I understand in common Cosmic Horror stories eldrich beings are terrifying because they don't care about our puny lives and world and could destroy us without really trying, but I am going for a kind of Lovecraft Lite story. One of the gods decided long in the early ages of my verse to rebel against the main god, resulting in a war between all of the gods. In the aftermath of this cosmic war, these gods fall from full blown godhood (but are still damn powerful) and become what are referred to as the Dead Gods. Only one remains, and he is like Yog Sothoth level. The one god who rebelled tries to regain his full godhood to stand against the main god once again, and has attempted to turn a few space species into mages (and magic is the only way to truly stand up against one of these gods in my verse) so he can use them as soldiers and acolytes for returning him to his power. He has failed several times, one time he succeeded and unlocked magic abilities in the whole population of one planet, attempting to fight his rival gods but failed (this is important, as part of my story is his son, with one of these aliens, was killed in battle, but is revived on earth and the protag must fight him). Anyways, I don't want to ramble. In final detail, this god has a son with a human woman on Earth, and the other Dead Gods and most powerful god come to know about it. Whats could make them want to avoid destroying Earth? Or maybe, more impossibly, make them not want to attack it directly?
If this half-human, half-god son is useful to the god who fathered him, the others may wish to have half-human children as well. Blowing up the planet wastes a potential resource.
Maybe the gods have an unwritten rule against literally destroying each other. Sure, they fight, struggle against each other, manipulating mortals and transforming worlds, stripping each other of power and consciousness, but actually killing a fellow god is abhorrent to them. The god/human baby hybrid is mortal, weak, and easy to erase, but he is still a god. Maybe this is all an elaborate cycle, and the birth of this human/god was part of a cycle.
Well, your story sounds like the story in the bible between God, and Satan. Maye you can draw from that to give you a cause?
Look at it from the other direction: Why would they bother destroying the earth? I mean, presumably it takes a bit of oomph to destroy a planet, or at least you have to hit it from just the right angle; so maybe they either can't get up the energy or are totally indifferent.
A 'seat of power' kind of thing? Is Earth the 'cradle of life' for the rest of the planets - maybe play on not wanting to decimate the originating strain of life? The rest of them have hidden halflings on Earth ( even maybe just one of them ) so they don't want to kill off their own lines but 'no one knows'. There is some kind of foreknowledge that shows drastic consequences for the destruction of Earth - or maybe they ( the dead gods and ultimate one ) have lived this in cycle and have already tried destroying earth = horrible results. I really like the idea that planetary destruction is 'beneath them' - say that as gods they are capable of so much more than just brute force - they take pride in destroying each other through the most miniscule of details or moves. Only an 'uncouth barbarian' would stoop to such brash moves to accomplish a goal. Finesse displays their superiority.
Could he have unlocked the magic ability on planet earth? Making earth to a power source for the last god who struggles to stay on the throne as all the dead gods unite to take him down? I don't know too much about your verse but this would make sense in my mind.
Maybe they see life as having some value. I know its elder god tradition to have them not care, but there's a reason humans keep pets, or people own ant-farms.
Maybe Earth was created by the main god who infused the planet with his essence or something and the Dead Gods are not yet powerful enough to break the main gods hold over Earth. Perhaps that is also why he failed so many times, Earth is like the main god's 'one ring' or horcrux.
An old soul, reincarnated in the protagonist that they recognise as one of their lost friends from a time loooong ago Something like... The goddess Taribithia was the purest of us all, and when she was slain it marked a point of no return If she was human in her incarnation or whatever they would try to take her, and the only way to save the earth is to convince her to stay
This thread is so cool. If you take away anything from it is that there's always an answer to any plot problems, just need to keep generating ideas. Edit: one more for luck; the gods depend on humanity, somehow. Sort of like if we were to wipe out all ants, the food chain would be messed. Cosmic balance and all that.
Maybe they find humans far too amusing to destroy. Maybe they don't care enough about this problem to give the antagonist permission to destroy the world. Maybe the elder gods don't completely approve of this quest, so they're giving the antagonist the good old "you're on your own, bub". I think as long as they are casual and indifferent, and find destroying the Earth to be beneath them or just laughable immature, that would be neat.
Why blow up the whole planet when they can specifically target the child? And how do they know the child will be any threat to them? What if the child hates his daddy?
Well, I think the OP is trying to establish the premise that they are targeting the child. This does seem uncharacteristic for dark gods from beyond the cosmos though, doesn't it? I think the OP is trying to avoid people saying, "Wait, why don't they just destroy the whole Earth?" Right? I think you're right, him being an existential threat is not a certainty. Someone or something or even a cult would be responsible for keeping tabs on him to make sure he doesn't start to "too closely resemble his father." pulling from The Dunwich Horror. There's simply so much to work with. If someone were to make a move to outright destroy him, you'd be looking at someone acting alone. It gets big fast, though... especially since the main conflict involves gods that aren't on Earth.
Eh. I wouldn't be thinking "why don't they destroy the planet?" I'd be thinking in all honesty "why would they blow up the whole planet?"
You know how people are. There are people upset to this day that the eagles didn't carry Frodo to Mount Doom.
Which wouldn't work as well as people think because they'd just get shot down by the hundred of orcs or killed by the Nazgul.
The rebel god stole something valuable to the other gods and hid it on Earth, so they have to find it before they can destroy Earth; otherwise they'll destroy the Thing along with Earth.
Could be emotional attachment to someone. If I remember correctly, even Cthulhu cared for someone. He had some sort of daughter or something.
