Children of the Gods (Important poll #12306)

I just remembered: the mc has a circular birthmark on their hand. Any guess as to what that is?

the ouroboros, probably

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Maybe it’s cupping to relieve stress and boost performance for the Olympics?

Maybe not everyone read the thingy…

Maybe he’s special, since if you’re both the sons of hades he gets an awesome blade, and we get a plain dagger.

Well a circle in occult symbolism, or so the internet tells me, can signify unity, wholeness, infinity, female power, the sun, mother earth, the cosmos, or the world serpent that eats its own tail.

If it’s a circle with a dot in it, it can represent emotional restraint, the sun, and the spark within people linking them to the universal god.

If it’s a quartered circle it can represent the four directions, or the four elements.

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I think you pretty much covered all of it (at lest what fits for the symbolism for the Bearer) already in the first paragraph.

“Wholeness” and “unity” fits very well considering what played out during the flashback (the moment the Bestower gave the full control over the Essence to the Bearer). “Infinity” too considering how much power comes with having complete control over the Essence and the whole rebirth circle thing. And how “cosmos” fits should be clear.

In context of the game a circle pretty well fits as the symbol for the Essence and the ones being it’s vessels, aka the Bearer and the Bestower.

hmmm…that could be it, i guess. but like you said, how do you get thirteen? that could just be an error, though.

Some differences. Mostly different presidents, different wars and historical events to further emphasize the effect the Essence and the gods have on the mortal world.

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ponders Heh, I’m really looking forward to a chance of committing sparagmos on dear old Zeus and some of the other Olympians.

Speaking of being a child of a member of the Trinity, or a child of any God for that matter, what you do think the reactions of your pseudo brothers and sisters would be to you? And how do you think it would vary depending on your relationship with your particular father?

Members of the Trinity themselves have countless children, and we have no idea of their relationship with daddy dearest. In Zeus’ case we can pretty much assume that he ignores most of them, but with Hades and Poseidon you’d think they may be different. Then again, maybe not.

Aeson for example; he’s the child of Hades, but his relationship with the rest of the Underworld children is barely touched upon except for them not being an exception from adoring Aeson along with the rest of Olympus, so does he have a good relationship with them, or more accurately do they have a good relationship with him?

I just wonder if a Bearer that has an extremely good relationship with their father may be subject to intense jealousy from the rest of their ‘brothers and sisters’ because of this fact. Or if you hate your father, if this will endear your ‘siblings’ to you, or whether it will sour the relationship.

I mean, I don’t think we’ll be majorly interacting with our ‘siblings’ over the course of the game, but I’m anxious to imagine a headcanon where my MC is bullied, ridiculed or even attacked for clearly being the favourite child and the only child whom her father shows any attention to. Or if you hate your father, the same outcome for the inverse reason.

Maybe the father will come down like a tonne of bricks on the other children were this to happen, but will it happen in the first place?

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That’s because Aeson is the only child of Hades…(Well, besides the MC should they be his child, too.):

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Ah. I was unaware of this. I concede to the point.

Well then it appears Hades is the exception; what about the other two? Would similar circumstances still apply?

This is dependent on their perceived support of you. If you are actually treated as a favorite of Zeus, and receive gifts and intercession on your behalf - then that will be seen as very threatening by both the gods and demi-gods,

If your thrown out and hunted then you’ll be perceived less of a direct threat and more of a liability … the fables have examples of both types of treatment.

The ultimate is usually if the father in question grants you divine power over some aspect that they normally rule over but since we are the essence this does not really apply - my question here is can we subsume powers away from the gods and goddesses as we grow…

…I seriously wonder if I’m one of the very few people who doesn’t want to subjugate the Gods of Olympus once I could flatten them all without raising a finger.

Although, the Gods have a sliver of the Essence in them; if you reclaim that once gaining your powers, that would likely put a huge dent in their capabilities. Just harness the power inside you, and use that to take away the power inside them.

And then to do them what they did to Prometheus. Only worse.

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I don’t necessarily want to rule them or anyone else - first thing is to figure out this war business in the prophecy, then to survive to my 19th birthday… then we’ll see. Although being empress of Olympus is better then being slave of Olympus.

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No my MC just wants to gain his powers.
Get his immortality.
Then leave and open a restaurant near the center of the universe.

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Hmm. Personally, my MC is going to work out an agreement with the Gods after she has the Essence, either by force or by diplomacy (which she would very much prefer).

In this agreement, it simply states that she is allowed to do whatever the hell she wants without the interference of the Gods as long as it doesn’t bring extreme harm to humanity or Olympus. Simply put, she can leave Olympus if she pleases. She can travel the world, live a life, even go to university a hundred times over if she pleases, and cultivate any sort of life she wants. She can come back of course if she desires and partake in any education or socialisation or warrior battles she wants, but there is nothing to prevent her from leaving, and nothing to track where she goes outside of Olympus.

In exchange for this…she won’t destroy the Gods.

Now, I’m not suggesting that the Gods agree or she will obliterate them, but she knows that the alternative would be that she stays under the scrutiny of the Gods for eternity, and will likely be wheeled out to a battle she doesn’t want or paraded as a symbol she doesn’t want to be. And being confined and shacked, even metaphorically…that does not sit well with her. And tensions WILL eventually boil over. And it will be pretty for no-one.

So that’s her plan. It lacks a certain (I will destroy you all), but I feel it works. It certainly isn’t unreasonable.

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Oh, I agree with this, but it likely won’t be achievable, since the gods can always just kill Aeson in order to rid themselves of us. The mc using the essence to grant both Aeson and themselves true invincibility along with the immortality will likely take thousands of years to figure out at minimum, if it is even doable within the limits of our “Demigod” body. :sweat:
The Essence is more of a hindrance then a help and will likely remain so for a long, long time after our birthday too, perhaps forever. Yes, it’s a lot of power, but it comes with absolutely no user-manual on how to channel and use it to achieve what we want.
That said of course my mc will try to get away from Olympus, first opportunity he gets, but we’ll just have to see how successful that will be.

…remind me again why Aeson is stuck with mortality while we’re given immortality?

Us and Aeson compete in the Trials as one; either we both fail, or we both win. That’s how it works. So why would we both win, but only one of us is given the prize if we technically competed together?

The souls of Aeson and the Bearer are intertwined; one does not survive without the other. Even if we’re given immortality, Aeson’s immortality has to follow, otherwise even with our immortality, we will die the moment Aeson does.

If that’s the case, it just sounds like the Gods are screwing us over so blatantly and so monumentally I can’t even put it into words.

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I just meant that we, but particularly Aeson are given immortality should we win, that may not mean eternal youth, meaning we could end up like Xenon in Dragon Age and it almost certainly doesn’t mean invincibility. I take the “immortality” on offer to mean we cannot die of old age, but we can probably still be killed in other ways for a long time to come.

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It doesn’t matter if it’s Aeson or the MC who wins the trials; both will gain immortality if one of them wins, that’s why the gods treat them like one participant.

But: Immortality is not the same as being invincible. The Essence makes the Bearer nearly invincible (in case the energy overload doesn’t kill the human body first), but the Bestower lacks this advantage. So the Bestower still fullfills their position as failsave should the Bearer avoid their death by Esssence.

I think it does mean eternal youth in this case:

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