Hades - Strife (Patreon)

Awesome news guys! The design for NRG's newest original god and Hades villain is now done!

Strife has been known as many different god(dess) of wars throughout history; most famously Ares/Mars, but also Sobek, Svetovit, The Morrigan, Tyr, Sarutahiko, Mangala, ‘Oro, and Tezactlipoca. However, while he has been labeled as the God of War by mortals, he does not see himself as a War god. Instead, Strife sees himself as a god of change, progression, and evolution, all brought on by the “gift” that he bestowed mankind in the beginning- conflict.

You see, long before history had been recorded, Strife and his fellow gods ruled over mortals in a lasting era of peace. But while the other gods were happy, Strife was not because he felt the world was not moving, that it was just at a standstill constantly. Strife realized that if the world was to grow and evolve, then there had to be a need for change. And he did so by introducing the first moment of conflict in mankind, which lead to the first murder and eventually the first war. As a result, there was a lot of bloodshed and the era of peace was over. It was for this reason that Strife has long been regarded as the most hated and black sheep of his fellow gods.

Strife, however, cares not for the opinions of his fellow gods, and has always thought he was in the right for introducing conflict into the world. And in a really messed up Thanos-sort of way he was right. When you think about change, progress and evolution of the world and its people is fueled, brought on and the result of conflict because ultimately someone has to say the old ways don’t work any more and that there needs to be change for the better. If the world was constantly at peace with each other, we wouldn't have our advancements in say culture, medicine, technology, government and everything. If there’s peace then there is no change, but if people are constantly at odds with each other and trying to change things then the world keeps moving.

This has always been Strife’s belief, and as such he sees himself a “necessary evil” who must constantly work to keep conflict within the world so mankind can grow and evolve for the better. Constantly playing both sides of opposing views from behind the scenes, this has often led to such horrible wars and the atrocities that were committed within them. And while Strife does feel a heavy burden for the lives lost and blood spilled by mortals, he sees it as a price of change and progress that must be paid for the world to keep moving. And if this means coming into constant conflict with his fellow gods, then so be it.

Powers Wise, Strife is pretty basic compared to his fellow gods such as Hades, Zeus and Persephone, as he does not command a certain element or force of nature. While he does have godlike strength, speed, agility, invulnerability, healing and the ability to shapeshift into different forms, his true strength that gives him an edge over his fellow gods is his mastery of combat, brilliant tactical mind and mastery of manipulation. Strife is a master of all known forms of mortal combat (partially because he helped create most of them) and is a master of strategy and planning, having fueled and been there for the greatest military, political, etc; plans in history, his knowledge of them only matched by Sayge/Athena. And because he is constantly putting opposite sides of parties against each other for the sake of progression and evolution, Strife is a master manipulator; almost hypnotic in his ability to sway others to a cause or turn others against each other

Hope you guys loved seeing NRG's original god of war coming together! Let us know what you think with a comment below!

Hades: God of the Dead © NRG Comics

Art and Design by Mari Naca