Potential of the Downtrodden

'Okay, it is clear that something has happened that I was not aware of. What exactly has changed in me?'

From what he could recall, Hades was a cold and humourless man. Like the other Gods and Titans, he had a certain arrogance and haughtiness towards what he viewed as 'lower beings', especially as one of the 'Big Three'. He was also one who had a tendency to hold on to grudges.

And there were many grudges that he was holding onto at the time of his reincarnation.

He was angry at being slighted and sent off to the Underworld, he was angry for being barred from Olympus, he was angry that his brothers looked down on him, he was angry that he was considered the youngest of his brothers, even though he was born first and so on and so forth.

By all means, he had every right to be angry about these things, but he never let go of that anger. It merely grew cold and silent, a quiet bitterness behind the stone-cold expression he always wore on his face.

'So it's entirely possible that I may hold on to grudges as the previous Hades did. That doesn't bode well.'

From what he could observe, it was his innate arrogance that bled through when he was unaware. He theorised that the longer he spent as Hades, the more that would bleed through, but if he spends a long enough time, it shouldn't matter anymore.

It was less than ideal, but it was a small price to pay for being reborn as a powerful God.

"Sigh, I guess it can't be helped. Might as well get back to what I was doing."

Hades reappeared before the village once more. The village leader and his four warriors were before the entire village and frantically trying to tell them something. Since he heard the words 'river' and 'God', they were probably recounting what happened at the river.

As he walked in, all eyes turned to him and every villager descended to the floor in prostration. many were very visibly terrified of his presence, and it made sense. It wasn't every day the God of Death and the Underworld appeared before you.

With a hand gesture, he signalled the villagers to stand up.

Looking him in the eyes, Hades said to the village head, "We need to talk. Alone."

"Come. Talk in home."

The villagers made a path for Hades and the village head to walk through. Many of them didn't even dare to look at him, preferring to lower their heads and look at the floor.

'Gods must be terrifying in their eyes.'

We walked past all of their mud huts until we reached the biggest hut in the centre, although it wasn't really that big and only about 25 square metres in area. The village head opened the door and bowed, beckoning me to enter, almost like a butler.

Inside was a plain room with some leather packed with leaves underneath to act as cushions to sit on and a pile of leaves and furs that passed for a bed at the back.

Seating himself, Hades found that it was surprisingly comfortable. It had nothing on the furniture in his palace or any of the amenities he had grown up with in the modern world, but it was more comfortable than it looked.

The village head remained standing where he was, standing as still as a statue.

"You," Hades said.

"Yes?" he replied.

"What's your name?" Hades asked.

"Name is Arktos" he replied.

'A bear, huh? Seems fitting. Certainly large enough to be called one.'

"What you know of Gods?" Hades questioned.

"Know Gods powerful. Rule all world. We small," Arktos replied. He seemed to shrink up as he spoke. That was to be expected. After all, the Gods had all but shoved humanity's inferiority down their throats in a bid to keep them eternally in absolute submission. he could see why they did it, but he didn't like it.

"No no no, you not small. You not know how big can be," Hades reassured him. It was true after all. Humanity came to conquer the whole world. Gods rose and fell purely as a result of humanity and their beliefs.

All over the world, humanity would be the force that drives the world forward. It would be humans that decide how the world would be, not the Gods. But the Gods, in their arrogance and ignorance, still view them as barbarians and are unable to see the sheer potential that laid hidden.

After that, Arktos visibly relaxed and speaking with Hades became easier as he had fewer reservations and didn't watch his words as much. Of course, he kept himself in check, he was speaking to the God of Death after all, but my seemingly blind confidence and faith in him and his kind must've eased his worries and allowed him to calm down.

So in their conversation, Hades asked about how they lived and what hardships they tended to face. Arktos spoke of the wildlife in the surrounding forests, of the wolves and bears, of the snakes and wild cats, of the fruits and berries, of the birds in the sky and the insects beneath the ground. He recounted tales from his past, of how they hunted and gathered food, the struggles of living surrounded by constant danger, the thrill that came from toeing the line between life and death when in the climax of a hunt.

The more Arktos spoke, the more Hades came to admire these people. Sure, they weren't all that knowledgable and enlightened as his own people in the 21st century were, they weren't as powerful or frightening with their stone tools and lack of armour, but they were strong, intelligent and fearless. They were proud of what they capable of and protective of all that they called their own.

The more Arktos spoke, the more Hades realised how much the former loved his people. He noticed how his chest would puff out at the mention of his people's strength and courage, his wistfulness when recounting the beauty of the surrounding nature despite the dangers lying within it, the longing glint in his eyes when describing the goals he wished for his people to achieve.

'Y'know what? Fuck waiting for Prometheus.'

Originally, he had planned to take a few of these primitive Greeks back to the Underworld so that he may establish his own race there, but Arktos' words made him think otherwise. He wanted to see how far they could go. Not as a new, more powerful race, not as a people in the Underworld serving Hades, but as people. As humans. He wanted to see their limits and where they would go.

'I wonder, 100 years from now, what will you all have done?'

When the sun began to set, Arktos asked for permission to leave so that he and his villagers may prepare themselves for the night. Hades didn't really mind, so he gave his leave for Arktos to do so. Hades was offered to be attended to by any one of the women of the village, almost implying that Hades could do as he wished with said woman if he so felt the desire to do so. Due to his modern upbringing, such a suggestion left a bad taste in Hades' mouth and he refused immediately, much to Arktos' relief, preferring to be left alone with his thoughts.

As soon as Arktos left the room, Hades' mind began racing as he thought of what he had heard and how this affected things moving forward.

'Being given fire when they were, they were able to create a civilisation that shaped and dictated the governing of the world for thousands of years to come, and would've continued to do so thousands of years after I had left the 21st century. It wouldn't be wrong to say that the Greeks and their civilisation were the driving force behind the whole world, from maths and sciences to democracy and governance, from the Olympics and the theatre, from philosophy to the library, there was no corner of the world that hadn't been impacted by or affected by Greek culture and civilisation.'

Now that he thought about it, that was probably why the Greek Gods were still as strong and as widespread as they were in the original series. The Greeks didn't just create western civilisation, they were that civilisation. It was why the location of Mt Olympus moved with the shifting of Western influence, from Greece to Central Europe, to Britain and then to New York in the original story. Wherever western, and hence Greek, culture was strongest or had the greatest influence was where Olympus would be located and where the Olympians would reside.

'If they get a couple hundred years headstart, what changes would there be? If they got fire early, what exactly would happen?'

He knew this was a very serious topic. The first usage of fire was the single greatest pivotal moment in all human history. It's what allowed humans to cook their food, to stay warm during cold weather, to forge metal weapons to congregate and form towns and cities. Without fire, humans would be nothing but the barbarians the gods currently thought they were, waving around their clubs and stone-tipped spears and eating their game raw.

He also knew how seriously Zeus, and by extension, the rest of the Gods, would take it if they found out humanity had gained access to fire. In the original order of things, Zeus refused Prometheus' request to gift humanity with fire because he believed humanity would later grow arrogant with their advancement and come to believe they were equal to the Gods. He wished to keep humans completely under the will of himself and the Gods, holding absolute authority over them. The gift of fire would remove that authority as it would allow them to advance and spread, to think and act as the Gods do, to do as they wished on this Earth because it was their wish to do so, not because they were forced to by circumstance or because the Gods wished for it to be so.

'If I give them fire, Zeus will probably try to punish me in some manner. Either that will not go through given my status or power or it will be to a far lesser degree to what Prometheus was forced to endure. Is it worth it?'

After all, not only was Prometheus a Titan, but he had previously deceived Zeus and, if the Riordanverse adhered to the regular Greek Mythology outside of what Riordan had changed, prophecised that Zeus would suffer a fate similar to Ouranus at the hands of Chronos and Chronos at the hands of Zeus.

When Zeus decreed that man must present a portion of each animal they sacrificed to the gods Prometheus decided to trick Zeus. He created two piles, one with the bones of an ox wrapped in juicy fat, the other with the good meat hidden in the hide. He then bade Zeus pick. Zeus picked the bones. Since he had given his word Zeus had to accept that as his share for future sacrifices.

Later on, both Zeus and Poseidon had fallen in love with the same nereid Thetis. Prometheus would then come out and proclaim that there would be a son born from Zeus that would come to be more powerful than Zeus and that only he could prevent it. Zeus, fearing a fate similar to their father and grandfather, ordered Prometheus to tell him who would be the mother of this child so that he may avoid having a child with her. After a great deal of conflict between the two, Prometheus would tell him that it would be Thetis who would birth such a child. In response, Zeus promptly ended his relationship with Thetis and had her marry the mortal hero Peleus instead, who would later go on to give birth to Achilles.

These, along with giving humanity fire, enraged Zeus enough punish Prometheus by chaining him to the Caucasus mountain and had a huge and ferocious vulture peck out his liver every day, and as Prometheus' immortal liver regrew every night, the cycle could continue.

'This decision would require more observation, but perhaps I may not need to wait for Prometheus. This would also help attract humans to the Underworld as they may feel that I held no ill will if I help them in this manner, and maybe more. Besides, this all seems so fun and interesting so I might as well enjoy myself.'

"After all, I only have forever.'