Patriarch (Salvation)

The Patriarch was the leader of the Latter-Day Pantheon. He claimed to have manifested as Zeus, Jupiter, Odin and "many, many" other gods in human history.

Initially a benevolent father-figure to the other gods, as public perception of him grew he briefly flashed to the appearance of an Old-Testament-style god, smiting one of two neighbours who sought his judgement over a minor border dispute. The First Doctor further compromised the Patriarch's image by publicly provoking a disagreement between the Patriarch and Joseph, also prompting the Patriarch to attack the Doctor with a fireball that the Doctor was able to ignore as his belief that the attack couldn't hurt him outweighed the public's currently faltering belief in the Patriarch.

When the Patriarch attempted to re-establish the gods' authority by preparing to intervene in the Vietnam War, the Doctor, not wanting the gods' existence to go public, arranged for the gods to be attacked with a bomb. The Patriarch was destroyed with most of the other gods when their followers' faith was so diminished that they did not have the power to survive a bomb attack, even though the bomb dropped was a dud that couldn't actually hurt anyone. (PROSE: Salvation)