Post by Hermes on Dec 30, 2007 2:54:35 GMT -5
The Basics
Name: Hermes or Mercury if you prefer
Race: God {Olympian god of boundaries, travelers, shepherds and cow herders, poets, athletics, invention, thieves and wit}
Age: How do you classify the age of a god? He is a second generation god, the son of Zeus one of the daughters of Atlas, Maia
Height: 5’8”
Hair Color and Eye Color: Brown / Greenish Gray
Make Us Love You
Likes:
• Traveling
• Mischief and trickery
• Music of different kinds, particularly that which can be carried
• All forms of hoofed animals, i.e. sheep, cattle and goats
• Athletic sports
• A good mind game here and there never hurt anyone
• People who are actually SMART and not just pretending to be..he can’t stress this enough
• Those he watches out for of course, shepherds, thieves and the good old athletes
• Hades and Persephone—Hey, he has to SEE them he might as well enjoy them, though Hades could be somewhat of a grumpy ass
• Iris, one of the few people he honestly gets along with without actually wanting something in return
• Pan—Like father like son, yah?
Dislikes:
• Hera—Is it just him or do you not like him? Could it be… that Zeus is his dad and you aren’t his mom? Hm. Perhaps!
• Stupid and lazy people
• Not all the time, but generally city folk—loud, irrational, idiotic
• Being bored…nothing worse than that pain (this includes especially boring people)
• Steroids…honestly, are you TRYING to insult him?
- Wolves, now ain't it obvious?
- Irrational fighting between the gods--more or less because a lot of the times he gets caught in the middle
- Random mortal death, eh, he just never saw the pleasure in it... it could be because he's the one who has to clean it up later
• Hades (only sometimes, he swears generally Hades is quite the….uh, cheery guy)
• Ares (hey CHILL OUT Aphrodite is sexy and it was only ONE kid and you act like she was faith—okay shutting up now)
Habits: Hermes has a tendency to be free spirited and rarely gets in the way of the other gods and more or less seems to like to play favors with either side depending on which most benefits him. He has a tendency to try to charm opposing parties and he rarely gets into conflicts. He is one to enjoy the company of both man and the immortals and is very open minded when it comes to most things. He has a tendency to sometimes talk in riddles, claim that his name is something else or just pretend he is asleep (regardless of who you are) if he gets bored.
Personality:
Hermes is a trickster and mischievous above all things and can’t help stealing from time to time. If there is one thing that he loves it is the art of confusing and tricking others or overall just outwitting them or pulling pranks behind their back. More or less he rarely gets in trouble for this for he is seen as one of the more childish yet least annoying gods and because he is always doing favors for one or the other he luckily has been able to keep his neck from being snapped. He’s very charismatic and has a magnet of a personality, one that people just tend to get drawn to and for this reason it is easy for him to try to woo people over. He’s witty and intelligent but unfortunately is not one of the most loyal people on the planet and overall he’s a very independent person as traveling keeps him from being with the same people too much. He’s not very committed and perhaps slightly irresponsible though when he needs to he can really come through…uh, sometimes.
He’s charming, not in the way that he easily gets women. No, he is more likely to get slapped in the face for making an inappropriate comment. He is charming in the manner that he is able to save his neck, luckily enough for him. He has a tendency to get annoying from time to time perhaps because while he can be quite the kiss ass he has quite the ability to be extremely rash. He has a tendency of showing his affections by only further annoying them and is somewhat of an attention whore. Stealing from his friends only to say that he is sorry and make it up with them (that is if they catch him) is probably one of the things he is most known for. His sticky fingers are used even more on those he is closer with and he tends to show his affections for people by making jests at them or trying to get on their nerves.
He is however despite all of this somehow the person who is able to calm the storms in several situations. It is perhaps his free hearted nature and his gift in music and tongue that allows him to keep people from killing each other (usually) in tight situations and luckily enough he doesn’t only use this ability to save his own neck though of course he looks out for the one and only (himself) first of all things. He likes to make bargains and trades though he often gets the better end of the deal (at least in his opinion) and is often creating new inventions to try to barter off items that he has coveted from the other gods and goddesses though has yet to attain.
Family;; Keeps Us Insane
Parents: Zeus and Maia, a daughter of Atlas
Siblings: Only child, take that… unless you count very numerous half siblings then uh… no
Family Dynamics:
Zeus as a father has been … alright. It wasn’t the best relationship but at least the man has been rather fair to him. Hermes barely was able to know his mother. After all, she and her sisters were turned into doves to protect them from the pursuing of Orion and well, it’s hard to get to know someone when there is a great language barrier like that. However for the time that he knew his mother he took great comfort hiding under her wing as he was quite able to get away with a lot of things with her.
Out of all his half siblings he gets along with Apollo the best perhaps because they both share a love for music (or because that bastard stole his instrument and it somehow became one of his symbols) and while they haven’t always gotten along perfectly as Hermes has a tendency to steal things from him they exist mostly in a relationship of a younger and elder brother relation.
Of his four sons, Hermes most obviously favors Pan probably because his second son Abderus got devoured and because Aphroditus was always a little bit…strange in both appearance and personality. Pan was the son that was most like him except for the goat half of his body and they shared their love for music as well as their adoration for the countryside and shepherds and sheep and they are very much attached to one another. Autolycus is the king of thieves, though Hermes doesn't favor him if only because he had to share the woman who bore his kid with Apollo who had a kid from her too. Boo. Not fun.
He also has possible children whose origins may have been from him, but even he isn't certain. Eros, Priapus and Tyche are all his possible kids. Until he is SURE he isn't taking any chances with getting too attached. Boo, Aphrodite! He wanted some kids, couldn't you have at least remembered who sired them?
History:
Hermes from the very beginning was a mischievous child and born from his mother Maia in the cave on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia he was already on the move as soon as his mother had fallen asleep and had run off to Thessaly to steal his brother Apollo’s cattle. He brought them back to Greece and hid them making the first lyre out of a tortoise shell and intestines from a cow. He played his lyre to calm the arguments down as his mother tried to protect him in the argument and as Zeus and Apollo demanded to know where it was. He got the cows in exchange for the lyre and also created the pan pipes also known as the syrinx and the flute. He traded the flute as well to his brother Apollo who shared his love for music and got his heralds staff that he still uses to this day.
Because he is the herald and the messenger between the mortals and the gods he started off sending souls and guiding them to the underworld and so was always in contact with Hades and Persephone. He had a love for invention and for sports and so created many instruments as well as sports in his time including wrestling, foot racing and boxing. For a greater span of his life in Greece he was worshipped in Arcadia where he was born and was the one to protect travelers on their journey across different borders.
Hermes had three children, his favorite being the god Pan who he had with Dryope the daughter o f the king of Dryops. However because the boy was born with a goat half the mother abandoned him and Hermes gladly took his son under his wing, not one to abandon his own offspring. He brought the boy to Olympus where he grew up though he was ridiculed for his appearance he was adored for his laughter and became the guardian of woods and fields. His son Abderus was killed by the Mares of Diomedes when the (idiot) Heracles left him in charge of the creatures. (Seriously what an idiot, why would you do that?) His third son goes by the name Hermaphroditus or Aphroditus for short and has a name likened to his mother, Aphrodite. Born on Mount Ida and raised by nymphs who lived in the fresh water of the rivers there he had characteristics of both sexes (which Hermes thought was sort of… strange).
Probably only to add to the fact that Hera disliked the many love children of Zeus, Hermes only made it worse on himself with Hera but brought favor in the eyes of his father when he saved Io, his father’s lover from a giant by playing music for it. Zeus also sent him to release Odysseus from the captive arms of Calypso who promised him immortality and saved the man again (come on dude what the hell are you doing) from almost being transformed into a pig along with his men. He also (unfortunately) had to bring Eurydice back down to the underworld to return her to Hades after her husband Orpheus had attempted to fetch her from the underworld.
Since the time that the gods had made a pact to step back and simply lie waiting Hermes has been well… bored. One of the things that he hates the most and has been trying to find ways to keep himself occupied. He has had a tendency of playing human from time to time as he was one who honestly could never keep himself away from them but according to the pact he had never actually revealed himself to be anything more than simply mortal. Amongst that with the increasing numbers of humans on the earth he has been taking frequent trips down to the underworld and has tried his hand at charming (not in that way Hades, you can calm down) Persephone and more or less hanging out with Apollo. He has spent most of his time however travelling and except for those in the underworld which he is obligated to see in order to drop of the souls and Apollo and his son Pan he has mostly been out of sight because he knows he would be too tempted to cause havoc and mischief. This whole plan of “backing off” has more or less irritated him because then… well, who is he going to play with and well, there was no one to boss him around and give him messages to send to the mortals….because they weren’t talking to the mortals. Sheesh, give a brother something to do here!
