Work Text:
So basically the Empires SMP members are all eldritch beings beyond this world who like playing with humans and watching civilization grow. Humans started referring to them as gods and they acted the part, roleplaying different mythologies as time went on. They're pretty amused by the stories humans came up with even if some of them are really weird, and they generally regard it as fanfiction. Sometimes the eldritch beings even put a part of their consciousness into a mortal form to spend some time among humans, further roleplaying.
Except for Joel. He's just an ordinary human who thinks there's nothing wrong with his neighbors who totally aren't all eldritch gods. Especially Xornoth, because Joel has no idea who that guy is.
He also may or may not fall in love with Lizzie and have a demigod child with her, not that he even realizes that he's scored an eldritch goddess until Hermes starts sneezing lightning. Seriously, it took that to make Joel realize that maybe there's something wrong with his neighbors. Hermes has literally made it rain by laughing before and Joel just wrote it off as a coincidence every single time.