Almost nothing is known of Persephone before the events of the Theagony (war of the gods), though she was clearly no follower of the saviour-titans and seems to have been the favourite of the destroyer-titan Hades Zagreus. She is said to have participated indirectly in the fighting against the lesser gods. After the defeat of Typhon, she along with Hades surrendered to the saviour-titans and is said to have helped break his body and transform him into the physical shape of the underworld planes. From then on she ruled from her throne at the centre of the underworld, drawing the souls of deceased mortals away from the Earth above and keeping the dread denizens of those twilight realms contained beneath the earth.
Persephone is the patron and enforcer of the grave, who oversees the process of cleansing and purification of souls before their return to the mortal world and re-cycling into new mortal beings. Though a grim and unwelcome figure, she is widely venerated as a necessary force and a part of most funerary rites. She is bitterly and entirely opposed to the undead and those who create them. Her counterpart in the dwarven pantheon is
Dismater Fatirens Mortigur, the enforcer of fate who oversees the spinning of the life-thread of mortals.
Hecate is variously said to have been another name of Persephone, or a different figure who fought with her dread sorcery during the Theagony on the side of the betrayer-titans. Whatever the truth, she now dwells in the underworld, the patron of fiends and monsters, witches and other wicked users of magic, worshipped in arcane rites by those who seek to unlock forgotten - or forbidden - knowledge.
Appearance: Persephone is represented as a darkly ominous and majestic female ruler clad in black attire seated upon a throne, holding the bident (two-pronged scepter).
Hecate is is represented as a woman surrounded by monsters with three or more different faces - a beautiful young woman, a crone, a grinning vampire, a cold white porcelain mask - but with similar dark clothing.
Symbols: Persephone is symbolised by her
bident and
throne, as well as the
scales she uses to adjudicate the souls of the dead and the
three-headed dog who guards her realm.
Hecate is symbolised by a
mask and
torch of sorcery, and in her
triple-faced form, but is often to multifarious to be easily defined.
Personality: Persephone is a grim and forbidding character, whose heart is famously unfeeling and whose decisions are unbending and absolute.
Hecate has a off-putting and menacing aura and revels in the gruesome and the macabre. As a goddess of dark prophecy, she speaks in riddles and half truths which are often revealed in unexpected and tragic outcomes.
Game rules:
Persephone
| Alignment |
Cleric Domains |
Other |
| Lawful Neutral: Persephone applies the unbending law of death on all, good and evil alike. |
Grave, Death |
Persephone's clerics and paladins are numerous and entirely devoted to the destruction of the undead and the prevention of all forms of necromancy. |
Hecate
| Alignment |
Cleric Domains |
Other |
| Neutral Evil: Hecate is involved in the exploitation of power for power's sake, often that which arises from suffering. |
Arcana, Death |
Hecate is often worshipped by magic users who seek out forbidden knowledge, and her followers are usually the leaders of cults which aim to grant power to their leaders at the expense of others. |
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