Pathos Verdes III

Pathos Verdes III
Biographical Information
Alias	Architect of Pandora's temple
Deathplace	Architect's Tomb
Location	Pandora's Temple
Nationality	Greek
Status	Deceased (suicide)
Physical Information
Race(s)	Mortal
Gender	Male
Relationship Information
Family	Unnamed sons Unnamed wife
Loyalties	Olympus
Occupation	Architect
Goals	Build Pandora's Temple (Completed)
Personality	Loyal Insane
Equipment
Behind the Scenes
Voiced by	none
Appears in	God of War

“	The architect who built this temple was a zealot. He lived only to serve the gods but went mad trying. The rumor is that he's still alive, still inside... still trying to appease the gods who abandoned him years ago...	”
–Body Burner

Pathos Verdes III was the self-proclaimed loyal subject and architect of the Olympian Gods assigned to the building of Pandora's Temple and eventually went insane in his quest to please them.

Biography

The Assignment of the Gods

Pathos before Zeus, Poseidon and Hades.

Pathos Verdes III was a zealot with a wife and two sons. One day the Gods appeared before him and commanded him to build a temple to house Pandora's Box, the most powerful weapon a mortal can wield. Pathos, loyal to the gods, accepted the task and began his plans.

Construction of the Temple

Pathos Verdes III began the work building the temple. With the help of some Pegasi, their riders, and the Gods, they subdued the Titan Cronos, allowing Pathos to start building the temple on the back of Cronos. His traps and designs were straightforward at first, but would soon become more and more difficult as he lost his mind.

Downfall into Insanity

While he was building Pandora's Temple, his youngest son died, and soon after that, his oldest son died. After their deaths, he grew insane and started to lose faith in the Gods. While he was still building the temple, heroes began visiting the temple but many died as a result. These first unsuccessful heroes would be cursed and as Pathos grew more insane, he began to make the traps more elaborate and harder.

Eventually, he used the bodies of his dead sons in the traps. This caused a serious problem with his wife and in an argument he stabbed her in the chest with a knife, killing her. Unable to continue working on the temple with his family gone, Pathos killed himself, cursing the Gods.

The Temple of Pandora

The decomposing body of Pathos Verdes III.

Pandora's Temple proved to be more difficult to traverse as Kratos proceeds. This may represent the increasing insanity Pathos Verdes III experienced while working on the temple. In the Architect's Tomb, Kratos would find the bodies of Pathos and his wife along with a final message Pathos had written prior to his death.

Though the architect had killed himself, it appears that he was planning to end the temple at the very top of the Cliffs of Madness as there are what appears to be unfinished sections in it. It also gives an insight into Kratos' hatred of the Gods.

Trivia

• Pathos Verdes III is many ways, similar to Kratos: both chose to serve a god (Kratos served Ares and Pathos Verdes III served Zeus and his brothers), both killed their families in a fit of rage while under control of the Gods, both have cursed the Gods, and both committed suicide in order to escape the madness (though only Pathos succeeded).
• Interestingly, in his suicide note, Pathos Verdes III writes that he remembered in the end, that the Gods came to him and trusted him to build Pandora's Temple, thus suggesting he may have regained a measure of faith in the Gods, though it could simply have been another expression of his madness.
• Pandora's Temple was referenced multiple times as having been built "thousands" of years prior to the beginning of the franchise. However, the God of War series must take place during the 3rd century BCE, since Archimedes (who died in 212 BCE) is referenced as having passed away many years prior to Ascension, the first game in the series. This would consequently mean Pathos Verdes III lived around or prior to 1300 BCE, which ends up being relatively consistent with the dates most scholars attribute to the Trojan War and otherevents in early Greek mythology stories (1184-1200 BCE)
  • However, the fact that God of War II (which takes place over 30 years after Ascension) features the Colossus of Rhodes, whose real life counterpart was destroyed in 226 BCE, may suggest that the God of War chronology is different than the real life version of events, though it'd still suggest the series takes place around the late 3rd century BCE, since the Colossus itself was built in 292 BCE.
  • At one point, it is slightly implied Pandora's Temple was built or at least completed 2,500 years before the game proper. This would put Pathos Verdes's life around 2600-2700 BCE. Considering the fact that writing had yet to spread out of Ancient Egypt and Sumer at the time, as well as the fact that Greece had yet to become a civilization, it's extremely unlikely that the Temple was actually built around this date - even the Giza Pyramids, which were built around the same time, required extensive manpower and took nearly 100 years to complete.
  • It is implied that Pathos Verdes III killed himself and his wife about the same time that Kratos reached Pandora's Temple. This is reforced by the fact that the Body Burner after meeting Kratos for the first time guessed that the architet would still be alive within the temple. Another argument is that when Kratos find the corpse of the architect and his wife, they were in decomposition process, rather than being skeletons. If so, Pathos Verdes III and his family would have lived for over 2.500 years, since the time the temple started to be built until the day that the Spartan would finally find Pandora's Box.

Quotes

“	This temple was erected in honor of and at the command of the mighty Lord Zeus.' Only the bravest hero shall solve its puzzles and survive its dangers. Only one man will receive ultimate power. All others shall meet their doom.	”
–Pathos on Pandora's Temple.

“	My youngest son will laugh no more. Death in the service of his father. Death in the service of the Gods. The building of this temple has claimed his life. May you be lucky enough that it not claim yours.	”
–Pathos Verdes III on the death of his youngest son.

“	My second son, my last, has followed his brother to the Elysian Fields. In my heart I know I must continue the work of the Gods. But they take so much and at last my soul begins to doubt.	”
–Pathos Verdes III on the death of his eldest son.

“	...Tried to stop me...she said the Gods were fools, that I was a fool. She may be right...but they came to ME. They believed in me...she had to be stopped...but now they are gone, my entire family. I can not go on.	”
–Pathos Verdes III's last words.