Characters / Hades - Other Characters

Hades and Hades II Main Character Index
Chthonic Gods (Zagreus | Hades) | Olympian Gods | Other Characters

The various non-deities, including demi-gods, monsters, and regular humans, that Zagreus and Melinoë have encountered on their travels.

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Introduced in Hades

Other Codex Characters

Allies

Achilles

Achilles

Forgotten Hero

Voiced by: Logan Cunningham

"...I see no reason to regale you with stories of my past. Suffice it that I fought, as bravely as I could, alongside many of the finest men the world has ever known. I buried far too many of them, and sent many others to this place, where now at last we are all peers."

—Codex Entry

The demi-god hero known for his role in the Trojan War. Achilles is famed for his strength in battle and near-invulnerability. After his death on the battlefield, his shade descended to the Underworld where he was eventually hired by Hades to train a young Zagreus in battle and military discipline. Ever since being hired, Achilles has made an effort to be a source of support and encouragement for Zagreus in the face of Hades's often harsh treatment.

Achilles is responsible for authoring all entries in the Codex, which he gave to Zagreus to provide information and guidance about the Underworld and the Olympian Gods.

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• Adaptational Heroism: He's a rather nice guy and one of the only genuinely heroic heroes we see. Not much like his hot headed, stubborn and even childish self from myth. The character of Briseis is also notably absent from his brief mention of his backstory where he instead refused to fight simply out of a lack of respect for his king rather than sulking because his favorite slave got taken away. It's implied he was more like his mythological version in the past, but grew out of it thanks to his time in the Underworld.
• Assist Character: He gifts the Chthonic Companion Antos once Zagreus bonds with both him and Patroclus and reunites them via paying off Achilles' contract, allowing the two of them to be summoned for an attack.
• Badass in Distress: In the sequel he is one of Chronos' captives.
• Bargain with Heaven: Achilles made a deal with Hades where he gave up his place in Elysium to Patroclus.
• Big Brother Mentor: Since Hades is so distant, Achilles fills the "older male role model" for Zagreus.
• Catchphrase: "Fear is for the weak." In most contexts, it sounds like a Badass Boast; however, in his writing of the Codex entry for Patroclus, it becomes a combination of Survival Mantra and Madness Mantra.
• Combination Attack: He's joined by Patroclus for his assist attack.
• The Comically Serious: Levelheaded, serious Achilles passionately loathes onions, and the game manages to wring a good amount of humor out of it. He even says in his codex entry regarding said vegetable that he would rather fade into nothingness than be required to eat an onion again.
• Devil's Job Offer: Upon his death, Hades approached him with a job offer to train his wayward son and guard the House of Hades. Achilles doesn't think twice to take it since one of the conditions was that Hades would grant Patroclus a place in Elysium.
• Does Not Like Spam: If the Red Onion codex entry is any indication, Achilles violently despises onions. Humorously, apparently he didn't know that you're supposed to cook them before you eat them.
• Drowning My Sorrows: It's possible for Zagreus to run across Achilles drinking in the House's lounge, and it's implied that this isn't a rare occurrence.
• Foil: To Patroclus. Fair-skinned and -haired, in contrast to Patroclus' darker tone, and when donning battle armor, his cape of choice is a light green to contrast Patroclus' dark green. Achilles, while much calmer in his afterlife, was famed for his Unstoppable Rage; Patroclus by contrast has almost completely shut down emotionally.
• Hope Is Scary: He repeatedly rebuffs Zagreus's offers to amend his contract and reunite him with Patroclus, fearing that Hades will discover he's breached part of his contract by telling Zagreus of it and punish Patroclus as a result.
• I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: His final codex entry on Poms of Power notes they apparently contain some magic called "antioxidants" but adds that knows little of it since he's a warrior, not a nutritionist.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Achilles gave up his place in Elysium to Patroclus, erasing any foreseeable chance to be Together in Death with Patroclus, with these intentions. He's utterly devastated to discover that Patroclus is absolutely miserable in Elysium.
• Love Hurts: He feels that Aphrodite may be the most powerful and dangerous of the gods. He's bitter as he is still in love with his past lover, but can't be together with him anymore, as he is in Elysium while Achilles himself is in the House of Hades.
• Madness Mantra: His Codex entry on Patroclus eventually devolves into repetitions of "fear is for the weak".
• Meaningful Name: His Chthonic Companion, Antos, is shaped like an ant. Meaningful because Achilles commanded the Myrmidons, a word interpreted as "ant-people". In some retellings, they were originally ants transformed into human soldiers.
• The Mentor: To Zagreus, after being assigned to train him.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Inverted: Achilles died and then became mentor to the protagonist, instead of the other way around.
• Not So Stoic: Having mellowed out quite a bit in death, he rarely ever looses his cool, but his facade visibly cracks whenever Patroclus is brought up by Zagreus.
• Older and Wiser: He's a lot more level-headed than he was in the Iliad, having learned where his anger and petulance lead him back in the Trojan War.
• Semi-Divine: Was born to the water goddess Thetis, who he mentions was the primary god he prayed to in life.
• Shipper on Deck
  • Achilles ships Zagreus with Thanatos so hard that he writes it into the codex.
  • Zagreus and Achilles have a conversation where Achilles encourages him to pursue both Megaera and Thanatos.
• Teacher/Student Romance: Achilles was employed by Hades to teach Zagreus the ways of combat. Zagreus can give Achilles multiple bottles of Nectar as gifts, to which Achilles responds by letting him down gently as even so long after his death, Achilles's heart still belongs to Patroclus.
• Took a Level in Kindness: His famous rage and pride have been tempered greatly by his death; the Achilles we meet in the game is calm and supportive. He refers back to his living days as an old shame.
• Too Upset to Create: Achilles writes all of the Codex entries. Patroclus's entry is uncharacteristically short and... unusual.
  ...Forgive me. It is not my place to say much of him, now. May his name yet live. May his soul bask forever in the glory of Elysium. No more. Fear is for the weak. Fear is for the weak. Fear is for the weak. Fear is for the weak.
  • Once you deepen your relationship with Patroclus, Achilles' entry on him expands, showing how heartbroken he is over binding himself to the House and sacrificing his place in Elysium so that Pat could be there instead, effectively separating the two of them with no chance of reuniting.:
    No more! I cannot risk it all. I cannot risk it all! I cannot risk it all, can I? I have risked everything already, have I not? Then, why not risk it all, again? Am I to risk it all? Why should I? For my own sake, at his own expense? Doubtless he drank already from the Lethe, and forgot. Would I have done the same? Would I do the same? Ah, life's final cruelty! That we still feel!'

Dusa

Dusa

Duty-Bound Gorgon

Voiced by: Courtney Vineys

"...A splendid House such as the Master's own requires a great deal of cleaning, and the little gorgon seems forever doomed to do it all herself. I sometimes offer my assistance, although it is here the little gorgon bares her fangs, refusing any help. That I can clearly see my own reflection in our polished countertops suggests she doesn't need it, either."

—Codex Entry

A severed Gorgon's head now working as the House of Hades's long-suffering maid. She has a painfully obvious crush on Zagreus, but can never express her feelings as a result of her severe social anxiety, and more importantly, her never-ending list of things that must be cleaned.

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• Assist Character: She gifts the Chthonic Companion Fidi upon the House of Hades getting enough renovations and being given an Ambrosia, which allows her to be summoned for a homing petrifying projectile barrage attack.
• Better as Friends: The conclusion she comes to at the end of her romance arc. She does love Zagreus and admits he's one of the nicest people in the House of Hades, but she's just not attracted to him in the romantic way. They choose to remain friends, but their level of mutual respect and platonic love is still plenty strong.
• Butt-Monkey: Almost all of her appearances involve her being victim to yet more grueling work, or suffering a severe bout of social anxiety, particularly when talking to Zagreus.
• Celibate Hero: As it turns out, she may or may not be aromantic, as she admits to Zagreus that she doesn't like him that way, though she certainly does enjoy his company. Even if platonic, her love is just as important to Zagreus as Meg's and Than's, should they develop a relationship.
• Covert Pervert: When romancing Thanatos, Dusa admits to Zagreus that she has been imagining the things they do together and flies off before going into detail about it.
• Cute Monster Girl: Her demeanor and friendly, non-threatening design really helps reduce her inherent freakiness and the fact that she's a floating severed head with snake hair.
• Damsel in Distress: She's one of Chronos's captives in the sequel.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Achilles notes that he's offered to help her clean, but she just bared her teeth at him and refused.
• Endearingly Dorky: Zagreus certainly thinks so, as he progresses in his relationship with her. But it turns out she's just not attracted to him (or anyone, for that matter) in that way, so they decide they're Better as Friends.
• Flying Face: She's just a floating Gorgon head, not counting her snakes' heads.
• Gorgeous Gorgon: Gorgons are classically described as hideous monsters. Dusa meanwhile is downright adorable.
• Heart Symbol: She'll start emitting floating hearts if Zagreus gets close, before quickly retreating into the rafters.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: She balks at the idea of Zagreus even talking to her, much less reciprocating her crush. If you do attempt to romance her, she ends up deciding they're Better as Friends.
• Interspecies Romance: She's a gorgon with a crush on Zagreus, a god. The player can even choose to have Zagreus reciprocate and romance her, though they eventually agree to just remain close friends after Dusa realizes she's not actually interested in Zagreus that way.
• Just Friends: Actually subverted despite Dusa being aromantic. Her relationship track is narratively treated as if it's no more or less important than the romance tracks. The relationship is treated as possessing the same level of mutual trust, devotion, and emotional intimacy, and the fact that the relationship is ultimately not romantic doesn't affect how central their bond is to Zagreus' life and identity. He can actually get into a brief fight with a romanced Thanatos over the implication that Dusa should be less important to him than anyone else in his life. (Thanatos apologizes and assures him that it was a miscommunication.)
• Loving a Shadow: Defied. If Zagreus romances her and maxes out her bond level, she realizes that she had a crush on her idea of Zagreus, rather than him as a person. After getting to know the real him, this is heavily downplayed until she realizes she does (platonically) love him.
• Married to the Job:What's her first reason for turning down Zagreus? A relationship would cut into time she could spend on work.
• Medusa: She is heavily implied to be the decapitated head of Medusa herself, though she seems very embarrassed about the whole thing. If Zagreus asks her if she used to have a body, she gets flustered and says some vague things about how she's a very different person than she used to be.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: She's a friendly version of the Gorgon head enemies Zagreus encounters in Asphodel. If Zagreus defeats the Asphodel mini-boss, a gigantic Gorgon head, he'll occasionally snark of how Dusa possibly knows her. He'll later ask if she knows the gorgon heads in Asphodel and if it's alright for him to be slaying them, her response being that they're only related in the loosest sense of the word and she couldn't care less what happens to them.
• Mysterious Past: Achilles notes in the codex that not only is Dusa's history unknown to the denziens of the House (other than that she's not one of Asphodel's Gorgons), but Hades has actually forbidden any further investigation into it. It's implied that she's the severed head of Medusa herself, but she's very tight-lipped about her past and she only makes vague comments about how she's not the same person she used to be.
• Nervous Wreck: Everytime Zagreus approaches, she gets startled, blustered and shy. She opens up, but it will take a lot of talks before she stops zipping away the moment Zagreus says anything to her.
• Nice Girl: A very sweet gorgon who's always there to lend Zagreus a hand- never mind.
• Odd Friendship: She gets along surprisingly well with Meg as they sometimes can be seen gossiping in the lounge area. When asking about her sisters, Meg tells Dusa she's more of a sister to her than her actual sisters.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: While it can be inferred she's the Medusa, everyone just calls her Dusa and she prefers that name. Given she doesn't want to talk about her history, it's very likely simply going by Dusa is a means of distancing herself from her past as Medusa.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Or rather, "Best Friends For Eternity!" in their own words. The game treats it just the same as Zagreus' romantic partnerships with Megaera and Thanatos.
• Punny Name: Dusa is a maid. Maid-Dusa. You may groan now.
• Shipper on Deck: Wholeheartedly supports Zagreus' relationships with Thanatos and Meg. If summoned against Meg while romancing her, Dusa will say she hates seeing them fighting.
• Shout-Out:
  • A severed, flying gorgon head? Sounds like a regular mook inside Count Dracula's Castle. She implies in one conversation that the other Gorgon heads in Asphodel were born from her blood. While Medusa's blood did birth monsters in Greek myth, the creation of living, severed Gorgon heads from her blood is a distinct creation of the Castlevania series.
  • From another Konami property. The keepsake Medusa gifts Zagreus is a Harpy feather duster.
• Snake Talk: Defied. If asked about the other gorgons' unintelligible hissing, she says it's actually really hard not to hiss while speaking with a forked tongue, and she worked very hard to learn how so as to fit in better with the other residents of the House.
• That Man Is Dead: Dusa makes it clear that she doesn't want to think about the kind of person she was when she was alive, much preferring her current circumstances.
• Workaholic: Achilles notes she's assiduous in her duties and takes a great amount of pride in her work, as can be witnessed by the lack of dust anywhere in the House of Hades. There's a brief subplot where Nyx has Dusa laid off because Dusa tries to get so many things done that while the tasks are finished, they're slipshod and not very good; essentially, focusing on quantity of tasks over quality. When Dusa is brought back (thanks to Zagreus), being laid off made Dusa realize just how tired she truly was and how she'd been overworking herself, and so genuinely makes an effort to take a more balanced approach. It works too, as Dusa is eventually promoted to Chief Custodian of the house.
• Youthful Freckles: A closer inspection of her character portrait shows she has small freckles going across her face and she definitely acts younger than she may look. Given her reptilian design, the “freckles” may actually be an artistic representation of her scales.

Orpheus

Orpheus

Court Musician

Voiced by: Michael Ailshie (Non-Singing Voice), Darren Korb (Singing Voice)

"...No one sings a sweeter, sadder song than Orpheus, who, if I'm to understand correctly, is among the only mortals who once ventured down into the Underworld, and returned to tell the tale. He now resides among us permanently, ever mournful of what could have been."

—Codex Entry

A legendary musician who once ventured into the underworld, attempting to retrieve his wife and muse Eurydice after her untimely death. Though Orpheus failed, after his eventual death he was hired by Hades to be the court musician within the House. Unfortunately, the loss of Eurydice has stripped Orpheus of any desire to sing.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Eurydice calls him "Orphy" after she and Orpheus are allowed to see each other again.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: Orpheus was renowned in ancient myths for his beautiful songs that drove people to tears. He's treated the same here as well, mystifying the House of Hades with his singing.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Looks very much like The Cure's Robert Smith, with the gloomy personality to match too.
• The Eeyore: Starts out as this, being completely unmotivated to sing. It takes repeated interactions with Zagreus to get him to open up.
• Foil: To Eurydice, reflected in their attire and general mood. Orpheus is gloomy and depressed, completely unmotivated to even do the thing he loved to do the most, and he has completely let himself go due to the loss of his muse. The starkest contrast is in the way he sings 'Good Riddance', which sounds more like a lament.
• Hero-Worshipper: Quite literally, as not only is Zagreus a god, but also a central figure in Orphism. Unfortunately for Zagreus, it's all based on a nonsense story he told Orpheus, never expecting that Orpheus would turn it into the central lore of a Mystery Cult.
• Interspecies Romance: He's a human who was married to Eurydice, an oak nymph. They can get back together if Zagreus befriends both of them and lifts Orpheus' contract.
• In the Hood: Initially shared a sprite with Sisyphus and Nyx, with some minor facial differences. This sprite was removed in the "Superstar" update and replaced with a unique one.
• Looks Like Cesare: His new look has sunken, pale skin and extremely unruly hair. According to Eurydice this sounds like a (relatively) newer look for him, as she describes him as having curly hair and a nice tan when they were together, much to Zagreus's surprise.
• Loving a Shadow: When Zagreus first brings back news of Eurydice, Orpheus mostly doesn't care. As long as he has his tragic memories of Eurydice, what has actually happened to her since doesn't concern him. Zagreus is quite baffled at being told this. However this is subverted as he feels this way due to believing that he has failed her completely so she is better off without him and is actually unable to visit her because of the pact that binds him to Hades. If Zagreus befriends both of them, he can help them reunite.
• My Greatest Failure: His failed attempt to rescue Eurydice from the underworld. He was supposed to lead her to the surface without looking at her. It almost worked: at the last moment, doubting that she was really following him, Orpheus turned back... and Eurydice, who really had been there all along, vanished.
  Orpheus: "...And, anyways, I oughtn't have looked back, I mean, the moral of the story is to not look back when you are told not to look back, you understand, don't you, my friend?"
• No Badass to His Valet: Despite his meek demeanour, Orpheus still refuses to sing on demand for Hades. Presumably he no longer fears his master's punishment since losing Eurydice.
• Stealing the Credit: Subverted. Eurydice reveals that a lot of Orpheus' songs were originally hers, but when Zagreus asks him about it, Orpheus reveals that he did his best to give her proper credit and people just wouldn't listen.
• Super Gullible: Zagreus likes to tell tall stories to Orpheus, as it tends to cheer him up. This backfires on him when he tells Orpheus that he and the god Dionysus are one and the same. Orpheus is so awed by this that he composes the Hymn to Zagreus in response. And even when Zagreus tries to come clean, Orpheus just assumes he's being humble.
• Too Upset to Create: He's too broken up over Eurydice to even sing, much less compose, which is why Hades had him placed in solitary confinement shortly before the game.

Sisyphus and Bouldy

Sisyphus

Tormented Soul

...

Voiced by: Andrew Marks

"...Most of those who earn the highest form of punishment in Tartarus committed acts I hesitate to commit to the page, though Sisyphus is an exception to the rule."

—Codex Entry

The former king of Corinth, Sisyphus twice cheated death before his misdeeds caught up with him. Sent to Tartarus, he was sentenced to forever roll a boulder up a mountain, only for the boulder to inevitably slip from his grasp and roll down to the bottom again. Normally forced into his routine by the whips of the Furies, Zagreus's recent escape attempts have left them with little time to keep watch and allowed Sisyphus the occasional rest, during which he can occasionally be met by Zagreus during runs through Tartarus. He's also become attached to his boulder, which he's nicknamed Bouldy.

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• Assist Character: He gifts the Chthonic Companion Shady upon being pardoned, which allows him and Bouldy to be summoned for a brief attack and some healing. Notably, his companion is the only one of the six that can be used to attack Hades (Skelly's can also be used as a distraction) before he gives the permission for the others to be used on him.
• Anti-Nihilist: He has accepted his pointless labor to the point of actually befriending the boulder he's forever forced to push, and is cheerful and friendly as a result.
• The Atoner: In the Greek myths, Sisyphus was a complete and total bastard. His crimes included robbery, spousal abuse, murder, violating Sacred Hospitality, attempting to kill his brother, seducing his niece, and being a tattle-tale on one of Zeus's affairs. Although these actions aren't directly mentioned in the game, Sisyphus does admit that he did a lot of bad things when he was alive, but his long and extended punishment in Tartarus has shown him the error of his ways and made him far kinder and friendlier. Zagreus has the option of deciding that he has atoned and can commute his sentence.
• Badass Normal: He's not a god or someone with powers, but his time spent with Bouldy has made him very strong.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: After repeated interactions with Sisyphus, Zagreus can talk to Hades and Meg about alleviating his sentence and ultimately purchase his pardon. For showing such kindness, Sisyphus rewards him with one of the elusive Chthonic Companions, which lets him and Bouldy come to Zag's aid when activated.
• The Cameo: In Hades II, Sisyphus is nowhere to be found following Chronos' takeover of the Underworld. But Bouldy will be right where he left him, as Sisyphus asked Bouldy to keep Hades company. Although perplexed by the gesture, Melinoe can feel a strange amount of energy within Bouldy, who is referred to as a "Strange Rock" and has since grown "hair" and a "beard" made of moss.
• Chained by Fashion: He's chained to Bouldy, and the chains feature on both his model and sprite.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He's gone somewhat loopy over time.
• Companion Cube: Having spent eternity pushing the same boulder, Sisyphus has begun referring to the rock as "Bouldy" and treats it as his life companion and closest confidante. It helps that Bouldy has markings on it that resemble a face, though it's not clear if they're natural or if Sisyphus added them himself.
• Forbidden Friendship: Sisyphus is barred from speaking to Zagreus and faces threats from both Megaera and Thanatos for ignoring the ban. Achilles's codex notes that the ban was enacted some time before the events of the game, when Hades first discovered his son's sympathies for Tartarus's most infamous prisoner.
• Gentle Giant: He's as kind and jovial as he is jacked.
• Heroic Build: Remarkably broad-shouldered and muscular, but then again, he has been shoving a huge rock around for ages.
• I Choose to Stay: After Zagreus releases Sisyphus from the terms of his contract, Sisyphus chooses to stay right where he is. Mostly because he doesn't want to go anywhere without Bouldy. Fortunately, with his sentence commuted, he can push Bouldy all day now without being whipped by the Furies. That and he likes being able to help out Zagreus whenever he can.
• In the Hood: Shared the look with Orpheus and Nyx until the "Welcome to Hell" update.
• Ironic Hell: His punishment can be boiled down to doing a pointless task that he cannot succeed no matter how hard and how long he tries, which also applies to one of his last and most significant crimes, trying to cheat death.
• Manipulative Bastard: Used to be one in his life, and the rest of the gods are of the opinion that he still is one, trying to worm his way into Zagreus' heart so he can escape his eternal punishment. There are hints that some of his cunning nature still remains; when Zagreus asks him how Sisyphus managed to get a hold of the goods he regularly offers the prince, he offhandedly mentions that he knows a lot of the other shades and somehow gets them to relinquish their stuff, believing that it would be safer with him than with them.
• Misery Builds Character: An eternity of pushing Bouldy has turned him into an impossibly optimistic Anti-Nihilist.
• Nice Guy: Never has anything but a kind word whenever Zagreus drops in, and gives you a free choice between health, money or darkness. He's even friendly towards Bouldy and The Furies despite being his eternal punishment.
• Noodle Incident: Details of Sisyphus' life as a mortal tend to be left rather scant, compared to the fleshing out of Orpheus and Achilles' pasts. Zagreus meets Sisyphus after he had already been humbled and become The Atoner, and he's only given a few vague details of what he did to earn himself such a brutal punishment. ^explanationAccording to the myths, Sisyphus killed his guests just because he could, which violates Xenia, broke an oath to Zeus, temporary halted the flow of death for all mortals by tricking and chaining Thanatos, horrified Ares when people started to not die in battlefields and cheated death twice before being finally dragged down to Tartarus.
• The Power of Friendship: Get enough affinity with him and you get a Chthonic Companion that can summon him and drop Bouldy on top of an enemy while also scattering money, darkness and healing items. Zagreus can ask him about this later personally; Sisyphus is no deity, and is definitely still bound to Tartarus. Sisyphus concludes it must simply be because of their personal bond as well as Zagreus's own divine power making their friendship a tangible force.
• Prisons Are Gymnasiums: They are for him, as he is the stoutest, most muscular non-god in the game (and even a lot of them are smaller than his physique). Pushing that boulder uphill didn't just build his character.
• The Problem with Fighting Death: The reason he ended up in Tartarus, having talked his way out of Hades by tricking Persephone and imprisoned Thanatos until Ares rescued him.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Sisyphus had turned over a new leaf long before the game starts; but since reformation was never the intention of his punishment, and many of the gods doubt it's even genuine, his eternal torment continues until Zagreus manages to grant him a reprieve.
• Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Knowing his history, most of the gods suspect that Sisyphus hasn't really changed and is just manipulating Zagreus to worm his way out of Tartarus. Sisyphus's change of heart proves to be entirely sincere. Not only does he expect nothing in return for his assistance, but he opts to remain in Tartarus after Zagreus commutes his sentence.
• Stout Strength: Seriously, look how wide this guy's muscles are.
• Tailor-Made Prison: He cheated death once by tricking Thanatos, so now he has to push a rock up a hill for all eternity.
• The Voiceless: Zagreus can talk to Bouldy following the "Welcome to Hell" update. He doesn't talk back. Giving him Nectar, on the other hand, will provide Zagreus with a minor bonus for the rest of the run.
• What Does She See in Him?: When he finds out Zagreus is pursuing, or in a relationship with either Megaera or Thanatos, Sisyphus admits he doesn't quite understand the prince's tastes in partners. Especially those two, who don't hide how much they despise Sisyphus's very existence. However, he doesn't judge Zagreus and is just happy to see the prince happy with someone who loves him.

Eurydice

Eurydice

Carefree Muse

Voiced by: Francesca Hogan (Non-Singing Voice), Ashley Barrett (Singing Voice)

"...Mortality and immortality are closer than most gods care to believe. There are such minor gods as can be killed. So it is with nymphs, and all the naiads and the dryads and the like, the spirits of the woods, and seas, and skies; in life, they captivate our mortal senses and imagination, but in death, we all are more alike. The nymph Eurydice, born of the oak itself, must know this better than her kind."

—Codex Entry

Orpheus's ex-wife, famously trapped in Hades following her husband's failed attempt at rescuing her from the Underworld. Destined to the Meadows of Asphodel, having lived a life neither particularly heroic nor depraved, Eurydice has attempted to make the best of a bad situation and set herself up with a small place in an island on the river Phlegethon, where Zagreus may occasionally encounter her. She will offer Zagreus a choice of three unique items when encountered.

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• Amicable Exes: Downplayed example. She's not really angry or bitter towards Orpheus, but mostly doesn't care about him anymore. If both are befriended through gifts of Nectar, it's possible to reconcile the two but Eurydice is still generally happy in her abode in Asphodel.
• Foil: To Orpheus. Despite losing everything due to her death, Eurydice is one of the most upbeat people in the game. She dresses in bright colours, adorned with leaves despite literally being in the realm of death, and she finds joy and productivity through her music and cooking. The way she sings 'Good Riddance' even sounds happy, with the implication that she can let go of the past with all that she has lost.
• Interspecies Romance: She's an oak nymph who was married to Orpheus, a human. They can get back together if Zagreus befriends them both and lifts Orpheus' contract.
• Leitmotif: "Good Riddance", which Eurydice will be singing whenever Zagreus drops by. If both are befriended beyond level 5, Orpheus will learn the song as well and sing it in the House of Hades.
• Life Will Kill You: Compared to other shades who died in fierce battle or by drawing the ire of the gods, Eurydice remarks on how out of the blue and mundane her own death was, having been bitten by a venomous snake.
• Nature Spirit: Has bark-like skin and hair that looks like a tree, and is stated to be a nymph by the codex. Zagreus specifies she's an oak nymph when talking to Hades about her history with Orpheus, which certainly explains her acorn accessories and keepsake.
• Nice Girl: She's quite fond of Zag and is always very sweet and supportive of him when they interact.
• Our Nymphs Are Different: Eurydice explains to Zagreus that nymphs are basically "gods that can die and age". Achilles' codex states that they tend to embody different aspects of nature, with Eurydice herself being associated with oak trees.
• Oral Fixation: She constantly has a twig with oak leaves on it in her mouth.
• Plant Hair: She has a tree growing out of her head in a way that looks like hair.
• Power-Up Food: Her food grants power upgrades to Zagreus. The three dishes she offers (respectively) upgrade two random boons to the next rarity, increase the levels of four random boons by one, or make the next three boons Zagreus finds have upgraded rarities.
• Supreme Chef: Her offered items are all food, and Zagreus frequently remarks on how good it is. She implies she uses Nectar she is gifted in her cooking.
• Tsundere: Claims to be just fine with herself and how things ended, but does so just a bit too insistently. There's also some beautiful analyses of her half of "Good Riddance" that suggest she hasn't been as successful at letting go of the past as she'd like Zagreus to think.

Patroclus

Patroclus

Fallen Warrior

Voiced by: Ben Prendergast

"...Forgive me. It is not my place to say much of him, now. May his name yet live. May his soul bask forever in the glory of Elysium."

—Codex Entry

Achilles's former friend and lover, and his companion through the Trojan War that made the latter famous. Slain by Hector during the War, Patroclus was given eternal paradise in Elysium. Though without his beloved there to join him, he's become despondent and apathetic. He can occasionally be encountered by Zagreus during runs through Elysium, brooding in his eternal paradise and offering Zagreus a choice of three unique items when encountered.

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• 1-Up: He'll give Zagreus the option to replenish all his Death Defiances.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • He always addresses Zagreus as "Stranger". At first out of apathy, but over time it begins to sound like this trope. Achilles all but confirms it, explaining that this is just Patroclus' way and that he has far less flattering names for people he doesn't like.
    Patroclus: And... I'm Patroclus, by the way. I'm realizing now... we've not officially met. It's good to know you, Zagreus. Stranger.
  • On the receiving end from Achilles, whom refers to Patroclus as "Pat" once they are reunited.
• Combination Attack: He joins Achilles for his assist attack.
• Defrosting Ice King: He'll ever so slightly warm up to Zagreus if repeatedly spoken to.
• Deliverance from Damnation: He was originally going to be sent to Asphodel or even Tartarus^note Patroclus, as a child, murdered another kid in anger over a game and was taken by his father to Phthia to escape punishment, but Achilles signed a pact which would allow him to take his place in Elysium.
• Despair Event Horizon: He's close to reaching his by the time Zagreus encounters him. The river he sits on the shore of is the Lethe, and it's implied that he's mustering the courage to drink from it and have all his memories wiped away. Reuniting him with Achilles pulls him back from the brink.
  Patroclus: ...It's all forgettable, with just a single drink, and yet, I always hesitate...
• Drowning My Sorrows: If Zagreus gifts him multiple Nectar bottles, Patroclus will note they're only good for him temporarily forgetting his sorrows, but eventually thanks Zagreus for the gift anyway.
• The Eeyore: Being in Elysium without Achilles has left him in a very sour mood. When Zagreus first meets him, he's very gloomy and pessimistic, since he feels out of place in a part of the afterlife that's mainly populated by "heroes" who got there by killing a lot of people in the name of glory. He becomes more cheerful if he's reunited with Achilles.
• Foil: To Achilles. Dark-skinned and -haired, in contrast to Achilles' fairer tone, and when donning battle armor, his cape of choice is a dark green to contrast Achilles' light green. Achilles, while much calmer in his afterlife, was famed for his Unstoppable Rage; Patroclus by contrast has almost completely shut down emotionally.
• Hell of a Heaven: Patroclus ended up in Elysium, pretty much the ideal Greek afterlife. He's miserable there because all he has for company are "heroes" who he sees as bloodthirsty brutes and because he's separated from his lover Achilles.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Never gives his name and is simply referred to as '???' unless Zagreus (and by extension the player) looks up the new character in the Codex and discovers his identity. Zagreus will then use his name.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Almost entirely emotionless, implied to be a combination of trauma from the Trojan War and being separated from Achilles.
• Straw Nihilist: Seems to have almost entirely lost the desire to do anything.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: He spends most of the game as a very gloomy Shell-Shocked Veteran, but he becomes more cheerful if he's reunited with Achilles. He even gets a new sprite where he's smiling slightly and standing up straighter, as opposed to his original sprite where he's sitting hunched over with no emotion on his face at all.
• You Are Worth Hell: Being in Elysium without Achilles is one of the reasons he is extremely miserable despite being in paradise. You can eventually fix this by reuniting him with Achilles.

Cerberus

Cerberus

Hound of Hell

Voiced by: Solo, Higgins, Regis & Marzipan (all dogs)

"...The fearsome multi-headed hound of hell is really not so bad as his deserved reputation otherwise would lead you to believe. Yes, the massive beast has feasted on no short supply of interlopers to the Underworld, or on those attempting to escape. However, tales of the number of his heads are oft exaggerated, and in his old age, his temperament has grown much more relaxed."

—Codex Entry

The three-headed guardian of the Underworld who patrols the banks of the Styx to prevent anyone outside from entering or anyone inside from leaving. Despite his fearsome reputation, he's mellowed somewhat with age and has been recalled to the House of Hades where he now serves more as a house pet than anything.

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• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: He's a dog whose fur is bright red, and each of his heads has a green nose and a tongue with an orange-to-yellow gradient.
• Assist Character: With Extreme Measures 4 active, in his second phase, Hades can summon Cerberus the same way Zagreus can summon his friends through the Chthonic Companions, shocking him the first time he does it. Cerberus runs through the gates of the Temple of Styx, trampling everything in his path, while also raining meteors behind him and howling.
  Hades: Now, Cerberus!!
  Zagreus: What?!
• Beat the Curse Out of Him: In the sequel, he's corrupted by Chronos and has to be fought as a Body Horror boss in the Fields of Mourning. Beating them will thankfully purge the corruption and revert him back to his normal self.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He might be a big and adorable, old pup, but there's a good reason why Cerberus is feared by the souls of the Underworld. His boss fight in II has him as the second-to-last boss on the route to Tartarus, where he's a very powerful Mighty Glacier with a wide array of magic attacks.
• Big Friendly Dog: Cerberus spends less time being the Underworld's dreaded guardian and more being a big, goofy dog.
  • He loves Zagreus to the point of having destroyed the lounge when he left on his first attempt to leave the Underworld, and is loyal to Hades as well; it's even speculated in the game's Codex that Cerberus is the 'sole source of comfort' for Hades.
  • A portrait of Cerberus that you can buy for the West Wing shows that he even played with Zagreus, Thanatos and Megaera when they were very young.
  • The "Big Bad" patch unlocked the ability for Zagreus to pet Cerberus.
  • In 2 this is slightly less the case, as he and Melinoë don't have enough rapport for him to extend any affection to her, though he's content to lounge near Hades in his chamber once he's purged of his corruption and leave her be provided she doesn't bother the hellhound.
• Body Horror: In Hades 2, Cerberus is corrupted by Chronos' cancerous influence on the Underworld, rooting the dog's lower body to the ground, causing his front paws to become swollen and and covered in eyes. He's also lost all his fur and is covered in mange, zits, and sagging skin. He's implied to be in constant pain as he's made to lash out against Melinoë. Luckily, he'll be reverted to normal once you defeat him, with the victory screen stating, "BEAST SOOTHED".
• Canis Major: A very large three-headed hound who has one of the largest sprites in the game.
• Continuity Nod: It's stated in the first game that while Cerberus is undeniably loyal to and loves Hades, the only person in the Underworld who can pet him is Zagreus. The sequel doesn't change this when his younger sister, who Cerberus has had no time to form a bond with, enters the picture. Even once he's calmed down and by his master's side, he still won't tolerate her approaching for pets.
• Cuteness Proximity: Anytime Zagreus returns to the House of Hades, he has the option of petting Cerberus' head all while affectionately cooing at the dog.
• Deathbringer the Adorable: The narrator always describes Cerberus as a horrifying monster who lets no one pass into or out of the Underworld. The creature we see is huge but adorable. Achilles notes in Cerberus' Codex entry that the stories about how fearsome he is are often exaggerated, and he's also mellowed out over time.
  Narrator: "The burning embers in the eyes of monstrous Cerberus, notorious Hound of Hell, reveal that he, too, is amenable to pets of which the underworld prince speaks, and in fact is deeply grateful of the quantity of them.'''
• Face–Monster Turn: In the sequel, Chronos corrupts Cerberus and transforms him into a grotesque beast that serves as the third boss. Thankfully the change is reversed whenever Mel defeats Cerberus.
• Food as Bribe: To get past Cerberus, Zagreus needs to give him a disgusting sack filled with something putrid as an offering. Thankfully, Cerberus at least wanders off somewhere dark and secluded to eat it.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: He's supposed to be the guardian of the Underworld, who never lets a single soul pass. But Zagreus can bribe him time and again with some food in a Satyr sack, which Cerberus always accepts. Justified in that Cerberus is loyal to Zagreus, so he is more inclined to look the other way for near-family provided there is compensation.
• Hell Hound: His title, though he doesn't live up to it much anymore as far as Hades's household are concerned, due to mellowing out with age. He does still faithfully guard the gates of the underworld every time Zagreus makes a run for the surface, comes bounding playfully to Hades's aid in the latter's Extreme Measures battle, and, in the sequel, when corrupted by the Fields of Mourning, he sends hellfire every which way while lashing out in rage.
• Incompetent Guard Animal: Justified. Zagreus can get past him with a snack bribe, but he's also one of Cerberus's masters. He might not be so lenient with a stranger.
• Morality Pet: To Hades. Outside of a few Benevolent Boss moments, Cerberus is about the only being he treats with care and respect.
• Multiple Head Case: Whilst Cerberus can't talk, it's clear each head possesses its own personality or at least embodies certain moods more than the others; the center head is always laid out on the floor (or bedding), for instance, and only the left one ever receives pets (and even then, apparently only from Zagreus and maybe Hades).
  Zagreus: If I don't pet your other heads, don't bite my arm off, deal?
• Non-Standard Character Design: He reuses his old Hades model after freeing him from Chronos's control in II, which means he looks less detailed and less articulate compared to the rest of the game's models.
• NPC Roadblock: Cerberus appears in the final area barring the exit from the Underworld. However, he and Zagreus refuse to hurt each other; instead, Zagreus looks around the Temple to find a snack to bribe him with.
• Trademark Favorite Food: What little we know of Satyr Sacks is that their contents are disgusting, they probably include offal, and that Cerberus absolutely loves them to the point of temporarily neglecting his otherwise unbreakable duties. Even giant, hellish three-headed dogs enjoy eating the grossest thing available, it seems.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • To Zagreus, to the point that Hades knows it's pointless to try and use Cerberus to keep him from escaping. When Zagreus escaped the first time, Cerberus got so upset he wrecked Hades's lounge.
  • To Hades himself, of course. In Hades II, after being free of Chronos's hold with Melinoë's help, he immediately runs off to Tartarus and reunites with the enslaved Hades. He guards his master very vigilantly and won't even allow Mel to pet him.
• The Unfought:
  • Invoked. He guards the exit of the Temple of Styx, but Zagreus can't even bring himself to fight against him. Hell, should you strike him, there's going to be a shield that forms. Zagreus then tries to find a way to give the dog a treat in order to pass.
  • Zigzagged on Extreme Measures. If you empower Hades with Extreme Measures 4, he can summon Cerberus in the same manner as Zagreus uses Chthonic Companions to summon his friends to assist him. Cerberus won't attack Zagreus directly, but he will run across the arena, causing meteors to fall in his wake.
  • In the sequel, this is averted, you are forced to fight him after he's mutated into a grotesque monstrosity by Chronos.
• Video Game Caring Potential: A small bit from the "Big Bad" update specifically involves giving the option to pet Cerberus. You don't get any gameplay or story benefits for doing this (outside of needing to pet Cerberus 20 times to unlock the ability to max his affection gauge, which itself has no gameplay or story benefits), it's simply there so that Zagreus can show his love for the big guy. Averted in II however, where Cerberus does not let Melinoe pet him.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Cerberus is duty-bound to keep anyone from entering or leaving the Underworld, and usually enforces this by ravenously devouring anything foolish enough to get near the Temple of Styx (when he's not sleeping by Hades' side). He is still a dog, though, and he loves Zagreus enough to make an exception, if he's given his snack of satyr offal.

Skelly/Schelemeus

Skelly/Schelemeus

Training Dummy

Training Master (Hades II)

Voiced by: Darren Korb

"...The animated skeleton and I, we seldom get along. He is too talkative for me, and spouts such simple condescensions to all those in earshot, seemingly as though he were an expert in the ways of war. I disapprove of his reckless advice, and am uncertain as to who he was in life, to be so self-assured in death."

—Codex Entry

A mysterious bloodless (a skeleton) who appears in Zagreus's weapon room. He aids Zagreus in learning the use of weaponry (by letting the prince test them out on him) and claims to be hired by someone who wants to help the prince escape.

He returns in Hades II under the name Schelemeus, and takes the role of Melinoë's combat instructor/training dummy as before with Zagreus.

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• Artistic License – Biology: Skelly is presumably the reanimated skeleton of a normal human, but his ribcage is absolutely massive and doesn't narrow at the neck.
• Assist Character: He gifts the Chthonic Companion Rib upon being "slain" and given an Ambrosia, which allows him to be summoned to draw every enemy's aggression away from Zag as long as his own health permits. It even works on Hades.
• Brick Joke: One that goes across games no less! In Hades he jokingly claims he was a naval commander named Schelemeus, which is his name in Hades II.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Zagreus gets him to tell who he is working for by declaring he will never hurt him again if he does not say it, which would render his existence meaningless.
  Zagreus: What if I never hit you again?
  Skelly: Uh... no...?
  Zagreus: So help me, Skelly, if you don't tell me who you're working for, there will be no more violence between us, ever.
  Skelly: No... please, have mercy, boyo...
  Zagreus: No mercy, Skelly. Tell me. Or else... it will be only pleasantries between us from here on out.
• Dem Bones: Is a skeleton, although his sprite shows he has visible eyes and other details other bloodless do not.
• Due to the Dead: As can be seen in this profile's picture, he has an obol for Charon in his jaws, almost replacing his tongue in his fleshless appearance.
• Expy: He has many similarities to Hanbei the Undying from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, including a request to end his immortal life.
• Fan Boy: While not obnoxious about it, he's a fan of Thanatos, and he's quite pleased if Zagreus summons him when Than and Zag have a body count competition.
• Foreshadowing: Skelly has a Charon Obol in his mouth. Bodies were buried with an Obol to pay the toll to cross the river Styx, but since Skelly is already in Tartarus he shouldn't have it anymore. It's a sign that Charon is the one paying him.
• Friendly Skeleton: He fits most of the trope to a tee, although he doesn't play his ribcage like an instrument.
• The Gadfly: He goes out of his way to prank Zagreus because he finds the other's somewhat naive reactions to be hilarious. He pretended to want death just so he could shock Zagreus when he came back. Zagreus of course was less than amused and threatened to stop using Skelly as a practice dummy.
• Hey, You!: He all but exclusively addresses Zagreus, son of Hades and Prince of the Underworld, as "boyo".
• Irony: During his introduction, Skelly states that if Zagreus wants to know who his employer is, Zagreus would have to beat it out of Skelly. Zagreus gets him to spill the beans by doing the exact opposite: Zagreus threatens Skelly that he would no longer use Skelly as a Training Dummy, thereby rendering Skelly's purpose null and void.
• Multiple-Choice Past: The game hints at two possible backstories for Skelly.
  • Skelly himself jokingly claims he was a Cretan naval commander named Schelemeus, though Asterius's corroboration of such a man does suggest this might not be so untruthful. Odysseus also lends credence to this viewpoint in Hades II, claiming Skelly's exploits rivaled even his. However, Odysseus is known to embellish his stories and isn't above playing a trick or two on others. Moros casts further doubt on this story, as he can't recall ever meeting a "Schelemeus".
  • Meanwhile, Hermes suggests he's a conman working for Charon as an alternative to Tartarus.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Is a friendly version of the Bloodless enemy Zagreus encounters in Asphodel.
• Mysterious Employer: Whoever hired him, Skelly is tight-lipped about their identity. It's Charon.
• Mysterious Past: Nobody knows where he came from, nobody knows who hired him as Zagreus's training dummy, and even the codex is at a complete loss for who he might be. And no clear answer is ever given other than Skelly's dubious tale of "Schelemeus" and a conflicting passing comment from Hermes about a conman he once dropped off "still making amends down there" for a life of lies and cheating. In Hades II, he serves as the esteemed training master of the Crossroads, with Odysseus claiming that Skelly's exploits in life rivaled his own. But Moros says he's never met a man named "Schelemeus", reasoning that if he did exist, he'd have to have lived far from the domain of the Olympian and chthonic gods.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: "Skelly" isn't their real name and, as expected of his character, he makes a big joke out of hinting what it is. Dialogue with Asterius hints that the story about being a Cretan naval commander named Schelemeus may not have been entirely false. Hades II has since then confirmed that this is in fact his true backstory, as he has shed his nickname and reclaimed his true identity in order to help Melinoë... And then Moros claims that he's never heard of a "Schelemeus," casting even more doubt on his identity.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • When Zagreus comes upon Skelly looking sullen, his former cheery attitude is gone as he seriously and calmly asks for a favor from Zagreus. He wishes to finally be free and ultimately die, which Zagreus can grant once he powers up his sword to the max. Zagreus can end up fulfilling Skelly's wish only for the skeleton to come back and laugh that Zagreus actually fell for that prank.
  • In Hades II, this is played earnestly straight with the threat of Chronos at play, he drops a lot of his Troll tendencies (though not all) to help Melinoë prepare for the battle ahead.
• Our Founder: Upon clearing an 8, 16, or 32-Heat Pact of Punishment run, Skelly unveils a glorious statue...of himself.
• Pulling Themselves Together: You can kill him as much as you like; he always comes back.
• Rule of Funny: Why does a skeleton in Ancient Greece sound like a slick used car salesman who lives under somebody's porch? Who cares, laugh at the funny skeleton man.
• Took a Level in Badass: In Hades II, he returns but now under the name of Schelemeus and doning medals, a cape and a beard. While still the training dummy, he is now revered by those in Erebus and even Melinoë has a great deal of respect for him and his wisdom. He also has downplayed his former goofiness, still retaining some of his humor but taking his role as a trainer far more seriously, for obvious reasons.
• Too Kinky to Torture: As a training dummy who lives for his job, no amount of physical violence will get him to rat out his sources. So Zagreus threatens never to attack him again, at which point he finally caves.
• Training Dummy: His main purpose. Due to being a dead soul in Hades, he can immediately come back from any blow that Zagreus practices on him.
• Troll: He fakes being able to undergo a death in order to prank Zag.
• Time-Passage Beard: Skelly is sporting a beard by the time of Hades II. How a skeleton managed to grow facial hair is anyone's guess, though given that it's significantly lighter than his hair it's more than likely fake.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Speaks with an overblown accent that can at best be called "northeastern US-ish".

Persephone (Unmarked Spoilers!)

Persephone

Goddess of Verdure

Queen of the Underworld

Voiced by: Kelly Moore (Pre-1.0), Laila Berzins (Post-1.0)

"...In the Underworld, as on the surface, certain topics are never to be discussed, especially in decent company. Well, this is not a discussion, and the company I keep is rather limited. So, let us consider the Queen of the Underworld; who she was, what happened to her, and why nobody seems to know the answer to either of those questions."

—Codex Entry

The Goddess of Spring, daughter of Demeter, former wife of Hades and Zagreus's birth mother, though Zagreus has never met her. Persephone left her queendom in the Underworld for good shortly after Zagreus's birth and vanished entirely. When Zagreus learns of her existence, and Hades refuses to tell him anything about her, this proves his final impetus for him to run away to try and meet her.

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• Adaptational Species Change: In Greek mythology, she was a full goddess, being the daughter of Demeter and Zeus. In this game, she's Semi-Divine, since her father was a mortal farmer instead.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: One would think this of the willing wife of Hades, but it's actually Subverted; Persephone couldn't stand the Olympians' constant bickering, lying, and backstabbing, and the reason she ultimately fell for Hades was because of his honest—if somewhat blunt—nature.
• Anime Hair: While most of her hair is fairly normal, part of it sticks up in some gravity-defying spikes. Zagreus clearly inherited his own hairstyle from her.
• Arranged Marriage: Zeus kidnapped her without Demeter's knowledge and dropped her off in the Underworld as a sort of housewarming gift for Hades. Neither Hades nor Persephone were particularly pleased by this development, but they did eventually get along well enough to have Zagreus before his Tragic Stillbirth drove her away.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: When Persephone's braid is pinned up in a bun, her hairstyle strongly resembles a cornucopia, a symbol of plenty going hand-in-hand with her powers over plant life and the seasons.
• Babies Ever After: As of Hades II, her and Hades' reconciliation is shown to be followed up by the birth of Melinoë.
• Benevolent Boss: Once she returns to the Underworld, she can often be seen chatting with the other members of the House and praising their work.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Persephone inherited her mother's powers over life and by extension death. Should Zagreus be wearing the Pom Blossom when facing Hades in battle, the god of the dead says he fears its, and thus Persephone's, power much more than Zagreus. This implies that Persephone could be just as destructive as Demeter if she were ever truly angered. II also reveals that she was/will be a wielder of the Argent Skull by the fact that she has her own Aspect for it.
• Blithe Spirit: Subverted—while the denizens of the Underworld welcomed the levity she brought with her, she herself began to fray from the feeling she didn't belong there and the knowledge that her continued presence might trigger an Olympiomachy. Zagreus's apparent stillbirth finally pushes her over the edge, prompting her departure, and Hades doubles down on his cynicism as a consequence.
• But Now I Must Go: After making peace with the Olympians, she explains to Zagreus that she will need to spend at least some time with their side of the family in order to keep that peace. With this in mind she departs for the surface again, but she promises to return in due time. Subverted in that she will still show up from time to time between runs and dialogue will indicate that she has already come back from Olympus or is about to leave to visit there again.
• Caring Gardener: She was well liked by everyone who knew her, and she's heavily associated with gardening; she hides out in a cottage with a huge, lush garden, and her portrait has her carrying plants and a basket of fruits and vegetables. Considering how her parents are the goddess of the seasons and a mortal farmer, and her title is "Goddess of Verdure", it only seems fitting. After she returns to the Underworld, she even reopens her old garden and can sometimes be found there.
• Child of Two Worlds: Persephone is Semi-Divine but fully immortal, which made living among volatile Olympians who often consider mortals to be shiny playthings unbearable. So while she didn't come to the Underworld willingly, she did consider it a significant upgrade until Zagreus's Tragic Stillbirth. Post-epilogue, she splits her time between both worlds much like in the original myth.
• Consummate Liar: How she convinces the Olympians to let things slide after Zagreus invites them all to a feast. She tells them things that are all technically true — she fell in love with Hades, they had a child together, and that Persephone wants to stay in the Underworld. Persephone just leaves out or changes the context behind all of those events so that the Olympians don't bring down their wrath on Hades.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Zagreus's main impetus for leaving is to find out exactly what that reason was and why she didn't even attempt to bring him with her when she left. As it turns out, she fled of a broken heart after Zagreus was stillborn, having apparently never been told for years that Nyx had managed to revive him. By the time Zagreus manages to temporarily reunited with her, she is no longer able to enter the Underworld out of fear that she will gain Olympus's notice (and with that the gods' wrath), while Zagreus is unable to stay in the world of the living for much time. After Zagreus visits her enough times, she decides to take the risk and travels back to the Underworld to reconcile with Hades.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Repeated interactions with Demeter and Hades reveal that she was first named Kore (κόρη), a name which she now reviles as it can mean "girl, young woman, maiden", and "doll, puppet", among other things; she prefers the name that her mortal father gave her. When Zagreus mentions that name to Hades, he tells him Persephone hated that name even more than he did. When Persephone returns to the underworld, she compares it to Zagreus hypothetically being called "Zaggie-poo" by his parents, which Zagreus instantly agrees would be revolting. One of the signs that Demeter's not the best parent is that she still insists on calling Persephone, Kore, although she does try to refer to her by the name she wants.
• Elemental Eye Colors: Green eyes, fitting her status as the goddess of vegetation.
• Embarrassing Nickname: What she views Demeter's nickname of her, "Kore" and instead wants to be referred to the name her father gave her.
• Evil Costume Switch: Subverted. After coming back to the Underworld, Persephone changes her light-colored robes for a stylish black dress and some death-themed decorations such as skulls, in order to fit her role as the Queen, but she's still the same sweet and caring person she always has been.
• The Exile: Persephone has apparently left the world of the Gods entirely, being neither in Olympus or in the Underworld, and none of the Olympians seem aware she's gone in the first place (nor that Zagreus is her child). Her exile is entirely of her own volition, though, and she wasn't forced into her situation by anyone else.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: After she returns to the underworld, she wears her hair up in a Prim and Proper Bun to fit her station as Queen of the Underworld, as opposed to the more casual Motherly Side Plait she had beforehand. This shows how she's decided to stop running from her family's problems and start trying to improve her relationships with them.
• Family Eye Resemblance: Zagreus has (one of) her eyes.
• Fertility God: Her official subtitle is "Goddess of Verdure" and she's implied to have Green Thumb powers like her mother, Demeter. Persephone's cottage is warm, lush and green in contrast to the Eternal Winter that Demeter has locked the rest of the world in, implying that Persephone's powers are what make the land fertile.
• Flowers of Nature: She wears two sprigs of lavender in her hair, fitting with her role as a goddess of vegetation.
• Fish out of Water: Played With. Early in her conversations with Zagreus, she explains that while she didn't hate it in the Underworld (and notes that everyoen was nice and welcoming, and that even Hades was gentle with her), she also never felt she belonged there, with Zagreus' stillbirth finally making it too much and making her decide to leave outright. However, the further Zagreus goes through his conversations with Persephone, she begins to admit she actually misses the Underworld, reffering to how she liked the lack of sunlight and enjoyed that it was neither too warm nor too cold down there. Ultimately, it is suggested that rather than her not feeling a part of the underworld, the circumstances surrounding it (her running away from home and the fear of what would happen should her mother learn the truth of what happened) and the guilt she felt from that were what made her unable to feel comfortable there. Once she is back and Olympus and the Underworld are able to patch things up, she is shown as fully comfortable in her position as queen.
• Foregone Conclusion: If you know your Greek mythology, you should know that Persephone eventually returns to the underworld.
• Good Parents: While she wasn't present through Zagreus's childhood, upon meeting him again alive and realizing he is her son, she dotes on and supports him with all of her heart, contrasting the detached parenting of Hades. She admits to Zagreus she did want to be a mother, and her wish was granted by her pregnancy with Zagreus even if his birth was a tragic one at first.
• Green Thumb: A mild version. In a conversation with Hades about the pomegranate garden, he states that the plants have a little magic about them from Persephone herself, a little bit of nature-power that she gets from her mother which allows them to grow better in the underworld.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Is blonde, and everyone describes her as a Nice Girl, which turns out to be true. The only time she shows genuine rage is when Zagreus introduces himself, not knowing that he was resurrected from a stillbirth, and thus she thinks he's dead and is understandably pissed off at the "impostor". Once she realizes the truth, she warms up to Zagreus immediately.
• Have You Seen My God?: She's the goddess of verdure, and she's gone...somewhere. The Olympians and most of the chthonic gods don't know where she is — and the ones who do know aren't telling. In retaliation for her disappearance Demeter has inflicted an Endless Winter on the surface world, and Zagreus's goal is to find her.
• The High Queen: Everyone in the Underworld is delighted to have Persephone back after Zagreus convinces her to return. Her warmth and radiance bring levity to the House of Hades and she helps bring out the best in her husband and son while she aids Hades with administrative duties and paperwork. She even manages to prevent all-out war with the Olympians by spinning a tale of her eloping with Hades rather than being kidnapped by Zeus. All in all, pretty much everyone agrees that the Underworld is a much better place with her around and she's adored for her wisdom and kindness.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Hades stands at least three heads taller than her, and both are Happily Married.
• It's All My Fault: When she realizes who Zagreus is and why the Olympians are assisting him, she feels it's all her fault, but Zagreus immediately dismisses this blame and says none of this was her fault if she never knew he didn't die.
  • She also didn't realize the impact of her disappearance would have an aggrieved Demeter freeze the mortal world in an everlasting winter. Zagreus cheers her up by telling her she didn't know and her mother does mellow out when she sees her daughter is alive and well.
• Irony: States to Zagreus that she and Hades think he's enough and they won't go for another child. Cue to the sequel...
• I Was Never Here: It turns out that her Unpersoning was by her own wishes, as she feared the Olympians' discovery of her would trigger a very bloody intrafamily feud.
• I Will Wait for You: Once Zagreus makes it to the surface, she tells him she will always be there to greet him. This later changes when she decides to return to the Underworld after Zagerus convinces her.
• Like Mother, Unlike Daughter: With her mother Demeter.
  • While Persephone is one of the nicest, kind-hearted goddesses shown in the game, Demeter is shown to be callous and mean to her fellow gods and mortals.
  • As a parent, she dotes on Zagreus a lot to make up for time they missed but also respects him on decisions and choices he makes. Meanwhile, Demeter was smothering and overprotective on Persephone all due to Persephone's mortal blood from her father which she deemed to make her weak and calls her by the Embarrassing Nickname "Kore" which she despises a lot and wants to be referred to the name her father gave her.
• Like Parent, Like Child: Hades remarks that Mel inherited Persephone's candor when he asks about the status of his House. Melinoë also takes up gardening like her mother in the Crossroads.
• Locked Out of the Loop: She fled the Underworld in grief after Zagreus was initially stillborn. Just as Zagreus was never told that she was his real mother, she was never told of his survival.
• Loving Parent, Cruel Parent: The Loving Parent to Hades' Cruel Parent. Persephone at first disbelieves that Zagreus is her son, as he was a Tragic Stillbirth as far as she knew, being revived by Nyx after she fled back to the surface. After she gets over this, Persephone dotes on her son as much as she can during his short visits, and after ten clears of the underworld, joins him and his father in the House of Hades.
• Missing Mom: Zagreus didn't even know she existed until young adulthood. Sadly the same thing happens with Persephone and Melionë, as the latter was evacuated from the Underworld when Chronos invaded and he imprisoned Persephone along with the other residents.
• Modest Royalty: When she's not playing the part of Queen of the Underworld, Persephone prefers a simple tunic and a green shawl while tending to her cottage. The only ornamentation she wears are simple bronze bracelets and some lavender flowers tucked behind her ear.
• Morality Pet: To both Zagreus and Hades. It's best displayed in the ending, where she returns to the Underworld and helps her son and husband reconcile with Hades trying to be a better father to their son. She's also this to Demeter as seeing her alive and well leads her mother to stop the Endless Winter she laid on the mortal world.
• Motherly Side Plait: She wears her hair in this fashion while in Greece, cementing her role as Zagreus' birth mother as well as her caring nature.
• Mundane Made Awesome: She takes a leisurely ferry ride back home with her son. Mundane, if not for the fact that her home is the Underworld, the river is Styx, and Charon himself is her boatman.
• Mysterious Parent: Everything regarding Persephone is kept under tight wraps up until Zagreus makes his first successful escape, and finding out what happened to her is the driving force of the story.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Much like in the original myths, Persephone eventually divides her time between living in the Underworld and up on Olympus. Here she lies to the Olympians that she is bound to the Underworld after consuming pomegranate seeds, as her excuse for why she can't return to Olympus permanently.
  • Persephone's mortal lineage and life as a lone farmer on the surface are taken from Philomelus, Persephone's mortal half-brother who was credited with inventing the plough in Classical Mythology.
• Nice Girl: As it turns out, Zagreus and Melinoe takes after their mother in this regard.
• Parental Abandonment: Of Zagreus, leaving him to be raised by Nyx. This wasn't intentional on her part, as Zagreus had been stillborn and she left in grief because she believed he was dead, not knowing that Nyx later brought him back to life.
• Parents as People: While she's a much more caring parent towards Zagreus than Hades, she still isn't without her faults. While she did have her reasons for not being in her son's life (namely that Zagreus was stillborn and she had no idea he was brought back to life until Zagreus first meets her), she was still so overcome with grief over his Tragic Stillbirth that she chose to leave the Underworld, and she's still reluctant to return despite how much Zagreus wants her to come back. It takes Zagreus some time to convince her that she shouldn't keep running away from their family's problems, and they need to work together to resolve them sooner rather than later.
• Parents Know Their Children: Downplayed. She initially dismisses Zagreus's claim of being her son as a cruel joke since (as far as she knew) he was long dead, but it only takes a few seconds for her to realize that he's telling the truth.
• Prim and Proper Bun: Persephone pins her braid up in a spiraling bun while acting as Queen of the Underworld. It's especially meaningful when you realize that it makes her hair resemble a cornucopia, a symbol of fertility and plenty, her domain as a goddess. Demeter does the same in Hades II when it's time for war, a nod to their relationship.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: The reason she left. Zagreus was stillborn, and by the time Nyx could imbue Zag with new life (apparently a lengthy process), a devastated Persephone was gone. Hades never revealed the truth, because the Fates made a prophecy that he would never have a living heir.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!:
  • She married Hades to get away from her bickering and vengeful relatives on Olympus, and has no intention of going back there. It turns out she didn't leave by her own free will—but she isn't objecting, given how it was Zeus who sent her off to marry a stranger (and she found Hades somewhat attractive to begin with, from the sounds of things).
  • She would later do this again even after marrying Hades. While she'd felt like she was out of place in the Underworld for a while, Zagreus' Tragic Stillbirth was too much for her to bear, being the final straw that made her leave the Underworld and go into hiding on the surface.
• Semi-Divine: She's half-mortal, being the result of a Divine Date between her mother Demeter and a mortal farmer.
• She's Back: After Zagreus speaks with her ten times, Persephone will decide to return to the Underworld with him and reclaiming her role as Queen of the Underworld. She'll also help Hades make amends with his son.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: In her role as the Goddess of Verdure, she has a simple outfit of white and green in rough fabrics with her hair loosely bound into a rough sort-of ponytail; when she returns to become Queen of the Underworld, she swaps it for finer fabrics in black with white, red, and gold trim, with a lot of skulls and gems, her hair all done up, and an elaborate choker.
• Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Like her husband and son, she wears a number of skull-themed ornaments after she changes her outfit to fit her role of Queen of the Underworld.
• So Proud of You: According to Hades, Persephone was happy and proud of Melinoë's birth. The couple decided they wanted to try for a second child and to their surprise Melinoë survived at birth in comparison to Zagreus' stillborn birth.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She and Zagreus do bear a fairly strong resemblance to one another, especially in their hairstyle.
• Un-person: Hades has forbidden her name from being spoken in the House of Hades; as such, information about her is very rare.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: Like with her mother Demeter. Due to Demeter no longer being as closely related to the other Olympian gods, and Persephone's father being a mortal farmer instead of Zeus, she's no longer Hades' niece like she was in mythology.
• Walking Spoiler: Most of the first game's spoilers have to do with her. Finding her is the real reason why Zagreus keeps trying to break out of the Underworld, and the reason why she left her husband and son behind is a spoiler as well.
• You Are Worth Hell: Zagreus willingly goes through the same trial of escaping the underworld again and again just to be with his mother, and even then he only gets to spend a brief time with her with each attempt. Eventually his stubbornness persuades her that she can't run from the family's problems and that they need to fix things sooner rather than later.

Bosses

Theseus

Theseus

Hero of Athens

Voiced by: Cyrus Nemati

"...Oft called the great king of Athens, the hero Theseus is nonetheless best-known for his deeds earlier in life; deeds great enough to earn his immortal soul a place of high honor in hallowed Elysium. Now he reigns in this heaven of ours much as I understand he reigned in life; with pride and confidence both in abundance."

—Codex Entry

Hero-King and mythical founder of Athens, who performed many mighty deeds in life including slaying the feared Minotaur of Crete. As Champion of Elysium, Hades commands Theseus to stop Zagreus's ascent from the Underworld. His tenure as Champion has made him quite theatrical and pompous, much to every other god's dismay.

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• Adaptational Jerkass: He is considerably more pompous, arrogant and bullheaded than in the myths, and it's made clear that most people outside Elysium can't stand him because of it. Eventually, even Asterius starts to get exasperated by his constant demeaning of Zagreus, whether or not it's part of him putting on a show for their crowd. One codex entry implies he might not have been like this before he died, and that being the undisputed Champion of Elysium for so long has gotten to his head somewhat.
• Ambiguously Gay: Unusual for game that has bisexual protagonist and is rather LGBT-friendly, and may not have been intentional, but Theseus's relationship with Asterius can come across as deeply homoerotic, especially when he starts going off about their deep bond and its warrior brotherhood and what not. His conflict with Asterius later on even can look like one spouse accusing the other of cheating — not helped by how many other marriage and lovers' spats Zagreus gets involved in.
• Armored But Frail: Theseus's shield completely negates most attacks from the front, but he only has about two-thirds the health Asterius does. He can go down much faster than his companion if the player is able to consistently get behind him.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Interestingly, Daedalus Hammer upgrades that let your Attack or Special pierce enemies will get through his shield and let you hurt him from the front.
• Back Stab: Forces this playstyle on the player by default, since he's only vulnerable in the back; the shield that Theseus carries can't be pierced without certain Artemis boons or weapon upgrades.
• Berserk Button:
  • Insinuating that Heracles is greater than he is. The first time Zagreus mentions Heracles in front of him, Theseus will accuse Zagreus of trying to make him fly into a jealous rage before triumphantly adding that he sees right through Zagreus' scheme.
  • Reminding him of Ariadne. The more times Zagreus brings a Yarn into the boss fight, the more upset Theseus will be and suggests Zagreus is doing it purely to spite him. Eventually Asterius gets fed up with Theseus denigrating his sister; Theseus apologizes and suggests reconciling with her as well.
• Bishie Sparkle: As of the "Welcome to Hell" update, Theseus will sparkle on occasion during dialogue when he's feeling particularly proud.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: His Pact of Punishment upgrade gives him the "Macedonian Tau-Lambda", a golden chariot with golden gatling guns, and golden armor. Daedalus apparently made it that garish as a joke, and Theseus is simply too full of himself to catch on.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Brags with the best of them – though he'll show signs of cracking if Zagreus develops a long win streak – but very much does live up to the hype; he's the champion of the Elysium arena because he's still an incredible fighter.
• Broken Pedestal: Zagreus quickly goes from The Knights Who Say "Squee!" to hating Theseus' guts after a few encounters. While Zag eventually starts holding Asterius in high regard, Theseus gets no such treatment.
  Zagreus: Never meet your heroes...
• Calling Your Attacks: "Bullhorn!" for his Fastball Special, and "Delta Strike!" for a shockwave created with Asterius.
• Catch Phrase Insult: "Hellspawn" and "Blackguard" are words he will use very often when you fight him.
• Collision Damage: If given the Extreme Measures upgrade, Theseus will start his boss fight inside a chariot. The chariot will automatically harm Zagreus if he touches it while it's moving (excluding hitting it with weapons).
• Combination Attack:
  • Has a Fastball Special with Asterius during their boss fight, which he appropriately calls "Bullhorn!"
  • After Zagreus fights him and Asterius enough times, the two will gain a new attack where Theseus charges Asterius and their collision causes a shockwave that will harm Zagreus upon hitting him.
• Coordinated Clothes: He and Asterius wear matching outfits, with the only difference being that Theseus keeps his left shoulder uncovered.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: If you're sick of trying to get around his shield, another option is to just DoT him to death with Hangover, Doom, Rupture etc.
• Dirty Coward: Unlike Asterius, Theseus can never be fought one-on-one. While certainly not weak, the fact that Theseus will only ever face Zagreus when he has Asterius backing him up leads to him becoming a Broken Pedestal for Zagreus.
• Disappears into Light: If defeated.
• Dual Boss: With Asterius. Notably, this is the only way that Theseus can be fought, as Asterius can show up on his own in Elysium as a mini-boss.
• Face: He's not just trying to stop Zagreus, he's performing in front of a crowd, and will crow and boast in front of them like the hero in a wrestling match, painting Zagreus as a Heel - though at the same time, it's tough to tell just how much of this is playing up for the crowd, and how is his genuine opinion of himself and Zagreus.
• Fastball Special: Theseus's "Bullhorn" attack consists of Asterius throwing him during their boss fight, giving Theseus a long-ranged charge attack.
• Final-Exam Boss: Theseus combines several gimmicks used by the mook shades of Elysium. His spin attack is a larger version of that used by the shieldbearers, he's immune to frontal attacks like they are, and he uses homing missile attacks with a targetting reticule like the bow-wielders.
• Flunky Boss: When Theseus was the Final Boss during early access, defeating Asterius first during their Dual Boss encounter caused Theseus to continually spawn Chariots in to aid him. With the introduction of the Styx level, he stopped doing this.
• For Great Justice: Will not shut up about it. It can initially come across as all part of the show, but... nope, he's apparently dead serious about it. This attitude begins to get more on Zagreus's nerves the more times that they fight.
• Gatling Good: If you upgrade his abilities using the Pact of Punishment, Theseus' chariot comes with dual-wielded gatling guns, which he will occasionally strafe you with.
• Genius Ditz: Clearly not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but a very good fighter and a good-natured hero.
• Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Zagreus can commission a painting of Theseus in his youth that shows him with long, flowing blond locks, in contrast to the short haircut he sports in the game.
• Hero Antagonist: Believes Zagreus is one manner or other of hellspawn trying to trick his way to the surface, and will continue to stand in his way because of it, no matter how much Zagreus protests otherwise. Asterius at one point seems to have told him that he's actually the prince of the underworld, but he didn't believe it.
• Heroic BSoD: Will temporarily go through one of these if defeated enough times, because Asterius believes there may be more to Zagreus than meets the eye. Zagreus' responses imply he's simply being a Drama Queen.
• Hidden Depths: Despite becoming a Broken Pedestal for Zagreus, there's enough hints scattered through dialogue that Theseus was indeed a great hero when he was still living:
  • Hades speaks rather highly of him. Given how cynical he is, the fact that Hades continues to hold respect for him and gave him such a high station in Elysium is telling.
  • Asterius' Undying Loyalty towards Theseus is rooted in the fact that it was thanks to Theseus that he was allowed to end up in Elysium.
  • The Olympians offer Theseus their blessings, which is notable as they're noted as being rather fickle. This includes both Poseidon and Dionysus who consider Theseus to be a blowhard, yet they still view him as worthy of their blessings.
• Humble Pie: Subverted. A late-game sidequest will see Poseidon ask Zagreus to defeat Theseus on Extreme Measures in order to knock him down a peg, since Poseidon thinks Theseus is getting too arrogant. In spite of this, Theseus remains as arrogant as he ever was. When next faced on Extreme Measures, Zagreus will even point out that Poseidon thinks he's a blowhard, but Theseus thinks Zagreus is trying to get under his skin.
• Hypocrite: Theseus will call Zagreus a cheat if he uses a call during the fight against him, even though he himself will also call upon the gods for assistance after reaching half-health.
• Ideal Hero: The ideal hero of Greek Mythology, possibly even moreso than Heracles, Odysseus and Achilles, and acts like one in accordance to modern sensibilities as well. At least in life. In death, he's incredibly stubborn and pompous. Zagreus is in awe when first meeting him, though it doesn't last long.
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Zagreus finds the golden armour getup Theseus gets with the Extreme Measures update incredibly tacky (and according to Achilles, so did its creator Daedalus); Theseus thinks it looks great, though.
• Inspector Javert: Theseus openly believes that Zagreus is an evil, demonic hellspawn who intends to escape into the mortal world and wreak havoc - essentially treating Zagreus like a monster who needs to be put down and himself as the requisite hero - and sticks to that belief (mostly out of pride) even as it becomes increasingly obvious that Zagreus is nothing like that. Asterius, meanwhile, does quickly realize the truth but is as unable to sway Theseus' belief as Zagreus is.
• I Reject Your Reality: He's convinced himself that Zagreus is a demonic "blackguard" and a monster who deserves to be cut down where he stands, and will hear no arguments to the contrary. Even when Zag tries to say he has no quarrel with Theseus, and Asterius backs him up that Zagreus is just a really good fighter, Theseus isn't interested in hearing it.
• Javelin Thrower: Fights with a shield and javelin, and will continue to throw his spear when not engaged in melee. The javelin returns to his hand much like Zagreus's spear as well.
• Kayfabe: Although not explicitly stated, it's implied that at least part of Theseus' behavior is simply to give the crowd a good show.
• Large Ham: He constantly talks about the glory of battle, how Zagreus is a "blackguard" and an inhuman monster who deserves death, and says nearly every one of his lines at the top of his lungs with a dramatic flair. It's quite the contrast to Asterius, who is much more subdued and stoic.
• Laughing Mad: On Extreme Measures, Theseus' new chariot amps up his already high energy into this, speeding around the arena laughing maniacally.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: He will at one point argue with Asterius on wether Zagreus really is the son of Hades, certain that he's nothing but a "nameless, long-forgotten minor god born of the depths". Considering that Zagreus in Real Life is an extremely minor deity possibly of Mycanean origin who wasn't in the public consciousness at all until this game came out, Theseus is right.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Wields a shield that makes him immune to direct attack from the front and sides when he's not attacking, and he won't turn his back to the player until he's thrown his spear.
• Miles Gloriosus: Theseus is a bit of a weird example of this. He has all the makings of one being a obnoxious showboat and only willing to face Zagreus in combat when he has Asterius giving him the numbers advantage. Beneath it all, he can actually back up all of his boasts, and Hades actually speaks quite highly of his valor.
• Mirror Boss: If Zagreus brings Varatha. He uses spear moves similar to Zagreus's, and in his second stage will call for an Olympian's aid, which adds a boon to his normal attacks and allows him to use a Call.
• Mythology Gag: Will comment upon it if Zagreus faces him while having a Yarn of Ariadne in his possession, and will become increasingly irritated if Zagreus keeps doing it.
• New Friend Envy: He does not take Zagreus's rapport with Asterius very well.
  "I can see it in his mismatched eyes! I cannot shake the terrible vision that, some day or night, it shall be me standing alone here, whilst you...? Whilst you take sides against me! With that fiend!"
• Oh, Crap!: If Zagreus summons Megaera or Thanatos using their companions, Theseus will comment upon it in a not-very-happy tone.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: If Zagreus keeps losing to him Theseus will triumphantly gloat upon meeting him again that monsters never learn, before immediately realizing what he just said and apologizing to Asterius.
• Pet the Dog: For all his pride and pomposity, he did selflessly rescue Asterius from damnation out of the kindness of his heart, and is shown to treat him like a battlefield comrade and an equal, though he can be condescending. Asterius notes this in mini-boss battles against Zagreus, saying that whatever affection Theseus shows towards Asterius is very genuine, which Asterius clearly appreciates, and if you focus mainly on Asterius in the fight he may warn him to watch out.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Face him enough times and Theseus does this to himself, becoming absolutely convinced that Zagreus is trying to intrude on his friendship with Asterius. This results in Asterius losing his patience with him and explaining how Zagreus' tactics are always evolving and new. Theseus takes it to mean he thinks he can't fight, causing an actual rift between them that's only mended after a few more go-arounds.
• The Precious, Precious Car: Theseus is given a tricked-out chariot when you fight him with Extreme Measures 3 on. He quickly becomes attached to his new ride, berates you for damaging it, and if you destroy it in battle he may call on the gods of Olympus to avenge his beloved chariot.
• Pride: He's immensely prideful in his skill and ability, though not quite to the degree of The Fighting Narcissist.
• Properly Paranoid: While his reaction may be overblown, his suspicions about Zagreus trying to sway Asterius against him aren't exactly unfounded. Not only does Zagreus openly question their relationship and advise Asterius to have better standards, but it's entirely possible to seduce Asterius and Theseus into killing each other using Aphrodite's charm boons.
• Religious Bruiser: When he Turns Red, he will beseech Olympus for help and constantly bombard the arena in area-of-effects from one of the gods not currently aiding Zagreus. He will also react negatively if Zagreus uses a Greater Call against him, especially Athena's.
• Selective Obliviousness: Between runs, Asterius had to tell him point blank that Zagreus isn't some escaping demon but rather the prince of the underworld himself, which he refuses to believe. Even though he was clearly stationed here by Hades specifically to stop him.
• Spin Attack: Will attack using these if Zagreus gets too close.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: If Zagreus enters his arena a second time with a Yarn of Ariadne in possession, he will insist that it's an attempt to bother him and that it definitely doesn't, before going on to insist that her falling in love with him was not his fault nor responsibility. Clearly, it bothers him a lot.^note In all versions of Ariadne's myth, she fell in love with Theseus. Theseus may or may not have reciprocated before she died/he abandoned her on Naxos. Whether or not he was forced to by Dionysus, or not, also differs — in some versions the Gods demanded it of him Because Destiny Says So, while in others it was because she was already married to Dionysus.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: Downplayed, his tactics make sense for the most part (stay behind his shield, pick away with javelins, spin attack if approached), but there's no good reason on his part to turn his back to Zagreus and walk away for a few seconds after each javelin throw. It makes the invulnerable shield a little easier to work around.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: If upgraded with the Extreme Measures punishment, Theseus' chariot allows him to launch bombs everywhere while driving around the arena.
• Turns Red: If Asterius is defeated before him, Theseus will gain a minor buff to his attack speed and damage (during Early Access, he would endlessly summon Nemean Chariots for backup instead). When reduced to 50% of his health (or 33% with Extreme Measures) Theseus will beseech the Gods for help, granting his attack a secondary effect and creating damaging obstacles in the arena.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: Implied. Certain myths portray Theseus as the son of Poseidon, but according to Poseidon, these are just rumors spread by Zeus, though whether or not that really is the case or simply Poseidon trying to save face is left unknown.
• Watch the Paint Job: He'll make a fuss about you scratching his chariot if you attack him while he's riding around in it. He'll get quite upset if it's broken.
• Windmill Crusader: Unlike Asterius, who opposes Zagreus because he wants a good fight, or Megaera, who opposes Zagreus because Hades ordered her to, Theseus is thoroughly convinced that Zagreus is an evil monster. This is in spite of Zagreus repeatedly insisting otherwise. It gets to the point that when Asterius wants Theseus to just acknowledge how good of a fighter that Zagreus is, Theseus thinks it's Zagreus trying to poison Asterius against him.
• Worthy Opponent: In the codex, Achilles posits that the real reason Theseus saved Asterius and brought him to Elysium is because he recognized that the minotaur was his greatest adversary, realized that all of his fame and glory in life only existed because of their fight, and so decided it was only right that Asterius join him in that glory in the afterlife. Which, if true, would imply that there's a bit more humility in him than meets the eye.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Successfully pulled this off on the Minotaur in the afterlife, and got him a place in Elysium by his side.

Asterius

Asterius

Bull of Minos

Voiced by: Logan Cunningham

"...In life, the wretched abomination known as the Minotaur was feared across the coast of Greece; those cast into the Labyrinth in which he, himself, was trapped had no hope of escape. That was until the young hero Theseus entered the Labyrinth voluntarily, and slew him in what was, by most accounts, a spectacular battle. A famous tale — but what happened when they reunited in death needs to be told, as well."

—Codex Entry

The Minotaur of Crete himself. An intelligent and powerful warrior in his own right, Asterius lingered in the shadows of the Underworld after death until his slayer, Theseus, took pity on him and gave him a place in the Warrior Heaven of Elysium. He's now become close friends with the former king and fights side-by-side with him as one of Elysium's champions.

Asterius will face Zagreus at the halfway point through Elysium as an optional mid-boss. Whether defeated or circumvented, he also shows up at the end of Elysium as part of a double feature with Theseus.

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• '50s Hair: His mane is styled into a rockin' pompadour.
• Abusive Parents: When Persephone returns to the underworld, Asterius tells Zagreus that he hopes his queenly mother treats him better than Pasiphaë treated Asterius. There is presumably also a very good reason he doesn't talk much about his stepfather, Minos.
• Actually Pretty Funny: After fighting him one on one enough times, Zagreus finally gets a reaction out of Asterius with one of his quips.
  Asterius: You have returned to my chamber. I trust you know by now what this means.
  Zagreus: That I've challenged you to a battle for pride and glory because that's apparently all there is to do around here?
  Asterius: That... *snort* Yes. That is essentially correct. Prepare.
• Adaptational Intelligence: The Minotaur is normally depicted as a mindless beast. In Hades, Asterius is highly eloquent and the smarter of his and Theseus' duo.
• Ambiguously Gay: Unusual for game that has bisexual protagonist and is rather LGBT-friendly, and may not have been intentional, but his and Theseus's deep friendship and Aseterius's fealty to him can come across as deeply homoerotic, containing both over-the-top focus on their warrior's bond and shows of genuine deep and sweet affection. Even his conflict with Theseus later on even can look like an innocent spouse getting accused of cheating by their insecure partner — not helped by how many other marriage and lovers' spats Zagreus gets involved in.
• Bash Brothers: He and Theseus are (after)life-long friends who take on Zagreus as a duo.
• The Battle Didn't Count: Downplayed. If faced alone as a mini-boss, Asterius will fight until Zagreus has depleted three-quarters of his health; when that happens, Asterius will yield the fight to Zagreus, stand down, and retreat. However, Asterius will subsequently be missing a quarter of his health at the start the Dual Boss fight with Theseus, as he's yet to fully heal.
• Bling of War: Gains golden armor in his Extreme Measures form.
• Blood Knight: Enjoys combat for its own sake, which is one of the reasons why he keeps facing Zagreus alone.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Despite his mellowed out, friendly personality, he's still a giant bull man who wields a gigantic, two-handed axe.
• Bullfight Boss: Both arenas you can face him in play on this expectation, giving you at least two breakable obstacles you could lead him into once he uses his charge attack, which is otherwise quite difficult to deal with. But unlike most examples, he can be pretty good at working his way around them to get to you anyway if you aren't careful.
• Claustrophobia: Asterius seems to suffer from it, understandably considering his upbringing. Specifically, he hates the feeling of being confined or having his movement restricted; sensations that the ostentatious, thick, and above all, heavy enchanted bronze armor he can be forced to wear makes him feel in abundance. Asterius is very unhappy with Zagreus when he learns he's wearing the armor because the demigod wants a challenge. Inversely, he's very relieved to not have it on when the Pact of Punishment is disabled.
• Combo: Asterius' most common attack pattern is a double axe swipe followed up by one to three jumping strikes. With Extreme Measures on, he gains the ability to combo from the jump attack back into the axe swipes almost immediately.
• The Comically Serious: He's generally very serious and refuses to engage Zagreus in boasting or Snark-to-Snark Combat, though one of Zag's snarky comments eventually elicits an Actually Pretty Funny reaction from him.
• Coordinated Clothes: He and Theseus wear matching outfits, with the only difference being that Asterius keeps his right shoulder uncovered.
• Defeat Means Friendship:
  • He is on friendly terms with his former enemy Theseus, the only person to defeat him in life.
  • After being defeated by Zagreus a few times, they develop a mutual respect for each other's battle skills.
• Disappears into Light: If defeated, he fades into blue light.
• Dual Boss: With Theseus at the end of Elysium.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Notably averted, for once. In this game, he's known by his actual proper name and not simply as "The Minotaur".
• Final-Exam Boss: Most of the enemies in Elysium that Theseus doesn't have traits of, Asterius has traits of. His charges and how to avoid them are reminiscent of how the Flame Wheels and Chariots attack, his sudden leap forward to strike works like that of the Longspears, and later in the fight, when he starts emitting projectiles with his axe strikes, the projectiles work similarly to (and are even the same color as) the ones that Brightswords can use.
• Flunky Boss:
  • During Early Access, he would constantly summon Medusa heads during his mid-boss fight. This ended with the Styx update.
  • Also during Early Access, defeating Theseus first during their Dual Boss fight caused Asterius to continually spawn in Nemean Chariots to aid him.
• Friendly Enemy: After losing to Zagreus a number of times, Asterius develops a respect for him and their pre-battle dialogue becomes rather cordial.
• Graceful Loser: Asterius always ends his one-on-one battles against Zagreus by acknowledging him as a Worthy Opponent or thanking him for yet another battle. Also, when defeated during the Dual Boss fight with Theseus, Asterius will occasionally compliment Zagreus for his fighting skill.
• Heel–Face Turn: Was redeemed by Theseus in the afterlife and given purpose, for which he is eternally grateful.
• Hey, You!: He quickly dubs Zagreus "short one". While Asterius seems to consider it a neutral nickname, Zagreus takes offense, especially since he's no shorter than Theseus.
• Horn Attack: His signature attack is to charge Zagreus, which can only be avoided by forcing him to crash into the walls or pillars of his boss arena. With the golden armor upgrade, he gains a rocket booster that greatly improves his land speed.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: A downplayed example, as he's much more aware of Zagreus's true character and nature than Theseus is, but refuses to step aside nonetheless.
• Innocently Insensitive: Asterius does not seem to understand that Zagreus is a bit sensitive about his "short one" moniker, given that he otherwise respectfully treats him as a Worthy Opponent, and he misinterprets Zagreus's words whenever he expresses offense at it.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: If fought alone, he'll admit defeat once his health bar is reduced to a quarter and simply leave. During the proper boss fight, his starting health will be reduced to only three-quarters full to reflect this.
• Literal-Minded: One of the reasons he doesn't realize Zagreus dislikes his "short one" nickname is because he thinks Zagreus is talking about physical jabs and low-blows when he complains about it.
• Mini-Boss: Of Elysium. Encountering him alone is usually optional (he's always in one of two rooms with a skull and a boon, the other containing the Giant Soulcatcher), but since he always shows up with Theseus he's not a Skippable Boss.
• Mirror Character: Asterius provides Zagreus with the means to unlock the Aspect of Gilgamesh and will wonder about the similarities of his own situation to that of Enkidu if Zagreus brings the item to him.
• Morality Pet: To Theseus, an intolerable blowhard who nonetheless rescued his old foe from Erebus and treats him like a brother.
• The Nicknamer: Always refers to Theseus as "king", and Zagreus as "short one".
• Optional Boss: Zigzagged. Fighting Asterius is not optional if you want to complete a run, but fighting him as a mini-boss is optional. Should you face him alone and win, Asterius will start the Dual Boss fight with him and Theseus with less HP, since he hasn't had time to completely recover yet.
• Our Minotaurs Are Different: The Trope Codifier himself, though much calmer and wiser in death than he was in life.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Just look at that hot pink on his axeblades, horns, and the joints of his gauntlets. Are you going to tell the giant minotaur he can't wear pink? Didn't think so.
• Spin Attack: In his golden armor, one of his attacks is to spin his axe constantly with a huge area of effect. He'll stop after five seconds or so.
• The Stoic: Much in contrast to Theseus. His combat taunts are monosyllabic and nothing Zagreus says gets under his skin.
• Sword Beam: When Asterius loses half his health, he gains the ability to launch a trio of beams from his axe when performing his jump attack.
• Undying Loyalty: To Theseus, for having redeemed him in death. Asterius now fights with his former slayer and current companion to the last. Even in the face of Zagreus' goading and Theseus' childishness, he never even entertains the notion of turning on Theseus.
• Verbal Tic: He has a tendency to snort when he speaks. He is part bull, after all.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Will consider Zagreus this if repeatedly defeated on his own, to the point he claims he looks forward to their next rematch. Zagreus will eventually reciprocate, occasionally commenting that Asterius fought well if he defeats him as a mid-boss.
  • The conversation in which he gives Zagreus the special phrase for the Fists of Malphon to unlock the Aspect of Gilgamesh also suggests that he's seeking an opponent who can give him a proper fight:
    Asterius: I don't know whether I'm helping you or not. But in my dream... an ancient hero fought a beast of a man, barehanded. They became friends in the end, after a great battle. I long for a fight like that.

Non-Codex Characters

The Narrator

The Narrator/ Homer

Voiced by: Logan Cunningham

A disembodied voice that narrates the protagonists' (mis)adventures and some of the sights they see. Zagreus and Melinoë are able to hear his voice.

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• Blatant Lies: In a flashback in Hades II, a young Melinoë shushes the Narrator during a game of hide-in-seek by name (Homer). The Narrator badly and awkwardly pretends that he has absolutely no clue who she's talking about, even briefly forgetting he's not supposed to be directly interacting with the characters.
  "Uh, erm-erm-erm, I, I, I've no idea to whom you refer... to whom the Princess of the Dead refers! As she continues on her fateful search."
• …But He Sounds Handsome: The Narrator's true identity is hinted at when he gives a flattering description of a bust of Homer. Sure enough, the sequel reveals that he truly is Homer.
• Deadpan Snarker: The Narrator excels at finding every opportunity possible to throw shade at Zagreus in the middle of his otherwise serious descriptions.
• Interactive Narrator: Zagreus can hear him and the Narrator occasionally responds to his snarking.
• Lemony Narrator: Some of his narration can get pretty odd on its own. During the beta (when Zagreus couldn't advance beyond the last-built stage), the Narrator would repeatedly make up transparent excuses for how Zagreus subsequently died and went back to the House of Hades, including tripping on a rock and dying or accidentally stumbling into the River Styx. These excuses are still present in the full version, and are used after Persephone returns.
• Named in the Sequel: While the Narrator's identity is hinted at in an interaction during Hades, Zagreus only ever addresses him as "old man". Come Hades II, and Melinoë finally addresses him by given name: Homer.
• Narrative Backpedaling: During Early Access, the first time Zagreus defeated Hades (and thus reached the then-unreleased content), the narrator would admit that he can't go any further with the story and insist that the player should "pretend for now that Lord Hades absolutely clobbered him", before sending Zagreus right back to the House of Hades as if he were killed.
• No Name Given: His real name is unknown, and he's only known as the Narrator, while Zagreus only ever refers to him as "old man". His flattering description of a bust of Homer may be a hint towards his true identity. The sequel outright confirms that he really is Homer when a young Melinoë bluntly addresses him by his true name.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot:
  • When he accidentally spoils Zagreus's parentage, the Narrator immediately tries to disown the sentence.
  • It seemed that the Narrator taunting Zagreus while he worked on his duties was a normal occurrence, but one day, he took it too far and indirectly caused Hades and Zagreus to blow up at each other. Given his sudden silence when he couldn't be made to shut his mouth before, it's made clear that he didn't intend for that particular outcome.
• Small Role, Big Impact: The Lemony Narrator ended up unintentionally being the instigator behind the plot unfolding after accidentally letting it slip that Nyx isn't Zagreus' biological mother.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Downplayed, the Narrator sometimes taunts Zagreus during his narration of the many places in Hades or when he dies, but as shown in the flashbacks before Zagreus had enough and started his escapes he couldn't go five minutes without insulting the Prince. It's likely that he toned it down because his constant needling led to Hades and Zagreus blowing up at each other, Zagreus losing his job, and then finding out who his mother is thanks to the Narrator which meant that he would find himself in hot waters if he wasn't careful. Eventually this begins to be played straight as the Narrator begins toning down even his more occasional taunting as Zagreus starts succeeding, showing that he started respecting the Son of Hades. In the sequel, he's kind and friendly to Melinoë from the start, and it's clear that Melinoë likewise cares about him.
• Verbal Backpedaling: After accidentally revealing to both the audience and Zagreus himself through his narration that Nyx is not Zagreus's birth mother, Persephone is, the narrator quickly offers up a poor replacement paragraph that mentions Zagreus totally discovered that fact entirely on his own by pure chance.
• The Voice: A raspy old man's voice that provides dramatic descriptions for the various locations Zagreus proceeds through. This ends up being lampshaded when he narrates how some shades have faded away to merely essences, prompting Melinoë to ask if he's alright. He doesn't wanna talk about it.

The Titans

The Titans

As per Classical Mythology, the titans were the parents of the gods, whose tyrannical rule they overthrew to make the modern world. They take a far more important role in Hades 2, when their king Chronos somehow slips imprisonment and abducts Hades, taking over the Underworld and reigniting the Titanomachy.

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• Abusive Parents: Hades and Demeter mention that Hyperion was anything but a good father. Chronos was also hinted to not be the best parent to his children, which canonically is an understatement.
• Abusive Precursors: Once ruled "all between heaven and earth", and not kindly.
  Hades: ...And, The Titans? You think me cruel, yet know nothing of cruelty.
• And I Must Scream: As not-so-delicately put by Zagreus:
  Zagreus: And you succeeded. Chopped up some of them to many tiny bits, and sprinkled them throughout the pits of Tartarus, so that they can't regenerate! Or so I hear. Inspiring, really!
• Complete Immortality: Even bloodily grinding them into ichor was not enough to kill them. The Titan Blood you find is still pulsing. The Reveal Trailer for Hades 2 says that as the embodiment of Time, Chronos cannot be stopped.
• The Ghost: They were defeated some time ago and banished to Tartarus. That said, Zagreus never encounters any of them despite Tartarus being the very first step of his journey. Conversations with other characters talks about how they were chopped to bits and scattered throughout Tartarus so they couldn't regenerate.
• The Old Gods: Predated the Olympian and chthonic gods, and were overthrown by them.
• The Power of Blood: Their ichor is needed to infuse the Infernal Arms with more power, as their blood reawakens the weapon's primal lust for titan blood.
• Un-person: Played With. The codex entry for the Twin Fists of Malphon notes that Demeter defeated Hyperion so completely, she even destroyed his "legacy", which seems to suggest that she either also destroyed evidence of his existence or outright Ret-Gone'd him, although in either case he's still acknowledged and recognized as her father, so it's unclear what that actually means.
  ''The Titan Hyperion suffered the worst of it, his undying body pulverized to such an extent that even his legacy was destroyed. I can only imagine that was not the first such legacy brought to ruin.

The Lernean Bone Hydra

Lernie the Bone Hydra

"...Stripped of the flesh the hero Herakles sliced through and cauterized, the Hydra now resides within the Underworld, stewing in the scintillating tumult of the fire-river called the Phlegethon. It mercilessly watches over passage toward Elysium, devouring those shades who would dare seek the comforts of that hallowed place."

—Codex Entry

The hydra slain by Heracles, still existing in the Underworld as a skeletal version of itself. It serves as the boss of Asphodel.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Played for Laughs. Meet it enough times and Zagreus will ask if he can call it "Lernie," and takes its angry hissing as a yes. The game then updates the HUD text to reflect this moment. Even its health bar starts displaying its name as "Lernie the Bone Hydra", and the banner displayed upon defeating it changes to "Lernie Vanquished" too.
• Animation Bump: Like the rest of Supergiant's games, the isometric perspective means the the models aren't seen up close^note Where they look stunning by the way.. Lernie's main head though is a huge face right in the player's view and gets noticeably smoother animations because of it.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Both Lernie and the heads it summon can be one of five types, with differing coloration and features depending on what ability each of them has.
  • Yellow: Fires homing shots.
  • Blue: Its slam attack is enhanced by falling debris.
  • Purple: Shoot damaging waves in a spread.
  • Green: Spits out bone shards that hatch into tiny Boneless if not destroyed. The main head instead hatches the more aggressive Blood-Rakers, and can also summon Skull-Crushers that die on impact.
  • Orange: Spits out lava balls that create hot spots.
• Discard and Draw: Being reduced to a skeleton, it lost its blood. The same blood that killed Herakles when it touched his skin. If that same blood landed on Zagreus whenever they fought, it would've instantly killed him. So it gained various other abilities instead to make up for losing it.
• Flat Character: Unlike the other named characters of Hades, Lernie doesn't have a personality beyond hissing at Zagreus when he enters Lernie's arena. Justified as it is an unintelligent monster.
• Flunky Boss: Every time it loses a third of its health, it will become invulnerable and summon a number of other heads, each a random type. The green variant of Lernie and the backup heads will spit out bone pieces that turn into Bloodless or Bone-Rakers if not destroyed quickly enough. The blue version of Lernie can summon Skull-Crushers that die on impact but still release damaging waves.
• Flying Face: The enhanced version, once reduced to one-third health, breaks free of its spine and chases you around the arena. Worse still, it'll do this at the same time it spawns more heads, so it'll be invulnerable until you get rid of them.
• Hydra Problem: Given a nod, but overall downplayed. Every time Zagreus cuts down a third of its health, more heads appear to back up the main head, with each subsequent third cut down spawning more heads than the last. However, Zagreus can just keep on cutting and eventually it'll be enough.
• Invulnerable Attack: Played with. Every time Zagreus cuts down a third of the Hydra's health (downgraded from a quarter), it spawns additional heads to back it up, and as long as at least one other head is alive (so to speak), the main head is completely invincible.
• Monstrosity Equals Weakness: It's the biggest, most monstrous boss in the game...and the one you'll probably die to the least.
• Our Hydras Are Different: The Lernean Hydra shows up as the boss of the Asphodel Meadows, having been killed by Heracles and existing as a skeleton in the afterlife. It grows additional heads to attack Zagreus whenever a third of its health is depleted, forcing Zagreus to decapitate the additional heads before he can resume attacking the main head.
• Took a Level in Badass: Downplayed. Initially, its main head is only the yellow variant that fires homing shots. After you defeat it enough times, however, its main head can be any of the variants that the smaller heads can have, some of which are much harder to deal with.
• Use Your Head: All of the heads can do a slam attack in which they drop onto the ground, creating a shockwave. The main head, in its final form, does this three times in a row.

Helpful Shade

Zagreus's lone fan in the Elysium arena.

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• Ascended Extra: Originally little but a graphical Easter Egg, as of the Long Winter update, Zagreus will hail the Shade if you get close.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: It's the only red-coloured Shade in the arena.
• The Runt at the End: Being the smallest shade in the arena and also differently coloured from its peers.

Daedalus

A master artisan who, upon his death, was hand-selected by Hades to design the House of Hades and the various rooms of Tartarus in exchange for a place in Elysium. Every time one of his tasks are finished he discards his current tools, which Zagreus may find to alter their Infernal Arms for the duration of a run.

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• Equipment Upgrade: The Hammers of Daedalus do this to your weapon for the rest of the run, offering a choice of up to three randomly-selected enhancements. You can also occasionally find the Anvil(s) of Fates in Charon's shop in the Temple of Styx, which exchange one weapon upgrade for two others; these are the only way to get three weapon upgrades, as you can only normally ever find two Hammers in a single run.
• The Ghost: Achilles mentions he is constantly made busy by Hades expanding upon the Underworld, explaining why he's never seen in-game and why his hammers keep showing up everywhere.
• True Craftsman: He built all of Tartarus and is responsible for the mechanism that makes the rooms constantly shift around.

The Fates

Nyx's mysterious daughters who are responsible for weaving the destinies of all things, including the gods themselves. They provide Zagreus and Melinoë access to the Fated List of Minor Prophesies during their respective stories.

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• Ascended Extra: In Hades II, while they have yet to physically appear in the Early Access version, they play a pivotal role in the plot as Chronos specifically seeks them out to banish them so as to free the world (and more importantly, him) from the control they have over the course of history.
• Because Destiny Says So: Played with, as sometimes (such as with the Fated List of Minor Prophesies) they'll simply bribe the subjects into going along with them.
  Zagreus: Not even the Fates are above greasing the wheels of progress, then?
• Berserk Button: Do not tempt the Fates. Nyx did so once to resurrect Zagreus. She absolutely refuses to discuss what doing so entailed.
• Damsel in Distress: Hades II reveals that not only did Chronos imprison most of the Chthonic Gods like Hades, Nyx, and Zagreus, he's also after the Fates themselves. A conversation with Melinoe after facing him multiple times mentions that he has succeeded, but banished them to an unknown time and space rather than imprison them like the others, seemingly because it was the only way to break their control over fate, unlike his other victims.
• The Ghosts: The Fates are frequently mentioned and regularly involve themselves in the story's events. However, they are never seen or heard—merely quoted obliquely in the Fated List of Minor Prophesies. That said, they do finally talk to you in the sequel, asking Melinoë directly for help through the Fated List at one point.
• Irrelevant Sidequest: It's called the Fated List of Minor Prophesies for a reason, as many of those prophesies are entirely trivial decrees. Such as: Zagreus will become Charon's best customer. Or catch a whole lot of fish.
• Noodle Incident: How Nyx circumvented their prophesy that Hades would have no living heir is a completely verboten topic.
• Omniscient Morality License: The Fates' designs are never protested, though this is less because anyone trusts they're working towards the best possible outcome so much as they're too terrified to press their nigh-omnipotent manipulators' collective Berserk Button.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Their Minor Prophecies in the Fated List are always formal— no matter how frivolous or trivial their decrees occasionally are— and always begin by addressing Zagreus and Melinoë as 'The son/daughter of the god of the dead'. After Melinoë experiences a vision that implies Chronos is after the Fates, a new prophecy confirms that the Fates themselves do not consider this to be an idle threat:
  MELINOË, HELP US
  We require and request your assistance. This is no prophecy, merely a plea. We take considerable risk in reaching out to you thus, though can forsee no other option.
• Screw Destiny: Chaos indicates that the Fates' prophecies are not solidly determinant. Even when they decreed Hades shall have no living heir, Nyx made sure that he would, albeit due to Nyx's own intervention. Moros even relays Mel an incantation specifically to negate her bloodline's curse, which is thanks to the Fates, and it uses resources obtained from Chaos' realm.
• The Powers That Be: They have the final say on all outcomes in the universe, and no one—not even their mother Nyx—quite knows what their plans are. That said, Chaos themself muses that they don't so much dictate what is fated themselves, but rather know what everyone will likely do (as their choices do matter), and simply state what will be based upon this.
• Quest Giver: Their Fated List of Minor Prophesies provides, tracks, and rewards the various quests for Zagreus and Melinoë to complete.
• Top Gods: As the weavers of fate, they hold power over absolutely everything up to and including the Primordial Chaos, and most gods often approach them the same way mortals regard other gods.
• The Weird Sisters: The trope namers, even.

Ixion

Formerly the mortal king of The Lapiths, in life he was guilty of violating Xenia (Sacred Hospitality for The Ancient Greeks) first by murdering his father-in-law and then attempting to sleep with the Goddess Hera. In retaliation, Zeus had Hermes bind Ixion to a fiery solar wheel that never stopped spinning for all of eternity. Although he doesn't make a physical appearance during the game, as it would seem, ever since he received his punishment, the fiery wheel that he was bound to has since been repurposed by the denizens of The Underworld and now serves as a means to keep track of the current time.

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• And I Must Scream: He is forever bound to a flying wheel that constantly burns. The game takes this a step further by having him also function as a way to tell time, meaning he's certainly not getting down anytime soon.
• The Ghost: He is mentioned once by Hades during a flashback, and rarely brought up again from that point onward.
• Sickly Green Glow: The fire and the light that his wheel emits is described as such by Hades.
• Weird Sun: His wheel seems to be both a sun and a moon while it also serves as its regular counterparts for The Underworld. As mentioned during a flashback when Zagreus shows up late for work, Hades indicates that the light Ixion's wheel emits alternates between taking on lighter and darker hues in order to differentiate The Underworld's equivalents to daytime and nighttime. Though even with this, it remains difficult to tell the passage of time in the Underworld by many.
  Zagreus (To Hades): I...I'm sorry Father, I just overslept. I must have overslept. How am I even supposed to know exactly when to be here, I mean, every moment every day and night, here, it's all the same!
  Hades: It's not at all the same! The hue of Ixion's green light takes on an obviously lighter hue when it is time!

Aspects

Past, or future, wielders of the various Infernal Arms that Zagreus can wield. Although never seen, Zagreus can tap into their power to alter the weapon's capabilities. Aside from Zagreus himself and some previously-covered deities that fought the Titans with them, these wielders include Hestia, Eris, Chiron, Hera, Talos, Guan Yu, King Arthur, Beowulf, Rama, Lucifer, and Gilgamesh.

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• Absurdly Sharp Claws: The Aspect of Gilgamesh turns Malphon into the claws of Enkidu, Gilgamesh's beastman friend.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Lucifer used the Adamant Rail to fight his Father. Zagreus intends to reenact this in his fight with Hades.
• BFS: The Aspect of Arthur turns Stygius into the legendary Excalibur, a powerful broadsword that does massive sweeping attacks.
• Blood Knight: All the Infernal Arms are thirsty for a good fight, and they shudder with excitement whenever Zagreus obtains Titan blood.
• Charged Attack:
  • The Aspect of Hera allows you to load your Casts into your bow.
  • The Aspect of Beowulf allows you to do the same for your Shield.
  • Reloading manually on Exagryph's Aspect of Hestia empowers the next shot.
• Crossover Cosmology: The Hidden Aspects all belong to different figures from other cultures, religions and mythologies, all of them from time periods far before or after the age of Classical Mythology the game takes place in. Naturally, this implies that all of these religions and mythologies exist in this universe as well.
• Energy Weapon: The Aspect of Lucifer turns Exagryph in a laser gun which steadily ramps up the damage dealt.
• Excalibur in the Stone: As noted below, the waking-phrase for the Aspect of Arthur (named Holy Excalibur) is "I see your kingly pardon from a prison of stone."
• The Ghost: Some of the Chthonic and Olympian gods mentioned in the aspects are otherwise unseen in the first game, though the sequel makes Nemesis, Eris, Hestia, and Hera Unseen No More, with Nemesis carrying her version of the Stygian Blade and Eris carrying her version of the Adamant Rail.
• Glass Cannon:
  • The Aspect of Guan Yu replaces your Charged Attack with a ranged attack that has Life Drain properties, but also halves your max health and the amount you'll get from health boosts.
  • The Maim status inflicted by the Aspect of Gilgamesh's Dash-Upper increases the damage the affected enemy both takes and deals before inflicting a Doom-like burst of damage upon expiring.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: By ratio, anyway. There's five aspects that refer to goddesses. Three of them belong to the ranged weapons (the aspect of Hera for Coronacht, and the aspects of Hestia and Eris for Exagryph), and two belong to melee weapons (the aspect of Demeter for the Twin Fists, and the aspect of Nemesis for Stygius).
• High-Tech Heaven: The Aspect of Lucifer turns the Rail into a laser rifle, presumably as it's status as a weapon for angels.
• History Repeats:
  • If the Aspect of Lucifer for the Rail is equipped, various characters note that its user wielded it against the one they saw as their father.
  • The Aspect of Gilgamesh is revealed to Asterius in a dream, which he later tells Zagreus about so he can unlock it. It's fitting that Asterius would know about it, since Gilgamesh defeated and befriended the beast-man Enkidu, much like how Theseus would kill and later befriend Asterius himself. It also matches with Zagreus and Asterius, as the two develop a mutual respect after Zagreus defeats Asterius enough times.
• Hungry Weapon: They still remember the taste of Titan blood; occasionally when collecting it Zagreus will comment that his equipped weapon just shuddered. Using it on them in the game is what allows them to unlock their aspects and upgrade their abilities.
• Mighty Glacier: Many of the hidden aspects are functionally slower and harder to use than the normally available aspects. Rama's bow, for example, has an extremely powerful and wide ranged basic attack, but it charges a lot slower while the Aspect of Arthur is the slowest weapon in the game, with no ranged potential outside of casts or certain upgrades, but it hits like a truck and you start with 50 extra health. The special also gets replaced by a damage negating special field buff.
• Noodle Incident: The aspect of Eris mentions that she once made off with the Adamant Rail.
• Roboteching: The Aspect of Chiron for the bow has all arrows shot from your Special automatically home on to the last enemy you shot with your regular attack. The exact same applies for the Aspect of Pan for the sister blades, only they home onto enemies ensnared in your casts.
• Secret Weapon: Each Infernal Arm has a hidden aspect referencing a legendary figure outside of Greek myth that cannot be simply unlocked with Titan Blood. They can be unlocked once their respective trigger phrases are given to Zagreus by others. The hidden aspects feature major changes to the base moveset, such as Holy Excalibur creating an aura of holy ground or Igneus Eden becoming a Wave-Motion Gun.
• Synchronization: Weaponized by Coronacht's Aspect of Rama, whose special inflicts the Shared Suffering status on a target and some neighbors. Those marked this way will take up to 60% of the damage any other target takes for 7 seconds which, because its base attack is a piercing wave, makes it a damage multiplier that shaves off health if they're clustered together.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: The aspects Zagreus uses are not bound by time, and apparently some of them are yet to be wielded. Likely candidates include the hidden aspects, as Guan Yu, Beowulf and Arthur likely haven't even been born by the time their weapons can be discovered and the Fates claim their weapons have yet to find their purpose. In the sequel, Melinoe ends up accidentally discovering for Moros that he will one day use the Umbral Torches through uncovering the aspect.
• Trigger Phrase: The hidden aspects that reference non-Greek figures can't be unlocked until certain conditions prompt characters to pass on an ominous phrase to Zagreus to say to them. This phrase when spoken to them, done by checking their aspects after selecting them, will unlock the hidden aspects.
  (Excalibur) "I see your kingly pardon from a prison of stone."
  (Guan Yu) "I see you through the eyes of the crimson phoenix."
  (Beowulf) "I see you stand your ground against the serpent's flame."
  (Rama) "I see you drawn in the arms of the seventh avatar."
  (Gilgamesh) "I see you overcome the wild and make peace with death."
  (Lucifer) "I see your prideful fall down from the heavens to the flames."
• Wave-Motion Gun: The Aspect of Lucifer on the Adamant Rail replaces its attack with a laser beam that gets stronger the longer it is fired.
• You Will Not Evade Me: The Aspect of Talos for the Fists lets you drag foes to you with your Special.

Introduced in Hades II

Allies

Arachne

Arachne

Silk Weaver

Voiced by: Shelby Young

The legendary weaver cursed by Athena into the form of a spider. Melinoë can randomly encounter her in the first area and don Arachne's special garments, gaining temporary passive boosts and abilities. Their interactions indicate they've met before and are on good terms.

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• Blasphemous Boast: She claims to be a better weaver than all of the gods combined, which is what got her turned into a spider by Athena.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Talking to Arachne gives you a choice between different outfits, each of which gives Melinoë special powers and upgrades, as well as applying a stack of armor to her HP bar. However, these upgrades only last as long as the dress does; once the armor is gone, the power-up goes with it.
• Cute Monster Girl: She's a rather cute and stylized take on a human-turned-spider, with big humanlike eyes and very soft shape language that removes the potential menace of a giant spider.
• Killer Rabbit: She's an adorable little spider thing, but you'll find enemies cocooned into webs by her around her domain and the rest of the underworld, showing the tiny little spider is much more dangerous than she seems. She's dismissive of this when Melinoë brings it up, claiming it must be the work of other spiders.
• Nay-Theist: Talking her to more gradually reveals how much Arachne resents the Olympians. And she's taken aback by the truth that they're Mel's family and aiding her to fight Chronos, which makes Arachne conflicted as she still considers Mel to be a friend despite the latter's parentage.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: She helps Melinoë due to her personal friendship with her rather than to help the gods fight the Titans, as she makes it clear that she still hasn't forgiven the gods for cursing her with her current form.
• Oh, Crap!: The moment she sees Frinos she freaks out as she begs Mel to get him out of her vicinity. Some frogs do eat spiders. Luckily, Frinos is Melinoë's friend which reassures her.
• Only Friend: Arachne sees Melinoë as her one true friend in all the world as someone who admires her for her talents but is also genuinely kind to her irrespective of them.
• Seductive Spider: Heavily downplayed, since she is less "sexy" and more "cute", but some of her lines, especially when giving her Nectar, are very flirty.
• Spiders Are Scary: Subverted; her area is dark, creepy and overrun with spiders. But Arachne is quite sweet when you talk to her and offers her services with no obvious conditions.
• Stepford Smiler: The Depressed type; while she's sweet and cheerful on the surface, it's gradually revealed that she's deeply resentful of the gods for cursing her and she's also implied to be rather lonely when Melinoë doesn't visit.

Selene

Selene

Moon Incarnate

Voiced by: Sarah Grayson

A Titaness and the Goddess of the Moon. Unlike the other Titans, she is firmly on Melinoë's side.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Selene calls Melinoë "little star", having known Melinoë since the goddess was a little girl.
• Big Good: Selene may not rule Olympus or Tartarus, but she's unquestionably the most powerful force among the Silver Sisters, and the most benevolent. Other characters may say "Moonlight guide you" as a salute, but she is the moon.
• Combo Platter Powers: While Melinoë may only choose a single Hex per run, the variety of abilities she can choose from speaks to the breadth of Selene's powers. Her Hexes include shooting a Kamehame Hadoken, healing Melinoë, slowing down time, inflicting Forced Sleep, and even granting Nigh-Invulnerability.
• Cool Crown: A multilayered set of moon shapes that floats behind her head like a Holy Halo and might be partially merged with her hair.
• Cool Horse: She rides a white/light blue pegasus.
• Forced Transformation: Selene's Twilight Curse Hex will temporarily morph enemies into harmless creatures, granting Melinoë much needed breathing room or an opportunity to lay down the hurt. But this doesn't work on all enemies, as bosses like Hecate will simply shrug it off.
• Greek Chorus: Accepting Selene's boon will have the Titaness accompany Mel in spirit for the rest of the run, commenting now and then on what's happening or mentioning points of interest post-combat.
• God of the Moon: Technically the Titan of the Moon, but close enough. She is the Big Good despite being associated with darkness, night, and the moon, she's a Nice Girl who is unfailingly polite to everyone (especially her fellow Silver Sisters), and all of Selene's boons and powers are based around moonlight.
• God's Hands Are Tied: Despite her vast and varied powers, Selene is bound to her path across the sky every night due to her role as the moon. Melinoë must use her magic to draw her down temporarily to receive Selene's blessings. The only time Selene is allowed to come down of her own accord is on the night of a new moon when the moon isn't visible. Even then, simply speaking drains Selene of her power.
• Heal Thyself: The Moon Water Hex restores Melinoë's HP every time it's used. It can also be upgraded to restore MP, give you gold, and grant a few seconds of invulnerability when fully upgraded. However, you can only use Moon Water a certain number of times before it runs out, and the only way to restore your charges is to find a fountain (either at the safe haven between areas or stumbling upon one after unlocking them with an incantation).
• In the Hood: In Early Access, while she has a completed portrait, during the rare instance she appears in person at the Crossroads she uses the hooded placeholder model.
• A Lady Rides Aside: She's sitting sidesaddle on her pegasus, adding to her regal air.
• Light Is Good: She is dressed in light blue robes and is firmly on Melinoë's side. Also doubles as Dark Is Not Evil, as her boons are night themed due to being a moon goddess, and she's marked by the color black on the Silver Sisters' braids.
• Limit Break: Getting Selene's boons gives Melinoë one of these in the form of a Hex. The Hex is a powerful move that deals a lot of damage, heals Melinoë, or otherwise provides a very useful powerup. You can also upgrade the Hex with a Path of Stars to give your Hex even greater benefits. However, Melinoë has to use a large amount of MP in each room before the Hex is available.
• Lunacy: The goddess of the moon, and all of her powers are based on moonlight. In addition, the heroes revere Selene almost like a patron deity, as Hecate invokes Selene's name in the boss fight against her, and "Moonlight guide you" is a salute at the heroes' base camp.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter:
  • Inverted. She's not an Olympian herself and is in fact capable of hearing Mel through her boons, as well as her boons granting her unique Hexes not used by any of the Olympians. However, the presentation of these boons are otherwise identical to the Olympians', unique boon set aside.
  • That being said, her Hexes are Limit Breaks, which Mel can activate when she spends enough magick and are found nowhere else. Repeated Selene boons are instead Paths of Stars, which allow further enhancement of the Hex.
  • She also stays by Mel's side for the rest of the run - she will provide occasional commentary and repeated Selene boons are referred to specifically as "upgrades." This also means the player can only give gifts to her while initially encountering her boons.
• Nice Girl: She's serene and gentle at all times.
• Physical God: She is a Titaness even older than the gods of Olympus. Her wisdom and domain over the moon grants her vast, varied powers that many of the gods are unaware of. Poseidon believes he has full control of the seas, completely unaware of Selene's influence on the tides. In gameplay, this is portrayed through her Hexes, a Limit Break for Melinoë that can either deal great damage, heal her, or have other special effects like controlling time.
• Reforged into a Minion: The Night Bloom Hex allows Melinoë to revive one recently defeated enemy as an ally to fight on her behalf.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: In Classical Mythology she is Hera, Hestia and Demeter's cousin, but they are sisters here.
• The Sacred Darkness: Despite the fact that Selene is the moon incarnate (and thus heavily associated with night as well as the moon), Selene is unquestionably presented as the Big Good. She's a Nice Girl who genuinely compliments people with soft-spoken language, her power-ups take the form of moonlight-based Limit Breaks, and the heroes all consider Selene to be their guiding light.
• Silver Has Mystic Powers: Played with. Selene is associated with silver in that a silver cresent moon is her symbol, and she's the Big Good of the Silver Sisters, a small group of gods that call each other sisters and confidants. In addition, Selene is dressed in silver-colored clothing, her initial boon is wrapped in a silver-colored bubble, and the silver ore deposits look like crescent moons.
• Time Master: Her Phase Shift Hex allows Melinoë to slow down time in her vicinity, making it much easier to dodge attacks and beat the stuffing out of her foes. As powerful as this is, Chronos, the embodiment of time itself, can No-Sell its effects.
• Token Good Teammate: The other Titans are stated to be Abusive Precursors with Chronos being the Big Bad of Hades II and an Abusive Parent to his sons. Selene, meanwhile, is actively trying to help out Melinoë and stop Chronos.
• True Blue Femininity: She is all dressed in light blue, fitting her role as moon goddess.

Odysseus

Odysseus

Veteran Tactician

Voiced by: Jason Marnocha

The legendary hero of The Odyssey, famous for his contribution to the Trojan War and his subsequent quest to return home. After his death, he now operates as an advisor in the Crossroads, assisting Melinoë with his strategic prowess.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: In the myths, Odysseus was described as either blond or fire-haired with a dark beard. Here, his hair is all black.
• Affectionate Nickname: Melinoë calls him "Od" for a short, a sign of their closeness.
• Amicable Exes: He loved his wife Penelope and sought to return to her even after he beds two goddesses in Circe and Calypso. However, this is largely because he omitted or downplayed his relationships with them in life. Penelope learned of all of his "indiscretions" after their deaths, leading them to break off their relationship. He remarks that it was at least amicable.
• Devious Daggers: His portrait shows him balancing a dagger on his fingertip with a cocky grin, befitting a spy, tactician, and the trickster hero of the Trojan War.
• Famed In-Story: He's by far the most famous mortal tactician in all of Greek mythology and favored by Athena herself. Hecate recruits his Shade specifically to help her plan against Chronos in the renewed Titanomachy.
• Honorary Uncle: Melinoë has lived with Odysseus for much of her life and loves him like a brother or uncle as well as a source of counsel.
• Insufferable Genius: Downplayed. He's a charming and charismatic advisor to Melinoë and the most famous tactician of Greek antiquity. But like many Greek heroes, he enjoys talking about himself a little too much for other people's liking. Nemesis groans whenever he brings up his past exploits, with the implication that he constantly brings up his most famous stratagem, the Trojan Horse, in conversation.
• Miles Gloriosus: Downplayed. Odysseus is every bit the tactician he claims to be and was recruited by Hecate for his guile, but it's noted that many of his tales are "embellished" for the sake of impressing the people hearing them.
• Mythology Gag: He and Melinoë discuss an appropriate name for the sort of epic undertaking she's experiencing, dismissing terms like "journey", "adventure", and "voyage". Neither find something with the proper ring to it...
• The Power of Love: Discussed. Melinoë can ask him how he persevered through so many trials that would have led other mortals awaiting certain doom time and again. He tells her that his love for his family and desperation to return to his wife and son drove him on, advising Melinoë to use the memory of her stolen family to hold fast to hope in her quest to defeat Chronos.
• Red Baron: He's known as "the Great Tactician" for his numerous showings of leadership and cunning that won him victory against incredible odds.
• The Strategist: As his title suggests, Odysseus' skill is very much in planning wars as much as fighting directly.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He is one to Achilles, being a Trojan War veteran that stays in the hub world and acts as a mentor/advisor to the player character.
• Unreliable Narrator: Odysseus has as much a way with words as he does with battlefield tactics. While his adventures are many, others point out that several of his tales are "embellished" for the sake of impressing the listener. He also claims that Schelemeus is a sailor whose exploits rival his own, but this account is contradicted by Moros claiming that he never met any mortal named Schelemeus.

Dora

Dora

Voiced by: Erin Yvette

Listless Shade

A mischievous and laid-back Shade residing in the Crossroads, and friend of Melinoë.

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• Amazing Technicolor Population: Dora has charcoal black skin which is only visible in her cute/true form.
• Cute Ghost Girl: One of her two forms, when she's being supportive and not acting like a haunting ghost.
• Demonic Possession: Discussed. One of the conversations Melinoe can have with Dora at camp reveals she was trying out minor possessions, which caused her to displace some of the jars in Mel's collection.
• Dismotivation: The reason Dora doesn't go out of Melinoe's tent and try to do something other than floating and existing? All but stated to be because she doesn't want to.
• Face of a Thug: Her more monstrous form looks like an eerie shadow, but she's as friendly in that form; just showing her more hammy side.
• Failed a Spot Check: Despite the camp being created to resist his efforts, and his existence not being kept a secret since he was released, Dora apparently didn't know who Chronos even was before Melinoe asked her about him, nor that the tent she's currently living at was created to form a resistance against him.
• Foil: She's contrasting to the previous game's Dusa. Both are friendly versions of generic underworld entities, but Dusa is a Gorgon, an enemy, while Dora appears to just be a shade who Mel is particularly close to. They're both named after infamous women in Greek myth, Medusa and Pandora. The key difference is their work ethic; Dusa is dilligent to a T and Nyx eventually fires her because she think she's overworking herself. Dora, on the other hand, does nothing but float around and occasionally try and scare Mel with her other form. Dusa also believes in Zag's desire to escape, while Dora doesn't know anything about Chronos' takeover until Mel tells her and shrugs it off because she herself isn't directly affected.
• The Fog of Ages: It's implied that Dora died and became a shade such a long time ago that she doesn't remember anything either from when she was alive or when she first became a shade.
• Friendly Ghost: While her Face of a Thug Game Face form looks menacing, she is at worst a prankster and regularly shows herself to be a supportive friend.
• The Gadfly: Acts like a Vengeful Ghost and Token Evil Teammate in her monstrous form, but she regularly breaks character to show that she's just messing with people, and everyone knows she's harmless.
• Game Face: The more monstrous form she has.
• Ghost Amnesia: She's been a shade for so long that she doesn't remember anything about her life, or even what things like eating or feeling heat are like. She shows interest in meeting Moros since as the embodiment of doom, he might know how she died; while Moros doesn't remember witnessing her demise, he can still determine that she's been dead for a very long time.
• Green and Mean: Downplayed. Dora is the same shade of green as the other... Well, shades, and while her monstrous form acts like a Vengeful Ghost, Dora herself is at worst sardonic and a trickster, with her acting as a supportive friend to Melinoe most of the time.
• Large Ham: Invoked in her monstrous form - she is deliberately attempting to seem menacing.
• NEET: Dora doesn't do anything but float in place, and she says that even that is an accomplishment for her. Most of the time, she's treated like a deadbeat roommate who never gets out of bed, with Melinoe trying to coax her to get out of her comfort zone.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Both of Dora's forms look remarkably different from other shades; her haunting form makes her look outright demonic, while her true form makes her look like a little child, with a notable face and hair.
• Really 700 Years Old: She is implied to be very old, even by Shade standards. She is so old she doesn't remember her life prior, and has forgotten things such as what heat feels like. When asked about Heracles, her dialogue implies she predates him. Furthermore, Moros states that he has the ability to tell when a shade is particularly old and confirms Dora has been around for a long time. This combined with her name heavily implies that she may in-fact be Pandora herself.
• Vengeful Ghost: Subverted. Her monstrous form looks and sounds the part, but she only really uses it to "haunt" Melinoe's tent, and is otherwise a very friendly girl.
• What's Up, King Dude?: Dora has a rather laidback and chill personality regardless of who she talks, and while it's understandable she can get away with this with Melinoe, since they're friends and all, she's just as laidback when talking to Moros, who's doom incarnate.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Dora has the same yellow eyes as other shades, which in her case serve to highlight her mischievous side.

Circe

Circe

Voiced by: Hanna Whiteoak

A witch renowned for her transmogrification magic. She assists Melinoë with size-changing spells.

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: In myth, Circe was a seductress who made a hobby out of transforming sailors who land on her island of Aeaea into animals for her own amusement. Here she takes a nurturing role to Melinoë and offers her boons to aid her on her quest to help Olympus.
• Eye of Newt: Before she sees Melinoë she can be overheard reciting ingredients.
• Sizeshifter: She can make Melinoë bigger or smaller depending on what the player chooses, with each having its own perks.

Icarus

Icarus

Free Spirit

Voiced by: Asa Butterfield

A free-spirited inventor and son of the legendary Daedalus. He encounters Melinoë on the surface and offers powerful inventions to help her quest.

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: In myth, he was the poster boy for "young man suffers hubris and is punished for it" when he refused to listen to his father Daedalus and flew too close to the sun before crashing into the sea. The Icarus met in the story is his Shade and much more mellow and friendly. Even as the dead run amok on the surface, he is nothing but nice and helpful to Melinoë as he does his part to defend the living from Chronos' forces.
• Affectionate Nickname: Likes to call Melinoë "Meli".
• Amazon Chaser: He's amazed to watch Melinoë take on the legions of Chronos single-handedly. It's one more thing besides her kindness and beauty that draws him to her.
• Assist Character: Like Artemis and Heracles, he'll show up at random mid-encounter to assist by dropping explosives on the enemy.
• Attractive Zombie: He's a Shade like Achilles and Odysseus, but clearly not as whole as them. His skin has a pallid hue, his eyes are a bright amber, and his cheeks are somewhat sunken in. But he still has his boyish looks from when he was alive and gets a good amount of Ship Tease with Melinoë.
• Curious as a Monkey: Drops in on Melinoë because he saw her ship and was curious.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: In life, he tried desperately to follow in his father's footsteps as an inventor to earn his respect and praise. But Daedalus never gave it to him and Icarus was left feeling that he always messed everything up. In death, he still wants to be useful to somebody, performing disruptive bombing raids on Chronos' forces and trying to develop gadgets for Melinoë to use. When Melinoë asks him to return to the Crossroads, he pleads with her to let him have this.
• Facing Your Fears: It's mentioned that Icarus was terrified of flying for the longest time because of how he died. But he forced himself to fly again and again, eventually reclaiming his love of flight and becoming almost as nimble in the air as the gods themselves.
• Gadgeteer Genius: He's the son of the famed engineer Daedalus and has taken up inventing and tinkering himself, building his own version of his famous wings and supplying Melinoë with various gadgets to aid her on her quest. After meeting him enough times on the surface, Icarus will reveal that he has taken over completely for his father, who has retired from metalworking and engineering altogether. This means that all of the Daedalus Hammers that Melinoë has been using to upgrade her divine weapons are in fact Icarus Hammers. He begs her to keep this a secret because of the prestige of Daedalus' name and Icarus' fear of besmirching it.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: His "Hazard Boom" boon causes Melinoë's Casts to blast the area for a sizable 500 damage four seconds after the original attack. But she'll take 20 damage if she strays too close to the blast when it goes off, potentially taking her out of the fight during a hectic battle.
• Hubris: Subverted. Icarus died when he flew too close to the sun against his father's warnings, melting the wax on his wings and sending him plummeting into the sea. In the present, his Shade is humble, self-deprecating, and desperate to prove himself helpful. Melinoë calls his wings and agility "godlike" while gifting him Nectar, but he brushes it off and says that he doesn't have the right to feast like an Olympian, though he accepts the gift as a token of their friendship.
• Icarus Allusion: The Trope Namer. He died when he refused to heed his father Daedalus' warnings about the fragility of his artificial wings and crashed into the sea. The Shade of Icarus encountered in the story has clearly learned from his experience, using his newfound undeath to help the still-living mortals on the surface.
• The Joy of First Flight: Discussed. While most tellings of Icarus' story frame it as a warning against youthful hubris and impertinence, Melinoë offers a much more sympathetic take on the events leading to Icarus' death. In her eyes, he was simply young and made a mistake during something as exciting as flying through the air as birds and the gods would. It took a great deal of time for Icarus to overcome his fear of flying again and eventually reclaim the joy he once had in doing it. Melinoë wishes she could fly up there with him and Icarus would share that with her too if he could.
• My Greatest Failure: He spent a long time beating himself up over Melinoë's skeletal left arm, as it was a result of him asking if she could make Shades whole again. Melinoë for her part doesn't blame him and sees her arm's state as a consequence of her own hubris.
• Ship Tease: Icarus is clearly interested in "Meli", as he calls her. When Melinoë says she feels absolutely wretched resisting the effects of the blood-curse tying her to the Underworld, Icarus blurts that she looks great. He quickly does a Verbal Backspace and says she looks "well" while trying to make it sound like he was talking about her curse rather than her appearance. The feeling is implied to be mutual, given how far Melinoë went to try and make him whole again, transforming her left arm into its current spectral state because of her hubris.
• Taking You with Me: Invoked by his "Destructive Coating" boon. It grants Melinoë a nice 40 armor bonus to her health. When it's destroyed, it will trigger a 4,000 damage explosion to nearby foes to take them with it.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: In life, he wanted his father Daedalus' respect more than anything and tried to become an inventor to follow in his footsteps. But Daedalus never gave him that appreciation, leaving Icarus desperate to be useful to someone after his death. This, combined with his guilt over Melinoë being disfigured by her attempts to make Icarus whole again, convinces him to leave the safety of the Crossroads to wage war on Chronos' forces from the sky.

Narcissus

Narcissus

Voiced by: Darren Korb

A notoriously handsome man famous for being completely in love with himself. He offers second-hand goods from his many adoring fans.

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• Accidental Misnaming: He seems to think Melinoë is named "Laurel", despite her repeatedly clarifying otherwise. Given how much attention he claims he receives, he doesn't seem to distinguish Melinoë from his many other suitors.
• Attention Whore: Bizarrely enough, he's a subversion despite being the mythological basis for the Narcissist, who typically is obsessed with getting acknowledged by others. Though it at first seems like he basks in the attention the other Shades shower him with, it's later made clear that he finds his long string of suitors annoying because they distract him from admiring his reflection.
• Chick Magnet: As expected of the most beautiful man alive, he has a many suitors who shower him in gifts. It's for naught, as his only love is his own reflection.
• Heel Realization: Once the waters he's peering into becomes murky, he has time to stop thinking about himself and to reflect on how badly he hurt Echo, to the point that he even wants to make amends.
• Innocently Insensitive: He doesn't deliberately go out of his way to be an asshole, but he's so self-absorbed and self-obsessed that he never bothers to think how his words can often come across as cold and dismissive. When he's separated from his reflection, he's able to actually reflect back and realize just how cruel he was to Echo, leading him to try to make amends with her.
• Irony: The namesake of narcissism, he was said to be so beautiful that no other could match him, so instead he fell in love with his own face and wasted away, pining, before becoming the narcissus. In Early Access he has the placeholder portrait and model, which is a figure in a hood that completely obscures his features, so you just have to take his word on it... well, maybe not.
• It's All About Me: But of course, who else would think this? He doesn't give Melinoë his items out of the simple kindness of his heart, he gives her second hand junk from his admirers in order to shoo her away since she won't fall in with the Shades crowding and fawning over him.
• Jerkass: Zigzagged. While he is self-absorbed and thoughtlessly arrogant to a positively comical extent, he is not heartless and does treat others with courtesy even if they are not his suitors. If people do not like him, he simply asks them to leave him be and even offers gifts he doesn't need. Furthermore, when he learns that he had accidentally hurt Echo by rejecting her feelings, he tries to comfort her by telling Melinoë to let Echo know that he hopes she finds someone who can love her like he does himself so she may move on.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While being admonished for his cruel dismissal of Echo, he points out that she broke her own heart by pursuing someone who clearly does not love her back and chose to be out at the Mourning Fields feeling sorry for herself after the rejection. He goes on to say that you can't truly love anyone else until you love yourself first. Ironic if not valid advice, given how he died in the first place.
• Narcissist: The mythological trope namer himself, cursed to love and admire his own reflection by a vengeful Nemesis for spurning a male admirer, handing him a sword, and prompting him to commit suicide. While his in game title references that in the myth he became a flower after his death, in the context of Hades II, his soul still found its way to the Underworld, where he's still obsessed with his own reflection. He has so many admirers even in the Underworld that he offers Melinoë their gifts to get her to leave him be to enjoy his own appearance.
• Take Our Word for It: Due to having a placeholder portrait in Early Access, his claim of being the most beautiful man alive is, as of this edit, questionable.

Echo

"Voiced" by: Judy Alice Lee

A nymph cursed to speak only what has been last spoken by others.

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• Answering Echo: The Trope Namer; Mel is the one to greet her upon their first meeting, only for Echo to repeat the last few words of her greetings.
• De-power: A few of Echo's boons cause you to get a very strong power, but make it gradually fade away as time goes on. For instance, "Evade Evade Evade" gives you a fifty percent chance to instantly dodge any damage you would normally take, but this goes down by two percent every time you successfully dodge until it's gone. Much like an actual echo, her boons start "loud" and get more "quiet" as time passes until they're gone.
• Nice Girl: As Mel can infer from their interactions, Echo does truly care about the Princess even if they don't know each other well and assists her with boons out of fear for her safety.
• Theme Naming: Her dialogue starts white like everyone else's, then gradually fades into grey to indicate that it's getting quieter. This is even reflected in her boon titles, which are things like "Dodge Dodge Dodge" and "Boon Boon Boon" that follow the same color scheme and have either a diminishing effect or cause Mel to reap some reward she got before, such as "Boon Boon Boon" giving her a boon from her last run.

Medea

Medea

Voiced by: Tara Langella

A powerful witch of the shadows. She offers Melinoë boons to damage foes and inflict payback.

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• Comeback Mechanic: One of her boons gives a chance for a slain foe to drop a healing item.
• Creepy Good: Medea's concoctions give even Melinoë pause, as does Medea's constant glee about poisonous air and the abundant bones she's collecting. But she truly wants to help Melinoë and will occassionally visit the Crossroads on business. There she reveals that she acts as Hecate's eyes on the surface world and is thus on the side of the gods against Chronos.
• Foil: To her aunt Circe. Medea is cold, sadistic, and domineering, relishing in the creation of curses to cause misery to her foes. She's comfortable being alone and prefers to strike her foes dead instead of transforming them. Circe is doting and motherly toward Melinoë, but clearly nurses troubles of her own. Her boons for Melinoë are focused on supportive effects. Medea is a Lady of Black Magic who dresses all in black, green, and gold, while Circe dresses in bright, warm colors and pelts.
• I Work Alone: Medea claims that her lack of companionship does not need a remedy and that she's perfectly happy concocting curses within Ephyra by herself. The memories and spirits of her loves ones are all she needs. She even calls the concept of familial ties absurd.
• Lady of Black Magic: As a contrast to Circe's bright disposition, Medea wears all black and her dialogue drips with malice. She even goes so far to say that Melinoë has likely never studied the types of witchcraft that Medea uses and that Circe never pushed the limits of her witchcraft far enough.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: In conversations with Melinoë, she speaks with a near constant undercurrent of relish and glee. The subjects of those conversations? The poisonous air in the area where you first meet her, and later, the excess bones that she's accumulated and hoping to trade.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Discussed in one of her conversations with Melinoë. Although it's more her aunt Circe's expertise, Medea notes that many poisons can be easily inserted into food and drink.
• Woman Scorned: It's implied that her mythological failed romance with Jason happened already, as Medea has no loved ones left to speak of and she speaks blithely about cursing and poisoning others. She warns Melinoë to safeguard her trust against those who would turn against her and sully her name.

Heracles

Mightiest of Men

Voiced by: Matthew Waterson

Demigod son of Zeus, and the God of Strength. He is the most famous of the Greek heroes, but the mentioning of his name is a bit of a sore point for both Hades and Theseus.

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• Always Someone Better: Overshadows Theseus as being the most renowned Greek hero and Champion. Zagreus can use this as an insult to get under Theseus' skin.
• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Implied by Achilles; he mentions that Heracles died a mortal's death and had a brief stint in the underworld, but then he was given "a special arrangement." In the myths, Heracles ascended to Olympus and became a full-fledged God, so that is likely what happened here as well.
• Assist Character: He both directly helps fight enemies and will toss boulders from the ramparts of Ephyra to take some out whilst he's busy elsewhere.
• Broken Ace: He's the most famous of all the Greek heroes and much is made of his warrior prowess; his in-game title is "Mightiest of Men", and as an Assist Character he deals out massive amounts of damage. However, Heracles himself is more of a Knight in Sour Armor despite all of his fame and fortune.
• Carry a Big Stick: His appearance in Hades 2 has him effortlessly wielding a massive spike-studded club in combat. His damage is in the same range as Thanatos, death himself in the first game, being maxed out to the nines.
• Celebrity Is Overrated: He's considered bar-none the greatest of the Greek heroes thanks to his exploits under the Olympians, but he's clearly bitter and exhausted about having to constantly be what amounts to their put-upon errand boy.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Even though he's grown beyond tired of having to do tasks for the gods, he admits he still feels he has to take them.
• Defrosting Ice King: He comes to slowly respect Melonië once he finds out she's not entirely divine through her parentage much like he is and that she can more than hold her own in a fight, even calling her "sister" after the two of you take on your first pack of foes together.
• Dynamic Entry: He opens encounters he assists with by leaping in to smash whatever foe you were dealing with at the time to pulp.
• Fantastic Racism: He's partially cold towards Mel because he distrusts witches. When asked why, he refuses to elaborate.
• The Ghost: In the first game, Heracles gets mentioned quite often but never makes an appearance, not even in Elysium, where all the great Greek heroes stay. Zagreus can even have a statue built of him in the West Hall, but he still never shows up in person. In the myths, it was stated that upon death, Hercules actually ascended to godhood and joined his father on Olympus, which might imply another factor for Hades' resentment towards him. The sequel has him finally make an appearance, implicitly because the renewed war with the Titans has forced him to come down from Olympus.
• I Work Alone: When he appears in Hades II, he greets Mel coldly and tells her to get lost, since he works alone. Nonetheless, he'll show up throughout the surface zones and help her clear some of the monsters there. This is presented similarly to the competitions with Nemesis down in the underworld, with the major difference being that nothing is being wagered: Heracles will simply offer you gold for your fair share of the work slaying baddies regardless of how well you do compared to him.
• Knight in Sour Armor: While being Olympus' most favored hero has brought him fame and fortune, being constantly given tasks by them has left him rather bitter and cynical. Yet despite clearly being sick dealing with the problems of Olympus he still takes them, if moreso out of necessity than outright heroism.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Compared to his boisterous and completely flippant father, he is much more aloof and bitter come his appearance in Hades II, ironically taking more after his uncle Hades than Hades' own son.
• Nemean Skinning: The Trope Namer, and he wears the skin of the Nemean Lion on his head and around his waist to show his might as a warrior. It's hard to tell where the lion's mane ends and his own hair begins.
• Nominal Hero: According to Hades, if not for being Zeus' son, society would paint a more negative light on Heracles' deeds while living, though he's presented as more of a put-upon but still dutiful Knight in Sour Armor come his appearance in Hades II. Of course, given Heracles is a sore spot for Hades, Hades wouldn't exactly be the most accurate judge of his nephew's character.
• Noodle Incident: Heracles' 12th and final labour was to break into the underworld and kidnap Cerberus. Zagreus references this when Hades boasts that no one has been able to successfully escape from the Underworld. Hades angrily retorts that Heracles didn't escape, Hades allowed him to leave. Though given that this is Hades it's hard to tell if he's being an Unreliable Narrator or not since he doesn't hide his disdain for Heracles.^{From The Myths}Heracles actually went up to Hades' palace during his 12th Labor, explained everything, and then asked if [Heracles] could borrow Cerberus until the Labor was considered complete. Hades consented so long as Cerberus was unharmed.
• Parental Favoritism: According to Hades, Heracles was a major benefactor of this. In the myths, Heracles was often noted as being Zeus' favorite son.
• Unseen No More: After being mentioned several times in the first game, he appears in person for the sequel.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: He'd be right at home on the set of a Conan the Barbarian film with his outfit, loincloth, shirtlessness and all.
• World's Strongest Man: He's called the "Mightiest of Men" for a reason. This is reflected in gameplay, as his damage output rivals that of Thanatos, being maxed out to the nines.

Bosses

Scylla

Scylla

Scourge of the Seas

Voiced by: Erin Yvette

An aquatic singing monster who loves to cause mayhem with her backup band, the Sirens.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: Classical depictions of Scylla vary in appearance, though a prevalent one born from The Odyssey frames her as a six-headed beast with vile, toothy maws on each face. This version of Scylla leans more into a Cute Monster Girl approach with a more humanoid figure and softer -if still monstrous - features thanks to the game's cartoony art style.
• Adaptational Relationship Change: She and Charybdis are usually depicted as a duo who drown/eat sailors. Here, Charybdis is a random, unrelated monster residing in the Rift of Thessaly while Scylla rocks out in the underworld.
• Affably Evil: For all extents and purposes she and the Sirens act just like a band who want nothing more than to play for a big crowd... it's just part of their act includes drowning everyone who listens.
• Dash Attack: Jetty, the Siren on guitar, will lock in on Mel and perform a lunging strike.
• Diss Track: "I Am Gonna Claw (Your Eyes Out and Drown You to Death)", which is performed after beating her at least once, a spiteful dressing down of Melinoë likely inspired by their loss to her.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Hades's Scyllascion fish states she has dozens of heads, but in Hades II she only has one.
• Evil Is Petty: Beat Scylla and her band a couple of times and they'll compose the aforementioned Diss Track out of petty spite.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: Her portrait shows countless disembodied eyes floating about her.
• Friendly Enemy: To a degree. Scylla is actually quite happy to perform for Melinoë, and at worst just considers her a heckler. The feeling isn't exactly mutual on Melinoë's end though, which is understandable considering each "performance" is effectively Scylla and her gals trying to kill her with their music. This gradually falls away the more the two interact, however, with Scylla writing and performing a scathing Diss Track aimed at Melinoë after a number of encounters. She also takes jabs at Mel's appearance and manners in some of their pre-battle conversations.
• Irony: Despite leading a band involving two sirens, creatures known in myth for their beautiful singing voices, it's actually Scylla, the more traditional Sea Monster, who's the vocalist of the bunch. Melinoë points this out at one point, though Scylla actually takes some offense at her implying the Sirens are any less part of their music just because they only provide backup vocals.
• Musical Assassin: She and the Sirens use their music to attack Melinoë.
• Never Say That Again: Is highly offended when Melinoë compares her to a chlam.
• Our Sirens Are Different: Scylla and the Sirens are a rock band made up of two mermaid-esque sirens, Jetty and Roxy, on instruments and the infamous sea beast of shoals on vocals, although Scylla likely isn't a siren herself. They perform at the bottom of the sea in Oceanus, with their act including drowning the audience, and they inconveniently guard the passage to the underworld with their stage, which means Melinoë is forced to fight them to get through.
• Sea Monster: Naturally, since Scylla is one of the Ur Examples. In this case she's depicted as some kind of strange mix between a oyster, starfish, and octopus, with a humanoid upper half. Oddly enough, while both are present in the game, she only acknowledges her mythological partner in crime Charybdis in passing in "I Am Gonna Claw (Your Eyes Out and Drown You to Death)".
• Shout-Out: Her two Siren bandmates are named Jetty and Roxy.
• Sirens Are Mermaids: The Sirens resemble classic half-woman half-fish mermaids, and can use their musical powers as a means of combat.
• Stationary Boss: Roxy, the Siren on drums, will be rooted to the same location through the whole boss fight, but can rain down damaging waves of attacks that reach across the whole arena.
• Stealth Pun: The myth of Scylla and Charybdis is based on a dangerous rock shoal, which damaged the ships of sailors who passed through to avoid the even worse Charybdis (a whirlpool). This myth led to the phrase "caught between a rock and a hard place", with Scylla being the rock in that saying. This mythical connection to dangerous rocks is why she's a Musical Assassin who plays rock music.
• Villain Song: "Coral Crown", which she and her band play during their boss fight. It's a Variable Mix too, as taking out different members of the band will make the song change to reflect their absence. After enough defeats, she makes a more spiteful Diss Track against Melinoë, "I Am Gonna (Claw Out Your Eyes Then Drown You To Death)" that can sometimes switch out with Coral Crown.
• Wolfpack Boss: You fight her and her two bandmates Jetty and Roxy, each having unique attack strings and movement patterns.
• Zerg Rush: When Scylla is on her last legs, she summons an army of minions to try and swarm Mel before she can finish her off.

Charybdis

Charybdis

A huge whirlpool-like monster that bars Melinoë's way.

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• Combat Tentacles: Charybdis fights using its tentacles, which double as its weak points.
• Stationary Boss: It doesn't move at all, but is too far away to fight directly.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To the Lernean Bone Hydra of the first game. It's another speechless monster boss with no personality that attacks you with numerous tendril-like appendages all over the arena and spits projectiles at you.

Polyphemus

Polyphemus

Voiced by: Logan Cunningham

The man-eating Cyclops who once plagued Odysseus and now threatens to eat Melinoë.

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• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: His appearance alludes to his father Poseidon with his blue-green hair shaped like a wave, the eye tattoos on his chest homaging the eyes painted on the bow of trireme ships and even his wool shawl brings sea foam to mind.
• Brooklyn Rage: The game gives him a thick New York accent.
• Classical Cyclops: The classical Homeric Cyclops from The Odyssey. He's a one-eyed giant humanoid brute who herds sheep and still has a fondness for eating humans. He's also blind since his run-in with Odysseus.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: Invoked, he has eye patterns on his chest.
• Foil: To Asterius from the previous game. Both of them are massive, musclebound monsters, who speak with gravelly basses courtesy of Logan Cunningham, but Asterius is The Comically Serious and a polite, honourable Worthy Opponent to Zagreus while Polyphemus is a Brooklyn Rage bruiser who snacks on sheep, men, and—if she's unlucky—Melinoë. Asterius is a Terse Talker who fights with a giant battle axe, fully kitted out in armor, while Polyphemus drawls out a lot of boss banter and smashes things with his fists and boulders.
• Grapple Move: One of his more dangerous moves is lunging with his hands out. If he snares one of his sheep, he snacks on it, healing a lot of damage. If he grabs Mel, he snacks on her.
• Ground Pound: Most of his attacks are some flavor of smacking the ground to produce shockwaves, be it with his fists or just his feet. Probably to make up for his blindness.
• Handicapped Badass: He's still blind, thanks to Odysseus, and he'll lose track of you if you're a distance away from him (and not attacking). He can hear and smell you pretty well, though.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: When his health gets low, he may restore his health by eating one of his sheep.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Apparently Polyphemus still hasn't learned his lesson about eating humans (or gods with human appearances, in Melinoë's case). He even freely admits that he missed eating human flesh.
• It Runs in the Family: He has his father's blue-green hair and his ability to create shockwaves might be an allusion to Poseidon's dominion over earthquakes.
• Karma Houdini: In a way. Even if Melinoë beats him, all that happens is that he's knocked out and sleeps for a while. During their second meeting Melinoë warns him that she'll beat the snot out of him again if he won't let her pass, but Polyphemus merely replies that facing her means he either gets a meal or a good nap and neither sounds unappealing to him.
• Live Mink Coat: He wears a shawl made of wool... still attached to several very much alive, incredulous sheep.
• Made of Iron: No matter what Melinoë tosses at him, he only gets knocked unconscious at the end of his fights and is awake by the next run no worse for wear.
• Mighty Glacier: Most of his attacks are melee-focused, and he moves very slowly, but he hits hard.
• Nothing Personal: Invoked during his introduction and then promptly Subverted. He claims he has no choice but to eat Melinoë for spooking his flock, but even he admits he's mostly just in it for a quick meal.
  Polyphemus: You frightened my sheep. That's a real no-no in this town.
  Melinoë: I apologize for my transgression, Cyclops. What do I owe you for the inconvenience? I can pay.
  Polyphemus: Oh, you'll pay. The punishment's gettin' eaten alive. By me. Sorry, I don't make the rules.
  Melinoë: That seems unusually strict. There's no use following a senseless code of law.
  Polyphemus: Hah, only kiddin'! I do make the rules. And I get real tired of only eatin' sheep.

Chronos

Chronos

Titan of Time

"He is no mere Titan. He is time itself. And time cannot be stopped."

— Hades

Voiced by: Logan Cunningham

The Titan of Time, father of Hades and several Olympian Gods, and the main antagonist of Hades II.

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• Absurdly Youthful Father: Chronos looks younger than both Hades and Zeus, his grown sons. Justified; due to him being an immortal and the Anthropomorphic Personification of Time itself.
• Abusive Parents: As Hades told Zagreus, the latter does not know truly cruel parents until he's met his grandfather. (While the canonicity of this is yet to be clarified, he was infamous in the myths for eating his own children so they wouldn't be a threat to his power.) He keeps Hades, his son, chained, enslaved, and Forced to Watch as his loved ones are frozen in time and his domain is conquered. When he meets Melinoë at the House of Hades, he chides her for being uncivilized like the rest of her family and doesn't hesitate to raise his weapons against her, being well aware Melinoë is there to kill him.
• Angel Unaware: Melinoë first encounters him as an old man at the edge of Erebus, inquiring about her errand and name. Upon their second time meeting like this, she realizes who he is.
• Anthropomorphic Personification:
  • Hades calls Chronos "Time itself", implying that he embodies the very concept of time instead of merely controlling it.
  • His title shown in the dialogue box is the "Titan of Time" instead of "Time Incarnate", when other gods such as Hypnos or Nyx are recognized as "Sleep Incarnate" and "Night Incarnate" respectively.
• Archnemesis Dad: To call his relationship with his children "adverserial" is probably quite the understatement. His tyrannical nature turned his children — Hades, Zeus, and Poseidon — against him, and when the Titanomachy broke out, they fought each other fiercely. With the defeat of him and the other Titans, his body was sundered by his children, who scattered his pieces to negate his Healing Factor and evidently went through a lot of trouble to make sure he stayed down and locked up. On the few occasions his sons mention or allude to him, they have absolutely nothing good to say about him other than that Hyperion was even worse.
• Asshole Victim: Chronos is a conniving, cruel, petty, manipulative bastard with megalomaniacal ambitions who garnered no love nor care for his godly children. His conflict with the gods culminated in the Titan War in which Chronos was ultimately defeated by his own kids. They chopped him up into pieces and was spread across Tartarus, as a means to ensure he wouldn't rise to power again. Hades took no pleasure in the act however, and according to him the rest of his siblings didn't either.
• Bad Boss: Though humanity prospered under his rule, the same could not be said for his family and the other deities forced to work directly under him. There was a reason why he was imprisoned in the first place.
• Big Bad: Chronos is the main antagonist of the second game, having broken free of his imprisonment and trapped Hades, Zagreus, and Persephone deep inside the Underworld. Melinoë returns to the Underworld as a grown woman to defeat Chronos, free her family, and end his war with Olympus.
• Chekhov's Gunman: He's mentioned in passing in the first game, but becomes the main antagonist of the sequel.
• Clocks of Control: Inside the reshaped Tartarus clocks are everywhere, in all sizes, beginning with a massive one seen from the vista point near the entrance. Chronos seeks to bring about a new Golden Age and bring under his control even the Fates.
• Cold Ham: He hardly ever raises his voice even as he delivers intimidating boasts and theatrical displays of contempt.
• Complete Immortality: As Hades states, as the personification of time, Chronos can't be killed, only stopped temporarily. Even getting chopped into pieces and scattered all over Tartarus didn't take in the long run. After defeating him, Melinoë acknowledges that he'll probably regenerate back on Hades' throne by the time she reaches it again, though she's willing to defeat him as many times as it takes for him to finally give up. There's an invocation to permanently slay him, but it's inaccessible in the Early Access build of the game, requiring Z-Sand and Entropy in quantities that the game outright doesn't tell you.
• Composite Character: Chronos is portrayed as "The Titan of Time". In Greek Mythology, Cronus, the King of the Titans who is Hades' father, is a distinct being from Chronos, the Anthropomorphic Personification of Time. That said, even among the Greeks and later the Romans, it was not unheard off to mix up or combine the two, and during the Renaissance this became very common, leading to the popular image of Father Time wielding a scythe, when the scythe or sickle was the symbol of Cronus, who used it to castrate his own father while Chronos' symbol traditionally was a Zodiac wheel.
• Condescending Compassion: Emphasis on the "condescending". He carries himself less like a traditional dictator and more like a parent who always thinks he knows best, viewing his abhorrent treatment of his children and grandchildren as delivering proper discipline.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Hades himself was a moody, gruff father who was nonetheless weighed down by Persephone's absence and turned over a new leaf after some time, ultimately shown to genuinely love his wife and son. Chronos is outwardly affable, but holds no such love for any of his children or relatives, and sadistically torments his son and granddaughter while desiring revenge on Olympus for his defeat.
• Control Freak: He believes he knows best when it comes to everything, and he will cross any line to get everyone else to not only do what he wants but agree that his ideas are the only correct ones.
• Dark Is Evil: His skin is nearly pitch-black, and he's a tyrant at his core.
• Deadpan Snarker: Every word that comes out of his mouth drips with sheer condescension or sarcasm.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: How he manages to find and banish the Fates. It's revealed that he deliberately misled Chaos into telling him where they make their home by claiming that he simply wanted to test the magnitude of their power. Chaos, due to their eons of isolation and resulting deprivation of direct social interaction, is unable to recognize his deception and malicious intentions.
• Disc-One Final Boss: While he's almost certainly the game's final obstacle, the first proper boss fight with him only closes the game's first act. Because he'll eventually regenerate right back on the Underworld's throne, the story then shifts to finding a more permanent solution to Chronos, granting access to the Surface with a whole new set of dungeons and objectives.
• The Dreaded: In the first game, Hades made very clear that the war against titans was a traumatic experience and refused to elaborate on it. The second game shows why Hades and other Olympians took drastic measures to prevent his return.
• Evil Old Folks: He's the father of Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon as well as the grandfather of Zagreus and Melinoë. He was deposed and imprisoned by his own children in the original Titanomachy due to his tyranny (and devouring said children in an attempt to cement his rule forever). He breaks free in the second game and takes over the Underworld while imprisoning Hades, Zagreus, and Persephone. Melinoë's goal is to defeat him to free her family and end the war once and for all.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Inverted; unlike his sons and their booming voices, Chronos has a surprisingly soft speaking voice, which just makes him all the creepier and more unearthly to listen to.
• Expy: Given his pitch black skin, Egyptian pharaoh inspired design and his unbearable smugness and sadism, this incarnation of Chronos seems to be quite influenced by Nyarlathotep.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. Even compared to Olympian gods who overthrew him, Chronos' arrogance is on an entirely different level as they at least take care not to offend each other too much (only engaging in verbal barbs) or other divine beings such as Chthonic Gods. In fact, Chronos goes as far as deceiving Chaos, which causes the otherwise impartial primordial being to begin aiding Melinoë. Hades even mentions this to Melinoë as Chronos' greatest weakness.
• Faux Affably Evil: Chronos is soft spoken, polite, and rather gentlemanly in his behaviour. This only emphasises how evil he actually is, such as lecturing Melinoë for being a poor guest in the house he stole from her family.
• Flunky Boss: Chronos will summon his "Legions of the Golden Age" to assist him in his battle against Melinoë. One of the boons Hades can provide Melinoë will counter this, slashing the number of minions Chronos can summon in half.
• Forced to Watch: Chronos makes a point to imprison everyone in the House of Hades in their own little individual bubbles of stopped time, except for his son. So the lord of the Underworld is rendered painfully aware of the fate that's befallen his house and family, and entirely helpless to do anything about it.
• Fourth-Wall Observer: He knows when you pause the game, and he's not amused by your attempts to control time when he is Time, to the point he'll unpause the game. After seeing this for the first time, though, Melinoë can perform an incantation to prevent this, leaving him grumbling and irritated whenever you successfully pause.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: If you attempt to pause the game during his boss fight, Chronos hijacks the pause menu and mocks you before reiterating that he controls time, then proceeds to casually unpause the game. However, after fighting him the first time, the player can unlock an incantation that overrides his control, turning him into more of an impatient Fourth-Wall Observer whenever you pause the game.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: His eyes are shining white, which adds to his supernatural nature even for divine beings.
• Gold Fever: Besides time, gold might as well be Chronos' biggest obsession. The underworld is flooded with loosened gold from the caverns above Tartarus, to the point that the river Styx is now replaced with a stream of golden dust, and all of the gold that isn't lying around has been cast as crowns baring his insignia, which Charon and Hephaestus are trying to gather so they can put it back into the Earth. Chronos himself also has scars all across his body from his previously being cut into pieces mended with gold.
• The Good King: Zigzagged; as to his family and the other deities, Chronos is an unrepentant, slimy monster who horribly mistreats them under a veneer of civility as he lorded over them... but to humanity, he brought an unambiguous Golden Age with him that truly rewarded them under his rule. The contradiction between the two actually causes Nemesis a brief Moment of Weakness that has her questioning whether or not they deserve living under his horrible rule so humanity can prosper.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: His face and body are lined with fissures from the time he was chopped apart by his own children to prevent his return after the Titan War. The gold seemingly used to mend himself together only highlights his decadence and cruelty.
• Gruesome Grandparent: Chronos isn't any nicer to his grandchildren than he is to his children, he repeatedly demeans and tries to kill Melinoë and froze Zagreus in time with the rest of his family as well.
• HA HA HA—No: His reaction if you try to pause the game while fighting him is to briefly laugh before reminding you that he controls time, not you.
• Hate Sink: In contrast with the antagonistic forces of the previous game, who were just flawed but well-meaning at worst, Chronos is unambiguously a villain and a particularly vile one. Not only is he an insufferably smug and condescending tyrant who speaks dismissively of everyone around him, but he commits several atrocities for no reason other than pure sadism like turning Cerberus into an abomination that's in perpetual pain. It says a lot that even Chaos, a neutral All-Powerful Bystander who merely held most Olympian gods in disdain, is absolutely irritated with Chronos and states they shall hold him to account for what has come to pass.
• Hated by All: Every heroic character despises him, even the otherwise-impartial Chaos.
• I Have Your Wife:
  • Defied by Melinoë. After defeating him for the first time, Chronos says that the mercy he's shown to the family from the House of Hades may have to be "reevaluated" as a way to try and stop Melinoë from descending to fight him again. But Melinoë calls his bluff, telling Chronos that since she's never met them before, she won't care either way - though this is likely a bluff in-of-itself, as she expresses a desire to rescue Persephone and Zagreus when talking to Hades or brooding over the painting of her family.
  • He was ready to do this with Chaos, trying to leverage information on the Fates by threatening Nyx, however Chaos- unfamiliar with the concept of deceit at the time- freely gave him information on how to get to the Fates when he asked politely, rendering it entirely unnecessary.
• Impossible Hourglass Figure: What other kind of figure do you think Time would have?
• Interface Screw: In a display of power fitting of "Time Itself," he reacts to attempts by the player to pause the game during his boss battle with a mocking one-liner followed by forcibly unpausing the game. However, after fighting him the first time, the player can unlock an incantation that frees the pause function from his control.
  "Hahaha! No. You do not control the flow of Time. Not here."
• Jerkass: On top of being an Abusive Parent par excellence and a complete tyrant, he is also a massive asshole who is constantly condescending to those beneath him.
• Kick the Dog: In a near-literal example, he turns Cerberus, the first game's beloved Morality Pet, into a horrifying, pain-riddled monster that the player has to fight.
• Lean and Mean: In contrast to his burly sons, Chronos has a lean physique. It emphasizes his callousness and sadism, hurling insults at his granddaughter Melinoë while trying to tempt her to join him.
• Like Father, Like Son: Chronos is a dismissive, condescending, abusive Cold Ham with control issues; in other words, he comes off as not completely dissimilar to how Hades was in the first entry of the series. However, he is several magnitudes worse, in part because he isn't established as having the same Freudian Excuse that Hades does, (and is in fact a significant contributor to it) and there is no one he would ever concede to.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Zeus and Poseidon are Hot-Blooded, burly, boisterous bruisers and large hams who have literally mythically poor impulse control. By contrast, Chronos is a svelte and soft-spoken strategist who considers his vengeance Best Served Cold. And while Hades eventually stopped standing in Zagreus' way, admitted to his misguidedness and started trying to treat his son better, Chronos has had no such epiphany since being dispatched by his own children.
• Loves Only Gold: Obsessed with gold. After gaining control of the House of Hades, one of his first acts was to make all the gold in its veins as coins in his image. Indeed, his image makes it look like his flesh was mended together with gold.
• Mythology Gag: In Melinoë's dream, Chronos has taken everyone hostage except for her father. When Hades demands to know what he's done with his family, Chronos assures him that "I haven't eaten them, or anything." This serves as an allusion to the original myth, where in order to avoid being usurped, Chronos swallowed all but his youngest son whole.
• Nepharious Pharaoh: While not one himself, he evokes the image of one, being unfathomably cruel and dressed in a style heavily reminiscent of Ancient Egypt rather than anything Grecian.
• No-Sell: As the Titan of Time, Chronos is completely immune to all time-slowing mechanics, requiring players to re-learn the timing of their moves in order to both hit him and avoid damage.
• Obviously Evil: One only needs to take a single look to know that Chronos is a bad news.
• One-Hit Kill: In his second phase, he can do this to Melinoë if she isn't standing at the right place as he executes the attack.
• Orcus on His Throne: Downplayed. He can be encountered in Erebus, long before Melinoë reaches Tartarus. This will trigger either a jump in time that she must pass a challenge to escape...or an early fight. Otherwise he doesn't really do anything about Melinoë before she gets to the House of Hades even after she kills him multiple times. Of course, given his Time Master powers he most likely isn't too worried about her, since he can always regenerate.
• Our Angels Are Different: He resembles a Seraph due to his 6 wings and golden ring around his head, though he has more of a Dark Is Evil Nepharious Pharaoh aesthetic compared to typical depictions of Seraphim.
• Power Echoes: His voice has an unnatural deep reverb to it as befitting a being born shortly after the universe's creation. It audibly changes in intensity as he speaks, often to emphasize what he's insistent about.
• The Problem with Fighting Death: Or rather Time. Being the Anthropomorphic Personification of time itself, he can't be permanently slain without causing a Time Crash. Melinoë acknowledges after defeating him that he'll likely just regenerate back on the throne of Hades, but she's willing to defeat him over and over again until he calls it quits.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: As the former Top God, the father to Hades, Zeus, and Poseidon, and the personification of Time, he is appropriately one of the mightiest beings in the series.
• Reality Warper: In the second phase of his fight, he will transform the House of Hades into a lone clock face surrounded by an endless void. It only reverts back to normal upon his defeat.
• Reduced to Dust: In his death animation, Chronos erodes away to nothing, leaving behind Zodiac Sand. If you speak to Hecate at the Crossroads afterwards, she will comment how "they've something of his nature in each tiny grain".
• Scars Are Forever: The golden lines adorning his body are an indicator of how he reconstructed himself after being cut to pieces by his children.
• Sinister Scythe: He fights with a large scythe called Hrodreptus, almost the size of him, which when not in battle shrinks down and acts as a cane. He will also comment on Zorephet, Thanatos' Aspect Scythe, if you reach him wielding it.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He hardly ever raises his voice and speaks in a weary and whispery cadence that, combined with the reverb in his voice, makes him incredibly intimidating.
• Terms of Endangerment: He refers to Melinoë as "my girl". You can feel the venom drip from his voice every time he says it.
• This Cannot Be!: Invokes this when Melinoë defeats him, as well as if the player has the incantation to stop him from unpausing the game.
• Tick Tock Tune: As the embodiment of time, Chronos' Battle Theme Music, "The Titan of Time" features the ticking of a clock in the background to underscore his domain and the might it affords him.
• Time Master: As the Titan of Time, or as Chronos himself claims, "Time itself", he can manipulate the flow of time to suit himself. During his boss battle, he uses this to trap Melinoë in bubbles of paused time and prevents the player from pausing the game.
  "He is no mere Titan; he is Time Itself. And Time cannot be stopped."
• Titanomachy, Round Two: What he's in the process of doing after being restored and escaping from Hades.
• Top God: One of the most powerful beings in the series, Chronos' power is such that he can easily imprison Hades, his family, and his employees, including Thanatos, Nyx, and perhaps even the Fates themselves if he can find them. It turns out in the Fates' case, he had to resort to banishing them to an unknown corner of spacetime, but it still shows his power that he was able to defeat them at all.
• Tranquil Fury: Instead of raising his voice, Chronos expresses his anger by simply raising the intensity of reverbs in certain keywords, which makes him sound demonic.
• Turns Red: Just like Hades from the first game, he is the only boss who has more than one form.
• Underestimating Badassery: Since it took 6 Olympians to render him asunder last time, he does not think Melinoe is any threat, treating their fights as a grandfather admonishing a rebellious grandchild. Even in cases he loses, this still does not shake his pride, since his immortality means that his plans are not, in his mind, under threat.
• Unusual Halo: His head is wreathed in a pointed circle in his dialogue portrait, while his model before and during the fight is circled with a simpler line with gaps that rotates.
• Viler New Villain: Hades in the first game was by no means a saint, but his intentions were ultimately benign and the only real stakes laid in stoking Demeter's grief. By contrast, Chronos is actively malicious and trying to remake the world in his own image.
• Villainous Breakdown: He drops the Faux Affably Evil act when you beat the first phase of his boss fight.
  "This audience has lasted long enough. You do not get to barge into this House, and waste my time. I AM Time! And I can make your every moment hell."
• Villain with Good Publicity: Implied. He ruled over a Golden Age for humanity, but on a personal level he is an absolutely terrible being and it's hard to blame the gods for despising him.

Familiars

Frinos

Melinoë's froggy companion. She can pet him, and bring him along as a familiar.

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• Assist Character: He can harmlessly soak up ranged attacks and help coax wayward souls to the Crossroads if he's brought along to adventure with Melinoë.
• Charm Person: He can bring one Shade to the Crossroads for free. Melinoë implies that he hypnotizes the Shades into following.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Using him as a shield can be tricky at times given the way he hops about, but he can completely absorb some incredibly dangerous attacks that otherwise can't be stopped or reflected. Hecate even comments with frustration if he catches her transformation hex, as a Player Nudge to his true value.
• Stone Wall: His function as a familiar: Frinos hops about, intercepting ranged attacks from enemies. He's impervious to harm, but in turn doesn't do any damage himself by default. His upgrades add a small bit of damage to his leaps, but they're nothing compared to Toula's charges and especially the kind of punishment Melinoë delivers.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He starts out as the second game's fill-in for Cerberus as the hub world pet the protagonist can pet. Unlike Cerberus, though, he's just a normal old toad that's willing to join Melinoë on her journey.

Toula

An elusive cat that Melinoë encounters in Erebus. After acquiring the recipe for Witch's Delight, Melinoë can find and recruit her in the docks outside of Ephyra.

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• Assist Character: She occasionally attacks enemies if Melinoë dashes into her, can catch fish in Melinoë's place, and provides Melinoë with extra Death Defiances.
• Cats Are Lazy: If Melinoë doesn't dash into her, Toula is content to sleep through any encounter the two find themselves in.
• Cats Have Nine Lives: Toula can give Melinoë extra Death Defiances, which is likely a nod to this belief.

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