Triumvirate of Kings

Question: In your games how does Hades feel about being screwed out of ruling the universe (as the oldest son) by Zeus (the youngest son)? (I read Max's fiction.)

Oh, nobody screwed anybody out of anything. The three brothers agreed to cast lots for their kingdoms, which means that they chose them randomly - Homer doesn't give the exact method, but it was most likely drawing sticks or using dice. There's no mention anywhere of Zeus cheating, nor, in fact, of Hades feeling that he'd been gypped; the heavens, the seas and the underworld were considered three equal kingdoms, which the brothers ruled as equal kings, while the earth and Olympus itself are considered common ground that they all three have a right to. This is why Zeus can't do anything to force Hades to let someone out of the Underworld, for example; he's not king there, plain and simple, and Hades makes the rules, not him. All he can do is ask, and then shrug his shoulders at Demeter when Hades says no. The idea of Hades having gotten the short end of the stick is a peculiarly modern interpretation of the situation; because humanity is afraid of the underworld and doesn't particularly like it or its king, modern readers often assume that Hades would rather have been the lord of the sky or the ocean, but there's actually nothing in myth to suggest he feels that way. He was still regularly sacrificed to and respected (if feared), and the underworld also includes a lot of pleasant real estate like the Elysian Fields (some of the modern idea that Hades must not like being in the underworld also comes from syncretization with the Christian Hell, I think, and the assumption that it must suck for everyone who has to live there). Kingship of the underworld is as valid as kingship of the heavens; he has no reason to be upset or jealous of Zeus in that respect, because they're equals with equivalent spheres of power.

As far as becoming king of the other gods goes, the situation's not clear-cut there, either. Hesiod point-blank says that Zeus becomes the leader of the gods because they unanimously decided he should be, because he was the one who saved all his siblings from Cronus and then led the battle against the Titans; as in the story of the lot-casting, there is no hint anywhere that Hades and Poseidon aren't okay with this (in fact, it's implied that they agree along with everyone else). The fact that Hades is the oldest brother makes it easy for us northern-European-steeped folks to assume he was next in line for the throne and therefore might be upset about not getting it, but it's worth nothing that royal succession in ancient Greece actually didn't always follow in a patrilineal father-to-son line; often brothers, nephews, sons-in-law or completely unrelated dudes could succeed to the throne just as easily as blood sons when the old king died (this varies from kingdom to kingdom - Sparta tends more toward the father-to-son model with rare exceptions, while Athens and Argos have a long history of only following a patrilineal line when they feel like it). It's a bit of a leap to assume that Hades is upset about Zeus' rule when there's no suggestion of such a thing anywhere and he might not have expected to be handed the kingship in the first place anyway.

And, of course, there's always the philosophical switcheroo that Greek myth loves to pull with Zeus and his siblings: Hestia and Hades may have been born first, but Cronus vomited them up last, so in a sense they are the youngest (having been "born" last the second time) and Zeus, who was never devoured, the oldest. Lawyered.

So, anyway, Hades is not actually upset about Zeus' position; he really doesn't have any reason to be pissy about either of his brothers being kings, because they're all equal monarchs in their own right. Now if Zeus starts meddling in the underworld, making demands or trying to lay down laws, there's going to be a problem - it's not Zeus' show down there, and Hades is likely to get very cranky indeed and probably start hostilities that nobody wants to deal with. But for the moment, all's well; the three of them politick against one another like any kings do, but there's no grand scheme to overthrow each other in the offing (or IS there, players?).

Hades' cryptic statements to Max reveal that he has some plans and ambitions for the future - but what those might be is still a mystery. Max is certainly very aware that he's being groomed to take over at least some of the running of the realm, but what that means for Hades himself is just one of the death-god's many secrets.

(Personally, I always figured Hades' marriage to Persephone was probably politically weirder than the division of kingdoms - how weird is it to have your older brother as your son-in-law?)