Introduction
The Lord of the Skies and King of the Gods, Zeus himself, was dead. Very, very dead. After having ruled the world for centuries, he’d come to appreciate those few times that eyes were not upon him, and so he had been known to spend sleepless nights out in the crisp air, lost in reverie and meditation. So it was under the first rays of dawn that the servants found him upon the floor of his palace’s terrace.
The horrified, piercing shriek of the first serving girl to discover him had cut through the listless halls that morning. Guardsmen had quickly arrived, and then the madness began. The servants were immediately seized by the palace guards and taken for interrogation, and then those very same guardians were in turn seized for their failure and similarly put to question. Despite every effort, it took mere hours for word to spread throughout the palace, and then the resplendent marble halls and golden streets of the city of the gods. By midday it seemed as though half of the great pantheon already knew: all the gods of importance, as well as many others who were merely well connected or wont to gossip.
The cause of death was anything but natural; with all their power a god need not fear being stricken down unexpectedly by chance ailment, and Zeus’ body had been infused with enough vitality that everyone expected him to last another half century at least, even if his memory had been fading and his behavior growing more erratic in recent years. Indeed he’d been starting to deteriorate, and that had made his enemies, old and new alike, start to slowly circle like jackals.
So this was certainly an assassination. The Highest One’s own constitution had somehow been corrupted and turned upon itself to gruesome effect: little was left of Zeus’ form save for some brittle skeletal remnants lying within a grisly pool of viscera, choked with a thousand different poisons. The very powers that had sustained him had gone rogue and set about deconstructing and destroying what was left of his worldly remains. This rendered the exact cause, time, or perpetrator of his demise impossible to determine on the spot.
Everyone had their suspicions, but few dared to voice these out loud and point the finger for fear of bringing unwanted attention onto themselves. Instead, the greatest of the gods had quickly come together and conspired to cover this up. Gods could not be seen to die; the primitives down below could not be afforded to learn anything of these events. In the late Zeus’ pride and arrogance (and perhaps foresight, too) he had fortunately ordered a twin of himself to be pulled forth from the pools of life. The King of the Gods took his young simulacrum under his wing, bringing the boy around court. He had spoken to this younger duplicate and raised him as his own child and heir, to the neglect of his many biological children. For all the scandal that it had been, this egoism of the late Zeus was the Pantheon’s saving grace – a perfect replacement of their lord stood ready, identical inwards and out, a genetic replica and the spitting image of the late Zeus in his early teens. His voice was identical, his temperament every bit as haughty as the old one if not even worse. This secretive replacement would be as seamless of a transition as such things could go, and all but the most perceptive of the base mortals would likely never even know the difference – if any did, they could be decried as heretics or quietly dealt with.
So the gods anointed the young clone as the new Zeus, and quickly resumed their game with renewed fervor. Expecting that this young lord would be impressionable and easily manipulated, the High Pantheon – his most prominent officers and advisers and ministers – immediately resumed their politicking and plotting and scheming, while the kingdom’s slow decline continued.
Setting, Mechanics, Other Explanation:
This RP takes place in a sci-fi setting where the vast majority of the population are ‘primitives’ or ‘mortals’ who live in feudal or theocratic Iron Age communities, with a separate class of humans that have access to incredibly advanced technology and use it to pose as gods and rule over their lessers. Your characters would be members of the High Pantheon, some of the most prominent gods with important positions in society and/or access to the ear of Zeus. As high-ranking gods, your characters likely have some form of artifacts and technologies in their possession and control that grant them abilities that the primitive humans consider to be divine and magical; for instance, Zeus can remotely activate weather control satellites to conjure thunderstorms on a whim.
As they jumped into their newfound positions as gods, many of the first crewmen would have presumably taken Zeus’ lead in borrowing heavily from ancient mythology as they set about constructing their identities and roles in the pantheon. Zeus envisioned a general Greek theme to the pantheon, but with that said, some gods could certainly have constructed their own original names, identities, and mythologies, and I’m not opposed to the idea that some gods drew inspiration from different mythologies instead. Naturally, you can heavily reinterpret the mythologies if you like – a character’s history, persona, or powers need not reflect the original myths too closely (or at all!). The pantheon and religion in this setting would have been quickly cobbled together by dozens of different people with their own ideas, many of whom would have wanted to embellish their own importance. The result was probably a chaotic amalgamation of all sorts of crazy things that the mortal priests and scholars had to later go back and struggle to make sense of.
As they jumped into their newfound positions as gods, many of the first crewmen would have presumably taken Zeus’ lead in borrowing heavily from ancient mythology as they set about constructing their identities and roles in the pantheon. Zeus envisioned a general Greek theme to the pantheon, but with that said, some gods could certainly have constructed their own original names, identities, and mythologies, and I’m not opposed to the idea that some gods drew inspiration from different mythologies instead. Naturally, you can heavily reinterpret the mythologies if you like – a character’s history, persona, or powers need not reflect the original myths too closely (or at all!). The pantheon and religion in this setting would have been quickly cobbled together by dozens of different people with their own ideas, many of whom would have wanted to embellish their own importance. The result was probably a chaotic amalgamation of all sorts of crazy things that the mortal priests and scholars had to later go back and struggle to make sense of.
The planet of Hellas, or the known world, exists in a system around a somewhat unremarkable G-type main sequence star of average metallicity. It is located in a region where stellar density is comparatively low, and so has few neighboring systems, all of which are still uncolonized as far as anyone knows. As a result, it can be considered a rather remote system. Moreover, it’s an appreciable distance away from Sul, the system where the ancient star maps indicate Old Arith resides, and its sphere of influence.
Hellas was initially a barren Mars analogue, though an active magnetic field and substantial (albeit toxic) atmosphere, combined with it being located within its star’s Goldilocks zone and also possessing a familiar-looking moon made it a prime terraforming candidate. Despite its distance (which was seen as more of an advantage than a downside to some, anyways) automated terraforming engines were deployed, followed by much slower vessels carrying countless thousands of colonists in stasis that were to be thawed and landed upon the planet once the terraforming AIs deemed the new world ready. Somewhere along the way, disaster struck, creating a precipitous collapse of industrial capability on the nascent colony and necessitating the departure of a small, specialized relief and aid ship captained by one Logan Fletcher.
Presumably, once he hatched his scheme and took to calling himself Zeus, Captain Fletcher signaled that all was now well and that the colony did not wish to be disturbed, because in the four hundred years since the Coming of the Gods there have been no more ships from outside the system, and no attempts at direct communication.
In the current time, Hellas has a population in the low 8-figures range. Of the more than ten million inhabitants of the planet, the vast majority live in the Iron Age, with the world capital and gods’ seat of power in Mount Olympus being a tiny oasis of technology – a few other puddles might exist scattered about, as miscellaneous mansions, estates, and other holdings occupied part of the time by various gods, but Olympus with its thousand or so inhabitants is the only advanced city on the surface. The vast majority of human settlements are located on one relatively small landmass; a great proportion of Hellas’ surface is covered by oceans.
The terraforming engines were given loose parameters and managed to create a world close enough to Old Arith to be comfortable for humans occupants without the need for any genetic alterations, and they incubated countless species to seed the planet as soon as they could be supported so as to gradually build up a mostly familiar biosphere; however, but unusual conditions during the terraforming process created strange selection pressures, and mutations have a way of producing unexpected effects. The result is that many species have evolved which, while certainly not “alien” due to a recognizable ancestry, did not ever exist on Old Arith. Gigantism was a common result – the oceans are plagued with giant squid and other “sea monsters” while the wilderness has dangerous predators in the form of oversized lions and the like, and other, even stranger species exist too –those engineered through Artemis’ artifice, for instance.
The cities and lands of Hellas were largely renamed by the late Zeus after Hellenic places that existed on Old Arith, as part of his larger plan to recreate the mythos and pantheons of old.
Hellas was initially a barren Mars analogue, though an active magnetic field and substantial (albeit toxic) atmosphere, combined with it being located within its star’s Goldilocks zone and also possessing a familiar-looking moon made it a prime terraforming candidate. Despite its distance (which was seen as more of an advantage than a downside to some, anyways) automated terraforming engines were deployed, followed by much slower vessels carrying countless thousands of colonists in stasis that were to be thawed and landed upon the planet once the terraforming AIs deemed the new world ready. Somewhere along the way, disaster struck, creating a precipitous collapse of industrial capability on the nascent colony and necessitating the departure of a small, specialized relief and aid ship captained by one Logan Fletcher.
Presumably, once he hatched his scheme and took to calling himself Zeus, Captain Fletcher signaled that all was now well and that the colony did not wish to be disturbed, because in the four hundred years since the Coming of the Gods there have been no more ships from outside the system, and no attempts at direct communication.
In the current time, Hellas has a population in the low 8-figures range. Of the more than ten million inhabitants of the planet, the vast majority live in the Iron Age, with the world capital and gods’ seat of power in Mount Olympus being a tiny oasis of technology – a few other puddles might exist scattered about, as miscellaneous mansions, estates, and other holdings occupied part of the time by various gods, but Olympus with its thousand or so inhabitants is the only advanced city on the surface. The vast majority of human settlements are located on one relatively small landmass; a great proportion of Hellas’ surface is covered by oceans.
The terraforming engines were given loose parameters and managed to create a world close enough to Old Arith to be comfortable for humans occupants without the need for any genetic alterations, and they incubated countless species to seed the planet as soon as they could be supported so as to gradually build up a mostly familiar biosphere; however, but unusual conditions during the terraforming process created strange selection pressures, and mutations have a way of producing unexpected effects. The result is that many species have evolved which, while certainly not “alien” due to a recognizable ancestry, did not ever exist on Old Arith. Gigantism was a common result – the oceans are plagued with giant squid and other “sea monsters” while the wilderness has dangerous predators in the form of oversized lions and the like, and other, even stranger species exist too –those engineered through Artemis’ artifice, for instance.
The cities and lands of Hellas were largely renamed by the late Zeus after Hellenic places that existed on Old Arith, as part of his larger plan to recreate the mythos and pantheons of old.
This is a very sandbox sort of thing as far as RPs go. There’s a general plotline trajectory that I have in mind, but I’m absolutely willing to adapt it as we go along depending upon what happens in the IC and on what seems like the most fun and interesting way to advance the story.
On the note of advancing the story, that’s what I view this as – a collaborative storytelling venture, not a “game” to be “won”. For that reason I’m not concerned about maintaining a parity in power level between the various characters, and nor am I especially attached to my own characters, even Zeus, and am open to the idea of them possibly being killed – of course, I wouldn’t ever kill off anybody else’s character unless they were on board with it!
Since this is in the advanced RP section the idea’s quality over quantity and I’m okay with a somewhat slow pace to the IC, though I would consider it polite and in good form to let us know if circumstances will prevent you from posting altogether for an extended period of time. In the unfortunate event that you start to feel burnt out, let us know too. Perhaps a change of characters or some interesting ideas could rekindle things, but if not, then leaving the RP is an option – I’ll have no hard feelings and will wish you the best in life and all your future writing ventures, but if you do decide to leave please just tell us that you’re doing so rather than ghosting.
As far as rules go, I hope that most go without saying. I’ll try to always be polite and amicable OOC (even if Zeus is insufferable IC; don’t hold that against me, haha!) and expect reciprocity in that regard from everyone else since we’re all just doing this for fun. For the IC, just bear in mind RPGuild’s general rules and avoid depicting anything too explicit; you can “fade to black” if necessary.
On the note of advancing the story, that’s what I view this as – a collaborative storytelling venture, not a “game” to be “won”. For that reason I’m not concerned about maintaining a parity in power level between the various characters, and nor am I especially attached to my own characters, even Zeus, and am open to the idea of them possibly being killed – of course, I wouldn’t ever kill off anybody else’s character unless they were on board with it!
Since this is in the advanced RP section the idea’s quality over quantity and I’m okay with a somewhat slow pace to the IC, though I would consider it polite and in good form to let us know if circumstances will prevent you from posting altogether for an extended period of time. In the unfortunate event that you start to feel burnt out, let us know too. Perhaps a change of characters or some interesting ideas could rekindle things, but if not, then leaving the RP is an option – I’ll have no hard feelings and will wish you the best in life and all your future writing ventures, but if you do decide to leave please just tell us that you’re doing so rather than ghosting.
As far as rules go, I hope that most go without saying. I’ll try to always be polite and amicable OOC (even if Zeus is insufferable IC; don’t hold that against me, haha!) and expect reciprocity in that regard from everyone else since we’re all just doing this for fun. For the IC, just bear in mind RPGuild’s general rules and avoid depicting anything too explicit; you can “fade to black” if necessary.
Humanity prospered and advanced, and eventually disparate factions departed from Earth and its solar system to slowly colonize other parts of the galaxy. A distant planet was terraformed in preparation for one of the first attempts at interstellar colonization, only for these first settlers to suffer some disaster early on that crippled their industrial capacity and left them trapped on the planet, doomed to live a primitive lifestyle while they hoped to eventually be rescued. A much smaller, specialized vessel was eventually sent to their aid; however, over the long and lonely voyage its captain made a decision that would alter history.
The captain decided that rather than aid the hapless people rather than help them in keeping with the original mission objectives, he would establish himself as a living god so as to lord over them. Many of the ship’s crewmembers agreed to this course of action and became the first members of a great pantheon; others did not, and were imprisoned, killed, or banished. History was rewritten and those defiant people of moral strength were denounced as demons and the like in the new canon faith.
About four centuries have passed since this first ‘Coming of the Gods’. The gods themselves have long lives and memories and have retained knowledge of their history and origins, but the base mortals condemned to live below have almost entirely forgotten about anything prior to the Coming of the Gods. Only in a few remote hamlets are there storytellers that speak of Old Arith, the heavenly plane where men inhabited before they were cast down and left to dwell in the known world. The primitive mortals have similarly forgotten about the workings of technology and many of the discoveries of science; the odd tale mentions great sorcerers and artificers from the heathen days of old, men who stole divine providence and captured lightning for their dark arts.
Many of the original pantheon have died or retired, either way with the outcome of them passing their divine titles and roles on to children or other successors. The pantheon has gradually grown from the original few dozen members to hundreds of deities of various importance and niches. Through population controls and decrees denouncing the status of half-primitive demigods, this growth has been slowed and kept at a manageable level. Though the individual gods have temples, monastery retreats, and palaces all across the planet, for the majority of the time almost all of them dwell in a magnificent utopia impossibly high in the mountains, with great ivory spires and golden streets. Base mortals are generally not permitted to enter this hallowed capital, but a few demigods or great heroes have visited it and returned to spread tales of its splendor. This place is the seat of Zeus’ throne and all divine power, and it is known by many names: Mount Olympus, the City of Marble and Gold, Paradise.
But all is not well in Heaven. To call the gods stagnant would be generous; rather than improving the capital and advancing their powers, they have allowed some of the city’s infrastructure and systems to gradually deteriorate. Their morals and spirits have also decayed into ever lower depths. With all their politicking and hedonism, the gods’ relatively small population has gradually grown more idle, less disciplined, less knowledgeable, less competent. They no longer visit the mortal realms so often as in the days of old, and nor is their vigil over the masses so diligent as then, so more heresies have been cropping up and spreading unchecked. Even worse, the mortals have managed to attain a series of significant technological developments, several of which have contributed to a rapid rise in their population – to maintain control, the late Zeus had recently been forced to check their rise by smiting countless scholars, inventors, and priests. Then for good measure he’d ordered his pantheon to plunge the mortal realms into turmoil by inciting a bloody period of many holy wars. Discontent has slowly grown up like a creeping vine, but within Paradise itself and in the mortal plane below.
The captain decided that rather than aid the hapless people rather than help them in keeping with the original mission objectives, he would establish himself as a living god so as to lord over them. Many of the ship’s crewmembers agreed to this course of action and became the first members of a great pantheon; others did not, and were imprisoned, killed, or banished. History was rewritten and those defiant people of moral strength were denounced as demons and the like in the new canon faith.
About four centuries have passed since this first ‘Coming of the Gods’. The gods themselves have long lives and memories and have retained knowledge of their history and origins, but the base mortals condemned to live below have almost entirely forgotten about anything prior to the Coming of the Gods. Only in a few remote hamlets are there storytellers that speak of Old Arith, the heavenly plane where men inhabited before they were cast down and left to dwell in the known world. The primitive mortals have similarly forgotten about the workings of technology and many of the discoveries of science; the odd tale mentions great sorcerers and artificers from the heathen days of old, men who stole divine providence and captured lightning for their dark arts.
Many of the original pantheon have died or retired, either way with the outcome of them passing their divine titles and roles on to children or other successors. The pantheon has gradually grown from the original few dozen members to hundreds of deities of various importance and niches. Through population controls and decrees denouncing the status of half-primitive demigods, this growth has been slowed and kept at a manageable level. Though the individual gods have temples, monastery retreats, and palaces all across the planet, for the majority of the time almost all of them dwell in a magnificent utopia impossibly high in the mountains, with great ivory spires and golden streets. Base mortals are generally not permitted to enter this hallowed capital, but a few demigods or great heroes have visited it and returned to spread tales of its splendor. This place is the seat of Zeus’ throne and all divine power, and it is known by many names: Mount Olympus, the City of Marble and Gold, Paradise.
But all is not well in Heaven. To call the gods stagnant would be generous; rather than improving the capital and advancing their powers, they have allowed some of the city’s infrastructure and systems to gradually deteriorate. Their morals and spirits have also decayed into ever lower depths. With all their politicking and hedonism, the gods’ relatively small population has gradually grown more idle, less disciplined, less knowledgeable, less competent. They no longer visit the mortal realms so often as in the days of old, and nor is their vigil over the masses so diligent as then, so more heresies have been cropping up and spreading unchecked. Even worse, the mortals have managed to attain a series of significant technological developments, several of which have contributed to a rapid rise in their population – to maintain control, the late Zeus had recently been forced to check their rise by smiting countless scholars, inventors, and priests. Then for good measure he’d ordered his pantheon to plunge the mortal realms into turmoil by inciting a bloody period of many holy wars. Discontent has slowly grown up like a creeping vine, but within Paradise itself and in the mortal plane below.
Credits & Communication:
We have a DISCORD SERVER for ease of communication; I recommend joining it!
Thanks and credits go to Lauder and Oraculum for encouragement and help GM, and to the Divinus RPs and the sci-fi classic Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny for sources of inspiration.
Also thanks to @Frettzo for making the banner at the top of this post!
Character Sheets (Template and Example)
Below is an example sheet for Zeus (both the late and original Zeus, and his ascendant clone Zeus Prime), and a blank template with the same format. By no means feel obligated to use this formatting; it’s just there if you want it and to show the essential elements of what I would think to look for in a sheet for this RP.
Name(s) and Appearance:
((Does this individual have a birth name or alternate identity distinct from their divine name? In what contexts, if ever, is it used?))
Titles and Roles:
((What responsibilities has this god taken on to earn a place in the High Pantheon? Do they govern or control some particular area, or handle some part of the capital’s maintenance?))
Artifacts and Powers:
((Tied in with the above, what sorts of equipment do they own and/or use, and how might a mortal worshiper describe the god’s supposed powers?))
Persona:
((How does the character act, both when among gods and when among mortals?))
Background and Relationships:
((Was this a crewmember of the ship that first declared themselves gods, and if so, what was their position there? If not, how did they come to be elevated to the High Pantheon? What was their relationship with the late Zeus like, and do they have any family or unique relationships with other gods of importance?))
Name(s):
In another lifetime, there was a man named Logan Fletcher – Captain Fletcher. That name died long ago, however; its mention has been scrubbed from every databank, and lives on only within the memories of a few of the eldest gods who have survived the centuries and their closest confidants.
For the past four hundred years, there has been only Zeus.
Titles and Roles:
Zeus is known by many titles: the Highest, the King of the Gods, Lord of the Sky, Rainmaker, the Thunder-Bearer, Father of Gods and Men.
His temples are too many to count. The mountains and high places of Hellas have many shrines to honor him, but every city or town of importance has a temple to him too. The greatest of his temples and holy places have long had microphones and cameras installed within, so the prayers of mortals are indeed heard and monitored by Zeus and his staff within Olympus – occasionally they’ve even been answered. His voice has been known to the priests to occasionally echo out from within the great statues sculpted in his likeness, carrying with it the word of the King of Gods and the pantheon itself. When they hear his thunderous voice, they quickly carry his commands to the local tyrant or council. The will of Zeus is then respected lest they peril storms coming to wash away their whole city.
Artifacts and Powers:
At nearly all times, Zeus carried a great white-gold scepter styled so as to look like a lightning bolt. Its length is telescoping and can be compressed into a baton small enough to fit into a pocket, but more often than not he kept it fully extended and bore it prominently – that was the symbol of his power, not some crown. This scepter is linked to the S.I.H.T. satellite arrays in orbit of Hellas, and has the ability to project a holographic, scaling model of the planet with all its weather, structures, and even people as viewed in realtime from the heavens. Its foremost purpose is its ability to remotely control the planet’s weather manipulation devices and satellites, conjuring anything from fog to hurricanes.
Zeus wore a great deal of devices cleverly disguised as ornate jewelry. Several rings of his conceal highly advanced batteries and capacitors. The stored energy is used to power his scepter as well as various anti-gravity devices contained within armbands and a few other devices normally hidden beneath his toga; these anti-gravitation engines allow him to hover or fly. But the capacitance rings that he wears can also discharge electricity into tesla coils disguised as the gemstones, which enabled Zeus to shoot arcs of electricity from his hands. Various shields and failsafes prevented him from ever shocking himself or uncontrollably discharging this power, and supposedly this jewelry also would protect against a variety of weapons and make him quite difficult to assassinate. A variety of medical nanites augmented his physiology, granting near agelessness as well as protection against a variety of poisons and the ability to rapidly regenerate from physical trauma. Obviously, his killers found some sort of workaround.
Zeus also possessed the Kerykeion, or Administrative Function Remote, for IRIS. He seized it from the SIGINT officer that would become Hermes during the Coming of the Gods, and by maintaining possession of the remote he was able to keep tabs on the pantheon. He was sure to keep that device very carefully hidden and rarely even spoke of its existence, lest it ever be stolen or lost. Still, the mere knowledge that he had seized it was enough to keep Hermes in line and prevent him from doing too much damage were he to go rogue.
The final artifact that Zeus carried about his person was the Key to Olympus. Rather than anything so mundane and crude as a physical key, this was his ID and access card from the ship and original mission… though the insufferable bit of plastic with the picture of his past self and that name ‘Logan Fletcher’ were of course stripped off the card, with its magnetic and electrical components put into a golden brooch. His Key granted him administrative control and unfettered access to all the technology, doors, and systems aboard the old vessel, and it does much the same in the city of Mount Olympus, for much of its technology was taken straight out of the now-dismantled vessel. In any case, Olympus’ life support and climate control panels, great treasury vaults of ancient technology and unused equipment, databanks from Old Arith, and even a menagerie of bioengineered horrors (created mostly through the efforts of Athena and Artemis) are all accessible to the Key’s holder. Some specially and more recently designed systems might not be programmed to allow him to override their protections and gain access with his Key, though Zeus discovering such a system designed to shut him out would not please him. Such systems would likely have had to have been kept secret from Zeus.
Persona:
Zeus had always been prideful and haughty. Captain Fletcher had been a narcissist that thought himself better than others, maintaining a stern and ever-professional distance and rarely socializing with his crew. This isolation was not a conscious decision on his part – just the natural consequence of his intimidating status and persona. He expected friendships to simply come to him, but never extended the first kind gesture or word himself. He was also petty, with a long memory for any slights (real or imagined) and an adamant refusal to ever be the first to extend an olive branch and apologize or make amends. He would be sure to let you know if ever he was disappointed in your work, however; he sometimes did as much in public, and people usually withered under his gaze when he dissected all of their supposed failings and told them what to do next time.
Beyond an abrasive personality, Logan Fletcher was a diligent but otherwise very unremarkable man. In the space stations of the Fleet Academy orbiting Old Arith, he applied himself fully and utterly to his studies in the hopes that he could have his own command over one of the many military vessels that patrolled the system and kept order. He graduated with high marks and was commissioned as a minor officer. In time he likely would have quickly risen through the ranks and had his own ship, but he ultimately had a short career in the military. He would tell you that he left in disgust after realizing the rigidity of their structure and thinking, and after growing tired of licking the boots of incompetent and foolish superior officers. There’s surely some truth to that, but rumors always followed him; in his youth, he was salacious and abused his status as an officer on a few occasions.
In any case, as a former captain-lieutenant for a military force and one with an impressive academic history, it was easy enough for him to find work on civilian vessels. He quietly commanded freight shuttles for several years without incident before eventually growing restless and hungry for more. When the opportunity came to command the rescue mission to investigate and possibly save a distant colony, he jumped at the chance. His pride and ego made the prospect of being their savior and immortalizing his name very appealing, but as the lonely years whiled by in transit to that distant system, his thoughts began to stray, and he started to wonder if he couldn’t do more than merely save those fools… to wonder if he didn’t deserve more.
Once he took the mantle of Zeus, his former nature became only more exaggerated. He made a conscious effort to maintain an aura of command lest the others think themselves too familiar or contemplate defiance. That said, he recognized the advantage of kindness too. So while his grasp on Hellas and Olympus was tight, he was also sure to be ever respectful and magnanimous to those that demonstrated their loyalty, and especially cruel and terrible to those that rebelled against him. The carrot and the stick, working in concert, kept him in power for a very long time.
His old perversions and lustful nature also returned. With his status as King of the Gods and access to the whole of Hellas, trysts became tenfold more effortless, frequent, and flagrant than when he was sneaking around a mere captain-lieutenant aboard a military vessel. For all his dalliances with the mortals and demigods and even former crewmembers, he never did fall in love with anyone, not even his ‘wife’ Hera. He doubtless thought himself too far above them all.
Background and Relationships:
It was Zeus alone who concocted and orchestrated the plan to recreate the legends of old with himself as ruler of a pantheon. The idea genuinely appealed to some of the crew, and for others, his force of personality and intimidating status as captain made it easy enough to coerce them into going along. Only a very brave few stood up to him, with the Isaac – the Head of Security – as the most notable and unfortunate of these dissenters, but it wasn’t enough; Zeus ultimately engineered the Coming of the Gods and the subjugation of the primitive ‘mortals’ trapped on their failed colony, with all the brutality that the plan involved. Those that opposed him, be they his own crewmen or defiant mortals, were slain or imprisoned, their names either forgotten altogether or forever vilified and associated with chaos and evil. For his violent and destructive departure and relentless attempts to create warform armies and overthrow the gods, Isaac inp particular has been demonized to the mortal denizens: they now know him as Typhon.
Yet just as history and reality were rewritten in accordance to his will, the very land itself was renamed. The planet he called Hellas, for his fascination with an archaic nation called Greece that existed on Old Arith long ago. The seas, the mountains, and the plains were similarly designated by classical names that he’d pulled from ancient maps and atlases. At his direction the primitive men and women who dwelled on the planet below were arbitrarily split into many tribes and nations and scattered across the planet.
He ordered the construction of Mount Olympus and his great palace within, and he has ruled from it ever since. Through guile and lightning and fear, he maintained an iron grip over both gods and mortals alike for more than four hundred years, suppressing too many heresies and rebellions to count, and performing a careful dance of trying to juggle staving off the decline of the gods with impeding the rise of the mortals, all while managing his own people so as to not fall prey to intrigue.
While overseeing the rest of the pantheon in their workings (to varying degrees – he left most with a good deal of autonomy, realizing the value of properly delegating the administration and upkeep needed) he’s also maintained direct control over some reactivated and repurposed terraforming equipment. Notably, during the coming of the Gods he saw to the deployment of vast constellations of satellites that employ advanced technology to control, stabilize, and manipulate the planet’s previously tempestuous and unpredictable weather. He has diligently managed the weather controls and their maintenance operations as part of the purview of his divine name and role. He had no prior experience in terraforming, meteorology, or climatology of any kind, but his fascination with the Zeus of the original mythos and his desire to perfectly and believably slip into that role gave him the desire to micromanage this one particular thing, as well as the motivation to learn how to do it well. In the centuries that followed, he came to master his understanding of Hellas’ weather and his unique system like no other could, or likely ever will. Not even his cloned successor understands the intricacies nearly as well as him – an unfortunate reality that will doubtless come to the detriment of the mortals.
His hand was in all things, and he loomed larger than life and larger than the gods, until his sudden demise changed everything.
Fortunately the Majordomo of the Palace, a minor god named Zelos, still remains. Zelos faithfully and diligently served Zeus in all things, managing his household and acting as a steward and secretary that handled many of the bureaucratic and day-to-day affairs of rulership. While Zelos keeps a low profile and is not officially a part of the High Pantheon, through his integral role he remains a powerful figure indeed, and a stabilizing force.
Name:
Before the late Zeus’ death, this youth was known as the Heir. He loathed this, and yet the late Zeus would neither suffer his clone to bear any lesser name, nor allow him to take the mantle of his own divine name prematurely.
But now the time has come, and with his ascension to power he is the Heir no more. He will not suffer to be called that, and neither does he look kindly upon names like Zeus II, or the ‘new’ Zeus, or Zeus ‘Prime’ – certainly not ‘the Clone’. He is simply Zeus, just like his originator, and to label him anything else is an insult. So call him Zeus, or King, or a properly reverent epithet, lest you hazard his ire.
Titles and Roles:
Just like the original Zeus, this one is the Highest, the King of the Gods, Lord of the Sky, Rainmaker, the Thunder-Bearer, Father of Gods and Men. The conflict lies within that final role: he insists that the High Pantheon look to him as a father, or at least a brother – whatever the original Zeus was to them. He is not that Zeus’ son, and he is not merely that Zeus’ replacement, he is an upgrade. He demands that all address him just as much respect and reverence as the original Zeus, if not more. Following that perspective, it’s only natural that Hera is his wife just as she was to the original.
Artifacts and Powers:
This Zeus inherited and now possesses the same artifacts and powers as the original; however, having only just come to own the devices, he is not nearly so skilled in their usage. He does at least know their purposes and have some limited experience operating the technologies, courtesy of the original finding time to teach his Heir about such things on occasion.
Persona:
Just like the original, this Zeus is vain, prideful, and arrogant – perhaps to an even greater extent, too. The insufferable part is that while the original Zeus certainly had a way of leading and by the end had centuries of experience governing to draw upon and command respect from, this young clone has none of that. He still thinks himself a worthy and ready successor though, an idea that the elder members of the High Pantheon likely find laughable.
Yet, one laughs at and underestimates him at their own peril. He certainly is not the genius that he thinks himself to be, but he possesses more guile than meets the eye. In particular he’s perceptive about people, and can sense weakness and insecurity like a vulture can smell carrion. He is not nearly so lecherous as his predecessor, but he’s depraved in another way: few things excite him more than the prospect of putting others into their place. Given an opportunity and just the slightest of reasons, he’s wont to ruthlessly bully and humiliate others. He’s at least inventive in his cruelty and thinks violence to be both boring and base; he’s found that dismantling someone’s psyche is perhaps more challenging but also more devastating, and certainly more entertaining to do. For that reason he enjoys gossip when it pertains to others’ misfortunes, fears, regrets, and the like.
The late Zeus at least insisted that a King who is despised is one bound to have a short reign, so he keeps his inner beast restrained… most of the time.
Background and Relationships:
Zeus is practically an infant by the standards of the High Pantheon, dragged out of the cloning vats just nineteen years ago. Modifications accelerated his development such that he was nearly fully grown, physically and mentally, within just a few years. Those first few years were harsh and not at all nurturing. Experiments were performed and he was expected to prove himself, but ultimately that he did – for the most part. Using a novel process, the late Zeus had long attempted to selectively graft his own memories onto the blank slate of a clone’s mind. The result was often madness or insanity on the clone’s part. Besides the clone that would become the Heir, all the others died or were terminated for instability or other flaws – all except for the early prototype of the technology that was Athena, of course. As a proof of concept she had been imprinted with some innate affinities and general knowledge, but nothing specific to Zeus’ personal memories.
The memory-grafting process likely contributed to, if not caused, the slow decline of the late Zeus’ own cognitive abilities. It took a heavy toll on Zeus, but in the Heir the process finally bore fruit; a great deal of the originator’s memories, though hazy, exist in the clone’s mind. Of course, he has a different temperament, explainable by his own unique experiences and the incomplete set of memories that he was given – the late Zeus tried very hard to ensure that no traces of Logan Fletcher had been instilled into the clone.
In any case, despite this nominal success it always was as though the originator was never quite pleased with the clone. Granted, the original Zeus had little love for anyone. He did at least show some affection to his heir from time to time; he offered a hug or a word of praise to his clone every few weeks or so – far more than most received – for the boy’s resemblance to him was naturally uncanny, and his eagerness and the ease at which he could learn were both impressive. Still, the clone did not receive anywhere near as much affection or kindness as a child should have, and he never could shake off the feeling that some part of him was a disappointment. Perhaps that’s why he sometimes lashes out and has a superiority complex.
There was one member of the High Pantheon that genuinely cared for him and looked out for him: Athena. She saw a part of herself in him, and he in her. Her kindness soothed the dull pain and the empty pit of the originator’s seeming indifference, and she probably kept him from going mad. For that reason he looks up to her as a big sister; she’s the only one that he will ever open himself up to or express any vulnerability towards. He keeps his secrets, and she doubtless hers, but they do genuinely enjoy one another’s company and she can speak freely without ever hazarding his wrath.
Hera stands out as the stark opposite to Athena -- she always loathed him for having supplanted her children as the late Zeus' heir, and her quiet simmering was certainly reciprocated by the clone. Now that he is power, Zeus fully intends to torment her. To further that twisted aim, as well as to nominally preserve the stability and continuity of the pantheon, Zeus insists that she be his wife just as she was to his successor.
As for the others, he was oft seen but rarely interacted with, a silent shadow to his much more important originator. The High Pantheon all expected the original Zeus to live for much longer, and the last fifteen years or so were practically just the blink of an eye. Many like Hades have yet to ever even see him in person, and of the denizens of Olympus who have encountered him, few had paid him much heed. The result is that he now loathes the feeling of being ignored, and if heads do not turn when he enters a room or voices do not instantly quiet when he speaks, his mood is immediately fouled.
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