Tartarus (primordial)

"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

Tartarus is the Greek Primordial god of the abyss. Tartarus is also the deepest, darkest pit in the Underworld.

History
Tartarus is the father of Typhon and the giants, of whom Gaea is the mother. He is the "prison guard" of Tartarus, the darkest pit in the Underworld where monsters go to reform once they are slain.

The House of Hades
Tartarus takes on a physical form, remarking on how wise his consort Gaea was to consider doing so while she was awakening. Annabeth Chase notes that the only reason she, Percy Jackson, and Bob were still alive was because Tartarus was too busy marveling at his mortal form. She realizes that protogenoi like Tartarus are unlike their descendants to the point that not even a Titan could stand alone against Tartarus. To her dismay, she notes that this was what it would be like if Gaea were to awake fully. Feeling hopeless, Annabeth and Percy resign to fighting to the death against Tartarus. They are saved by the arrival of Tartarus' own son, the giant Damasen. He and Iapetus sacrifice themselves to allow Percy and Annabeth to escape through the Doors of Death to the mortal side in the Necromanteion in Epirus.

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

- Tartarus to Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase

Consistent with the primordial responsible for the most terrible infernal abyss, Tartarus is a totally evil, 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 humans and even the titans, whom he openly described as "lesser beings" after easily destroying them. However, Tartarus is honest and admits when someone forces him to take direct action.

Like some primordial ones, Tartaurs does not like to manifest his physical form, since that prevents him from being everywhere in his domains, but at the same time, he even claimed to have a taste for having a physical form and also showed to delight in Pleasure in inciting terror in its victims. Like Gaea, he also takes great pride in his Giant children (except for Damasen).

However, like some of his brothers, 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 Gaea more than once to overthrow the Olympians and, millennia later, dealt personally with Percy and Annabeth.

Appearance
Tartarus is monstrous in his physical form, standing at immense height, his purple glistening flesh rippling with muscle. 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, monsters, cyclopes and dragons all pressing against his armor as if trying to escape. According to Percy, Tartarus is so massive, and radiates such pure malevolence, that Percy wanted to crawl away and hide as soon as he saw him, and even dropped his sword in terror. Tartarus' laugh sounded like a mountain "cracking in half". According to Annabeth, everything around Tartarus seemed to be drawn to him.

Abilities
As the Protogenos of the Primordial Abyss, Tartarus proved to be one of the most powerful and terrible entities of the series and infinitely powerful while in its domains. Proof of his terrifying power was that even the titans could not threaten him since he easily defeated Krios, Hyperion, and Iapetus without much difficulty. Even after the arrival of Damasen, the maximum that did was to distract so that Percy and Annabeth escaped since there would be no way to defeat him. According to Annabeth, if Tartarus wanted to, he could kill them all with a single thought, if it were not his desire to kill his victims one at a time.


 * Massive Strength: Tartarus has incredible physical strength, surpassing that of even a giant or a Titan, and was able to hold his own against Damasen, Small Bob, and the Drakon all at once, though the Titan and giant were both at a fraction of their full power.
 * 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.
 * 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 Hyperion and Krios. In that sense, Tartarus can technically "kill" gods, Titans, and giants by absorbing their immortal essence into his armor for very lengthy periods of time.
 * Monster Lordship: As the Protogenos of the Abyss, Tartarus has absolute control and divine authority over monsters
 * Dark infernal Pyrokinesis: He can use this to turn everything into liquid.
 * Umbrakinesis: As the pit of evil he has control of darkness, although not so much as Nyx and Erebos.
 * 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.
 * Induce terror: Percy is weak from fear at the prospect of him.
 * Lava control: He can create and telekinetically move lava.

Trivia

 * Tartarus, along with Percy and Annabeth, appears on the UK cover of The House of Hades and also on the Dutch one.
 * Tartarus, like the location that shares his name and that he is, is able to hold monsters within himself. He was even able to hold Titans, though it is unknown for how long
 * He is the step-father of the six Elder Titans.
 * Like most protogenoi, Tartarus's power lies not in combat but in his manipulation of the physical pit of Tartarus. It can be assumed that he was only able to easily defeat Krios and Hyperion, two Titans at a fraction of their full power because he caught them by surprise and had their allegiance, as it took him much longer to defeat (if he did) a Titan and a giant of similar power.
 * Although Tartarus tells Percy and Annabeth that not even the Olympians deserved his attention, this is not entirely correct, as he has helped Gaea twice to try to destroy the Olympians.