"Little to none."
"Mm. Pity. The gods of India found a fascinating way to deal with their titans, though I doubt that you'd appreciate it."
Is it tied to the
great wheel of reincarnation? ...It
totally is, isn't it?
"Why not?"
"Since they could not take the titan's power into themselves, they broke them down gradually to create a system. At one end, it is tethered by the titans. At the other, by the souls of mortal creatures, undergoing a constant cycle of life, death and rebirth. The gods would then draw power from the system, something far easier than taking power from the Dream. And less likely to render the one doing it malleable."
Sneaky, sneaky,
Devas. I wonder which of them came up with the idea...
"Erebos allows reincarnation."
"It pales in comparison. How many shades do you think had the wherewithal to actually choose reincarnation? Besides, Erebos doesn't make value judgements about the moral quality of a person's life. Any shade being reincarnated would be reborn as a human, and the Waters of Lethe expunge all memory. It isn't part of the system and it wasn't planned."
Returning to the living world, when they can spend eternity in paradise? Or at least in Erebos, if they weren't lucky or pious enough to earn a spot in Elysium.
"Okay, so..?"
She rolls her eyes dismissively. "Zeus was able to steal tiny amounts of Aether's power for himself, growing steadily stronger and stronger as Aether weakened. In the end, the conscious mind that was Aether collapsed back into the raw magic of the Dream, with Zeus having captured only a tiny fragment of him. But that was enough for him to rise in power and prominence."
Goes to explain
why he's such a minor aspect of the mythos.
"How did he work out how to do that? Zeus never struck me-"
She gives me an unimpressed look.
Would you expect the farmer to forge his own tools if he had a blacksmith handy?
"-as-. You did it."
"There are limits to what the spell I devised can achieve. And I felt that having Zeus risk himself was better than taking the risk myself. He had the drive…"
And what a
drive it was, eh?
Since some versions of myths list her amongst the greater powers, as a daughter of
Nyx, rather than the Olympians.
She slumps. "No. I wasn't born until after it was all over, remember? Or I'd totally have mainlined a chaos titan."
"Who got the chaos titans? Or chaos titan?"
Only
distinct aspect of Chaos is the
Primordial Chaos. Or the 'Eris, Daughter of Nyx' version (representing chaos as 'strife'.) That would be
peculiar. But
entirely in character for this Eris.
"Chaos, duh. Punched a hole between parallel universes and made it their own thing."
I frown, curiously. "Why didn't you ever become a Lord of Chaos?"
Bizarrely, the Lords are almost
orderly in their organisation, at least in this fic.
She shrugs awkwardly. "If you're not all about raw power, it's not all that great a deal. You have to give up a lot, and there're a tonne of responsibilities…"
"You couldn't be bothered to put the work in."
Heh.
Also entirely in character of her.
"It didn't offer me anything I wanted! I actually kinda like being a goddess, and there wasn't anything I wanted to do that needed more power."
"'Kinda' like?"
Well, when you've got the
reputation she has (remember the Trojan War?
Ultimately her fault.) it's not like people are
flocking to your temples.
"It's a lot less fun without worshippers, but that's fixed now." She grins, reaching up to pat me on the head. "Good work, Chaos Prophet."
"Didn't you have no worshippers for about two thousand years? And assuming that you're about as old as Hephaestus, you're only four thousand years old."
Well,
this version of her. Depending on the wibbly-wobbly interactions of mythology and the Dreaming.
Eris fidgets awkwardly. "Three and a… Half. But I had other worshippers. There's always someone who wants to buck the system."
"Okay, so-" I look back at Hecate and-. She's ancient, paper-thin skin stretched across fragile bones, hair thin and dress just a sheet bound with a broach. "-that was your maiden form."
Nah, she's just
messing with you, OL. It's no fun changing if you're
expecting it.
"N-o, yo-u're assuming-"
I sigh, put my hands over my eyes and then turn in a circle. When I get back I'm looking at a child.
...But sometimes, you just got to play along with their
quirks.
"-that I'm limited to a trinity of forms, when really I can look like anything I want."
"Lady Hecate, you can look like whoever you want. But if we return to the issue, Zeus… Doesn't have a currently alive titan he's drawing power from in the way Hades does Erebos?"
Bit
dangerous, really. Sure, Hades has his Titan locked down, and Poseidon doesn't really get out enough to worry...
"No. He's got Metis stuck in his head. In theory she should give him wisdom."
"Is he just not listening, or..?"
Did he
ever? Unless she took up residence in his
lower head...
The tiny child-goddess rolls her eyes. "I don't know. I was already down here by the time that happened."
"I see. That's why he's keeping the ones in Tartarus there, isn't it? So he can use their power in full."
...A tiny amount from each, giving him vastly more than a single titan alone could provide? Sneaky.
"Not quite. He can't take power from Tartarus quite as easily as Hades can Erebos. But that is almost certainly why they're there." She sniffs. "Not that he can use all that power as things are."
I nod. "So that's quite a lot of power."
And when you've got the rest of the pantheon cowed into submission, there's really no need to
exercise that power...
"Quite a lot of power and quite a lot of different abilities he can use if he puts his mind to it." She sniffs. "Not that I expect that he would. Still, I'm not sure where you'll find anyone who can fight him."
"No one comes to mind?"
Any of his
children might be high on that list. Prophecies and all that.
She makes an amused noise. "If I had to select the person with the greatest chance of defeating him in the entire Hellenic mythos…"
I wait a moment.
Ah, the antici
ii-....
"Yes?"
"I'd bet on you. But not with very much money."
...-pation! Huh. Saying what he
wants to hear, or simply summing up the chance of beating Zeus as 'long to none'...
"I assume that you still know the spell for stealing from or binding a titan?"
"It's more complex than just casting a spell. They tend to fight back. But yes, I do know it. Why?"
...Can it be modified to affect a
God?
"Nothing yet. I'm just gathering information. Would you be willing to share it?"
"It's an interesting spell to cast. If you could find a situation for it, I would cast it for a trivial price."
Because a Deity of magic would find the more
complex spells more interesting, eh? Don't bother waking her up for anything less than a dozen chanting assistants, a blood sacrifice and three
days of casting time?
Or does she prefer the kind that needs a few sticks and four CCs of
mouse blood?
"I appreciate that, thank you. And there's no one in the mythos who could fight Zeus?"
"Not presently. And if you're thinking about using the Tartarian prisoners to boost Hades or Melinoë, I will tell you now that Zeus will feel it and stop you."
Well, thanks in advance for the warning. I'm sure he would have
considered trying that, otherwise.
"I expected, but thank you for confirming. Can-"
I turn around, and-. Canis has taken jars, their contents and their shelving and arranged them to form the image of himself and Brut mid-leap.
Well, he's got to occupy himself
somehow, with all this shop talk.
<facepalm> Gods-dammit, Canis...
