So I'm on a CN binge and am fairly ehh on the cultivators being taoist and its variant, buddhist monks.
Their evolution path is also kind of expected as the taoist evolve into a taoist deity while the monk evolves into a variant of buddha (too many to actually list, but the standard is always Luohan).
And after awhile, I asked myself, what would be the case if placed in western style then?
Monotheistic religion is definitely a bust. Even worse if the end of the cultivation path is being an apostle/ angel, for the chinese cultivators it is like having a boss even when you transcend and you aren't a big G.
Slightly mitigated with polytheistics because a minor god is still a god. But can one really call themselves the Lord of Thunder when Thor and Zeus are still around?
Just take norse gods or greek gods for example. The norse gods are not exactly gods, they're just a bunch of people with superpowers who are dependent on a fruit. They just had the good fortune of having the Tree of Idunn and therefore had a monopoly on immortality and youth. Take away Idunn and they're just normal people. As for greek gods, they could ascend either by the favour of existing gods or through eating ambrosia.
You can also have a look at pre-islamic arabic folklore where humans could become powerful spirits through wrongful path. There are almost always a downside, though. You're always bound by some very restrictive rules such as becoming invisible, becoming a rock or getting banished to a deep pit such as Barhout. The story of genie of the lamp? Yeah, it could be originally a human, just as likely as it being a real djinn or an earlier creature predating djinn called hinn.
Or you can go the Jewish route, study the kaballah, ascend into the sephiroth and seize an aspect of God. You won't be the one true Yahweh, but being an aspect is close enough, wouldn't it? After all, Lilith, someone the christians called a demon is an aspect of sephiroth, the aspect of Binah (understanding) because she is the closest to humanity, embodying the characteristics of humanity and also the first wife of Adam. And if you believe the Alef Bet of Ben Sira and similar works, it was Lilith who made the form of Adam from clay to be her mate with God breathing life into the doll. If you go the wiccan lore, Lilith came into being from primordial dust mixed with water vapor on Earth while it was still covered with flowing magma. She was invited to stay with Yahweh in Atziluth, the highest world, higher even than Beriah, where archangels and cosmic angels stay.
Similarly, in Chinese mythology, it was Nuwa, the snake goddess who created humanity from yellow clay.
Ah, for that, I really don't know. I'm a Protestant Christian, so I'm not really that knowledgeable about saints like Orthodox and Catholics.
Here is a list of saints as acknowledged in the dark lands of medieval germany.
Saints
Becoming angels also still somewhat a possibility. While angels in Christianity and Islam are always full of goodness, it's not the same with Jewish ones. In the Jewish ones, there are some good angels, but the angels themselves are not inherently 'good'. They were only considered 'good' because they obeyed Yahweh's orders obediently. However, the method of them obeying these orders are entirely up to them. For example, Yahweh told them to paint a comet, but they decide what colour and how big the comet would be. A lot of them are even considered as 'less than honourable'.
Let's look at Grigori for example. Yahweh told them to watch over humans. He didn't tell them they could give humans knowledge or impregnate human women, but they did it. Well, in their defense, God never told them not to.
