#the errands

ig there would be 3 main things that Heremes would take away from this:

showing Hermes that Cyllene is the consequence of his own actions. May Castellan, Luke Castellan, now his mother, who else? Everything he has touched has turned to ash, and any life he has entered has been led to ruin. ig this mindset would also shine a different light on Hermes' deadbeatness, in a way.

1. Enforces the consequences of Zeus' non-interference rule.

Scaring Hermes into inaction by punishing the results of his rare action (giving Luke a quest, speaking to him that literal one(?) time, telling May about the oracle) would also handily explain why the hell he was so absent during the giant war and the entirety of toa. Like, communications are down and messaging systems are in complete disarray, isn't that Hermes' domain? Why the hell isn't he doing anything about it? Well, that's bc he knows what happens when he disobeys, and at this point, he's running out of family to lose.

2. Prophecy is set in stone

This punishment would also unknowingly (to Zeus) create a mindset of the inevitability of prophecy in Hermes. Aka, the literal opposite of what Apollo and his trial's entire deal. Aka Zues' entire deal! !!!This is negative character development for Hermes gang!!!

If we go with the idea that Hermes knew about Luke's fate since he was a baby, and his giving Luke that quest was Hermes trying to change his son's fate... Then it almost sounds like one of the only times Hermes broke his father's non-interference rules was in an attempt to change Luke's fate. But not only did it blow up in his face spectacularly, but if that quest was a fundamental canon event in Luke's spiral into vengeance, then this is a classic tale of a hero meeting his end on the path he took to avoid it.

Not only has Hermes failed to save his son in what he believed was a futile attempt to go against prophecy, but he has also doomed his homeland in his rash actions. By punishing Hermes through Cyllene, it enforces the idea that his ever daring to think he could change fate has inadvertently brought the mountain to its ruin.

Furthermore, Zeus' choice of Hermes' birthplace as the target is uniquely tailored to hit where it hurts the most. A forest fire can go burning on for years, after all, and a mountain of ancient trees surrounded by boundaries of the boundary god could theoretically go on burning forever. After the deed has been done and the entire mountain is up in flames, from that point onwards, Zeus would only have to point to a ruined Cyllene to quell whatever mere suggestion Hermes has of stepping out of line.

3. zues proving to hermes that he is ultimately his father's son

if nympths in the rrverse are physically bound to a certain place, then maia and her sisters would have both their stars in the pleiades constellations in addition to mount cyllene.

Say, would the offsping of a nympth and a god be a minor god themselves? another nympth? a monster? who knows? in reality, their entire existence hinges on mortal belief and how humans perceive them, but parentage still plays a role in how their stories are told. so therefore the only olympian with a nympth for a mother would also reasonablly assume that there is a peice of him, like his mother, is tied to that mountain. weather or not thats actually true doesnt matter, what matters is when cyllene burned and hermes stood at the foot of the mountain and did not burn with it, to him it was the dreaded proof that he was no longer his mothers son. that he has left behind everything good that he used to be, and through his very own efforts, somewhere between his childhood in that cave where he dared dreamed of something greater, he has forfeited what made those dreams worth chasing in the firat place. through his own efforts, he has become something terrible. he has become his fathers son.

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all this is to say that rrverse zues may be evil, but bros not uncreative lmao. isolating Hermes through cutting off some of the last of his support system (by his own hands, no less) not only ensures Hermes' reliance on Zeus but also Hermes' reliance and identification with Olympus as a whole. also ensures that when the time comes for Apollo's punishment, there's already a hurt there that's ripe and ready to be dug into.

Apollo's been banished to mortal-hood? oh boo hoo, what a tragedy (compleatly different hc but i think hermes honestly would've had a much easier time adjusting to mortalhood compared to apollo at first, mainly due to the nature of hermes' domains). Oh, Apollo nearly keeps dying as a mortal and is prophesied to perish at the jaws of Python? well, fuck, his head for his crimes is what he deserves, is it not? While Apollo's punishment is a thinly veiled assassination attempt, Hermes' punishment would be to isolate him further.