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"Once again, we return."
This article contains spoilers for Issue 33 of The Wicked + The Divine. Read at your own risk. |
The Pantheon is the collective term for all of the gods of the current Recurrence. They are advised by Ananke. The members change with each Recurrence,[1] and come from a variety of different cultures and religions. They appear to be able to switch genders between Recurrences.[2] The only gods to appear in each cycle are known to be Minerva, who takes on the persona of Ananke at the end of each cycle, and Persephone, whose head is removed by Ananke early in each cycle unknown to the other Gods.
Pantheon Members[]
Notes:
- While Mimir is a true god of the Recurrence, his place was stolen by his father, pretending to be Woden with Ananke's help.
- Persephone, although the rightful 12th goddess, is not considered a true member of the Pantheon. Her position is, technically, Minerva's.
- Although Baal is identified as Baal Hadad, his true identity is Baal Hammon.
Notes:
- Much like his future incarnation, Woden is not a true god but rather an imposter who is using the powers of Mimir with Ananke's help. By the end of the Recurrence, both are murdered.
Notes:
- While Minerva is never named, her symbol and her status as the Maiden confirms her identity.
History[]
According to Ananke, in the early days of the Pantheon, they were in constant battle with the forces of darkness. They always lost, except on one occasion, and this single victory indirectly caused the beginning of civilisation. However, once the saeculum was over, the next generation of gods returned ignorant, and lost as they had done before. They eventually won a second time, thousands of years later. They came to the decision that someone would need to stay to guide future gods, so Ananke agreed to give up her ability to inspire to assume this role. This resulted in her killing gods for thousands of years, presumably to stop the darkness.
What has been seen from flashbacks, it seems the very concept of Recurrence was developed between Ananke and her sister, after Ananke had already murdered at least four gods in her search for immortality. This happened roughly six thousand years ago, and since then, 65 known Recurrences have happened, the 21st century being the 65th
Later it was revealed that the entire concept of the Pantheon was created by Ananke and her younger version, Minerva as a sort of grand ritual that would allow her to prolong her life. This is accomplished by Ananke during the first "Recurrence" where after seeing her sister's discovery of the concept of "Godhood", Ananke figured out a method of where she would sacrifice four heads of her fellow "gods" to empower herself in order to thus then divide her soul into two halves, splitting her mind between her younger body and her original older one. Her older self would continue to live for the next 90 years until a new generation of children would be born, and a younger version of herself would thus also appear with them. Her Older body would then find the other "Gods" select a "Song" tailored to their specific weakness and select a "God" to Incarnate them as, that would take full advantage of their respective weaknesses. Doing this allowed Ananke to then take advantage of them as they slowly began to descent into their individual hedonism, selfishness and destructive impulses to allow her to subtly manipulate them and collect her needed sacrifices for her ritual, while using her younger body to typically deflect any suspicion from her by using the bodies young age to further manipulate them by taking advantage of their sympathies or have her younger body operate behind the scenes to avoid notice altogether.
Role[]
The primary role of the Pantheon is to inspire. As Amaterasu puts it, they "make life worth living, for an evening at a time". Each Pantheon tends to assume a role that is particularly influential for their generation; for example, the 2010s Pantheon are pop stars, and the 1830s Pantheon were Romantics. Nevertheless, their powers do not affect everyone, as in the case of Cassandra. According to Ananke, without the gods, the darkness returns.
Godhood[]
While the members of the Pantheon believe they are gods, Ananke claims she doesn't know for sure if they really are. Each god gains powers related to their identity and origin. They don't seem to remember their past lives.[3]
Symbols[]
References[]
- ↑ For example, Susanoo appeared during the 1920s Recurrence, but not during the 2010s Recurrence. Likewise, Baphomet did not appear before the 2010s Recurrence.
- ↑ E.g. Morrigan, Lucifer and Woden all switched genders between the 1830s and 2010s Recurrences.
- ↑ This is proven by the fact that Woden is able to trick Amaterasu into believing that her jewellery belonged to the 1920s Amaterasu.
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