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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 2746777" data-attributes="member: 7240">I have real trouble with the idea of gods in a polytheistic system drawing all or a portion of their power based on how many worshippers they have and what those worshippers do. Because I tend to seek out a certain level of anthropological credibility for a system, this brings up real red flags for me because, as far as I can tell, there have been no polytheistic societies that thought this way. The idea of gods' powers being moored to the actions or beliefs of their worshippers is a totally modern idea inspired, I suspect, by contemporary ideas of representative democracy.People in polytheistic societies worshipped gods and made sacrifices to them because the gods were powerful, no matter what mortals did. That was why it was so important to give them shows, poems and meat. Worship was about asking gods for favours, making contracts with them or requesting that they refrain from hurting you. Competition for worshippers, money and prominence was not understood as a competition between gods; it was understood as competition between cults. The ancients may have been daft but not daft enough to think that ultra-powerful beings and natural forces were, themselves, contingent upon human action.</blockquote>