Jainism has gods and does not regard them as the point, and it denies a creator outright. Both positions are held with unusual firmness, and together they make this one of the most structurally distinctive entries in the atlas.
The universe was not made. It is eternal, uncreated, and operates by its own laws, and the argument against a creator is developed at length in Jain philosophical literature rather than merely assumed. There is therefore no creator to rule, to withdraw, or to be displaced.
The devas exist, they inhabit the heavens, they enjoy long and pleasant lives, and they are inside the cycle of rebirth. Their position is enviable and it is not liberation, and a deva must eventually be reborn like anything else.
What is venerated instead are the Tirthankaras, the ford-makers, twenty-four in the present descending half-cycle, who taught the path and achieved liberation. They are liberated souls, and having been liberated they are not available to intervene. Devotion to them is therefore not petition; it is orientation toward what they achieved.
Time runs in immense cycles, ascending and descending, and each half-cycle produces its own set of twenty-four. The roster is fixed in number and repeated by era, which is a very unusual way to bound a set of venerated figures.
The route in is open to any soul, by practice, and this is what the tradition is for.