>Yes. The UF universe is like that. Are you just noticing now? Well, no. I've noticed for awhile. I would submit that it might, narratively, have been a bad idea to create gods with universal portfolios who don't seem to take them seriously; it makes said gods look irresponsible, and it says uncharitable things about the interior nature of the universe itself. It might have been better if the various Aes were "the Norse Gods of (X)", with all the limitations that that implies, rather than "the Gods of (X), all (X), everywhere."
I'd note that Surtur, at least, seems much less shy about operating on a universalized scale:
Surtur's very existence in the Universe encouraged the growth
of evil, without any action on his own; but here and there, where he
had acted, he had cultivated whole races, whole galaxies, of mortals
willing to serve his ends unknowing. A flaming finger touched a large
piece on the edge of the board, a cloudlike galaxy dominated by
creatures in angular exoskeletons, slavemasters over slavemasters. He
nudged them closer to the center.
Surtur plays for keeps; sure, one corner of one galaxy has angered him suchly that he's probably going to devote the next couple thousand years (a pittance given his lifespan) to grinding it into nothing, but he doesn't appear to just care about that one slice of Midgard; he plays using the entire game board:
In the end, nothing less than the full weight of all the forces of
destruction would be leveled against this tiny fraction of a tiny
fraction of a galaxy, this one-third of one spiral arm that called
itself - laughably - Known Space.
It would probably be a good idea for the Gods to ALSO play using the entire board. Not doing so seems dumb (and they're not dumb) and also like a great way for their mortal friends and family to end up seeing everything they care about burned to ash.
(I am aware that at the meta level, Known Space has you and Phil and Geoff and various alumni and such looking out for it, and as such nothing truly bad can happen to it long-term. But most of the people actually living there probably don't know that.)
-Merc
Keep Rat