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aestreus-archived-blog · 6 years

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SERVANT INFORMATION

True Name: Medusa Class: Rider Height/Weight: 172cm・57kg Source: Greek Mythology Region: Greece Alignment: Chaotic Good Gender: Female

FAMILY MEMBERS

Father: Phorcys Mother: Ceto Siblings: Aegle, Erytheis, Hespera, Stheno, Euryale, Deino, Enyo, Pemphredo, Thoosa, Ladon, Echidna, and Scylla Children: Pegasus and Chrysaor

SERVANT PARAMETERS

Rank: Three Star Strength: B Endurance: D Agility: A Mana: B Luck: E Noble Phantasm: A+

PERSONAL AND CLASS SKILLS

Magic Resistance: B - As an Earth Goddess in the distant past, Medusa herself naturally has a high Magic Resistance. However, being summoned under the Rider vessel, which is inferior in comparison to the Three Knight Classes when it comes to Magic Resistance, had lowered its effectiveness. The fact that it is still highly ranked is a proof that a trace of her divinity and former glory remains.

Riding: A+ - Befitting of her Class, Medusa is capable of operating vehicles and mounts of any kind, including Phantasmal and Divine Beasts, being Dragons as the only exception to this. She is highly skilled in riding that she can perfectly mount the winged horse Pegasus, fight and move as one with it—a difficult feat for any other Rider-classed Servant.

Mystic Eyes: A+ - Medusa has Mystic Eyes of Petrification, easily labeled as Cybele—the highest order of Mystic Eyes that the modern era has yet to replicate. Those with Magic Resistance ranked C or lower are easily subjected to be petrified, or turn into a stone as her legend depicts. While those with high-ranked Magic Resistance can still suffer its effects, albeit in a slower rate.

Independent Action: C - It grants Medusa the ability to retain her form as a Servant even when a contract has been nullified or if she is not tied to a Master for a day. She can prolong it by consuming blood of humans and convert them into mana to avoid dissipating.

Monstrous Strength: B - Medusa is given this skill due to being widely recognized as a monster in life. Because of this, she excels in close combat in spite of her Noble Phantasms not being suitable for that kind of fight. She can amplify her strength, but this leaves the possibility of her turning into the infamous Gorgon so she limits its use.

Divinity: E- - She should have gotten a high rank in divinity as a former Earth Goddess. However, since she later on became a monster her divinity decreased. Even so, she still retains a good portion of it enough to not obscure with her having monstrous traits.

NOBLE PHANTASM

Breaker Gorgon: Self Seal, Temple of Darkness Rank: C- Type: Anti-Unit

Since her Mystic Eyes of Petrification is always active, Medusa uses Breaker Gorgon to seal its effects. It is a suppressor Noble Phantasm that takes the form of a visor, which covers Medusa’s Mystic Eyes to prevent harming her allies and own Master. However, its real function is to control one’s mind.

With Breaker Gorgon, she can induce dreams and thoughts to her target. In the dreams, she can take the form of anyone and subject her target to sexual and taboo scenarios, which is one of her methods to gain mana provided that she has a steady supply as well. It easily becomes a lucid dream to those with high Magical Resistance, or much more prevent it, but those that do not can never avoid or deflect it. She can drain them till there’s nothing left.

Bellerophon: Bridle of Chivalry Rank: A+ Type: Anti-Army

It’s a set of golden harness and a saddle that does nothing on its own. However, when used on Rider’s heavenly winged mount Pegasus, it increases its attributes by one rank. The Pegasus that Rider has is not her son, but more so depicted as a gift from Poseidon himself. Since Pegasus in general are docile creatures and refuses to fight, Bellerophon is required to have it act and function on Medusa’s behalf but it’s not because of Bellerophon that she can mount the Pegasus.

Before using Bellerophon, she must first summon the Pegasus.

In order to do so, she has to use her nail weapon Nameless Dagger to slit her own neck. Her pouring blood will create a magic circle which appears to be an eye-like field wherein the Pegasus will spring out. With Bellerophon, she can charge through her targets with ease and cut through flesh from the shockwaves that Pegasus alone brings about. Its impact is strong enough to destroy an entire skyscraper. Pegasus is, after all, a Phantasmal Beast with many years on its belt.

Blood Fort Andromeda: Outer-Seal, Blood Temple Rank: A+ Type: Anti-Army

Named after Andromeda who was the Princess whom Perseus, the slayer of Medusa, married – Blood Fort Andromeda is a bounded field which traps its targets and makes escape horribly futile, although its main function is to accumulate mana. Humans within its dome-like range are dissolved into slurry of blood or organic ooze which Medusa converts into mana. It was the Temple of Blood that turned the Shapeless Isle into a place of crimson and darkness.

Unlike her other Noble Phantasms, Blood Fort Andromeda requires a preparation.

She has to set up numerous sources around her location of interest with her own blood. Medusa can complete this process without leaving a single trace. While the sources can be destroyed, they will still restore over time, or Medusa can easily make more. Destroying the sources does nothing but delay its activation. It can be used at any point of time. However, its full capacity can only be demonstrated after ten days. Once activated, it destroys the leyline of the area which makes it impossible to use Blood Fort Andromeda on the same location repeatedly.

The barrier cannot be seen from the outside and inherently cuts itself off and materializes as a different plane of existence. The surroundings are tinted in crimson, resembling blood in every angle. While Servants and Magi with high enough Magic Resistance can survive or only feel a certain heavy uneasiness in the air, those who do not are instantly drained. If it did not accumulate enough magical energy upon activation, it will take a few minutes to drain someone. Another factor to be considered is the caliber of the Magus who is wielding her.

It cannot be deactivated by others through any means. Only Medusa is capable of disabling it— be it through her own will, or once her Servant body dissipates.

ABOUT THE GORGON

Medusa is the Earth Goddess born from the Sea God Phorcys and his sister Ceto. She was created alongside her Gorgon sisters Stheno and Euryale. They were made to be youthful, divine and beautiful to be worshiped and seen as idols. Because of this, they did not age and were basically immortal. However, Medusa was an abnormal case and a failure. Although she should have been a clone of her sisters, her body grew older. In spite of this, the people and the God Poseidon loved the Gorgon sisters, especially Medusa’s hair which later led him to raping Medusa inside the temple of the Goddess Athena, who happened to be Poseidon’s wife. To her wrath and jealousy, she banished Medusa to the Shapeless Isle.

The worships towards her name were later turned into curses. The love of the people became blind hatred. Those who had faith in her as a Goddess came to loathe her. This caused her to be frightened, turning the Shapeless Isle as a place of comfort although it was a prison in comparison the luxurious life she’d been leading. She wept for her life and for the fact that she did not know what led to this misfortune. However, it was better to be alone than face the unwarranted hate of humans. This, of course, prompted Stheno and Euryale to be with her out of genuine concern for they cannot leave their little sister alone.

Since her sisters were not exiled, people still loved and worshiped them which eventually destroyed the peace in the Shapeless Isle because of their endless appearances. It threatened Medusa’s only place of comfort, as warriors came and arrived. They ventured into the Shapeless Isle to steal the Goddesses Stheno and Euryale from the ‘monster’ that is imprisoning them while some of them were sent off to fulfill prophecies and commit acts on the behalf of unreasonable Gods. After some time, they decided to target Stheno and Euryale as well which gave Medusa a reason to be protective of them both, feeling that she owes them a big deal for not leaving her on her own to suffer in loneliness and seclusion.

She began to slaughter humans who would invade the Shapeless Isle instead of merely using her Mystic Eyes of Petrification, which was the thing that made her special from the rest of the Gorgons for she had abilities as compensation for her mortality. While she was advised not to take pleasure from all the killings, her curiosity got the best of her and she plotted several ways to make each killing different and far quicker than the last. Eventually, her bullying and harassing sisters have come to fear her for she started drinking the blood of the humans who came to the Shapeless Isle.

But due to being mortal, her body disfigured and decayed over time. She was becoming more of a Gorgon each day that she felt too ashamed to show herself to her sisters. She kept herself hidden from view and lamented how hideous she appeared. Her sisters have found her after some time and regretted having let their sister to suffer. By personal choice, they sacrificed themselves to the Gorgon and became one with it.

And like all monsters and those who are victims of the Gods’ whims, she was fated to be killed by a hero. The son of Zeus arrived to the Shapeless Isle and had slain the Gorgon with the use of the five Noble Phantasms granted by the Gods. After using Kibisis to make Medusa look upon herself, Perseus severed her head with the scythe-like shaped divine sword Harpe.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Medusa is a Rider-classed Servant who wields a Nameless Dagger that can be accurately described as nails instead, laced with metal chains. Although known as a Monster in life, she is summoned during her prime as a Goddess, therefore making her ‘too beautiful for any human to possess, and could either be art the gods admired or a nature they cursed’ according to Shirou Emiya.

Medusa’s parameters as a Servant changes in accordance to her Master. It is, however, proven that she is more effective as Sakura’s Servant than Shinji’s.

Because of her abnormality as a Gorgon which resulted in her aging and growing overtime, she developed a complex towards her height. She believes that she is not deserving of any affection, as she is not cute and short like her sisters.

If her Master cannot supply her with enough magical energy, she is not above killing humans and drinking their blood for consumption.

She is an avid reader. A great lover of literature. Except she is not very fond of Greek Mythology.

When leading her daily life, she is usually seen wearing eyeglasses or contacts to suppress the petrifying effects of her Mystic Eyes of Petrification. Although she would still need Breaker Gorgon for a time and cannot ever go for long without it.

She is very fond of bikes. Although she is only given a granny one, she would like to have mountain bikes that can handle her speed as she usually breaks granny ones for she cannot control her speed that much.

She is not above seducing people for fun or mana purposes.

Most of the time she keeps to herself and is a woman of few words. This, however, does not mean that she is irrational.

She is so logical that she can maintain her composure even amidst anger or emotions.

She is a devoted and loyal Servant, although this would not obstruct her duties.

Blinding speed is where its at.

Her high-ranked Magic Resistance, knowledge of spells and how to avoid them makes her very suitable to fight against Magi and magic wielders.

#★┊❝out of character❞ ( i want to fucking die. )#she's here #★┊❝medusa❞ ( liberate this ugliness inside. )

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utterlypure · 7 years

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the Death of the Maiden

A few months ago I wrote a story of an early form of the goddess I sometimes call Ariadne, attempting to create her version of the Descent of Inanna or the Rape of Persephone. I’m not sure it entirely went as planned--but nevertheless, here it is.

Please be warned that it contains themes of monstrosity and sexual violence.

Let me tell you about the Kore Ariadne. Let me tell you about the Maiden Most Pure. Some called her Inanna or Anath and some called her Aphrodite. These are all facets of a kind. We do not know what the name is for the particular facet I'm writing about. It was lost, as so many things are.

Now these names I have given are often said to belong to "love-and-war goddesses," as if that were a sufficient description. What the Kore Ariadne really was, however, is a goddess of love and sovereignty. She could not help loving, freely and with abandon, and the power and passion of that love gave her the strength to dominate all before her and become the Queen of Heaven and Earth.

You might call her the original sacred whore, selling her love to all humanity for the price of sovereignty over them.

Later scholars might try to say in dry words that her power lay in her ability to perform sexuality, to perform gender and its intersection with sex. She was the goddess of genderfuck and she wielded love and desire like an instrument of war to dominate the world before her.

The Kore Ariadne came to the island that ruled the known world (Crete, for now I'm talking about Crete) from the south or the east--exotic lands--emerging from the star-studded sea, as love goddesses do, in all her radiant glory. And she loved and she conquered without a single regret, although many of her romances ended in tears and many lesser gods and spirits tried to deny her dominion.

Without regrets, she danced to show the world her love. She made great works for the people, and she did magic.

So impressed was God above with her power and her beauty that he extended his hand to her and offered to make her his bride, urging her, "Wild queen, you will ascend to my side and have the great honor of bearing my holy son; I will do you the great honor of yoking you to my divine chariot."

The Kore Ariadne only laughed, and she told him, "I have no desire to yoke myself to your chariot to reach the stars that are my birthright, and my body is fit for loving and dancing, not bearing children." And she turned away from his offer.

But the Kore Ariadne was not the only Wild Sovereign of Heaven and Earth, and God above was not the only lawful native Power of the holy island. As he ruled in the heavens and the mountains, another old god ruled below and in the raging seas, over storms and violence, death and monsters, plague and disaster, brute strength and poison and wild opposition to the lawful order. His name, like hers, has been lost. Perhaps it lies somewhere in between Set and Typhon. Call him the fateful serpent, for he was undeniably the monstrous serpentine aspect of God above, who held in his fangs the death of all things.

And this Typhonic God was the one to whom God above sent an invitation in that time, though in ordinary days Typhon would never have been invited to God’s table; in ordinary days the serpent would have been shunned. But now God plied the fateful serpent with his own heady salt-wine, and he showed the fateful serpent the sight of the Kore Ariadne dancing in fields of flowers.

Wild and full of lust from the wine, the fateful serpent saw the Kore Ariadne dancing in fields of flowers, and he said, "That belongs to me; I am the god of all things strange and foreign, and this wild love goddess from the sea is meant to be my wife. She is meant to bear my son."

God above blessed the fateful serpent's plans, and told him, "You can take her."

The fateful serpent placed a lure before the Kore Ariadne as she danced: a boy or girl as beautiful as a narcissus flower, perfect for her to love. Of course she embraced them.

As the maiden goddess and her false lover lay amidst the flowers, the ground below opened up, and the serpent emerged in all his power. He raged around the Kore Ariadne and stormed her off as his prize, stole her away into the depths of death and terror that he ruled.

There in the dark, the wine-dark of the sea, he forced himself upon her, this fearsome monster. She fought him, but in the end her indomitable will broke and she pleaded with him to spare her life. But he pushed the seeds of his otherworld down her throat and made her drink his bitter wine, and she was bound to his lands forever.

When the Kore Ariadne awoke again, she was no maiden any longer. She was a monster now, marked in secret places by the scales and claws and teeth of her unwanted lover. No longer did her love nourish the world above, and with her star gone from the skies, crops dried up and failed to flower, and no living creature could raise their equipment to the task of making love.

But the fateful serpent was satisfied. He said to her then in the dark, "You are bound to my will now, and you will bear my son like this. That is a fate no woman or goddess can withstand. Your divine soul will be shattered into a thousand thousand pieces when you bear him. This is your fate."

In view of her lord, she remained Ariadne and bowed her head to him. But in the hidden darkness of her underworld prison she sang secret words of lament that summoned from her tortured heart her most favored subject, her minister and holy servant Perseis Hekateia.

"My beloved," she said to her minister, "I am a monster now, and I am going to be a mother."

"Then," said Perseis Hekateia, "do you bare your teeth in anger and sorrow or in a grand grin of joy?"

"Who knows?" said Echidna, fanged she-viper of the sharpest teeth, bride of the lord of death and terror. "Either way, I bare these fangs to the world here in the dark, though they still dream of my gently smiling face."

"What do you ask of me, my lady?" asked her beloved right hand.

"Bring to me my tools," said the hidden goddess to her beloved servant. "Bring me the instruments with which I weave and craft my spells."

To the bright world now forbidden to the veiled goddess, her minister struck out a path through the wine-dark sea. She retrieved the instruments of the holy goddess: the needle and thread, the sistrum, the knife, and such mysterious tools; she brought them to her mistress in the dark.

And Echidna thanked her with a sacred kiss. And to Perseis Hekateia she gave the sacred knife, for with her own monstrous teeth and claws she no longer had a need for it. But the sistrum and the needle she kept and would make use of.

So there in the hidden dark, the once-maiden goddess worked magic as she always had. As the seed of the fateful serpent grew and poisoned her holy body from within, making her more a monster and more a mother every day, she continued to work magic. She shook the sistrum and she danced, and she worked magic with her body and her tools.

At last, there in the dark, she accomplished her goal; she crafted a secret name for a secret mother, and she blessed the child within her in the name of Semele.

And at last, there in the dark, her body could withstand no more, and she entered the chambers of the god of death and terror and knelt before him, tormented and monstrous and on the eve of her own destruction.

"Will you bear me my son now?" asked the fateful serpent.

"I will bear you a son now," said Echidna, "but he will be my son, and he will conquer the earth in my name and not yours. All his days upon the earth he will yearn for me, the mother who blessed and sanctified him with love and magic and power, who haunts his dreams and desires. And before he finally ascends to take the heavens as well for his own, he will return here to the depths and the dark, and he will lead me out back to the stars."

The fateful serpent had no patience for such displays of will, and to this he unleashed the full force of his monstrous power upon the goddess; he subjected her to his poison and his madness in all his true glory.

This even she could not withstand, and as he had promised her eight months before, the fateful serpent truly destroyed the Kore Ariadne on that day. He ripped the divine child from her belly, and he tore out her tongue and slashed her throat, and he left her broken and mad before his throne, chained to the earth of his lands--bound to her fate as the Typhonic Hera.

But the child's blood was the holiest wine, and nothing would stop him from conquering the earth in his mother's name. He was the son of Semele, and one day he would rescue her from the depths.

For now, though, he would bring life and sex back to the land as soon as he set foot upon it.

#original writing #Greek mythology

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emmagreen1220-blog · 6 years

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New Post has been published on Mythology.net

New Post has been published on http://mythology.net/greek/greek-creatures/typhon/

Typhon

Who is Typhon?

Huge, venomous, fire-breathing, and as mean as they come, Typhon is the most feared monster in all of Greek mythology. Soon after his birth, he challenged Zeus for the right to rule over all the gods — and he very nearly won!

Characteristics

Physical Description

The ancient Greek poets all painted a different picture of Typhon and for good reason. The only details they can agree on are that he was immeasurably large — “of such bulk that he out-topped all the mountains, and his head often brushed the stars” — and unimaginably hideous, worse than your most terrifying nightmare. Being immeasurable and unimaginable, Typhon was not an easy monster to describe!

Among other horrors, Typhon has been given: a hundred snake heads with eyes that shoot fire; leopard, lion, bull, boar, bear, dragon, and wolf heads; coils of snake tails below his waist; hundreds of arms and hands, with snakes for fingers; hundreds of wings spouting up all over his body; and one pair of huge dragon wings.

Over time, Greek artists merged and edited all of these poetic descriptions until they had reached a conventional look for Typhon. From the waist up, he was a wild giant with bulging muscles, a long, filthy beard, and shaggy hair. His nose grew out like a dog’s snout, his ears were pointed like a donkey, and his eyes flashed fire. Although he was usually drawn with just two of his hundreds of arms, his fingers were kept unnaturally long, suggesting serpents. A pair of feathery wings unfurled from his massive shoulders. Below the waist, Typhon had two serpent tails in the place of legs. His tails were usually drawn with vibrant red spots and a twisting, tangled look.

Personality

The Greek poets described Typhon as “terrible, outrageous, and lawless,” “fell and cruel,” “strong and tireless,” and “the greatest plague on men and gods.” Without a doubt, he was the biggest bully in Greek mythology—and there wasn’t a kind or merciful bone in his body.

For Typhon, destruction was a game and deformity was beautiful. He reduced villages to rubble for no reason, slaughtered men and attacked gods just because. He was attracted to dark places and monstrous characters—like his wife, Echidna—but even the places and people whom he liked couldn’t gain his loyalty. He spent his life on a solitary path of destruction.

Special Abilities

With so many monstrous parts packed into one body, Typhon never ran out of ways to attack. He could use his serpent heads or fingers to spit deadly venom at you. His dragon heads—or his own terrible eyes—could reign fire down upon you. All the while, his various other heads, from leopard to boar, would daze you with “his warcry, the cries of all wild beasts together” which was so loud that it echoed through the mountains and loosened boulders.

And don’t forget Typhon’s size. He was so large that his footsteps caused earthquakes. His voice was fiercer than thunder. He could use his mighty arms to break open mountains, hurling boulders and molten rock down on the villages below.

Typhon’s famous showdown with Zeus—the prize being no less than the Olympic throne—revealed the full extent of his abilities:

“from the flame of the monster, from his blazing bolts and from the scorch and breath of his storm-winds, all the ground and the sky and the sea boiled, and towering waves were tossing and beating all up and down […] and a great shaking of the earth came on.”

Eventually, Zeus got the upper hand, but even in death, Typhon was deadly:

“Typhon crashed, crippled, and the gigantic earth groaned beneath him, and the flame from the great lord […] ran out along the darkening and steep forests of the mountains […], and a great part of the gigantic earth burned in the wonderful wind of his heat and melted.”

When Zeus saw he had won, he threw Typhon into an endless pit, called Tartarus. Still, volcanic eruptions and winds that swept for hundreds of miles withering flowers and crashing ships, came from that pit where Typhon lay for hundreds of years.

Family

Parents

Many legends swirl around the birth of Typhon.

Some legends say that Gaia, the primordial earth-goddess, was angry when Zeus destroyed her children, the giants. She decided she would have another child, a giant of giants, to replace the children she had lost, but since Zeus had also defeated her husband, the titan Cronus, she needed a new lover. She turned to Tartarus, “the pit,” and with the help of Aphrodite, they were able to produce a child: Typhon.

Other legends claim that Hera had a fit of rage after she discovered yet another one of Zeus’s love-children. She declared that she would have a child without Zeus, since he had so many children without her, and that the child would be even mightier than Zeus himself. Some legends say that Gaia heard her cry and sympathized with her, so she made Hera pregnant with Typhon. Other legends say that Hera went to Cronus, and he gave her two stones covered in his own semen. Hera buried them, and after many months, one grew up as Typhon.

Children

For a bride, Typhon took Echidna, a monstrous snake-woman who lived in a cave and devoured men who happened to pass by. Of course, Echidna didn’t have much luck with devouring Typhon, so she accepted him as a mate instead and bore him many “fierce offspring,” including the Lynean Hydra, the Chimera, the Sphinx, Cerberus, the Gorgons, and Scylla. Together, Typhon and Echidna became as “the father and mother of all monsters.”

Cultural Representation

Origin

Typhon was first mentioned in Homer’s Iliad, which was written around the 8th century BCE, but he wasn’t fully fleshed out until Hesiod wrote his Theogony in the 7th century. Thereafter, countless Greek and Roman poets tackled this great monster; Pindar, Virgil, Ovid, Nonnus, and Seneca all contributed to his legend.

But it’s possible that Typhon has an event older ancestor. The Greeks themselves pointed out that there was a connection between their monstrous Typhon and the Egyptian god Set, who also sparked terrible battles when he tried to seize control from the supreme god.

Modern Appearances

During Greek times, Typhon was connected with all kinds of natural disasters, from droughts to tsunamis to wildfires and volcanic eruptions. Appropriately, his name lives on in today’s culture as dreaded natural disaster: the typhoon.

Typhon has also showed up in many modernized versions of Greek mythology, including Clash of the Titans and Percy Jackson.

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