{NPC hat on}

Would a disillusioned smith of Vulcan be appropriate to the group template? I'm thinking unnaturally strong but disfigured in some way. Appalled by the events that have transpired and the 'betrayal' of the Neptune boys by his team. Turns coat and joins the other side. Maybe the disfigurement is a punishment from Vulcan.

And I'm still angling for the name Testicles.

That's absolutely appropriate for this group template. A character caught between loyalty to his culture and the insensitive scheming of the gods he tries to serve.

Thought: maybe his disfigurement was socially acceptable, until Aphrodite's lackeys showed up and started 'beautifying' the culture. Can't have ugly people interacting with the Normals, can we?

That's cool. I can see him being both embarrassed by his ugliness and jealous of the beauty of the Aphrodites. Scorned by them his heart turns to hatred of their shallow preoccupation with the veneer of beauty. There could be some payback coming, so scope for a noble/ignoble internal conflict, when the fires of anger ignite in his broken heart.

Is it just me, or does that sound like a great setup for an episode of Kevin Sorbo's Hercules?Aphrodite learns a lesson from her half-brother: people can be beautiful on the inside, too! Then she stops running around on Vulcan and sets her wild ways aside for long walks on the beach and occasionally killing people with giant scorpions. Eolis is concerned with his hair. Hilarity ensues!

I like the proposed background and I'm fine accepting it. The story plays nicely to the character flaws I had in mind.

Yeah, that all works fine. It doesn't have to be Athena, but she seemed like the most obvious choice. You tell me what'll work the best, and I'll roll with it. That backstory is perfectly fine. My PC is going to DESPISE Pkalata's, but he won't get violent about about.

Hey, man, it's not my fault you didn't tap that.

I would inject that what I like most about Greek mythology is that the core religion common to all heroes is humanism. Although the common rabble are devout worshipers of the petty gods, it is the men who stand against the gods who are called heroes.

I fully intend to stand against the gods, spear in hand, spitting defiantly in the eyes of fate. That doesn't mean that my guy is a proto-atheist, though. He'll make offerings to the appropriate gods when he's about to embark on a quest, and will show deference to their servants when not in conflict with them.

He is a polytheist in the normal sense. He believes in and recognizes all the gods. When he meets foreigners, he believes in their gods as well. When someone lies about being a servant of a god, he believes them. He is not a skeptic, theologically speaking.

I think I may go with the name Methodios, derived from methodos meta hodos, or "Method of the Road." Put more casually, it would be evocative of traveling and questing.

This is only because LF already took Testicles.

Sorry, I'm already kind of in character. I get that you're pissed at him because he failed in his duty and he pretty well dicked you over, nearly killing your family in the process. But he thinks you're just jealous that you didn't get with the goddess-level beauty.