quick question- possible spoilers

[Wolf Kanno]

The Analects don't mention the gods beyond the Maker and Lindzei. Etro first got mentioned in Versus XIII. The full creation story of XIII was actually revealed recently, and it's here we're first introduced to the the three "gods".

I haven't unlocked Analect VIII yet but I could have sworn the story analysis section of the XIII guide said that it was possible that Barthandelus and Lindzei were the same being, and the truth had been covered up by time. Then again, I'm probably wrong and just mentioning what I skimmed through and missed a fact or two. Whatever.

[Skyblade]

The Analects don't mention the gods beyond the Maker and Lindzei. Etro first got mentioned in Versus XIII. The full creation story of XIII was actually revealed recently, and it's here we're first introduced to the the three "gods".

I haven't unlocked Analect VIII yet but I could have sworn the story analysis section of the XIII guide said that it was possible that Barthandelus and Lindzei were the same being, and the truth had been covered up by time. Then again, I'm probably wrong and just mentioning what I skimmed through and missed a fact or two. Whatever.

Etro is mentioned by name in the final Analect, Fabula Nova Crystallis.

Analect XIII: Fabula Nova Crystallis

Children of Hallowed Pulse scour earth, searching substance for the Door. Those of Fell Lindzei harvest souls, combing ether for the same. So have I seen.
The Door, once shut, was locked away, with despair its secret key; sacrifice, the one hope of seeing it unsealed.
When the twilight of the gods at last descends upon this world, what emerges from the unseeable expanse beyond that Door will be but music, and that devoid of words: the lamentations of the Goddess Etro, as She sobs Her song of grief.


-- Author unknown

She is also hinted at as the female deity who robbed Ragnarok of power during the War of Transgression, in Analect IX.

Analect IX: Her Providence

Her Providence sought nothing.
Her Providence made nothing.
She but looked on, silent in Her sorrow.
The Goddess pitied mortals, destined as they were to die, and so She deigned to intervene in the hour of their greatest peril. She averted cataclysm that was to be, and put to rest the ones who would have robbed so many of what time fate had ordained.
Her compassion did not end at this.
The Goddess pitied also those subjected to that fate of Focus, crueler still than death. To them She sent Her messengers, to deliver hope when all was lost.

-- Sermons of the seeress Paddra Nsu-Yeul

So, yes, the Analects point out the existence of Etro as a third deity.

[Wolf Kanno]

The more you learn, the more you don't care.

[Skyblade]

The more you learn, the more you don't care.

FFXIII summarized.

[Wolf Kanno]

Pretty much.

[Roogle]

I guess the extra materials to the game support the existence of the actual deities, then? Where did they go, exactly?

The story is about the consequences of deities leaving behind Fal'Cie, allowing a conflict with humans to take place?

[DMKA]

The more you learn, the more you don't care.

FFXIII summarized.

Or any other JRPG, really.