| "You live in aderanged age, more deranged that usual, because in spite of greatscientific and technological advances, Man has not the faintest idea ofwho he is or what he is doing." - Walker PercyMost don't remember her twin sisters. They've faded into Mystery, theirfaces blank, reflective, veiled in shadow. Her daughters, the Nine,have taken the place of the earlier Triad. The original generation hasbecome lost, banished, overwritten, a mere palimpset.Yet Memory knows them, and keeps them within her house still.MnemosyneTitan of Memory, NWhile her daughters the Muses live on Mount Olympus with Apollo,Mnemosyne resides, forgotten, within the House of Memory. With memoriesas her only companions, she has lost touch with everything new, and,enraptured by the new creations inspired by her daughters, the rest ofthe multiverse has lost touch with Mnemosyne. The result - a fading ofmemory, a loss of past, of the roots of things, has been at times catastrophic.The schism between memories and new things is a traumatic wound, butalso a very old one. The blood has long since dried, the scars turnedwhite and pale. Even the injury itself has been long since forgotten.Mnemosyne strides restlessly through Memory's halls, a pale,furtive figure in dark robes looking for something she can no longerdefine. There is only one room where she dare not enter; the room ofMelete, her most terrifying twin. Her sister Aoede, on the other hand, she visits often, though Aoede never speaks except to sing her single wordless song.AoedeTitan of Song, CN"...and stars riseupon phantom tides unknownthis night sings,'nothing is all you'll know'...and stars rise" - Fredrick Artman ("translation" of the Nothing Song by Sigur Rós).In an unlit hall in the House of Memory lies Aoede, Titan of Song. Herdark form stretches like a cat. The smell of her unwashed body ispungent, filling the hall and adjoining chambers. There is all aroundher a wind, and the sensation of tiny fluttering wings. There is asound, like the waves of a distant sea crashing on an unseen shore on ahot, stifling day.In your mind you hear a melody; you remember hearing it when youwere born. There are no words, no rhythm, no pattern. There is onlysong.It fills the planes. Sailors have killed themselves on rocks trying to find the sourceof this song. Musicians have gone mad from hearing a few notes of it.Bards seek it their entire lives, but must be careful lest they looktoo deeply and drown in Aoede's hot, lightless sea.The Titaness does not move from her place on the floor of the hallin the House of Memory. Her song does not change. Like her sisterMemory, Aoede can no longer create anything new; not until both arewilling to face their terrible sister Melete. MeleteTitan of Practice, Meditation, and Discipline, LN"A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim." -George SantayanaMelete is Practice,Repetition, Meditation, and Meter. When she held her place in thecosmic trinity of the first Muses she was the structure upon which allPoetry was built. She was the rhythm of myth, memory, and song thatdefined the Outer Planes in that older, simpler age. She was theeffort, the struggle, the heroic battlethat all true Poets wrestled with, until scratched and bloody andscarred they emerged from their combat with Melete, a glowing treasurein their hearts and on their tongues.Melete, too, bears scars from those battles, long white linescutting her face and hands - all of her exposed skin - into regularunits, relics from the age when Melete fought her sisters, all artists, andthe entire multiverse with her dripping claws.Now she sits still in her darkened corner of the House of Memory,her ruined hands folded and her eyes shut, her blank face slack. Onlyher brow is furrowed as she concentrates on something,putting her Titanic effort into defining the structure of... what?Perhaps nothing more than the cages of her own self-created prison.Mortals who have ventured too near have been caught too, snared by theendless loop of discipline with all objectives long since vanished fromher mind. If one of her twins were to reach her, touch her, perhapssomething new could be made, but no; she has grown too feral for themto approach. They no longer consider Melete to be worth the effort, andso they sit within Memory, barren as she is, barren as they all havebecome. |
| Pantheon: Olympian/Titans |
| Portfolio: Inspiration |
| Alignment: Any Neutral |
| Worshippers: Artists, Musicians, Scientists, Scholars |
| Incarnation: The Elder Muses are currently unable to manifest outside the Red Prison. On that plane, they look like human women of titanic proportions. |
| Titles: The Elder Muses, Titan of Memory, Titan of Song, Titan of Discipline |
| Rank: Greater Power |
| Priesthood: The cult of the Elder Muses died out long ago at the end of the Golden Age, when the Titans were banished and their children gained control of the mythos. In ancient days, they were often prayed to by those beginning artistic or literary endeavors, usually by giants and other elder beings.Their first worshippers were the Aloadae, a pair of twin giants named Otus and Ephialtes; later they would attempt to overthrow the Olympians themselves, inspired by the powerful intoxicating gifts of their patron deities.Commonly, the Elder Muses would be worshipped in something like the mystery cults later associated with Dionysus and Demeter. Worshippers would enter dark caves and work themselves into altered states of consciousness as they prayed for the Muses to enter them and inspire them with their beautiful and terrible gifts.If they still have clerics, it is among giants and other elder races.They are always worshipped together, and they have only a single priesthood. Some of the rare clerics of Mnemosyne aren't aware of her sisters, but all clerics of her sisters worship all three Elder Muses together. |
| Priest Alignment: Any |
| Favorite Weapon: Staff |
| Holy Item: Staff of Charming |
| Symbol: Comedy and Tragedy Masks |
| Domains: Creation, Knowledge, Song (plus Law for Melete and Chaos for Aoede) |
| Culture: |
Since there are almost as many variations to Greek Mythology as there are Greeks, it is not impossible to stumble across a version that mentions the two "titans" in some fashion. However, finding a specific description for roleplay may be challenging at best. Here is a reference to them and there spheres of control; Aoide - song, Melete - meditation and Mneme - memory.
Mneme- queen of the memes! 
. Consider this *yoinked* for a plot of mine.
This is a great idea... I'm familar with the muses of greek myth - was there actually a real life reflection of simular nature to these three?
Before the nine canonical muses, Pausanias listed three original muses - Aoede, Melete, and Mneme (who is the same as Mnemosyne). These original muses were said to be daughters of Uranus and Gaea, which would make them titans.
Mnemosyne birthed the nine current muses. I don't think Greek myth ever said what happened to Aoide and Melete.