Olympus

From Heroes Assemble MUSH
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Olympus, like Asgard, was one of the first realms to fully manifest after the Demiurge surged into awareness. An entrance to Olympus was placed atop a terrestrial mountain peak, now known as Mount Olympus in Greece.

The current Gods of Olympus include Zeus, the primarch; and his siblings, children, and cousins. The prime pantheon is Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Hestia, Demeter. Notable children include Ares, Athena, Apollo, and Artemis. Several potent ideologues representing abstractions such as Anger or material concepts like the Ocean also exist. The shades of the first generation of Olympians, the Titans, can be found scattered among the vast realm as well. Except for a handful of Titans, most of the gods of Olympus are progeny of Zeus or his immediate siblings.

Olympus' proximity to the human world has allowed them to have a substantial influence on the formation of culture. Beginning with the rise of Atlantis, the Greek pantheon provided insight and wisdom for many mortals and directed the earliest of societies. After Ragnarok broke the Demiurge, Olympus was one of the few realms that could maintain any semblance of contact with humanity. They were among the first to restore contact with human worshippers before the Demiurge was fully restored.

Olympians are truly immortal and almost impossible to kill. Every Olympian is directly related to Gaea, and through her, closely connected to the Demiurge. They wield immense magical powers, particularly when in defense of their personal idealogical domains-- even when off Olympus.


Full History

At first, Olympus was populated by primordial ideaologues who had fled the sundering of the First Firmament. Gaea attracted many of the Elder Gods with her gentle nature, and they manifested with notions such as Love, emotions like Anger, and concepts such as Mountain and Ocean.

It was her progeny Uranus who was the first to walk through that land. He and Gaea shaped Olympus into a realm of remarkable beauty, the forces of nature arraying themselves around his will as he shaped it to his vision.

From Uranus and Gaea would come the first generation of Olympians. Due to their close relationship with Gaea, the Titans are arguably closer to the Elder Gods in power and capability. They numbered twelve in all. Seeking more godlings to add to his power, Uranus demanded Gaea bear him more children. Gaea brought six more beings into life: the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires. Uranus hated these youngest and bound them to the darkest bowels of Tartarus, finding them ugly and their lack of magic a disappointment. Their misery and resentment grew so great that Tartarus began to border other infernal realms, such as Hell.

Angry, Gaea demanded of the Titans that one among them castrated Uranus and take the power of Olympus from him. The youngest Titan, Cronus, attacked his sleeping father and castrated Uranus. From the blood spilled rose up the Gigantes and the nymphs. Made manifest by his patricide, the Fates appeared before Cronus in their role as the Erinyes and informed the god that the length of his thread of life had been set on that fateful day. Uranus' testicles were absorbed by the spirit of the ocean, and from them grew the goddess Aphrodite.

Cronus betrayed his mother's wishes, and imprisoned his brothers-- the Giants, the Hecatoncheires and the Cyclopes-- in Tartarus once more. He set the dragon Campe to guard them and with his sister, Rhea, Cronus assumed his role as Primarch of Olympus over the other ten Titans. Their proximity to Earth allowed the Titans to take on a role of mentorship over the tribes in the Mediterranean, which contributed greatly to the swift rise of Atlantis.

Prophecies gleaned from his weakened father led Cronus to suspect his children would betray him. He swallowed his children whole as they were born. Finally, Rhea and Gaea conspired to hide his youngest son from him. Cronus was tricked into eating a rock, and Zeus was delivered on the shores of Crete.

Ragnarok

When the World Tree was shattered, Olympus' harmony was lost. It was at this time that Gaea urged her children to rise up again and retake Olympus while Cronus no longer had the unlimited power of his godhead. Zeus returned to Olympus and united with his cousin Metis, a daughter of the ancient Elder God called Oceanus. She gave him the same sickle used to castrate Uranus, and Zeus slashed Cronus' belly open. His five siblings spilled forth, fully grown and none the worse for wear. But Cronus rallied the Titans and drove Zeus and his siblings off before the final blow could be delivered.

Facing the prospect of war with his extended family, Zeus struck a bargain with his brothers Poseidon and Hades, promising Poseidon dominion over the seas and Hades over the underworld, if they supported his dominion of Olympus. He dove deep into the bowels of Tartarus, and freed his uncles the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires in return for their aid. The Cyclopes forged weapons of great power for Zeus and his brothers-- thunderbolts for Zeus, a trident to command the seas for Poseidon, and a helmet of darkness for Hades.

Thus began the vast war called the Titanomachy, in which the upstart Zeus and his siblings overthrew the rule of Cronus. The Titanides, the six sister Titans, remained neutral in this battle, and the six brothers fled to Mount Othrys to make that their base of operations. Olympus and Othrys battled for a decade, but with the aid of the Hecatoncheires and the cyclops-forged weapons, Zeus finally won out. Cronos and four of his brother Titans were imprisoned in the pits of Tartarus, while the Hecatoncheires became their warders where once they themselves had been held prisoner. Oceanus was bound under the ocean in elemental chains he could not break. Poseidon promised survival to the desperate Atlanteans of the nearby ocean and they became The Blue, tasked with guarding Oceanus' prison for all time. Several of the Titans who aided Zeus or demurred from joining the battle maintained their freedom, but were substantially depowered as Zeus became the arch-deity and the harmony of Olympus changed once more.

Enraged that her children were once more imprisoned, Gaea allowed her brother Chthon-- the malignant First God-- to sire with her a mighty creature of vengeance called Typhon, while Olympus was still cut off from Earth. Typhon attacked Olympus and nearly destroyed it entirely, literally a personification of Gaea's wish to cleanse the history of violence. Zeus managed to defeat the creature and bound it permanently under Mount Etna in Greece, thus securing his rule forever. Eventually, through the graces of the Titan Themis when she was married to Zeus, a peace was brokered between Gaia and Zeus, and the six brother Titans were freed from their captivity under strict conditions - that they would forever accept Zeus' authority, have no more Titan-children, and depart the Earth. The Titans now reside largely in seclusion in the newly-forged demesne they called New Kronos.

The time of Cronos had been called a golden age following Ragnarok and the Titanomachy. The mortal followers of Olympus soon found themselves in a new, harsher age, the Age of Humanity. Zeus believed that Cronos had held humankind back by being too hands on, but one consequence of his more laissez-faire attitude to his mortal subjects was that his son Ares, the god of brutal warfare, was given a free hand. An age of warlike kings and warfare descended on the followers of Olympus.

In response to the inequalities of the times, five of the Goddesses of Olympus came together to create a new force to control the power of the warlike kingdoms. They descended into the Well of Souls to recover the souls of ten thousand women who had suffered and learned the cost of inequality in their lives, and placed those souls into new immortal bodies each granted a small amount of divine power. This new army became the nation of the Amazons, given a mission to challenge the impact of Ares, to spread wisdom and compassion through the world -- and in the event Ragnarok struck again, to preserve human knowledge and aid in restoring humanity. Their champion, Diana, is born of Olympus and Man, and is among the greatest warriors alive in any realm.

The Gods

The Titans

Foremost amongst the Titans are the twelve first-born of Gaia. These are:

Cronos/Kronos - Youngest and leader of the twelve, father to the leading gods of Olympus.

Rhea - Mother of the leading gods of Olympus and consort of Cronos

Themis - Goddess of Divine Justice, wielder of the scales of justice, first holder of the Oracle of Gaia.

Krios - God of the Zodiac

Mnemosyne - Goddess of Wisdom, mother of the Muses.

Iapetus - A war god.

Tethys & Oceanus - Goddess and God of the sea, parents of the Oceanids

Hyperion & Theia - 'Wide-shining', god and goddess of the sun.

Phoebe & Koios - Goddess and god of the moon and intellect - Phoebe representing insight, Koios questioning. Phoebe is the second holder of the Oracle of Gaia.


There are a number of other gods that are classified as Titans, generally the children of these other than Zeus and his siblings, and the line between Titan and Olympian is very blurry. One of the Titans who is not one of the twelve deserves special mention though:

Hekate - Goddess of magic, gateways and crossroads. Although classified as a Titan, Hekate is an anomaly amongst the Gods of Olympus. Even they are not certain exactly where she came from, and her power is respected and possibly feared by all. She sided with Zeus during the Titanomachy, and her power helped turn the tide of battle in his favor. One of very few Olympians who has considerable authority both in Hades and Olympus. Unknown to all but Gaia herself, Hekate is a self-created New God. When Gaia learned how to use the power of the Demiurge to create the New Gods, the personification of magic itself followed her method to embody itself in a Titan-like form as Hekate. She is magic given form and consciousness, and is potentially one of the most powerful beings in the universe. Though she is subtle beyond measure, she has so far seemed content to live a quiet life, gently manipulating gods and mortals from the shadows rather than manifesting as a great power.

The Olympians

The twelve Olympians of Zeus' court (the 'Dodekatheon'):

Zeus - Sky god and King of Olympus. Imposing, fierce, quick to anger and quick to forgive, Zeus is a headstrong leader who is often ruled by his passions, but can act with great wisdom and kindness when he takes time to think.

Poseidon - Sea god, brother of Zeus. The 'Earthshaker' is normally calm and patient but does not hold back in anger.

Hera - Sister-wife to Zeus. As queen and co-ruler of Olympus she tries to balance Zeus' impetuous nature, but her own vengefulness causes as many problems.

Demeter - Sister-wife to Zeus, goddess of the harvest and fertility.

Hestia - Firstborn of the siblings, goddess of the hearth. The peacekeeper of the Olympians.

Aphrodite - Goddess of love, lust and beauty.

Athena - first-born of Zeus, springing directly from his power without a mother. Goddess of wisdom and of civilized warfare, she is regarded as the second most powerful Olympian and potential successor to Zeus.

Ares - Child of Hera and Zeus, god of violent warfare. Frequent rival to Athena, and not much liked by the other Olympians. In times of strife on the mortal planes his power grows greater and he has several times challenged Olympus.

Hephaestus - child of Hera and Zeus, the lame god. Husband to Aphrodite and god of metalsmiths, the cyclopes now work in his forges where the magical tools and weapons of Olympus are made.

Artemis - Daughter of Zeus and Leto, the virgin huntress. She is a loner and a nature goddess, and through her grandparents inherits lunar aspects and a share of the Oracle of Gaia manifest on Themyscira.

Apollo - Twin brother to Artemis, god of the arts and agriculture. Through his grandparents inherits solar aspects and a share of the Oracle of Gaia manifest at Delphi.

Hermes - Herald of the gods, Hermes the silver-tongued is a trickster but also a peacemaker as he has little time for strife amongst the gods. For this reason he has tended to favor the Olympian goddesses over the other gods, and gave his aid to the creation of the Amazons.

Other notables:

Hades - Oldest brother to Zeus and god of the Underworld, he harbors resentment that after the Titanomachy his dominion over the underworld lead to him being somewhat shunned by the other Olympians while Poseidon and Zeus remained close. A proud and dangerous god, Hades is widely feared but is considered stern rather than cruel. Despite the underworld connotations Hades should not be considered evil so much as implacable.

Eris - Daughter of Zeus and Hera, the goddess of chaos and strife. Sometimes ally of Ares, but a very unreliable one - she sees him only as a tool for creating trouble and has little respect for him. She is feared for her unpredictability and never directly worshipped, but she would argue that her acts are a boon, and that growth only happens through conflict.

Pan - Unique amongst the Olympians, Pan is the child of Hermes and a daughter of the Tuatha de Danaan, and is closely related to the Fae, who pay him great respect. The Goat-god is part of the Elemental parliament of the Red.