Anyways.

Keltham did not invent his "literary symmetry" theory about being forced to betray anyone who was nice to him, out of sheer trope-reading.  Or rather, not out of trying to read that trope.

There's a much more object-level trope that started to seem, after slightly more research, which might really obviously apply here:

Needing to destroy all of the ancient gods, and leave only the formerly-human/formerly-mortal gods - who are currently enslaved by their past bargains, and not allowed to help Keltham in destroying their masters.

Possibly, needing to destroy all of the gods period, if even Iomedae has sworn the wrong oaths; or just, there not being any good way to destroy only some gods, if there's some clever way to kill them all at once, and no clever way to leave Iomedae out of it.

Anyways.

Keltham did not invent his "literary symmetry" theory about being forced to betray anyone who was nice to him, out of sheer trope-reading.  Or rather, not out of trying to read that trope.

There's a much more object-level trope that started to seem, after slightly more research, like it might really obviously apply here:

Needing to destroy all of the ancient gods, and leave only the formerly-human/formerly-mortal gods - who are currently enslaved by their past bargains, and not allowed to help Keltham in destroying their masters.

Possibly, needing to destroy all of the gods period, if even Iomedae has sworn the wrong oaths; or just, there not being any good way to destroy only some gods, if there's some clever way to kill them all at once, and no clever way to leave Iomedae out of it.

Anyways.

Keltham did not invent his 'literary symmetry' theory about being forced to betray anyone who was nice to him, out of sheer trope-reading.  Or rather, not out of trying to read that trope.

There's a much more object-level trope that started to seem, after slightly more research, like it might really obviously apply here:

Needing to destroy all of the ancient gods, and leave only the formerly-human/formerly-mortal gods - who are currently enslaved by their past bargains, and not allowed to help Keltham in destroying their masters.

Possibly, needing to destroy all of the gods period, if even Iomedae has sworn the wrong oaths; or just, there not being any good way to destroy only some gods, if there's some clever way to kill them all at once, and no clever way to leave Iomedae out of it.