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Titanomachy1

The two generations of gods, Titans and Olympians, battle as the mortal world is destroyed

The war between the Titans and the Olympians forged the landscape of the mortal world. It was a war that we knew the Titans must win. If we lost, it would be an end to the golden age of the Titan rule. Peace and prosperity for mankind would be no more.

Atlas.

The Titanomachy or the Great War as it is referred to in the God of War series, is the fabled war between the two generations of greek gods: the Titans led by Cronos and the Olympians led by Zeus for control over Greece and all mortals.

Greek Mythology[]

In Greek mythology, the Titanomachy was a ten-year series of battles fought between the Titans and the Olympians. The Titans fought from Mount Othrys (or Mount Etna), and the Olympians fought from what would come to be known as Mount Olympus. The war started when Zeus released his brothers and sisters from the belly of Cronos and began a rebellion against the Titans.

The War had raged for ten years, tearing apart the continents and ripping the earth and sky with every battle. The war was endless and both the Olympians and Titans became tired, realizing that this war was going nowhere. Gaia saw this and told Zeus of his forgotten uncles: The Hecatonchires and Elder Cyclopes. Gaia told Zeus to release them from Tartarus and they will help the younger gods. As instructed, Zeus released the titanic creatures and they helped him; with the Cyclops forging weapons for the brothers (Zeus' thunderbolt, Poseidon's trident and Hades' helmet) while the Hechatonchires used their unnatural strength to assist the Olympians against the Titans, ultimately ending in victory for the Olympian Gods.

Most of the Titans were sent to Tartarus, a place deeper than the Underworld, where they would endure great suffering for eternity. One of the Titans, Atlas, was condemned to bearing the weight of the sky (now too damaged to support itself) on his shoulders due to him being the one who led the Titans during the war.

In the God of War series[]

Cronos' Fate[]

Steedsoffate

The Steeds of Time, gifted to the Sisters of Fate

The Sisters of Fate had deemed that the mighty King of the Titans, Cronos, would one day be overthrown by his children. In an attempt to stop this prophecy from coming true, Cronos tried to persuade the Sisters into his favor by granting them the Steeds of Time. They refused to change his fate but still took the steeds anyway. His next attempt to stop this prophecy from coming true was by swallowing his children one by one. His wife, Rhea, could not bear the loss of another child, and when Zeus was born she summoned an eagle to take him to Gaia to be raised, hiding from the watchful eyes of Cronos. As a replacement, Rhea wrapped a stone in cloth and gave it to Cronos, who foolishly believed it was the child.

Zeus' Return[]

Youngzeus

Young Zeus during the war

Zeus was secretly raised by Gaia who nurtured his desire to free his brothers and sisters from their father. Zeus’ intentions, however, were not just bent on freeing his siblings, but also defeating the Titans and taking the throne of his father. When the time came, Zeus freed his siblings who were now full grown and had declared war on the Titans. The Titans as a whole saw Zeus’ desire for revenge and to rule over all mortals as intolerable, seeing that peace and prosperity for mankind would forever be lost if the Olympian Gods were to have their way.

The Titans who joined the Titanomachy were Gaia who was Primordial Goddess of the Earth, Cronos, Oceanus, Hyperion, Iapetus, Typhon, Helios, Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus and Perses. The Olympian Gods who joined the war were Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes and Nike, Themis and Mnemosyne who were the two Goddesses of the Titans betrayed them and joined the Olympian Gods and accept to fight against the Titans. Zeus rescued the Elder Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires from Tartarus to aid the younger Gods in the war.

When the war began, two Titans, Prometheus and Helios, betrayed their kin and sided with Zeus and the Olympians. Atlas took lead as he charged the Titans into war. However, because of the technology the younger gods were given by the Elder Cyclops, the tides of battle turned, allowing them to gain the upper-hand; Zeus was granted Thunderbolts, Poseidon was given his Trident, and Hades received a Helmet of Invisibility. The war was so destructive that the mortal world was forged from it. Mountains were hurled like rocks and Greece was engulfed in flames.

Fate of the Titans[]

Atlas

The mighty Atlas, forced to uphold the world on his shoulders

As the war continued, Atlas was eventually killed and captured through the combined efforts of Hades and Poseidon, while their brother Zeus had created a powerful weapon called the Blade of Olympus from the Heavens and the Earth, using its power to banish most of the Titans into Tartarus for eternity, Most of the Titans who banished into Tartarus the Deep Abyss of the Underworld were Gaia, Cronos, Oceanus, Hyperion, Iapetus, Typhon, Atlas, Epimetheus and Perses. Although some of the Titans were spared from this fate, they were given equally brutal punishments by Zeus:

  • Cronos was cursed to aimlessly wander the Desert of Lost Souls with Pandora's Temple chained to his back, until the swirling sands ripped the flesh off of his bones.
  • Prometheus had been stripped of his immortality, chained to a rock, and forced to endure having his liver eaten everyday by a large eagle after he gave fire to the mortals.
  • Aegaeon the Hecatonchires broke his blood oath to Zeus and thus was later turned into a living prison for all oathbreakers by The Furies.
  • Typhon was trapped within an enormous mountain.
  • Atlas eventually was given the commission of keeping the balance between the earth and the Underworld stable.

However, the war was not without cost. Evils were born in the aftermath of the war which, left unchecked, would destroy all life. Zeus contained all of these evils within Pandora's Box, so that they could never menace anyone ever again. However, his daughter Athena feared that the box might one day be opened and sealed the power of Hope with all the evils to counteract them.

The brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades split the world apart. Zeus gained dominion over the heavens and became the king of the gods, Poseidon became the ruler of the seas, and Hades became the ruler of the Underworld. The gods would reign for thousands of years and be worshipped by the mortals, until one day a warrior would rise and defy the gods. This warrior would be known as Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta, who would succeed in ending their reign and their lives in the process.

Kratos' Vengeance[]

Kratos 8

Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta.

Kratos changed the events in history by learning of the Blade of Olympus and challenging Zeus for power. He was guided by Gaia, who told him of the history between the gods and the Titans. The Sisters of Fate were destroyed at the hands of Kratos, who altered time and history by using the Threads of Fate and going back in time to when the Great War began. There he met with Gaia, who claimed she had been expecting him. With the power of time, Kratos saved most of the Titans from being banished and brought them into his time to attack the Olympians in their weak state. Meanwhile, Zeus called upon the gods to assemble, declaring that together, they would defeat the threat of Kratos by putting aside their petty grievances. It was far too late, as the Titans had already begun climbing the mountain side of Olympus, with Kratos in tow, wielding the Blade of Olympus. And thus, the Second Great War had begun. Although the Gods apparently came victorious in their fight against the Titans, Kratos continued hunting the Olympians, killing them one by one before reaching Zeus. After killing his father, the Greek world had become an apocalyptic setting, with flooding, diseases, storms, and the missing sun. As such, it's assumed that the war ended with the deaths of all Greek Gods, except for Kratos and Athena.

Gallery[]

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