"Ancestral Dao arts are techniques created by gathering the essence of a God's dao. Through such a technique, the cultivator will be able to indirectly use a portion of the God's dao. The stronger the God or Dao, the stronger the technique."
"Honestly, grasping such techniques is so difficult most mortals only learn one and keep it as a trump card until they develop their own dao. The intertwining intricacies that make up even the weakest of daos is something no mortal can truly fathom." Added Hera.
"Wow, I didn't know such a thing was possible. I wonder though, why would anyone want other people to use their dao? Isn't it the most personal representation of themselves, their paths, lives and goals? Feels rather perverted to allow others to wield such a crucial part of themselves." Asked Orion as he bore a perplexed expression.
Hearing this, Hera smiled.
"Very good observation. Well, the answer to that is rather complex."
"There are multiple ways to become a God. You can use the paths of our ancestors and use incense, you can use faith or like us, the most powerful beings, ascend past everything and embody the meaning of the word God in its purest form."
"Incense Gods are only limited by the amount of people that use their 'Blessing'. The more people use it, the stronger they become. Faith gods are limited by the amount of believers they have. More means stronger."
"Us True Gods are only limited by the complexity of our daos and the structure of our inner worlds and souls. In essence, we are our only limit."
"Now tell me Ori, what happens if a true God's Dao plateaus and simply doesn't have enough potential to advance beyond the realm it's creator is in? How would that God advance?" Asked Hera.
"Before I answer, elaborate on what you mean by plateau? From what I know, all concepts technically have infinite potential, it's just a matter of how much the cultivator can extricate from it and complexify the laws that constitute it. I assume it's the same for Dao's no?"
"Nope. Daos have fundamental limits, unbreakable walls. I can't give you the specifics due to your weakness but there is a realm where the fundamental potential of one's Dao is dictated."
"Now, with that being explained, let's go back to my question."
Crossing his arms, Orion fell into his own mind, taking this question pretty seriously. Though his mother was usually playful and relaxed, whenever she tried to make him think about something, it meant greater things were at play.
'An Incense God's limit is the scope of their blessing. A faith God's limit is their amount of influence over living life forms. A true God's limit is themselves but more importantly, their Dao's foundation. What is the correlation here…'
'What would the foundation of Dao even represent? Their belief and path? No, that seems too ethereal and not concrete enough to birth a Godhood or atleast support it…'
Unbeknownst to Orion, as he fell deeper and deeper into his own thoughts, the amount of dream force that perpetually hung around him churned more and more.
'I'm gonna guess that the foundation of a Dao is based on primordial runes, or something like that. A form of universal language that can evolve an idea into a law then into a concept and so on. Only primordial runes can do that.'
'Now with that in mind I'll assume that the more complete the set of runes one has, the better the foundation. But how does that tie back with my previous conclusion…'
'Wait…fundamentally, isn't a dao just a part of the cultivator? So spreading it around through dao arts is pretty much just…'
"They use their daos to taint a mortal's existence with their own personal mark. Essentially turning that living being into a creation of their own… I think?"
"Oh? What's the correlation between your previous assumption and the tainting?" Asked Hera as a large smile appeared on her face.
'Ah, I forgot she can read my mind.'
"Well, if I assume my assumptions are correct, something doesn't add up."
"The main question is, what do other types of Gods gain through mortals? Incense Gods get stronger by spreading their blessings to beings under the God realm. Faith Gods get stronger by gathering Faith through the increase of their influence."
"True Gods get stronger by evolving their daos using their fundamental primordial runes."
"There's a major discrepancy between the two paths. One relies on runes while the other relies on mortal life. That's when it all clicked."
"Fundamentally, what's a mortal life? What is the point of cultivation? Why do we mortals seek freedom from the Heavens?"
"Mortals are like runes used by the Heavens to enforce its Natural Order. What these Gods are doing is stealing pawns of the Heavens to increase the power of their path."
"To be more precise, in the eyes of Gods, mortals are just clouds of primordial runes that haven't been claimed. So they need to taint them using their power to gain control of them."
Orion's eyes nearly blinded the entire realm as his dream aura utterly exploded and his mind fell into enlightenment.
"How does that link back to Ancestral Dao arts though? Your thesis is about, hm…ten percent correct but that still doesn't answer the question." Said Hera.
"To own a Dao you have to be a True God. All those other gods have renounced their pursuit of the Dao. So how does tainting a mortal benefit a True God?"
"Because unlike those other Gods, True Gods have their primordial runes branded in their inner worlds. No amount of mortals will change that so tainting mortals is just a waste of time. Yet they still willingly spread their daos, peculiar isn't it…?" Uttered Hera, the excitement in her voice apparent as she watched Orion's brain fire thousands of possibilities.
"You also have to remember that learning a Dao art is difficult beyond words and only accessible to powerful clans like ours, so what's the point? Why does it matter? Why go through the hassle?"
Hera seemed to love watching Orion's distraught expression as she added oil to the already eternally burning fire that was Orion's mind.
'What am I not seeing…what am I not considering…what am I missing…?'