Once upon a time, like many a game adversary, Tethys was just Rhea but blue. She's an evolution of Rhea, and I like how the scales for Her extra armour parts both communicate Her pelagic origin, and gives Her a kind of prehistoric fishiness. Exactly how fishy depends on the paint scheme, but I made Her pink when Eos was planned for pink (Eos being the Titan of the Rosy Dawn) because my daughter wanted a pink one, and She became blue (and green) again when an artist I commissioned gave me a version of Her in that colour scheme. There's also how She turned out when I turned my paint brush on Her and reminded myself that I was not an enthusiastic painter. Which is somewhat odd because painting miniatures with a brush is wonderful if you can find the time to enjoy it.
Tethys was named after the rival Queen of Heaven that Rhea and Her husband/brother overthrew, which is probably metaphorically significant in some fashion that isn't clear from the surviving fragments of literature. There seems to be some thematic overlaps, with the differences being that Rhea is the more bellicose of the two, and Tethys being the more nurturing. Of course, having purloined the names and identities I can do what I like with them, and in this case I think it's interesting to style Tethys as the Surging Tide. Which is to say that Tethys' more power-hungry configurations and systems (macro laser instead of a macro gun, claw instead of a hand, jump jets instead of thrusters) lend themselves to greater peaks and troughs in game-play, despite being perhaps more well-rounded than Rhea who maximizes the defensive systems and who can maintain a more constant rate of activity. Tethys is more dramatic.
Notably Tethys' places an Initiate Crew up in Her vulnerable sensor tower, making Her more vulnerable to the front than one would expect for having the second most armour in the game. However, this serves as something of a lure, giving opponents a reason to engage Her from positions where She can most easily return fire.
Tethys' primary configuration reflects Rhea's primary, carrying a laser, a gun, and a close combat weapon for grappling. However, instead of having a gun as Her main weapon, Tethys has the longer-ranged armour piercing macro laser. With more damage potential than the laser battery, and 3x the range of a laser blade, it firmly places this version of Tethys into the knock-out fighter category. Despite having a capacitor, this system mainly serves to keep Her moving and punching when She might otherwise run out of gas. It does not accelerate Her like the dual capacitors of Eos. Tethys' dual jump jets, however, form something of a secret weapon, enabling Her to not only move rapidly around the board, but to press for a double-jump should someone judge the claw to be more dangerous than the laser.
Tethys' second configuration is perhaps more energy intensive, tracking the ranged sniper power of the macro laser for the high explosive shield and habitat clearing utility of a rocket pod. While it's not a great weapon, the rocket pod is relatively low powered and should work well with the plasma shotgun to make sure other Titans are exposed to the laser blade.
Tethys' tertiary configuration gives up the jump jets for a second gun battery, a second sponson, and upgrades the plantigrade legs to digitigrade legs. This is something of a wash with energy trade offs, but the dual gun batteries, claw, and legs turns Tethys into something of a board control monster.
Tethys' quaternary configuration doubles down on what makes Her secondary configuration nasty, making life oppressive to opponents at all ranges, and especially at short ranges. Tethys' answer to Rhea's quaternary configuration doesn't bother competing on board control, and instead focuses on doing damage in a way that makes Rhea's superior armour meaningless.
Where Rhea's concerns are Her pre-eminence amongst the Titans, and inter-galactic trade, Tethys' concerns are more domestic. Her control of trans-oceanic shipping and trade with the Myrmidon Mega-Ants pale in comparison to Her need for violent and dramatic vengeance.
Tethys plots to overthrow Rhea, suborn the Hecatoncheires battle stations, and to use the wealth of Gaia to return the Titans to galactic pre-eminence. Whether She can overcome Rhea, and the other Titans drawn to the jewel of Gaia by promises of wealth and entertainment, or whether Her own fury will be Her [further] downfall remains to be seen.
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