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Description

SEDNA

Also known as Nuliayuk or Taluliyuk, Sedna is the goddess of the sea in Inuit mythology. She is a large-scaled mermaid with an orca tail who rules and protects all life in the Arctic Sea, and as a result, the livelihood of the humans who depend on the sea for nearly all of their resources. She is also the first mermaid to have a planet named after her.

ORIGIN: Her origin story is another one that varies greatly depending on who exactly is telling it. She starts off as either a normal young woman, or occasionally a giant, who has no interest in marrying. Either her father arranges a marriage for her, or she sleeps with a stranger staying with her family and becomes pregnant. In both cases, she is sent to live with her husband/lover, and at some point it is revealed that this man is actually either a bird, or sometimes a dog spirit. In the case of the bird spirit, his home is in a giant nest built way up high on the cliffs where it would seem she is unable to escape. However, one day while her husband/lover is away, Sedna either attempts to escape on her own and falls into the sea, her fingers freezing off, or her father comes to rescue her from this terrible mistake. When they are both making their way from the nest in her father's canoe, her husband's bird spirit friends begin chasing them. When it becomes apparent they will catch up to them, but are only interested in Sedna, her father pushes her from the canoe into the water. She clings on to the side of the boat, so he chops her fingers off, each finger becoming a different species of sea animal whom man hunts. Once she is fingerless in the water, she becomes an orca mermaid. In some more divergent versions of her tale, she is a giantess who is cast into the water as punishment for eating her own parents, or a poor orphan girl who is bullied by the other kids and pushed into the water.

HOME: Sedna sinks down into the very depths of the Arctic Sea in a place called Adlivum. It is the Inuit underworld where she is surrounded all the time by the dreary souls of the dead and guarded by a dog.

MAGIC: She rules this underworld along with the rest of the sea, and all who dwell within in. She commands and controls all manner of sea creatures.

TEMPERAMENT: Sedna is a vengeful goddess, requiring continuous worship to appease her wrath and convince her to share the sea's bounty with the humans who depend so desperately upon it. If her favor is earned, she will release her sea animals so that they can be hunted by humans, a role which her animals are happy to provide for mankind. If there is little to hunt, then it is time for the shamans of the villages to prepare for a horrifying journey, in which they take the shape of fish and venture down into the depths of Adlivum in search for Sedna in her home. There, they must pamper her, giving her massages, especially for her hands, and combing and braiding her hair. There are a couple specific reasons that explain why these gestures grant them animals to hunt. One is because she feels terrible pain where her fingers were cut off causing her to forget to release her animals to be hunted unless the pain is massaged away. The second is because she is unable to care for her own hair, having no fingers, and it becomes so long and tangled, that all her sea creatures get caught up in it until they are combed out, and the braid helps keep them out at least for a while. Though she lives a dreary and lonely life (her new husband is said to be a sculpin fish), she is also called Mother of the Sea for her life nurturing side.

LIKES: To receive company that will comfort her and treat her like a queen.

Description

SEDNA

Also known as Nuliayuk or Taluliyuk, Sedna is the goddess of the sea in Inuit mythology. She is a large-scaled mermaid with an orca tail who rules and protects all life in the Arctic Sea, and as a result, the livelihood of the humans who depend on the sea for nearly all of their resources. She is also the first mermaid to have a planet named after her.

ORIGIN: Her origin story is another one that varies greatly depending on who exactly is telling it. She starts off as either a normal young woman, or occasionally a giant, who has no interest in marrying. Either her father arranges a marriage for her, or she sleeps with a stranger staying with her family and becomes pregnant. In both cases, she is sent to live with her husband/lover, and at some point it is revealed that this man is actually either a bird, or sometimes a dog spirit. In the case of the bird spirit, his home is in a giant nest built way up high on the cliffs where it would seem she is unable to escape. However, one day while her husband/lover is away, Sedna either attempts to escape on her own and falls into the sea, her fingers freezing off, or her father comes to rescue her from this terrible mistake. When they are both making their way from the nest in her father's canoe, her husband's bird spirit friends begin chasing them. When it becomes apparent they will catch up to them, but are only interested in Sedna, her father pushes her from the canoe into the water. She clings on to the side of the boat, so he chops her fingers off, each finger becoming a different species of sea animal whom man hunts. Once she is fingerless in the water, she becomes an orca mermaid. In some more divergent versions of her tale, she is a giantess who is cast into the water as punishment for eating her own parents, or a poor orphan girl who is bullied by the other kids and pushed into the water.

HOME: Sedna sinks down into the very depths of the Arctic Sea in a place called Adlivum. It is the Inuit underworld where she is surrounded all the time by the dreary souls of the dead and guarded by a dog.

MAGIC: She rules this underworld along with the rest of the sea, and all who dwell within in. She commands and controls all manner of sea creatures.

TEMPERAMENT: Sedna is a vengeful goddess, requiring continuous worship to appease her wrath and convince her to share the sea's bounty with the humans who depend so desperately upon it. If her favor is earned, she will release her sea animals so that they can be hunted by humans, a role which her animals are happy to provide for mankind. If there is little to hunt, then it is time for the shamans of the villages to prepare for a horrifying journey, in which they take the shape of fish and venture down into the depths of Adlivum in search for Sedna in her home. There, they must pamper her, giving her massages, especially for her hands, and combing and braiding her hair. There are a couple specific reasons that explain why these gestures grant them animals to hunt. One is because she feels terrible pain where her fingers were cut off causing her to forget to release her animals to be hunted unless the pain is massaged away. The second is because she is unable to care for her own hair, having no fingers, and it becomes so long and tangled, that all her sea creatures get caught up in it until they are combed out, and the braid helps keep them out at least for a while. Though she lives a dreary and lonely life (her new husband is said to be a sculpin fish), she is also called Mother of the Sea for her life nurturing side.

LIKES: To receive company that will comfort her and treat her like a queen.