The gods (and the mortals) have a big problem

[Ninja Dragon]

At the end of the last arc, the gods were holding a voting to decide if they were going to destroy the Earth and collect its souls or not. The voting was going to be decided in the end by that council of dwarves. Durkon prevented the voting from countinuing by destroying a table, and finding another one could take "a while", according to the dwarves there.

But that voting exists for a reason: to prevent the gods from arguing, and thus creating another Snarl. That's why they set up this complicated set of rules, so that no one can act on their own.

The fact the voting is adjourned, possibly for a long time, means the gods have effectively lost access to their only means of interference on the planet's issue. If the Snarl comes out, they can only watch in silence as it devours all the souls in the planet and threatens to devour them too. Acting on it could create a discord between them, which they can't risk. So the Order, at the end of Act 6, destroyed their chance of getting an afterlife if they fail their mission. The "collect the souls before the Snarl eats them" option is no longer on the table. Granted, that was a terrible option for the dwarves thanks to Hel, but it was at least acceptable for the other races.

And this is also a point of leverage for Redcloak. I was under the impression he was in a situation where he couldn't make choices, because if he didn't take Durkon's deal, the gods would destroy the world, killing the Dark One in the process. Well, they can't do that, and if Redcloack learns about that, he could procceed with the plan and have the Dark One use that as leverage. They will still make the deal to patch the planet, but with the Dark One setting terms for it, or the Snarl will eat the planet and the gods's precious souls.

[KorvinStarmast]

At the end of the last arc, the gods were holding a voting to decide if they were going to destroy the Earth and collect its souls or not.

Minor nitpick: OoTS world is not The Earth. (This has been made clear any number of times in the past by the author.

If I may offer a suggested correction "the gods were holding a voting to decide if they were going to destroy the world" -

[ziproot]

If the Snarl actually breaks out, then I doubt the Twelve Gods will keep their votes at "no".

[Ninja Dragon]

Are they even allowed to change votes, though?

[BloodSquirrel]

You're assuming that they need a vote to destroy the world- what we've seen indicates that they need a vote to destroy the world immediately. Their rules probably stipulate that once the Snarl starts getting loose, they can blow up the world without a vote.

[ziproot]

Are they even allowed to change votes, though?

We don't know. If they aren't then that is definitely a predicament.

[Fyraltari]

They're not but a case could be made that they're starting a new vote (since they went from one gate standing to none).

However ot seems that they have lost worlds to the Snarl before (in addition to the first one of course) so even if it does break free it doesn't make that much difference to the gods.

[Shadowknight12]

Well, the gods don't have a big problem, the mortals do. The reason the gods held the vote is because they're largely uninvolved in this matter (unless the Dark One succeeds). So whatever happens to the planet, they've done this billions of times. This is also why there won't be a disagreement between them. This situation has likely happened before and (to them) will happen again.

[Mad Humanist]

In his speech Loki seemed to indicate they would have 10-15 minutes time between the last gate being destroyed and the Snarl breaking out "if we all agree on that course of action today". So I suppose Loki was expecting that they would vote "No" and then hold another vote on what to do if the last gate is destroyed. But that vote never happened. So I would say the current situation is unclear.

[Dion]

Are they even allowed to change votes, though?

They’ve had a couple billion years to work out the rules, and a legion of beings of pure law to interpret them down to the letter, and a legion of beings of pure chaos to exploit the loopholes.

If they need to, I’m sure they can throw the metaphorical hammer through the table, just like Durkon did.

Heck, they probably have a ceremonial hammer they use ever million years or so for just that purpose.

[Doug Lampert]

They’ve had a couple billion years to work out the rules, and a legion of beings of pure law to interpret them down to the letter, and a legion of beings of pure chaos to exploit the loopholes.

If they need to, I’m sure they can throw the metaphorical hammer through the table, just like Durkon did.

Heck, they probably have a ceremonial hammer they use ever million years or so for just that purpose.

Yep, there's almost certainly a rule that when the snarl actually breaks loose, you can act without consulting with the others or ignoring an in progress vote.

The Red Alert sounds, the giant snarl symbol is projected onto the clouds, whatever the alert signal is it's given, and everyone drops what they're doing and shifts to end of world scenario.

The gods are CAPABLE of acting outside a Moot, we know this because there's no gods' moot to discuss how to make a new world given that there are no live clerics to hold the meetings. They just PREFER to follow the moot protocols when practical because doing so is safer and works well enough.

[hroþila]

I believe that giving any god the legal ability to begin demolishing the world unilaterally would be extremely dangerous, and I doubt that's how it works. Or even that a few gods would have the power to do it by themselves, even. Having to wait for a consensus to act jointly would also explain why the Snarl manages to unmake some worlds at all.

[BloodSquirrel]

I believe that giving any god the legal ability to begin demolishing the world unilaterally would be extremely dangerous, and I doubt that's how it works. Or even that a few gods would have the power to do it by themselves, even. Having to wait for a consensus to act jointly would also explain why the Snarl manages to unmake some worlds at all.

Given that we're talking about scenarios where the Snarl is going to destroy the world anyway and possibly destroy everybody's soul along with it, "extremely dangerous" is a given. Even waiting for consensus is dangerous when dealing with the Snarl. Indeed, we've seen that some of the Gods don't even consider destroying the world a big deal. Some of them agreed to it just because they were bored of this one.

Besides, it's not "unilateral" if there are agreed-upon conditions beforehand. We don't know what the Snarl destroying the world looks like, but I'm sure there are trigger points they can set where, once they're met, they know that the world is doomed and there's no downside to blowing it up now.

[hroþila]

Oh, I mean dangerous for the gods, not for the world and the mortals. Dangerous, as in it could potentially lead to another Snarl if some gods start acting without other gods being aware.

We don't know how exactly worlds end, but we know the gods don't make it in time sometimes (or very often, if what Hel implied is true), so it can't be as easy and safe as Loki suggested.

[Lord Torath]

Keep in mind that, as far as we know, only the Northern Pantheon has the "No Backsies" rule. We just need an unknown number of Southern Pantheon gods to change their vote, and suddenly the Northern Pantheon's gridlock becomes meaningless. Rat is quite upset with The Dark One, and would probably be happy to detonate the world if it looks like Redcloak might be able to enact the Ritual. Other members of the pantheon might feel the same.

[Dion]

Keep in mind that, as far as we know, only the Northern Pantheon has the "No Backsies" rule.

We know that a bunch of mortal dwarves, sitting on a part time committee with no power or purpose, managed in a thousand years to create a rule book convoluted enough to specify the rules for the table.

I suspect that immortal gods with billions of years of time have a rule book that is a few hundred billion pages long, including a no backsie rule, no reverse backsie rule, no forward backsie rule, and the specific kind of ink you need to sign a forward reverse triple backsie rule exception request form 1025J2.D

And I guarantee that someone has a bottle of that ink ready.

[InvisibleBison]

We know that a bunch of mortal dwarves, sitting on a part time committee with no power or purpose, managed in a thousand years to create a rule book convoluted enough to specify the rules for the table.

I suspect that immortal gods with billions of years of time have a rule book that is a few hundred billion pages long, including a no backsie rule, no reverse backsie rule, no forward backsie rule, and the specific kind of ink you need to sign a forward reverse triple backsie rule exception request form 1025J2.D

And I guarantee that someone has a bottle of that ink ready.

They certainly could have come up with rules that detailed if they wanted to, but I doubt they have. Remember, unlike the nearly-universally Lawful dwarves, only a third of the gods are Lawful. Another third are Neutral, and would consider rules that complex to be unnecessary, while another third are Chaotic, and would find such rules to be abhorrent.

[ziproot]

They certainly could have come up with rules that detailed if they wanted to, but I doubt they have. Remember, unlike the nearly-universally Lawful dwarves, only a third of the gods are Lawful. Another third are Neutral, and would consider rules that complex to be unnecessary, while another third are Chaotic, and would find such rules to be abhorrent.

Though remember, it was Loki who pushed for the "no backsies" rule. Loki is pretty Chaotic if you ask me.

[Rrmcklin]

Keep in mind that, as far as we know, only the Northern Pantheon has the "No Backsies" rule. We just need an unknown number of Southern Pantheon gods to change their vote, and suddenly the Northern Pantheon's gridlock becomes meaningless. Rat is quite upset with The Dark One, and would probably be happy to detonate the world if it looks like Redcloak might be able to enact the Ritual. Other members of the pantheon might feel the same.

Chances are the majority of them would have voted "Yes" to begin with if that were truly a big enough factor to sway things. Not that we know how any of them voted, Rat could have already voted "Yes" for that or any other reason.

[Squire Doodad]

In this comic, Loki proposes that the goods "agree on that course of action today". If Loki had won the vote, the Gods would have then immediately hashed out a contingency plan to make sure they could still destroy the world in the 10-15 minutes between the last gate falling and the Snarl escaping.

I believe he wanted the neutrals and evils to chip in, too

I'd argue there are some amount of contingencies where the three heads of the pantheons declare the Snarl has come loose and everyone nukes the place while preparing to run like hell.

Does the afterlife get put on auxiliary power during the interim, or is it because the Snarl is only on the material plane that the afterlife "entities" can still run without taking up whatever energies power the gods?

[tanonx]

Another third are Neutral, and would consider rules that complex to be unnecessary,

I think if there's one place Neutrals would consider thorough rules to be necessary, it would be avoiding the complete destruction of reality. The swing vote prefers to swing, not hang.

[Silly Name]

Though remember, it was Loki who pushed for the "no backsies" rule. Loki is pretty Chaotic if you ask me.

As shown by Hel, the "no backsies" rule seems to actually be a quite useful tool to cause chaos.