Pallas
Titan god of warcraft
War is a constant thing. Throughout history, humans have spent an amazing amount of time thinking up ways to slaughter and wipe each other out for various (often ridiculous) reasons. So, it shouldn't be surprising that the whole "war" thing kicked off long before there WERE any humans. The gods and Titans of Greek mythology were just as fantastic at attempting to off one another, and passed off the talents of war to us.
In the beginning of time, long before even brutal Ares was in charge of stirring up trouble just to get his warlike kicks in, war was the domain of a certain Titan, a giant, burly and temperamental guy named PALLAS. It was Pallas who whipped up his brother and sister Titans into a frothy, bloodthirsty need for senseless death (or as close as they could get while trying to kill off the immortal Olympians!).
Even his name signaled war; Pallas' name comes from the ancient Greek word "pallein", which means "carrying a spear".
As the son of two of the first crop of Titans ever, Crius (dad, the least-interesting of all the Titans) and Eurybia (Titaness of the Mastery of the Seas: see "sailing".), Pallas was THE go-to when it came to the ways of war. The guy would totally memorize every way there was to wage war, make up a few of his own and master every weapon at his disposal.
Later on, he'd share that family business with his kiddos, whom he had with Styx (the spirit who was the actual embodiment of the River Styx, the boundary river that stands between the land of the living and the underworld of the dead…); the gods/goddesses Zelus (Glory), Nike (Victory), Kratos (Strength) and Bia (Force). A potent gang of skull-thumpers if ever there was! But wait; there's more! The younger kids that the couple brought forth into the world were famous to different degrees and for different reasons.
Scylla (who went on to be transformed into a nasty beastie that would cause all kinds of trouble for the Greek hero Odysseus and his men at sea), Fontes (Fountains) and Lacus (Lakes) were all his prides and joy, even if they weren't totally jazzed about war like he was.
As far as his appearance was concerned, Pallas was supposed to have assumed some rather animalistic qualities, looking somewhat like a big, buff goat-man (his dad Crius' name actually means "Ram", so it's possible!). Did that mean he had horns and a goofy goatee? Hard to say, as the stories weren't too clear on that, but you can bet that even if he did, you wouldn’t live too long after making fun of those features…
Beyond that, there wasn't much else crazy-interesting to tell about good ol' Pallas, despite the fact that just his job would have made for some good tales. All we DO know is that when the Titanomachy rolled around and the Titans faced off against the Olympians, even the colossal might of Pallas' military genius, his ripped abs and pure destructive powers couldn't take out Zeus , Inc.
The daughter of Zeus, Athena, the goddess of wisdom supposedly really made him look like a chump when the much younger goddess Chuck-Norris’d Pallas into next week and then went even one more step beyond to humiliate him; she skinned him alive and made her shield, Aegis, out his nearly-indestructible hide. Obviously, being a Titan, that didn't kill him like it would an actual human, but getting flayed alive was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Knowing he was beaten after the ten-year-war (and especially after getting his butt handed to him by Athena!), Pallas grudgingly surrendered to the new rulers of the universe and accepted the disgraceful and eternal imprisonment in the deepest hells of Tartarus along with the rest of the Titan clan. Not exactly a fitting retirement for the top-brass commander-warrior Titan…
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