Overview
Hades is the ruler of the Underworld, and has some control over the earth. For a death god, he is not particularly malicious or hateful towards the souls that come to his realm. Hades rarely leaves his kingdom in the Underworld, where the dead ultimately fade into nothingness. Hades has the power to bring death or wealth to any mortal, and reserves the right to restore life to the dead, something he guards jealously.
Omens from Hades are rare, and usually involve some form of unexpected death or wealth.
Description
Hades appears as a large, muscular dark-skinned man, with a bushy black beard and black eyes, and wearing gold jewelry.
Abilities
Whenever Hades strikes an opponent, there is a chance that they will die instantly. Similarly, Hades can cause a being to die, merely by gazing upon them. Hades is also able to restore life to any being, a right which he guards jealously.
Holy symbol
The holy symbol of Hades is a black ram.
Favored weapon
Hades wields either a longsword or a bastard sword.
Possessions
Hades possesses a helmet which renders him invisible to all beings, even in battle. His jet-black chariot is drawn by a team of nightmares, and while riding within this vehicle, Hades cannot be touched by mortals or gods alike.
Realm
Great Wheel cosmology
In the Great Wheel cosmology, Hades resides within the Underworld (also known as Hades), which is located on Pluton, the third gloom of the Gray Waste of Hades. The Underworld is typical of the Gray Waste: dull and lifeless. At the center of the realm is his palace of gray marble, known as the House of Hades, which he shares with his wife Persephone for six months of the year.
The Underworld touches the base of Mount Olympus, and is guarded by massive stone walls and enormous gates of beaten bronze. Beyond the gates lies the Grove of Persephone, which is filled with black willows and a single white laurel tree. The gates themselves are guarded by a terrible fiendish beast known as Cerberus, a gargantuan three-headed hound made from the squirming, decaying bodies of hundreds of petitioners, who is tasked with keeping the undeserving out, and to make sure the souls of the dead cannot escape their just rewards. Those souls judged worthy must pay the divine ferryman Charon to ferry them across the River Acheron, the river of woe. Later, the valiant dead might be permitted to cross the River Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, and emerge in the Elysian Fields. Other, less deserving souls, must cross the River Styx into Tartarus, a region of eternal pain and torment. And finally, the vast majority of souls will, over time, simply fade away into nothingness.
Beyond the gray marble walls, the Underworld is a wasteland, dominated by blackened trees and stunted bushes. Larvae are everywhere, writhing in the dust among the multitudes of gray wraithlike petitioners on the verge of being sucked completely dry of all emotion by the spiritual decay caused by the Gray Waste. When they lose the last shred of emotion, their essence becomes one with the gloom of Pluton.
Olympian cosmology
In the Olympian cosmology, Hades is the only Olympian not to make his home on Olympus; instead he resides deep beneath the mortal world within an outer planar realm also known as Hades. The underworld is a land of the dead where most mortal souls linger as insubstantial shades until they fade into nothingness. Below Hades lies Tartarus, a vast realm of nebulous darkness where the Olympians confine their forebears, the Titans, to eternal imprisonment. Far to the west, beyond the legendary land of Hesperia, lies the outer plane of Elysion or the Elysian Fields, a blessed land where the souls of the heroic dead find their reward.
Worship
The priests of Hades tend to share his dour and gloomy demeanor, and are tasked with officiating at funerals and the annual rites to honor the departed ancestors. His priests must live in dark, dreary caverns, and tend to hoard large amounts of gold, which they collect as fees for raising the dead.
In Spelljammer
Clusterspace
Hades manifests as the Thoric deity Yul within the Astromundi Cluster.
Greatspace
The inhabitants of Greatspace revere the gods and goddesses of the Greek pantheon, especially Zeus, meaning that Hades can be considered a native deity. However, the darker gods are not openly worshipped, including Ares, Circe, Hecate, Oceanus, and Hades.