God of War

Question: I wanted to add Kratos from the GOW series into the Greek Pantheon, but based on the games (and what he's obviously done to them) I'm not quite sure how to go about that. Any ideas for stats and relics?

Well... I suppose this question was going to happen sooner or later, anyway. Okay, it's time to talk about Kratos and what he is - and isn't! - in Greek mythology.

Kratos does in fact exist as a Greek deity; he's more properly referred to as a Titan, as he is the son of Pallas, who Athena famously killed during the Titanomachy, and Styx, Titanic personification of the river of the same name and usually listed as one of the children of Oceanus and Tethys. Like his more famous sister Nike, Kratos was in the awkward position during the Titanomachy of being one of few Titans to side with Zeus and the gods of Olympus, along with his mother, his siblings and Hecate. For his loyalty, he was allowed to stay on Olympus and serve Zeus as one of his enforcers.

Kratos in Greek mythology is the personification of strength, which is literally what his name means, and he enforces Zeus' judgments along with his brother Zelus ("enthusiasm" or "fanaticism", from whose name we get the word zeal) and his sisters Nike ("victory") and Bia ("force"). While he spends most of his time standing ready at Zeus' throne in case he needs to perpetrate mayhem on someone and doesn't appear in many myths, certainly not as actively as Nike does, he does have a particular moment of importance in the stories surrounding Prometheus. He and his siblings were guarding the sacred flame but Prometheus was so wily that he slipped past them and stole it anyway; after his crime had been revealed, Kratos and his siblings captured him and dragged him to Hephaestus, where they gave him Zeus' edict that the Titan be punished for his crime and held him down until the chains to bind him to the stone were forged. In Aeschylus' dramatization of the story, Kratos argues hotly with Hephaestus, who is feeling sorry for Prometheus' plight, and stresses several times that defying Zeus is the action of a fool while hounding the smith to make sure he doesn't try to let the captive free when no one is looking. Hephaestus is not very fond of him, but together they get the job done and both return to their respective homes.

It's pretty obvious by now that the Kratos of Greek mythology is not the same guy that is running around psychotically stabbing at the Dodekatheon in God of War, right? The two characters actually have nothing to do with one another; it's likely that the video game character was named Kratos because it means "strength", not because he has anything to do with Greek mythology, and the traditional Kratos is one of Zeus' most staunch and outspoken supporters, quite a contrast to a warmachine bent on destroying all the gods in a pixellated gorefest.

Since I am personally all thumbs at fighting games, I actually haven't played through more than a little of God of War; John has played through all of them, but he gets that thick, angry vein in the side of his neck when people ask him about Kratos in Scion, so I'm not sure if we really want to poke him and let loose a torrent of shouting about mythological inaccuracy. Might be better to let him lie. On the off chance that you're interested in statting the actual Ancient Greek Kratos, I would suggest that he has Epic Strength (obvs!) and Justice associated, with maybe a side order of War if you feel like he doesn't have enough going on. As far as I know, he has no famous relics, though some fragment of the chains of Prometheus or sacred fire certainly wouldn't go amiss.

While the Kratos of God of War doesn't bear any resemblance to any actual characters in Greek mythology, he's still a valid character archetype for those playing Scions who might be disenchanted with the behavior, morals or personality of their ancient pantheons. The hero who bears a grudge against the gods and tries to fight them does occur in various myths, and if you're willing to accept that there's a stratospheric chance that your character's going to die (see Cu Chulainn or Aqhat or Gilgamesh; gods do not fuck around) or go insane and become unplayable, it's totally a road you can travel. Vengeance makes it all the easier.