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The demigods are immortal individuals that protect our reality from eldritch abominations on a plane that exists between our world and theirs. These battles against these eldritch forces and their minions happen on a daily basis to prevent them from breaching our world. A demigod is born with a divine spark in their soul, which matures as they age and blooms around puberty (9 - 16 yrs), when it reveals itself. This is a rare event around the world, with individuals being born sometimes many generations apart.

After the revelation, a process begins which concludes with the demigod legion taking the child beyond the veil to be converted into a true deity. This process suppresses their memories as a human, in which they exist as a vague, half'forgotten dream. If the process does not happen, the spark will eventually become too powerful for the child to control, and will explode in a flash of destructive energy. The months in between the reveal of the spark and the child's departure to be converted is a lengthy process which the community takes part in. These social rituals and celebrations are meant to honor the child and their parents for their sacrifice, reinforce the symbiotic bond between mortals and gods, and to give the family the necessary time needed to prepare. During this time, the child begins to change, becoming faster, stronger, and more durable than mortals.

Their are problems with this scenario however. Due to the rarity of this honor, a growing boy or girl hitting puberty/adolescence can become snobby and self-righteous about their position (I was chosen by God because I am worthy, you are just lowly mortals, etc) and so on. Because of their physical and mental changes, they can become difficult to reason with or control. Alternatively, other families, out of jealousy or spotting a grievance with the family, may seek to harm or even kill the child out of spite.

The community needs a system in place that addresses these concerns. The true demigods do not interfere with mortal concerns due to celestial law, taking the child only after the necessary social rituals are complete. The child cannot simply be isolated in some far away place or hard to reach monastery, for their ascension is meant to be a long celebration that the community takes part in. However, they must also be protected and secured, for our sake as well as their own. How can these stipulations be met?

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    $\begingroup$ I don't fully understand what is the question. You have described an excellent device for setting up the plot of a story. In Athens they did this, and it usually worked, but then Alcibiades. In Sparta they did that, and it almost always worked, but had those negative consequences. In Corinth they did neither, and just didn't care, and that's why Corinth is so relaxed and laid back, at the price of never seeking true greatness. Etc. Going into details would mean actually writing the plot of your story, wouldn't it? $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Sep 29, 2019 at 16:50
  • $\begingroup$ Some of this sounds like J.R.R Tolkien's Universe. The Valar were aloof to the point of almost allowing Arda to be destroyed in the War of Wrath, and their greatest intervention was "breaking" Arda from a flat to a "round" world to prevent Men from reaching the "Uttermost West". Unless the gods themselves take an active part in the Universe, rituals and so on will decay into uselessness in a few generations as people lose the connection between them and the Transcendent realm. $\endgroup$
    – Thucydides
    Sep 30, 2019 at 15:17
  • $\begingroup$ From the title, I expected the question to be like "Should a demigod living among us use Facebook or Twitter?", but now I'd like to clarify what sort of divine connection exist during demigods' puberty (before they are "taken")? Is there any kind of communication between the adolescents and the higher realm, they are completely on their own during that period? $\endgroup$
    – Alexander
    Sep 30, 2019 at 17:08
  • $\begingroup$ Should society even do anything about it if it's so rare? It's like 1 demigod per ten or more (?) generations. It may just don't worth it. Just have a demigod child cause a war every time, and if it dies, it dies; if it causes damage, so be it, it will heal like any other war. $\endgroup$
    – user28434
    Oct 1, 2019 at 15:00

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The best way to keep teenagers out of trouble is to give them jobs.

Once your demigodling is recognized a such there is a short period during which his or her temple needs to be built. Temples from demigods of past eras dot the land, having been expanded, improved and maintained by the people who came after. These are the inspiration. The building of a new temple is a community effort, with the godling himself supervising and also doing a lot of the physical work. It is a noble task and a great honor, and also physically and mentally exhausting for the godling.

He does not make trouble because he is really busy and also dog tired. He needs to work hard and fast to secure his legacy before he is uplifted. Once he ascends the temple he has built (with the help of the community) remains as a place for his worship.

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Assuming demigods have a strong connection to a higher force (for example, an actual god) and have a psychic connection to them, have the gods themselves do the parenting.

If the demigod is a vessel of the god(s), the god(s) should have some innate power over their vessel. The demigod may want to burn everything to the ground, but the god(s) will step in, demanding the vessel to restrain themselves or face grueling consequences.

These consequences may either be direct (demigod is struck by lightning) or indirect (demigod is met with massive consequences from their actions). I personally prefer the latter, since it results in the demigod learning from their mistakes, creating a good excuse for character development.

The takeaway is here: "If it dies, it was not worthy."

Alternatively, you could have the previous solution identical but without any gods, with the demigod fending for themselves.

Have an ancient order look after it, be they mortal servants or a gathering of the other great demigods. This order would have to be mobile, capable of protecting their subject wherever they may be.

Wise demigods may act as mentors, hunting out new demigods and shaping them with the experience they have acquired.

Mortal servants may be the best warriors/wardens in the land, protecting their subjects until the end.

This order may have local branches (depending on the rarity of demigods) and be part of the local culture or religion. Otherwise they could appear in the form of a traveling circus or a nomad folk.

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There are two problems that need to be solved, one is how to prevent humans from hurting the potential demigods, and second how to prevent potential demigods from hurting humans. Here I use the word "potential" intentionally.

Please note that harm could be physical, mental or emotional.

The first problem, "how to prevent humans from hurting the potential demigods" is easy.

There is long-standing curse in-effect that states that, Who shall ever be directly or indirectly be responsible for hurting an identified demigod, shall perish along with all of his family and loved ones, Their bones will shatter, soul burned, and so on (essentially, the most horrible death by hands of gods).

Also, any state, king, government or anyone who give shelter to such families shall perish too. (So no one will be willing to keep these people) And these curses are real, not some wild imagination. After all, we are talking about future gods.

The second problem, "how to prevent potential demigods from hurting humans" is a bit complicated, and requires a set of rules and regulation to be in effect.

These demigods are only potential ones, that have the capability to join the real gods, but their character is also important.

  1. Along with other training, they have to go through extensive training of meditation, to have a stable state of mind.

  2. When Gods come to take these kids, they take collective feedback of people of the nation about the kid (not literally, but they can read minds), if they see that most people don't like this kid, the kid is rejected, and later he will explode as mentioned.

  3. After taking the kid to the god plane for training, people have to worship him or pray for him to become successful, otherwise, he will fail in his training and explode anyways. So, if he wasn't a nice one, no one will be doing it, other than his immediate family, which is not enough prayer power.

Taking these points into consideration, It becomes the duty of the demigod to put himself on a tight leash if he wishes to live. And yes, for all this there is an established ancient order to train the kid.

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The priests or elders needed to perform these ceremonies need to be trained somehow. If you involve this training with the training your demigod requires, you can avoid some of the pitfalls you describe.

Make it so that all children receive a basic level of education on the topics of your choice.

Then select the "best and brightest" of these children to form a cohort to undergo special/advanced training. Try and select children from every "class" or whatever divides your society as you never know where the demigod may be found. Include the demigod character in this cohort without outing them. Your elders/priests should be able to detect the more subtle signs of who may be about to evolve before the demigod themselves.

Train this cohort in ethics, stress coping techniques and all your other intended topics etc so that when the demigod does eventually out themselves they should ** already avoid the "I'm better than you" and the "i resent your devine power" mentalities.

The cohort can support the demigod and the demigod can continue training and preparation. The cohort learns the necessary steps to upgrade the demigod and stores that knowledge for future generations. The cohort provides various individuals for the next generation of leaders and teachers (religious,political, military etc).

Your demigod evolves in safety and your society gains an educated caste to draw from for leadership roles. **

** there are always exceptions.

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