Athena
| Athena | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Alignment | Lawful Good | |
| Divine Rank | Greater Goddess | |
| Pantheon | Greek | |
| Portfolio | Civilization, crafts, war, wisdom | |
| Domains | 3E: Artifice, Community, Good, Knowledge, Law, War 5E: Knowledge, Order, War |
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| Home Plane | Olympus (Arborea) | |
| Worshippers | Constables, fighters, judges, monks, paladins | |
| Favoured Weapon | Shortspear | |
Athena is the Greek goddess of strategic warfare, handicraft, and wisdom. In contrast to Ares's BURN PURGE KILL approach to warfare, Athena spends a lot more time thinking about dumb nerd shit like "supply lines" and "cohesive battle strategy". She is Zeus's daughter, but what makes things interesting is that she's the product of his first marriage. The thing is Zeus was originally married to Metis (he married Hera much later), an Oceanid nymph who greatly helped him by coming up with clever plans, such as the plan to poison Cronus with an emetic to free Zeus's siblings. After the war, the marriage between her and Zeus happened and they were soon expecting a baby. Unfortunately, it was prophesized that if they had a son, that child would overthrow Zeus. With this in mind, Zeus did the only sensible thing and assimilated his wife into the depths of his mind, where she continued to give him clever ideas (presumably Inception-style). Some time afterward, he got such a massive, titanic, brain-melting headache that he asked Hephaestus to split his skull open. When Hephaestus did so, out popped a fully grown, armed and armored Athena. Yes, this means that Athena was literally Zeus's brainchild, you may groan now.
Athena is often portrayed as a cool, collected, and somewhat emotionally distant deity. Her wrath is often extremely calculated and ironic, with loads of JUST AS PLANNED for good measure. She is the namesake of the city Athens (yet ironically was also the primary deity of Sparta as Athena the Champion), as well as one of the three petty bitches responsible for the Trojan war, along with Hera and Aphrodite (although Aphrodite probably deserves most of the blame there).
Athena is most often portrayed as lawful good, making her a strong choice for paladin players angling for a character that's more of a strategic combatant. She also works very well with battle master fighters and war clerics.
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Patron deity of total war players and armchair generals.
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