God was once a human being. The classic Christian understanding of deification is that the saints are deified by their unity with God in Christ; they do not become distinct, equal Gods in their own right.