The Antaeans

*'…Visitor claims to be blood of the earth, which means Antaios' line, which means the line of the Flint and the Wheel. Visitor says the Wheel still turns in the House of the Moon, and the kinship means they're going to be a Name when the Wheel returns…'*
 *'Kinship'*

An **Antaean**, also referred to as the **Blood of the Earth**, is a mortal that claims descent from **Antaios the Opponent**, and from the old gods-from-stone the Wheel and the Flint. It is never detailed what being Antaean means, but they are implied to differ from normal humans in some way, and their mere existence as mortal descendants of Hours has significant implications for the Secret Histories as a whole.

## Antaois

 *'The Imazighen - the people the world knows as the Berbers - venerate Antaios as a hero-king. Of course Antaios the Opponent, the Son of Earth, was a great enemy of the Lionsmith, but the Lionsmith has always respected his great enemies - or so say the initiates of the Antaeum.'*
 *'The Antaeum'*

In our own History, Antaios is a figure from Greek and North African myth, the son of Poseidon and Gaia. Antaios would challenge travelers to wrestle him, and was invincible while he remained connected to the earth. He was eventually defeated by Hercules, who held him in the air and crushed him to death.
In the **Secret Histories**, Antaios appears to still be descended from Name emanations of the Flint and the Wheel, and served as an opponent to the Lionsmith, who is often equated with Hercules. Since the Lionsmith respects great strength and opposition, Antaios himself was a sacred figure to the Hour's followers at the **Antaeum**in Tripoli, of which only a single initiate remains.

## Known Antaeans

 *'She would rather have taken her own life - and yours - than let him raise you. But at the Antaeum, when they learnt your father was a Son of Earth, they convinced her to bear you - there in the sanctuary, beneath the sign of the shattered sword…'*
 *'The Last Antaeuan Initiate'*
* **Duffoure** – A **Reckoner** Lord and half-immortal, as well as the Exile's Foe and father. He has some association with the Colonel, though he limits the Reckoner Mobs' interaction with the Hours.
* **Teresa** – The daughter of Duffoure and an apparent **Lantern**-Long. Prior to the Exile Legacy, her status as an Antaean was never brought up, and it does not seem to impact her current status within the Mansus.
* **The Exile** – The player character in the Exile Legacy, the child of Duffoure and a woman who was an initiate of the Antaeum. Their union was an arranged matter, and the mother was convinced to bear the child after the Antaeum discovered Duffoure's bloodline, though she died in the process of giving birth. The Exile's bloodline is hinted at throughout the game, though its relevance to the path they ultimately choose can vary wildly.

## Other Notes

* The implications of mortal descendants to Hours are significant, particularly as a loophole in the Crime of the Sky, which prevents immortals from having children with one another.
* It may be that the Antaeans are not direct descendants of the Wheel and Flint but simply descendants of their blessed followers from ancient times, or something similar.
* There only explicit difference between Antaeans and other mortals mentioned in Cultist Simulator is that "a Child of the Earth is a difficult birth for ordinary flesh". Otherwise, it is difficult to tell whether the abilities and talents shown by the Exile and the Foe are a result of their bloodline, the stolen years they have used to prolong their lives in the Reckoner Mobs, or simply personal skill and training.
* Because of their connection to the Wheel, the Exile may be granted passage to the House of the Moon, where the Wheel still turns. It is said that the Wheel will return one day, and that the Exile in this ending will return with them as their Name.
* The Antaeans also appear to have a connection to the Velvet, the secret-keeping Hour who also is tied to the Wheel and the House of the Moon in some way.
* Those occult scholar what commit their knowledge of Stone Stories to the wisdom of Preservation know that the legacy of Flint and Wheel may endure as long as the Antaian line continues. Those who commit those stories to the Birdsong instead know that if enough Antaian blood is spilled, the Flint and the Wheel might come back.