Something like that, yeah. Most of the pantheons didn't really see any of the monotheistic religions as a threat and were too busy dicking with each other to really put much stock with them. Though Thoth was (and is still) annoyed by Aten's brief coup in Egypt. By the time the monotheistic religions really came around, it was too late for most of the old pantheons while the Hindu pantheon was too bloated and busy fighting with each other (several gods claim to be the same one being among their many reasons for infighting) to give a fuck.Somes J wrote:I kind of like the idea that the sheer success of Christianity was sort of an accident, with even the Only being shocked at how big he won when he just happened to hit just the right note to kickstart a massive world religion. He was only really planning to create a religion that would be more popular than Judaism, he never really imagined he'd be able to take over so much of the world, at least not in that one stroke.
I kind of like this idea because with a worship = power set-up you have to wonder how the rest of the gods just sat there and let some antisocial minor god pull a coup of that magnitude. If the sheer success took everyone by surprise then it makes sense why they didn't try (very hard anyway) to stop him.
Actually, in this setting I was thinking of keeping that vague. Thoth is convinced that the Accuser is playing bad cop to the Only's good cop, and that the whole end times thing is nothing but a big political game.AI wonder what the relation between the Only and Satan is? Are they enemies, or are they allies playing a good cop/bad cop routine? Or a little of column A, a little of column B - allies of convenience who nonetheless want to destroy each other eventually?
Yup, but it goes both ways. Changes in the gods' own modus operandi also affect how people perceive them, and there's also the fact that some gods played to the expectation of their worshipers. For one, Set and Horus were never really seriously fighting with each other. It was all just to play to the newly unified Egypt turning Set into a villain for political reasons. His attempted "murder" of Osiris was also orchestrated by Osiris himself. Set loved playing the villain. It was fun.Siege wrote:One wonders if, since belief creates these gods, changes in belief also change them.
That's also why Thoth readily adapted to the constant changing of the Egyptian pantheon and took advantage of his conflation with Hermes among the Greeks to set up his alliance with him.
In this setting, Thoth calls the Only Aten derisively because he's still bitter about Aten's coup. The Hindu gods are convinced he's Ahura Mazda. His servants, who do most of his interacting for him as he's retreated inwardly, vehemently deny this. Most of the other gods are convinced that the Only is both the Judeo-Christian god and Allah, but they're not in agreement over his motives. Thoth thinks it's a game the Only is playing, much like his own thing with Hermes and Mercury. Some of the others think he's turned crazy from the identity crisis and that the different interpretations of his divine will are due to his many servants with differing ideas carrying it out for him.Somes J wrote:Hmm, which came first, Yahweh, Aten, or Ahura Mazda?
As for the whole communism thing, well, the gods never really took it as a threat. They thought it wouldn't last long, and in their time frame, its few short decades proved it. They actually thought it'd last a bit longer. Some of Thoth's servants also set up their own network to manipulate some of the workings of the ideology secretly (though Stalin took them by surprise).
Also, some Hindu gods attempted Confucianism to bring order into their own messy pantheon. They didn't last long.