Editing Darklord (section)

===Hercules===
Darklord of Olympus. Born the son of the High Priest of [[Zeus]] in a theocratic nation ruled over by a collective of seven temples to the Greek Gods - Zeus, [[Athena]], [[Aphrodite]], [[Hermes]], [[Ares]], [[Apollo]] and [[Hades]], the man now known only as Hercules earned great fame in his youth by speaking up against the brutal repression of the priest-lords and championing the rights of the oppressed commoners. Although originally he sought peace, the overwhelming corruption opposing him led him first to delving into the murky depths of politics, and finally into leading a full-blown revolution.

This angered the realm's rulers, the conclave of High Priests known as the Council of Seven, who came up with three plans to ruin Hercules. The High Priest of Zeus sent his son cursed gauntlets that would drive him into bloodthirsty rages under false pretence of truce. The High Priestess of Athena sought to summon a daemonic entity that would grant the Council magical powers that would allow them to crush the rebels and prove themselves the true "Voices of the Gods". Finally, the High Priestess of Aphrodite arranged for one of her serving girls to be sent to seduce Hercules, with the ultimate plan of disgracing him by tempting him into committing the blasphemous act of making love in the holy ground of the temple of Zeus.

They couldn't have expected that Dejanira, the girl chosen by the Voice of Aphrodite, would fall in love with Hercules and reveal the ploy to him. Any more than she could have expected for him to revile her as a traitorous seductress, but hide his loathing and use her to deliver a strike against the Council as they performed the summoning ritual. At the height of battle and ritual both, Hercules turned on Dejanira and stabbed her to death before throwing her into the center of the Council, then beating his father to death as he was paralyzed by the sudden influx of magical energies from the rite.

The Seven Voices of the Gods were transformed into quasi-daemons in their own right, and Hercules became the Darklord of the realm now called simply "Olympus".

Hercules is cursed both with the erratic and dangerous rages from his braces, and in that he is haunted by the terrifying spectre of Dejanira, who still loves him even in death. Worse still, his reputation continually sours due to his berserk rages.

The only way to kill Hercules for good is to force him, the six "Living Gods" of Olympus and the Forsaken One (the half-daemonic ghost of the High Priest of Zeus) to meet in the abandoned temple of Zeus and perform the fiend summoning ritual again. Only if Hercules allows himself to be sacrificed as part of the ritual will his curse be ended - which will also strip the Living Gods of their powers and make them mortal as well.

If Hercules wishes to seal the borders of Olympus, a titanic lightning storm envelops the domain, striking down any who attempt to escape.