devour my soul and come forth, o shooting star

‪the reasoning behind her split existence hinges on something going wrong with the process of her spirit core being transferred into and combining with her human host body, because instead of one full spirit responding to the summoning, two different versions of the shadow of‬ ‪ereshkigal both respond.

they’re split apart because of the contradiction between their views and fall into completely different classes because the rift between their existences is really that wide. so, as a result, the ereshkigal that’s summoned is not an amalgamation of the‬ ‪traits that both versions possess, but rather two people sharing the same body because of their stubborn refusal to accept that they’re both aspects of the same being that just happened to be felt and embraced more strongly at different stages of her life. ‬

‪her first stage (ruler) would represent ereshkigal at the beginning stages of her existence as a god. she’s kind and humble, trying her best to accommodate others’ wishes in hopes of proving herself as capable. she does her best to stifle the loneliness that’s started to take‬ ‪hold of her and the bitterness it brings with it, and mostly succeeds. she believes that her personal feelings and struggles don’t matter in the face of ruling the underworld fairly and acts accordingly. she tries to embody an impartial ruler that’s beyond the reach of emotion.‬

‪stage 2 ereshkigal’s class is avenger. she’s the older ereshkigal that fails to suppress her bitterness and jealousy and reaches the point where she doesn’t even bother trying to. she’s egocentric and resentful and exhausting to interact with. it’s not that the positive traits‬ ‪her younger self possesses are erased from her personality as much as they are dwarfed by the uglier emotions that have taken root in her heart.

the image of her class weighs on her, the burden of feeling hatred is heavy enough as is and an existence built upon it is heaviest of‬ ‪all. despite her struggles with doing so, she does all she can to project the image of an avenger through her actions and behaviour. her cruelty never does quite manage to mask the vulnerability below. this is the ereshkigal that wants the world to burn, but still has to actively‬ ‪smother the guilt she feels because of it.‬

‪stage 3 ereshkigal is the ereshkigal that develops painstakingly slowly after her summoning in chaldea. she’s the result of the previous two versions reconciling with time. as she steadily experienced and learnt more, lines began to blur and her two split spirit cores merged over‬ ‪time.