Quote Originally Posted by Fyraltari View Post
I don't see how that contradicts what I am saying. As the Dark One proves, belief is all that is actually necessary for a mortal to ascend. However, Thor & Co seems to have been surprised by this ("he did it completely on his own", "somehow he tapped into an entirely new color of divine essence").

I don't see what is particularly surprising about gaining followers, since their are religions worshipping "rocks".

So it is possible that the Gods used to believe that while it was necessary for an ascending mortal to have worshippers, it wasn't enough and that nothing would happen if they did not get personnally involved. Until the Dark One proved them wrong.

That's just theorizing of course.
I think it's entirely possible that all the ascended gods before, through the power of belief, were slotted into existing pantheons rather then forming their own.