Son of a god

Jacob_Wallace · Jul 22, 2014

I was thinking of writing a story in which Zeus has a child with a woman in a modern/futuristic setting. The child gets super strength and flight due to his heritage (strength because that seems to be what all the sons of Zeus get, and flight because Zeus is god of the skies). The kid wonders why he doesn't get lightning powers and is reminded that lightning bolts aren't Zeus's power, they're just weapons.

My question comes when he meets another demigod; the son of Hermes. I was thinking of making him a speedster, but wasn't sure if Hermes actually had speed or if that's just his boots. Would it plausible for a son of Hermes to have speed, since a son of Zeus didn't get lightning?

jennontheisland · Jul 22, 2014

You can do whatever you want as long as you come up with a way to justify it that is consistent. A bit more research (into Hermes and his boots) might help you sort that out.

Marlys · Jul 22, 2014

Sounds very like the Percy Jackson series--I haven't read it, but saw the first movie. It featured a bunch of kids who are children of gods and goddesses. You might check and see how the author (Rick Riordan) handles their inherited powers, if only to make sure you aren't too close to what he's already doing.

JackdeNileth · Jul 22, 2014

Yeah, the Percy Jackson series is really good at portraying demigods in the modern world, although it suffers from having to tell stories that span only a couple of days, which makes the development of the characters a bit ridiculous.

But it certainly can't hurt to read a similar story. He's also written a series about egyptian gods with the Kane chronicles.

Jacob_Wallace · Jul 22, 2014

jennontheisland said:
You can do whatever you want as long as you come up with a way to justify it that is consistent. A bit more research (into Hermes and his boots) might help you sort that out.

Yeah, I was trying to be consistent. That's why I asked if Hermes's speed was dependent on gear similar to Zeus. I tried to research it, but little turns up except for RPGs that have Hermes boots as gear.

And I'll look into Percy Jackson. Saw the first movie and it was meh.

Once! · Jul 22, 2014

Does this help?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes

My understanding is that Greek, Roman and Norse Gods had both powers and things like magical weapons. Wasn't Thor's hammer only usable by him? The Wikipedia article on Hermes suggest that his sandals helped him to be fast, but it wouldn't be beyond possibility that only Hermes could wear those sandals.

Imriaylde · Jul 22, 2014

Jacob_Wallace said:
Yeah, I was trying to be consistent. That's why I asked if Hermes's speed was dependent on gear similar to Zeus. I tried to research it, but little turns up except for RPGs that have Hermes boots as gear.

And I'll look into Percy Jackson. Saw the first movie and it was meh.

The books are way better than the movies! Definitely check them out. Your story sounds interesting, but I'm a sucker for children-of-gods stories

.

Hoplite · Jul 22, 2014

Once! said:
Does this help?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes

My understanding is that Greek, Roman and Norse Gods had both powers and things like magical weapons. Wasn't Thor's hammer only usable by him? The Wikipedia article on Hermes suggest that his sandals helped him to be fast, but it wouldn't be beyond possibility that only Hermes could wear those sandals.

Along the same line of thinking as what Once! said:

Your heroes could meet up with Hephaestus (or his child), and thus given the flying sandals and lighting bolt-weapons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hephaestus

King Neptune · Jul 22, 2014

Jacob_Wallace said:
I was thinking of writing a story in which Zeus has a child with a woman in a modern/futuristic setting. The child gets super strength and flight due to his heritage (strength because that seems to be what all the sons of Zeus get, and flight because Zeus is god of the skies). The kid wonders why he doesn't get lightning powers and is reminded that lightning bolts aren't Zeus's power, they're just weapons.

My question comes when he meets another demigod; the son of Hermes. I was thinking of making him a speedster, but wasn't sure if Hermes actually had speed or if that's just his boots. Would it plausible for a son of Hermes to have speed, since a son of Zeus didn't get lightning?

Hermes is the God of Merchants and Thieves, so his son might have business acumen.

Zoombie · Jul 22, 2014

There's also the fun but incredibly flawed tabletop RPG, Scion, which has multiple pantheons working together to fight the Titans in a secret war, relying on their demigod children to fight on Earth.

Pros: The children of Zeus, Thor, Bast and Quetzalcoatl can team up to punch Oni on motorcycles.

Cons: The people designing the powers for the characters thought they were making a brooding urban fantasy game, while the people writing the crunch for the Epic Attributes thought they were writing a superhero game.

But, still, it has pretty good writeups of a load of gods, supernatural critters, and how to get them all to punch each other through walls.

Son of a god

Jacob_Wallace

jennontheisland

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Marlys

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JackdeNileth

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Jacob_Wallace

Once!

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Imriaylde

Hoplite

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Zoombie

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