On the Subject of Pantheon

Summary

Let it not be said that the World hasn't been shaped by the whims of deities, spirits, extraplanar forces, and beings so powerful they might as well be gods. Some effects are obvious, the Sun God rides through the sky, the God of Death guides souls to their respective afterlife, the spirits of the seasons come and go in their eternal cycle. Clerics draw magic from these beings of immeasurable power, paladins bring the force of their oath down on their foes, and warlocks bargain with their souls on the line. Is it any wonder then that cultures are shaped by these forces, with cathedrals rising to the heavens in reverence, shadowy cults sacrifice to dark masters, even crusades to bring the word of their deity to the ignorant nonbelievers.
When the Gods made the World, they created Order out of Chaos, setting the nature of things with their liking to precision. Throughout the millennia, there have been numerous events where the Gods themselves came to earth, spawning countless myths as consequence. To reiterate, knowledge and evidence of these beings existence is not in short supply, rendering atheism a useless philosophy. Spirits, natural forces, even creatures such as ancient dragons can be placed in the same catagory as "Gods". This broad catagorization is important due to the way they manifest in worldly affairs, or rather, the lack of interference.
"Gods," despite their seeming infinity of power, are incredibly narrow beings. A god of fire is just that, a being holding sole dominion over the concept of fire and how it works. A spirit of winter is an abstract concept of winter, but this spirit can condense its power how it sees fit, such as in the form of winter eladrin from the Twilight Dream. This is all to then make abundantly clear that "Gods" are forces of nature. Just because they have the potential to share morality and reason that mortals have doesn't mean they have any reason to. It is the hubris of mortals to specifiy how their god acts and feels, because "gods" are so distant from mortals.
This level of ambivilence from "Gods" is what allows mortals to be the true movers and shakers of the World. A paticularly blessed cleric might enjoy a single meeting with their patron deity in their lifetime, rendering them a Saint. Having visions, dreams and divinations are most often not the direct hand of gods, rather the shifting tides of the World's magics. 
For example, an apparition of Silentir appears and guides the visionary through a winter wood to reveal a dead dragon. This apparition of Silentir, the Winter Wolf coming in a vision is not likely the being itself that races across the Amar Kaldaka sky come to meet the recipient of the visionary. Such directness isn't how the World's magic works. Rather, Silentir is an embodiment winter, natural predators, and ill omen. One can thus extrapolate Silentir showing a dead dragon, implying it's zodiac counterpart Draconis, will come to an end. Whether or not this is accurate is up to the interpretation of the visionary.
Another example is revering a hurricane as a God. There is a God of Storms that is the core reason for a hurricane's existence. To beg to the God of Storms to take away the hurricane is unlikely to work, and being angry at the hurricane is a fool's errand, because it is a hurricane. There is nothing else in a storm's nature than to be a storm. This doesn't mean a paticularly powerful mortal cannot learn to tap into the God of Storms, to replicate a thunderbolt, to summon a deluge, or send a tornado away from a village it was about to hit. Perhaps this does more credance to the power of mortals that it can sway the might of a god.
In short, "Gods" are powerful but broadly unknowable and uncaring forces of nature. One may be capable of drawing power from these forces, but the truly enlightened know that it is within rather than what's without that this power comes from.
-"On the Subject of Pantheon," written by Emperor Impilturas IX, the original copy stored in Lyrabar. Impilturas IX was famously the first Emperor not to be under the tutalage of Nymbryxion.