Hades

Hades, Olympian God of Underworld and Lord of the Dead.

**Hades**, is both a fictional character and antagonist of the *HCoW* series created by Jade Raymond and Kaname Fujioka. He was revered as the "mad king" and Olympian God who presided over the Underworld in Greek mythology.

He is surpassed in eminence only by his younger brothers, Zeus and Poseidon although it is possible that Hades is considered equal to Poseidon. He is the oldest son of the Titans: Cronus and Rhea and the husband of Persephone.

"*My official document will read that Hades, brother to Poseidon and Zeus, is a mastermind of leadership. On the contrary. His immaturity should bar him from any realm above his underworld.*"

—Consus Archivist, on Hades, before the war.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice Actor*: Not Known (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), Roberto Encinas (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

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

## Personality

Hades overwatched the Underworld, taking his duty as its ruler seriously. When Kassandra killed Cerberus, his prized guardian resulting in chaos erupting throughout his realm, Hades impatiently demanded Kassandra to fix it at once. Hades is manipulative, cunning, ruthless and narcissistic, but also displays quite a level of intelligence. He enjoys playing with the minds of his inferiors through lies and bribes in order to get what he wants.

Similar to most Isu, he also sees human beings as inferior and insignificant beings, as illustrated when he casually rubbed Kassandra’s head to silence her mid-sentence when he grew tired of listening to her. He and Poseidon also placed a bet on each of Kassandra’s mission as if regarding her as a form of entertainment. Despite that, he generally does not act rude towards them, as seen when he apologized to Kassandra for his sudden outburst at her.

A notable example being he successfully manipulated Kassandra into taking up the job of cleaning up the chaos she caused in the Underworld by leading her to believe that he would help her in exchange. It is shown that he hates people who commit suicide and calls them “uninvited guests”. He keeps them in the Forest of Oizys, a realm of dead trees separated from the rest of the Underworld, and hangs their bodies from the branches of the trees.

"*I will see you suffer as I have suffered. Your soul is MINE!*"

—Hades, to Kratos, During the war.
Unlike his brother Zeus and many of the other Gods of the series, Hades is mostly unconcerned with the affairs of the mortal realm, preferring to focus his energies on the Underworld. He is, however, quick to anger if someone crosses him or his family, which makes him an enemy of Kratos. As Kratos is traveling through his palace, Hades comments that there is bad blood between them, as Kratos had murdered his niece (Athena) and his brother (Poseidon). He also appeared to have deeply cared for Persephone, despite her words and treachery.

Indeed, he has restored her remains and created a massive memorial to her. He doesn't comment on the loss of his nephew Ares, indicating that Hades, much like the other gods, did not care much for Ares. This means that, unlike most of the other Gods, Hades cared for his family. Hades had a sinister, sadistic, mock-playful humor, evident in the way he taunts and intimidates Kratos throughout the Underworld. This is similar to the mythological Hades, who often gave out ironic punishments to particularly unfortunate souls.

He also appears to be a masochist, as even when Kratos beats him senseless and tears away chunks of flesh, he claims to enjoy the pain. Like most Olympians, he has no respect for the mortals he has shown in the wager of the gods. He sent a plague to Alrik's father to force him to compete in the wager just for his own amusement and when he lost he convinced Alrik to seek revenge on Kratos, unintentionally setting in motion the events of the series.

## Relationships

### Family

* Uranus (grandfather)
* Gaia (grandmother) †
* Cronus (father) †
* Rhea (mother)
* Hyperion (uncle) †
* Oceanus (uncle) †
* Gyges (uncle) †
* Aegaeon (uncle) †
* Cottus (uncle)
* Typhon (uncle)
* Epimetheus (uncle) †
* Prometheus (uncle) †
* Aphrodite (great-aunt/niece-in-law)
* Hestia (sister)
* Zeus (brother/father-in-law) †
* Poseidon (brother) †
* Hera (sister) †
* Demeter (sister/mother-in-law)
* Helios (Cousin) †
* Eos (Cousin)
* Selene (Cousin)
* Persephone (niece/wife) †
* Ares (nephew) †
* Athena (niece) †
* Peirithous (nephew)†
* Apollo (nephew)
* Artemis (niece)
* Hermes (nephew) †
* Hercules (nephew) †
* Hephaestus (nephew) †
* Theseus (nephew) †
* Perseus (nephew) †
* Minos (nephew) †
* Triton (nephew)
* Muses (nieces)
* Kratos (nephew)
* Deimos (nephew) †
* Lysandra (niece-in-law) †
* Laufey (niece-in-law) †
* Atreus (grandnephew)
* Calliope (grandniece) †
* Charon (first cousin once removed/servant) †

## Abilities and Powers

As the Greek ruler of the Underworld and everything that resides within it, Hades is both the oldest of his siblings and one of the most powerful of the Olympian Gods surpassed only by his younger brothers Zeus and Poseidon. Hades is naturally a force to be reckoned with by any being who is foolish enough to anger him. Hades displayed a number of supernatural abilities. Hades claimed to be immortal, and exhibited the ability to teleport anywhere he chose within the Underworld as well as levitate.

His will alone is the absolute authority in both the gloomy realm itself as well as all other areas that are under his control; Nothing happens in the realm without his knowledge of it. Hades could also condemn existing souls within the Underworld to further torment: this happened for example to a greedy person who had cheated its citizens of their drachmae, and thus Hades damned him to be fed to Hades' hounds.

Hades was also highly skilled in the use of his scythe and could dash with superhuman speed during combat as well as release devastating blows. Hades could also manipulate reddish energy which allows him to conjure up "apples", generate spatial pressure around his opponents to move them akin to telekinesis and even use the energy as an offensive projectile in order to decimate his enemies.

### Powers

* **Olympian Physiology**:
	+ **Death-Force Manipulation**: Hades could kill or manipulate death forces to his will and since he was the God of the Underworld, he had secondary authority and representative of death; the primary authority and representative of death was Thanatos, God of Death, who was killed by Kratos for killing the Spartan's brother Deimos. It is unknown whether Kratos now represented death, but all death forces the Spartan had were reclaimed by Hades, The Underworld God.
	+ **Immortality**: Like all Greek Gods, Hades was immortal. Only a sufficiently powerful weapon or an extremely powerful being can kill him.
	+ **Invisibility**: Despite not using it in battle, he possibly used it when Kratos entered his palace where he wasn't able to be seen in the dark and walks right in as opposed to fall from the ceiling during the battle.
	+ **Invulnerability**: Hades was invincible to certain forms of attacks, all mortal weapons, and able to take significant amounts of force. Kratos only managed to defeat him by ripping his own soul out of his body and had to destroy the pieces of flesh he tore from Hades twice, lest the Ruler of the Underworld keep recovering.
	+ **Necromancy**: As the ruler of the Underworld, Hades has absolute control over the souls of the dead and his world, to the degree where he was able to gift them to worthy mortals, Hades can also instantly steal souls from mortals or magical beings from afar. The best example of this is seen when Hades stole Atlas's soul and absorbed it. While Kratos traversed the dangers of Pandora’s Temple, Hades gifted him with the souls of the Underworld to aid him in his journey. These souls are much stronger if they are summoned from the deepest depths of Tartarus. These souls can viciously maul Kratos’ enemies to death, or weaken them enough for him to finish them off.
	+ **Power Bestowal**: Followers of Hades are granted a fraction of Lord Hades' powers and become Warriors that literally fight with Spirit. They are capable of using their abilities to steal life force from others and emit dangerous elemental attacks that target the Soul of another enemy. Followers of Hades can also use teleportation to surprising his enemies and can also use stealth to become invisible or become spirits to protect themselves temporarily. They are capable of summoning a few hands of Hades to aid them in battle. Due to Hades granting these powers they should be able to replicate them (some of which they did) on a smaller scale.
	+ **Pyrokinesis**: In the comics, he was capable of launching massive fireballs, indicating his ability of Pyrokinesis. Likewise when really hurt by Kratos during their battle, his realm would ignite with a burning inferno, this is possibly due to his connection to phlegethon, the river of fire in the underworld.
	+ **Regeneration**: Hades possessed great regenerative powers, such as when Kratos ripped a piece of his flesh out, he could heal himself simply by placing the flesh back, he is also capable of regenerating by stealing the life force of others.
	+ **Shapeshifting**: Hades could also shapeshift, which he demonstrated during his battle with Kratos, as he increased his size throughout the battle, eventually growing to the size of a giant. This was also shown during the Great War of the Gods and Titans.
	+ **Soul Removal**: Hades, using the Claws of Hades, could remove the soul of any living being: mortals, beasts, fellow gods and even Titans.
		- **Soul Absorption/Soul Empowerment**: Every removed soul can be absorbed by the user of the Claws of Hades, bestowing certain abilities on the user or increase their power. This allowed Hades to become more powerful, with every taken soul.
		- **Soul Materialization**: Hades was able to summon souls to attack his enemies, fighting for him. This ability was even more outspoken, when he used the claws, as he could use it to summon the souls of powerful monsters, utilizing their abilities briefly.
	+ **Superhuman Agility**: Despite his appearance, Hades is quite agile, being able to scale down Olympus with his Claws alone and being able to back-flip over Titans who are taller than skyscrapers with no effort.
	+ **Superhuman Stamina:**: Hades showed no sign of fatigue in his battle with Kratos or during the battles with the Titans.
	+ **Superhuman Strength**: As a God, Hades has incredible strength, able to overpower Titans with ease, and match Kratos in battle. While scaling Mount Olympus, Hades pulled down a Titan with one heave. While fighting Kratos, Hades' stomps were enough to create shockwaves.
	+ **Telekinesis**: Hades possessed great telekinesis, he was able to make the flesh Kratos tore out of him move back to him.
	+ **Teleportation**: Hades could teleport from Olympus, the Underworld and to mortal world.
	+ **Umbrakinesis**: Hades was also able to manipulate and control shadow and darkness as he demonstrated in his fight with Kratos. Hades could also breath dark energy from his mouth.
	+ **Chain Manipulation**: Hades could manipulate the Claws of Hades with high precision and proficiency. He could teleport the claws, attacking people over long distances and at high speed, as well cover whole areas with his chains.

## Legacy and Influence

Given his nature, Hades was rarely celebrated, or built temples for. However, a temple was dedicated to him in Elis City in Elis during the 5th century BCE.

Eventually, his name came to also signify the underworld itself. The Cerberus is regarded as Hades' hound, and when the god was depicted, Cerberus was there, too. In Messenia, a bay was dedicated to the god.

## See also

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

## External links

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