Or, On the Risks and Profit of the Apocalypse
A War of Wrath and Destruction
To the ancient peoples who bequeathed us our visions of the Apocalypse, that vision was always that of a great war. The ancient enemy either finally triumphs in its duel with the king or the chmapion of the gods, some ancient horror is released from its spellbound slumber, or the final battle in a conflict older than time itself is finally joined. At any rate, the world as we know it, of Mankind and his gods, that falsely quite space between the camps in the great, secret war in Heaven, cease to exist.
Mankind is sufficiently informed, instinctually, of its collective adaptability. Therefore while he fears natural disasters he knows they always leave some survivors to carry on the ways of the tribe, one way or another. Only in war are tribes and nations exterminated wholesale, where the malicious will of a bitter enemy guids the slaughter. Indeed, famine, flood, earthquake and pestilence are merely the weapons the gods wield in war.
In the Pagan faiths, where the gods are avatars, guardians and masters to the World's different aspects and powers, its end is theirs too. They are never expected to win the coming battle, at most they are expected to land a fatal blow upon their enemies as they fall, allowing the World to be born anew. The one exception to this general rule is the Graeco-Roman myth, which not only claim that the world as we know it have already experienced the Apocalyptic war, but that the Olympian gods have won against the giants. The Egyptians believed that the first champion-king of the gods, Ra, himself is subject to old age and even death. Ventually, Ra shall fall in his battle with the Night-Serpent, and all would be lost.
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