The gods were all pretty powerful once upon a time, even creating the six races. But for whatever reason, they were all too emotional and wrapped up in their own nonsense, so Lucian had to convince them to hand their power over to him. Lucian wasn't the best guy, but he was apparently far more mellow and interested in helping others than most of the gods. So net gain for civilization.
If the Divine is dead, then it makes sense that the gods are getting their power back. It's even consistent with the Chaos Wars that the gods give their power to a chosen member of their own race, which is what we see happen in DOS2. But we also know the Divine isn't really dead. It would make sense if Original Sin 2 takes place right after the Divine was supposedly killed by a Dragon Knight, but DOS2 supposedly takes place before Beyond Divinity. So I got nothing.
