Zagreus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
inthenameofhades) wrote2024-01-24 05:42 pm
inthenameofhades) wrote2024-01-24 05:42 pm
Entry tags:
Application - Abraxas
IC INFORMATION
Character Name: Zagreus
Canon: Hades
Canon Point: Sometime after the 'true' ending (i.e. the 'family reuinited' ending)
Age: Hard to put a number on an immortal god! But while he is a younger god, Zagreus is definitely an adult.
Background: Hades wiki link and Wikipedia link - the wiki link is a weirdly lacking in detail the actual events of the game, but the Wikipedia plot rundown fills in the gaps
Arrival Scenario: Solvunn
Suitability:
Being a god himself, Zagreus will want to engage specifically with that aspect of life in Solvunn. He's going to perceive the gods as being like his own pantheon - powerful beings with core, vital roles to play in the existence of the universe, but who are also still individuals. Zagreus will see it as important to honour the local gods and to get to know them, and this is something that will likely help him engage with the local people of Solvunn. Basically, there's a lot of potentially very interesting avenues to pursue here.
At the same time, this doesn't necessarily mean that Zagreus will just support Solvunn in the wider conflict. I think Zagreus would be somewhat uncomfortable interfering in mortal life in that way. Also, he's a god of the Underworld - and when the Olympians get involved in mortal conflicts, it's the Underworld that ends up with all the dead. I think Zagreus would be well aware that war is messy, and does not always have clear heroes and villains.
He is however someone who wants to try and help others, and to resolve conflicts. Zagreus as such is likely to try and get involved in any peacemaker effects, or to at least try and reduce conflict where possible.
Powers:
DASHING: Gods can swiftly move through space, though for Zagreus it’s very short range - he can only go about a ‘blade’s length’ in front of him. It’s essentially a mix between phasing and teleporting, where he’s able to quickly move forward and through other entities and thin walls - and cannot be harmed during the instant that it happens. However, he can't spam this endlessly - he needs a moment to recover after using it.
BLOODSTONES: As the god of blood, Zagreus can summon forth or ‘cast’ large crystals of blood that can be flung at range at an enemy. These bloodstones damage the enemy with the initial strike, and also become embedded within them. While embedded, they can have a particular effect on the enemy depending on Zagreus's choices with the Mirror of Night (see below). Bloodstones will also only remain in the enemy for a short period of time, eventually becoming dislodged - at which point Zagreus needs to collect them before casting them again.
MIRROR OF NIGHT: Zagreus was able to use Darkness that he had collected in the Underworld with the Mirror of Night to give himself a number of specific enhancements. These enhancements can also be adjusted or changed out for others, but only through the Mirror itself (which he will no longer have access to). Listed below are the ones that he will have in game (as the ones that he would have most recently set, and excluding anything not relevant due to being specific to the Underworld):
FIERY FEET: Zagreus’s feet are perpetually on fire and glow red hot. This, somehow, does not set everything he walks on on fire. Possibly everything in the House of Hades has been crafted to be fire resistant. But he does tend to leave behind embers or melt snow, and presumably he would set something flammable on fire if he stood on it for long enough.
SOUL-BOUND TO THE UNDERWORLD: Like his father, Zagreus's soul is bound to the Underworld. This means that if he leaves it, he can only survive for a short time before inevitably growing weak and being taken by the Styx. In the interests of not having him die immediately, this won't be active in game - but it's worth nothing anyway. Potentially something about the summoning has shifted exactly what he is bound to.
COMBAT SKILLS: Zagreus was trained by Achilles himself, making him a very effective warrior. He’s also known for being adaptable and highly unpredictable (though part of that is due to his abilities varying in canon depending on what boons the Olympian gods have gifted to him). He’s able to use a wide range of weapons, and specifically wields the Infernal Arms in the Underworld. These each have their own powers and abilities, but those will not be available for him to access.
PERSONALITY QUESTIONS
Describe an important event in your character's life and how it impacted them.
Growing up, Zagreus was under a lot of pressure from his father, Hades. He was the Prince of the Underworld, and it was Hades’s expectation that Zagreus would live up to the duties and responsibilities of a Prince without issue. He should be able to help with the administrative running of the House, keep up with the paperwork, and generally be a nice and dutiful son. Which, for a long while, Zagreus did attempt to be. He wanted to be of use to the House, to have a purpose in life.
Unfortunately, Zagreus turned out to be wholly unsuited to this role. He was impulsive and inattentive, qualities which doomed him to fail at any kind of administrative task he attempted. It didn’t help that Hades also expected Zagreus to be good at it without any kind of training or guidance. The result was Zagreus being effectively ‘fired’ from any administrative work, leaving him driftless and at loose ends. Zagreus’s earlier desires to help and be useful grew into bitter and and frustration, and rebellion again his father.
It’s at this point - when he was already at a low - that the single most important event in Zagreus’s life occurred. While sneaking around through his Father’s personal papers, Zagreus found a letter from his mother, Persephone. Except until that point, he had been raised to believe that his mother was the goddess Nyx. Not only did Zagreus feel intense shock at this revelation, he felt betrayed and lied to.
Furthermore, now he had a mother he had never met - a mother who had left, for reasons he didn’t know. He wanted to find her, to get answers about his own family and history, about why she left. He wanted to meet the woman who had birthed him, and get to know her.
It’s at this point that he decided to leave the Underworld in search of her - and began his many, many attempts to escape.
Does your character have a moral code, or other set of standards they try to live by?
Zagreus has probably never thought of himself as having a set moral ‘code’, but he is nonetheless a very moral person.
He has strong opinions on the subject of punishments - something which is frequently of relevance in the Underworld. He certainly isn’t against punishment, and sees it as a fair consequence for those who have wronged others. However, he does feel strongly that those punishments should be fair - and that they should not be eternal for those who have worked to redeem and better themselves. This is of particular note in regards to actions towards Sisyphus, who was sentenced to eternally push a boulder up a hill for his crimes. Having been dead for some time, Sisyphus had come to acknowledge the crimes he committed in life, and the terrible person that he had been. Zagreus as such regarded Sisyphys as a changed person - and someone who shouldn’t continue to be punished any longer. As such he sought to free Sisyphys from his punishment, allowing him to be free of torture in the Underworld.
Similar to his belief in the need for fair punishments, Zagreus also feels that contracts should be fair. Achilles and Orpheus were two shades who had entered into binding contracts with the House of Hades - Achilles exchanging his service in exchange for allowing his beloved Petroclus to live in Elysium, and Orpheus entering into a contract to attempt to free his dead muse Eurydice from the Underworld. In both cases, the contracts bound Achilles not only into service to the House, but prevented them from ever leaving - meaning they also could never visit their loves. Zagreus felt this to be a deeply unfair contract, seeing no reason why Achillles and Orpheus shouldn’t be allowed to visit Patroclus and Eurydice. If they were to serve the House, they should do so freely - and be allowed to be happy while doing so.
What quality or qualities do they admire most?
Zagreus admires a wide range of qualities in other people - he’s someone who can almost always find something to appreciate in other people. But the quality that he values most is supportiveness. He values all of the Olympians, who give him boons of their own power in order to aid his attempts to escape the Underworld. He values Nyx for raising and supporting him as a child, Achilles for teaching him how to fight, Dusa for keeping the House clean and in order. At every step of the way, Zagreus has been aided by other people - and not only is he aware of that, he makes sure to express his gratitude and appreciation for that support.
It’s a trait that he himself embodies. He wants to be able to support the people who have supported him, and to help the people he’s close to. He’s generous with gifts, and will freely give to others without any expectation of receiving something in return.
He also values second chances, and the bonds between people. Consistently, Zagerus works to try and bring people together - his family in Olympus and the Underworld, Nyx and her parent Chaos, Achilles and Patroclus, Orpheus and Eurydice. He’s the god of Blood not just in the physical sense, but the metaphorical - of the ties that bind people together. This doesn’t mean that he wants everyone to always get along no matter their disagreement, but he does value the connections between people, and those who are willing to move beyond past conflicts.
Do they have a part of themselves they dislike?
The flipside of Zagreus wanting to help bring other people together is that sometimes he can butt into things which are absolutely none of his business. He’s not pushy - but he is impulsive, doesn’t always think things through, and tends to feel like if he could just get people to sit and talk about their differences properly then everything will be okay. In short, Zagreus is a meddler.
Ironically, so far this has actually always worked out pretty well. Orpheus and Eurydice’s relationship was on the rocks after Orpheus’s failed attempts to bring Eurydice out of the Underworld, and it wasn’t helped by them being stuck in different parts of the Underworld. Zagreus took it upon himself to act as a go-between, trying to tell each of them how the other was doing and to try and push along communication between the two. In the end, while he didn’t help them mend their relationship, Thanatos still pointed out to Zagreus that he shouldn’t have interfered with that, particularly not without asking either Orpheus or Eurydice if they wanted his help.
After Thanatos pointed it out, Zagreus realised that his actions were insensitive and overstepped, and apologised to both Orpheus and Eurydice. It’s something he has acknowledged as a flaw in himself, and wants to try and avoid doing again in the future.
What is their sign, and why?
Zagreus's sign is The Chariot. His entire deal is that he has repeatedly run off to try and escape the Underworld, something meant to be an impossible task that no one could even hope to accomplished. It is the very definition of a task that is out of his league. It’s one he keeps going at, even though he dies every single time.
And then once he does actually manage to battle to the surface, Zagreus finds that he can’t stay alive up there for long. His mother Persephone tries to tell him to stay in the Underworld, for his own good - but nope, Zagreus is still stubborn and still wants to get to know his mother, so he keeps going.
And then when his mother finally returns to the Underworld, he still keeps going. Because there might be bad blood between the Underworld and Olympus if the Olympians realise where Persephone has been all this time, so now he’s just gotta keep up the charade so they don’t realise what’s up.
And even when that issue is resolved, well…by that point he’s become really, really good at escaping the Underworld. He’s actually managed to help reveal a lot of flaws in the Underworld’s security in the process. So now he keeps going because it’s his job now. He even begins using the Pact of Punishment to add extra challenge to his escape attempts - always trying to see if he can do better.
In short, this is why his sign is Chariot - he doesn't give up, he keeps going even in the face of impossible odds, and he loves a challenge.
SAMPLES
Samples: TDM top-level
Character Name: Zagreus
Canon: Hades
Canon Point: Sometime after the 'true' ending (i.e. the 'family reuinited' ending)
Age: Hard to put a number on an immortal god! But while he is a younger god, Zagreus is definitely an adult.
Background: Hades wiki link and Wikipedia link - the wiki link is a weirdly lacking in detail the actual events of the game, but the Wikipedia plot rundown fills in the gaps
Arrival Scenario: Solvunn
Suitability:
Being a god himself, Zagreus will want to engage specifically with that aspect of life in Solvunn. He's going to perceive the gods as being like his own pantheon - powerful beings with core, vital roles to play in the existence of the universe, but who are also still individuals. Zagreus will see it as important to honour the local gods and to get to know them, and this is something that will likely help him engage with the local people of Solvunn. Basically, there's a lot of potentially very interesting avenues to pursue here.
At the same time, this doesn't necessarily mean that Zagreus will just support Solvunn in the wider conflict. I think Zagreus would be somewhat uncomfortable interfering in mortal life in that way. Also, he's a god of the Underworld - and when the Olympians get involved in mortal conflicts, it's the Underworld that ends up with all the dead. I think Zagreus would be well aware that war is messy, and does not always have clear heroes and villains.
He is however someone who wants to try and help others, and to resolve conflicts. Zagreus as such is likely to try and get involved in any peacemaker effects, or to at least try and reduce conflict where possible.
Powers:
- GODHOOD: Zagerus is a god of the Greek pantheon, and as such has a number of associated abilities. Additionally, as a god he also represents and embodies a specific concept - in his case, blood, life, and rebirth.
- Immortality: Zagerus is a god of the Greek pantheon, and as such does not age. He can be injured and killed, however this is not a permanent state. After dying, Zagreus will return to life free of any previous injuries. However, he also always respawns back at the House of Hades. As such, if he's killed he won't be able to return to Abraxas.
- Divine Strength: He’s stronger, faster, and more durable than ordinary mortals. Even though he can die, it still takes a lot to kill him.
- Resistance to fire, heat, and cold: Zagreus is much more resistant to the elements than any mortal human. He's been seen to be able to run on magna, and run around outside in the freezing snow with zero warm clothing. However, while he's resistant he's not immune - high enough extremes and long enough exposure can still do damage.
- Assumed godly traits: These are traits that the game does not actually say anything about either way, but are ones that Zagreus is assumed to have - if only because it would be strange for gods to not have them. Namely, gods are assumed to: be immune or at least highly resistant to ordinary mortal diseases, feel no ill effects from not eating or drinking, don't need to worry about BO or bad teeth from lack of hygiene, etc. Sleep is strongly suggested to be optional. Bad hair days would be impossible.
- Immortality: Zagerus is a god of the Greek pantheon, and as such does not age. He can be injured and killed, however this is not a permanent state. After dying, Zagreus will return to life free of any previous injuries. However, he also always respawns back at the House of Hades. As such, if he's killed he won't be able to return to Abraxas.
- Shadow presence: he deals additional damage when striking foes from behind.
- Chthonic Vitality: he recovers a incremental amount of health per 'room'. Since there aren't going to be 'rooms' in the same sense, how this would work would probably just be a case of being able to slowly heal over a long period of time.
- Stubborn defiance: he can restore a third of his health upon what would normally be the point of once per encounter or battle.
- Greater reflex: He can dash two additional times before needing to recover (meaning he can dash three times in quick succession).
- Abyssal blood: Foes become slower, and deal less damage, when they have one of Zagreus’s bloodstones in them. The more bloodtones embedded, the greater the effect.
- Infernal soul: Zagerus is able to summon an additional two bloodstones, for a total of three.
- Thick skin: Zagreus is even hardier, aka has more ‘health’.
PERSONALITY QUESTIONS
Describe an important event in your character's life and how it impacted them.
Growing up, Zagreus was under a lot of pressure from his father, Hades. He was the Prince of the Underworld, and it was Hades’s expectation that Zagreus would live up to the duties and responsibilities of a Prince without issue. He should be able to help with the administrative running of the House, keep up with the paperwork, and generally be a nice and dutiful son. Which, for a long while, Zagreus did attempt to be. He wanted to be of use to the House, to have a purpose in life.
Unfortunately, Zagreus turned out to be wholly unsuited to this role. He was impulsive and inattentive, qualities which doomed him to fail at any kind of administrative task he attempted. It didn’t help that Hades also expected Zagreus to be good at it without any kind of training or guidance. The result was Zagreus being effectively ‘fired’ from any administrative work, leaving him driftless and at loose ends. Zagreus’s earlier desires to help and be useful grew into bitter and and frustration, and rebellion again his father.
It’s at this point - when he was already at a low - that the single most important event in Zagreus’s life occurred. While sneaking around through his Father’s personal papers, Zagreus found a letter from his mother, Persephone. Except until that point, he had been raised to believe that his mother was the goddess Nyx. Not only did Zagreus feel intense shock at this revelation, he felt betrayed and lied to.
Furthermore, now he had a mother he had never met - a mother who had left, for reasons he didn’t know. He wanted to find her, to get answers about his own family and history, about why she left. He wanted to meet the woman who had birthed him, and get to know her.
It’s at this point that he decided to leave the Underworld in search of her - and began his many, many attempts to escape.
Does your character have a moral code, or other set of standards they try to live by?
Zagreus has probably never thought of himself as having a set moral ‘code’, but he is nonetheless a very moral person.
He has strong opinions on the subject of punishments - something which is frequently of relevance in the Underworld. He certainly isn’t against punishment, and sees it as a fair consequence for those who have wronged others. However, he does feel strongly that those punishments should be fair - and that they should not be eternal for those who have worked to redeem and better themselves. This is of particular note in regards to actions towards Sisyphus, who was sentenced to eternally push a boulder up a hill for his crimes. Having been dead for some time, Sisyphus had come to acknowledge the crimes he committed in life, and the terrible person that he had been. Zagreus as such regarded Sisyphys as a changed person - and someone who shouldn’t continue to be punished any longer. As such he sought to free Sisyphys from his punishment, allowing him to be free of torture in the Underworld.
Similar to his belief in the need for fair punishments, Zagreus also feels that contracts should be fair. Achilles and Orpheus were two shades who had entered into binding contracts with the House of Hades - Achilles exchanging his service in exchange for allowing his beloved Petroclus to live in Elysium, and Orpheus entering into a contract to attempt to free his dead muse Eurydice from the Underworld. In both cases, the contracts bound Achilles not only into service to the House, but prevented them from ever leaving - meaning they also could never visit their loves. Zagreus felt this to be a deeply unfair contract, seeing no reason why Achillles and Orpheus shouldn’t be allowed to visit Patroclus and Eurydice. If they were to serve the House, they should do so freely - and be allowed to be happy while doing so.
What quality or qualities do they admire most?
Zagreus admires a wide range of qualities in other people - he’s someone who can almost always find something to appreciate in other people. But the quality that he values most is supportiveness. He values all of the Olympians, who give him boons of their own power in order to aid his attempts to escape the Underworld. He values Nyx for raising and supporting him as a child, Achilles for teaching him how to fight, Dusa for keeping the House clean and in order. At every step of the way, Zagreus has been aided by other people - and not only is he aware of that, he makes sure to express his gratitude and appreciation for that support.
It’s a trait that he himself embodies. He wants to be able to support the people who have supported him, and to help the people he’s close to. He’s generous with gifts, and will freely give to others without any expectation of receiving something in return.
He also values second chances, and the bonds between people. Consistently, Zagerus works to try and bring people together - his family in Olympus and the Underworld, Nyx and her parent Chaos, Achilles and Patroclus, Orpheus and Eurydice. He’s the god of Blood not just in the physical sense, but the metaphorical - of the ties that bind people together. This doesn’t mean that he wants everyone to always get along no matter their disagreement, but he does value the connections between people, and those who are willing to move beyond past conflicts.
Do they have a part of themselves they dislike?
The flipside of Zagreus wanting to help bring other people together is that sometimes he can butt into things which are absolutely none of his business. He’s not pushy - but he is impulsive, doesn’t always think things through, and tends to feel like if he could just get people to sit and talk about their differences properly then everything will be okay. In short, Zagreus is a meddler.
Ironically, so far this has actually always worked out pretty well. Orpheus and Eurydice’s relationship was on the rocks after Orpheus’s failed attempts to bring Eurydice out of the Underworld, and it wasn’t helped by them being stuck in different parts of the Underworld. Zagreus took it upon himself to act as a go-between, trying to tell each of them how the other was doing and to try and push along communication between the two. In the end, while he didn’t help them mend their relationship, Thanatos still pointed out to Zagreus that he shouldn’t have interfered with that, particularly not without asking either Orpheus or Eurydice if they wanted his help.
After Thanatos pointed it out, Zagreus realised that his actions were insensitive and overstepped, and apologised to both Orpheus and Eurydice. It’s something he has acknowledged as a flaw in himself, and wants to try and avoid doing again in the future.
What is their sign, and why?
Zagreus's sign is The Chariot. His entire deal is that he has repeatedly run off to try and escape the Underworld, something meant to be an impossible task that no one could even hope to accomplished. It is the very definition of a task that is out of his league. It’s one he keeps going at, even though he dies every single time.
And then once he does actually manage to battle to the surface, Zagreus finds that he can’t stay alive up there for long. His mother Persephone tries to tell him to stay in the Underworld, for his own good - but nope, Zagreus is still stubborn and still wants to get to know his mother, so he keeps going.
And then when his mother finally returns to the Underworld, he still keeps going. Because there might be bad blood between the Underworld and Olympus if the Olympians realise where Persephone has been all this time, so now he’s just gotta keep up the charade so they don’t realise what’s up.
And even when that issue is resolved, well…by that point he’s become really, really good at escaping the Underworld. He’s actually managed to help reveal a lot of flaws in the Underworld’s security in the process. So now he keeps going because it’s his job now. He even begins using the Pact of Punishment to add extra challenge to his escape attempts - always trying to see if he can do better.
In short, this is why his sign is Chariot - he doesn't give up, he keeps going even in the face of impossible odds, and he loves a challenge.
SAMPLES
Samples: TDM top-level