User:Taliskerbay/Camp Half Blood

Camp Half Blood is a fictional summer camp for the mortal children of the Gods in the universe of Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. The institution serves to educate demigods about their divine ancestry and to train them to survive once outside its magically protected borders. Though the camp's activities are primarily scheduled during the summer months, it serves as a permanent home for many heroes who find themselves unable (or in some cases unwilling) to live in the mortal world.

General Information
Camp Half Blood is located on the north shore of Long Island in New York. To mortals who cannot pass through its borders, the camp appears to be an empty valley home to the camp's ' front corporation' Delphi Strawberries. The camp does indeed grow large quantities of strawberries with the help of Dionysus, the camps director; however the training of demigods is its primary function. Enrollment is handled by the satyrs who live undercover in American schools searching for demigods to bring back with them and to ensure that they are not first killed by the mythological monsters that blend in with mortal society.

History
According to various camp members, Camp Half-Blood has trained some very famous figures, possibly including a couple of United States Presidents. It is a sanctuary for demigods, with borders that keep out monsters as well as mortals. Five years before Percy arrived at the camp, Thalia Grace--a daughter of Zeus--came close to dying on the border, willing to sacrifice herself to allow her friends to reach the safety of the camp. In her dying moments, her father took pity on her and turned her into an enormous pine tree, sustaining her lifeforce within the tree. Her tree's position on the border enabled her spirit to strengthen the borders of the camp, even as she did in her last moments. The Sea of Monsters features a quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece after Thalia's Tree is poisoned and the protection is fading. The Fleece, robust vitality and life-force incarnate, heals Thalia's tree from near-death within a few minutes and, by the end of the night, it has restored Thalia's physical body--although she was in a dangerous physical condition upon arrival, just as she had been when she'd been transformed. Afterwards, it continues to maintain the borders at their usual strength, even without Thalia's spirit.

Physical Features

 * The Big House: a large farmhouse overlooking the valley. It is described as being painted bright white with sky-blue trim and having a large bronze eagle atop its weather vane. The Big House serves as the home of Mr. D and Chiron. It also houses an infirmary and, before Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the attic served as the home of the oracle.


 * Strawberry Filds: The Big House is surrounded by strawberry fields. They fields help legitimize the mortal perception of the camp as the home of Delphi Strawberries and are exceptionally fruitful as Dionysus, his children, and the children of Demeter all have the power to make fruit grow at an alarming rate.


 * The Cabins: The cabins are perhaps the most unusual aspect of camp. There are 12 cabins, one for each Olympian God and they are arranged in a 'U' shape with male gods on the right and female on the left and Zeus and Hera's cabins forming the bottom of the 'U'. The mortal children of these gods while at camp stay in the cabin devoted to their divine parent. Each cabin is themed around the divine aspect of each god, for example: Hephaestus's cabin resembles a small factory as he is the god of the forge while Ares's is covered in barbed wire and bedecked with a boar, representing the god's divine powers over war and his affinity for pigs. The cabin of Artemis is usually empty as she is a maiden goddess and can thus not procreate, however while visiting camp the Hunters of Artemis stay in her cabin (after playing the traditional capture the flag against the campers, which they nearly always win). After The Last Olympian minor gods and goddesses as well as Hades are invited to construct cabins for their children who previously were given lodging in the cabin of Hermes as the god is a protector of travelers. In the opem space created by the 'U' there is a fountain devoted to the 12 Olympians, a fire pit occasionally tended by the elusive goddess Hestia, and a paved basketball court.


 * Dinning Pavilion: The camps eatery is housed in the dinning pavilion, an open aired, columned, quadrangular portico resembling the Parthenon without a roof. There campers feast and sacrifice meals to the gods.


 * The Forest: Nestled in the valley the forest is stocked with monsters for training and horrifyingly enough, practical jokes courtesy of the Stoll brothers. The forest is divided in half by Zephyrus Creek and plays host to capture the flag games (the creek is the dividing boundary line).


 * Armory: The armory is a large square shed where weapons and armor is stored between activities.


 * Climbing Wall: The climbing wall is a unique exercise machine which adds fear of death as incentive to complete its challenges with speed. The two rock faces can smash together if a climber is taking to long and has the morbid habit of pouring lava on unsuspecting campers.


 * Amphitheater: At the heart of camp, the amphitheater is the site of many camp-wide activities. after feasts, Apollo cabin members lead the campers in a sing along while roasting marshmallows.


 * The Arena: The arena is hists the camps many sword fights. Training is usually held here and it is an ideal place to practice anything dangerous. The arena also became the permanent home of the world's only domestic hell-hound, Mrs. O'Leary, after the death of her previous owner, the inventor Daedalus.


 * The Forge: The forge is where campers craft weapons for use in training and capture the flag. The cyclops Tyson and campers of the Hephaestus cabin are known to frequent this are of camp.


 * The Stables: Pegasi are kept here along with mortal horses for use in training and later in combat against Lord Kronos and his Titan army. This part of camp is generally avoided by activities director Chiron as his lower horse half finds it unsettling.


 * The Hippodrome: The hippodrome is a dirt track and is the site of camp chariot races, arguably camps most actively life-threatening activities.


 * Arts and Crafts: The arts and crafts pavilion would seem at home in any mortal summer camp if only satyrs would give up the habit of sandblasting larger-than-life-size statues of the goat god Pan.


 * Volleyball Courts: Volleyball, a favorite activity of campers and satyrs alike is one of the more leisurely and physically safe ways to enjoys one's time at camp.
 * The Latrines: To the dismay of many campers who suffer through Clarisse LaRue's various initiation exercises, the camp latrines are describes by Percy Jackson as being simply not classy enough for Olympian real estate . Luckily for children of the sea god, they can avoid hazing by shooting water into their tormentor's face avoiding an embarrassing episode.


 * The Canoe Lake: Home to Nereids, the canoe lake is the site of canoe races and other aquatic competitions. As a son of the god Poseidon, Percy enjoys his times spent there and finds himself unusually adept at water-sports.

Staff

 * Dionysus better known as Mr. D is the head of camp. Exiled from Mt. Olympus for a century by his father Zeus for pursuing an nymph designated out of bounds, Mr. D is forced to lead the camp during his mandatory hundred years of sobriety and banishment . Resultantly, Mr. D tends to be ill-tempered and petulant deliberately referring to campers by erroneous names; he often calls Percy Jackson Peter Johnson. Despite his moroseness Mr. D is at heart rather fond of his camp, saving the lives of Percy, Annabeth Chase, Grover Underwood, Zoe Nightshade, and Thalia Grace on the docks of San Francisco and in the  final book admits to Percy that even he believes that demigods are the reason the gods still reign.


 * Chiron also known to use the pseudonym Mr. Brunner is the immortal centaur who holds the post of camp activity director.  He is a mythological trainer of heroes and uses his knowledge to train the demigods in the novel.  He is responsible for organizing capture the flag in the forest, teaching archery, sword fighting, chariot racing, and the various other activities at camp . He is beloved by the campers and is far more popular that Mr. D, he is the mentor of Percy Jackson and many of the other campers including Annabeth Chase to whom he is near a father. Due to the fact that his lower half is a white stallion Chiron tends to avoid the stables.


 * Argus is the many eyed head of security at Camp Half Blood. He is responsible for driving demigods to quests in the camp van and taking care of the dragon who guards the golden fleece on Half Blood Hill.


 * Harpies work as cleaners at the camp. They are winged and horribly ugly, and are generally avoided as they are known to devour campers who stray out of bounds unannounced.


 * Nymphs cook meals for the demigods while Nereids assist campers in activities in the canoe lake.

Campers

 * Perseus "Percy" Jackson: The protagonist and narrator of the series and a son of Poseidon. Being a child of the "Big Three" (Zeus, Hades, Poseidon), Percy is possibly the child referred to within the prophecy, which foretells that the next half-blood child of the "Big Three" to reach the age of sixteen would make a decision that would either save or destroy Olympus. He was technically only selected to go on two of the five quests in the series, the first being the retrieval of Zeus' master thunderbolt. He is the leader of this quest. In The Battle of the Labyrinth, Percy has to go through the Labyrinth (a big subterranean maze) in order to defend the camp against Luke (a son of Hermes and servant of the Titan lord Kronos). The quest in The Sea of Monsters was actually led by Clarisse (daughter of Ares), but Percy sneaks out of camp because he needs to find Grover, his best friend/protector. In The Titan's Curse, he is also not selected to go on the quest, but he follows the group because he needed to help Annabeth. Percy has a crush on Annabeth, but his love life has been difficult as a result of Aphrodite's promise she made to him when she met him in the desert. After he helps Zoe, Bianca, Grover, and Thalia, Zoe reluctantly allows him to become the fifth member of their team on. He becomes nearly invincible and leads the army against Kronos in The Last Olympian. He becomes Annabeth's boyfriend at the end of The Last Olympian.
 * Annabeth Chase: A daughter of Athena (goddess of wisdom and battle). She is shown to be somewhat pompous at first, but quickly warms to Percy on their first quest together. Being a daughter of Athena, she is very intelligent and has a fascination with architecture. In battle, she is a great fighter and comes up with great strategies (a skill inherited from her mother). She ran away from home when she was seven and met Luke and Thalia, who took her with them to get to Camp Half-Blood. She aids Percy in four of his five quests and is captured in one of them. At first she likes Percy and Luke, but she learns she likes Percy more. She kisses Percy in The Battle of the Labyrinth when he was going into Mt. St. Helens and the telekhines attacking them are distracted. Percy likes her too (he gets jealous when she talks about Luke). She is shown to get jealous over Percy's relationship with Rachael.
 * Grover Underwood: He is a satyr and Percy Jackson's best friend. He has found the four most powerful demigods of the century: Percy Jackson (son of Poseidon), Thalia (daughter of Zeus), and Nico and Bianca di Angelo (children of Hades). Before his death, Pan (a god of nature) proclaims Grover as the bravest satyr and names Grover as his successor to carry on his word to protect the wilderness. The Council of Cloven Elders is angered by this choice. He is the boyfriend of tree nymph Juniper.
 * Nico di Angelo: Nico di Angelo is a son of Hades. At first Percy assumed Hades broke the oath as well, but Nico and his sister Bianca had been out of commission since before World War II, which the gods had started. Nico convinced Percy to bathe in the River Styx to become invincible except for his Achilles heel, which happened to be the small of his back. Nico has the power to raise undead armies, shadow travel, and create great fissures in the ground that swallow up anyone or anything unfortunate enough to be standing on it at the time. He also summoned the dead several times with a McDonald's Happy Meal. He is often trying to raise his sister. For a time, he was Percy's enemy, but they became friends once again after Percy helped Nico summon his dead sister.
 * Luke Castellan: One of Hermes's children and a major antagonist of the series. Though initially the counselor of Cabin 11 and an ally to Percy, he revealed his true nature as a high-ranking member of Kronos's army by attempting to kill Percy at the end of The Lightning Thief, and on several occasions afterwards. He is shown to harbor a great bitterness towards the gods (particularly his father, Hermes) for what he regards as abandonment. His mom is driven crazy because she tried to become the Oracle. After reforming, Kronos took Luke's body as his own but when he saw Annabeth and the knife he gave her, he remembered his promise to Annabeth that he would never harm her. After Percy made his choice to give Luke the knife, Luke kills himself by stabbing his own Achilles spot to destroy Kronos, fulfill the prophecy, and become the hero of the war.
 * Bianca di Angelo: A daughter of Hades, and later, a Huntress of Artemis. After Artemis is kidnapped in The Titan's Curse, she undertakes the quest to rescue her alongside Percy Jackson, Grover, Thalia, and Zoë. She sacrifices herself to destroy a defunct prototype of Talos because she stole an item from the Junkyard of the Gods. The item she saved was a statue of Hades. Nico di Angelo blames Percy for her death and harbors hard feelings for him for a while afterwards. Nico also throws away the Hades statue that Bianca saved when she died. Later, Nico realizes that Hades is their father and that Maria di Angelo was their mother.
 * Castor: The son of Dionysus and the twin brother of Pollux. Castor died during the Battle of the Labyrinth.
 * Charles Beckendorf: A son of Hephaestus, known to be able to build almost anything. He is lead counselor for Cabin 9. He had a minor role in the first four books in the series, but has a larger role in The Last Olympian. He has a crush on Silena Beauregard, whom he starts dating from the short story The Bronze Dragon contained in The Demigod Files. Most members of Camp Half-Blood call him by his surname, Beckendorf. He sacrifices himself at the beginning of The Last Olympian to destroy the Princess Andromeda, a ship that was Kronos' headquarters, unaware that it was actually because of Silena (a spy on the camp) that he lost his life.
 * Clarisse La Rue: One of the children of Ares and the head of Cabin #5. She is hot-tempered, arrogant, big, tall, strong, and is known to dislike Percy. Despite her brash nature, she is capable of compassion, shown when she cares for Chris Rodriguez, a half-blood who became a traitor and was later found crazed and stumbling within the Labyrinth during his bout of madness. She is later seen holding Chris's hand at a campfire after Dionysus cures him of his madness. She later befriends Silena Beauregard, apparently after Silena gives her advice on her first boyfriend. She and her cabin later fight with the Apollo cabin because of a flying chariot. She and her cabin later do not join in the battle of Manhattan because of the chariot, though Michael Yew gives it to them. Silena later impersonates her to bring the Ares cabin into the battle by taking her armor and spear. Later, Silena is killed by a drakon while she leads the cabin into fighting. Clarisse then grabs her spear back, runs up the drakon and stabs its eye, fully blinding it (Percy already blinded the other eye). The spear then breaks, electrocuting, and killing, the drakon. She then runs at Kronos's armies, acting as invulnerable as Percy is even though she does not have the Curse of Achilles. Percy recognizes that an aura around her highly resembles that of Ares when Percy fought him. Thalia remarks that it is a blessing of Ares and that she has never seen it before in person. She is later frozen by a giant, and, after thawing, is welcomed to Olympus by her father, who is very proud of her.
 * Chris Rodriguez: An undetermined half-blood who had gone to Kronos's side until having gone completely insane in the Labyrinth. Clarisse finds him and Dionysus makes him normal again. He later has a relationship with Clarisse.
 * Connor Stoll: One of the children of Hermes. He is brother to Travis Stoll. Both are known to be crafty and mischievous. He and his brother's shenanigans incapacitated a member of Artemis's Huntresses, which enabled Percy to join the quest of The Titan's Curse. He and his brother have a larger role in The Last Olympian and both survive. He and his brother head Cabin 11 after Luke goes over to Kronos.
 * Daedalus: Inventor of the Labyrinth and son of Athena, he killed his nephew and took his notes, which he then used to cast his animus (soul) into automatons after Athena branded him with the murderer's hand. He originally owned a hellhound named Mrs. O'Leary and fights the Titan army toward the end of the fourth book. He later decides that it is time to go to the Underworld and leaves Annabeth his laptop which is filled with his notes and ideas.
 * Ethan Nakamura: A son of Nemesis who feels that his mother is unappreciated and fights for her. She took his eye in return for the promise that Ethan would change the world. He turned to Kronos' side after Percy saved his life by letting him live after a duel. After the duel, he pledges himself to Kronos, the last half blood needed for his resurrection. In The Last Olympian, he tries to stab Percy in the small of his back (his Achilles spot), but Annabeth leaps in front of the dagger, and Kronos believes that he tried to stab Percy's Achilles spot. He is in the truce party along with the Empousa queen and Prometheus. Ethan later figures out that the small of Percy's back was his Achilles spot, but instead of killing him, he tries to kill Kronos. Kronos laughs, and kills him easily. Ethan's last words were "Deserve better...if they [the minor gods] just...had thrones..."
 * Jake Mason: A son of Hephaestus. He becomes the head of Hephaestus' cabin after the death of Charles Beckendorf in The Last Olympian. He fights in the war between the gods and Titans.
 * Katie Gardner: A daughter of Demeter and the head of her cabin. She fights in and survives the war between the god and the titans. She strongly dislikes Connor and Travis Stoll, because they once put chocolate Easter bunnies on the Demeter cabin's grass roof.
 * Lee Fletcher: A son of Apollo. He was the original head of Cabin 7 before he was killed in The Battle of the Labyrinth.
 * Michael Yew: A son of Apollo. He is the leader of the Apollo Cabin after Lee Fletcher died in The Battle of the Labyrinth. He is described as very short, four foot six, with personality that makes up for his height. Percy finds that very interesting that he's the counseler. He is killed leading a group of demigods in the fight against Kronos' army. Percy looked everywhere for him, but his body was not recovered at the time.
 * Malcolm: A son of Athena. He is the assistant counselor of the Athena cabin. He leads Athena's cabin to a bridge or tunnel in The Last Olympian. His last name is never revealed. He walks in on Percy and Annabeth hugging in The Battle of The Labyrinth.
 * Mark: A son of Ares. He is mentioned by Percy once in The Demigod Files in the short story Percy Jackson and the Stolen Chariot when Percy asks Clarisse which of her brothers played a prank on her. He may have been the one that Percy awoke from a midday nap in The Titan's Curse.
 * Nico di Angelo: A son of Hades. When his sister Bianca dies, he blames Percy and vows revenge. In the fourth book, Percy sees an Iris message from Bianca of Nico talking to a spirit while in the Underworld. Nico returns at the Triple G Ranch and then leaves it to avoid Percy and friends, from whom he has just discovered were not responsible for the death of Bianca. He comes back again and saves Percy, Rachel, Grover, Annabeth, and Tyson from Kronos, the Lord of Time. Doing this, Nico exposes the fact that his father is Hades, making him vulnerable; Kronos will try to bring him to his side because he is a son of one of the Big Three. He also fights in the Battle of the Labyrinth, leading an army of ghostly soldiers, but later disappears after noting that he is not welcomed at Camp Half-Blood, much like his father is not welcomed at Olympus. He reappears several months later and informs Percy of a plan that could lead to sending Kronos back to Tartarus. In the final book, he convinces Percy to bathe in the River Styx, making him undefeatable, but not before taking Percy to Hades in exchange for information about his mother. He later rescues Percy, and convinces his father Hades to help defend Olympus.
 * Pollux: The son of Dionysus and the twin brother of Castor. He and his brother are described as blond, athletic, plump faced and good looking. He fights and survives the war between the Titans and the Gods, making his father secretly happy.
 * Silena Beauregard: A daughter of Aphrodite and the head of Cabin 10. Percy regards her as one of the nicer girls of the cabin and acknowledges that she is pretty, but still finds her to be a "neat freak". She participates in the Battle of the Labyrinth. She does not think that she is a good fighter and feels that she does not do anyone any good at camp. She unveils her hatred towards the hunters of Artemis, who say that love is worthless, to which she responds by stating that she is going to "pulverize" them. Silena is killed by a drakon when she fights it pretending to be Clarisse in The Last Olympian. It is also revealed in The Last Olympian that she was the spy giving Kronos information about what was going on at Camp Half-Blood, though when the Stoll brothers ask Percy about it, he will not let Silena be remembered that way. She did, however, want to stop being the spy when her boyfriend Charles Beckendorf died (charming her with his looks, Luke had promised that fewer lives would be lost and that Charles would be safe), but was blackmailed by Luke, when he threatened to reveal her betrayal. This causes Silena to become even weaker or as Percy described, "She looked like glass. Like she was going to break at any time." Percy also notes that no one says the word "spy" during the burning of her shroud ( her shroud is hot pink with an electric spear embroidered on it).
 * Sherman: A son of Ares. He, like Mark (another son of Ares), is mentioned by Percy in The Demigod Files in the short story Percy Jackson and the Stolen Chariot, when Percy asks Clarisse which of her brothers played a prank on her. He also may have been the one that Percy awoke from a midday nap in The Titan's Curse.
 * Thalia Grace: A daughter of Zeus. Grover Underwood was assigned to watch over her when she ran away from home at ten years old. On her journey, she met Luke Castellan and Annabeth Chase. They also had brief encounters with the Hunters of Artemis and she was enticed to join by Zoë Nightshade. When she was twelve, they were all soon attacked by a herd of monsters and caught by a Cyclops in New York. She was captured, but thanks to Annabeth, was freed. They escaped, but found that the monsters they had briefly escaped caught up to them. As they reached Half-Blood Hill, Thalia sent Luke, Grover, and Annabeth over the boundary line while she faced the monsters. She sacrificed her life for her friends, and her father, Zeus, took pity on her and transformed her to a pine tree. She is later brought back to life by the Golden Fleece and joins the quest in the third book where she ultimately joins the Hunters, taking the place of Zoë Nightshade.
 * Travis Stoll: One of the children of Hermes. He and his brother become the new counslers of cabin 11 after Luke went to Kronos. Travis is the older brother of Connor Stoll. Both are known to be crafty and mischievous. Percy finds it ironic that their last name is Stoll, like the word 'stole'. His and his brother's shenanigans incapacitated a member of Artemis's Huntresses, which enabled Percy to join the quest of The Titan's Curse. He and his brother have a larger role in The Last Olympian and both survive. Travis Stoll is often confused as Connor Stoll's twin, whereas Travis is actually older than Connor.
 * Tyson: He is a Cyclops, the son of Poseidon and a Nature Spirit. Technically he is not a demigod, but at camp he resides in Percy's cabin. He first appears in The Sea of Monsters as a homeless boy. He is afraid of Grover while Grover is also afraid of him.
 * Will Solace: He is a son of Apollo whom Percy took to heal Annabeth in The Last Olympian.

Camp Activities
Sample Activity Schedule The activities at Camp Half Blood are numerous and change daily. Below is only a sample of what a typical day might look like.

8:00	Breakfast & Cabin Inspection

9:00-10:00	Sword & Shield w/Clarisse – Cabin Challenge, full combat armor required.

10:00-11:00	Archery w/Chiron – target practice: proper use of flaming arrows.

11:00-1:00	Winged Horseback Riding w/Demeter Cabin – first hour trail, picnic lunch, second hour aerial combat

1:00-2:00	Monster Assault Techniques w/Hermes Cabin – Ethiopian Dracones: Their Teeth, Claws, and Feeding Habits

2:00-4:00	FREE CHOICE

Arts & Crafts w/Hephaestus Cabin – Make your own Bronze Weapon

-or	Canoe Races w/Naiads – 1st Place Prize: 20 drachma credit at the Camp Store

-or	Climbing Wall w/satyrs – “The Clashing Rocks”

4:00-5:00	Swim & Beach Time w/the Nereids — bring sunscreen, discus, javelin, etc.

5:00-6:00	Free Time, Volleyball, Cabin Clean-up

6:00	Dinner & Announcements

7:00-9:00	Capture the Flag – combat gear required, all magical items allowed.

9:00-10:00	Sing-a-long and bonfire w/Apollo Cabin

10:00	Prepare for bed – Lights out by 11:00