Hermes, but Trojan

Hermes is the Greek god of roads, travel, loads, gymnasiums, athletes, diplomacy, orators, thieves, commerce, trade, and invention. He is the messenger of the gods. His emoji is: 👟

## Relations with the Trojans

**General Townsfolk**

As the god of Travelers, Hermes knows what it’s like to make a home for all those who are lost. This gives a bit of respect from the islanders. Most of them feel lost or weary like travelers. However Hermes never shows his allegiance one way or another towards Troilus. Occasionally he’ll deliver things there for other gods but that leaves most islanders indifferent to him. Some however, blame the messenger for any bad news and as a result have an emotional dislike towards Hermes as he can be seen as a bearer of bad news.

**His Children**

Occasionally Hermes will make an excuse for one of his children. He’ll toss them a sign or two and might claim them for moderately impressive tasks. However he’ll almost never appear in person. He always justifies this because he’s “too busy” with his job. He’s very hard to reach or talk to, and is a very distant father. When one does something to truly get his attention he’ll often show up quietly and deliver them a gift, but he almost never stays longer than to just hand it off to them

## Potential demigod powers

Please refer to the powersets on the lineage page when choosing which powers you want.

### Majors

**Super Speed** (major or minor)

* Sometimes a child of Hermes is blessed with speed. They can run exceptionally fast, sometimes even seeming like a blur (level 7-8). But, much like charmspeak and pyrokinesis, this is an uncommon trait, only seen in TWO of his children. They need distance to build up to their top speed and cannot simply take off running in an instant. They also can dodge attacks and attack quicker but using this power wears them out heavily as they will feel the effects as if they ran this distance as a normal person.
	+ 1-2 The top speed they can reach is 40 miles per hour and can stay at this speed for 3 turns
	+ 3-4 The top speed they can reach is 60 miles per hour, can stay at this speed for 4 turns, and they can make one extra attack a turn
	+ 4-6 The top speed they can reach is 75 miles per hour and can stay at this speed for 5 turns
	+ 7-8 The top speed they can reach is 100 miles per hour, can stay at this speed for 6 turns, and they can make two extra attacks a turn

**Clauditiskinesis** (Major/Moderate/Minor)

* Children of Hermes have the ability to almost instantly know the inner workings of a lock.
	+ Level 1-3: Can unlock almost any normal lock aside from cursed ones
	+ Level 4-6: Can sense and deactivate traps placed on locks
	+ Level 7-8: Can use minor telekinesis to turn bolts in locks and open doors

**Thieving aptitudes** (Minor/Major)

* As a trickster god and special black-ops agent of Zeus (See: Typhon and the Tendon heist; Argus and the Io Exfiltration, etc.), Hermes has always had a way with the art of stealth, misdirection and overall mischief. It is only natural that he would grant some of his children such enhanced subversive abilities.
	+ Level 1-3: Beyond their given powers, Children of Hermes on the lower end of this skill are able to blend in with shrubbery or crowds of people- becoming almost indistinguishable to those that haven't seen their face before- for approximately 15 minutes. They may also hide an item roughly the size of their hand in such a way that it would be impossible to find without spells. Only other children of Hermes- and the hider themselves- would be able to find it unassisted.
	+ Level 4-6: Even those who know children of Hermes would find it extremely challenging to distinguish them from a group of people or shrubbery, and their capacity for hiding items grows to comical levels. Items the size of cows can be hidden in plain sight- undetectable without magic, even to other children of Hermes. Only the hider would know where the object is.
	+ Level 7: Any tracks or clues the child of Hermes leaves behind will lead to the exact opposite place to where they are. Cunning detectives who know this might use this fact to their advantage- but it is a voluntary effect, meaning it can be turned on/off at the Hermes kid's convenience.
	+ Level 8: By use of a simple mask, children of Hermes can Scooby-doo themselves into looking like anyone. The disguise cannot give them new abilities, and can only last one day. If the mask is pulled, all of the disguise falls apart, and the same ability cannot be used until the next day.

**Boundary Traps** (major/minor)

* Despite the name of this power the effects aren’t always negative. This is the ability to create a physical boundary of any type and then enforce it with magic. Only children of Hermes and the people they allow can cross this boundary since Hermes was the god of border crossing. Also this power can only be used once per day.
	+ Level 1: they can summon one piece of calk to help with this power, and the chalk will only be plain white calk. The boundary can have a diameter of five feet and either keep one person in or two people out. The boundary can be crossed by any child of Hermes. It’ll last for two turns.
	+ Level 2: they can now pick what color the calk is when they summon it, same limits as before though.
	+ Level 3: same limits as before, however only claimed children of Hermes can cross the boundary with no issues.
	+ Level 4: the boundary can have a diameter of ten feet and can keep two people in or four people out. It’ll last for four turns.
	+ Level 5: same limits as before, however now they can block their siblings from crossing the boundary too.
	+ Level 6: same diameter as before, but now they can keep three people in or six people out. Also it’ll last for six turns.
	+ Level 7: it can have a diameter of up to fifteen feet, and keep four people in or eight people out. Lasts for eight turns
	+ Level 8: they can keep five people in or ten people out. It’ll last for ten turns.

### Moderates

**Hypnosis** (Moderate)

* Hermes was a god of trickery who was known for his persuasive abilities. Some of his children’s inherit these abilities in the form of being able to magically enforce hypnosis. This power is very hard to discover accidentally. Often times what happens is after a child of Hermes is claimed, they try and hypnotize someone to see if they can do it. Their magic only works on humanoids. Also please get permission before hypnotizing someone’s character.
* Methods of hypnosis: Children of Hermes who practice this ability can hypnotize someone with any known way. This can be a method which sounds ridiculous like a hypnotic spiral, or a way that some may know has some merit to it like counting down and describing the slow descent into a trance. It will always be easier to hypnotize someone who is either willing, or caught too off guard to fight the magic. However, every method can be reserved by charmspeak or another person with this ability. Also, every method causes their targets body to completely relax so they cannot control the movement of anyone under hypnosis.
	+ Levels 1-2: Whichever method they use, they must administer it for 4 turns minimum before their target can fall into a trance. If someone tries to fight off the hypnosis they can with a roll of 8 or higher on a d20. They can only roll to save once. While in a trance the target will be minimally open to suggestions. They will easily take in suggestions for things they want (like if they wanted to be less stressed they can certainly emerge from the trance less stressed). They may also take minimally impactful silly suggestions like quacking back whenever they hear a duck quack. These effects will wear off in 12-24 hours unless the target actively works to follow the suggestions.
	+ Levels 3-4: They must administer the method for 3 turns minimum before their targets can fall into a trance. If someone tries to fight off the hypnosis they can with a roll of 12 or higher on a d20. They can only roll to save once. While in a trance the targets will be somewhat open to suggestions. These can now also be pretty silly things like being convinced their name if Timothy Tim Tim, and somewhat impactful things like forgetting a minor memory. These effects will wear off in 24-48 hours unless the target actively works to follow the suggestions.
	+ Levels 5-6: They must administer the method for 2 turns minimum before their targets can fall into a trance. If someone tries to fight off the hypnosis they can with a roll of 15 or higher on a d20. They can only roll to save once. While in a trance the targets will be rather open to suggestions. These can now also be very silly things like acting like a chicken. However these huge changes will only last for 5 turns. They can also implement a code word into someone, which can make them fall into a trance within just one turn. (They can still roll to fight it though). These effects will wear off in 48 to 72 hours unless the target actively works to follow the suggestions.

### Minors

**Lost Souls** (Minor)

* Hermes guides souls to the afterlife. While any abilities from this aspect of him are sparse in his kids they do sometimes pop up. This ability allows his kids to call upon lost souls to aid them in battle or whatever other activities dead people can help with. Once the souls have done their job they get immediately transported to the underworld as a thank you. This power may only be used once a day.
	+ Level 1: They can call upon one soul which will aid them for three turns.
	+ Level 2: They can call upon two souls which will aid them for six turns.
	+ Level 3: They can call upon three souls which will aid them for nine turns.

**Money Manipulation** (Minor)

* Children of Hermes tend to be good with money, and often subconsciously slightly influence bets, the stock market, and other monetary transactions to be in their favor without realizing it. They can also summon some money
	+ Level 1: Able to “summon” up to $50 USD
	+ Level 2: $100 USD
	+ Level 3: $200 USD

**Bag Expansion** (Minor)

* Hermes kids can enchant their pockets and bags with some extra space to store goodies.
	+ 1- can create four inches more worth of space
	+ 2- can create eight inches more worth of space
	+ 3- can create a foot more worth of space

### Givens

**Magic Fingers** (Given)

* Children of Hermes are also naturally skilled with their hands. They make excellent pickpockets, thieves, and even magicians.

**Omnilingualism** (Given)

* the power to speak every language, only when it’s spoken to them first

**Zoolingualism** (Given)

* Since Hermes’ caduceus is known for the two snakes intertwined around it, children of Hermes generally have the power to communicate with snakes.

**How did you…?** (Given)

* Hermes kids have incredible organizational and bs-ery skills, allowing them to fit items in places they should probably not normally fit

**Internal Compass** (Given)

* Hermes kids seldom get lost since their father is the god of travelers

**…Master of None** (Given)

* Children of Hermes tend to be “jacks of all trades”, but they find their learning stunted when wanting to master things that don’t fall under their father’s domain.

**Little messenger** (given)

* It’s not uncommon for the gods (mainly Hermes when he’s feeling lazy) to teleport things to a Hermes demigod. The thing that needs delivering will simply appear in their hands and they have no choice but to deliver it unless they want to anger the gods.

**Darling of the demigods** (given)

* Children of Hermes are somehow seen as trustworthy even though they are known to be trickers. Even people who know better than to trust Hermes kids find themselves willing to hear them out.

## Credits

While it is unknown who created some of these powers, below are the credits that we are aware of. Please bring it to our attention if you know who made a power that currently isn’t credited

Made by Cass (@littletrashgremlin on discord)

* super speed

Made by Puffin

* darling of the demigods
* little messenger
* bag expansion
* lost souls
* boundary traps