I'll start by saying, Bravo. A lot of unique and interesting ideas you've come up with. I've got a few points to make, most of which are probably blatantly obvious and you've already dealt with them. You needn't answer most of my questions, as long as you know the answers yourself.
First off, I'd like to point out the obvious. You're starting the story in the middle. I'm not criticizing, as I've often used that technique myself, but it does place a few requirements on you. You're going to need to tell the whole story, or else your readers are going to be left hanging. So you need to let people know (through dialogue, flashback, or some subtler method) all the important things that went on in the untold first half of the story. Perhaps when you're writing from Zastra's perspective you can give insights into how things were before the change (probably how things were better, occasionally how things were worse). But more importantly, have a very clear idea of the major events Deon went through to go from recently-summoned cannon fodder to Godslayer. Better yet, keep an outline, and always leave space in it for things you later realize he must have done.
Secondly, look at your magic system. Make sure it's something that's stable enough to have withstood time. You've already stated that literally anyone can become a god - even someone like Deon who apparently went from non-god to most-powerful-god in a very short time period. Does becoming a god require killing one?
If not, then why isn't everyone a god - what stops Joe Average mage from stumbling on the secret to godhead, just like the older gods must have?
If so, then how did the balance of power between order and chaos ever come up? One would think that, either one side or the other would eventually have a numerical or power advantage, and by attrition/increasing numerical advantage would overwhelm the other side.
I like the idea of the familiar effectively being a 'self-casting spell', but what's stopping it from casting itself, and another just like itself? A viral spell, as it were?
More importantly, why hasn't anyone ever done a re-write of the world before? Can it be done again, if the circumstances were right? And now that it's happened once in such an obvious fashion, how afraid are people that it's going to happen again?
You should remember, the reason terrorism is so effective isn't because it causes huge casualties. Car crashes cause several orders of magnitudes more death every year - but people are used to them, they think they understand why they happen and because of that they don't believe they'll happen to them. It's because terrorism is completely unpredictable that it can inspire so much terror.
How much terror would you feel if suddenly the whole world changed around you, and you can't explain why? If tomorrow, you wake up and there's no sunlight, but don't worry, everyone now owns a far-superior environmental survival suit and knows how to use it. Wouldn't you worry that the power supply in the suit might suddenly stop working?
I'm wandering a bit, but I've got two main points here: If it's happened, it's usually a far simpler matter to make it happen again (if only because more people know it can be done). And people are afraid - mind numbingly terrified might be a better description - of unknown dangers they cannot predict. The possibility of another re-boot is probably causing large scale, low-grade continual panic in the general populace, just like the paranoia of post 9/11 New York. This has probably settled down a bit in the intervening time, but it will have an impact on society for generations to come - and I'm guessing it will result in violent anti-magic sentiment among the common (non-magical) populace. It could show as anti-religious, anti-authoritarian, or even roving mobs hunting down suspected 'godslayers', but it will be anti-something, and most likely anti-magic.
So no, I don't think that the newfound communications infrastructure is going to lead to a magical renniassance. I think other factors are going to lead to a lot of dead magical DaVincis.
"Not this again!" Minerva said. "Albus, it was You-Know-Who, not you, who marked Harry as his equal. There is no possible way that the prophecy could be talking about you!" - Harry Potter and the Method of Rationality, Chapter 84
First off, I'd like to point out the obvious. You're starting the story in the middle. I'm not criticizing, as I've often used that technique myself, but it does place a few requirements on you. You're going to need to tell the whole story, or else your readers are going to be left hanging. So you need to let people know (through dialogue, flashback, or some subtler method) all the important things that went on in the untold first half of the story. Perhaps when you're writing from Zastra's perspective you can give insights into how things were before the change (probably how things were better, occasionally how things were worse). But more importantly, have a very clear idea of the major events Deon went through to go from recently-summoned cannon fodder to Godslayer. Better yet, keep an outline, and always leave space in it for things you later realize he must have done.
Secondly, look at your magic system. Make sure it's something that's stable enough to have withstood time. You've already stated that literally anyone can become a god - even someone like Deon who apparently went from non-god to most-powerful-god in a very short time period. Does becoming a god require killing one?
If not, then why isn't everyone a god - what stops Joe Average mage from stumbling on the secret to godhead, just like the older gods must have?
If so, then how did the balance of power between order and chaos ever come up? One would think that, either one side or the other would eventually have a numerical or power advantage, and by attrition/increasing numerical advantage would overwhelm the other side.
I like the idea of the familiar effectively being a 'self-casting spell', but what's stopping it from casting itself, and another just like itself? A viral spell, as it were?
More importantly, why hasn't anyone ever done a re-write of the world before? Can it be done again, if the circumstances were right? And now that it's happened once in such an obvious fashion, how afraid are people that it's going to happen again?
You should remember, the reason terrorism is so effective isn't because it causes huge casualties. Car crashes cause several orders of magnitudes more death every year - but people are used to them, they think they understand why they happen and because of that they don't believe they'll happen to them. It's because terrorism is completely unpredictable that it can inspire so much terror.
How much terror would you feel if suddenly the whole world changed around you, and you can't explain why? If tomorrow, you wake up and there's no sunlight, but don't worry, everyone now owns a far-superior environmental survival suit and knows how to use it. Wouldn't you worry that the power supply in the suit might suddenly stop working?
I'm wandering a bit, but I've got two main points here: If it's happened, it's usually a far simpler matter to make it happen again (if only because more people know it can be done). And people are afraid - mind numbingly terrified might be a better description - of unknown dangers they cannot predict. The possibility of another re-boot is probably causing large scale, low-grade continual panic in the general populace, just like the paranoia of post 9/11 New York. This has probably settled down a bit in the intervening time, but it will have an impact on society for generations to come - and I'm guessing it will result in violent anti-magic sentiment among the common (non-magical) populace. It could show as anti-religious, anti-authoritarian, or even roving mobs hunting down suspected 'godslayers', but it will be anti-something, and most likely anti-magic.
So no, I don't think that the newfound communications infrastructure is going to lead to a magical renniassance. I think other factors are going to lead to a lot of dead magical DaVincis.
"Not this again!" Minerva said. "Albus, it was You-Know-Who, not you, who marked Harry as his equal. There is no possible way that the prophecy could be talking about you!" - Harry Potter and the Method of Rationality, Chapter 84