They are personifications of all kinds of things like fire or organization or loyalty. The shrine that I showed you - he's the god of chaos, rebellion and metal which is why he looks the way he does.

Basically, they just want us to live and flourish and create a whole new civilization. They need people to exist, yanno. Like the god of knowledge gets a power boost every time you learn something in his name. They also want us to beat down nature because well-- these gods and nature gods have very conflicting views on how society should be run.