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"Once again, we return."
This article contains spoilers for Issue 25 of The Wicked + The Divine. Read at your own risk. |
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"Once again, we return."
This article contains spoilers for Issue 37 of The Wicked + The Divine. Read at your own risk. |
- "You know what else isn't fair? Dying before you're fourteen."
- —Minerva[src]
Minerva is the Roman Goddess of wisdom, strategic warfare, poetry, medicine, commerce, weaving and the crafts, and one of the gods of the Recurrence. Represented by the symbol of an owl, she is known to have appeared in the 450s, 1920s and 2010s Recurrences. She and Ananke are linked, with Minerva being the "Maiden" referenced by Ananke when the rules were laid down for the Recurrences by Ananke and her sister 6000 years ago. It is later revealed during the 1923 events that each Minerva takes on the persona and memories of Ananke when the previous Ananke reaches the end of her natural life, as seen during the first Recurrence when She devised a method to cheat death,whenever a new generation of Gods are born a younger newer "her" appears with them, with her mind being split between the aged Ananke and the new "Minerva" and finally being reunited into one mind once one of them dies.
History
Minerva's incarnation was sometime in 2013. She moved into Valhalla with her parents, who started to profit financially from her newfound status as a god. For example, at Fantheon she sold personal blessings for £100 each, at her parents' behest. She was present when Brunhilde attacked Woden and used a miracle to push Brunhilde out of the way, seriously injuring her. Minerva was visibly shaken about this, and was comforted by Baal. She later visited Brunhilde in hospital.
After this incident, Minerva became extremely upset and bitter about her short life span. She also started to become suspicious about the events surrounding Lucifer's imprisonment and death, and questioned why Woden didn't make a cage for Lucifer when he was able to make one for Morrigan.
The night before Minerva's thirteenth birthday, her parents came to her bedroom to wish her goodnight, and laid out her schedule for the next day to a projected illusion of a sleeping Minerva. This included promotional appearances and a birthday party they were charging admission for. At the time, Minerva was sneaking down to see The Morrigan, who had promised her a secret present. The Morrigan told her the truth about Ananke's treachery and propensity for murder, turning Minerva against her. She then let The Morrigan out of her cage, and they ran into Baphomet, who had come to rescue Morrigan. Morrigan decided Minerva should go with them, but Minerva insisted they take her parents with them, delaying Baphomet's plan. They came face to face with the Valkyries and Baal, and a fight ensued. Persephone, who had been working with Baphomet, arrived and rescued them, taking them to the Underground.
They were joined there by Dionysus, who Minerva met for the first time. They discussed Ananke, and Minerva voiced her suspicions about Ananke's actions. However, they were joined by Minerva's owl, which led Baal, Sakhmet and Amaterasu directly to their location. A battle broke out and Minerva was taken away by Amaterasu back to Valhalla. Once there, Ananke murdered her parents in front of her and dragged her away to Woden's machine, where she prepared to sacrifice her. Her actions were interrupted, however, by the arrival of the rest of the gods, who united against Ananke and tied her up in Persephone's vines. Persephone, unable to contain her fury, killed Ananke in an act of brutal violence. They decided they would call it self-defence, though Minerva felt uncomfortable with lying.
Following these events, Minerva moved with Baal and Persephone into the Pantheon's new headquarters in the Shard. With her parents dead, Baal became her legal guardian. Minerva became wary about Baal and Persephone's newly established relationship and, in a display of protectiveness, warned Persephone not to hurt him. She also expressed resentment about being left to die by Amaterasu. She then appeared to be kidnapped by a shadowy creature Baal implied was the Great Darkness.
Appearance
Minerva has short blonde hair, partially dyed red and put up in two buns, blue eyes and light skin. She formerly wore a red military jacket and large, round tinted glasses.Now, she seems to favor short pants, large t-shirts, and goggles. When performing, she wears a pair of owl-like wings.
Relationships
Ananke
Minerva previously followed Ananke's instructions and was comforted by her about her impending death. She later went against Ananke, having discovered that she had been deceiving them. As of Issue 33, she seems to have been still receiving influence from her.Later it was revealed that both she and Ananke were the same person,when the Recurrence begins and the Gods are reborn another younger version of Ananke is created a new "Minerva" having her mind and consciousness split between them both during this period and then reuniting upon one of them dying,this method being her way of cheating death.The both of them have been shown working together since the Second recurrence in order to undermine/manipulate the other Gods and continue on her cycle of life,death and rebirth.
Baal
Of all the gods, Minerva is closest to Baal, who is very protective over her. Baal is now her guardian.However with the revelation of who Minerva truly is it is likely that Baal now hates and loathes her for manipulating him for so long.
Minerva's parents
Minerva was exploited by her parents, who used her status as a god for financial gain. Despite this, Minerva seemed to care deeply for them, and was horrified when they were killed.Later it was revealed that Minerva didn't really care for her Parents,With them not even being her actual biological relatives and are simply a couple she had happened upon, trying to find a telephone in order to call her older self,and later used them and their deaths to manipulate the other Gods.
The Morrigan
As Minerva learned more about the nature of Ananke's plans, she became closer to The Morrigan, eventually helping her escape and joining [1] side against Ananke. This relationship mirrors the one she had in the 1920's Recurrence with the Morrigan.
Powers & Abilities
- The same powers of Ananke
- Force Generation: She has been shown to generate and manipulate an extremely powerful force that she used as a force blast/push to cripple Brunhilde to the point of hospitalization. The nature of this ability is unknown but it appears wind-based.
- Performance: She has been seen performing but the nature of her performances is relatively unknown.However later revealed to have been fake, as she instead had the Valkyries perform in secret for her, as in the course of her six thousand year old existence, she had seemingly lost the ability to Perform and now at least requires the assistance of another God to "sing".
- Immortality: During her first life six thousand years ago and the discovery of "Godhood", Minerva/Ananke had successfully figured out a method that essentially made her virtually immortal and neat unkillable.
- Divination:This Immortality is done via splitting her own consciousness into two entirely different bodies,with a part of her mind staying in her old elderly body while the other half is incarnated into a newer younger body as the Recurrence begins by locating where the next generation of children would be born.
- Ritual: Later upon being successfully incarnated into her younger self,Ananke would then need to collect four heads of the current generation of Gods and sacrifice them in a ritual within a two year deadline,where she would then disintegrate the living heads into pure energy and absorb them in order to stabilize her younger body. If this is not done within the given deadline or if she is missing a sacrifice, Ananke's (Minerva) younger body would then disintegrate and her soul would then be trapped in some sort of Limbo of complete darkness until a newer younger body incarnates during the next Recurrence 90 years later. This experience has been implied to be incredibly traumatic and seemingly leaving Ananke with a deep fear and phobia for darkness.
- Divination:This Immortality is done via splitting her own consciousness into two entirely different bodies,with a part of her mind staying in her old elderly body while the other half is incarnated into a newer younger body as the Recurrence begins by locating where the next generation of children would be born.
- Intelligence and Cunning: Other than her Miracles, Minerva has due to her being over 6,000 years old, displayed immense intelligence and cunning to effectively manipulate and control each and every person within the 2010,1920,1370 and the other 62 Pantheons with little effort with a majority of its members not even realizing that she and Ananke was one of the same and that she was secretly undermining each Pantheon. This in turn further assisted her in her persona as the "Goddess of Wisdom" and successfully tricking the other Pantheon members that she was one of them.
Possessions
- Owly - Minerva owns a robotic owl named Owly granted to her by Woden, which she insists is a "prototype Owlphone from a Silicon Roundabout start-up", later revealed to be one of Woden(Mimir) creation.[2] It possesses various functions:
- Video recording and projection
- Imagery/hologram projection
- Teleportation; even to the Underground, something only underworld gods were thought to be able to do
- Pinpointing Minerva's location
- Flight via its mechanical wings
Past Recurrences
"Minerva" has been confirmed to have "incarnated" in each and every Recurrence since the original Ananke's first initiated her Ritual 6,000 years ago. With the Older Ananke either growing old and dying naturally or being killed during the Recurrence during her instigated conflicts while the Minerva, continued on to grow old until becoming "Ananke" during the next Recurrence.
3120s BC Recurrence
Minerva is shown in an Egyptian temple surrounded by the bodies of the other Gods of this Recurrence and Ananke. She attempts to conduct the Ritual with three skulls hoping for it to work with only three but instead her own head was used as the missing sacrifice,with her body disintegrating in pink flame/sparkles as a result. For the next 90 years or so, Minerva/Ananke spent the better part of it trapped in a Limbo like state of pure pitch black darkness until her new body appeared 90 years later.
3030s BC Recurrence
After ninety years have passed, Minerva is reborn as a young girl on the island of Crete, appearing on a beach in a patch of green grass. Remembering the events of the prior Recurrence, she gouges the skin on her face with her nails, while stating, "Never again". And much later after seemingly starting the Recurrence herself as her child form, successfully seemed to have killed/removed the head of the incarnated the Persephone of this Recurrence in her "Ananke" identity due to her lack of an Elderly Self.
450s Recurrence
Minerva appeared in the 450s Recurrence. Ananke claimed Minerva was lost searching for the Library of Alexandria, but Lucifer claimed Ananke was responsible. Minerva most likely survived and killed the previous Minerva taking on Ananke's persona following the disposal of Lucifer's body in the Tiber.
1370s Recurrence
The Minerva to appear in the 1370s recurrence is seen primarily operating as her older self's, Ananke's "helper" due to Ananke having infected herself with a created Plague by the previous Pantheon and spreading it across Asia and Europe and effectively rendering her completely bed-ridden and near immobile.
Due to this Minerva was the one primarily tasked by Ananke to locate each of the Twelve God's and convince them to go to her in order to commence their "Incarnation". With her being noted by Ananke to required to use a lot of convincing to get the other Gods to visit her due to the Era's naturally paranoid disposition.
Eventually Minerva successfully located a woman that would later be incarnated as that Pantheon's "Lucifer" who unlike a majority of the other gods proved to be quite easily convince by her to visit Ananke and unlike most, chose the identity of Lucifer herself. This eventually caused Ananke and Minerva to deem her to be "trouble".
Eventually each of the other 11 Gods slowly succumbed to the madness,hedonism and selfishness of their divinities within the two year time limit, allowing Minerva and Ananke to easily horde their needed Heads for their Ritual without much issue. However just as they hypothesized, Lucifer did indeed become "trouble", as unlike a majority of her fellow Gods, she hadn't fallen into the self-destructive hedonism her fellow gods had fallen prey to and continued to live past the two year limit. Preventing the latter from commencing with her ritual as they waited for her to die or succumb to herself.
Eventually due to the continued separation from the part of her soul inside Ananke and not performing the Ritual within the Two year limit due to Lucifer's continued survival, Minerva body was shown to slowly succumb and rot from inside itself and causing her to develop several deep rotten gashes across her body and face and lose a few fingers from her hands. Realizing that the waiting game was useless against Lucifer's strong will, Minerva and Ananke finally realized that they would have to get rid of her themselves.
Minerva thus then set off to the covenant where Lucifer stayed as a nun and convinced her to go to the town Ananke's resided in due to the Plague. Due to Minerva's physically young age, Lucifer easily felt pity and sympathy for her and agreed to help her. Eventually Ananke successfully deflected any suspicion from her by claiming that she was the one to stay with her until the end, before successfully convincing Lucifer to kill her and herself by setting her on fire. Minerva was later seen observing the fire from a distance with a sack, which presumably possessed the four heads for her Ritual before proceeding to perform it and successfully prolong her life again.
Eventually Minerva grew old and took up her mantle as "Ananke" once again during the 1463AD Recurrence in West Africa.
1463s Recurrence
Upon successfully completing her Ritual after the last Recurrence, Minerva proceeded to live through her renewed life until 90 years later, where she then retook her persona as "Ananke" and began the new Recurrence in West Africa. However due to her facial scaring it could be noted that she as Ananke wore heavy vale to hide her face and was noticed to be missing a few fingers.
Eventually like all the previous Recurrences, Ananke managed to easily behead the Recurrence's Persephone and claim her head for the next Ritual for her younger Minerva.
1830s Recurrence
An unseen Minerva was most likely part of this Recurrence, arriving in Lake Geneva following the attempted resurrection of Hades and the departure of the Creature. She would have conducted the Ritual and gained Ananke's persona.
1920s Recurrence
Minerva appeared in the 1920s Recurrence. She arrived on Lucifer's island alongside Woden and Morrigan. She is treated as a young child by the other Gods who attempt to shield her from the murders that are occurring on the island. Once the Darkness Plan is revealed, she goes to the lighthouse alongside the other Gods to confront Woden, Set and Baal. In the ensuing chaos, she kills Set as revenge for murdering Morrigan. Later the same night she appears to kill herself in an explosion triggered jointly with the three other remaining gods, Amon-Ra, Susanoo, and Amaterasu, at Ananke's prompting.
Minerva survives, shielding herself from the godly powers of Amaterasu. Susanoo also survives and later lets down his guard due to Minerva using her child form to manipulate him, resulting in him having his head removed by Minerva and sent to a crypt below Lucifer's mansion, where she and Ananke then walk to. The heads of the Morrigan, Set, and a previously unseen Persephone are sitting on an altar, with Susanoo's head in the middle. Ananke feebly protests against Minerva enacting the ritual due to now having begun developing a sense of independence from being separated from each other. In response, Minerva blows up Ananke's head, killing her and regaining her portion of their mind before she enacts the ritual, sacrificing the heads of the Gods and endowing her with the resulting power manifested in lightning and skulls appear in her eyes. Her persona as Ananke is established. This Minerva would be the one who conversed with Robert Graves in the 1940's, which would have made her 30 or 40 at the time. She would then continue living until the 2010 Recurrence.
2010s Recurrence
Years later as the Recurrence begins anew, Ananke and Minerva once again splits apart. Minerva manifests in an empty long grass field and from there she walks until she reaches the house of a childless couple, knocking on their door she asks if she could use their telephone and contacts her older self to pick her up and begin locating the other children and planning their scheme, from there she somehow managed to convince the couple to take her in as their "daughter" and begin creating her persona as "Minerva".
Mythology
Minerva appears to be based on the Roman goddess of wisdom. Maybe. We don't know. Ever since #33, we've been kinda running around crazy. Charlie, get back here with those files on Baphomet's abs. I mean it, Charlie.
Quotes
By Minerva
Dialogue
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Trivia
- Minerva's costume is based on a theme of military-style uniforms in pop culture which have been worn by acts such as The Beatles, The Libertines, My Chemical Romance, Queen, and The Manic Street Preachers.[3]
- Minerva's style is also inspired by Jason & The Argonauts.[3]
- The 1920s Minerva is fashioned as a "French Revolution Shirley Temple."[4]
Appearances
References
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