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 Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:31 am
Never-ending because I'm going on three years with this.
http://www.mythweb.com/teachers/why/other/hero_twins.html
I really wish this had been my original concept, because I have the coolest idea for how I could have answered one of the prompts for Lost Children. sweatdrop
SMERDLE IS A ******** GODDESS.
Look, Ma! We're valid!
kalindara Approved! 
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 2:37 pm
 
this version.
Spanish-language Wikipedia
The myth of the Hero Twins comes primarily from the Popol Vuh (the link goes to an english translation. Part one details events from their childhood, and part two is the actual myth), a 16th century record of Mayan mythology, and from earlier depictions and records that match scenes from the myth. The twins are depicted as mischievous, playful figures (and the b*****d sons of a minor goddess and a sacrificial victim) who are gods in their own right, and act as servants to other gods. While many of their deeds are shrouded in deception, they are firmly heroic characters. Hunahpu is the elder brother and leader when they are on the earth's surface, and Xibalanque is the younger brother and leader when they descend into Xibalba.
Other texts and sections of the Popol Vuh present earlier and later adventures of the Hero Twins both together and seperately, but the myth presented here is the central story.
----------------------------------------------
In the early days, after the creation of the earth but before the creation of the moon and sun and stars, the sky hung bright and empty during the day and dark and empty at night.
The story of Hunahpu and Xibalanque does not begin with their birth. To tell the truth, it begins a few months previously with the demise of their father and their uncle, Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub-Hunahpu respectively. Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub-Hunapu prided themselves as being the best ballplayers in the land and were invited by the lords of Xibalba, the Mayan Underworld, for a series of trials to prove they were the best. However, the arrogant brothers failed the trials and were killed by the gods of Xibalba, who hung their heads on a tree.
This is where the story of Hunahpu and Xibalanque begins. One day, the twin's mother, the goddess Xquic (a Xibalban princess whose domain was the waning moon,) encountered the tree and was curious about its odd looking fruit. When she approached, she spoke to the decapitated head of Hun-Hunapu, who spit in her hand and caused her to conceive the Hero Twins. When the elder gods of Xibalba learned of this, they cast Xquic out to die.
Xquic did not die. If she had, that would be the end of the story. Instead, Xquic sought out Hun-Hunahpu's mother who begrudgingly took her in.
As young children, Hunahpu and Xibalanque were treated foully by their grandmother and two older half-brothers, Hunbatz and Hunchouén, but their lives were rather uneventful (Aside from the transformation of their older brothers into monkeys - entirely the twins' fault, because they tricked the older brothers - and the killing of a vain macaw god, Vucun-Caquix) until one day the hero twins were working in their grandmother's garden. They were doing this rather unsuccessfully, because every time they cleared the garden, the animals would bring all the yard waste back. Fed up, the twins elected to try to catch one of the animals and find out why they were doing such a thing.
After failed attempts to catch a rabbit and a deer, the brothers caught a rat and held its tail over the fire to make him talk. In exchange for mercy, the rat told them that they weren't meant to be gardeners and were much more suited to be the best ballplayers in history. The only catch? Their grandmother, fearful of losing any of her grandsons to the same fate as their father, had hidden his game equipment and kept it carefully guarded. The twins would have to distract their grandmother if they wanted to get it.
So, they asked their grandmother to make them a meal of very spicy chili and then asked her to bring them some water. Grandmother, determined to make up for how badly she had treated her younger grandsons now that the older ones were monkeys, went to fetch water. She didn't know that the twins had put a hole in her pot so that she wouldn't be able to bring it back. While grandmother was occupied, the boys located the hiding place and got the equipment.
Immediately, they began practicing in the old overgrown ball court and found they were quite good. The noise of their playing was so loud that it reached all the way down to the ears of the death gods in Xibalba.
"What's this?" said the death gods. "How can there be noise from the ball court if Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub-Hunahpu are dead?" Finding it to be the fault of the sons of Xquic, who also should have been dead, the gods decided to summon them for a game of ball.
"Easy," said the twins. "We're the best ball players in history."
And so they descended into Xibalba, down the winding stairs and over the river of blood until they arrived outside the gods' meeting room. Knowing the gods were expecting to be greeted by name, the boys waited and listened to their conversation and learned who was who. Overhearing a great deal of talk about wooden dummies, the boys decided to be clever.
Hunahpu plucked a hair from his leg and transformed it into a mosquito. He sent the bug ahead to bite each god in the room and saw which ones reacted and which ones didn't, deducing those were the dummies.
The boys then went in and adressed each god by name, skipping the dummies.
"Well done, welcome," said the gods. "Why don't you have a seat." They motioned to a stone.
"We're not sitting on a stove," replied the boys, who remained standing. They had passed the second test, for the stone indicated was in fact a cooking griddle.
And so the gods of the underworld sent the boys away to the first test house, the house of dark, and gave them a torch and two cigars.
"These must last the night," the gods instructed. Realizing that was impossible, the boys replaced the torch's flame with the bright red plumage of a macaw and the embers at the tips of the cigars with fireflies. It didn't look any different to the guards watching the trial and so the boys passed where their father and uncle had failed.
Then came the test of the house of knives, where the boys tricked the blades into believing their job was to cut up animals and not the twins. After that was the house of jaguars, where the boys survived by feeding bones and meat to the jaguars to fill them up so they would not hunger for human flesh. In the house of cold, they locked out the chill. The house of flame baked their skin golden brown, but did not cook them.
At the house of bats they made their mistake. The twins hid inside their blowguns to avoid being injured by the bats, but could not see if it was morning from inside the barrels. At Xbalanque's urging, Hunahpu stuck his head out to check if it was morning. When he did, he was swiftly decapitated and his lost head rolled all the way to the ball courts.
Knowing they would have to face the gods in ball in the morning, a new head was found for Hunahpu in the form of a squash. Meanwhile, the twins told a rabbit to go hide at the court.
In the morning, the game began. The gods decided to use Hunahpu's head as a ball (in their opinion, they won by default because of this.) But when they kicked it, Xbalanque deflected it towards where the rabbit was. A switcheroo was performed and the rabbit hopped off pretending to be the ball. The gods followed.
The twins retrieved Hunahpu's head and replaced it on his body, substituting the squash as a ball. When the game resumed, Xibalanque kicked the squash and broke it. Somehow, this made the twins the winners of the match. They had triumphed over death and avenged their father. But the twins knew for their quest to be complete they would have to die, and the gods were willing to give them a run for their money.
"Bet you can't jump over this oven four times," challenged the gods.
"You're on!" said the twins, jumping right into the flames.
This is where the gods messed up. Instead of leaving the boys' bones on a tree or tossing them off a cliff, they ground them up and dumped them in the river. When the dust settled, the twins' bodies re-formed, first as catfish and then as their original forms.
Determined to bring down the lords of death once and for all, the twins began a career as entertainers. They could destroy a house and then make it like new, or sacrifice a dog and then bring it back. They'd even sacrifice one another.
Of course, eventually word of these marvelous entertainers reached the gods of Xibalba and the twins were invited for a visit.
First the gods asked the twins to sacrifice a dog and bring it back to life. They did so. Then it was asked they do it with a human, and so they did. And then they asked one twin sacrifice the other, so Xibalanque dismembered Hunahpu and cut his heart out, and then put him back together. When Hunahpu got back up good as new, the gods were amazed.
"Us next! Us next!"
And so the twins sacrificed each god of Xibalba, but they did not bring the gods of Xibalba back to life. Xibalba lost its glory that day.
Their quest to destroy the lords of death finished, the brothers removed the head of their father from the tree and dug up his bones from beneath the ball court and restored him to life. They left him to keep the ball courts and then began the journey back up the stairs to the Earth's surface. And when they got to the Earth's surface, they found it was possible to travel much further up and so they kept climbing until they became perched in the sky as the sun and the moon.
They stayed that way a very long time.
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:30 pm
Unbeknownst to his brother, Xbalanque had grown corrupt and ambitious, eager to ascend to full godhood, even if it meant dispatching the true gods. He and Hunahpu had killed gods in their youth - first the Macaw god of the skies, and then the gods of the underworld - so he knew it could be done, but he knew that Hunahpu would never take part in the plan. So he one by one, without his brother's assistance, Xbalanque destroyed the old gods.
When Hunapu found out what his brother was up to, he was naturally furious. Unfortunately, he was no longer a match for Xbalanque's strength and Xbalanque, practiced as he was in killing divine beings, and in killing Hunapu, was able to easily dismember him and remove his heart. By destroying Hunapu's heart, he was able to ensure that his brother would not trouble him again. Betrayal successfully completed, Xbalanque descended into Xibalba and began his reign.
He's still there, to this very day.
This is totally not in the original myth and was totally extrapolated by me.
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 7:44 pm
Name:
Astor
(This is a classical english name meaning "Hawk," and if it is not something the parent Fa'e would be likely to name their child, I wouldn't mind changing it. I'm attached to it, but not the point that I would not want him called anything else.)
Gender:
Male
Past Identity:
Hunahpu (WAN-a-pwa), Mayan cultural hero, demon slayer, solar semi-deity and part time trickster-god. Twin of Xbalanque (SHI-BA-lan-KAY)
Personality:
Astor is adventurous and impulsive to excess. He comes equipped with copious amounts of enthusiasm, but marginal to nonexistent amounts of tact. He has an unfortunate tendency to rush into situations without thinking them through, to occasionally disastrous results: he is clever and can figure out individual problems when he focuses in on them, but often has difficulty in grasping the bigger picture. This means that while an individual aspect of his plans may be finely tuned, you can expect that somewhere along the line there is something he has obviously failed to think through just waiting to come bite him.
It is practically guaranteed that once during any misadventure, he will wind up dismembered on the floor, waiting for someone else to bring him his legs back.
He is in every sense the definition of an ‘active’ learner. Astor does poorly in classroom situations because there is simply too much to distract him – friends to talk to and pens to click and hair to pull and paper to fold into airplanes and play wastebasket basketball with and—you get the picture. He’d rather make baking soda and vinegar explode than read about volcanoes, and build a scale model of the solar system in the parking lot than learn about it in school. He remembers things best by experiencing them firsthand – he’ll touch the stove, he’ll stick his hands in wet paint, and he’ll walk through fresh cement.
Despite coming off as quite the academic flop, Astor has a certain practical intelligence and joie de vivre that is hard to resist. He has a quip-driven sense of verbal humor that has probably been influenced by Spider-Man comics, and his slapstick styling would make the Marx Brothers proud. He lives life one step at a time, with an easy smile on his face and a contagious sense of spontaneity. It’s not unheard of for him to go out of his way to try to make those around him laugh or crack a smile.
As a generally cheerful person, Astor is quite often at a loss for what to do with negative emotions. He does have a tendency to hold grudges, but can usually be persuaded to let them drop after a few weeks or once his revenge has been properly exacted. He’s not a particularly bloodthirsty person, nor does he have the attention span required to come up with any sort of substantive battle plan. The only real way to know if you’ve attracted his ire is if you find yourself subject to a barrage of childish pranks. Fly in your coffee? Probably Astor. Tripped over some misplaced junk? Again, probably Astor. Someone blinding you with a handheld mirror? Take a look across the room – it’s Astor, and he’ll get bored of it in a week or two once he thinks you’ve gotten what you deserve.
For all his pranks and childish antics, he really is a good person at heart. At the end of the day, Astor rests easy because he genuinely thinks he’s doing the right thing. He doesn’t cheat. He doesn’t outright lie. He follows the rules and only antagonizes people who he feels have done something to bring it upon themselves. He’s the sort of friend you’d want to have in your corner – if not for the comic relief then because he’ll always have your back.
Basically: Chaotic good. An anarchist with a heart of gold
Important trait summary: Optimistic, playful, competitive, unfocused, honest, tactless
Reasoning for personality: In the source material, Hunahpu and Xibalanque's older brothers are scribes and philosophers. Hunahpu and Xibalanque are more commonly found doing field work and playing sports. To reflect this, Astor despises book learning and classrooms and much prefers hands-on things and sports. The brothers are also described as supernatural tricksters, going as far as turning their older siblings into monkeys and even managing to trick the gods of death. To reflect this aspect, Astor is an incurable prankster.
Appearance:
Overall Ethnicity: Maya Indian
Skin: medium golden-brown
Hair: black and worn in dreadlocks (Short through childhood, then long during the teenaged years and beyond.)
Eyes: black
Build: muscular and athletic, but not overtly tall or short.
Facial structure: Angular, with a rounded protruding nose as is common in Mayan art.
Other: His skin is splattered with random dark spots that have a necrotic appearance akin to frostbite, even though they are perfectly healthy. Particularly of note are the two dots on his cheeks and the line down his nose. A ridge of red feathers similar in color to a scarlet macaw runs from his shoulder to his wrist, but they are not wings and any attempt to fly using said feathers ends badly (they serve as material for transmutations). His hair has some natural glowy bits in it - these in turn attract fireflies, which nest there, breed there, and add to the general glowiness.
The dots on Astor's cheeks are traditionally called "Hun Dots" and are in Mayan art used to indicate beings that are associated with Hunahpu! (And technically they should be larger than how I drew them in these two headshots.)
Clothing preferences: Astor's primary concern is being able to move in his clothes. He tends to shop at athletic surplus shops and his general uniform all through childhood is a tank top and soccer-style shorts, his clothing during teen being somewhat more mature looking, and then tending towards some traditional mayan touches as he becomes a youth and adult. He despises long sleeves with a passion as they squash his feathers and will avoid them if at all possible, even if it means going without a jacket in 50-degree weather (ponchos are his friends).
Powers (And justification of powers)
Dismemberment: Astor has the ability to remove and reattach body parts at will, or even replace body parts with other objects. Depending on how dismembered he gets, he may need help being put back together. However, no matter how taken apart he is, he can always be put back together. He can remove any body part, even his head, without suffering permanent damage.
Parts are removed at joints. For example, fingers are removed at the knuckle, or the whole hand is removed at the wrist. Arms detach at the elbow or shoulder, etc. Parts remain fully controllable, even when removed.
(Justification: Hun and Xib's primary abilities in the latter part of their myth have to do with breaking things and putting them back together. Usually the subject of this breaking is Hun. Support for replacing body parts comes from an instance where Hun winds up with a squash instead of a head. In one of their earlier adventures, Seven Macaw removes Hunahpu's arm, takes it home with him, and waits for the twins to come retrieve it and put it back on. )
(Ideally, he acquires this power as a child.)
Transmutation: Astor can turn various replaceable parts removed from his body - strands of hair, bits of skin, fingernails, feathers - into animals of varying sizes. Nothing truly massive, but he can manage bugs, small mammals, and birds. The more bodily material used in the creation of the being, the larger it is. (A parakeet might take two feathers, but a macaw might take six.) These constructs last for short periods of time (usually less than an hour) and generally obey him. However, obeying him isn't a flawless thing, so Astor tries to avoid summoning things that could potentially be rather dangerous.
(Justification: in their myth, Hun and Xib are often citing as having animals to use to complete tasks in places where the animal couldn't possibly be. It's possible to explain this by an instance when the Twins turn a hair from one of their legs into a mosquito.)
(These are not SUMMONS. He is not "summoning" a creature, supernatural or otherwise, out of somewhere else. He is shaping a part of his body into that creature, and only parts of his body. When he withdraws his influence from the creature, it turns back into feathers/hair/bits of skin.)
(Teen, I think)
SUPERJOCK (no, this is not the real name of the power but I can't think of anything better.): Astor is naturally talented at fast paced sports involving the use of a ball as a primary piece of equipment. Mostly, this applies to the ancient Xibalban ball game (something of a cross between basketball and soccer), but can be extended to anything somewhat similar. (Generally, basketball and soccer. Football, baseball, etc, are a little too different.)
(Justification: Hunahpu and Xibalanque are supposed to be the best ballplayers in the Mayan mythology, even able to defeat the lords of death. I know it's less of a power and more of an aptitude, but it will figure into his plot later on.)
(Innate)
Dem Dead, Dry Bones: If Astor is really, totally, absolutely dead, it's possible to revive him by burning his body, grinding his bones to fine powder, and dumping the ashes and powder into a river. However, this is a very, very tedious process and must be done exactly to work. This is meant ONLY as a last-ditch effort to save his life, and only in cases of death not by natural causes such as age, sickness, fading, etc. . Most likely, it will only feature in quests and personal plot, but I figure I should mention it. In all likelihood, it will only be used once or twice in his whole life.
(Justification: Hunahpu and Xibalanque are able to reincarnate from their ashes dumped in a river. Also, in the original myth, they have to die in order to complete their quest. It's entirely possible that this holds true for Astor vrs Xibalanque.)
(Only used once or twice, I'd hope, and only during questing. This differs from the rest of his powers in that it's something Astor doesn't actively use - someone else has to know it exists and put it into action for it to work, so really, it's more of a property of his metaphysical existence than a power. The reincarnation is by no means instant, and Astor is not even aware of this power until it is used on him.)
Counter-powers:
Photosynthesis: Not in the plant sense, but Astor/Hunahpu is a solar figure and thus affected by the presence or absence of sunlight. His powers are strongest at high noon but weaken towards sunset and are at their weakest at midnight. Eclipses are also very, very bad on his strength levels.
A million little pieces: Astor's body doesn't stick together as well as it should. If enough sudden force is applied, the body part in question will come off, whether he wants it to or not. For example, slamming his hand in a door will cause it to come off, or getting hit in the head with a baseball bat (with considerable force) will make his head go flying. If he becomes too dismembered, help is required for him to put himself back together
Weak Spot: Because of how his body reacts to physical blows, by fragmenting rather than taking immediate physical damage, Astor is fairly difficult to kill permanently. However, a direct blow to the heart with a puncturing weapon will kill him or severely injure him in a way he cannot repair himself.
-->If Astor takes a puncture wound to the heart and dies from it, the only way to revive him is via Dem Dead Dry Bones.
--> The actual removal of his whole, intact heart doesn't quite have the same effect. While Astor will "die", Xibalanque can revive him from this state.
-->This isn't to say that hitting him elsewhere won't damage him, but his heart is of particular importance. You could, for example, still stab him in the gut or break his bones, and it would affect him just like anyone else can, but his heart is of special significance within the greater scheme of things.
A note about Astor's "fragmenting:" Astor's fragmenting only works along joints. Long bones, ribs, and his skull are still subject to breaking. Astor can be killed by fire, by drowning, by magic, or any other way you like, he just can't die by dismemberment without his heart being removed. His spine cannot be fragmented, making his entire torso a bit of a weak point because it does not yield like the other parts of his body do.
Strengths:
Super-awesome at sports, great sense of humor, can make basically anyone laugh, knows the difference between right and wrong, intelligent...
Weaknesses:
impulsive, lacks tact, can't take anything seriously, is basically a slave to his need for revenge when it comes up, is a poor student, bad at gardening...
Other pertinent stuff:
-Astor's face is the same as in his past life, though the feathers were incorporated from his memories rather than his past appearance.
-The dark patches of necrotic looking skin are perfectly healthy and of normal consistency and texture, they just look like he has terrible frostbite. Most notable are the patches on his nose and cheeks, but the patches also speckle his torso.
-The art higher up on the page has a tail in it. I've decided to cut that part out of his concept.
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 7:53 pm
As a lost child:
Name:
Chess Bonheur
Nicknames:
n/a
Species:
Human
Gender:
Female
Age:
29
Appearance
Chess is short, thin, and not particularly muscular. In a world full of amazing looking people, she's rather plain and boring, with limp black hair and dull green eyes. She dresses seriously and professionally, in crisp jackets and pencil skirts, even on the umpteenth day of an interstellar voyage, and subjects the rest of the deck crew to the same sort of compulsive hygiene that she herself practices. Her shoes are functional, as are her fingernails and the few pieces of jewelry that she allows herself to wear. Being a sex symbol probably ranks somewhere behind trivia about children's literature in Chess's mind - not very high at all.
Occupation: Stellar Navigator
Personality:
Chess stopped believing in the fantastic a long time ago. She needs facts in order to believe something exists. She has a very no-nonsense approach to the world, tending to try to apply the scientific method to everything. She avoids intimacy or even close friendships, and mostly keeps to herself and her books. Her manner is cynical and her people skills are distant at best. Chess is extremely insecure about her talents, her appearance, and her role in the world. She has been this way since childhood, and it was only made worse by the relative rarity of women in her occupation.
As a parent, Chess oscillates wildly between a strict disciplinarian and apathetic, spending more time not caring the older Astor gets. Most days she is more keen on reading and working on mathematical theorems than parenting, and as a result her ward has been allowed something of a free-range childhood. He is a favorite among the different crew members, who would rather deal with the younger Bonheur and his antics than his mother and her chilly ways. For her part, Chess long ago acknowledged that she and Astor have very little in common, and while it cannot be said that she doesn't care for the boy, neither does she attempt to shape him in her image.
Likes: Very strong coffee, black as night and sweet as sin. Up to 80% of her daily caloric intake is made up of this stuff.
Dislikes: romantic comedies, spiders
Strengths: Mathematically minded, eager to prove herself.
Weaknesses: Seriously insecure, compensated for with an icy demeanor and lack of people skills.
As a second gen.:
Name:
Darsais Starling
Nicknames:
'Dar'
Species:
Kybernetik (some sort of super-advanced android.)
Gender:
Female
Age:
Would appear to be about 18. Acts about 19-20. Actually activated about three years ago.
Appearance She would seem to be modeled vaguely on the Japanese ethnic type, but more because she looks like an anime character brought to life than any other reason. Although her facial features are realistic, her coloration - purple eyes, and hair that is by default also purple but has a tendency to change color on whim - lends her a cartoonish air. She is of average height and build for her apparent age.
Occupation: Most recently, Darsais finished her training as a student of fashion design and business management at Barton University and has gained an entry-level position as an assistant at a design house. In the past, she has worked odd jobs ranging from sales executive to JPop singer to traveling magazine salesgirl.
Personality:
Enthusiastic to a fault, Darsais jumps headlong into everything thrown her way. She is eager and inquisitive to the point of asking questions that are occasionally considered to be "too personal," but is mostly friendly and likable to have around. She goes out of her way to make friends with a large and varied group of people - in this vein, her past experience with the Fa'e is fairly long. She has been friends with Sei since childhood, and their present relationship is best described as "the straight Will and Grace." At one point, she worked as a musician at Silver's club, though it didn't last very long and no one is quite sure why. She attended the disastrous laser tag party back in '08, but has avoided Fa'e events since.
"Your parties? They start out fun, but then weird s**t happens."
Likes:
Dislikes:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 7:57 pm
-The main NPC for Astor will be Xbalanque, who will basically be depicted the same way he is in the myths - as a sort of man/jaguar hybrid. (Depending on how it is translated, Xbalanque can mean either "hidden sun" or "jaguar sun". Hunahpu, on the otherhand, translates as "one blowgunner". It's very common for names in mayan mythology to have a numeral and then a term.)
-There isn't a lot of actual fighting. Mostly conflict will be worked out with ballgames. As this is an integral part of their myth, I feel it's appropriate that it's used rather than actual fighting. The xibalban ball games are highly symbolic of a good-vrs-evil struggle, but the Twins never actually fight the gods. They defeat them in sports and they trick them, but it never comes down to a fight. I'd like to preserve this for as long as possible.
-Xquic, the twins' mother, will probably make an appearance. I'm not sure about any other non-god figures. Xquic, while a minor goddess in some stories, is left alive by Xbalanque when he kills the others because she is his mother.
-For the sake of the plot and instances in the past, Astor's facial features are very similar to the ones he had in his past life. (in the source material, each time Xbalanque and Hunahpu reincarnate, they have the same faces as in their old lives.) The surviving members of the Mayan mythos, primarily Xibalanque and Xquic, will recognize him as "Hunahpu", his old self.
--------------------
Okay, Since Xbalanque is to be the primary NPC, I might as well write up a proper bio for him like I have for Astor.
Name:
Xbalanque (She-ba-LAN-key)
(This name, depending on translation, can mean either "Hidden Jaguar" or "Hidden Sun". Either fits, because Xibalanque is a moon god ("hidden sun" - get it?) and in Mayan art is represented by a man with the features of a jaguar.
Gender:
Male
Job Titles:
Mayan moon god and cultural hero, twin of Hunahpu, ruler of Xibalba, the underworld.
Personality:
While once upon a time Xib was playful, competitive, and pursued good causes, he now finds those to be signs of weakness and naiveté. He also finds himself increasingly bored with his status as one of the last remaining members of the Mayan pantheon, but also terrified at the same time that his dwindling people will forget him. To relieve the first complaint and take his mind off the second, he has resorted to an increasingly sick sense of entertainment. The population of Xibalba lives in fear of his insatiable bloodlust, which seems to increase as faith in him on the surface world decreases and the last traces of Mayan society integrate into the modern world.
In many ways, Xib lives in constant fear of death. He is painfully aware of his own mortality, even if he is a "Deity", because of the way he was able to previously kill his fellows. There are dark hours of the night when he feels guilt for what he did to his brother, and fears his brother returning from the grave to do the same to him. It is after these nights that his temper rages and the bloody spectacles begin again.
Ever suspicious, Xib is not hesitant to use his powers to shape himself as a citizen of Xibabla and spy on his people. He keeps the kingdom is a sort of police state with a constant air of fear. Anyone heard talking badly or plotting against the god-king can be executed on the spot. He delights in seeing things broken, especially by his own hand, but no longer takes any sort of joy in repairing them as he once did.
Xib has a constant feeling of incompleteness, and has had it ever since he murdered his brother. The hero twins are meant to operate as a pair, and Xib has over time become convinced that without his brother some of his power is lacking. (This is, of course, entirely untrue. While their powers complement each other, they are not individually weaker when separate.) While the thought of retrieving his brother's body and using his powers to put him back together has crossed his mind, he is too fearful that his brother may kill him to go through with it.
Appearance:
In his true form, Xib is a tall and powerfully built man of meso-american origins, with high cheekbones, a square jaw, and prominent hooked nose. His black hair is shiny and well maintained, worn in a long and low tail, and his eyes are almond-shaped and dark as coals.
As far as his godly attributes go, he has the ears of a jaguar, though positioned where human ears would be, and rosettes are splattered irregularly across his whole body. His eyes have flecks of silver deep within them as if filled with shards of the moon.
Powers:
Breaking: Xib is an expert at taking things apart. No matter what something is, he can break it neatly into sections with his bare hands or with the help of a knife, even things not normally weak enough to be destroyed with these things.
Repair: Xib is also an expert at putting things together. He can return anything in a broken or disassembled form to its original form, even if that means restoring life.
Transmutation: See Astor for a description of this power.
Dem Dead Dry Bones: See Astor for a description of this power.
Superjock: As the OTHER best ballplayer in Mayan History, Xibalanque's athleticism and skill matches Astor's at every turn.
In addition: Xib controls everything in Xibalba. He can alter the weather, the time of day, or even the physical form of the world around him while in his kingdom. He can also alter perception of his bodily form, but only in Xibalba.
Counter-Powers
wax and wane: Xibalanque's powers are stronger at night and also shift with the phases of the moon. Considering such, he has plunged Xibalba into eternal night and frozen the moon full.
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 8:00 pm
I dream about....Name: Astor Gender: Male Stage: Child Mythbase: Mayan – Hunahpu Link to a source on the mythbase: One for the moneyTwo for the showThree to get readyNow go cat go! (Okay, this one’s in Spanish, but hooray pretty pictures!) Appearance:
Astor’s hair is black, shiny, and grows in dreadlocks. As a kid they’re sort of short and puffy. And they have glowy bits in them – some are natural and relating to his role as a sun deity, and some are fireflies that the glowy bits attracted.
For facial features – think ancient Mayan artwork – a big, rounded beak of a nose, high cheekbones, etc. Yay bone structure!
Facial markings – two large dots, one on either cheek, and an oblong sort of shape down his nose. Black, blue, or some kind of bruised color. Go wild.
Powers: SUPERJOCK (no, this is not the real name of the power but I can't think of anything better.): Astor is naturally talented at fast paced sports involving the use of a ball as a primary piece of equipment. Mostly, this applies to the ancient Xibalban ball game (something of a cross between basketball and soccer), but can be extended to anything somewhat similar. (Generally, basketball and soccer. Football, baseball, etc, are a little too different.) Dismemberment: Astor has the ability to remove and reattach body parts at will, or even replace body parts with other objects. Depending on how dismembered he gets, he may need help being put back together. However, no matter how taken apart he is, he can always be put back together. He can remove any body part, even his head, without suffering permanent damage. Parts are removed at joints. For example, fingers are removed at the knuckle, or the whole hand is removed at the wrist. Arms detach at the elbow or shoulder, etc. Parts remain fully controllable, even when removed. Astor is not exempt from breaking bones. Personality: Astor is adventurous and impulsive to excess. He comes equipped with copious amounts of enthusiasm, but marginal to nonexistent amounts of tact. He has an unfortunate tendency to rush into situations without thinking them through, to occasionally disastrous results: he is clever and can figure out individual problems when he focuses in on them, but often has difficulty in grasping the bigger picture. This means that while an individual aspect of his plans may be finely tuned, you can expect that somewhere along the line there is something he has obviously failed to think through just waiting to come bite him. It is practically guaranteed that once during any misadventure, he will wind up dismembered on the floor, waiting for someone else to bring him his legs back. He is in every sense the definition of an ‘active’ learner. Astor does poorly in classroom situations because there is simply too much to distract him – friends to talk to and pens to click and hair to pull and paper to fold into airplanes and play wastebasket basketball with and—you get the picture. He’d rather make baking soda and vinegar explode than read about volcanoes, and build a scale model of the solar system in the parking lot than learn about it in school. He remembers things best by experiencing them firsthand – he’ll touch the stove, he’ll stick his hands in wet paint, and he’ll walk through fresh cement. Despite coming off as quite the academic flop, Astor has a certain practical intelligence and joie de vivre that is hard to resist. He has a quip-driven sense of verbal humor that has probably been influenced by Spider-Man comics, and his slapstick styling would make the Marx Brothers proud. He lives life one step at a time, with an easy smile on his face and a contagious sense of spontaneity. It’s not unheard of for him to go out of his way to try to make those around him laugh or crack a smile. As a generally cheerful person, Astor is quite often at a loss for what to do with negative emotions. He does have a tendency to hold grudges, but can usually be persuaded to let them drop after a few weeks or once his revenge has been properly exacted. He’s not a particularly bloodthirsty person, nor does he have the attention span required to come up with any sort of substantive battle plan. The only real way to know if you’ve attracted his ire is if you find yourself subject to a barrage of childish pranks. Fly in your coffee? Probably Astor. Tripped over some misplaced junk? Again, probably Astor. Someone blinding you with a handheld mirror? Take a look across the room – it’s Astor, and he’ll get bored of it in a week or two once he thinks you’ve gotten what you deserve. For all his pranks and childish antics, he really is a good person at heart. At the end of the day, Astor rests easy because he genuinely thinks he’s doing the right thing. He doesn’t cheat. He doesn’t outright lie. He follows the rules and only antagonizes people who he feels have done something to bring it upon themselves. He’s the sort of friend you’d want to have in your corner – if not for the comic relief then because he’ll always have your back. History: Hunahpu and his twin brother Xbalanque were the original dynamic duo. They had the pedigree, being the illegitimate sons of a dead sports hero by way of a minor goddess who also happened to also be a princess of the underworld. They had the air of the fantastic: they were not conceived the old fashioned way, but rather when their father’s head (hung on a calabash tree and left for dead) spit into the hand of a curious maiden. By the time the boys were in their teens, they had defeated Vucub-Caquix, the greedy macaw god, and his three arrogant sons, and had successfully outwitted their older brothers and turned them into howler monkeys. But all this was child’s play compared to the time that the twins defeated the lords of death. Following a tip from a rat, the brothers were alerted of where their father and their uncle’s old sporting gear was stored. Once they retrieved it, they found that they were quite talented at the traditional mayan ball game and began to practice, keen on becoming the best players to ever live. In time, their playing became so loud that it disturbed the lords of death in Xibalba. They summoned the boys and challenged them to a series of matches, and also to face challenges in the different places of torture in Xibalba. The brothers outwitted and outplayed the gods at every turn, and in anger the gods murdered the brothers and dumped their ashes in a river. When the ashes settled to the bottom, they reformed into the bodies of the boys and they snuck into the court of the gods in the guise of performers. After Xbalanque demonstrated a trick of killing Hunahpu and then restoring him to life, the gods demanded that they be next to take part in this trickery. Hunahpu and Xbalanque did as they were told, but they didn’t put the gods back together. The glory of Xibalba thusly vanquished, the twins left the underworld and ascended into the sky where Hunahpu became the sun and Xbalanque became the moon. All this was fine and dandy for quite some time until, unknown to his twin, Xbalanque grew bitter of always being in his brother’s shadow. In time, he decided that the only way to gain his proper glory was to remove Hunahpu from the picture permanently. He knew gods could be killed, because they had slain many in their youth, and so one day he ambushed his brother and sacrificed him as they had the gods of death, and did not put him back together. Guardian: Astor’s guardian is a woman in her late 20s by the name of Chess Bonheur. Since being placed in charge of the increasingly odd boy some five years ago, Chess has dragged her ward all over the galaxy in conjunction with her work as a stellar navigator. She is a functional, straightforward woman who is, you might say, married to her job. Chess hides her own insecurities – she is insecure about practically everything – behind her mirthless, icy demeanor, and drowns them in cup of coffee after cup of coffee (black as night and sweet as sin). As a parent, Chess oscillates wildly between a strict disciplinarian and apathetic, spending more time not caring the older Astor gets. Most days she is keener on reading and working on mathematical theorems than parenting, and as a result her ward has been allowed something of a free-range childhood. He is a favorite among the different crewmembers, who would rather deal with the younger Bonheur and his antics than his mother and her chilly ways. Chess long ago acknowledged that she and Astor have nothing in common and makes no attempts to shape him in her image, they have a deep, unspoken devotion to each other. He is as much her anchor as she is his. Without him, she would have given in to her own insecurities long ago. They are like a system of binary planets, forever locked in synchronous orbit around each other. Astor is devoted to his guardian, and if anything were to happen to her, it would shatter the only sense of stability he has. Everyone else on the ship comes and goes, but Chess is always there. World: Astor’s world is at once very large and very small. An interstellar shipping company employs his guardian as a navigator, and so his childhood has been spent almost exclusively within the confines of space freighters and spaceports. While the physical confines of his world are limited, he is well aware of how infinitely vast the universe is, and rather than terrifying him, this excites him greatly. Besides a brief period of being grounded for retraining, Chess has spent most of Astor's life stationed on a mid-sized shipping and transport vessel called the Native Luck. The captain is a heavyset Maori man with full facial tattoos, and the rest of the crew is equally eclectic. The ship is classed for a crew of ten, but can be kept flying with five - currently it operates with nine crew members, and Astor is counted as the tenth by official paperwork. At any given time, there are between zero and fifteen passengers, with the usual number being around eight. The ship is relatively new and well maintained, and so the public corridors and the bridge are kept fairly stark and clean. Crew quarters and restricted areas have a bit more character, and Astor tends to stick to these in his explorations. Officially, they run cargo in the Jovian moons, but have been known to stray as far sunward as Earth and as far spaceward as Neptune. Tell Us About Their Dark Side: In a word, Xbalanque. A little firefly told Xbalanque that his brother is not quite so dead as he ought to be. Further investigation proved that not only is Hunahpu not quite so dead as he ought to be, he is also not quite so old as he ought to be. Finding his brother in a young, impressionable, and much weakened state, Xbalanque has now devoted himself to corrupting the boy's compassionate nature so that he might be able to use him as a servant in the future. He has already established a foothold in the boy's mind, though so far all he's been able to do is give Astor night terrors and say a couple of words and make him pass out. Astor, like a dog on a chain, is a naturally sweet and exuberant kid, but if his chain gets yanked too hard and too often, his tendency to hold grudges, his competitiveness, and his aggressiveness will be brought out and his optimism, his friendliness, and his good humor will be repressed. And if anything were to happen to his mother...
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 8:01 pm
Clipboard - Old personality (revised and replaced 8/9/09
Astor is adventurous and impulsive to excess. He excels in competitions but is a bit of a sore loser. When he does lose, he won't hesitate to look for a chance at a rematch. And while he rushes into things without thinking, he's not all brawn and no brains. He excels at logic puzzles and riddles, but is a complete failure when it comes to timing and tact.
Astor's a prankster, and delights in leaving things where they'll cause trouble, such as rats in kitchens or parrots in closets. He sees it as his duty to liven things up with a little bit of inspired lunacy. The world is too boring, plenty of things aren't fair, and for better or worse everyone just needs a little bit of fun. (Or payback. Pranks are good for either.)
In group situations, Astor tends to take shotgun instead of driver - that is, he's more into helping put the plan into action and less into actually planning. He'd rather be an accomplice to a crime than the guy at the counter with the gun, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have his brilliant moments. If there is an obvious hole in a plan, it's a sure bet that Astor will be the first to point it out. Unfortunately, in some cases, Astor's impulsiveness is the hole in the plan, and he can't spot that until he's lying on the ground in fourteen different pieces and waiting for someone to come pick him up. And yet, he keeps running into situations that he knows are probably going to end badly because he likes the adventure and the experience. He thrives on action and excitement. If experience is the best teacher, Astor is intentionally failing the class so he can take it over and over again. He learns, but he likes the process of getting to the lesson at the end so much that he doesn't mind the consequences.
Astor despises book learning, and would, for example, rather make baking soda and vinegar explode than read about Krakatoa. He has too much energy to sit still and study, which earns him a reputation as a spastic slacker. He squeaks by in school with Cs and the occasional B, and is much happier in settings where he can actually get in on the action rather than just think about it. He's intelligent, but it's in more of a practical manner than a conceptual manner. He understands things best once he's seen them put into action, put them into action himself, and then reverse engineered it to see how it works. When Astor does focus, however, he's pretty good at figuring things out. If someone is trying to trick him into something and he's actually paying attention to what's going on, he's likely to spot it. He's not about to say good morning to a bunch of wooden statues or sit on a cooking griddle (after all, that's just dumb.) Amazing things happen when he stops to think - some of his teachers would probably wish he put half as much thought into his schoolwork as he does into his pranks.
When it comes to actually interacting with people, Astor's a little bit hopeless. He's the sort of person who will laugh at a funeral. Not particularly because the situation is funny, but because he likes not to dwell on the depressing. He'll be laughing because he's remembering the good times he had, but it tends to just look heartless. He's not sure how to respond to negative emotions other than with a good natured nudge and a grin, and generally puts a lot of effort into cheering people up.
It takes a lot to get Astor angry, but woe be unto anyone who does, and watch your head if you do. Astor's idea of revenge is an endless barrage of pranks, practical jokes, and deceptions with the ultimate intention of beating an apology out of the victim. He holds grudges, but he's rarely mean just for the sake of being mean. He seeks revenge when he feels he is wronged, and he doesn't stop until he gets it.
For all of Astor's zany plans and tricky manners, he's a good person at heart. At the end of the day, he believes in doing the right thing. He plays by the rules, he doesn't cheat at anything, and he doesn't flat out lie (half-truths, maybe.) He sees himself as a little of a modern-day Robin Hood, trying his best to stand up to corruption and the big guy (in his opinion, this is best done by causing chaos.)
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 8:03 pm
--Just this last one and it's okay to post--
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Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 6:57 am
An interesting concept to consider:
If you follow through with this concept, an interesting long-term plot might involve Astor exploring the roots of Etruscan mythology and how he is something of a falsity. Trying to actually explore the myth of Vicare seems hollow, because for all intents and purposes, it might as well be Icarus. I think focusing more on how he and other myths developed as imitations would be interesting.
Though, really... I think it's worth mentioning that that this may not even qualify as a potential Fa'e, due to the fact that Vicare isn't really magical in any way. Even though we can say that logically he could not have flown with those manufactured wings, I don't really see what power he actually held in his past life, nor what he could hope to achieve as an Ancient. You might have to go with another concept in the end.
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 4:42 pm
While I'm definitely not the best for ideas, [you critiqued me, you should know this xD] I just had one question. Or idea, whatever. I don't really understand how he gets power from belief. His being able to make others believe is comprehendible to me, but him gaining power is beyond my linear mind. xD How does he qualify for Fa'e-dom? Simply because his dad made some wings out of wax and then people believed he was a god? Could you specify a bit more about the belief or past-power bits of it?
Also, in the history there are 2 spelling mistakes, but that's all I caught.
I also really like how the history is written as he falls. ^^
[Sorry if this doesn't tell you much to fix; the main issues, I think are the Greek-Etruscan difference, and the past powers, and I'm pretty sure you've covered those.]
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:09 pm
Thank you! I thought his history was clever. I wrote it sitting in first period Drama. And thanks for catching those typos.
So, his past powers were basically flight, but it was something that only worked because he and Taitle believed it would. If their mindset had been, "Well, we might fly away, but we might fall on the rocks and die," it wouldn't have worked. If it had been "We're going to fly, and we're going to go as high or low as we want," it would have worked better than they did. By believing stuff, he can make it happen, but it's mostly small things. "I can pass this exam," or "I can read 1000 pages in a day," or "I can stay awake to watch all 3 LOTR movies in a row." The biggest thing he can do is flying, and he can't bend the laws of physics for anything other than flying. He can't fall off a cliff and survive unharmed because he saw Wiley Coyote do it and he believes the same thing will happen to him.
I need to redefine it.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 1:30 pm
Oh, okay. Thanks! I think that's a really cool power. I've tried that before, and it didn't work for me. D:
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 6:03 pm
Ask and ye shall receive! I did my best. *nods* History
As he fell, Vicare thought dimly about his youth, before the island and the labyrinth and the tower and the Mad King and the Monster. He thought about the city and the colossal clay gods perched on the rooftops, casting long shadows at dawn and dusk. They always seemed so comforting, like they were guarding everyone from an unspeakable fate, but now he was falling from the sky, leaving a trail of feathers and wet wax on the breeze, and where were the gods? Where was Aita to guide him away and welcome him to the realm of the dead?
And then he thought about how he'd gotten here, because time seemed to slow and his mind seemed to speed in this curious space between the sky and sea. There was the Mad King, a cruel man afraid to take responsibility for his actions and so made Vicare's father Taitle devise a way to contain the Mad King's error, the Monster born of his wife's lust and a god's greed. Taitle, being the most brilliant crafter in the land, had created a wonderous labyrinth to contain the beast.
The Mad King, however, rather than reward Taitle for his work, had him and Vicare locked in a high tower that they couldn't leave. Taitle, being an amazing engineer, studied the seabirds they saw outside the windows and had Vicare collect their feathers. Vicare remembered watching his father painstakingly fashion wings for them, so that they could fly away from their prison, and that finally, when the wings were completed, that Taitle had given him two warnings before they took to the sky.
What had those warnings been? wondered Vicare as the sea drew closer. Oh yes, don't fly too close to the sea, for the water will dampen your wings and weigh you down.
What was the other one?
Don't fly too close to the sun.
He had done that, hadn't he?
Vicare cried out for help, from his father, from anyone, but no one answered. No one heard. The water rose up beneath him, closer and closer, and still no one came, and a sense of realization, a sense of incompleteness washed over him. This was the end. He couldn't save himself. No one could. There wasn't any escape plan this time.
Vicare fell.
Alright, a few things. First, it's quite short. Flesh it out a little. Tell us more about Vicare before he died. What was he like, what did he do? Where there traits that led him to being able to will himself into flight? Secondly, and more importantly, I don't really see a reason for him to come back. He needs a passion. For instance, my Buckley wants revenge on the family that killed him and he wants to steal his treasure back. Fa'e are second chances, so he needs something to have a second chance at, do you know what I mean? He flew too close to the sun. Um. Alright. Next time he'll just listen? Well, maybe he resented his father for sending him up in the sky. He thought it was a bad idea but he had to go anyway. Then he'd want revenge. Now, not a very good idea that one, just an example. Personality
Vicare never truly escaped his prison, and when he cried out for help, no one answered. To play into that, I fully intent to play Astor as having what are generally thought of as autistic traits - lack of language skills, a lack of understanding of other human beings, a little bit distant, and wholy and totally singleminded. Two of these traits come from the fact that versions of his myth are held up as the prime example of hubris - overconfidence to the point of selfishness. But Astor isn't a completely unlikable person. He's curious, focused to the point of obsession, and maybe he'll pick up some interest in inventing things, just as a little throwback to dear old Taitle.
Within his own perception, Astor is perfectly aware of what is going on and perfectly capable of functioning. He just doesn't see the point of talking to people. He's never been able to understand them and, while he understands language and can learn to read and write, he doesn't see the point of speaking to people. He sees them talking to each other, but he doesn't perceive that if he speaks to them, they will actually answer. So he's mute. Alright. Very interesting, but once again, you need to flesh it out more. I'm very intrigued by his disability. Tell us more about it! It's a very interesting, unique concept! You only give us one little snapshot. Tell us how he grows, how he was when he is younger and the basic outline of how he will grow up! How will his disability influence the way he grows and matures? Also, small side note, why would he get Taitle's traits? He's Vicare reborn, that trait doesn't make sense unless there's a real solid reason. I'd leave his sexuality out for now, unless there's a hardcore reason he swings either way. For appearance, I think we can pick three traits. That's how it was in the contest, so it would be safe to go that. Myth traits and the like. Just be sure you can justify them. Powers Flight- Astor's major power, stemming directly from his myth, is flight. Starting when he is a kid, he'll be able to use the feathers growing out of his arms as wings. While the fact that he has arm wings rather than back wings is kind of inconvenient, he's pretty handy and nimble with with them. However, his wings don't work as well in extreme heat or moisture.
--> If Astor attains ancient, by finally flying away from his prison, his wings will undergo some sort of transformation. I don't know if they'll become back wings or what, but he won't be limited to the middle-air. He'll be able to fly as high or as low as he needs
---> While it's not really a power, Astor would develop tremendous upper body strength from flying, since he actually has to use his arm and shoulder muscles to do it. However, he can't fight while fighting, so unless he can execute punching moves on the ground, he's kind of useless. There's a definite disadvantage to arm wings vrs back wings, and he kind of got the short end of the stick, but hey! Buff arms once he learns to fly!
Belief: Astor's second power. He can convince himself and other people of things so strongly that even if they would not normally be accepted as true, they will be true for as long as the power remains in effect. This doesn't work for physics-altering reality-bending stuff, like making the moon green cheese, but it can work for issues of mind over matter, like passing tests or making it through a difficult trial.
--> If he makes it to Ancient, this is the more important power by a long shot. If it's not a power, don't put it here. You need to find somewhere else to put it. As for belief, you need to expand on it a little. How will it affect him and others, exactly? It's a little bit vauge. Can he control this power, or does he just have it? Is he born with it, or does it develop over time? Same general questions apply for weaknesses. ...if you're going to have a likes/dislikes section ext., you need to flesh it out more. Also, you should try explaining it more. *nods* Rationalize it with the myth. Please, tell us more about the guardian. We need to know more about her! Likes, dislikes, what she does for a living, how she actually handles children! Why don't you tell us a little about the siblings-to-be as well? I think that's all! Questions, you know where to reach me! heart
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 3:29 am
Thank you, Des. Your review was a big help and I think I've fixed it along the lines of what you pointed out! smile
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