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Card XI of XVI · The Open Road

OBRKAres ThourosThe Unstoppable Charge

aka “Started It, Lost It”MBTI crossover: ESTP

You'd rather meet the moment than talk about it.

Charged into battle, got speared by a mortal, ran home to complain to Dad. Iliad 5.855–898 ↗

You bring pure momentum. While everyone else is still discussing, you've moved, and you make it impossible to pretend a conflict isn't real. You want the fight to be yours, and you want to win it where people can see.

Ἄρης · Arēs · Roman Mars. Thouros means “Rushing”: Iliad 5.30 ↗

Draw your own card Ares's family tree
KNOW AN ARES?
UPRIGHT · POWERS

What the OBRK brings

  • Courage when it's needed right now
  • Breaking a stalemate by moving first
  • Total, visible commitment
REVERSED · SHADOW

Every disagreement becomes a battlefield.

Zeus tells Ares that strife and war are always dear to him and calls him the most hateful of the gods. Momentum without a cause becomes noise with casualties.

YOUR QUEST

One thing to practise

Pick the one fight this week that protects something, and skip the rest.

Myth check: Ares is not the war strategist; that is Athena's role. Greek Ares is the raw force and terror of battle, while Roman Mars is a far more respected civic god.

WHY ARES SITS HERE

Four letters, four pieces of evidence.

Each placement points to the passage it rests on. Where the call is an editorial judgement rather than a plain reading, the note says so.

  1. O

    OlympianRealm · Of Olympus

    Loud, bronze and in plain sight: “Ares, Ares, bane of mortals, stormer of walls.”

    Iliad 5.29–31 ↗
  2. B

    BiēMethod · Force

    The rushing god: force, speed and fury, with strategy left to Athena.

    Iliad 5.29–31 ↗
  3. R

    RoadGround · The threshold

    He moves through the ranks rousing the Trojans, and leaves for Thrace the moment he is free.

    Iliad 5.461–470; Odyssey 8.361 ↗
  4. K

    KleosPurpose · Renown

    Wounded, he rushes straight to Zeus to complain about his own injury.

    Iliad 5.864–887 ↗

    Contested placement. Ares rarely talks about glory. He sits on the renown side because he fights for his own fire and standing, not to shelter anyone.

THE SPREAD

Allies, opposites and neighbours.

Your antitype flips all four letters. Your neighbours differ by one, so a single choice could turn one card into another.

Ally · OMRX

Aphrodite Philommeidēs

Lovers, and parents of Harmonia, Phobos and Deimos.

Theogony 933–937
Antitype · CMHX

The Golden Net

Hephaestus catches Ares with Aphrodite in an invisible net and calls the gods to come and look.

Odyssey 8.266–366
Flip realm: CBRK · PoseidonFlip method: OMRK · HermesFlip ground: OBHK · ZeusFlip purpose: OBRX · Artemis

COMPATIBILITY

Ares with every other card.

Sorted by shared letters. Each pairing has its own page on how the two work together, where they clash and the myth behind it. Open the full chart.

Ares Thouros divine type card poster, OBRK

SAVE THE CARD

Your Ares poster.

A tall 2:3 version of the card, sized for Pinterest and phone wallpapers.

Save to Pinterest Download the poster

SOURCES

Read the originals.

Translations differ in line numbering by a line or two. The family relationships are mapped in the Ares family tree.

Find your divine type See all sixteen cards