You guys are talking like the gods know about the Dark One’s Plan. Chances are, they don’t know anything about it. Otherwise, they’d probably join together and squash him. Even the Dark One’s allies.
Why? Because the Plan has nothing to do with giving goblinoids equality with the other races. Yes, that’s what the DO told Redcloak, but it’s an outright lie. Instead the Plan is to give the Dark One dominance over the other gods. Think about it, he’s an Evil god, of course he wants dominance. Also revenge.
For this reason, the Dark One, if given a vote, will vote against destoying the world. Destroying the world would ruin the Plan and he’d have to fall back on working for equality in the next world. Which may or may not work.
Implications of this:
the 10 to 15 minutes Loki was talking about refer to the time after the last gate is destroyed. Nothing to do with Xykon and Redcloak completing their ritual.
if the DO hears about the Godsmoot and what it’s voting on, he will try to vote in it. It may be that he heard about the moot but didn’t know the agenda, so decided to skip it. Then he learns the agenda at the last minute and tells RC to attend, even though he may be a bit late. Or he knew the agenda, but RC and X have to complete today’s ritual (must be repeated daily for a couple-three weeks at noon), so they’ll be late.
Conclusion: Belkar’s fall is going to be broken by a Hello Kitty parasol.
That’s an orc (or a half-orc, anyway – see: Bozzok and Therkla). Would they worship the Dark One, or is he strictly for goblinoids?
Anyway, that’s irrelevant. The godsmoot isn’t made up of just representatives of the gods; it’s mad up of the Chief Cleric of each god. And the Dark One’s Chief Cleric is the wearer of the Crimson Mantle. Redcloak.
Are we reading the same strip? Thor is clearly listening and responding to what Elan is saying. There’s another example of the same joke later on, where celestial advisors of Thor are listening to Durkon and say something like “It’s best he doesn’t know”.
The (half-)orc wasn’t one of the clerics, anyway. He was up in the gallery, where Roy and the other bodyguards were. There are a few half-orc adventurers around, and apparently one of them hired on to guard a cleric.
I’m just going to stick with the super obvious explanation. The gods can see what’s going on in the mortal world if they’re paying attention, but more often than not are busy with something else.
I’m never sure how seriously I should take the gag strips. I mean it’s sort of interesting to treat them as canon, but also a little odd as they weren’t written with that in mind. To take another example, I say that Belkar might be evil due to a lack of wisdom, but only if Rich decides to run with that idea. Which, it appears, he does.
I say the gods can’t hear non-priests during the godsmoot, because we’ve been told that. I’m guessing that Rich is going with the shtick where the gods hear priests and clerics, but that’s it. The gods might hear Elan when he’s acting as the priest of Banjo, but not necessarily. Rule of funny rules.
We don’t know what the Gods know. All we know is that Loki’s a trickster and his saying “hey, you guys still have like 10 minutes after the gates blow up. What’s the hurry?” might be done for shits and giggles. You’d think the Gods who created the Snarl and created its containment would know it’s a lie. But again, we don’t know what the Gods know.
So what’s the point of prayer?!