Moirae's Mirror - November

Hey everyone!

I promised a bit of a look at the political situation of Olympus today, so that's below. I focused more on the people involved than the structure, but other than the monarchy, the structure is pretty loose anyhow. It should be pretty well implied what the strata are just by how the information here is organized. 

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy it!

----------------------

Major Players

Zeus – Of course, no figure in the Olympian hierarchy is higher than the god who has sat undisputed upon its throne since the Titanomachy. More than any other single entity, Zeus dominates the political landscape of the gods, at once setting its agenda and frequently immune to the fluctuations in power and influence experienced by the other members.

Demeter – Perhaps the closest thing Zeus has to real opposition, Demeter is indeed opposed. Some claim she desires the throne of Olympus for herself. Certainly, her vital position as goddess of agriculture has accrued her a number of worshipers comparable to any other deity, if not the outright highest by number, and so in some sense she can challenge his power. Unfortunately, her position is considerably more delicate  than this fact alone would imply, and she must always contend with the implied threat of physical force, a domain in which she cannot hope to match Zeus on her own.

Hera – Zeus’s wife and the Queen of the Gods is much more independent from him than the title alone would suggest. It’s true that in matters of politics she is often her husband’s ally, but she will just as soon help his opponents if she believes it to be the right thing to do at the time. Hera and Zeus are infamous for their periods of feuding, in which her (often justified) resentment makes her much more likely to act against him, but in spite of this they seem always to end up reconciled eventually. Alliances with Hera, then, are best treated as temporary, but are still highly-sought among those attempting to navigate their way to better positioning in the court.

Aphrodite – Aphrodite is perhaps best thought of as a serial meddler in the Olympian power sphere. One of the few to hold herself at distance from both Zeus and Demeter, she is generally safe in this position because she has no apparent ambitions to rule. Rather, then, she enjoys a position as someone with unique advantages whose assistance is valuable and sought-after. This is especially true because of the nature of her power, and how relatively easy it is for her to create or damage alliances.

Apollo – Zeus’s most powerful, most favored son is also his most powerful and staunchest ally. Apollo benefits from a very comfortable position in his father’s court, and knows exactly where that comfort and ease comes from. While certainly an ambitious person, he has no particular need to be sitting on his father’s coveted throne—rather, he prefers the privilege without the responsibility. This makes him a bit reactionary, and perhaps not quite so active a player as he otherwise might be. If his position is threatened, he acts. If it isn’t, he tends not to.

Poseidon – Poseidon, Zeus’s closer brother, seems on the surface to be much like Apollo: someone who benefits from a direct tie with the King of the Gods, and is complacent in his position unless provoked to defend it. To a certain extent, this is even true. The difference is that, lying beneath his displays of slightly-overbearing geniality, Poseidon is actually both resentful and ambitious. He certainly knows he didn’t get the worst of the lots when the three were drawn, but he has always coveted the best of them, and feels that, as the god with the most worshipers, he deserves to rule the rest. This results in the occasional clash or argument with his brother, but these tend to be short-lived.

Athena – Athena is considered one of Olympus’s most politically-salient players not because of any particular love for the machinations, but because of her natural brilliance with them. It can be difficult to tell what her agenda is, and anyone who approaches her does so with caution.

Minor Players

Ares – Not the first god to go by this particular name, Ares is the son of Zeus and Hera, and actually their only child together. It’s well-known that he’s something of a disappointment to his father, and his mother, while more affectionate, doesn’t tend to keep him in the inner circle of her confidence, and so he is surprisingly outside the epicenter of Olympian politics despite, on paper, being quite in the middle of it. His closest associate is the elevated nymph Eris, and they have together been known for occasionally clumsily disrupting things in a way the other deities have to deal with, but never managing to get much leverage or respect out of it.

Artemis – Twin sister of Apollo, Artemis enjoys the favor of her father, though much less of it than her brother. That said, she wouldn’t really know what to do with it even if she had it, being fundamentally disinterested in politics and power and all of that. She doesn’t even spend much time on Olympus, compared to the other gods, and prefers to wander the mortal realm, hunting exotic beasts and monsters and traveling with parties of friends and worshipers, who in her case are often one and the same.

Hephaestus – One of Hera’s two parthenogenic children, Hephaestus is despised by Zeus. Despite this, the crafter of the gods is protected from the worst of the king’s wrath by his genius as a weaponsmith and enchanter, though he knows better than to seek more status for himself than he has. Fiercely protective of those few he keeps close, he sees his role as supporting those people, and advising them when an outside perspective is needed, though he freely dispenses insight to anyone who asks for it, provided they have not made an enemy of him through his mother or his friend Aphrodite.

Hermes – Political adroitness and sharp insight into people is often undercut by the youngest deific son of Zeus’s carefree temperament and youth. Hermes is flush with the need to impress, and while admittedly a bit of a showoff and a prankster, he does want to prove himself to his father. Nonetheless, making it past ‘generally well-liked’ to ‘influential’ is proving to be something of an obstacle for him, in large part because of Chthonic ties he refuses to cut.

Hestia – Hestia is a minor player by her own choice, so to speak. She generally wants to support her sister and her friends, but doesn’t consider court her sphere, and honestly doesn’t much enjoy participating in it all. When she offers an opinion or brings a matter to the attention of the other gods, then, it is a rare event, and perhaps because many of the older ones still remember her role in the Titanomachy, they tend to listen.

Others

There are of course many, many other residents of Olympus. More minor deities, such as the Muses, Helios, Eos, Iris, and Selene, ‘ascended’ nymphs and other creatures with fragments of deific power, such as Hermes’s mother Maia, and so on. With this plethora of people comes a profusion of factions and interests, which join and clash alternately as each jockeys for more power and influence.

Even some Chthonic deities have roles to play, though perhaps of these the most unexpectedly-important is Styx, the River of Loathing. Known as the Oathkeeper of the Gods, Styx possesses a minor but extremely important domain, one that allows her to provide some degree of binding force over agreements made between other parties. As such, she is often called to Olympus specifically for the making of such agreements, for her power doesn’t work unless she is witness to the terms of it.

Of course, the binding is mostly effective on deities of lesser power than herself, and more of an irritant than an inescapable fetter for those who are stronger, making some of these bargains inherently asymmetrical. Still, even lesser gods often prefer their most important promises to be overseen by her, as some insurance is better than none at all.

But what do they all get out of this?

One might, perhaps, wonder what it is the citizens of Olympus could all want so much as to participate in a system that clearly benefits some over others. The answer varies as much as the people themselves do. Participation in court can ennoble a being, by winning them the favor of a powerful patron, which in turn gives them influence with others. It may enrich them, providing them more material goods and the leverage that provides. It may allow them to push an initiative forward, be it about life on Olympus or some way the gods influence the mortal realm.

But perhaps more than anything, the obvious benefit is that overcoming rivals and maneuvering to greater heights within the immortal hierarchy may quite literally empower them. There is a mysterious, two-way correlation between who is in power on Olympus and who tends to be front-of-mind for mortals. And when one is front-of-mind for mortals, one is prayed to more often. With that prayer comes power, which in turn tends to make for excellent political leverage.

Whether the ultimate goal is a comfortable position among the elite gods, or a thriving community of mortal worshipers and the benefits that come with that, the means is often the same: push yourself to the top of that heap, by any means available to you.