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The Deep Magics
Everything discussed so far has been information known to characters in the world. This post will discuss that which the divines themselves do not know.
1: There is a reason why human witches and magical practitioners exist. There is a reason why certain fundamental laws of magic have remain unchanged throughout time, even with the rise and fall of varying magical traditions through the ages. The divines have never been able to fully understand it. How can one thing stay the same from age to age? Why have they found evidence that the Neanderthals could do magic? It doesn't make any sense.
For the same reason that human faith and stories have the power to create, destroy, and change gods.
The truth is that gods, contrary to what they think, are not tapping into some hidden well of power. Humans are. There is an essential magic that flows through all thinking, intelligent beings. This innate magic allows them to shape the very fabric of reality: through magic, through song, through story, through ritual. Divines are part of what they create, much like the effects of a spell.
The ancient rulers of Atlantis discovered this, in part, and accordingly incorporated humans into their ritual sacrifices. In fact, the citizens of Atlantis gave up their immortality, so as to assume some of that metaphysical power for themselves. To try to help fuel their own existence.
In effect, humans and organic life are the only TRUE beings who exist. All divines and supernatural creatures are thought-forms.
2: The previous statement is not entirely true. There are exactly 2 immortal beings who truly exist. They predate Earth, and need no worship to sustain them. Opposites and twins, the two primordials know themselves most fundamentally as the concepts of life and death.
Bit of a simplification, that. They can also be understood as being and nothingness, ending and beginning, creation and destruction. Use and recycling. An indistinct cycle of birth, being death, destruction, and powerful renewal that turns the wheel of all existence.
One goes by the name of Death. "He" (not really) prefers it for the simplicity- and the edginess. The other thinks "life" sounds trite and inadequate. She (he, it?) has styled for "herself" the moniker "Etra," from the French for "to be."
Etra and Death were birthed from the death of the previous universe. Neither of them can remember who is older. Needless to say, their perspectives on the divines is a rather unique one. All of this seems very... temporary to them. Passing. They've seen immortals rise and fall a million times, on a million different intelligent worlds.
Their roles have been unique as well. Death has gone by many names in various pantheons. Nobody knows that Tartarus and the horseman Death are the same being. The other three Horseman have NO idea who they're actually dealing with, and why their "brother" isn't as gung-ho about Judeo-Christian dominance as they are.
In contrast, Etra has only tried to blend in with a few pantheons over the years. Generally she aims for long-lived faiths from long-enduring civilizations. This means she only has had to resurface a few times; she ends a "life" only when the pantheon has weakened enough for her goddess identity to realistically die. Currently, she fashions herself as the Greek concept of primordial Chaos. This affords her long "life" in this divine identity, and lets her openly use the name Etra. After all, what is more chaotic than existence itself?
1: There is a reason why human witches and magical practitioners exist. There is a reason why certain fundamental laws of magic have remain unchanged throughout time, even with the rise and fall of varying magical traditions through the ages. The divines have never been able to fully understand it. How can one thing stay the same from age to age? Why have they found evidence that the Neanderthals could do magic? It doesn't make any sense.
For the same reason that human faith and stories have the power to create, destroy, and change gods.
The truth is that gods, contrary to what they think, are not tapping into some hidden well of power. Humans are. There is an essential magic that flows through all thinking, intelligent beings. This innate magic allows them to shape the very fabric of reality: through magic, through song, through story, through ritual. Divines are part of what they create, much like the effects of a spell.
The ancient rulers of Atlantis discovered this, in part, and accordingly incorporated humans into their ritual sacrifices. In fact, the citizens of Atlantis gave up their immortality, so as to assume some of that metaphysical power for themselves. To try to help fuel their own existence.
In effect, humans and organic life are the only TRUE beings who exist. All divines and supernatural creatures are thought-forms.
2: The previous statement is not entirely true. There are exactly 2 immortal beings who truly exist. They predate Earth, and need no worship to sustain them. Opposites and twins, the two primordials know themselves most fundamentally as the concepts of life and death.
Bit of a simplification, that. They can also be understood as being and nothingness, ending and beginning, creation and destruction. Use and recycling. An indistinct cycle of birth, being death, destruction, and powerful renewal that turns the wheel of all existence.
One goes by the name of Death. "He" (not really) prefers it for the simplicity- and the edginess. The other thinks "life" sounds trite and inadequate. She (he, it?) has styled for "herself" the moniker "Etra," from the French for "to be."
Etra and Death were birthed from the death of the previous universe. Neither of them can remember who is older. Needless to say, their perspectives on the divines is a rather unique one. All of this seems very... temporary to them. Passing. They've seen immortals rise and fall a million times, on a million different intelligent worlds.
Their roles have been unique as well. Death has gone by many names in various pantheons. Nobody knows that Tartarus and the horseman Death are the same being. The other three Horseman have NO idea who they're actually dealing with, and why their "brother" isn't as gung-ho about Judeo-Christian dominance as they are.
In contrast, Etra has only tried to blend in with a few pantheons over the years. Generally she aims for long-lived faiths from long-enduring civilizations. This means she only has had to resurface a few times; she ends a "life" only when the pantheon has weakened enough for her goddess identity to realistically die. Currently, she fashions herself as the Greek concept of primordial Chaos. This affords her long "life" in this divine identity, and lets her openly use the name Etra. After all, what is more chaotic than existence itself?