Titanomachy
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Basic Information

In Greek Mythology the Titanomachy was the conflict in which the Greek gods lead by Zeus overthrew their ancestors the Titans and seized control of the world.

There are varying, often mutually contradictory, accounts of what took place during the conflict, but most agree that, unsurprisingly for a war fought amongst close relatives, it was violent, cruel and merciless. By time it was over, most of the titans and their allies had either been killed, imprisoned in tartarus or forced to submit to Olympian rule.

Similar conflicts appear in other mythoi - for example, the overthrow and destruction of Tiamat and Abzu by the gods in Mesopotamian mythology. There's also the Aesir/Jotun thing in Norse-mythology, although that's not quite the same. Frankenstein Syndrome seems to predate its trope namer by millennia…

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Game and Story Use

  • As per Sword and Sorcery press's Scarred Lands setting, a campaign run with a titanomachy either ongoing or in the very recent past could have a very different feel from your traditional fantasy world.
  • As in Greek myth, it's possible to have a cycle of titanomachies. The Titans overthrow the Creators, the Olympians overthrow the Titans, and Zeus is paranoid that his turn will be next.
  • Individual titans could also still pop up as epic level challenges, or the return/resurrection/revolt of the previously defeated titans could signal the end of the world (or at least the end of the current cycle).
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