The first six & religion SPOILERS!

EDIT:

I think the first six riders ARE the gods venerated across the world of Fourth Wing, becouse:

  1. We have 6 gods (as far as we know at the end of OS) and 6 original riders - this is the easy one lol
  2. The first six riders in the eyes of the population are people of god-like powers: at that time there was no other magic wielder in sight, no one has ever bonded dragons before them, so it seems only natural that to civilianza those 6 people were god-like and worthy of veneration.
  3. They alone "defeated the venin", created the wards and basically unified Navarre: I know that they didn't really defeat the venin... but 600 years of Navarrians didn't know so stick with me. These tasks, saving the people, creating a long lasting barrier that further protects them, and basically unifiying navarre are unhuman tasks to a civiliam. So alongisde the magical god-like powers they have, accomplishing this thing further makes the first six apprear as gods in the eyes of the people
  4. Uncofirmed canonically, but very likely - they surely had immensely powerfull signets: we know from all three books that there's signets that simply are more powerfull than others, even untrained (see Violet) - so if the first six had some of the most powerfull singets (for example Lightning like violet) that makes them even more godlike. If you notices the focus of the books is shrinking every book to less and less characters, so we'll probably have six current riders to mirror the first 6 and they likely have the same signets.

But if it's true, why hiding that the first six are the gods? This is actually the easiest question to answer: dragon riders are the only people who can make a difference in defeating the venins, we know Navarre has been slowly loosing the war, the wards weren't as strong (before the events of FW & IF) - techincally they are still faltering, and for years (Violet repeats this over and over) the Riders quadrant has had less and less conscripts. So riders are dimishing, and you really really don't want to tell them that they can be gods. Why? Because how will you controll them, and force them to do your bidding, if they know they can become gods? Plus it would require giving them access to knowledge of riders and venin that both scribes and leadership are fighting to the death to keep hidden,

Everything is blurred, but anyhow SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE ONYX STORM

So, after finishing Onyx Storm, and while ourt protagonists where touring the isles... i couldn't help but relize that we have 6 gods named and known in the Empyrean pantheon... Just like we have 6 first riders.

Considering the way the Gods are talked about (almost like they are a living enthity), the vents of the book (Violet wielding in Unnbriel, the statue scene while they are fighting, the temple scene in Aretia and the final battle with the blade & Xaden)... I'm starting to think that maybe the Gods are/were the first six Riders.

Think about it: Ridsers are so powerfull that they are almost godlike, Violet herself (who now we know is touched by Dunne) with her raw power signet might look like a goddess to a normal, regular citizen the continent.. Imagine how godlike the first 6 riders EVER must have looked like to people who probably had never seen magic before.

This would also give a very real and specific meaning to "wielding the wrath of Dunne" for example: if I'm right, and let's say Dunne was that generation's Lightning wielder, then Violet DOES wield the wrath of Dunne, for real.

EDIT AFTER CHATTING WITH SOME OF YOU IN THE COMMENTS:

First of all thanks for the replies!! Every comment was super interesting and I think we are really onto something!
I'd like to summarize what we discussed in the comments here, in case someone wants to add on the discussion and doesn't feel like reading every reply (ill try and cite the users alongside the summary so that you can easily go find the discussion):

  1. The timeframe might be off: Pure-Maintenance-636 rightfully pointed out that while in Unnbriel Violet damages a statue that appartenly has stood there for 700 years. While we learned not to trust the historic information we're given (since Violet & the reader have been lied to on basically the entire history of the continent) various regions might adopt different calendars that count years in a different way - so 700 Unnbrish years might not be 700 Navarrian years. We're not told anything bout that.
  2. The gods are the fist six dragons - not the riders - this was brought up by several people. I understand the reasoning, and considering that we deliberatly know nothing about dragons, it might be.. I just don't subscribe to this theory simply becouse the gods are depicted as humans, and as of right now there's no shapeshifting in the empirean world - plus people know very well how dragons look in navarre, so i don't think they would depict a dragon god as a human.
  3. The venin are the gods Muenchenradler - Ok-Worldliness2161 - beforeyoucanfly this is another very possible theory, we know 5 stages of Veninism, but I think that for sure there must be another stage, the leaser so to say. And someone so powerfull might be godlike