Hades and the Gods

I tend to think that the Specters pledge allegiance through a “deal” with either Hades or Pandore. The healthiness of the deal depends highly on the personalities and morals of the Pandore/Hades of the moment (from straight up lies and manipulation like in what happened with Luco [TLC;Albafica’sGaiden] or full on honesty [ResurrectedHades;AU]). This perfects tge triangle with Athena, where her Saints are chosen at birth/very young, and Poseidon, where his Marinas choose to pledge allegiance and serve his cause.

Side note on Hades, the body the Bronze killed in the Hades Arc is his incarnation. To compare with Athena, it would be like they killed Saori. So yeah Hades died, but will probably be properly reincarnated in 250 years, and haven’t been like. Obliterated from the universe.

To keep on the triangle, Hades is antagonistic to both Athena and Poseidon, for they have very different views. Hades think living is useless pain inflicted on people, Athena considers it is needed pain to be true to yourself, Poseidon is dissatisfied with how everything centered around the “humans” and wish to turn the tables a bit. Those spirits are sorta found in their reincarnations.

Deals, Surplices and Shroedinger Specters

As mentioned earlier, the “deals” highly depend on the morality and philosophy of the Hades/Pandore, but depending the age and awakening of those two they can also be made by Hypnos, Thanatos or another Specter. They are still at some point checked up by the higher authorities that can just cancel things once they’re in capacity or relégués in lower ranks (classic!Pandore did that rather than full on destroy them like ResurrectedHades!Pandore did).

The Surplices keep memories of the different deaths of their owners, and depending on the rank of one those memories are more or less present. It also depends on the volunty of a specter to know more about them, but this can be painful and tiring the more the memories are far from their deaths or their lives as Specters. The Surplices are like cathalists of Pandore’s power, granting a window to alternative timelines. Hence why the “higher ranks” have more affinity with it, since they are granted more powers by Hades.

Due to the army of Hades being full of dubiously existing Specters, there are in fact more than 108 of them. They are just… not really Specters. To give an exemple, Mandrake Fyodor (from the TLC timeline) exists in the Classic Timeline, he’s just not an active Specter. He’s just here, on standby, but not really connected to this century’s Holy War. This is more common with Specters whose Surplice doesn’t get a new owner. They are merely considered as ghosts and are even less in power than the lowest ranked Specters. From a canonical and storyline point of view, they don’t even exist.

Pandore and Hades

Pandores are supposed to be Hades incarnations siblings, that balance the way Hades is.

The first Pandore was a minor goddess, killed for her essence to be used to make the Pandore of the myth, hence part why she can resurrect alongside of Hades. The poor girl was abandoned by the Pantheon after her mission, leaving her full of regrets and existential pain. She volunteered to be a Specter, and clicked so much with Hades he chose her to be his right hand. They loved each other deeply, and Hades couldn’t see his lives or next wars without her to help him, granting her a link with him throughout reincarnations.

She also balance Hades in powers: Hades manages the “life” post-death, Pandore sees the life before. While Hades centers more about the present timeline and holy war, Pandore has access to a variety of timelines and pasts. The awaking of those powers depends purely on how much Pandore tried to get in touch with them. This doesn’t happen often because Hypnos and Thanatos are little haters.

On Hypnos and Thanatos, they were supposed to be Pandore’s servants, offered by Hades. It’s just that as things go on (Hades being asleep, Pandore not remembering things due to reincarnation) they took advantage of the situation to reverse the tables, as their loyalty is more to Hades and not her. So yeah not in their interest to make sure that Pandore fully awake her powers.

Hades and Pandore have linked powers: Pandore can grant a part of her visions to Hades, showing to mortals/souls/Specters things, and Hades grant her a part of his control on the souls, represented by her role and literal fighting powers.

In most incarnations yet, this powers were latent, but not fully inexistent, as shown with how the Yours Ever pendant modified both Shun and Ikki’s memories, a trace of Pandore’s unknown power and therefore needing a vessel to work.

The Specters themselves

Minos is one of the “oldest” Specters, he has been here since millenia before Classic. He used to be the legendary king Minos, but nowadays he just enjoy each new era he sees. As mentioned in “The Longing Scent of Daturas” his Surplice showed him memories of Pisces Albafica and he’s still not over it, despite being fully conscious the Saint was not even from this dimension. He also tend to stick for a clothing style he likes during a few centuries (by the time of classic, he had just dropped his “16th century European bard” era and is now really enjoying the hippie style.

Rhadamanthys is on the opposite, the “youngest” having died in the 20’. He was a not so big yet gang leader, but his ascension was angering some people. He died as there was a raid against his gang but whether he does or doesnt remember how his life ended is unknown, as he’ll either say it’s from another guy’s bullet or cocaine overdose. His talent for leading men was recognized by one of the Judges though, which is why despite being a late dead he is so high in the hierarchy.

Aiacos is also a “recent” dead as it is his first Holy War. He is also struggling with the Surplice’s memories of Suikyo, which also highly influenced how TLC!Aiacos acted towards Saints. Now Classic!Aiacos has both and just… push everything aside like :) this :) is :) fine :). He would actually like to talk about them but due to Minos’ “excesses” it very much became a taboo.

Myu is a Muvian and Atlante metisse, and died over his 50 (maybe more). His death is more recent than what people tend to think. To be honest, there is not a lot that people can guess correctly about Myu. He dislikes the sun.

Pharaoh was not a pharaoh, but a musician for one. Nobody really took the time to learn how to properly pronounce his name, so they just went with this. At first, he used to like it, being called Pharaoh. Now he’s just sad because he has been known as that for too long and his name is forgotten.

Fyodor has changed a lot since his time in TLC. Stuck in the Underworld despite being alive, his whole torturing souls for fun has now more grown into a habit and huge lassitude… That’s just how his life is now. As a side effect of his Surplice, he is now totally deaf. He doesn’t care that much about the Wars now. And maybe that the apparition of a tiny shitty child in his life has made him change more than he’ll admit…

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Sorry if you expected more of the latter, I do not remember the Specters as much as I used to… and some things will probably change as I go on with my rewatch !