#they're fully convinced he's a god hiding in a mortal body

[thebongcloudopening]

i'm just saying that the likelihood all these cult members arthur keeps saving start a cult of their own for him is not zero

[notjustonefandom1]

I can't remember the name, but in a fic on AO3, when Nari is teaching the lamb how to act like a god, he mentions that he and his siblings had been trained by Duke's That these mortals had taught them how to be gods.

I see that idea, and it sent me in a bit of a spiral for my own au. Why are mortals telling God's how to act? Who are they to make these demands, and what right do they have? I think it is a matter of control, puppeteeing the Bishops the way one would a king. Sure by the time of the game they're all dead but their influence remains. Why else would Narinder be shamed for his ability? If it went against the natural order, why could he revive so easily? To the point his vessel only needs a few bones to do it? Who else would have taught Kallamar to fear his brother? To be so mortally fearful of death? Who else would have demanded these gods to fit the roles given them instead of letting the gods define themselves and their domains? Why can Famine and Pestilence bring feast and health, but Chaos, Death, and War cannot bring Order, Life, and Peace? Because it was the limited these Duke's put on them and even millenia later the Bishops remember the fear and lessons they learned as children.

Narinder was the first and only one to question this, to try and grow and be something more then he was told to be, for he over saw the Duke's deaths and KNOWS because their souls were forced to bare him the truth when their judges came. Even if it still took several thousand years to convince himself to try, haunted by the memories of harsh lessons and harsher punishments.

But the others? Leshy, who would have been constantly dismissed as a mere chaos god and been thusly kept in line, to keep him as much control over chaos as possible? Who had watched his more powerful siblings suffer. He would much rather stay buried in the dirt than risk such dangers.

Hecket, who has never been full but would still be purposefully starved, so she would "know what her domain means"? That remembers being a child hiding when her siblings were punished for feeding her? Haunted by the feeling of overeating when a feast was set before her after a week of starvation and how sick eating made her only to be told it was because in feasting she was going against her domain The thought of trying to cross those lines that had been carved out was terrifying even for her.

Kallamar, he who had stitched and peaced together his siblings after their lessons and punishments alike, that had been forced to witness some of the most terrifying diseases and poisons since he was too young to fully understand? Had been taught that his domains' whole purpose was to make others suffer and live long enough to experience that suffering? A god made to fear even his own domain, turning to weapons for comfort even knowing the things he feared most could not be stopped by blade or shield? Kallamar wouldn't dare try.

Finally, Shamura, they who had at first been forced to bear the Duke's cruelity alone, that their domains may include wisdom, but that did not mean they knew more than the Duke's. Who had that lesson beat into their body and mind long before they gained one sibling, never minding all four, and only knew how to protect them through obedience and encouraged them to do the same, hoping that the Duke's wouldn't find a reason to punish these Shamura swore to protect. A god of War taught the cruelities but not the motivation and why mortals were able to fight so desperately even after receiving a killing wound. Shamura who was never taught Wisdom came from the heart as much as the mind, who allowed these early lessons from when they were alone to guide them, until it even made them turn on a brother they swore to protect.

This is what the New God's will face when they enter the past. Not armies and weapons, but five traumatized gods, still controlled by the Duke's, who may not be God's but use learned fear and conditioning to control them. The future Bishops must relive these memories while trying to guide their past selves on lessons learned too late while the New Fate must aid them without revealing themselves as gods to mortals.