Quote Originally Posted by Fenral View Post
Going by the general "we're just sort of here and don't do anything" vibe they've been giving off, I'm operating on the assumption that their assigned duties aren't entirely literal. I don't think they're holding anything together or willing anything particular into being, at any rate.
They did theorize that the world would've been a chaotic mess in the wake of the Sundering and may have needed to be stabilized at least for a time so the natural order could repair itself.

Mankind was similarly broken and it can be assumed that the Twelve were all assigned specific roles in tending to them both physically and mentally to similarly "stabilize" them both in the sense of rebuilding society and mending their forms.

I imagine the "age of the gods" ended once they were certain man could survive without them, at which point they retired to their present role of simply watching and waiting.