Ares

Ellis Wakefield, Frank Zhang, Meleager, Remus, Romulus, Sherman Yang, Sun Tzu...
**Mortal Daughters**
Clarisse la Rue, Griselda Quarta, Hippolyta, Penthesilea, Nakano Takeko, Wu Zetian...

## Personal Status

### Affliations

Mount Olympus
Olympian Deities
Greco-Roman Deities
Greco-Roman Pantheon

### Abilities

**Ethereal Energy*** War Manipulation
* Army Manipulation
* Wrath Manipulation

### Power Scale

**Rank**: EX-Ranked
**Class**: God-Class

## Portrayal

### English VA

Cyrus Nemati

**Ares**, also called **Mars**, is the God of War, Bloodshed, and Violence from Greco-Roman Mythology. As one of the Twelve Olympians, he is a ruler of Mount Olympus with immense authority over the Greco-Roman Pantheon.

## Overview

**Ares** is the Greek god of courage and war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. The Greeks were ambivalent toward him. He embodies the physical valor necessary for success in war but can also personify sheer brutality and bloodlust, in contrast to his sister, the armored Athena, whose martial functions include military strategy and generalship. An association with Ares endows places, objects, and other deities with a savage, dangerous, or militarized quality.

Although Ares' name shows his origins as Mycenaean, his reputation for savagery was thought by some to reflect his likely origins as a Thracian deity. Some cities in Greece and several in Asia Minor held annual festivals to bind and detain him as their protector. In parts of Asia Minor, he was an oracular deity. Still further away from Greece, the Scythians were said to ritually kill one in a hundred prisoners of war as an offering to their equivalent of Ares. The later belief that ancient Spartans had offered human sacrifice to Ares may owe more to mythical prehistory, misunderstandings, and reputation than to reality.

Though there are many literary allusions to Ares' love affairs and children, he has a limited role in Greek mythology. When he does appear, he is often humiliated. In the Trojan War, Aphrodite, protector of Troy, persuades Ares to take the Trojan's side. The Trojans lose, while Ares' sister Athena helps the Greeks to victory. Most famously, when the craftsman-god Hephaestus discovers his wife Aphrodite is having an affair with Ares, he traps the lovers in a net and exposes them to the ridicule of the other gods.

Ares' nearest counterpart in Roman religion is Mars, who was given a more important and dignified place in ancient Roman religion as ancestral protector of the Roman people and state. During the Hellenization of Latin literature, the myths of Ares were reinterpreted by Roman writers under the name of Mars, and in later Western art and literature, the mythology of the two figures became virtually indistinguishable.

## Appearance

Ares takes the form of a young man with exceptionally handsomeness and a muscular and well-sculpted figure. He has dark skin, silver hair styled into a long undercut, and blood-red eyes with war painted drawn over his eyes. When angered, his eyes transform into blazing pits of fire, radiating an aura of pure bloodlust and cruelty

## Personality

Originally, Ares was an aloof, temperamental, proud, and violent god who seemed to only care about fighting and killing. He was extremely cruel and sadistic, roaring with laughter while fighting against stronger opponents. Because of this, he was greatly hated, feared, and disgusted by many, both gods and mortals alike.

He was extremely reckless, overconfident, narcissistic, and foolhardy, leading to him making crucial mistakes in a confrontation. He was supremely confident in his abilities, to the point of believing that he was invincible. Despite being a skilled strategist, his temper tended to make him focus on brute strength, and his arrogance often led him to underestimate his opponents, allowing clever fighters with less skills to get the better of him. Because of this, despite being a fierce and excellent warrior, his reckless nature sets him apart from other war deities. He also valued physical strength in a fight, as opposed to astute strategy, and enjoyed bloody wars which he deemed the most vicious, and therefore, the most exciting.

However, after millennia of endless slaughters and senseless wars, he has come to despise war and become more mature and honorable than he was before. Nowadays, he is an informal and to-the-point kind of god, preferring to informal speech and having no desire to waste anyone's time with his presence any longer than he has to.

Due to his immortality, he envies humans and their vastly shorter lifespans, as well as their ability to die as opposed to his never-changing status as an eternal god. He believes the brevity of mortal life is what makes it special - A lesson that he passes onto all of his children and their descendants.

Having seen millennia of death and suffering, he comes to value life and strives to protect those he cares about despite the restrictions he has as a god, resulting in him sneaking around and bending the ancient laws as much as possible to protect his mortal lovers and children. He also respects the natural order, especially the order of life and death, and can go beyond his way to maintain the balance if necessary.

He also has a soft spot for his family, especially for his daughters. While he can be a strict parent to his children and wants them to be as independent as possible, he is extremely protective of them. In addition, he also cares a lot for his mother and will come to defend her everytime she and Zeus fight.

## Trivia

* His name "Ares" means "bane, ruin, curse, imprecation".
* His attributes include the boar, serpent, dog, vulture, sword, spear, shield, and helmet.
* His birthday is on March 1.
* He likes B-grade horror movies, whiskey, and baklava.
	+ He dislikes senseless wars and conflicts, abuse, and jars, especially *pithoi*.
* The planet Mars was named after Mars due to its blood-red color and him being the god of war.
	+ The month of March (from Latin *Martius*) is named after him.
	+ Martes (Spanish) and Mardi (French), meaning "Tuesday", derived from his name.
	+ The word "martial" derived from Mars.
	+ Ares, in terms of rocketry, are three Shuttle-derived launches of vehicles under development under the NASA program named after him.
* He is Zeus' least favorite, and possibly most hated, divine offspring.
* In myth, he is portrayed as a military general or professional warrior, but in the modern era, he takes on a 1950s "greaser" persona.
* He was the one who influenced the American government into allowing ordinary citizens weapons, as well as making the constitution allow more freedom when it comes to punishment by law.
* He is the only Olympian to ever be put on trial by his fellow gods for murder (of Poseidon's son Halirrhothius). However, as he was defending his daughter from rape, he was ultimately acquitted.
	+ The trial is said to have taken place on the Areopagus in Athens, which means "Hill of Ares" as it was named after him in honor of this irregular event.
* He was very venerated by the Spartans, who would worship him through human sacrifices. They also had a massive statue of him chained in the city's center, which, according to legends, signified Ares' status as Sparta's patron god and would bring its citizens victories.
* He is the Amazons' most worshiped god, as the greatest Amazon warriors are always his daughters and descendants.
* He was often associated with the northern region of Thrace, whose native people were viewed by the Greeks as barbaric and war-like. It was believed to be his birthplace and many of the native tribes claimed to be descended from him.