First things first, Typhon happens both earlier and later in Greek Myth. Some say he happens right before/after the war with the Giants, but the Giants are usually defeated when Heracles helps the Olympians as a demigod.
That made writing this a tricky SoB. Stories like Blood of Zeus and Percy Jackson make out that it required Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon while older sources just say it required some trickery from the Fates and Zeus dropping a mountain on Typhon to end the fight.
I wanted to split the difference to make something more interesting. I want each of the Big Three to have unique personalities that you can get behind while also looking at them like … maybe get your shit together guys.
Also, there’s something to the idea that these gods are not so unlike everyday people with faults and foibles, but also looking for perfection, redemption, revenge, and trying to maintain a dynasty. That means in one story someone can be a hero while in another, they can be a villain. After all, the same thing can happen in real life. People are not always perfect monoliths that act as bastions of goodness, so too with these gods.
Next, because of the strange placement, some have Athena helping Zeus against Typhon. Instead, I made the one by Zeus’ side to be Metis because that dynamic makes what ultimately happens to her all the more tragic.
While Hermes is one to help in the freeing of Zeus, most accounts depict the event taking place when Hermes was a child. Instead, given this is StoriesOnline and meant to be a more adult themed literature, I decided that Hermes could be aged up to be an immature adult god rather than a mature child god. I do not think it changes much in the end, and it still keeps that Hermes saved his dad.
As for Typhon, I could not help but go with a Gomez Addams/wife guy idea for him because outside of being a monster, the stories do not do much to flesh him out. I recall Hercules: The Animated Series did some interesting stuff with him as a kid, but in the end, he’s usually just a smash-smash crush-crush monster. This one has a little more agency despite being a tool of Gaia’s to get revenge on Zeus.
Though, if I recall, Jennifer Saint has Typhon be the son of Hera and exists to hurt Zeus. I didn’t like that idea for how that might work for my story, so I went with the more traditional version.
Echidna was inspired by the designs of Echidna from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Season 2 Episode 7: The Mother of All Monsters and Empress of the Racnoss from Doctor Who Christmas Special: The Runaway Bride.
There are some spiders (as well as other animals) who have multiple sacs and wombs that can carry multiple children, so I thought it best to combine those facets into the Mother of all Monsters.
Beyond that, I combined a few myths, from the Death of Metis to Typhon/Typhaeus, attacking Olympus to make a cohesive narrative.
I hope you have found this fun and informative.
As Always,
C.S.