yellowww. i see that you have some characters that are inspired from Greek figures. can you explain what aspect you took inspiration from and the thought process?🩷🩵
Hallo! Sorry it took a while to see this ask; I haven't been active on Tumblr in a hot minute... so yes, I have decided to twist some of my TWST AU characters from Greek figures, specifically Ophelia/Lia and Diane/Yan, and these ways in which I improvised what I understood from these figures while making them.
[Disclaimer: I am not an expert in Hellenism or Greek mythos, and I hope not to be held in such regard. I am simply a character creator who tries her best and hopes to be accurate and creative along the way! :)]
[1. Lia being twisted from Persephone]
Lia was a yume for Idia Shroud (who was twisted from Disney's Hercules interpretation of Hades) from the start, but I didn't have much knowledge of the movie and DEFINITELY didn't want to make a character that was dependent on Idia's character (I never really leaned into making OCs whose whole personality is simply falling in love with the canon guy. When making OCs, esp. yume OCs, I consider them having to be people who can be independent of their pairing and still be solid).
So, I leaned more into the chthonic side of Persephone, given that in the mythos she had predated Hades, was revered in a duo pairing with Demeter, and was originally a dreaded figure in Hellenistic culture whose real name was kept private by her mystery cults
(huge credit to Overly Sarcastic Productions for helping me grasp this information for brainstorming Lia and Yan's characters)
This basis led me to create Lia as she is;
She's the dorky Katdynami Housewarden who burns her allowance on pop-up stalls, merchandise, and handcrafted stuff (which makes people mistake her as a soft girl who's into floral stuff/cute stuff. She just likes celebrating little trinkets and handmade effort, which connects to how Persephone gets mistaken as a spring goddess, but that's pretty much incidental. She was never a goddess who could control spring and flowers and such.)
She shows her playful/chronically online mannerisms to deter people from her occupation (I liked playing with the idea of what if Persephone is chill with her spring-goddess interpretation, keeping the people from being fully aware that she is and always has been a chthonic goddess, regardless of her connection to Hades.)
The heiress and youngest worker of the Kore line, her late father's side of exorcists and phantom slayers. (I had to do some mental tumbles and write her father as an earnest and powerful but dead man because ZEUS, YOU ARE THE DAD OF TOO MANY KIDS, and I had to only apply that connection to Yan. Poseidon was her dad tho, in earlier myths)
Just like how the Shroud line is responsible of the Gate to the Underworld, the Kore line is in charge of mainly dealing with phantoms along with other ghouls and ghosts that escape the Underworld and meddle with the living. This role is most obvious in the lines of her UM;
"The living live, the dead move onward. Those who linger and revolt sever threads that preserve both. You, oh rebel, have done enough and must rest... Stand before me and watch peace return upon your passing. Binder of Both Worlds."
Her father, Amystis Kore, was once the most powerful exorcist of their line but was killed in combat with a vengeful poltergeist. His power was transferred to Lia, who happened to be there during the combat, and that became her UM. (I wanted to create this sense of how, back then, Mycenaean Poseidon was a mashup of Poseidon and Hades and was worshipped alongside Demeter and Persephone, but over time he was whittled down to just being Poseidon while Persephone retained that Underworld connection. Wanted to make this narrative of his chthonic power being retained through her.) In a sense, her family acknowledges her and reveres her as their most powerful descendant, and Lia carries it on her shoulders to be the one who must continue Amystis' work. As much as she is Lia, she is also Ophelia Zoë Kore, her father's daughter and successor.
On her mother's (and Yan's mother's) side is the Diakos line, a family of funeral service owners and workers. They are in charge of wakes, attending to grieving families and friends of the dead, and respectful cremation/burial. These people are equally respected across Twisted Wonderland and extremely protective of their own, considering marriages and romantic connections as extremely tied to life force and thus must be done with utmost care and consideration for their children. (I don't have a particular myth/fact connected to this part of the worldbuilding, but the matchmaking part is connected to when Helios tries to pacify Demeter and assure her that Hades is an ideal match to her daughter.)
How she eventually gets allowed to date Idia is also intended to follow the mythos, lol. Though Lia openly crushes on Idia and even taunts him about it, Lia's mother (twisted from Demeter) is insistent on not matching her daughter to anyone and is extremely protective of her, despite the girl already being of age (Diakos children get engaged by their parents to people they perceive as the ones who will take care of them the best by age eighteen. This tradition is equally respected by the kids since they know the match is heavily made with their best interests in mind.) THIS WOMAN DOES NOT CARE THAT IDIA IS THE LITERAL HEIR OF THE SHROUD FAMILY AND HAS CRAZY STRONG CREDENTIALS; SHE JUST DOESN'T WANT 'ICKY TEENAGE BOYS' AROUND HER UNICA HIJA BABY GIRL. But just like how Zeus/the father's influence is the main proponent of how Hades still gets away with having Persephone as his bride, Lia's paternal grandmother is the one who gives the go signal and insists that the Kore family approves of him and acknowledges his competence (competence??? on which part of him lol jk—) and willingness to be by Lia's side...when the time comes and he gathers his courage to ask her out. Yippee!
[2. Yan being twisted from Artemis]
Okay, so the truth is that Yan just came from an intrusive thought while cleaning out earlier this year, which I solidified. Then the idea of matching her to Rook was originally a joke that I realized actually works BAHAHAHAHAHA— okay, serious mode now-
Upon researching Artemis' character, I realized she was not necessarily anti-boy but simply a goddess of boundaries and knew what she wanted and what she didn't want. She equally punished and tolerated men and women based on their actions, and that was mainly my inspiration in creating Yan's character as a person.
Though nonchalant and unbothered on the outside, Diane Archer is a deeply emotional woman who knows the strict standards she holds herself to and thus prefers not to settle for less, which also bites her back because she deep down feels this sense of despair for her fate and social connections. Because she is deeply sensitive and has a taste for romance/romanticizing life, she feels like she has to hold herself inward so her genuine self isn't taken for granted or misintrepreted.
She grew up isolated as an heiress to her father's work alongside her twin brother Cel (This is where the Zeus connection is improvised; her father's business ARCHLIGHT is creating tech and providing raw material and hardware internationally, including being a main partner and supplier to S.T.Y.X.) and her common reprieve is gaming with Cel or Lia or hiding away to the giant collections of romance books and Otome merchandise she uses her allowance on.
She is both an actual archer (it's the shared hobby on her father's side of the family; they do outings just to go to the range. Kinda like golf—) and an archer figuratively by being a gamer with a good aim. She's MVP in the E-Sports Club, preferring shooting games and battle royale compared to Lia, who likes RPGs)
Yan was originally set by her parents to be arranged to Idia, considering he was the heir of S.T.Y.X., and at first it seemed ideal for her to bury her despair and quiet hopelessness by burying herself in the tech world. The whole bit of being the cold, unattached leader who killed her inner child to fully commit to the job and be the equal to Idia's genius and just be his partner (btw Idia has no idea this was all happening). Yan thought this was also what she wanted... but eventually rejected the idea and told her parents she wants to dare the impossible and find a partner who would challenge her to be emotionally honest.
She wants to be openly dramatic, unapologetically high-maintenance, shamelessly raw, and still be met where she stood. She knew who she was and what she was capable of, and she coolly shrugged and told her parents, 'Go find me this guy who totally just exists in fiction; maybe then I might just think I'm not utterly hopeless.'
And just as she thought she had totally set her parents up for the impossible... there's Rook. Hehe—
Consensus is that Diane is complex and even has that balance to Lia's energy of being openly enthusiastic and scattered. She's the opposite of the common understanding of Artemis and of herself; she's a hopeless romantic and deeply emotional girl who chooses to be firm on her boundaries and stances, knowing what she wants and what she wants to do, what she tolerates and what she doesn't. Ice queen on the outside, gothic tragedy heroine on the inside, lol.
