Prologue
He was the First.
The First Olympian.
In an age long gone by, when the world was young and the cosmos old, there was a time of tranquillity. The mighty Titans ruled supreme, their dominion extending over both immortal and divine realms, maintaining harmony and balance. The ancient Primordials, weary from their labours of creation and the absence of their brother, Ouranos, succumbed to slumber, yielding their authority to the Titans. Yet power is a double-edged sword, and even the Titans could not escape its corrupting influence, for they were not as close to perfection as Chaos had made the primordials to be. Foremost among the Titans was Kronos, their sovereign, who was forewarned by the whimsical Ananke of an inevitable fate. For Ananke decreed that the progeny of Kronos would rise to usurp the Titan's rule, just as how the Titans had usurped the rule of Ouranos. Perhaps Ananke believed herself to be ironic when delivering this decree, but she cast a shadow of dread and suspicion over all. But none were more afflicted than Kronos himself.
When the time came for Rhea, his queen, to bear their first child, a daughter named Hestia, Kronos enacted a dreadful decision. Contrary to the sacred traditions that demanded the father to acknowledge and bless his offspring with gifts, Kronos, seized by fear, did the unthinkable. He consumed Hestia whole, her divine essence swallowed into his being. This act of desperation horrified Rhea and even stirred the solemn gaze of Kronos's slumbering mother, Gaia. Yet unlike mortals, Gods possess a different mind. Immortal and undying, Hestia remained conscious and fully aware of what was happening moments before she was consumed by her own Father. Her divine spirit, laced with terror and a fierce desire for deliverance, reached out. From the depths of her will – the First God, the Last Olympian – a saviour began to take shape. Through the indomitable will of Hestia, the eldest of six siblings to be, Takseos was born.
What a scene it must have been, in that dreaded hall of Kronos, where silence ruled supreme, broken only by the heart-wrenching sobs of Rhea, a mother shattered by grief and the betrayal of her husband. Amid this tableau of horror and despair, Takseos, born of Hestia's unwavering will and love, began to take form. Unlike the Titans and like his mother, Takseos was born a god, inheriting the divine essence of his mother. As he entered the world, Takseos made good on his name – Order – and his purpose was clear: to save Hestia from the abyss within Kronos. With the boldness of youth and the fury of divine will, he sought to compel the mighty Titan King to disgorge his mother, either through honeyed words or force. But alas, a newly born god, even one birthed from the most potent of resolve, was no match for the sovereign of the Titans. Rhea, seeing her grandson's peril and unable to bear further loss, turned her desperate pleas to Gaia, the primordial Earth, her own slumbering mother. Gaia, moved by the anguish of her favoured daughter, responded.
Before Kronos could raise his mighty scythe upon the newborn God, Gaia opened the earth and swallowed Takseos, whisking him away to the Land Beyond the Titans. In this sanctuary, Takseos was nurtured by the Earth Mother. Though she slumbered, her spirit cradled and nourished him, instilling him with the strength and wisdom he would one day need. After Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon met the same grim fate as Hestia, consumed by their father Kronos, Rhea, stricken with despair, sought a new solution. In the dead of night on Mount Lycaeum in Arcadia, she bore her final son, Zeus. With a heavy heart, she entrusted him to Gaia, the Earth Mother, to raise as she had raised Takseos.
Takseos, having grown into his divine adulthood, journeyed to Crete, to the hidden cave of Dicte on the Aegean Hill. There, he aided in the upbringing of his own uncle. Alongside Adrasteia, Amaltheia, the Curetes, and Pan, Takseos nurtured Zeus from a fledgling god into a formidable warrior destined to challenge the tyranny of the Titans. As Zeus reached adulthood, Rhea deemed the time ripe for rebellion. In secret, Takseos sought the counsel of Metis, the Titaness of Prudence and Deep Thought. With wisdom unmatched, Metis advised that Zeus should infiltrate Mount Othrys and gain Kronos's favour. Takseos, well-known and closely watched by the Titans, could not attempt such a feat himself. Disguised as Kronos's cupbearer, Zeus ventured to Othrys, carrying with him an emetic potion provided by Rhea. When the moment came, Zeus poured the potion into Kronos's drink. As Kronos drank, he was seized by violent convulsions and vomited forth the gods he had swallowed: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. The Titan Court, stunned and rapidly growing enraged, could only watch in disbelief.
At this critical juncture, Takseos launched a fierce assault on the gates of Othrys, creating the chaos needed for Zeus and Rhea to smuggle the newly freed gods to safety. Amidst the turmoil, Takseos's diversion allowed them to escape the wrath of the Titans, setting the stage for the Olympian revolt that would echo through the annals of time. It was a tearful reunion between mother and son. Hestia had never known Takseos beyond the brief moment she saw him before she was consumed, and Takseos had never known his mother. Bowing deeply before her, Takseos shed the name given to him by Rhea and Gaia, and asked his mother to name him, as was her right. Hestia, tears streaming down her face for the years lost between them, joyously renamed her son.
Perseus Apollyon.
The Destroyer of Destroyers.
It was a name that destiny would prove fitting, for Perseus's future held great and terrible deeds. Yet, despite the joy of their reunion, the brewing war against the Titans took precedence. The gods were weaponless, and the five elder gods, recently freed from Kronos's gut, lacked the training and understanding of their divine powers. It was Gaia who advised Perseus, now named Perseus Apollyon, to seek the Elder Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handed Ones imprisoned in Tartarus. These formidable beings were the key to forging weapons powerful enough to challenge the Titans. Thus, Zeus and Perseus, the only trained gods, descended into the depths of Tartarus. There, they confronted their granduncle, the Primordial Tartarus himself. With Gaia's pleas to her brother, Tartarus relented and opened the path for the two gods, allowing them to proceed without hindrance. Navigating the dark and foreboding depths, they finally reached the prison where the Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handed Ones were held. Guarding them was the fearsome jailer, Kampe. In a fierce battle, Perseus and Zeus slew Kampe, freeing the mighty Cyclopes and Hundred-Handed Ones from their chains.
As Zeus and Perseus honed the skills of their divine kin, the Elder Cyclopes worked tirelessly, forging legendary weapons that would become symbols of power for the gods. Each weapon bore the essence of its wielder, embodying both strength and purpose.
To Hestia, they crafted the Eternal Flame—an unyielding fire that brought warmth and solace to allies, yet wrought only death and destruction upon enemies. For Demeter, they fashioned a mighty scythe, reminiscent of the weapon wielded by Kronos himself, symbolizing her dominion over the harvest. Hera received a majestic sceptre, a weapon of war befitting her status as a daughter of Rhea. Yet, it was the weapons created for Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, and Perseus that truly embodied awe-inspiring power. From the essence of the heavens, the Elder Cyclopes sundered the very fabric of the sky to forge the Masterbolt, Zeus's thunderous weapon of lightning. Poseidon's Trident, crafted from the bones of Pontus, granted him absolute dominion over the seas. For Hades, they ventured to their aunt, Nyx, and acquired her formidable shadows, fashioning from them a helm that shrouded its wearer in absolute darkness and fear.
As for Perseus, they sought the blessing of the Primordial Time, Chronos himself. With his blessing, they forged a majestic Xiphos, a blade that shimmered with the essence of time itself—an emblem of Perseus's destiny as the Destroyer of Destroyers. These divine weapons, each imbued with the essence of their makers and forged with ancient craft, now stood ready to turn the tide in the impending war against the Titans. With the gods armed and trained, and their allies gathered, they prepared to unleash their might upon the forces of Kronos and his Titans, in a cataclysmic struggle that would determine the fate of the cosmos.
Armed with their divine weapons, the gods waged war against the Titans for what seemed an eternity, though time itself bent and stretched under the influence of Kronos and Perseus, masters of Time in their own right. The conflict raged across the heavens and the earth, a cataclysmic struggle that defied mortal understanding. For decades—or perhaps mere moments— for the Titanomachy lasted both an eternity and a second - the gods battled against the seasoned Elder Titans and their progeny. Though the gods had gathered the allegiance of many lesser Titans and Titanesses, the Elder Titans' millennia of experience on Earth gave them a formidable advantage.
In a relentless campaign that spanned realms and dimensions, the gods finally forced the Titans to retreat to their stronghold on Mount Othrys. Seizing Mount Olympus as their bastion, the gods launched their final assault. Zeus, wielding the Masterbolt, clashed with Kronos himself, the ancient tyrant who had devoured his siblings. Poseidon, commanding the seas with his Trident, confronted Krios in a titanic struggle of divine power. Hades, cloaked in darkness with his helm forged from Nyx's shadows, battled Iapetus, master of mortality. Hestia, bearer of the Eternal Flame, engaged Hyperion in a celestial duel of light and fire. Hera, wielding her sceptre of war, faced Koios with fierce determination. Demeter, wielding her scythe of harvest and destruction, brought devastation to Atlas. And Perseus, armed with the xiphos blessed by Chronos, confronted Perses, the Titan of Destruction. In a clash that shook the heavens, Perseus fought with unmatched ferocity and determination. With a decisive thrust, he pierced Perses through the heart, toppling one of the mightiest of Titans.
In the aftermath of the epic Titanomachy, the seven victorious gods, accompanied by Rhea, confronted Kronos in the heart of his crumbling throne room on Mount Othrys. The battle that ensued was cataclysmic, shattering the physical form of the Titan stronghold as Kronos, the formidable King of the Titans, fought with unmatched ferocity against his own progeny. Despite being outnumbered and facing overwhelming odds, Kronos wielded his scythe with deadly precision, pushing his children, grandson, and even his faithful wife Rhea onto the defensive. Yet, in the end, even the mightiest of Titans could not withstand the combined power of the gods. Kronos, forced to his knees, met his final judgment at the hands of Zeus. With a stroke of divine retribution, Zeus took up Kronos's own scythe and cleaved him into countless pieces, casting the fallen Titan into the depths of Tartarus, the darkest abyss of the underworld. The Titanomachy, the war that spanned epochs and realms, was finally brought to a decisive and irreversible end. The remaining Titans, save for Atlas, were likewise imprisoned in Tartarus, their reign of tyranny overthrown. Atlas, condemned by Zeus, bore the unique punishment of forever holding up the heavens—a weighty penance for his role in the Titanomachy.
Victorious and ascendant, the gods claimed their dominions and roles in the newly established order. Zeus, wielding the thunderbolt and lightning, ascended as the King of the Gods, sovereign over the skies, law, order, and justice. Hera, steadfast and regal, assumed her mantle as the Goddess of Marriage, Women, Childbirth, and Family. Poseidon, lord of the seas and earthquakes, ruled over storms and the vast ocean depths. Demeter, following in the footsteps of Kronos, became the benevolent Goddess of Agriculture, Fertility, Harvest, and Grain. Hestia reunited with her son Perseus, presided over the hearth, home, architecture, domesticity, and civilization—a beacon of warmth and hospitality. Hades, solemn and steadfast, took his rightful place as the God of the Underworld, overseeing the realm of the dead and the guardian of wealth. And Perseus, who had risen from a divine will to a warrior of destiny, claimed dominion over time, order, loyalty, humility, and oaths—a testament to his pivotal role in the overthrow of the Titans.
From those ancient times, Perseus has been revered by those who uphold the Hellenic faith. As the first god to elude Kronos's grasp, he was hailed as the 'First Olympian', a title of great honour and distinction. Ever fiercely protective of his mother, Perseus assumed the role of enforcer for Hestia's oath of eternal virginity, ensuring with stern resolve that her sacred vow remained inviolate. Those who dared to challenge Hestia's commitment faced swift and severe retribution at the hands of Perseus. Before the birth of Artemis, Perseus was the god to whom virgins turned in prayer and supplication. With Artemis's arrival, Perseus graciously yielded that aspect of his title to the Huntress, yet he remained steadfastly devoted as his mother's vigilant guardian throughout eternity. As ages passed and half-bloods and demigods emerged as champions of Olympus's will on Earth, Perseus evolved into the revered Patron of Heroes. His mythic exploits and indomitable spirit embodied the triumph of courage and determination over adversity, inspiring countless heroes in their quests.
To this day, they honour Perseus with the esteemed titles of Primogenitus and Prototokos.
The Firstborn.
Notes:
The 14 Olympians: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, Perseus, Ares, Artemis, Apollo, Athena, Hermes, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Dionysus.
God Profile: Perseus
Domains: God of Time, Order, Oaths, Humility and Loyalty. Patron of Heroes. The Unerring. The Firstborn.
Abode: Mount Olympus
Symbol: Sword, Phoenix, Dogwood.
Parent: Hestia
Roman Aspect: Perditor
Author's Note: After many years, I'm trying my hand at PJO fanfiction once again. Hope I don't mess this up! I intend to show a truly godly war that begins when the Titans and later Giants emerge in this one.