|
||||||||||||||||||||||
"I have certainly had people seek to hunt me, in return for the hunting I've done. Many of them were quite delicious."
Lamia is the first of the Naga, a creation of the gods Sage and Lasciel near the middle of the Great War between the gods and Fae. She is a guardian of treasures and secret places, and the mother of all the Naga who came after her, though she remains a unique creature, born of a serpent, a plant, and the power of two gods.
History[]
Creation[]
Lamia was created in the time of her father's greatest pain - having lost Nemesis to the rebellion of the Fae, and with his temple recently despoiled and its clergy brutally slain by the beast Cerberus, Sage created from his anger an unusual plant. It was a vine, like others he had made in appearance, but unique - carnivorous, intelligent, able even to decieve prey with scent and sounds. With these he captured and tormented Cerberus, and later fell to brooding. The vines began to wither. They were not natural things after all, sustained by his anger and with shallow roots in the ground.
Lasciel appeared not long after with a creature of his own. A serpent, taken from Ceren's creatures, imbued with a touch of her power, which had been used to sow chaos among the fae in one of their greatest cities. A touch of ophidiophobia along with it had done wonders to break a particular siege. But the snake, too, was dying. After all she was a creature never meant to contain any part of a deity's power. And Lasciel, after witnessing her brother's rage, had an idea.
Two creatures, never meant to survive long on their own, might be able to survive together... and just might be able to do more than that. Sage agreed, and the two paired their abilities, combining the creatures, supplementing what was missing in each creature, with a bit of a twist. Lamia was born. She had the vines at her core, and the serpent's exterior, at least in part. She had a shape partly like that of her parents, too - at least above the waist. Her hair was at least a dozen vines, which tended to mimic snakes themselves when she was agitated. And she grew quickly - she was a monster soon, if one with a young heart. The next fae who sought to attack Sage's temple learned quickly however that her cheerful disposition belied the nature of a predator.
After the War[]
Lamia spent the years after the war with her father (she considers Sage to be her father and Lasciel her mother, whatever Lasciel's form, since she first saw her in that shape), learning about the world and especially the plants in it. She watched as the gods rebuilt Ga'leah after the war, and found her place in it as a guardian of treasures and secrets. She kept such things far away from the humans... those who sought them anyway often found themselves her food - or a part of her garden. After all, the vines - those who live on with her - need to eat as well.
Lamia found that she didn't have to be the only one of her kind, either. She was as much plant as anything, after all - and plants can spread their seeds. Hers didn't exactly grow in the dirt, however - they needed a host. And though the vines consumed most she gave a seed to, there were some who lived, and they became much like her. Smaller perhaps, but naga all the same. They would come to be called Gorgons, and she found them secrets of their own to defend, places of their own, something oddly like a family. There would never be a great many naga, and they grew smaller over the generations, but they would soon pass into legends, stories to scare children and warn those who would dig too greedily, too deep.
The Blight[]
Hidden away from the world as she was, only wandering out of the forests periodically for food and fun, Lamia did not find out about the Blight right away. It wasn't until after the deaths of Ceren and Lyrielle that the Naga encountered her first blighted - their smell dissuaded her from biting, luckily for her. It was enough to drive her curiosity however. She reached out to her daughters, calling a few back to take her place before she left.
Her mother found her, and offered her a way to help the war against the Blight. She went to Thrine, to accompany and aid Ravenna and her son Killian as they allied themselves with Malificent and Xehacora, that they might find out how Xehacora had held back the blight, and if the Queen knew how to do that... Well, perhaps she might know how it was made.
Or, how to stop it.
Personality[]
Lamia is a cheerful person, despite the monster most would see in her. Despite her age, she has always has a sort of childlike wonder about the world, and she delights in meeting new people and seeing new things. The problem is, she also delights in eating those people, adding them to her 'garden', or making them into naga themselves. Rare is the human who encounters her and comes away unscathed, though there are those she has let go because they amused her or gave a good enough chase to satisfy her twisted sense of fun. Lamia is a predator, and she sees nothing wrong in the killing of prey.
She loves her family dearly, including the gods, who she refers to as family despite the fact that she is technically a creation and not a blood relative of any of them. Sage and Lasciel have treated her like a daughter, so she sees herself that way, and has never questioned or complained it, which is fairly typical of her uncomplicated worldview. Lamia doesn't devote much thought to ideas like good or evil. There are predators and prey, there are people she protects, and the people she protects those people from. Friends, but rarely any real enemies, just opponents, prey, other predators doing what other predators do. Nuances, politics, betrayals, all these things confuse her. It wouldn't be quite right to call her an innocent, but she has a certain naivete where the motivations of other people are concerned. Her motivations are simple: love of family, a scant few friends, food, sleep, sex now and then. She has yet to have cause to consider much more.
Ongoing Threads[]
Creation Through Destruction - A Lamia is born!
Blood of the Green - An unexpected visitor arrives at the temple: Lamia's older half-sister, the great warrior Nemesis. [ongoing]
Creatures that go Bump in the Night - On her way out of the forest, Lamia stops at an abandoned castle, and meets Olivia Tepes, who shows her some of the secrets of the place - where the Tepes family once lived, before Helios' wrath scoured the ground. [ongoing]
Addicted to the Knife - Nearly out of the forest and into human territory, Lamia receives a gift (and a visit) from her aunt Philia. [ongoing]
A Royal Favor - Lamia's mother Lash offers her services to the Queen of Calladahn for an important mission
The New Girl - Now installed at the court of Calladahn, Amelia spends a little time looking around, and becomes acquainted with the Queen's son, Killian... the two hit it off more or less immediately
Herbology - Lamia tours the gardens of Thrine, correcting some of the human gardener's mistakes, and receives a special visitor.