#two gods

That's a lot of individual questions. I feel some of the bigger questions could have been separate Asks, and the various little ones could have been bundled together on their own.

Each one of these following sections could have been a separate Ask.

(April 8th, 2025 Edit: This was Asked and Answered before Volume 9, which established that the two brothers are creatures, not uncreated creators.)

Uncreated Creator

The extra-canonical story about the brother gods originally being one god who split himself in two... doesn't contradict any of the facts presented in the canon, but also doesn't really matter to canon. The most important take-away, I feel, is that it reinforces the message that the brother gods are the only divine game in town, and we shouldn't waste energy hoping or fearing that any other gods will intervene in their squabble.

A creator god who was never created (a Prime Mover) isn't any more paradoxical than a Big Bang consisting of matter that no one created. Atheists with their belief in an ageless cycle of Big Crunches and Big Bangs are stuck with the same "turtles all the way down" problem as theists. Theism at least embraces the absurdity of the paradox as a proof of theism, by supposing the original creator god 'pre-exists' the very notion of Cause And Effect.

Of course, the Brother Gods are far less cosmically eldritch than the Abrahamic God, since existing outside of Time Itself doesn’t seem to give them the ability to foretell the future. But maybe that was what their original form did, and when it divided itself in two, its two components became subject to Time when Time began.

Eyes

For modern audiences, eyes are windows into the soul, and that implies a sort of vulnerability or mortality or relatability.

The brother gods are already so expressive, so human, so relatable in their behaviors and flaws... if you gave them eyes like Jinn and Ambrosius, I don't think they would really seem like gods. I think it would be too easy to forget how godlike they're supposed to be.

Spirits like Jinn and Ambrosius, as powerful as they are, are still closer to the level of humanity than they begin to approach the power of the gods. Like humans, Jinn and Ambroius are created beings who labor under heavy restrictions. So you can give them eyes without risking anyone forgetting the scale of the gap between them and regular mortals.

Arrogance?

The God of Destruction is arrogant in that he doesn't want to acknowledge that he's his own worst enemy. "Boo hoo, the humans don't want to worship me, but I'm not willing to get rid of my Grimm or let my brother share the water of everlasting life with them, oh poor me."

The God of Creation isn't generally arrogant, he's just willing to enforce his boundaries when he can. Cashiers don’t deserve to be yelled at by Karen customers who insist the cashiers violate company policy specifically for them.

Lessened?

Humans lost magic when the gods left. By that metric at least, humanity is lessened by their absence.

Whether or not that loss is worthwhile is a related matter, but still a separate question, and not one I feel qualified to decide.

Why Ozma?

I believe the God of Light chose Ozma to return to Remnant because no one else would go. In life, Ozma was this too-perfect hero who lived to help other people, but even he found death so restful that he refused to go back to help anyone until he learned that the woman he loved would never join him in restful death otherwise.

Salem was the only human of First Humanity 'spared' by the God of Destruction, so none of the other resting souls had anyone left on Remnant to go back for. And certainly, none of them gave a shit about seeing Salem.

Except maybe her father, but I doubt Salem's tyrannical, murderous father was the sort of person that the God of Light would trust to leave Salem alone and help Second Humanity.

The Gods' Criteria For Success

The God of Light's exact words were, "if your kind is unchanged, if you demand our blessings while still fighting amongst yourselves".

That's two separate conditions. Taken literally, it would be technically fine if the humans continued fighting other humans as long as they didn't also demand blessings from the gods. This was more or less the situation on Remnant before Salem lead humanity to wage war against the gods to steal blessings from them.

Certainly, neither god intervened to save Salem from her father, to protect her father from the interlopers Salem's messages brought, or to save the interlopers from her father's guards. Humans killed humans, and the gods stayed in their dens.

Though definitely, the "without fighting amongst yourselves" part does get more emphasis from the God of Creation. But that may be more of his personal wish than anything his brother demanded.

Which makes sense. Would the God of Destruction really want to see humans stop killing each other? If he can't destroy them all, and if he can't count on them worshiping him like they do his brother, then at least he can take solace that they keep killing themselves.

Are the gods still watching?

The God of Creation was definitely still watching at least up until the point he sent Ozma back, or how else would he know how bad things were getting? He might not be watching anymore, since he can just wait for the summons from the four assembled Relics to deliver the good or bad news.

I think the God of Destruction might not have cared to watch Remnant until the new agreement with his brother gave him a new opportunity to just destroy it all and be done with created things. And now he might also not be watching, but just listening for the proverbial bell.

Reaction to Salem and Ozma’s global take-over?

Assuming they’re watching:

The God of Destruction might have found their antics pathetically amusing, while also envying that they got to go around bullying and killing anyone they wanted whereas he had stayed confined to his Grimm-infested den. He was likely waiting for them to fail.

The God of Creation was almost certainly horrified and disgusted the entire time.

How will RWBY solve things?

Ruby’s going to convince Salem to accept that she was wrong to lie, cheat, steal, and murder as though her pain made her more important than anyone else in the world.

Salem accepting that it’s wrong to hurt other people in order to get her way will allow her to serve as an example when Ruby lectures the God of Destruction into admitting that he was wrong for hurting his brother by destroying his brother’s creations, and that as co-creator of humanity he has also abused them undeservedly.

With Salem’s threat neutralized and the God of Destruction changing his mind, the criteria for sparing humanity can be relaxed so that humanity doesn’t have to get along any better than the brothers did. If the brothers could be allowed to quarrel until they came to an agreement, then humanity can be allowed to have quarrels, especially if they don’t drag the gods into it.

Regarding what happens after that, I already gave my answer to tokufan400.

My views on the ending of RWBY are split between what I think should happen, and what I actually want to happen.

What I think should happen is the God of Destruction changes his mind, magic is restored to Remnant, possibly all of the dead are brought back to life, everyone is immortal, maybe even the Grimm are erased, and the gods live among humanity in peace.

"Salutations."

"Considering we have at least two gods in our system..."

No, you don't get context.