Hephaestus(VanquishedHydra4844)

== Appearance: ==
Hephaestus has pale red scales with splotches of pale orange here and there, a pale brown underbelly, and extremely torn up, reddish wings. His face is asymmetrical, as he has one horn that grows from the top of his head, and two others that grow from his bottom jaw, one of which is snapped in half. The left side of his face has no scales whatsoever, and his nasal cavity is partially exposed on the left side. Hephaestus is blind in his right eye, although his left eye is a bright dandelion yellow color. To allow himself to walk, Hephaestus wears metal leg braces on his hind legs. He also wears a pair of fireproof, translucent mechanical wings that are attached to a harness that allows him to fly if he chooses. 
== History: ==
Hephaestus’ mother Hera got fed up with Zeus’ constant affairs with other dragonesses, so she took a trip down to the Mud Kingdom, where she met a b**tard MudWing prince and briefly had an affair with him before returning to Olympus. When Hera saw the unsightly appearance of her son, she threw him from Olympus, crippling him forever. Afterwards, Hera spread a false rumor that it was actually Zeus, Hephaestus’ stepfather, who hurled Hephaestus down from Olympus. Hephaestus landed in the sea, where he was found and raised by Thetis, a SeaWing. However, Hera's act of cruelty haunted Hephaestus, and he sought revenge.
After spending nine years under the sea with Thetis, Hephaestus finally walked back to Mount Olympus. As he limped into the Olympian Throne Room, all of the gods (especially Hera and Ares) were shocked into silence. With him, Hephaestus had brought magnificent new thrones for all of the Olympians. Hera's throne was made from shining pure translucent blue adamantine, making it particularly grandiose. A very impressed Hera quickly seated herself in it, and instantly, she was tightly bound by invisible and unbreakable chains. The chains grasped Hera so tightly, that she could not breathe, and all of the divine ichor in her veins flowed to her talons. Ares and Hermes tried to convince Hephaestus to release his mother, but the latter remained stubborn and inexorable. 
Finally, his youngest half-brother Dionysus (the god of wine), decided to take matters into his own hands. Dionysus began visiting Hephaestus' forge from time to time, and peacefully chatting with him. The two gods quickly became friends, and a week later, Dionysus introduced Hephaestus to wine, and finally convinced the intoxicated god to forgive Hera, and took him back to Mount Olympus. There, Hephaestus declared his forgiveness of Hera's act of cruelty and released her. Afterwards, Hephaestus and Hera made peace with each other.
As the new Blacksmith of the Olympians, Hephaestus soon created the metal giant Talos, the Colchis Bulls, and other various elaborate automatons, which were his speciality. He also built the impenetrable armour of Achilles, a powerful and great tool.
Hephaestus' father Zeus eventually began experiencing terrible headaches (caused by Athena, the child of his swallowed wife Metis, banging around inside his head, desperate to escape), so Hephaestus offered to put Zeus out of his misery by splitting open the latter's head with his awl and hammer. While most of the other Olympians held Zeus down on his throne, Hephaestus banged his awl into his father's head with a mighty blow, creating a fissure, thick enough for Athena to squeeze her way out, after which she grew into a full-size goddess, much to the astonishment of the other gods. Hephaestus subsequently stitched up the fissure in Zeus's head.
Hephaestus had managed to develop strong unrequited feelings for Athena, all the more because they had similar interests in tools and crafts respectively, as well as a penchant for solving mechanical problems. Unfortunately for him, however, Athena, as one of the Virgin Goddesses, was incapable of romance, and never desired to marry anyone. A lovesick Hephaestus would not be deterred, however, and persistently followed and flirted with the beautiful goddess, finally flinging himself at Athena, wrapping his arms around her waist, tearfully burying his face in her skirt. In the process, some of his divine sweat and tears rubbed off on Athena's bare leg where the skirt was parted, much to her chagrin. She kicked Hephaestus away and snatched up a piece of cloth to wipe the godly moisture off of her, hurled the cloth off Olympus, and ran away from her persistent admirer.
The cloth, containing the essence of both Hephaestus and Athena, would subsequently transform into a mortal dragonet named Erikthonius, a mortal child of both gods. Athena placed her son into a wooden chest, along with a magically conjured serpent, with the intention of Erikthonius's godly qualities eventually being enhanced by the serpent, making him immortal. Athena then took the chest to the Athenian Acropolis (her most sacred place) and gave it to the daughters of Kekrops (the first king of Athens), and warned them not to open it. While the princesses agreed, they would be overcome with curiosity after only one night, they opened the chest. However, seeing Erikthonius and the serpent rendered them insane, and they promptly jumped off the side of the Acropolis's cliffs, plummeting to their deaths. As a result, the spell was broken before Erikthonius could become immortal, and the serpent slithered away, inducing Athena to raise him herself. Athena would eventually take out her vengeance on the girls' father, Kekrops, whom a grown-up Erikthonius would banish, usurping his Athenian throne.
Hera, enraged at her husband's infidelity, decided to start the first (and last) Olympian riot against Zeus. Hera managed to gain the support of Poseidon (who secretly desired to become King of the Olympian gods), as well as Apollo, and Athena. Hephaestus, however, chose to remain neutral, as he deemed his mother's idea of a riot ridiculous. As a result, after Zeus was freed by Briares, the King of Olympus did not punish him.
However, Hephaestus could not bear to see his mother Hera hanging chained right above the terrifying Void of Chaos. As a result, he finally set her free. Hera tearfully embraced Hephaestus and promised to never to call him ugly ever again. Zeus, however, was infuriated. He violently stormed into Hephaestus' chambers, easily overpowered him, and flung Hephaestus all the way from Mount Olympus to Lemnos (which broke every bone in his divine body). He was found by a group of pirates called the Sintians, who cared for him until his wounds were healed, and he returned to Olympus. Zeus was somewhat ashamed of his past angry fit with his son, and (in a rare act) apologized and welcomed his son back with open wings.
The goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite, was causing a lot of problems on Olympus due to her radiant beauty. While Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, Apollo, and Hermes all wanted her for themselves, Hephaestus didn't participate in the commotion, and instead sat in the shadows, quiet and dejected, knowing that his ugliness stripped him of any chance of competing for the gorgeous Aphrodite. Hera, feeling that her godly family was about to unravel, was determined to prevent that, and hastily ordered the other Olympians to silence themselves. As the goddess of marriage, she felt an obligation to pick the perfect husband for the new goddess and proclaimed that such a perfect match was her son Hephaestus, much to Ares and Aphrodite's dismay. Hephaestus himself was so surprised that he fell off of his throne. Athena was quick to agree with Hera as well, pointing out that if Aphrodite were to marry anyone else, all of the other male gods would never stop fighting about it, while it would be nearly impossible for them to be jealous of Hephaestus. Hence, Zeus married both of them right then and there, with Hephaestus promising to be a loving husband.
While Hephaestus did keep his word, Aphrodite would stay away from her husband as much as possible, with them never having any dragonets. She soon began an affair with Ares, the handsome god of war, which became the worst kept secret on Mount Olympus, with Hephaestus being the only person that didn't know, possibly because he wanted to believe that his wife could love him.
However, he did finally become suspicious after the birth of Aphrodite's first son, Eros, whose very handsome features bore a striking resemblance to Ares'. Her next child, Harmonia, was equally beautiful, without any resemblance to Hephaestus. Finally, the all-seeing Titan of Sun, Helios, took pity on Hephaestus and revealed Aphrodite's infidelity to the latter. The devastated blacksmith god fashioned an unbreakable yet extremely thin golden net and wove it over the bedposts in his bedroom. He then claimed to be departing to Lemnos for a few days and left.
Ares and Aphrodite then retired to the latter's bedroom but were imprisoned and immobilized by the net as soon as they jumped into bed. A returned Hephaestus then proceeded to lead the rest of the gods into his bedroom, determined to humiliate the cheating pair. He first called Hermes, and asked humble to send the message to all the gods. However, Zeus and Hermes found the situation hilarious, and were promptly joined in prolonged contagious laughter by the other gods, with Apollo jeering at Ares and Athena at Aphrodite. Finally, however, Poseidon managed to collect himself and requested that Hephaestus release the pair. The blacksmith god begrudgingly agreed, but only on the condition of Zeus repaying him all the gifts that he had made for Aphrodite's dowry. Poseidon then insisted that Ares be released as well, vouching to ensure that the war god would pay any price that would settle this debt. Hephaestus agreed, requesting a price of 10 wagon loads of the best armour, weapons, and war spoils from Ares' fortress. With an agreement reached, Hephaestus finally released them both.
In the subsequent years, however, Hephaestus continued to find ways to trap and publicly embarrass Ares and Aphrodite. Hephaestus would also continue to resent their children, most notably, their daughter Harmonia, who would choose to become the mortal wife of King Cadmus. Hephaestus would give her a magnificent golden necklace for her wedding, which would get passed down her family for generations, inducing horrible tragedy quite a few times. Harmonia and Cadmus, for instance, got transformed into serpents at the end of their lives.
While he and Aphrodite still remained married, Hephaestus would now feel entitled to pursue relationships with other women as well, the first of them being Aglaia (one of the 3 Charities and Aphrodite's handmaidens), with them having several godly daughters: Eukleia, Eutheme, Euthenia, and Philophrosyne. He would at one point also date the SeaWing Etna, with them subsequently having some children together called the "Palikoi", spirits of hot springs and geysers. He would later date the MudWing Kabeiro, and father Alkon and Eurymedon with her, with them being called the "Kabeiroi" as a result. Much like their father, the Kabeiroi were ugly and excellent blacksmiths, so they would sometimes help out in his forges as a result. They would later join the then-demigod Dionysus in his conquest of India. Hephaestus's most famous demigod son would be Archimedes.
When Zeus decided to create the irresistible Pandora (in order to punish Epimetheus(the Titan of Hindsight)for his brother Prometheus's actions), Hephaestus helped by moulding the girl's beautiful body out of clay. 
== Personality: ==
Hephaestus is aloof, pragmatic, cynical and has a subtly fatalist point of view of others, especially his fellow Olympians if not all organic life forms in general. He has a tendency to be gruff, as well as to be bitter and disappointed in life, in dragons, and in other "living organisms". Hence, he preferred to put his faith in machines instead of people, as machines would never disappoint, and even when they were broken, they could still be fixed, unlike dragons. He loves his wife, Aphrodite, though he is sad and angry with her infidelities. Hephaestus is also prone to unleashing a brutal temper when angered, especially on the subject of Daedalus (an extremely intelligent inventor who committed dishonorable acts that, in Hephaestus's opinion, gave inventors a bad name) or Hera (who threw him from Olympus as an infant and condescended him his entire life), which is so intense that it makes him burst into flames.
He is very bitter and hateful towards his "perfectionist" mother, Hera, and even once tricked her into sitting on a throne with hidden unbreakable chains. Hephaestus' tendency to bear grudges (namely against his mother) for a very long time, making him similar to his uncle, Hades. However, Hephaestus is shown to have at least some love for his mother, as seen when he could not bear to see her chained over the Void of Chaos, and he finally rescues her. Despite his view of organic life forms, he appears to have a soft spot for Cyclopes, and seems to be on very good terms with his half-sister Athena (for whom he initially had unrequited feelings for), while they both mutually despise Ares. 
He is, however, able to productively work together with Ares in extreme situations. Hephaestus is also very good friends with his half-brother Dionysus, who was the only one able to convince Hephaestus to unchain his mother Hera. He also seems to be on good terms with his uncle Poseidon, who persuaded him to release Aphrodite and Ares from the embarrassing golden net Hephaestus had imprisoned them in. Hephaestus also greatly admired Daedalus, above all other mortal dragons. Despite his bitterness, Hephaestus is the lover of many things, such as his foster mother Thetis, his unfaithful wife Aphrodite, his many demigod children, and their mothers. He also pays Calypso friendly visits from time to time. However, there is also a darker side to Hephaestus, when he gives Harmonia (the daughter of Aphrodite and Ares) a necklace with a horrible curse.
== Powers/Abilities: ==
Immune to any form of fire and heat, can control, summon and manipulate fire, heat, magma, smoke, limited control over volcanoes, Can sense faults in metal ore, can build any kind of machine out of any kind of material, breathe extremely hot fire, spontaneously combust at will. 
== Trivia: ==
* Hephaestus generally walks everywhere, due to his wings being ripped up.
* Even when he isn’t flying, Hephaestus still wears his wing/harness in order to keep his wings from falling to pieces(the bones in his wings aren’t as strong as the rest of his bones, which makes them more susceptible to breaking or fracturing if he isn’t careful).
* Hephaestus is extremely good friends with his half-brother Dionysus, as he allows the latter to be in his forge with him and chat.
Category:Characters
Category:Males
Category:SkyWings
Category:Status (Legend)
Category:Content (VanquishedHydra4844)