Real Name: Hades Aidoneus
Occupation:
Demonologist, Ghost-Hunter/Paranormal Investigator, former god of the dead
Other Aliases: Pluto, “Unseen One,” Dis, Mantus, “Zeus Katachthonious,” God
of the Dead,
Known Relatives: Cronus (father), Rhea (mother),
Zeus,
Poseidon (brothers),
Hera,
Demeter, Hestia (sisters),
Ares,
Hercules,
Apollo,
Hephaestus,
Hermes,
Dionysus (nephews),
Athena,
Artemis,
Aphrodite,
Helen,
Hebe,
Eileithyia,
Discord,
Iris (nieces),
Persephone (wife),
Hecate,
Circe
(cousins), Ouranus (grandfather, deceased),
Gaea
(grandmother), et al.
Base of Operations: “Underworld,” a haunted manor house and graveyard
near Olympia, Washington, also mobile,
formerly Tartarus
First Appearance: (literary) “The Theogony” by Hesiod, Greek/Roman Myth,
(modern) “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” (1994-2000)/ “Xena” (1995-2001)
History: Hades is the eldest son of Cronus, ruler of the extra-dimensional race
of beings known as the Titans, and his wife, Rhea. Fearing that he would be overthrown
by one of his offspring just as he had overthrown Ouranus, Cronus imprisoned each of his
offspring in the underworld of Tartarus as they were born. (Later legends
erroneously claimed that Cronus swallowed his children and that they remained
alive inside him until Zeus freed them.) Appalled at this treatment of her
children, Rhea concealed her sixth child and hid him on earth to be raised by
minor goddesses. Zeus grew up believing himself to be mortal, but upon reaching
adulthood, he was forced to realize his true nature and freed his siblings from
Tartarus along with other undesirables, which Cronus had imprisoned there.
Ancient gods known as the Cabeiri granted Hades a helmet of invisibility to help
Zeus overthrow Cronus.
Zeus became leader of the Olympian
Gods worshipped by the ancient tribes of what would be modern Greece. He
confined the defeated Titans to Tartarus, but in casting lots for dividing the
known world among his brothers, Hades inherited the right to control of the
underworld. His life-long imprisonment of the underworld had instilled in him an
understanding and kindred interest in it. He achieved a system and form of
government that processed the souls of the deceased in an orderly fashion
depending on their roles in life by separating sinners from the pious and
relegated those that the Olympian Gods held in good favor to stations that
befitted the honored dead. Assigning punishments on those who had offended the
gods, he established a role as a grim, distant loner who preferred isolation and
rarely visited Olympus.
Hades eventually realized he desired
companionship and spied upon Persephone, his niece, the daughter of Zeus and
Demeter. Realizing that Demeter would not allow Persephone to be his
wife, Hades instead gained Zeus’s permission to marry her and abducted her in
secret. To cover up their deal, Zeus requested Hades that he abduct Persephone
by force. Her abduction brought great sadness to Demeter who searched for her
daughter everywhere. Seeking to make trouble for Hades, Hecate, the goddess of
the underworld, informed Demeter on who had abducted her daughter and she
refused to allow the harvest to occur as long as her daughter was kept against
her will in the underworld. Eventually, Demeter forced Zeus to order their
brother to bring back his stolen bride. By now, however, Persephone had eaten
three pomegranate seeds that proved that she had not been proven inhospitably.
Zeus decreed that she had to live part of the year in Tartarus and part of the
year on Earth with her mother. In spite of this arrangement, she acclimated to
her new role and came to be known as a ruler of the dead no less inexorable than
her husband.
Despite these incidents, Hades
remained a grim and distant god but not a maligned one. His patience was often
tempted by several of the heroes of Ancient Greece such as Hercules and Orpheus.
Despite his cold heart, Hades permitted the spirit of Eurydice to return to
Earth with Orpheus under the condition that he not look back upon her as they
departed the underworld as an act of faith. Fearing Hades to have deceived him,
the young hero looked back too quickly upon reaching Earth, and Eurydice was
pulled back to Tartarus. When Theseus and Peirithous came to the underworld to
abduct Persephone for themselves, Hades realized their intentions and offered
them a seat in a chair, which imprisoned them. Hercules freed Theseus on his
last labor but not Peirithous who Hades felt had not learned his lesson.
On some occasions, Persephone was able to placate Hades’ desires and
turn his decisions to those more favorable.
Zeus eventually ordered an end to the
worship of the Olympian Gods after discovering the Romans were killing
Christians in their name. Hades was one of the few Immortals who actually were
willing to retire being a god, and over the years, the former gods
finally found the time to pursue interests that their responsibilities as
religious deities prevented them from experiencing. In line with his preference for the paranormal, Hades visited and became aware of numerous other gods of the
dead, covertly learning their traditions and interests.
During the Middle Ages, he began to become aware of dark
entities and demons claiming to be himself or the Christian Devil to terrorize
mortals. He assumed several mortal identities to investigate these claims and he
met many of the gods of the dead from foreign pantheons for the first time, such
as Ahpuch from Ancient Mexico, Tuonetar of the Finno-Ugrian tribes,
Eriskegal
of the Mesopotamians, Emma-O of the Chinese gods and
Osiris
from the Egyptian Pantheon. In many of his earthly pursuits, Hades is sometimes
accompanied by Persephone as his wife, but mostly by Thanatos, his former vizier,
acting as his advisor, Charon as his driver and Cerberus, masquerading as a huge black pit
bull for company.
Concealing his former godhood, Hades
became Christianized by the Holy Roman Emperor in the 14th Century as
he investigated legends of vampire and occult activity in Romania around the Carpathians.
Careful to conceal his longevity, he became known as Hayden P. Reason, a
noted demonologist and ghost-hunter in the Twentieth Century, his godly powers allowing him
to seize and capture errant and malicious evil spirits. Secretly, Hades harbors a deep enmity
to pieces of modern literature, particularly the movie industry and comic books, which portray
him as a malevolent figure. To the general public, he is considered an eccentric and
mysterious individual related to a wealthy extended family with Zeus, under the
mortal guise of J. Peter Reason, as its patriarch.
Powers/Abilities: Hades
possesses the conventional physical attributes of the Olympian Gods. Like all
Olympian Gods, he is immortal. He has not aged since reaching adulthood and
cannot die by any known conventional means. He is immune to all known
terrestrial diseases and is invulnerable to conventional injury. If wounded, his
godly life force would enable him to recover with superhuman speed. It would
take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of his bodily
molecules to cause him a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for
Zeus or a number of gods of equal power working together to revive him. Hades
does have some superhuman strength and his own Olympian metabolism gives him far
greater than human endurance in all physical activities. (Olympian flesh and bone
is about three times as dense as similar human
tissue, contributing to the Olympian's superhuman strength and weight).
Like all the Olympians, Hades is a member of the Immortal race, an extra-dimensional race
of beings who were worshipped as gods by the various races of Ancient Earth, and
as such, he has many abilities common with many of his race. He has
extra-ordinary strength, but he is not quite a powerhouse as figures such as
Hercules, Thor, Indra or Hino. He is exceptionally long-lived; practically
immortal, he is still physically perfect despite his outward features of aging.
He has exceptional senses bordering on clairvoyance and limited precognitive
senses. He can tap and manipulate undefined energies to allow him to conjure
objects, teleport at will in a wisp of smoke and psychokinetically move objects.
He can change his form and appearance at will and alter the perceptions of
others. He is particularly more susceptible to paranormal activity than any
other Olympian and can perceive ghosts, sense psychic activity and detect the
psychic impressions ("place memories") left behind by mortals.
Hades is
educated in supernatural and occult knowledge as well as in mystical rituals
predating the Sumerian Empire. In his mortal identity, he is the foremost expert
in parapsychology and demonology.
Comments: Derived from Greek/Roman Myth, Hades is a member of an
other-dimensional race of beings known collectively as Immortals who were
mistaken as gods or deities by the numerous cultures or civilizations of
earth’s past. Each god was connected to a tribe or “pantheon” of gods
connected to each group of people who worshipped them and were identified by
their home dimension or common ancestor such as the Olympians, Asgardians,
Danaans or Kalevalans. In later years, as mortal man outgrew the need for gods,
the immortals either withdrew from earth for other planes of existence or
infiltrated humanity in mortal roles similar to their previous position as a
god. Several gods have been known to preside on earth, including Thor, Hercules,
Aphrodite and Hermes among the Olympians; this habit is not preclusive.
Gods from other pantheons also traffic Earth. However, several sinister
beings, notably demons, have impersonated the gods of mankind in order to prey
on human souls.
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