#or perhaps it's his defeat thing. Or phase 2 change. Once he pierces himself with his own sword and start's doing blood magic.

[husband-steve-cortez]

"Don't you know? A warden is already dead."

#idk thinking about Alim saying this when you die in phase 2 of his hypothetical dark souls boss fight #or perhaps it's his defeat thing. Or phase 2 change. Once he pierces himself with his own sword and start's doing blood magic. #technically only rogues can coat their weapons in their own blood but I think logically it can always be done #mage got really disappointing power of blood abilities because it's basically blood magic (or negates the need for blood magic) #and that other thing #which *I* fully take as simply being. Power of Blood Warden can control and weaponize their blood #and thus a blood mage warden who drank avernus' potion is truly terrifying. Able to weaponize the taint like no other #spirit damage makes me think of it almost burning through armor #100% Alim is brandishing his blood soaked spellweaver or perhaps vigilance and doing bloodborne shit #I guess I could say elden ring shit now since it actually *has* blood magic the player can use #thinking about how with queen yharnam her attacks build up rapid poison and that's how it is to me with Alim. #I think that spell just does spirit damage when you use it but I like the thought that with time #Alim can taint anything living

[wxrgod]

                                                               BRUTALITY

the following headcanon is inspired by two ancient sources. ( 1 ) ( 2 )

the first comes from an interaction between zeus and ares, when ares came back from a battle wounded and complaining.

then looking at him darkly, zeus who gathers the clouds spoke to him: “ do not sit beside me and whine, you double-faced liar. to me you are the most hateful of all gods who hold olympus. forever quarreling is dear to your heart, wars and battles.

and yet i will not long endure to see you in pain, since you are my child, and it was to me that your mother bore you. but were you born of some other god and proved so ruinous long since you would have been dropped beneath the gods of the bright sky. ” 

i write my ares as having gone through a brief period in his life where he tried to change his father’s opinion of him and be a better son. when i say brief, i mean it lasted a matter of months before he proved himself to be the whining and quarreling god that he is.

as is common with ares, he believes himself to be better than he actually is, and refuses to accept when he’s wrong or makes a mistake ( unless in rare circumstances ). in the following headcanon, he truly believes himself to be proving to his father that he is more than the ‘ most hateful of all the gods ’ while simultaneously failing to realize that he has slaughtered an entire town in what equates to a godlike temper tantrum, thus proving zeus right once more.

the second comes from a source regarding a temple of ares. 

the foundations are of early greece construction and date, but fragments of the superstructure, now located at the western end of the temple, can be dated to the 5th century bc. from the fragments archaeologists are confident that they belonged to a doric peripteral temple of a similar size, plan and date to the temple of hephaestus.

marks on the remaining stones indicate that the temple may have originally stood elsewhere and was dismantled, moved and reconstructed on the roman base - a practice common during the roman occupation of greece. the temple probably came from the sanctuary of athena pallenis at modern stavro, where foundations have been found but no temple remains are present.

this is where my headcanon bends myth canon. while it may not explicitly state “ THE TEMPLE OF ARES WAS ONCE THE TEMPLE OF ATHENA, DISMANTLED AND REBUILT ELSEWHERE ”, i decided to take the “ may haves ” and “ probably’s ” and turn them into certainties and things that did happen, per my own canon.

this is something that ares saw as insulting, especially since he and his sister have such a tumultuous relationship as it is. as such, he decided to kill two birds with one stone and 1) destroy the people that had insulted him and 2)  prove to his father that he could be more than what he proclaimed by sacrificing these people in zeus’s name.

i never said ares thought things out thoroughly before acting upon them. that is the entire purpose of ares: not thinking. he is the side of war that is savage and brutal, that runs into battle with an ear splitting roar, and comes home bloody and full of adrenaline. his sister, athena, is the intelligent side of it. she is strategy, and careful thought. she is everything he isn’t and that’s why they can never seem to get along. they are one coin, just opposite sides of it.

now that i have effectively rambled for longer than anyone should, here is the headcanon / piece of writing titled BRUTALITY, where the scene of ares refusing to give a fuck for the rest of eternity is painted out.

the streets were red with blood, almost ankle deep in some places. those who lay face down were either dead or drowning and choking on the mixed blood of the city’s inhabitants.

some tried to escape through tunnels and back allies, but the war god cut them off. he knew their secrets. he knew their tricks. this was one of his favored cities; there was no hiding from him here.

there was a definite purpose to his actions, though he would not explain them to the men and women and children that screamed and begged to know what they had done to deserve his wrath. they would die answer-less and shit scared, just as it was required of them.

some even hid in the temple that had been dedicated to him just six weeks previously. perhaps some gods would refrain from destroying a people that worshiped them, but it mattered not to ares. besides, the temple had once been athena’s; the citizens had just torn it down, rebuilt it, and rededicated it to a more savage war god.

and oh, did they get to witness his savagery first hand.

he hardly blinked an eye as his spear pierced through two and three villagers at a time that had been clinging to each other for dear life. it didn’t phase him a bit as his sword disemboweled men that thought themselves brave or worthy enough to fight the god of war.

they were cowards, unlike the ones standing in puddles of their own piss as their knees shook and gave out underneath them. those were the ones that truly recognized his power and his greatness, not the ones who took up arms and believed that they could so easily defeat him.

it only took ares a matter of hours to take every life in the city, including those of the animals, both wild and domesticated, before he fell to his knees in a bloody field and looked up to the dark night sky.

“ is this what you wanted, father? have i proven myself less displeasing to you? ” he shouted so loud that his voice echoed off of the empty buildings. “ they’re dead! in your name they’ve all been sacrificed! are you pleased? am i less hateful now? ”

clouds continued to move across the sky, but neither a whisper nor a roll of thunder could be heard. there was nothing but absolute silence.

ares soon got to his feet and threw his weapons to the ground, furious. it was all for nothing! he had destroyed an entire city only to be neglected and cast aside once more. perhaps he truly was the detestable child his father proclaimed him to be.

as he walked away from the city, blood stained and hot with rage, he wondered why he had even hoped for acceptance in the first place and vowed that he would never go searching for it again.

he didn’t need them. he never did and he never would.

#( hc ) what the myths forgot #this is an extremely long post #if you make it through this then bra fuckin' vo