Tartarus

"You dare to claim I was the one responsible for your misery? As if it wasn't because of your kind's own hubris? Don't make me laugh, you little brat. I don't even know you pathetic kind even exist."

- Tartarus.

Tartarus is the Greco-Roman Primordial Deity of the Underworld and the Abyss that personifies all underworlds (including Hell).

Overview
Tartarus is the primordial god and personification of the location Tartarus in Greek Mythology. As a Primordial Deity, he is an entity who is barely even known by even the Titans. He débuts, with his appearance in around 700 B.C. and is very briefly mentioned.

Tartarus is the father of Typhon and the giants, of whom Gaia is the mother. The father of Tartarus is Khaos. He is the "prison guard" of Tartarus, the darkest pit in the Underworld where monsters go to reform once they are slain. Tartarus is also the place where Uranus threw, in chains, the Elder Cyclopes and the Hekatonkhieres, and the place where most of the Titans were chained after the first Titanomachy.

Appearance
In his physical form, Tartarus appears as a hundred meters monstrous humanoid standing at immense height, his purple glistening flesh rippling with muscle with a muscular skin and eyes that glow when he uses his powers.

His fingers are tipped with razor-sharp black talons. However, his most terrifying and distinguishing feature is his face- in place of a normal face is a swirling whirlpool and inward spiral of darkness, and his voice sounds like it is being drawn back inward rather than projecting outward. Tartarus' black Stygian iron boots are each the size of a coffin, and his hands are as large as crane scoops. His breastplate has faces of gorgons, cyclopes, dragons and other monsters all pressing against his armor as if trying to escape. Tartarus can also take a form that is a hundred meters sphere with many eyes and tentacles and after his defeat, his body was reduced to five meters.

His body gives out a unbelievable aura and his presence also gives out a dark mist. The aura he releases is described as ominous, so terrifying that when the Archangel of Hope, Auriel, fought him, she nearly lost control of her powers after being overcome with fear and cried a little. According to Athena, Tartarus is so massive, and radiates such pure malevolence, that she wanted to crawl away and hide as soon as she saw him, and even dropped her spear in terror. Tartarus' laugh sounded like a mountain "cracking in half". According to Athena again, everything around Tartarus seemed to be drawn to him.

In its true form, Tartarus is an amorphous entity, like all of the primordials. His body is essentially the deepest and darkest domain of the Underworld, with the worst beings condemned by the Olympians imprisoned in his domains. However, when he went to fetch Cronus from his domain, the god was said to be an entity replete with a series of long spectral arms whose color is dark with twinkling stars.

Personality
Like its creator, although its real mentality is highly unknown, Tartarus has so far proved to be an impartial divine entity and completely devoid of feelings or even ideals, as it remained relatively neutral and ambivalent with the constant wars that were fought among the deities soon after the formation of the universe, not bothering to serve as "a living prison" where the gods send their most dangerous enemies, even if they are their own direct relatives. However, his impartiality has limits, as he joined Gaia in the past to bring down the Olympians, resulting in the birth of Typhon.

Consistent with the primordial responsible for the most terrible infernal abyss, Tartarus is a totally brutal, somber, sadistic, and terrifying entity that, like its domains, brings only despair and fear to all below it through the most exquisite forms of cruelty. He showed himself to be a highly arrogant god with an immense disdain and contempt for demons/fallen angels, angels and even the titans, whom he openly described as annoyances as after easily destroying them. However, Tartarus is honest and admits when someone forces him to take direct action, he will not hesitate.

He has claimed to have a taste for having a physical form and also showed delight in inciting terror in its victims. Like Gaia, he also takes great pride in his Gigantes children.

However, like some of his siblings, he also proved to be generally an impartial entity, to the point of being completely devoid of feelings and ideals as he remained neutral and almost ambivalent of the constant wars that were waged between the gods against the titans, and even claiming that he does not usually interfere. But at the same time, Tartarus's impartiality has limits, since he joined the other primordials more than once to defeat being like the Outer Gods and Aructhas. He is also seen as a fair and fierce underworld god, like Hades was. He is also seem to have a degree of contempt for Satan.

He is also known for being cruel towards the sinners and guilty. As he stated that their sufferings and agony is his joy, and claimed that they deserve to be punish in Hell for their misdeeds and sinful acts. Despite his seemingly cruel and terrifying nature, Tartarus is very honest and can be respectful to those who deserves it. The only beings, however, that he is cautious around are his creator, the primeval void Khaos, and the holy creator God, the supreme being of Creation.

Powers and Abilities
As the Primordial of the Primordial Abyss, Tartarus proved to be one of the most powerful and terrible entities of Creation and infinitely powerful while in its domains. He is possibly one of the most powerful Primordials though Nyx and Erebus rival him with the sole exception of Khaos as he can suck in Titans whereas Gaia and Ouranos could not. Proof of his terrifying power was that even the Titans could not threaten him since he easily defeated Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Damasen and even Cronus without much difficulty. He far surpasses over Lucifer who is a powerful being on his own right. Despite having unimaginable amounts of power, he is not as unstoppable as he was able to be defeated by Calur.


 * Nigh-Omnipotence: As the Protogenos of the Abyss, Tartarus holds immense levels of power and was so powerful that Athena stated that Tartarus could kill all the Olympians with a single thought if he wanted to kill them. His mere presence was more than enough to scare Athena into submission. In fact, not even the Titans pose any challenge to Tartarus and he himself was able to easily defeat most of them even though they caught him by surprise. It took Cronus and the other titans in the underworld just to hold him off long enough for them to escape, and he was only using a small manifestation of his power. He is also powerful enough to battle and destroy some of the Outer Gods, and he is also one of the few entities, capable of rivalling or perhaps even surpassing Azathoth's children, like Nyarlathotep, even rivalling his almost near-omnipotent levels of power, despite the Nyarlathotep's frightening status as the "crawling chaos", even viewing and also belittling his games and plans of corrupting humanity as nothing but child's play.


 * Immense Strength: As one of the Protogenoi, Tartarus possesses immense power above even Lucifer. His power was so great that when he made his way to crush the Arcutha Tharo, he easily defeated Hades, a powerful deity on his own right. Merlin explained that even Satan, who is believed to be the strongest demon to ever exist, could not even face Tartarus evenly. According to Athena, if Tartarus wanted to, he could kill all the Olympians with a single thought, if it were not his desire to experience the pleasure of killing his victims one at a time. Not even his own children pose any challenge to him as he easily defeated them. They only hold him off all at once though they were all at a fraction of their full power and even combined they were defeated.


 * Immense Durability: He has strong durability, letting him survive attacks from things that can blow up half of his body.


 * Abyss Manipulation: As a Primordial God of the Abyss, he is able to control the abyss, which is a vast space of emptiness filled with pure darkness. Tartarus can seal his enemies inside this abyss and keeps them alive, which prevents even a Sacred Gear from being transferred to another host if their current host dies. He can control space and dimensions, letting him usurp control of the artificial space created by Dimension Lost. Tartarus is able to also create various effects such as using darkness to restrain enemies and increased gravity in order to force down flying enemies.
 * Dark Gravity: Tartarus also has something like a dark gravitational field around him, which pulls everything in his close proximity into his terrifying whirlpool of a face.


 * Hell Embodiment: As the Primordial God of all Underworlds, Tartarus is the Underworld itself. When he is in territory, his powers are at his peak and is said to become even stronger than Calur. Being there also grants Tartarus an incredible healing factor, as the wounds he received from Calur were healed in an instant.


 * Monster Control: As the Lord of the Pit, Tartarus has absolute control and divine authority over monsters. He can summon legions of monsters to fight for him. That includes his son Typhon, a powerful entity whose powers is on par with some of the greatest Archdemons.


 * Umbrakinesis: As the Protogenos of the Abyss and the Pit of Evil, he has absolute control and divine authority over darkness, although not so much as Nyx and Erebus.
 * Darkness Generation: He can shoot solid bolts of darkness, and surround enemies in pitch-black clouds of lightless space.
 * Darkness Shields: He can solidify shadows into virtually impenetrable shields.
 * Invisibility: He can use shadows to cover himself in darkness to become invisible.
 * Shadow Travel: Using shadows, he is able to travel anywhere he wants at incredible speeds.


 * Essence Absorption: Tartarus has the ability to suck beings into the swirling whirlpool of darkness on his face, which he did to the immortal essence of many gods and angels. Tartarus can technically absorb beings by absorbing their immortal essence into his armor for very long periods of time. Though it is unknown to what extent he can use this power.


 * Power Suppression: Just by being in his domain, Athena's innate capacity to heal slowed to a near halt forcing her to drink from the River Phlegethon.


 * Telumkinesis: Tartarus can likely summon and control weapons that cause pain and suffering.


 * Regeneration: Tartarus is shown with the ability to regenerate half of his body that was blown off and his arms that were cut out.


 * Magic: As a Primordial, Tartarus has shown a grand amount of skill in the magical arts.

Origins
He was created by Khaos to assist him in his conflict between him, Azathoth and God. Tartarus was born in-between Gaia/Terra (Earth) and Eros/Armor, preceding Nyx/Nox (Night) and Erebus/Scotus (Darkness) being the oldest primordial being except for his sibling Chronos.

Long after the conflict, Tartarus created the Greek Underworld, the first Underworld in Creation even before Hell. He had ruled from the realm below the Underworld which also called Tartarus along with Nyx and Erebus. It was created to imprison the most dangerous beings in Creation (example being the Titans).

He had ruled for centuries until the end of Titanomachy where he gave it to the God Hades/Pluto. After the Titans defeat, Gaia and Tartarus had together birth the monster king known as Typhon.

Roman Absorption
After the end of the Roman Empire, Tartarus reabsorb his avatar, the Roman Tartarus, becoming as one once more.

Myths and Legends
In Greek mythology, Tartarus is both a deity and a place in the underworld. In ancient Orphic sources and in the mystery schools, Tartarus is also the unbounded first-existing entity from which the Light and the cosmos are born. As a god, Tartarus is often named as the father of the monstrous Typhon with Gaia; Tartarus is also occasionally named as father of Typhon's partner Echidna. Echidna and Typhon were famed for going to war with Zeus and the gods of Mount Olympus.

In ancient sources though, the concept of Tartarus as a god was marginalized, and the name was one more closely connected with the hell-pit of the Greek Underworld.

In the Greek poet Hesiod's Theogony, c. 700 BC, Tartarus was the third of the primordial deities, following after Khaos and Gaia (Earth), and preceding Eros and was the father, by Gaia, of his only son, the monstrous giant Typhon. According to Hyginus, Tartarus was the offspring of Aether and Gaia

With time, Hades came to overthrow Tartarus as the ruler of the underworld (hell-pit). Nonetheless, Tartarus continued to exist. It is from Tartarus that the Light and the cosmos came into existence.

Quotes

 * "The time has come for me to do what I should have done years ago! Now, I will wipe you Arcuthas off the face of existence! For I AM the Underworld and you have no place in it!" - Tartarus speaking to the Arcutha Tharo.


 * "And as strange and hypocritical it may sound coming the me, the literally demonic embodiment of wrath itself, but Tartarus should really go to an anger management class. It's only a matter of time before his anger foils our entire plans." - Satan.


 * "Brahman, one of the primordials of the Creator, it seems that wish to fight me. Me who was there during the first wars for Creation where I witness my creator, the void itself battling against the creator for control over everything. Where I fought those horrid Outer Gods and damned Arcuthas. You have quite the arrogance to even slightly threaten me, Brahman." - Tartarus to Brahman.


 * "The Chariot of God. Do you wish to challenge me, the Underworld itself?" - Tartarus to Merkabah.


 * "You cannot kill me! I am the pit itself. You might as well try to kill the Earth. Gaea and I - we are eternal. We own you, flesh and spirit!" - Tartarus to Damasen.


 * "Be honored, little demigods. Even the Olympians were never worthy of my personal attention. But you will be destroyed by Tartarus himself!" - Tartarus to two demigods.


 * "It shall begin soon... Darkness will pour forth from the doors of hell... a darkness to swallow all the world's light." - Tartarus to Hades.


 * "The god and personification of Tartarus." - Hesiod.


 * "Every culture tells nightmare stories of a bogeyman to scare children. The gods have Tartarus."

Trivia

 * Tartarus is the only primordial to barely interfere in the mortal realm.
 * He is the step-father of the six Elder Titans.
 * According to Hyginus, Tartarus was the offspring of Aether and Gaia.
 * To some other ancient Greek ideologies, Tartarus was the offspring of Aether and Hemera.

Image Sources

 * (Fire giant by darkcloud013 d6t8f73-fullview.jpg) Fire Giant by Darkcloud013
 * (Hades in the underworld by thealienatedchenyang d5fhwn3-fullview.jpg) Hades in the Underworld by thealienatedchenyang
 * (Tartarus by lordaphaius28 d5zv35y-fullview.jp) Tartarus by lordaphaius28
 * (TártarosepG.png) Tartarus from Saint Seiya Episode G
 * (Tartarus Prime Earth 0001.jpg) Tartarus (Prime Earth) from Justice League Vol 4 46
 * (Tartarus face.jpg) House of Hades Reprint Cover by John Rocco
 * (Tartarusgod.jpg) Cronos from Wrath of the Titans
 * (John Martin 002.jpg) Fallen angels in Hell by John Martin