Ares

Ares, Olympian God of War and Prince of the Gods.

**Ares**, is both a fictional character and antagonist of the *HCoW* series created by Jade Raymond and Kaname Fujioka. He was an Isu, revered by the Ancients as the original Olympian God of War and Violence in Greek mythology.

Oldest son of Zeus and Hera, Ares' strength is bolstered by violence, anger, hate, death, and bloodshed and as such is frequently seeking ways to incite these volintile acts to overpower the other Gods and rule Olympus.

Over the centuries, Ares has encouraged war through his manipulation of mortals. He's worn many faces and borne many names, but throughout history, he possessed a limitless and bloodthirsty hunger for destruction.

He was also regarded as one of the Twelve Gods, of the Greek pantheon. Ares captured Deimos and had him imprisoned and tortured by Thanatos due to a misinterpreted prophecy, and entered into an alliance with the Furies.

Ares was also the perpetrator responsible for setting behind the events of the series into motion, by tricking his son into killing his family and turning him into the "**Ghost of Sparta**", which triggered a war between Mortals and the Isu.

He was eventually fulfilled the prophecy of the Marked Warrior who would destroy Olympus and end the reign of the Gods. Ares was commonly referred to as the most hated god on Mount Olympus, even before being killed by Kratos.

"*I have taught you many ways to kill a mortal, Kratos. Flesh that burns, bones that break. But to break a man's spirit, is to truly destroy him.*"

—Ares, to Kratos.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice Actor*: Steven Blum (English), Not Known (Japanese), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Basque), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Cantonese), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Croatian), Not Known (Danish), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Filipino), Not Known (French), Not Known (Galician), Not Known (German), Not Known (Greek), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hong Kong), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Indonesian), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Mandarin), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Tagalog), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Valencian), Not Known (Ukrainian), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (Canadian French), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish), Not Known (Spain-Spanish)

### Appearance

Ares appears as a warrior god. He wears a brown sleeveless tunic, shoulder pieces with wolf faces built into them, and has bracers and boots with chains on them. His boots go up to his knees. He has long hair and a beard, which seem to be made of fire.

* Hair Color: Not Known
* Skin Color: Gray
* Eye Color: Red
* Age: Not Known
* Birthday: Not Known
* Height: Not Known
* Weight: Not Known

## Personality

Being the god of war, violence and bloodshed, Ares is cruel, sadistic, and violent, as seen by his caring only about spreading chaos and conflict across the world. According to Zeus, Ares only feels joy when destroying cities and nations. Ares is also extremely greedy and power hungry, as exemplified by his wishing to destroy his father, so he can replace him as the new king of gods and the ruler of Olympus. However, all his attempts to overthrow Zeus failed. He was even arrogant to the point of openly calling out Zeus and challenging his rule.

Ares also considered love for one's family a weakness, which is evident by how he tricked his son into murdering his family, as he believed they hindered his servant from becoming a great warrior. He would later learn the hard way that he should have been careful with his expectations for Kratos, who slaughtered Ares in turn once he became aware of his machinations. This shows that Ares never cared much for his own kin, as he plotted to kill his father and disowned his 1st son after he could not meet Ares' expectations.

His relationship with his mother Hera and brother Hephaestus was unknown as he was not shown despising them. Ares envies his sister Athena, as she was favored by Zeus and was always trying to prove himself as superior to her in every way, such as creating the perfect warrior for example. Eventually, his hatred and jealousy for his sister makes him attempt to destroy the sacred city Athens; however he was stopped and killed by Kratos, with the support of Athena herself.

## Relationships

### Family

* Gaia (great-grandmother) †
* Uranus (great-grandfather) †
* Cronus (grandfather) †
* Rhea (grandmother)
* Oceanus (great-uncle) †
* Hyperion (great-uncle) †
* Aegaeon (great-uncle) †
* Gyges (great-uncle) †
* Cottus (great-uncle)
* Aphrodite (sister-in-law/lover)
* Alecto (great-aunt/lover) †
* Megaera (great-aunt) †
* Tisiphone (great-aunt) †
* Hades (uncle) †
* Poseidon (uncle) †
* Demeter (aunt)
* Zeus (father) †
* Hera (mother) †
* Hephaestus (brother) †
* Hercules (half-brother) †
* Athena (half-sister) †
* Hermes (half-brother) †
* Apollo (half-brother)
* Artemis (half-sister)
* Persephone (half-sister) †
* Peirithous (half-brother) †
* Pollux (half-brother) †
* Perseus (half-brother) †
* Theseus (cousin) †
* Triton (cousin)
* Pegasus (cousin) †
* Minos (half-brother) †
* Aecus (half-brother) †
* Rhadamanthus (half-brother) †
* Orkos (son) †
* Eros (son)
* Anteros (son)
* Phobos (son)
* Kratos (son)
* Deimos (son) †
* Adrestia (daughter)
* Harmonia (daughter)
* Lysandra (daughter-in-law) †
* Calliope (granddaughter) †
* Xena (daughter-in-law) †
* Atreus (grandson)

## Abilities and Powers

As the Greek God of War, Ares possessed a formidable arsenal of superhuman and magical abilities - all in correlation with combat and warfare, as these were his spheres of influence. As an Olympian prince and firstborn son of Zeus, his powers were considerably stronger than lesser gods.

### Powers

* **Olympian Physiology**:
	+ **Dimensiokinesis**: Ares was able to create pocket universes that he could control completely. Ares demonstrated that during his battle with Kratos, where he trapped him in his own mind, where he was forced to protect his family, for Ares to kill after all, and almost broke his spirit. However, the pocket universe seemed to be made in Kratos' head instead of an actual physical dimension as when he returned to his body, he was kneeling as Ares appeared behind him and was ready to strike him down.
	+ **Enhanced Senses**: Ares was able to sense how Kratos retrieved Pandora's Box while being dozens of miles away from the Desert of Lost Souls.
	+ **Immortality**: As a god, Ares was innately immortal; neither aging beyond his prime nor succumbing to mortal frailty such as disease or impotence of any sort. He could not be slain by earthly weapons; only divine forces and weapons such as the power of Hope, Blade of the Gods or other immortals such as Titans could slay him.
	+ **Superhuman Strength**: As a God of War and Zeus' firstborn son Ares has immense godly strength able to crush buildings effortlessly, make the ground shake by stomping and fight with Kratos after he was strengthened by Pandora's Box on equal terms.
	+ **Superhuman Durability**: Ares posses incredibly durability as a God of War. During his battle with Kratos, he withstands an immense amount of punishment from him including being impaled his own back protrusions which only infuriated him more. Ares also shows to be very resistant even against divine weapons like Blade of the Gods although he was ultimately killed with said weapon.
	+ **Power Bestowal**: Ares was able to grant the chosen warrior with a large variety of abilities and weapons, a power common among the Gods. It was he who gave Kratos his original blades, the Blades of Chaos. He also granted the Redeemed Warrior, if he chose to follow him, the highest amount of attack power as well as the ability to empower their weapons with fire to burn enemies.
	+ **Pyrokinesis**: Ares possessed the ability to manipulate fire, in every way possible. Ares was able to infuse it in his weapons, throw fireballs from his hands, and ignited people at will. Ares often used that ability to kill those who opposed him. Ares also used it in an aesthetic way, as his hair and facial hair were made of fire.
	+ **Astral Projection**: Ares was able to project an image of himself out of the fire to communicate to Kratos after the Spartan killed his family.
	+ **Shapeshifting**: As an Olympian, Ares was able to alter his appearance at will. He did that however to a small extent as the change of his hair was altered.
		- **Size Alteration**: Ares was able to alter his size, and often increased it to titanic proportions, as he did during the Battle of Athens.
		- **Transformation**: Ares was able to sprout large, spider-like protrusions from his back that could be used in combat to hit and impale his enemies. Based on the fact that his statue bore those "claws", it is implied that this was a trademark feature of the War God.
	+ **Telepathy**: Ares was able to talk to people through their minds, without physically getting involved with his target. He can even do this after creating his pocket dimension as he used it to mentally taunt Kratos.
	+ **Telekinesis**: Ares was able to move objects and people with his mind and did that on a massive scale. Ares used the ability to rip the Blades of Chaos from Kratos' arms, and, during the Battle with the Barbarians, lifted people in the air and broke them in half.
	+ **Teleportation**: Throughout his battle with Kratos, Ares was able to teleport all around the area very quickly.
	+ **Geokinesis**: Ares would occasionally summon enormous volcanic rock structures to try to harm Kratos.
	+ **War Embodiment**: As the God of War, Ares was the embodiment of War itself and was able to draw power from it. In combination with his other abilities, Ares was able to lay waste to huge armies with little to no effort. When he died, Ares' body exploded like a nuclear bomb.
	+ **Weapon Creation**: During his final fight with Kratos, Ares has shown the ability to materialize various weapons such as a gigantic war hammer, an axe, and a sword, all of which were enveloped in flames.
	+ **Master Combatant:** As the God of War, Ares was the most imposing and skilled warrior of Olympus, surpassed possibly only by his father and uncles. He has mastered all weapons used in the war including sword, axe, war hammer and his back spider-like blades which coupled with his godly powers and physical prowess makes him even more formidable. Even after Kratos gains power from Pandora Box, Ares proved himself to be an extremely hard adversary, fighting with the Ghost of Sparta on equal terms most of their battle and at one point nearly killed him despite ultimately lost to him.
	+ **Enhanced Marksmanship**: As a god of war, he possessed a greater level of marksmanship as he was able to perfectly hurl a large pillar from Athens to the far off Pandora's Temple in the Desert of Lost Souls to fatally impale Kratos.

## Legacy and Influence

The Stymphalian birds were regarded as Ares' sacred animals. The Followers of Ares worshiped the god, and devoted multiple locations to him, including a cave on the island of Keos. During the Peloponnesian War, an armor set inspired by and dedicated to Ares was also worn, and eventually ended up in the possession of the Spartan *misthios* Kassandra.

In a letter given to the Follow of Ares Harpalos, Ares is referred to the epithets 'the Bloodstained', 'the Destroyer', 'the Stormer of Cities', and 'He Who Rallies Men'. These are all present in Homer's *Iliad*.

In 2012, he was included in a mnemonic set in Abstergo Industries' Project Legacy.

## See also

* Hades
* Underworld
* Persephone
* Claws of Hades
* Army of Hades
* Statue of Hades
* Hades' Helm
* Cerberus

## External links

* Ares *Wikipedia*
* Ares *Assassin's Creed Wiki*
* Ares *God of War Wiki*
* Ares *Myths and Folklore Wiki*