Monday Mythology – The Daughters of War
Building on the Father and firstborn son of the Fire family, This time I have the Twins, the goddesses of Violence and Honnor, Ariannas and Valeas.
Part of being a conceived god, as I mentioned with Kalboras, is divestiture: The siphoning off of a portion of a gods power when the child is created. In the case of Ariannas and Valeas, they both pulled the major portion of their existence from their father, while retaining a touch of their mother. Both children were extremely close to their father and this closeness was intensified when Kalboras betrayed them and their mother was killed.
Valeas
Valeas is a kind and giving being, one who embodies the most honorable aspects of combat. She has an even tempter and rarely gives in to fits of either anger or melancholy, giving all emotions and opinions their due time before casting out those that do not suite her. While she has the blood of the goddess of Passion, much of it stays well controlled. Her passion is her loyalty to her family and to her Four dictates, which she embodies in deed and in thought. While she may be dispassionate in emotions, her convictions shine strong and bright. There can be found no other who stands against evil so strongly and so fervently.
Valeas and Ariannas are true twins, both of them emerging into the universe at the same moment. While Valeas was content to be born in the appropriate way, Ariannas, always impatient, tore her way out of her mothers stomach at the same time. If it wasn’t for the administrations of Orannas healing magic, Miani surely would have perished. While there are things that have gotten under her skin about her sister, few are as long-lasting and as divisive as the manner of her birth.
Growing up, Valeas was always the clean fighter: Strong, Powerful, and Knowledgeable. She learned a great deal from her older brother, and shared insights with her sister about their teaching and training. The Godswar came as a surprise, and shattered the families trust for a time. When their home was assaulted by Kalboras, however, Ariannas and Valeas found complete trust in each other, breaking beyond the boundaries even blood relatives and gods, the twins knew, beyond all possible doubt, the others intentions. It was like a culmination of all of their training at the moment of their greatest need. Side by side the twins fought the armies of the rebels, together a seeming impenetrable wall of steel and blood. They were unable, however, to get to their mother, and their failure to but their way to her chambers is a stain on both of them that they cannot see beyond.
Following the retreat and linking up with their father, they became the right and left hand of the God of War, leading the most desperate battles and bravest of charges. When Takannas needs a line held, a position taken, or a position rallied, he sends Valeas, the Gleaming Champion. Where she stands, no enemy passes. Where she treads, fortifications fall, and in her presence, fear is banished. Though her father sees her as a leader of men, she only sees an instrument of war, guided and directed by her father to the aims of the destruction of the accursed.
Valeas is generally cold when it comes to her feelings, though she loves and tolerates her sister and much as she despises and rejects her elder brother. Her father she dotes on and forgives for many of his indiscretions, seeing in him a powerful and wise, if not always tempered, man. Outside of those few relationships with her family, she has few friends. Taralin is one who she respects and understands, but disdains that he does not commit to a stronger ideal, and though it causes massive friction, she has no tolerance for the suggestions and plots of the darker Paltonarchs, and often will stand against their propositions when brought before the assembly, though she will follow the direction of her father no matter.
Ariannas
Ariannas is strong, willful and brash, the diametric opposite of all that Valeas is and stands for. While Glory and Arrogance are her older brothers domain, and large, massive combats are her fathers, Ariannas is the one who revels in the immediacy and intimacy of combat. one word that cannot describe her, however, is dark. When not engaged in the orgy of violence and blood that are her favorite past times, she is a charming and engaging conversationalist with a pleasant smile and a wicked wit. Her love of humor and her desire for company strongly contrast her unwillingness to forgive slights and her penchant for petty revenge.
Ariannas is a child of bloodshed and violence from the very start, having torn herself from her mothers womb. Though a violent beginning, it was only the first of many she was to commit. Starting at an early age she was trained, side by side with her sister, first with her father, and then with their older brother, Kalboras. The days of training were long, and the revels that Takannas and Miani partook of were elaborate. Eventually, though, it all came crashing down.
Ariannas was approached by Ferosh to take part in the revolt of the younger gods against the elder. He was sure that she would be ripe for the plot with its promise for immense bloodshed. Instead, she deferred, and never really gave a proper answer to the missive. When the time came for the revlot to begin, she did not participate, so firmly believing in her fathers right to rule. She never said a word of the plot to anyone, however, and the deaths of hundreds of gods she feels rest on her shoulders, including the eventual death of her mother.
She keenly feels the betrayal of her brother, and the subsequent death of her mother, are her fault. Had she only said something, she could have outed her brother, her father could have convinced him the error of his ways, and her mother would still be alive. These slights wound her deeply and have given her a direct stake in the conflict of the gods. Having sworn vengeance against the Accursed, she has acted as the left hand of her father: The bloody, deadly, whirlwind of death. Thus guided, she can avenger her slights and expunge the objects of her extreme hatred. When a line needs broken,when the cause seems lost, and when the assault of the enemy needs to be beaten back, he sends in the Bloody Maiden, the destroyer of lives and winnower of armies.
Through the aeons, Ariannas has made very few friends. Her bladed wit and her uncompromising views have lead to many arguments among her fellow Paltonarchs. Few, though, count her as an active enemy, for she is the honored and revered weapon of Takannas and the Paltonarchs themselves. She takes issue with Retren often, and Maltara she sees as a theif, but the one she truly butts heads with is Oranna. Laws and Tactics mean little Ariannas. Though she may have distanced many and alienated a few, Her father and sister are always trusted companions and stalwart allies when it comes time to stand against the accursed, where they are all most comfortable.
