That’s the very, very short version description of this universe I’ve created.
I’ve always been obsessed with Gorgons- ever since I watched Clash of the Titans when I was like two or three years old. It was on HBO soon after its release, and from then on, I was obsessed.
Yes, I have always been a weird person.
I also have finally made myself launch this universe becuase it and all of my characters are formally copyrighted now (yes I am paranoid), and I mean, might as well. I’m sure it’s going to piss people off, I’m gonna rile up the gatekeepers but I give no fks.
Also, the majority of these characters are LGBTQ+ so that’s definitely gonna cause some people to choke on their assholery.
Like I said in my bio – I collaborated with AI to draft this universe, but it didn’t write the books for me, and yes, there are about forty books finished at this point, it helped me edit and gave me alternatives and pointers. I asked AI to outline my story drafts so I could easily go back and see what worked and what didn’t, because I too have ADHD and a full time career that is not artistic, so time is of the essence.
Anyway…
I was thinking one day about myths and legends and lore..and the following came to mind:
- What if Gorgons weren’t what history says they were- as in, what if they never had snakes for hair or turned people to statues?
- What if their race was demonized on purpose by other supernatural beings and or mortals because their powers were intimidating to those who wanted to exact control over others?
- What if their powers were actually adjacent to those of angels and it included the divine mirror (showing us the things we don’t want to face), and turning people to stone was literally turning them to “a stone.” Then they would live as a stone, with their consciousness intact, aware of everything around them and unable to communicate or do anything unless they truly repented? Like, as in a sort of Purgatory meets Sylvester and the Magic Pebble or whatever that book was?
- What if other mythological creatures and species were also misrepresented and were nothing like what we think they were?
- What if the images of gorgons that we are familiar with aren’t actual gorgons, but an inverted form of the species? As in, twisted by Dark Magic.
- What if gorgons and all supernatural creatures had some sort of part in the natural order that we were never aware of, specifically the process of death and grief?
Then it turned into something even more bizarre:
- What if shit went down during the French Revolution between the supernaturals (who I have named Les Sauvains ) and the inverted evil forms of their races (I have named them Kethri), and this was when Les Sauvains excused themselves from mortals being able to see them or be aware of them?
- What if like, all of these creatures have their own issues and interpersonal dealings just like we do?
- What if they were, in many ways, a shitshow amongst themselves?
- What if the Gorgon myth of Medusa, Stheno and Eurayle was complete bullshit: time period, names, descriptors and all, and just completely made up?
Of course, because I am me and an extreme weird squirrel, this is what came next:
- What if the myth of Stheno was built around this character named Sérisse-Sthenaïs d’Argelonne, the current and longest reigning ruler of the Gorgon people, and it was concocted because certain types of mortals and Kethri were afraid of her power and ability to defeat evil forces or whatever?
- What if she were married to the woman who the myth of Eurayle was built around – Athénaïs Euraylie d’Argelonne – and they were never sisters but a functional married lesbian couple who really pissed off homophobes by even existing?
- Yes, the Medusa aspect shows up but no I’m not gonna tell you because spoilers
- What if Sérisse and Athénaïs were both ADHD and possibly on the spectrum and then had Gorgon children who were also ADHD and on the spectrum and it was actually a healthy and functional family, albeit a very griswold-esque dynamic?
- What if Sérisse is a cigar chain-smoking intellectual who says whatever the fk she wants, does what she wants, is ferally in love with and faithful to her wife (and vice versa), and who finds it entertaining to toilet paper other sauvain’s yards and sick seagulls on them using bags of French fries as bait?
- What if Sérisse and Athénaïs’ children are constantly pulling pranks and causing mischief despite being hundreds of years old – such as using one of those little shark bitey toys on a stick to bite Sérisse when she’s on a business phone call?
I mean…I could go on but basically – these characters have shit they go through that are just like what we as humans go through, except they are misrepresented, demonized, and immortal supernatural beings.
Plus, I’m obsessed with everything French so there is a LOT of that influence in there, as well as Irish, because those are the two predominant bloodlines in my ancestry. I just resonate with the French more.
It’s also taken me forever to release this because:
- I am shy .
- These characters and situations reflect things I have experienced and struggled with in my own life, so making this public is like making those parts of myself public and that’s scary.
- I never felt like it was good enough, polished enough, or that the story continuity was solid without plot holes. Seriously, I will draft an entire thing out start to finish before letting anyone read it so I don’t develop plot holes.
- I develop a literal character dossier for each character so they are multi-dimensional and their actions, dialogue, etc makes sense.
- I wanted to make sure nothing I wrote had been appropriated or was disrespectful to other cultures and communities.
- There are factors in my life which have given me pause in regard to publishing this – I’ll blog on that later.
- I’m attached to my work and wanted to make sure they were copyrighted before releasing.
- I worried about the reaction it would get, although I don’t give af about that anymore.
- A million other excuses…
Anyway, I’m gonna just start dropping parts of my world here on this blog as they’re ready. The main focus is House d’Argelonne, but there are other side stories and characters in this universe that I’ve come to enjoy as well.
So. There you have it.