[tiam]

worrywort, on 05 October 2011 - 07:21 PM, said:

There's also the afterlife to consider. It seems that gods essentially reap all the benefits of worship without any of the responsibility, to the living or their souls. Hence Hood's Realm and his decision to abandon it in TTH. Either the gods are gonna have to do their jobs, or the BBs will be there to pick up the slack. It's still unclear what hand ST and Cots had in this part of the plan, but they certainly weren't against this pretty enormous bucking of the status quo.

Thats what I was trying to get at with my poorly worded post above. While all these factors are at play i.e. mortals receiving no help from the gods they worship (Soliel springs to mind as the best example) its ar from altruistic. ST like I noted earlier was either unable or unwilling to claim any of the TCG power. Thus any upset such as discontent between gods and there worshippers would only benefit ST and C because it would disturb the established Pantheon.

Its actually a possibility that ST and C only decided on ascension, or atleast it was a motivation, to safeguard the Empire and do the best for its people.

[Sapper JHall]

I think the Olar Ethil question can be answered by these facts we learn tCG. When Shadowthrone is talking to all of the other gods we learn the Dassme Ultor is only one part of Dessembrae. I think that whole scene is critical and due for a re-read from most of us. I think that much in the same way Olar Ethil is only a part of Burn. She did say there were parts of her still asleep.

[RSM616]

i think that we should all be thankful that these questions werent answered because it means steven eriksson can write another hundred billion books filling in the details and creating even more myths and legends

[Ben Delat]

I dont think ST and C did it for their empire. It is pretty well described they did it because they couldn't achieve their ultimate plans in a single mortal lifetime and it also granted them more power to pursue said goals.

It is possible it was a small side motivation for them but I honestly never got the impression they loved their empire or any of the people in it, C comes out and says in one book he only trusts like 2 people ever. I dont know, Cotillion emotionally attaches to a few poeple throughout the books, but it never had to do with the empire, it had to do with those individuals.