As mentioned before, even without True Ether, gods can still obtain power through the faith of their followers.
However, the use of faith-based power is limited. The way believers perceive a deity determines the scope in which that faith can be utilized.
Because of this, when spreading their faith, gods must allow mortals to understand them, or at least understand a particular aspect of them, so that they can accurately obtain specific divine powers.
What is called a god's "aspect" is essentially the persona a deity presents to mortals. These personas often embody a certain side or portion of the god's nature.
In the eyes of mortals, these personas may appear to be entirely different gods, but in truth, they are all manifestations of the same deity.
In the Heliopolis pantheon, Ra has three aspects: Ra, Osiris, and Horus.
In monotheistic belief systems, Jehovah and Allah can both be considered aspects of Yahweh.
In a certain Godslayer world, Athena, Medusa, and Metis are the three aspects of the goddess Athena.
Similarly, Ishtar of Mesopotamia, Isis of the Heliopolis pantheon, and Anat of the Canaanite pantheon can, under certain circumstances, be regarded as three aspects of the same goddess.
Even Baal of the Canaanite pantheon has aspects such as Baal (the demon king) and Melqart, the Phoenician god-king.
In the Indian pantheon, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are said to form a trinity, three aspects of one entity.
Of course, in the Type-Moon world, the concept of aspects is not so universal. At least, Alaric knows that Athena and Medusa are not the same being, in fact, they are mutual enemies.
Likewise, Isis has no relation to Anat. However, it is true that Isis is an aspect of Hecate.
Additionally, Bastet has an aspect as the lion goddess Sekhmet.
Returning to the main point, aside from being deliberately created, aspects can also arise passively.
For example, Baal's aspect as the demon king "Baal" was not his original intention. That aspect emerged as a result of slander and degradation.
The existence of aspects allows gods to gain followers more broadly. Correspondingly, the faith derived from different aspects is assigned to different uses.
Faith gained through a water-god aspect cannot be used in the domain of fire, even if the deity possesses authority over fire.
After the loss of True Ether, aspects become even more important to gods, and they must be far more cautious in choosing them.
Because once True Ether disappears, a god's existence depends entirely on faith, and that very faith will gradually reshape the god.
In other words, if a deity's aspect does not align with their true nature, then as True Ether declines, the continuous influx of faith from followers of that aspect will gradually distort the deity until they become unified with that persona.
Athena once exploited this principle when she degraded Medusa, nearly turning her into a "monster." Likewise, after divine wars, some pantheons deliberately tarnish the image of enemy gods among mortals to weaken them. Through such methods, even a mighty king of gods can be reduced to a demon.
Without True Ether, even seemingly powerful gods are nothing more than weeds swaying with the tides of human thought.
It is precisely because of these rules that gods must be extremely cautious in selecting and maintaining their aspects.
While True Ether is still abundant, they may act freely, but once it recedes, they will be forced to carefully manage their image.
Even without considering corruption or degradation, gods must still be mindful: the wrong aspect can yield unusable divine power. A sky god without dominion over the earth gains nothing from an earth-god aspect, in fact, it may even erode their original authority over the sky.
However, there is one type of god that need not worry about any of this.
That is a god like El.
Having limited mastery over all domains means being able to accept faith of any kind.
Such a deity may be lacking as a ruler of specific laws, since omnipotence limits the upper bound of power. But if they focus on faith itself, they can become extraordinarily powerful.
However, in the eyes of most gods, such a deity has another flaw, they are too solitary.
An all-encompassing domain and all-encompassing aspects mean that all faith can be directed toward a single god. But this also means encroaching upon the domains of other gods.
In traditional pantheons, each god governs their own domain, and mortals can direct their prayers accordingly, a mutually beneficial arrangement.
But for an omnipotent god, every prayer can be directed to them alone. Then what of the other gods in the pantheon?
Such a deity is inherently in conflict with others. This is another reason why El has been sidelined.
And yet, this is also precisely why Alaric values him.
At present, besides laying out plans across the world to make Hecate the true goddess of the magic network, Alaric is also trying to incite resentment and resistance among humanity toward the gods.
But so far, this has proven difficult.
Because as beings who wield power, gods are naturally worshipped by weaker humans, it is only natural. Even Alaric cannot easily defy this principle.
However, the decline of True Ether is merely one necessary condition for the birth of Alaya.
If humanity cannot develop a rebellious mindset against the gods, then even if True Ether fades, as long as humans remain subjugated, Alaya will never truly come into being.
Yet for Alaric to personally stand against all the gods of the world, even if he has the ability, is impossible.
The reason is simple: it would be too exhausting.
There are countless named pantheons in the world, and even more miscellaneous local deities and essence spirits numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
Fighting them one by one would exhaust him to death.
Thus, there is only one solution, ignite a divine war.
But this method also has flaws.
While conflict between gods can weaken them, it can also lead to consolidation: defeated gods join new pantheons as subordinate deities, and victorious pantheons grow stronger by absorbing them. Such outcomes are common in divine wars.
Relying on ordinary divine wars to overturn the current order would only result in even more powerful pantheons emerging.
So Alaric quickly abandoned that idea.
Until he saw El.
If he could cultivate an omnipotent god who feeds on faith, then a divine war initiated by such a being would not lead to that outcome.
Because of omnipotence, such a god would not need to share followers with others.
And because they rely on faith to sustain their power, they would not allow other gods to exist and divide that faith.
What better tool could there be to weaken the gods than this?