Did You Know…About the God of Chaos

Tags

Acheron, Apep, Apollymi, god of chaos, Juracán, Leviathan, Meleia, Primordial God, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Zoroastrainism

In Greek mythology, Chaos was the first primordial god—according to Hesiod—who formed the initial void of the universe, or the gap between heaven and earth. In his version, Chaos was the first thing to exist, and from it came Gaia, Earth; Tartarus, the Nether Abyss; and Eros, Love. When personified, he fathered Erebus, Darkness; and Nyx, Night. Yet, this personification didn’t keep him from being known as a far away, underground, or gloomy place beyond Tartarus.

The Abrahamic belief systems reference Chaoskampf, or a cosmic battle between a sea monster that represents the forces of chaos and a creator god or a cultural hero that imposes order by force. Judaism refers to this chaotic creature as Leviathan (or more modernly as the “great whale.”) Christianity refers to Leviathan as the image of Satan, who threatens God’s creatures by trying to eat them and with the attempted upheaval in the waters of Chaos. This version demonizes him as envious and one of the seven Princes of Hell.

In Zoroastrianism, hymns presented the two sides of existence as the mainyu, or the mind, spirit and otherwise abstract energy, and the angra, or the destructive, chaotic, disorderly, inhibitive, and malign, etc. manifestations. It also refers to the angra mainyuas “absolute antithesis.” The mythological story portrays a back and forth between good and evil with the personified Angra Mainyu planning to dry up the earth, urging hero Zoroaster to turn away from the good religion for sovereignty of the world, and battling Spenta Mainyu for possession of khvaraenah, or divine glory and fortune. Utlimately, Angra Mainyu is assigned to the nether world, one of darkness, to reign over the daevas, demons or opponents.

Anient Egyptians embodied chaos as deity Apep or Apophis. As Ra was the solar deity, bringing of light, his greatest enemy was the “Lord of Chaos.” As the personification of all evil, Apep was seen as a giant snake or serpent that stretched sixteen yards in length and had a head made of flint. Although, he has been similarly depicted as a crocodile, like modern Judaism has shown the Leviathan. Myth has suggested, however, that Ra’s birth was a consequence of Apep’s primordial force, thus suggesting that evil is merely the consequence of an individual’s own struggles against non-existence.

In the native Caribbean cultures, the deity of chaos and disorder was believed to control the weather, particularly hurricanes, called Juracán. Taíno mythology, these storms were spawned and controlled by the goddess Guabancex, or “the one whose fury destroys everything,” as the Taínos were aware of the hurricane’s spiraling wind patterns, which they used when depicting the deity. When Guabancex’s volatile temper unleashed these hurricanes—or juracánes—she would interrupt the balance of rain and drought, rotating her arms in a spiral to pick up the ocean water and land and force it violently back over the Taíno settlements. She threatened the other deities to coerce them into joining the chaos.

As for my depiction of the Goddess of Chaos, Meleia—although she is much more the goddess of fate and destruction as well—I gleamed a bit of her position from reading Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter series with Acheron, the harbinger of destruction, and his mother, Apollymi, the Goddess of Life, Death, and Wisdom and daughter of Chaos. I particularly liked how the duo were shown as the destroyers.

Meleia does not destroy all, as shown in her recent mini, she only has say over her own people. Well, sometimes good people must do bad things. It creates balance. This is reflected in Ria and her phoenix, making an amalgamation of power that will change the universe.

I like thinking of Meleia, and other creatures normally seen as evil, as individuals who do what they do out of necessity. This has a heck of a lot of cultural connections. Make the ones you will. All seen as purely evil have some sense of humanity to them. Some sense of mercy and good.

I know where Ria’s mercy lies. Meleia’s seem to reflect them. This makes me excited about learning about her, and getting to see pieces of her life as she becomes a more an integral part of Ria’s story.

Who knows, maybe after these next two books, she’ll have intrigued me to give her voice a story all its own.

Let’s see what happens.

Check out these related posts:

Gods of Chaos, a Meleia Mini

Did You Know…About the Hybrids & Chaos?

Did You Know…About the Phoenix?

Did You Know..About the REPpers?

Tags

crime drama, Garden of Eden, lucifer, Paranormal high school, REPpers, Rule Enforcers of the Paranormal, The Girl with the Glowing Hair, The Lily Graves Series, war over heaven, young detective

Demons make up a large percentage of the police community in Lily’s world; however, other creatures filter through them as well. Their responsibilities are large and wide-spreading. And at the head of it all, sits Lily’s mother.

I don’t want to give it all away, but the war over heaven never ended. Power has exchanged hands a few times. During this, Adam has worked beside Lucifer since he was cast out of the Garden of Eden, which is why Adam is sent to babysit because he’s one of the few who can protect her. And, well, not only is she an important bargaining chip, she’s inherited Lucifer’s rare powers.

But what she’ll do with it all? I hate to say that I’m not sure. I think some type of special task force—my favorite in the detective genre on television, a guilty pleasure—but that’s not coming for a few books, so I don’t feel too pressured to know what the specifics are any time soon.

I trust my characters and their stories to add up to something in the long run. They haven’t let me down yet.

So, even though this doesn’t say much about what her future job will entail, her first semester does, and she’s not sure if she’s up for the profession by the end of it.

I’m afraid she doesn’t have much of a choice. As she says often, she’s the product of scientists, the FBI, and an arch angel.

“How old are you?” 

“I’m the product of scientists and the FBI, so fifty?” 

She was made for this. Literally.

Since I still know little, I may as well highlight a few of those moments below:

From Chapter Six, The Person-to-Person Checklist:

Starr linked her arm with mine. “My friends and I are going to practice spells if you want to come along. You might not be a witch, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself…especially with your studying.”

Wow. The school’s Snow-White-look-alike might make this place seem a little less lonely, but I wasn’t ready for a coven of witches conjuring spells. “The fear of sounding like a complete dork noted when I mention that I have homework. I need to catch up on, well, everything.”

“Probably for the better. Most groups don’t get along well with REPpers.”

Slang for my major in REP, Rule Enforcers of the Paranormal. REPpers punished their own. They punished everyone. They enforced the rules. At least, that’s what I gathered so far. Maybe I watched too many cop shows.

“Do witches?” Did this mean Starr and I wouldn’t get along?

“Depends.” Her slender shoulders reached for those delicate gold swoops dangling from her lobes. “Black magic witches don’t really care for you guys, and some white witches are still holding onto this, like, century-long grudge. Personally, I prefer the person-to-person checklist.”

“Checklist?”

“Honest. Sarcastic. Quick. Sweet. You know, there are others, like personal taste, but it’s so hard to dig that deep right off the bat. I’ll let you know next time.”

 

From Chapter Seventeen, The Mandatory Test Question:

A lot of us split into our own groups on our free time in school—in the halls and at lunch—otherwise, we get along in class and other activities. In fact, I hang out with a witch and a chimera. I watch her flirt-fight with a vampire in Art. I was the product of intermingling.

“It seems to depend on the individual. We stick to our own in larger groups, but when we’re in smaller ones, we mix together just as well. We’ve created sub-groups because of it.”

Adam nodded in approval and stood again, hands linked behind his back. “We were once segregated, and therefore, do have a tendency to be attracted to certain other species. In the same way, we fight. Shifters are territorial as are vampires, fey, and dragons. They tend to fight more with each other than others. Muses, ghosts, witches, and sirens are less territorial and used to migrating as needed or possible. Demons and angels sit somewhere between, more concerned with their position within their own society rather than a physical location in the cosmos.

“It becomes rather odd to have most species squashed together in one place for so long, but the experiment has proven useful in our government, our cities, and our relationships with human governments.

“That’s not to say problems don’t arise. We’ve had a few major incidents but not in a while. People start disappearing, and it’s usually a sign that something’s coming.”

I leaned forward again. “What kind of something?”

“Historically, various spells and sacrifices, cleansings, terrorist attacks. They’re typical of secular groups, human cults, and whack jobs. Most of us get along just fine.”

But when they disappear…like these three…bad things do happen. Were there more students gone, and I didn’t know about it? Maybe, I could get Starr to write me a little spell and Evan to teach me a few ins-and-outs of the school’s office and filing system.

A plan seeded in my brain, and before it could bloom, Adam tapped my desk, refocusing me like he was used to my going off on tangents of thought. Did a lot of REPpers do that? My dad and uncle did as links formed for them.

 

From Chapter Twenty-One, Running on Sugar:

“How do you stand the condescending coldness?”

A soft shrug. “I’m used to condescending, and I think it’s more of a tonal problem. One of my dad’s students was a really smart guy. Like put my dad to shame smart, and Dad is brilliant. Mensa brilliant. And the guy rubbed everyone the wrong way. Fact-driven. To the point. Always madsounding. He taught me how to read someone’s eyes and facial expressions with their words rather than their tone. Tone is too easily faked.”

“Man, you sound like a bonafide REPper.”

“I am a product of my upbringing.”

 

From Chapter Thirty-Nine, Stick to the Plan:

“Don’t patronize me. You pretend to care because you think I took those kids. That because of your mom, you’re enlightened. Made to be a REPper, better than the rest of us, but the world will burn because of you and your blood.”

 

Have I interested you enough to make you click on the cover? It magically transports you to the discounted e-book. It’ll be a fun ride; I promise. Just be sure to hold on.

Did You Know…An Ethology Lesson on Chimera

Tags

blue-blood, chimera, dr. jekyl and mr. hyde, ethology lesson, fracture personality, hybrids, must read, new release, The Girl with the Glowing Hair, The Lily Graves Series

We’re closing in on the last few ethology lessons, so I’ve saved my favorites for last. The chimera. These guys are those unpredictable anomalies, much like the creatures described in my hybrids and chaos post a little bit back.

Unfortunately, Lily’s ethology book doesn’t explain their natures and behaviors well, listing examples and explaining that guessing their natures is just as accurate, so she’s had to rely on her surly mentor for information:

“They come in two forms, the genetic chimera that exhibit the physical characteristics of their combined lineage, and the blue-blood chimera that possess a single line’s traits but hold both internally—much like two creatures inhabiting one vessel.”

Like Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.

“The book only mentions the first kind, so I thought we’d explore the blue-bloods, thusly named for their abilities to blend in with their dominant species. The most common combines one of us with a human, like our shifters. In fact, they are so common that we don’t call them such anymore.”

“Blue-bloods are hard to decipher unless they reveal their genetic makeup or undergo a series of tests, none of which are fun or kind. But they are often inhabited by more than one creature, creating what can be called a fractured personality. They’re both conscious and present. They interact with each other, and often share control over their limbs. This is not always to their advantage.”

Adam descended into examples, like the book. And what I pulled from it was that they tended to be more aware of their surroundings, seemed to have conversations with themselves, and have high reactionary skills. But apparently, they weren’t good with other people.

Essentially, as her bestie, Starr, explains, they’re rather mythological, even for the paranormal community.

Originally, the chimera was a monstrous fire-breathing Greek hybrid composed of the parts of more than one animal, usually depicted as a lion with the head of a goat growing from its back and a tail made of a snake’s head. They were the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, sibling of monsters such as Cerberus and the Hydra. Often, the sight of such a monster foreshadowed disaster.

Other cultural chimeras are: the Mesopotamian monster, Anzu; the western dragons; the Ancient Egyptian, Griffin; the Assyrian deity, Lamassu; the Japanese, Nue; the Greek, Pegasus; the Chinese mythical creature, Pixiu; the Iranian flying creature, Simurgh; the Jewish griffin-like bird, Ziz; and etc.

In reality, a genetic chimera is a single organism composed of cells with distinct genotypes: an individual derived from two or more zygotes, with differing sexes and sex organs, and are created by merging multiple fertilized eggs. This can also occur from organ or bone marrow transplants.

Can’t wait to explore more of the chimera in book two, especially since one of my favorite characters, Evan, is the rarest of them all. And as he is the representation of my husband as a teenager, I based the chimera on his psychology and behaviors. Believe me, the oddities and paradoxes run deep.

 

Stay tuned for a new excerpt this Friday from one of my favorite chapters.

And guys, I cannot wait until this is released for y’all. The responses I’ve been getting from my ARC readers prove the promise of this being a good read. Oh, the happiness this brings me.

Did You Know…An Ethology Lesson on Shifters

Tags

alisha costanzo, ethology, humanity, Mythologies, new release, Paranormal high school, shapeshifters, The Girl with the Glowing Hair, The Lily Graves Series, YA Fantasy

Like vampires, I have shared a few different versions of them on here, and I’ll list them below, but the shifters in Lily’s world aren’t quite the same as what I’ve written before.

According to Lily’s Ethology textbook:

Shifters build packs as they bond, traditionally with the alpha, whose goal it is to create a cohesive unit that cares for and protects each other. Litters are encouraged to express themselves openly both verbally and nonverbally, making their bonds stronger than most.

I’ve been fascinated with how other authors create alphas and packs; how some alphas create such dominance that others plot their overthrow or flee the oppression on their free will; how some rile up their followers for war and keep secrets; how so many of the strongest seem to also be the meanest; how many are bullies and animals.

Granted, they are animals, but hey, we all are. And that seems to be a running theme in Lily world as she noted:

My ethology book weighed down with post-its, connecting what I read with what I saw and what Adam taught me. 

Vampires and shapeshifters were strangely like their mythologies, but like not. 

Demons and angels were less opposite than they’re depicted in religions, but like not. 

All of them weren’t exactly as people had noted, how they had noted each other. But we were all strangely…human. Whatever that meant. 

Instead of focusing on the negatives, the ethology strips that away and allows Lily to see them in a neutral light, which is important. As Lily is meant to be a part of the police force—a REPper, more on that soon—neutrality is a necessity, and something far lost in the tiny town of Saint Siena.

In that light, shifters of all varieties aim to create community and peace, because more often than not, they want peaceful lives instead of violent ones, they want families instead of enemies, they want love instead of rivalries.

Essentially, shifters are who have the most common with humanity in general.

 

Lily’s book, THE GIRL WITH THE GLOWING HAIR, has its full cover and a publication date: October 1st, my birthday!

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate.

 

Want to learn more about different types of shifters, check out some of my previous Did You Know… posts.

Did You Know…About the Jackal People?

Did You Know…About the Berserker?

Did You Know…About the Navajo Shapeshifter?

Did You Know…About the Portuguese Werewolf?

Did You Know…About the Japanese Werewolf?

Did You Know…An Ethology Lesson on Witches

Tags

blouodhound, Disney, ethology lesson, magic, pop culture, Pride and Prejudice, starr black, The Girl with the Glowing Hair, The Lily Graves Series, witches

Okay, we’re delving into a seriously deep well here. Witches span history and cultures, and heaven forbid, we sink into the black hole of witchcraft in fiction.

They embody scar-faced saviors, spiteful young women, idealized youth, and green-skinned villains.

As Lily’s Ethology book explains: Witches derive their power from their passion. Although encouraged to indulge themselves magically, pride can hinder their performance, so witches often remind their young to humble themselves.

With that in mind, let me introduce Starr Black, head witch from a formidable founding family. She’s strong, she’s sassy, and she’s smart. Essentially, Starr is a force to be reckoned with. And she becomes Lily’s bestie as traditions break down. Starr couldn’t be more ready for it.

Quickly, we find that tradition exhausts Starr as she has her own way of doing things—drawing instead of spell-casting, chants, or chemistry—and she rants about her wish for freedom, mostly from the expectations of her society, but I’m sure being the eldest of five isn’t doing her any favors, either.

However, her family is an interesting one, as this Snow White look-a-like has a younger sister with rare abilities. Mary is a bloodhound, meaning she can track magical origins with the depths and ease historians would envy, but she’s also strong-willed and strong-minded—more immune to magic and spells and trickery than the rest, which comes in handy for Lily’s investigation and helps save some lives. I don’t know much about Mary yet, but she creates a hell of a lot of implications about the magical world these teens occupy. The largest is hierarchy, exactly what Starr feels buried under.

In fact, she can say it better than I can, so here are a few excerpts from this sassy spitfire—and one of my new favorite characters:

If you could use a spell to transform into another person for the day, who would you be and what would you do?

Her smile made me giddy, reminiscent of adolescent sleepover secrets. “Don’t laugh at me, but I’d be Henrietta Yukon. She’s this magic guru down in Oklahoma with her highly-watched YouTube channel. She mentors youth around the world on magic and creativity. The first time I met her at a convention, she blessed my fountain pen for clear lines and intentions. It’s the only one I use. She inspired me to keep working on my craft the way it felt right for me. No one else had ever done that. So, what I’d do is make a video about my own style of spell-weaving and let it domino through her viewers. I’ve got a guy who does computer hacking on my payroll. I can get it up there, believe me. I want to show people that the traditional way isn’t always the right way or the only way.”

She sighed the same way my friends sighed over hot guys when she talked about her magic.

She pulled her rose gold phone from her bag and tapped through to a picture of boy with a naturally dark tan. And man, he was pretty. Chiseled jaw, cheekbones, chin, and arms. And that’s because it was all I could see of him. Pretty sure everything else was chiseled, too. “Yeah. I know. He’s perfect. Beautiful, strong, princely even.”

“But…” I supplied the not so implicit segue to her problem.

“But, he’s boring. Goddess, he’s charming and agreeable and thoughtful.”

“And boring.” That all sounded nice to me.

“Where’s the intellectual foreplay, since when did that go out of style? Pride and Prejudice suffers on its shelf while women ask for Disney. It’s revolting. What is an educated young woman to do without debate and lively conversation?”

“What do you talk about?”

“Ugh.” The eye roll she gave me could have sent me back to kindergarten. “Whether we should go to the vineyard for the summer or Aspen for the holiday. Whether the function served the right food and who deserved the best cigars, or if the matte chrome or shiny chrome made the best flask. Highbrow, stuffy, boring stuff. Sports and tradition and society. Do you know what society does? Huh? Do you? It tells you not to be original or different or to encourage change.”

Her perfectly manicured nails matched the red of her lips as she signed her overwhelmed frustration. “I don’t want to be some clone automaton repeating the same existence to ensure that existence continues. I want fire.”

“Well, you know magic. Why don’t you make some fire?”

“I shouldn’t have to make my own fire.”

Prior to breaking into the school:

Starr appeared in one of the spotlights on the sidewalk, sauntering in heels, skinny jeans, and a long, billowing shirt. Somehow, her heels didn’t echo or clink like I expected. She stopped between us with a flourish.

“Oh, don’t give me that look. They’re enchanted to be silent. Please.”

 

 

Oh yeah, she’s a fun outlier, and I hope y’all like her as much as I do when she gets here this October!

And stay tuned for more mini-ethology lessons from Lily Graves’s world and sign up for an ARC of the first in her series, GIRL WITH THE GLOWING HAIR.

 

Did You Know…About the Cave Goblin?

Tags

cave goblin, giants, goblin, hiisi, kobold, Legend, medieval creatures, miner's legends, muki, mythology

Goblins are monstrous Medieval creatures with a wide variety of abilities, dispositions, and forms, but they primarily cause trouble for mankind with their mischievous, unpleasant, vengeful, and greedy ways.

(Photo Credit: Goblin’s Bloody Cloth by Tero Porthan)

The muki live in subterranean caves and are known as miners. From the Central Andes in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, the muki remains consistent in its dwarf-like height (no taller than two feet), its brawny and disproportionate body, lack of neck, deep and husky voice, long/bright blonde hair, reddish face with a long white beard, and deep and aggressively hypnotic metallic eyes. Sometimes, he has two horns to break rocks and search out mineral veins. Sometimes, he carries a mining lantern. Sometimes, he has pointy ears.

 

The muki live in secluded places, and their attacks arouse fear in the local communities, especially as they are known to steal defenseless children. Often, Elders advise using a belt to battle one and not to succumb to fear.

Yet, muki hold great power to help humans they like, making metal veins appear or disappear in a mine, sensing moods and emotions of the surrounding miners, helping their work by softening or hardening veins, and whistling loudly to warn miners of danger. They also make pacts with discreet and honest humans. And several stories tell of capturing these creatures, who often offer to do the miner’s work for some cocoa, alcohol, or a woman’s touch. If the miner reneges their promise, the muki will kill them.

The kobold is a famous German goblin with the versatility of living on ships, in mines, and human homes. They can change their appearance to fit their locale; however, most choose to be ambivalent household spirits—doing chores around the house—or they perform malicious tricks at being slighted. They can materialize as animals, fire, or human, typically taking shape as a small child in homes. Those who live in mines are often hunched and ugly, and those who take up residences on ships smoke pipes and dress as sailors.

Those who live underground were often blamed for cave-ins and rockslides. They favored pranking fool miners into taking worthless ore, mistaking them for rich veins of copper or silver, and when the ore was smelted, it became a noxious pollutant. Miners tried to placate kobolds with gold and silver offerings and respect, but still, sometimes, the kobold returned the favor with cobalt, a poisonous ore thusly named after the creature.

Yet, when treated well, the kobolds could benefit miners, knocking to warn miners not to travel in certain directs and indicating where rich veins of metal could be found—the more knocks, the better mining.

In Finnish mythologies, the hiisi are similar to giants or trolls and are found near striking cliffs, ominous crevasses, large boulders, potholes, woods, hills, and other prominent geographical features or rough terrain. They travel in a noisy procession and attack people who do not get out of their way. They come inside and steal your things when a door is left open. Cultivated areas are the only safe place to hide from a hiisi as they’re seen as sanctified.  Many pre-historic structures and larger stone boulders were thought erected by the hiisi and other giants.

Goblins come in plenty of shapes and flavors, but they all share one thing in common: they prefer being left alone.

 

Sources: thisisFINLAND, Hiisi, Mystic Files, Goblin, Kobold

Did You Know…An Ethology Lesson on Reapers

Tags

Archangel Ezekiel, Chronos, Death, greek mythology, Harvest God, reapers, tailsman, The Girl with the Glowing Hair, the grim reaper, Time Keeper

The famous Grim Reaper figures were inspired by the black shrouds and mourning robes at death; the scythe, like one harvesting corn, reaps thousands of souls with its swing; and in Greek mythology, Chronos, or Father Time, was the harvest god, who ate his children to symbolize that nothing lasts forever.

No wonder the mythology morphed into this cloaked skeleton, holding a scythe, and ethereally hovering over a shaking victim succumbing to mortality.

My reapers do deal in death, although they are too numerous to solely being responsible for transporting the dead to their afterlives. Reapers are time keepers, so they’re interested in details—controlling the universe, climates, populations, and lower-level businesses or agencies.

They’re good planners, diligent, and always meet a deadline.

And it’s not smart to get in a reaper’s way as they cannot be bribed or tricked, and few fight a reaper and survive. But none have beat death.

Created by archangel Ezekiel, they were meant to remain neutral between heaven and hell. Reapers can, however, be controlled by a demon or angel. They all also have a talisman, which, if found, can be used by a sorcerer to govern them.

The scariest and strongest of the reapers can become essence to sneak around and immobilize their targets. Many can transform into the person or role they are “taking.” And many become ravens.

I’m looking forward to learning more about them in book two; they have a lot of potential.

 

Stay tuned for the cover reveal coming August 8th and more mini-ethology lessons from Lily Graves’s world.

Sign up for an ARC of the first in her series, GIRL WITH THE GLOWING HAIR.

 

Did You Know…An Ethology Lesson on Elementals

Tags

divine objects, elementals, lady gaia, must read, paranormal, pigmy, salamanders, sylphs, the earth mother, undines

I am fascinated with elementals. I have one in my Broken World series, Nami, but in Lily Grave’s world, they’re a bit more than humans who can control the elements.

They often appear as clairvoyants and tricksters who love jewelry and are feared by humans, but they’re often the workers of Lady Gaia, the Earth Mother. With spirits made of raw, volatile energy, they are ageless and cycle with the earth, absorbing negativity, changing, and being reborn to do it again.

Many use divine objects created by god and work with alchemy to channel their powers.

Some are human or human hybrids. The only way for an elemental to gain a genuine soul is to marry with a human and produce offspring.

Allow me to break this down with some examples.

The Pigmy or Gnome, who tend the earth through the season’s cycles. They manage energy wells, cleaning the negative imprints left by humans. Most dwell in caves and mountains.

The Undines, who guard the seas, protecting the water, control tides, and have a hand in climate. They cleanse the waters poisoned by industrial waste and pesticides, recharge electromagnetic fields and currents, and clear mankind’s emotions, like selfishness, anger, abuse, anxiety, and indulgence. They can appear as mermaids and live in the waves.

The Sylphs, who aerate life, directing air currents and the atmosphere. They nourish all living things, purify the air before it can taint the water and earth, and cleanse the mental plane, too, of hatred, racial prejudice, rebellious bigotry, resentment, pride, ambition, greed, and jealousy, etc. They are thin and ethereal, transforming gracefully in mid air as they travel great distances in a short time and often appear as butterflies.

The Salamanders, who infuse organic and inorganic life with creation fire, sustain life, and provide electricity’s flame for daily use. Without it, life would decay, corrode, and disintegrate. They hold the burden of absorbing huge conglomerates of negativity over large cities, including crime and darkness. Although they sustain life, they are often taken for granted. Most often, they appear as lizard-like creatures.

I can’t wait to explore these guys in Lily’s world as the series grows, and they may become some main players. Ooo, the ideas are swirling.

 

Stay tuned for more mini-ethology lessons from Lily Graves’s world and sign up for an ARC of the first in her series, GIRL WITH THE GLOWING HAIR.

Did You Know…About the Paranormal War?

Tags

Assetato, atlantean pantheon, atlantis, Boot Camp, Celampresians, must read, mythology, paranormal, Romulus, shifters, vampires

I have two distinct groups in my Broken World series, the Celampresians and the Assetato, who fight for rule over the paranormal world.

First, the Celampresians are named after the queen of the vampires, the first one in existence: Phea Celampresian. She’s vain, so she named her army after herself.

I chose that name after some research about Altantis and what type of surnames may have come from their culture. “Celam-” means the noble, and Phea was part of Atlantean nobility as her stepfather held a high-ranking government position. This also plays into her heritage: she was born of an Atlantean human woman impregnated by the primordial god, Chronos; therefore, making Phea the granddaughter of the Earth Goddess, Gaia. I infuse this mythology in her story, “Maiden of the Underworld.” In any case, I’m going off on a tangent, as I do. The second part of the name, “presian,” came from my tweaking two other names: Ampheresian, which means unsophisticated, hardy, and enduring, and Diaprepesian, which means ambitious, untrustworthy, and sly, all of which describe Phea’s personality not long after she becomes a vampire.

Essentially, the Celampresians are the bad guys, an evil coalition that aims to kill off most of the shifter races because Phea wants a dictatorship with all paranormal creatures under her control. This stems from her birth as the first paranormal creature, the mother of all vampires and the grandmother of all shifters.

Second, the Assetato have a bit simpler of a back-story. I knew that Rosalie, the head of the Assetato, was Italian royalty before she was stolen and changed by one of the Celampresians. Once she freed herself from their reign, she banded with important allies and founded the organization in order to undermine Phea’s hold on the paranormal world so that vampires, shifters, and humans can live together. Simply put, I named them the Italian translation for “The Thirsty,” as they work not to kill humans in order to survive.

The Assetato are supposed to be the good guys, but their means of fighting don’t always seem so pure. They combat Phea’s control over them and want to live more peacefully, although they also battle their natural impulses to consume human blood and flesh. They are mostly good-doers in the U.S. but are more aggressive in Europe, as I will explore in an upcoming spin-off novel THE SISTER WITH THE STOLEN POCKET WATCH about a mermaid-unicorn, but that’s a whole new tangent.

This is why they create safe houses, like seen in LOVING RED and “The Mark of the Phoenix.” To house their brethren away from the Celampresians, to protect humans, to let their soldiers heal, and to safeguard humans against their base natures.

The last note I want to make about the Assetato as an organization and all of the links between the two groups is this—Anthemos Romulus Celampresian. You may or may not recognize that name from book one and the short story “The Mark of the Phoenix,” where I give hints of his role in this world. Anthemos, or Mumu as his mother likes to call him, is the Atlantean god of beasts, the only god remaining from that pantheon, and the father of shifters.

To put it bluntly, he’s both Phea’s son and the real driving force behind the organization that combats her. Besides all of the Atlantean threads at play in Ria’s tale—my current perspective, Anthemos’s function is far more strictly tied than I’ve let on. He is, after all, his mother’s son, and their relationship affects a lot more than a few camps of creatures.

Looking forward to revealing more about this magickal place!

 

Want to know more about Altantis? About Phea? Check out Did You Know…About Phea and James, my interviewwith Phea, the vampire queen, and my free download of her creation story, “Maiden of the Underworld.”

 

Did You Know…An Ethology Lesson on Ghosts

Tags

afterlife, aswang, corporeal ghosts, ghost stories, mononoke, must read, the hungry ghost, the white lady, urban legends, vanishing hitchhiker

As Lily investigates the missing kids at her school, she encounters corporeal ghosts, a group that pretty much hates everyone but their own. They’re lively and have a flair for drama. They’re my punk kids, my conspiracy theorists, my gang for making mischief. They skirt the line of playful and illegal.

But most ghostly legends and mythologies are tackled individually—a particular being has reason to stick around after death—be it a grudge, a wrong-doing, a broken heart.

That’s what makes them the most fun to play with. They can be anything: the cold that bleeds fear into a room, the knocking in the attack, the flash of eyes in the dark.

Most often, they’re just stuck.

I thought it might be interesting to explore some of the particular cultural mythologies they embody.

(Photo Credit (c) Vanishing Hitchhiker by Nevardaed)

Like the vanishing hitchhiker legend in the US, where people traveling encountered a normal passenger who’s left something behind or asks to borrow protection from the cold. Often, the loaned garment is found draped over a local gravestone.

Close to home in Rochester, NY, comes the White Lady, who haunts Durand-Eastman Park. She’s also been noted as the Lady in the Lake, wandering the park and obsessively looking for her daughter’s body, who’d been slain by a boyfriend. The mother, the White Lady, died of heartbreak.

Another version of the White Lady comes as a murder or suicide victim that died before she could share the location of a hidden treasure in the UK. In Germany, the wife of a prince was caught cheating. The lover drowned in a moat, and the prince locked the princess up behind a wall with some food and water. He died in battle, and she died in the manor.

In Brazil, they are the victims of honor killings. Yet, for the Netherlands, she embodies the banshee, abducting babies and women, punishing people who treated them badly.

The White Lady burned in a castle farm on her wedding day in the Schinveldse Bossen forest. And in Malta, a young bride jumped to her death, wearing her gown, the day before the wedding.

The White Lady is such a popular ghost tale that she’s found a home in a slew of pop-culture shows, like Supernatural, and movies such as, The Grudge, and Scary Movie 2, etc.

The Mononoke, from Japan, are vengeful, dead, and live spirits in their classical literature, who possessed individuals and made them suffer, caused disease, and sometimes death. They are often referred to as changed beings.

One of my favorites is the Filipino Aswang, a shapeshifting monster who combines the vampire, the ghoul, and the witch. The creature was meant to frighten the people and discourage mobility in the sixteenth century. The story of dwelling in the outskirts of forests spread quickly between towns.

Another interesting ghost comes from Chinese Buddhism and traditional religion: the hungry ghost. As most become a regular ghost when die then slowly weaken and die a second time, a hungry ghost occurred in unfortunate circumstances or evil deeds. They exist in perpetual emptiness, aching for fulfillment or relief.

All of them suffer for something that happened in life, by their own doing or not, something that cannot be denied any version Lily may come across.

 

Stay tuned for more mini-ethology lessons from Lily Graves’s world and sign up for an ARC of the first in her series, GIRL WITH THE GLOWING HAIR.

 

Got a ghost story to share? Tell me about it in the comments below!