The Golden Age

Question: Wait, Cronus ruled over a golden age of humanity with no want, hunger, crime or sadness? Wut? Does that mean that if Cronus DID reclaim his rule, he would be nice(ish) to humanity? Assuming other factors (i.e., other Titans) permitted it?

Oh, definitely. Check out Hesiod's description of the golden age:

First of all the deathless gods who dwell on Olympus made a Golden Race of mortal men who lived in the time of Kronos when he was reigning in heaven. And they lived like gods without sorrow of heart, remote and free from toil and grief: miserable age rested not on them; but with legs and arms never failing they made merry with feasting beyond the reach of all evils. When they died, it was as though they were overcome with sleep, and they had all good things; for the fruitful earth unforced bare them fruit abundantly and without stint. They dwelt in ease and peace upon their lands with many good things, rich in flocks and loved by the blessed gods.

Or, here's Plato's follow-up on the subject:

Long ages before even cities existed... there existed in the time of Kronos, it is said, a most prosperous government and settlement... Well, then, tradition tells us how blissful was the life of men in that age, furnished with everything in abundance, and of spontaneous growth. And the cause thereof is said to have been this: Kronos was aware of the fact that no human being is capable of having irresponsible control of all human affairs without becoming filled with pride and injustice; so, pondering this fact, he then appointed as kings and rulers for our cities, not men, but beings of a race that was nobler and more divine, namely, Daimones. He acted just as we now do in the case of sheep and herds of tame animals: we do not set oxen as rulers over oxen, or goats over goats, but we, who are of a nobler race, ourselves rule over them. In like manner the god, in his love for humanity, set over us at that time the nobler race of Daimones who, with much comfort to themselves and much to us, took charge of us and furnished peace and modesty and orderliness and justice without stint, and thus made the tribes of men free from feud and happy. And even today this tale has a truth to tell, namely, that wherever a State has a mortal, and no god, for ruler, there the people have no rest from ills and toils; and it deems that we ought by every means to imitate the life of the age of Kronos, as tradition paints it.

Callimachus also points out that Cronus' rule was also an awesome time for animals, and even castigates Zeus for being a jerk by ending the awesomeness:

It was the time when birds and creatures of the sea and four-footed animals could talk in the same way as the Promethean clay... in the time of Kronos, and even before. Just is Zeus, yet unjust was his ruling when he deprived the animals of their speech, and - as though we were in a position to give part of our voice to others - diverted it to the race of men.

Ovid's even more excited about it, and more detailed:

The Golden Age was that first age which unconstrained, with heart and soul, obedient to no law, gave honour to good faith and righteousness. No punishment they knew, no fear; they read no penalties engraved on plates of bronze; no suppliant throng with dread beheld their judge; no judges had they then, but lived secure. No pine had yet, on its high mountain felled, descended to the sea to find strange lands afar; men knew no shores except their own. No battlements their cities yet embraced, no trumpets straight, no horns of sinuous brass, no sword, no helmet then - no need of arms; the world untroubled lived in leisured ease. Tellus willingly, untouched, not wounded yet by hoe or plough, gave all her bounteous store; men were content with nature’s food unforced, and gathered strawberries on the mountainside and cherries and the clutching bramble’s fruit, and acorns fallen from Jove’s spreading tree. Springtime it was, always, for ever spring; the gentle zephyrs with their breathing balm caressed the flowers that sprang without a seed; anon the earth untilled brought forth her fruits, the unhallowed fields lay gold with heavy grain, and streams of milk and springs of nectar flowed and yellow honey dripped from boughs of green.

So here we've got a whole bunch of accounts of Cronus' rule as a time that was totally awesome - no war, no lawbreaking, no pain, no fear, no damage to the environment, no hunger, no thirst, no sorrow, no poverty, no responsibility, and all the animals could hang out and talk to whomever they pleased. It was basically total partytime 24/7, in a world with no crime or unhappiness ruled over by a king - Cronus himself - who loved his people to death. Not generally what people think of when they think of a world owned by a Titan, eh?

Depending on how you want to play it, however, it's possible that it wasn't really all roses and awesomeness. Cronus didn't allow much in the way of responsibility for his people, which was both liberating and allowed them to live happily, but also didn't give them much in the way of self-determination or free choice - both Hesiod and Plato specifically note that the Daimones ruled over mankind rather than letting them make their own rules. Callimachus' assertion that Zeus took speech from the animals to give it to mankind also implies that humanity might have been basically animals themselves, without the power of speech or communication and therefore no true ability to form civilized culture. Cronus' rule might have been totally trouble-free and joyful for everyone, but it could also be seen as a kind of tyranny, with the Titan preventing humanity from ever reaching their true potential due to a misguided desire to protect them from themselves.

Or it was great, and Zeus is a giant bag of cheese-flavored dicks. It's really your call.

In either case, it's unlikely that Cronus would return to a new Golden Age if he were to triumph over the gods. The race of humanity that exists now are not Cronus' people; the people of the golden age were destroyed by the evils from Pandora's box when Zeus took power, replaced by the inferior people of the Silver Age, then the even more inferior people of the Bronze Age, and finally the most inferior people of the Iron Age - in other words, us. It's because the current race of humanity is so far removed from the original and so inferior that we have shitty things like poverty, cruelty, betrayal and suffering, and - at least if you believe Hesiod - the reason the gods left humanity to fend for themselves.

Cronus probably wouldn't even recognize current humanity; they'd disgust him. It's up to individual Storyteller call whether he would attempt to take the sorry mess of the Iron Age mortals and force them back into the wilderness, demanding that they give up all free will and personal power to live as the beasts of his fields again, or destroy them completely in order to clear the field for a new and better race to be born. Considering that Cronus certainly has a very active Vengeance Virtue and that Zeus irrevocably removed his people by lashing back at Prometheus, the odds of him not returning the favor seem very slim indeed.

As usual, the Titans have different priorities and values from the gods, even when they theoretically mean well, and whether or not a given group of Scions agree with them depends on their own personalities and backgrounds. Do they believe that Cronus is the good guy, who presided over a world in which no human was ever hurt or frightened or lost to tragedy, and who was overthrown by his own son who decided to take power for himself? Or do they believe that Zeus is the good guy, who gave humanity pain but also their own choices and the ability to shape their destinies, and who overthrew a corrupt king who killed his own children?

That's a question only the Scions themselves will be able to answer.