NAME: Lucretia
TITLES: Esteemed Goddess of Grief, Lady of Loss and Hopelessness
TRUE NAME: Mal
INSPIRATION: Mourning, manipulation, black widow spiders, Millennium Earl (D. Gray-man)
SYMBOLS: The Willow Tree – Willow trees, especially the weeping willow, are also symbolic of death. The cascading appearance of weeping willow branches brings to mind the flow of tears and is therefore associated with sorrow and loss.
The Usurped Wheel – The symbol of a wheel typically represents the perpetual cycle of death and rebirth; therefore, to mark that Lucretia (and her followers) are devoutly interested in preserving the sanctity of death and never passing through their 'temporary grief', she tattoos them personally with a wheel cracked in half.
PORTFOLIO: Darkness (Loss)
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Neutral/borderline Evil
SERVITARS:Phantoms – Contrary to popular belief, phantoms are not always related to undeath and spiritual unrest from beyond the grave. Lucretia can call upon them from the longing of her followers, summoning images of their loved ones that disappear as the sun rises. That is all they are, images, but for some it is enough to satisfy them.
Husks – Sometimes, grief is too much to bear, even with Lucretia's gentle guidance. She offers them a choice, if their heart is too raw to keep on living, if it will never heal again. Should they choose to take it, they live a blissful existence, trapped in their own mind with the thoughts of whoever it is they lost. Lucretia then takes control and gives instructions, and promises to put their physical form to good use.
WEAPON: The Athame – a ceremonial dagger, with a double-edged blade and usually a black handle that is not typically used for melee combat. One provided by Lucretia undoubtedly has some magical properties though they likely require a sacrifice, whether it be of their own body or someone else's.
FAMILIAR:Edgar, a
starling who is considered to be split between the afterlife and the mortal realm with some level of interaction with both. His call can mimic a human's voice, or more specifically, the voice of any person's loved one. Lucretia uses him to lure in mourners as they grieve at graveyards or battlefields.
FOLLOWERS:When a person, following the death of someone they cared about, forsakes every god and way of life they know of in anger or perhaps in disgust, Lucretia can appear. Sometimes, all she does is talk to them once, one on one, for a sort of grief counselling session. Other times it takes more than one 'chat' to soften a mourner's grief, two or three or four. And then every now and then, Lucretia finds one who cannot move forward, who becomes absolutely dependent on her, and drags them back into the world by giving them whatever she can to fill their empty heart, freely. She
does care for those she takes under her wing, in some strange godlike way. If they are loyal to her, she treats them like kings and queens.
People can feel indebted to her for that, enough so to offer Lucretia their services in whatever it is she desires. If they later find a new purpose for living, a loved one that can steal them away from her, well...
something will tear them away into the afterlife.
BIO:For as long as death has existed, so has despair, grief,
loss. Mal's formative memories are of pure, unadulterated misery, the longing of others for their lost loves, lost family, lost purpose. She recalls comforting, at first, then the devotion of a follower so pure it shook her to her knees. Time can pass in the blink of an eye without something tangible to hold on to but in an instant the follower's faith winked out of existence with his life and suddenly, the Goddess of Grief experienced loss.
Though technically neutral in that she is on no side but her own, Mal has always deemed it necessary to toy with the mortal world. She has taken many lovers in the past, birthed many bastard demigods, simply to see them mourn when she disappears. Only the most manipulative and powerful of her children are awarded with her presence and tutelage. She never remembers their names, because if she grew attached, she might feel their absence once they are gone.
Furthermore, she has a fragile friendship with the God of Death and Fear, mostly because they were 'conceived' at the same time and are both intricately linked to human suffering. One could even say they are siblings of a sort, borrowing and playing with mortal souls. Those who try to break away from the Goddess of Grief when she has her claws in them will find themselves hunted by Darko and dragged into his tortuous realm.
During the clash, Lucretia found herself overwhelmed with the darkness and the losses from others and found herself to be just a tad twisted. She is a darker aspect of her younger sister, the Lady of Light, the Goddess of Purity and Protection, who also deals with human suffering but seeks to ensure their eventual happiness rather than keeping them suspended in endless grief as she does. Even so, she admires the work of her younger sister and is even jealous of her helpful, lighter powers as she does the work that Lucretia was designed for but is ultimately unable to do.