[@Klomster]

#1: Minotaurs are fine.

#2: players are allowed 'celestial entities' to be their countries patrons. Justinians get a demi-avatar (an aspect of the god Justinian), Yuwanists get a celestial servant (basically an angel of Yuwan), while Red Pantheonists get Red Gods (rogue ex-celestial servants). That is to say, if you play Red Pantheonist you can create your own custom Red God for your nation.

#3: A mortal can become a god, but it isn't a simple process. Essentially a mortal hero (patron'd by an existing god) needs to die. After dying that hero ascends and becomes a celestial entity. Once a celestial entity, they can essentially become a god either by killing their patron (which is extremely hard to do and usually depends on outside forces) or their patron god died from other means, in which case your celestial entity goes rogue and becomes a Red God by default.