Hades (God)
| Hades | ||
|---|---|---|
 Black ram |
||
| Aliases | Lord of the Dead | |
| Alignment | Lawful Evil | |
| Pantheon | Greek | |
| Portfolio | Death, earth, wealth, the underworld | |
| Domains | 3E:Death, Earth, Evil 5E: Death, Grave |
|
| Home Plane | Hades, the Underworld (Hades) | |
| Worshippers | Assassins, morticians, murderers, necromancers, paladins, rogues | |
| Favoured Weapon | Longsword | |
Hades is the Greek god of the underworld, and a member of the "big three" of the Greek pantheon; the other two being Zeus and Poseidon, his younger brothers. His parents are, of course, Cronus and Rhea. Despite being the eldest son, he was the last to get spit out by Cronus, which is occasionally given as the reason he got the shittiest of the three realms- something he is eternally pretty angsty about.
Although arguably the weakest of the three, he is still far more powerful than the average god. His domain controlling all of the dead gives him immense sway over mortals, particularly those seeking to see or save loved ones. Many legends involving him pertain to mortals attempting to trespass his domain to bring souls back to the overworld, which pisses him off immensely. In the myths of antiquity, he is not usually portrayed as evil; he just wants people to get the fuck off his lawn. Funnily enough, out of all the Greek gods, Hades is one of the nicer deities! Among other things, he's described as a loving husband to Persephone (kidnapping aside, though apparently this was normal courtship behavior back then), a stern but fair ruler who's only a dick to assholes that actually deserve it, and he loves dogs. Seriously, Cerberus was derived from the Greek word "kerberos", translating to "spotted", meaning he literally named his three-headed hellhound "Spot"!
AD&D's Deities & Demigods describes him as lawful evil, which is a fair take given that his version of courtship is kidnapping. However, as mentioned above, the Greeks did not see him that way. They thought of Hades as a neutral, even altruistic god (just really, really scary). For any aspiring GM's wishing to use Hades in their setting, you should lean into the evil angle if you want him as an antagonist, or into the neutral angle if you want a more historically accurate take.
Worshippers of Hades include morticians, Clerics, angsty Paladins, Herse drivers, and Necromancers.
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Hades and his favorite pup
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Hades on a peaceful walk in his realm
