What do the GW gods actually do, or rather, what *can* they do?

What do the GW gods actually do, or rather, what *can* they do?

My question is this: we never actually see the gods do anything directly in-game. Yes, we fight Abaddon, but he is basically crippled and weakened in the form we encounter. But what about the other gods? I mean, Balthazar and Grenth can't even keep their own realms under control, and while people surely pray to them, where is their presence? Is it supposed to be a "behind the scenes" type of thing, like Lyssa being *THE* source for mesmers' magic, or Melandru being the source or energy behind nature, or is it more of a Greek pantheon type of thing, where they sit on high and sort of watch and meddle once in a while?

Thanks for reading.

i actually do think this is based on greek mythology. Although i hope that in gw2 they will give us more insight on this subject.

I think it's like a pantheon as well.
And I kinda got this feeling in an EotN quest where they got their powers from.

I hate em. I think they are bad.

Yeah, I have to say, as far as gods go they are a bit lackluster. and I'd have to agree with your assessment that it's more of a Greek Pantheon type of thing.


The thing that irks me about them is that they are so... useless. Perhaps they should make way for some new Gods!

the gods have the ability to nerf skills, create bugs, smile upon botters/dupers/hackers/exploiters, and make hard mode really a stupid mode

that and they grant us passage to UW/FOW

I don't think they actually affect the world.

I wouldn't be surprised if they just conquer worlds, steal magic, leave and everyone sings their praises through embellished stories.
I think the dragons in GW2 were the original life on Tyria and are probably pissed.
I'm only guessing about all that though. It's just stuff in EotN that the Asura say that makes things sound suspicious.

I think all gods were once humans.

It's similar to Greek mythology so that may well have been where the designers got their inspiration.
One thing, however, is that the Greeks didn't have a well-developed concept of evil, such as Abaddon (Hades wasn't evil, merely the god of the dead).
Thus it feels more like the Norse or Egyptian gods.

Gods, by very definition, do something that mortals cannot comprehend. They merely get to see some side-effects of their actions.

It's similar to an ant building an ant hill on a human construction site. While for humans it's perfectly understandable that they are building a new office block for a mortgage company where they'll employ accountants to calculate risk factors for the 35-50 demographic, the poor little ant only knows that a long steel beam was thrust on the ground two inches away, smashing dozens of its fellow ants in the process.

In GW, people get to see such things as meeting abaddon, or going into FoW and UW, but those are just trivial things, unworthy of god's attention.

I bet by the beginning of GW2 we find out that the gods destroyed our HoMs hundreds of years ago because they deemed them too powerful.

I am a god.

The Frog is the One God. He sits above the others and they feed him flies and choice bug bits.

The difference is that in Greek mythology, the gods actually did something.

In GW, the gods do nothing.

just like in the real world, God(s) need money, so therefore that is what they do. they Bank. Hmpff..yea.

They're korean goldfarmers that scam you out of your gold at their shrines to get worthless blessings!

their shrines give blessings/fow/uw/advice in some missions/quest, and so on. the gods of greek/roman cuture were similar, only in the upper status of the gods. for instance, rarely did zeus bother with humans outside of having random sex with a girl or two, and aries/posiedon/athena/hades rarely ever go out and do anything in mythological lore, other than give advice and blessings (or curses). those are the gods that the gws gods represent (for the most part) the most, minus melandru, who deems from dioneseus (sp??) god of wine, or earth, who partied a lot with the humans (getting crunk).

this is my personal assesment i've had since the start, and might be of some help to you and your judgement on how they stand. they arent that much different from the same, lazy, egotistical, seeingly flawed behaviours of the greek/roman gods we all know and love (or hate).

If you remember from the story from the Prophecies Booklet, the gods once lived among the mortals, I believe. Then the humans abused their magical powers or something and they broke the magical stone into five, and spread them across Tyria. Then they left the world. It was something along those lines, although I could be thinking of something else, it's been a while since I've read the booklet. XD

lol the gods gives us blessings when we kneel at their shrines...but we need to pay them for it??? =S soooo wht DO they do with that money XD

Exactly what I was gonna say. I once sat down and read all of the lore on the Wiki and that's what I remember.