Imperfect Genesis

In the beginning, the world was but a blank canvas, a fresh landscape for gods to shape as they saw fit.  After they added life and other final touches to their work, they decided to strip themselves of their power, join their creation as mortals, so that their emotions and imperfections do not allow them to destroy what they so cherished, perhaps as they once did in another time.  What they did not realize, however, was that the capacity for their destructive nature came not from their omnipotence but from their ability to reason.  Thus even without their power, the destruction they feared for their creation came to be nonetheless, only this time they would not remember it.