Chapter 18: The Descent of the Bloodline

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”

— Attributed to Socrates, as recorded by Plato in Apology, c. 399 BCE. Commonly paraphrased from Plato’s Apology, Section 21d. Original text in Ancient Greek; various translations exist. Public domain.

Hyperion had traveled the world, hearing many amazing tales in realms far and wide.

He met a divine being of war in a land called ‘Midgard’. This warrior told of his father and his two brothers slaying their Progenitor. Hyperion shook his head at that turn of event. Never on Olympus or in Greece would a Titan, or their children, kill their Progenitor. Hyperion did enjoy the one called Týr, so the Titan invited the Aesir, by way of Týr, to Olympus. He genuinely hoped that he would come one day.

The lands of India and the Chinese Heaven had conflict after conflict. Though, by Hyperion’s estimation, India did so just for sport, and for the bragging rights of being the strongest land. Chinese Heaven had only just found peace and separated gods from demons. Such a tenuous peace would not last. The two would inevitably fight again.

Egypt had its own issues. Hyperion had met a sun deity called Ra. His wise insights had given Hyperion much to think about when he visited. Ra had taught him that sometimes even the sun must dip itself into darkness to give the clarity of light. Though divine, Ra was not a perfect being. Hyperion had been a newcomer, yet he had been able to see the division and strife between the children Set and Osiris.

The insight from Ra was why Hyperion, creator of Greece’s sun, was now in the Underworld, seeking the Fates. Hyperion had begun contemplating the future after the Titans had deposed their Sky Father and his newly crowned king of a brother began devouring his own children. His travels and experiences, contrasted with his own realm, led him to reflect on those other lands and divine beings more and more often.

Those lands were at the beginning of the shaping of everything. While so much outside the Realm of Greece was the same, there was also madness. It was also the strangest sensation. When Hyperion visited these other realms, his insight was able to solve the problems of those lands with the greatest of ease. When it came to his own family ... Hyperion just could not.

Babylon had a King who slayed a ferocious beast called a dragon. If India’s divine beings ever stopped battling each other or power and supremacy, there was cause for concerns. If those other Realms ever worked out their issues, they could prove problematic for Olympus. Somehow, Hyperion doubted this would happen. Still, with Crono’s deranged rise to power, and the consumption of his children, Hyperion could see Olympus’ instability.

What was the point of being Titans if they lost rule of their dominion to the outside world? After deposing Ouranos, Hyperion felt that Coeus was right, and the Titans owed it to Gaia, and by extension Chaos, to make Greece as magnificent as possible.

While walking through the dead lands, he saw the spectral form of Ouranos through the Underworld. Hyperion shivered at the ghost of his parent. The Titan of Light could never shake the memory of Cronos castrating their father. At that moment, Hyperion realized no matter how powerful he or Crius was, they could never be the Ruler over the Titans when Cronos had performed such a decisive act.

Upon climbing the steps in Tartarus, to the Temple dedicated to Sisters of Fate, Hyperion was careful upon entering the sacred abode. He was wondering if it were better if he called the Sisters the Moirai like their mother Nyx did.

He doubted that they cared for whatever name they were addressed by, as long as it was respectful. Hyperion returned to himself and glanced along the wall at a grand, beautifully woven tapestry. It showed the crowning of Ouranos by Chaos, images of Ouranos trying to harm the Fates, the Fates making a decree, and Ouranos falling to Cronos. Hyperion was awed by the astonishing work they had already accomplished and he saw that there would be more to come. As the divine threads shone, he saw his brother eating his own offspring in the tapestry. There was more that the Fates were working on, but for some reason, he could not identify what they were doing.