Erebus

The Primordial God of Darkness (Photograph by CGP Grey)

### Aliases

Erebos, Scotus, the Shadow, Rapture, Shade, Great God of Darkness, The Endless Darkness, Consort of the Night, The Darkness behind the Stars, Son of the Void, Husband of the Night, Protogenos of Darkness, Primeval of Darkness, Father Shadow

## Physical Description

### Spirit of

Darkness, Mist, Night, Light, Creation, Abyss, Concealment

## Relatives

### Offspring

Thanatos, Apate, Aether, Hemera, Hypnos, the Keres, Moros, the Moirai, the Hesperides, Dolos, Nemesis, Oizys, Momus, Philotes, Eris, Geras

**Erebus** holds the esteemed position of being the Primordial deity associated with darkness and mist. As one of the original primordial deities, Erebus is counted among the Protogenoi in Greek mythology.

## Overview

Erebus assumes the significant role of the second ruler of the cosmos and is born of Khaos. He held a unique dual role as both the husband and brother of Nyx. From their union, two prominent figures in Greek mythology emerged – Hemera, the Protogenos of Day, and Aether, the Protogenos of Light. The irony lies in the fact that the children of Nyx and Erebus represent Day and Light, stemming from their association with Night and Darkness.

Though Erebus is not a prominent figure in Greek mythology, he is acknowledged as the father of various deities through his union with Nyx.

Depending on the source of the myth, their offspring include Aether, Hemera, the Hesperides, Hypnos, the Sisters of Fate, Geras, Styx, Charon, and Thanatos. In Greek literature, Erebus is occasionally associated with a part of the Greek underworld where the deceased initially go after death, and at times, it's used interchangeably with Tartarus.

## Appearance

Erebus exists without a physical form, making it quite challenging to envision any tangible appearance for this deity. Similar to how Nyx is associated with the nighttime sky, Erebus is often symbolized by the shadows and darkness that inhabit the hidden corners and crevices of the world. Nevertheless, Erebus can manifest in a non-physical, spectral form, often considered as his avatar by many.

There have been some sightings of Erebus in a human form.

## Personality

Erebus is always seen to be serene and apathetic towards other people, even while actually deeply conflicted. He is notably calm, even in battle. He generally acts different, bordering on coldness, to most situations he is faced with, and rarely views his opponent as being worth his time.

He doesn't show these emotions very often and it's said that he often sports a poker face. He denies this and believes that he just expresses his emotions in his own way. His sister state that he gets a lot of love letters from female entities. He is good at making friends and socializing, and he is one of the few people who can control Tartarus when he gets out of hand.

He can be seen to be friendly towards his siblings and father, however, his coldness can make him rather cruel and quiet hostile from outsiders, specially if some space monsters or an Old One accidentally find themselves in his presence.

Due to fighting many entities, Erebus is an extremely cunning, wise, witty, and a cautious person, having not trusted the words of an Old One like Yog-Sothoth. He is wise and smart enough to convince Nyarlathotep to think that the outer god had successfully manipulated him, and just playing along from his games.

## Powers and Abilities

Erebus is one of the strongest of the Protogenoi, being able to take on the likes of Shupnikkurat, Barak and his sister Dʰéǵʰōm and is also one of the only people able to stop an angry Tartarus in a one-on-one fight. Erebus is so powerful that he can also fight Chronos, a more powerful being, as well taking on multiple True Archangels at once. His power is matched only by his brothers and sisters.

* **Primordial Physiology**: As a Primordial, Erebus is an immensely powerful being that has existed prior to or since the beginning of time. He is able to control, alter, create, and manipulate anything and everything related to concept of darkness with ease. Erebus can do virtually anything he desires, with even Satan himself stating that Erebus is not be trifled with, to the point of going as far as showing caution around him.
* **Nigh-Omnipotence**: While not as powerful as his creator Khaos nor as great as his sister and wife Nyx, he does have the abilities to do literally anything he want including destruction, infinity, endless power and others. Erebus has the powers over Creation and is described as both omnipotent and unbeatable by those aware of his existence. Erebus is only equated by his siblings, and surpassed by Chronos and Khaos. No one below the Primordials can stand a chance against him and will never overcome it. Nyx has said that Erebus and Chronos are equally good combatants and them fighting would probably end up in a very close stalemate, edging to Chronos in victory. He also has an intense dark aura that can blacken a space in no time at all. Upon full release, his aura sometimes has detrimental effects on lesser Gods. Zeus declared that his power was so vast that it had no end. Erebus can make all of the Dodekatheon deities kneel before him in fear with just his mere presence and aura. He was able to erase several realities.
* **Nigh-Omniscience**: Erebus knows almost everything in existence while being blocked from certain details or being limited in other ways, possibly only being able to see multiple timeline's and universe's, or have just small patches of information that are missing or blocked out. Thus allowing him to keep his sense of free will and uncertainty. Due to his nature, Erebus also knows everything about darkness, shadows, the night and everything related to it. As such, he knows everything within the darkness, and what lies within and around it. He knows everything when it comes to darkness/the night because all its secrets are revealed, knowing all the ways and reasons of how darkness and the night are supposed to be work.
* **Creation**: Erebus can create organic or inorganic matter from nothing, either as finished objects or simply unfinished elements. Higher level He can create anything they can think of, whether conceptual or sentient. This includes the creation of energy, souls and life of any complexity, dimensions or realities, stars, etc.
* **Destruction**: Erebus can utterly destroy things. Depending on the user, this could be anything and everything from small objects to entire galaxies or universes and possibly even abstract concepts and/or natural forces/laws. Notably, Erebus of this power still have limits - if they lack any limits then this would be an example of Absolute Destruction. What those exact limits are will depend on the user. If the user is able to remove something completely and utterly without leaving anything behind, it may instead be a form of Erasure.
* **Reality Warping**: Like his siblings, Erebus is able to control and bend reality to his whims, capable of altering something as tangible as physics and the universe to something inconceivable like logic. Because of this immense ability, many younger gods are often led to believing his to possess complete omnipotence power. As the Primeval Darkness, Erebus can distort, shape, manipulate, even warp billions of realities, with just a mere thought or snap of his fingers.
* **Immense Strength**: Erebus is one of the most powerful of the Protogenoi. He is not known for his strength(even his sister is stronger that him) but he would still probably be able to toy around with the strongest mortals demigods and gods without trying without the use of his other powers.. However, it’s been proven that he was not known for fighting and so is weaker the most of the Primordials, but was good at tricks. He is one of the few who can restrict Tartarus when is angered.
* **Darkness Embodiment**: Erebus is the physical manifestation and personification of Darkness, the all-encompassing void which acts as the counterbalance to light. The darkness manifested is made of pure negativity/dark energy and/or lack of illumination. Due to being its personification, Erebus has full of the concept of the darkness which he also rules. He cloud can create of this ability is essentially tapping into the core of different forms of darkness itself to assert their dominion. Because being darkness direct manifestation and personification, his powers are superior to those of his wife Nyx although slightly but below Darkness and Ayin.
* **Darkness Empowerment**: Erebus become stronger, faster, more durable, etc. when he come in contact with darkness or shadow, possibly unlocking abilities related to the affinity and enhancing the existing powers. Erebus may be able draw sustenance from the darkness or even slow or stop aging.
* **Darkness Manipulation**: As the Primordial of Darkness, Erebus is capable of producing a dark mass of auras that was able to damage Satan's armor. He can also use his darkness to create a barrier to protect himself from his enemy’s attacks. Erebus incorporates all the essence of darkness into existence and balances it with its other opposite, light.
	+ **Absolute Darkness**: He is able to create a field of absolute impenetrable darkness that completely negates sight and may also dull or even completely negate the other senses. He may even be able to generate darkness so intense it can completely obliterate objects in its path.
	+ **Darkness Teleportation**: He can teleport via shadows/darkness, merging into shadows/darkness and appearing anywhere else from the same element.
	+ **Umbrakinetic Combat**: He can fuse manipulation of darkness with physical combat to create a devastating form of martial arts. He can use both direct and indirect attacks, utilizing every patch of darkness or shadow available or create tools and weapons as needed.
	+ **Umbrakinetic Creature Creation**: He is able to create beings of darkness/shadow or shape existing darkness/shadow into wanted shapes and purposes. He can grant the beings varying levels of independence and existence and delete the creature once they are done with them.
	+ **Erebopresence**: He simultaneously exists everywhere night and darkness exist, manifests or resides, regardless of where.
	+ **Grim Darkness Manipulation**: He can create, shape and manipulate darkness/shadows/blackness of a darker, detrimental nature; that which damages, destroys, and consumes anything/everything he come's across, representing the hazardous destructive side of darkness/shadow, which in turn ignores most of the limitations and weaknesses of the normal darkness/shadow. In essence, this is about solely controlling the negative powers of darkness/shadow.
	+ **Pure Darkness Manipulation**: He can create, shape and manipulate darkness of beneficial nature; that which strengthens, enhances and causes anything/everything it comes across to flourish, representing the sustaining and preserving side of darkness, which in turn ignores most of the common limitations and weaknesses of its normal elemental variety. In essence, this is about solely controlling the positive powers of darkness.
* **Shadow Constructs**: Erebus could shape and solidify darkness to create various forms of constructs, from weaponry to equipment to even semi-living beasts. Once he created multiple blade separates into a thousand tiny, slender blade fragments, which fly away from the hilt, leaving only the sword's handle in Erebus' hand. While the blades are supposedly too small to be seen normally, they reflect light in such a way as to resemble cherry blossom petals.
* **Darkness Imprisonment**: He can bind, imprison and/or otherwise stop object/being by surrounding them completely by using darkness.
* **Dark World Manipulation**: Erebus can create, shape and manipulate the darkest areas of the mystical world and every aspects of the shadow world, from elements to mythical beasts, darkest areas that hold ancient secrets, mysterious creatures, and legendary powers that no one of the mortal planes can comprehend.
* **Primordial Darkness Manipulation**: Erebus can control the primal darkness that has existed before creation, and represents the darker aspect of primal creation alongside the Light, both being two halves of the same coin, yet stand opposite. Due to its primordial nature it goes beyond concepts of good, evil, and even neutrality.
* **Omnidirectional Darkness Waves**: Erebus can release massive amounts of darkness in every direction at once for almost unlimited scales. This ability allows the user to dispatch many foes at once and destroy large areas.
* **Conceptual Darkness Manipulation**: Erebus can manipulate the abstract concept of darkness. He can have many feats, such as darkness that can prevent light from existing, darkness that makes things more visible rather then less, produce darkness/shadows that can exist without light, harm things that can absorb or are immune to darkness, produce shadows/darkness that can consume or negate other forms darkness/night/shadows, and much more.
* **Esoteric Darkness Manipulation**: He can manipulate the esoteric side of the darkness/shadow, with special properties and a mystical nature to it. With mastery, the wielder could use the esoteric element for a variety of magical effects.
* **Nether Manipulation**: He can create, shape and manipulate Nether, the "Chthonian Element" that flows through the realms of the living, and the Dead. Nether is most known as the substance that makes up the Underworld, a subterranean dimension where all souls go when they pass on. Nether is very similar to Aether “the Celestial Element” in that it is from a Plane that exists between the planes of both matter, and energy.
* **Dark Matter Manipulation**: Erebus can create, shape and manipulate Dark Matter, a hypothetical type of matter distinct from baryonic matter (ordinary matter such as protons and neutrons), neutrinos and dark energy. The name refers to the fact that it does not emit or interact with electromagnetic radiation, such as light, and is thus invisible to the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Although dark matter has not been directly observed, its existence and properties are inferred from its gravitational effects, and it is estimated to make up 84% of the universe's mass and 23% of its mass-energy.
* **Dark Matter Constructs**: He can turn Dark Matter into tools, objects, weapons and other items, create semi-living constructs and/or create structures/buildings of varying permanence. Erebus who have mastered this ability can use it for almost any situation, creating anything he need.
* **Dark Matter Aura**: Erebus can release and surround themselves in/with dark matter for defensive and/or offensive purposes, possibly becoming almost untouchable and granting them various abilities/attacks. The aura also give's Erebus enhanced physical capabilities such as speed, strength and durability.
* **Dark Matter Empowerment**: Erebus become stronger, faster, more durable, etc. when he come's in contact with dark matter, possibly unlocking abilities related to the affinity and enhancing the existing powers. Erebus may be able draw sustenance from dark matter or even slow or stop aging.
* **Black Hole Manipulation**: He can create, shape and manipulate black holes, a region of space time where gravity prevents anything, including light, from escaping. He can control the size of black hole, and move it around in space to "suck up" everything in its path.
* **Mist Manipulation**: As the god of mist, Erebus can manipulate mist including amount, thickness color and more. He can also combine his mist with darkness for various proposes and effect.

## Trivia

* Mount Erebus, a volcano in Antartica, is named after him.