Stories of the Stymphalian Guardians

[Stymphalian]

Long ago, in the annals of the Stymphalian's past, all their history, knowledge and lore were written on ancient scrolls. Sometime between then and now, those scrolls were lost, and only recently have we realized that this history was forgotten. This thread lists the completed stories recovered from the scrolls.

Thus far, the breeding scroll was found, which lists the formulae for mixing ash and elements to create new Stymphalian from two or more 'parents'.

Fragments of the Super Stage scrolls have been found, and we are close to having them return to Gaia! To see how Agamemnon discovered them, read the comic located in the '07 Hallowe'en Thread:

In ages past, Stymphalian had four Guardians: anthropomorphic winged cats which embodied certain dates, traditions, and values for the Stymphalian. They were as follows:

-----> The Stymphalian Death Reaper, the guardian of evil and harbinger of death, called Thanatos.
-----> Old Man Winter, the embodiment of Yule, the Christmas Spirit and Wisdom, called Jericho.
-----> The guardian of Rebirth: Spring and Breeding, called Aine.
-----> ...Something to do with the sun, and joy of life: growth, and prosperity?? [Fragmented]

 

[Stymphalian]

DareDelvil

Sing to me, Muses, of Thanatos the Death Reaper, twice-changed bearer of the Scythe of Hades. Tell me of his life and fall into darkness, of his rise to power, and of his kingdom beyond the grave.

If you ever chance to speak to the Reaper, and few do before he comes for them, he will tell you that he has many names. Perhaps he will call himself "Death", or "Der Tod", or "The Reaper Man". But they are all one and the same, and his oldest name - his very first name - is Thanatos. Back in the old times, when our people fed on sweet fruits and knew nothing of death, he was a Stymphalian like us. He was cocky and proud, and knew his own strength. He was selfish and sly, and needed no friend save for himself. Whatever he desired, he took. Whatever he disliked, he swept aside. He was cruel, and he was capricious, and he was happy. Yes, he was happy with his life. Why should he not have been? He could have had anything he wanted.

...Anything, so sing the Muses, except one thing.

Summer was nearing its end when Thanatos chanced to enter a new part of the Stymphalian realm. All around him the trees were in fruit and flower, and he rejoiced to see them so. He rejoiced all the more when he saw a beautiful Stymphalian queen sitting alone in the orchard. Aha, thought Thanatos to himself. My next conquest awaits me. And so he approached her, and attempted to charm his way into her favour.

Unluckily for him, he was soon interrupted.

"The female is mine, outsider!"

The tom who had just arrived on the scene was larger and more powerful than Thanatos, but Thanatos was brave to the point of recklessness and he did not back down. "Outsider? I am Thanatos, who needs no living soul's consent to wander here. And who are you, stranger," he demanded, "to stake such a claim?"

"I am Sisyphus," the big tom hissed, "and you will suffer for your insolence!"

Mighty Sisyphus sprang. Wily Thanatos dodged out of the way just in time, gouging his opponent's flank with razor-sharp claws. The two Stymphalians collided with terrible yowls of rage, tearing at one another's flesh. The queen, she over whom they were fighting, fled up a nearby tree and cowered there in fright. And well she might. The males were fighting a vicious battle: each truly hated the other, and that was unheard of in these early times.

They fought and fought, and eventually one emerged victorious. Sisyphus, the larger and stronger, had won. But he did not stop at that. With one cruel bite, he tore out his opponent's throat - and thus he became the first murderer, and Thanatos the first victim. Thanatos died, so sing the Muses, and no Stymphalian had ever died before.

It was not such a terrible thing to die, Thanatos thought when he awoke. Since there had been no death among Stymphalians before, he had never learned to fear it. The energies of the underworld had changed him, too, and his new form seemed powerful: he could pick up tools as humans can, and there was a silver circle resting upon his head like a crown.

As his strength came back to him, he explored. He discovered the horrors of Tartarus, and the delights of Elysium, and the quiet lands in between. "Since I am the first Stymphalian to enter this realm," said he to himself, "surely I am its king. This silver crown of mine gives me that power. I shall place all those I like into the heavenly fields of Elysium, and condemn all those I dislike to the torments of Tartarus. That is a fine way to be king. I shall start by sending Sisyphus to Tartarus. Then the Lady shall have Elysium - if she agrees to be mine."

And so, with his new power, Thanatos returned to the mortal realm and sought out Sisyphus. He stole a scythe from a human farm along the way, and imagined himself using it to slice off his rival's head. But it was not his rival he met first. The Lady's family and friends stood in his way, seeing that he was going after the Lady once again, and tried to stop him. In their great numbers they weakened him, but in the end he cut them all down and sent their souls to Tartarus. He did not care how the Lady would feel if she knew. He wanted her for his own, and that was the extent of his caring for her.

"Sisyphus!" he roared, when at last his rival came into sight. "I have returned from my new kingdom of the dead! This time I shall triumph, and you shall spend forever in torment!"

Sisyphus, seeing that his rival was now larger and stronger than him, played a dirty trick to gain the upper hand. He waited until Thanatos was almost on top of him, and then threw sand into his opponent's eyes. While Thanatos was distracted, Sisyphus followed up with his claws. Screaming, Tantalus was plunged into darkness. His eyes had been ruined, and in the mortal world he was blind.

"Go back to the depths, monster," Sisyphus hissed. "You have no place here!"

And so Thanatos crawled back to the land of the dead, bleeding and in agony. "There must be some way to defeat Sisyphus," he thought to himself. "I will have my revenge yet!"

Desperate for power, he broke off a part of his silver crown. Then, amidst the heat and madness of Tartarus, he forged it into the blade of the farm scythe. No sooner was the work done, though, than his heart and mind were changed forever: the silver crown he had broken was no ordinary crown, but a part of him. Into the farm scythe had gone his wickedness, his cruelty, his caprice and thirst for murder. It had become the dread Scythe of Hades, and since its evil had once been his it became chained to him forever. Now that his mind was freed from it, though, it saddened him beyond measure. "What have I done?" he lamented. "What manner of monster was I? I have tormented the beautiful Lady, and I have cast many innocent souls into Tartarus. I must set this right, and harness this wicked power as best I can to aid me."

And so Thanatos, twice-changed bearer of the Scythe of Hades, went down into the horrors of Tartarus and brought out those gentle souls he had once condemned. He opened the gates of Elysium and ushered them in, and at once their faces grew carefree and their hearts grew light. This done, Thanatos locked the gates behind them - to be certain that no evil should enter - before setting off for the mortal world once more. His revenge against Sisyphus was forgotten. The only thought in his immortal mind was that he must find the Lady. He had to set things right with her somehow, no matter what.

Sisyphus, though, had other ideas.

When Thanatos found the Lady, she was mourning alone. A soft black scarf was tied around her neck. Blinded, Thanatos could not see it. "I have come to make amends with you, Lady," said he, "for all that I have done."

The Lady was weeping. "Is this your last kindness, Death Reaper?" she sobbed. "To consign me to the same oblivion that has claimed my family and friends? Do it, I beg you; I cannot bear to live in this world a moment longer."

Her words were just, and they stung Thanatos like seawater in an open wound. "They are not in oblivion, Lady," he said. "They are in eternal paradise, as they deserve. If it is your desire, you shall join them."

For a moment, the Lady was too startled to cry. "...Have you truly changed, Thanatos?"

Just as Thanatos was opening his mouth to answer "Yes", the Lady gave a strangled scream. Thanatos stared around, but his blind eyes gave him only agony for his trouble. Only when he used his sense of smell did he realise what was happening - Sisyphus! He was here!

"If she has chosen to desire you, beast of the underworld," Sisyphus snarled, his paws locked tightly around the Lady's throat, "then she shall die! I should sooner that than to see her with you!"

Had Thanatos had his eyes, he could have stopped Sisyphus. As it was, he was helpless. A single swift bite and a twisting of paws, and the Lady fell dead. Thanatos let out a fearful howl of rage, and the Scythe in his paws howled in answer. Terrified, Sisyphus fled. Thanatos, using only his hearing and sense of smell, began to give chase. "You have cheated me twice, Sisyphus," he called out in a terrible voice that echoed around the shadowed hills. "You will not cheat me again! This shall be my vengeance, and hers whom you have slain!"

All night Thanatos hunted Sisyphus through the sleeping world. As dawn was breaking, he cornered him, trapped him against the ground with one mighty paw, and sliced his head from his body with one sweep of the Scythe. A hazy white ghost drifted into the air - the spirit of his rival - and Thanatos, who could see this alone, snatched it up. "You were always fit for Tartarus," he declared as he cast his enemy down into eternal torment. "Even in my wickedness I knew that." And so you see, it is possible to do the right thing for the wrong reasons.

His vengeance complete, Thanatos sought out the spirit of the Lady and led her to the gates of Elysium. "Lady," said he, "I have done many wicked things, but in doing this I hope to atone for them. I do not ask your forgiveness for the torment I visited upon you - that is too great a favour to ask - but I ask that you accept my apologies, and my recompense. This is Elysium, the heaven beyond the veil, and here you shall dwell in peace among your family and friends for eternity."

The Lady smiled at him, and she rubbed her soft head against his chin. "You have changed, Thanatos," said she. "You and Sisyphus were quite alike for a time, but now I see that you are the finer. You have my forgiveness, and my favour."

So speaking, she untied her soft black scarf and gently bound his wounded eyes. Thanatos felt his pain fade away, and through the filmy fabric he could see her clearly again: a shimmering white spirit, glowing with warmth.

"Perhaps," said the Lady, "in time, you shall have my heart as well."

"In this land," answered Thanatos as he ushered her through the gates of Elysium, "we have all the time in the world."

And so Thanatos guards the realm of the wicked dead, lest those like Sisyphus should try to escape him again, and reaps the souls of the Stymphalian people. His scythe calls forever for the taste of the living, and though its appetite can be appeased it can never be satisfied. His blind eyes make him seem cruel and capricious, for he cuts down the young and the kind and the good - that is his curse, forever to be thought as wicked as he once was. But once a soul enters his realm, no lack of eyes can keep him from seeing the truth - good or evil, he always knows where a spirit belongs. And though he can never enter Elysium, chained as he is to his scythe, sometimes he lingers at the gate and sings to his beloved Lady on the other side. She answers his call and comes to his side, and they purr to one another through the shining gates.

Even if he had kept his sight, Thanatos could never have had eyes for anyone else.

 

[Stymphalian]

Rea Fearless

An old, selfish Stymphalian named Jericho lived in a lonely old forest on top of a mountain. He was not happy with himself or any of the others around him, and so he dabbled in magic like none of the others in an attempt to change himself. He wanted to be different than the rest, to strike fear into their hearts. The change worked. In a flash, he stood upright and could use his paws as hands, not too unlike the humans. It pleased him very much.

Then, disaster struck.

The remnants of all his failed spells had gathered together, causing a great and cold storm that wiped out all plant life and some of the weaker Stymphalian's lives. The survivors knew they could not last long without someone stopping the dark magic of this endless cold. So they did the only thing they could think of. They went up the mountain to the selfish Jericho, begging for him to help. At first, he laughed at their story. He knew that it was his magic making the storm, and that pleased him. He had become so powerful!

Day after cold day, the surviving Stymphalins came to plead with him, begging Jericho to end the cold storm he had created with his magic. He continued to listen to their pleas, having no plans of trying to change the weather. He pretended to not care, but he truly had no idea how to make the weather go back to normal. Jericho began to feel pain as more Stymphalian weakened and died from the icy cold, wishing there was something he could do to save his race.

In desperation, Jericho took his orb, the source of all his magic, and called the ice into it. Using all of his strength, Jericho pulled as much of the cold into the crystal ball as he could. The magic seemed to not enter the orb fully, however, and once a year it would slip away from his grasp, bringing winter to the land once more. Jericho accepted this weakness, and, in an insight, he realized that this season was needed. He called his few months of weakness winter, and it became a reminder to all to be joyful for what they have, and never to desire greatness beyond your own strenghth.

 

[Stymphalian]

Rea Fearless

Every year as winter melted into spring, there is a sacred ritual that hopeful Stymphalians would participate in. It is a celebration of birth, the time of coming. This scroll tells the legend of how it came to be.

Many countless generations ago, a young child shone in a different light than the rest. She was truly uncorrupted, not understanding or seeing the darkness that was in this world - hidden nor obvious. And as a result, that very darkness could not touch her. Everything her gaze fell upon was filled with an irrevocable love for her. But the child was not vain. Instead, she saw the beauty and life in everything.

Every year that she grew, her beauty and innocence only seemed to grow as well. Aine was her name, and everything grew healthy and strong in her presence.

However, the year Aine reached adulthood, everything went horribly wrong. There was a great fire, and unstoppable flames began to lick at the earth. They swallowed everything in their path, surrounding Aine and her people. Because Aine could not see the evil of the fire, it changed the flames as they overtook her body. A light grew around her, and she had to close her eyes to keep from being blinded. When she opened her eyes, the flames were gone and she was in a field of flowers. Her people were gone, turned to ashes by the fire. Yet, she saw that the flowers were fed by the remains of her people, and she was happy.

Something in her had changed... she had taken a human form, and was able to care for the new baby Stymphalians that came from the mixing of ashes of her people. Ever since that transformation, Stymphalian have only bred through ash, and we celebrate life and growth with that accepting innocence that Aine showed.