I woke up this morning, and something felt wrong.

Initially I thought it was because of the ambush I suffered while out in the Aethric realms. Bad things came after me, and despite the best efforts of Hel, Bellona, and myself, things got through. Very bad things.

So I thought it was simply because I took a few hits, but after a few hours I figured out that no, that wasn’t what was wrong. Being struck by them, even with as bad as those things were making me mentally close links to the spiritual couldn’t explain the complete lack of divine power I was feeling, or my difficulty connecting to Hel and Bellona, much less anyone else.

Then I thought that perhaps my ex had finally made through on her threats to remove the divine nature I’d connected too. To unmake all that was “Godly” in me. After all, I’d finally called her out on stuff, rather than just the actions of the kami no kitsune. For a while, I thought that this was the reason I no longer felt the divine power of my domain.

But then on a hunch, with some difficulty, I asked Hel and Bellona to check on something for me, and it turned out…I’m not the only one who has lost pretty much all divine power.

Tyr and Iustitia as well, have lost nearly all power.

When I woke up for work yesterday morning, I turned on the news. Mostly because it seems the news is the only place with anything interesting most of the time, even with all the stupid, partisan talking heads. And found out that the police in Baltimore had pretty much stopped doing their jobs. Arrests were down nearly 60% from this time last year. Murders and other crimes had sky rocketed. Baltimore had just suffered its bloodiest and deadliest month…in nearly Twenty Years.

The function of a government is to enforce the law. But time and again, from Ferguson to Baltimore to New York to Cleveland to the Department of Justice, the government has instead punished law enforcement officers rather than criminals. One can have a discussion of police brutality, but we have surpassed discussions and move to the point where police officers now fear being arrested if they even give a traffic ticket. We have police now fearing not being shot and killed…but surviving an attempt on their lives.

So they have turned away. Reports from Baltimore are that many Baltimorians have not seen cops for days, either in car or on foot. Baltimore is now, by all accounts, a city without law, and has been since the riots.

And this lawlessness is spreading, rapidly.

Gods work by faith. Gods are sources of power, they contain power, they direct power, and they empower, within their domains. But that domain has to exist. That domain has to be in practice. Hel would have no power in a world where there was no death. Ares has no power in a world without war.

Tyr, Iustitia, Svartwulf, and all other Gods of Law do not have power in a land without law.

There’s a lot of reasons we’ve reached this point. Part of me wonders if Loki’s work with Social Justice didn’t have some of this in mind. After all, Social Justice ideology has been a driving force behind this push against law enforcement, and deifying of those criminals killed by police. I do think part of it is the rise of the kami no kitsune, who is god of spies and highwaymen (by his own choice) which also made him god of thieves. My ex will no doubt consider that a blasphemy, but he is god of those things by his own admission, no matter how much she has tried in the past to claim that spies and privateers are “good” rather than “evil.” But one man’s privateer is another man’s pirate, and if there is one thing about thieves I know it is that they feel that they have the right to what they take…regardless of if that is actually right/correct. That’s why I’ve harped so much about what he did being wrong, it wasn’t even so much complaining about him as it was trying to teach “this is wrong, this is unlawful” in an attempt to hinder some of the energy of God of Thieves pumping out. I don’t even think he intended such an outcome as this, I think he became what he did with the best of intentions, both in becoming the god he did and even in taking my ex from me.

But the road to Lucifer’s Hell is paved with good intentions. The energy you bring to the world grows, especially when you are a God. Sometimes that energy reaches other energies and creates a perfect storm. I tried to teach him this, both by talking, and then with divine legal action. Then I tried to teach others. But my powers, it seems, were not enough. The lessons, could not be learned.

Is anyone being responsible for what is happening? No. But we are now in a place where the Law Gods will no longer be able to aid until Law is restored, and this time it must be done by mortal hands. So if you seek protection, if you seek justice, if you seek all that is good and lawful…I wish you luck. Because I don’t think it’s going to be around for a while.